Once you've determined the identity and image you want to be known for, the next steps involve communicating them to your audience and delivering on your message.
Today, the cornerstone of a communications program is the Website. This is the repository for all your business information, your services, people, locations, hours, et al. Your Website should be put in place first and kept up to date.
Ads, brochures and other communications materials are next. These can be used to promote your business and to highlight special offerings. Each of these has inherent limitations, so they should all point back to your Website to provide complete detail.
Word of mouth vs. brand promotion
Most will agree that word-of-mouth referrals are more potent and believable than paid messages, since they are passed along by people who generally know and trust each other.
The problem is, word-of-mouth referrals build slowly. So brand promotion is used to speed communication. The catch is that a customer's actual experience with you must match your promotional message. If it does, you're off in the right direction. But if your service doesn't live up to your promise, or if a staff member is impolite or unhelpful, that harms your brand's reputation.
So determine what reputation you want to cultivate, make sure you can live up to your message and then build a comprehensive communications program on that foundation. Customers will reward or avoid you accordingly.
An out-of-date Website is easy to spot and suggests that no one is minding the store. It gives very little reason for readers to return.