How To Brand A Small Business?
Are you looking for advice to brand a small business? We've put together this great article to answer some of your questions about branding your small business.
Do you still believe that business branding is only for big companies with big budgets?
That may have been true 20 or 30 years ago, but now that couldn’t be further from the truth. With the advent of the internet, even the tiniest business now has the same opportunities as a bigger one. So, business branding for small businesses is now super important.
Branding your business should be a key part of your business plan and an integral part of your opening, or planning process. If you take the time to develop a brand for your business, you’ll give your business a stronger position in the market place, as well as make it appear to be larger and stronger than it really is in a competitive market. This will help you to reap the rewards of your efforts for longer.
Let’s take a look at the 3 main reasons why, as a small business, you must develop a brand that puts you at the forefront of your competition.
Small Business Branding And Why You Need It
#1. Branding Maximizes Your Resources
There are multiple elements needed to run a successful business these days, things have moved on a long way since the days when you only needed a logo for your invoice. When you crate a brand identity for your business it defines who you are on multiple elements of your business. Common areas in which your companies branding will have an effect on, include:
Your Marketing, Communications Platforms, Sales Materials, Customer Service departments, Business Signage, Business Decor, Store Decoration, Store Design, Social Media Platforms, Content Marketing Strategies, Dress Codes and Uniforms, Your Website, Business Stationary, Email Signatures, Vehicle Signage.
#2. Branding A Small Business Is Professional
Having a unique brand image to represent your business makes your business appear to be professional, even if your business is the smallest in town. If you have spent some time developing and polishing your brand, use it consistently across every element of your business, not just your business cards.
If you are consistent with the design of your branding, and use it at every opportunity, you’ll not only reinforce your business message, but you’ll keep your brand in the forefront of your customer’s mind. A great example of this would be the McDonald’s Arches. The arches are consistent on all packaging, uniforms, advertising etc. Because of this, you know that McDonald’s is being represented.
#3. Branding Your Small Business, Secures It
Having a consistent brand on all of the elements that make up your business, helps to identify who you are. It creates a recognisable presence for your business that your customers, prospects and followers instantly identify as being you.
Having a brand instils a sense of security about your business, that makes it difficult for other businesses to take away from you. That security also links to your professionalism and the business image you want to portray.
How To Brand A Small Business
Your brand is your promise to your customer. It lets them know what they can expect from your products and services. Your brand also differentiates your products and services from your competitors'. Your brand is a combination of who you are, who you want to be, and what people believe you to be.
So, begin by defining your business. Ask yourself some searching questions.
Are you the new kid on the block, in your industry? Or, maybe you’re the experienced, reliable one?
Is your product the high cost, high quality option, or the low cost, high value option?
In business, you can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. You have to decide where you want your business to be early on. Who you are, and what your business is, should be based on who your target customers are, and want they need you to be.
The foundation stone of your brand, is your logo. This logo should form the cornerstone of your website, product packaging and promotional materials, all of which should prominently integrate your logo to communicate your brand.
Begin By Defining Your Small Business Brand
Defining your brand is a journey of self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable to define your business realistically.
A good way to start is by asking yourself a few questions, like the questions below:
What’s your company's mission statement?
What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
What makes your products or services different from your competition?
What do your customers already think of your company?
What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?
Do Your Research
Take the time to understand the needs, habits and desires of both your current customers, and potential new customers. Don't rely on what you think they think, make the time to discover what they actually think.
Get some help. Defining a brand can be complex, but there’s often help available from independent organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). These organisations will be able to help you define your brand and develop a brand strategy.
Once you've defined your brand, you need to get the word out?
Here are a few simple tips to get you started:
Get A Great Logo
Place your logo everywhere, on every communication, on your website and in your social media accounts.
Write Down Your Brand Messaging
What are the key messages you want to communicate about your brand? Every employee should be aware of your brand attributes, and encouraged to both use them, and promote them.
Integrate Your Brand Into Your Small Business
Your new branding should extend into every aspect of your business. It even extends to how you answer your phone calls. What you or your salespeople wear on sales calls, in the office and on the shop floor. And should be prominent in your e-mail signature, and on all stationary.
Create A "Voice" For Your Company That Reflects Your Brand
Your ‘voice’ should reflect your business. Is your brand friendly? Then be conversational. Is it professional? Be more formal. This voice should be applied to all written communication and incorporated in the visual imagery of all materials, both online and offline.
Develop A Tag-Line
Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand. “Powering the Internet Since 2010” is ours.
Design Templates & Brand Standards For All Your Marketing Materials
Templates help you to be consistent with the use of colour schemes, logo placement, and the look and feel throughout your business.
Be True To Your Small Business And Brand
Customers won't return to you, or refer you to someone else, if you don't deliver on your brand promise. Work hard to maintain these objectives.
Be Consistent
If you look at successful brands, they all have one thing in common. They are all consistent in the way they do business, communicate their business and do their business. Which is made easier by having a brand strategy that reinforces their business.
Brand Strategy & Equity
Once you’ve defined your brand you need to decide on a strategy to deliver it.
You need to decide how, what, where, when and to whom you’ll plan on communicating and delivering your brand messages.
Advertising Your Small Business
Advertising is an important factor to most businesses, so where you choose to advertise is also part of your brand strategy. Your distribution channels also form part of your brand strategy. As well as what you communicate either visually, or verbally.
Consistent Branding
It’s important to mention that consistent, and strategic branding leads to strong brand equity. Brand Equity, means the added value brought to your company's products or services. This allows you to charge more for your brand than what identical, unbranded products command. Think about brands you are already familiar with, and how they compete against similar unbranded products.
Add Value To Your Small Business Brand
The added value intrinsic to brand equity frequently comes in the form of perceived quality or emotional attachment. When you develop your products or services, you need to consider how your brand will be received, and compared, to other similar products. What value will you add to your products that sway the buying public in your favour?
As you can see, branding your business is an important step on the ladder to success. It's easily over looked when new businesses start up, but luckily that's a mistake that's easily fixed. It could even be a key driving factor if you plan to relaunch your business for some reason.
At Lush Domain we can help you achieve your goals and we'd love to get involved with your business, to help drive it to success. Tying up all the loose ends and bringing your branding together to give a consistent message to your customers. is what we do.
So, why not give us a call and start the ball rolling?
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