Whether your company is big or small, branding is essential to differentiate yourself from the competition. Once your company nails branding, it’ll be no surprise that you’ll generate new business and create loyal customers.

Beyond developing an eye-catching logo, your brand is your most valuable asset. Through a few specific channels, you can transform your business, taking your company to the next level. We can all benefit from learning by example from some of the top brands in their respective industries. Let’s take a look at what companies are doing it right when it comes to creating a brand:

Create Strong Brand-Worthy Content: Hootsuite

Content is king and has been dubbed key to a business’s success in 2016.

Clever and thoughtful content will help your brand grow by creating a strong feeling, lasting relationships, and offering your audience value.

Hootsuite demonstrates this that content is king through their use of content marketing. The company’s resource page is searchable by industry and business challenge. From there, visitors can find whitepapers, infographics, studies, and guides that are developed to build relationships with their customers.

Additionally, this content enhances their social media presence, and the brand has become a thought leader in their industry. By offering valuable resources, Hootsuite has gained followers and increased their engagement across a variety of different platforms.

Key Takeaways: By developing helpful and interesting content for your audience, you can take your brand to the next level. Consider acquiring an email address to download content, like whitepapers, in order to grow your email marketing list.

Referral Program: Dollar Shave Club

You may have heard about the Dollar Shave Club as one of your friends shared a link to the site on Facebook. The Dollar Shave Club offers inexpensive razors through a monthly subscription. The brand started with a hilarious YouTube video that went viral, and since then has evolved quickly.

Along with adding humor to their marketing channels, the Dollar Shave Club relies heavily on their referral program. After becoming a Dollar Shave Club customer, individuals are asked to share the site with friends through social media outlets. Customers are then given a $5 credit towards their next purchase for every referral that they make.

Word of mouth and referral programs, in general, are quite successful. Friends are more likely to purchase when they consider their friends opinions. And, customers enjoy the kickbacks they receive when they share information about a brand they like.

The Dollar Shave Club’s strategy has been immensely impactful. The monthly subscription program receives about 50,000 referrals, which is a long way from the $4,000 website and viral video that launched in 2012. The company is on track to exceed $120 million in sales this year.

Key Takeaways: Referral programs can be successful when executed properly. If you are a smaller business starting out, take a look at services like Perkville and Belly. These programs can be a helpful resource when beginning to develop a referral program.

Dominating a New Channel: Turkish Airlines

Periscope is the new shiny tool in your box of marketing outlets, although some brands haven’t even begun to tackle the live-video streaming platform. Periscope has been used extensively in the travel and automotive industry for brands like Turkish Airlines and Rolls Royce.

In order to be a pioneer in the airline industry, Turkish Airlines recently launched the world’s first ever “Periscope” live broadcasted flight. Passengers and social fans got a behind the scenes experience as the airline flew from Istanbul to New York. The airline took viewers into crew cabins, flight lounges, and behind the scenes with the crew and pilots hard at work.

Turkish Airlines also synchronized their efforts on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. Viewers were able to ask real-time questions, which made engagement sky-rocket. This strategic social effort made Turkish Airlines a thought leader in the airline industry and generated a ton of positive brand buzz.

Key Takeaway: Be a pioneer and leader in your industry. Figure out how to experiment and tackle new platforms to stay up to date with new trends.

Defining Your Business

If you are looking to build a brand that lasts, start by defining what you want people to feel and think when they think of your brand name. Then, think of ways to differentiate yourself from the competition and figure out how you are going to use a variety of marketing channels to convey your message. When all else fails, look to the big brands, the experts, for a little motivation.