Small businesses across the world often think that branding is something that’s only meant for global leaders like Apple, Adidas, and Jaguar. However, every business irrespective of its size can use branding to stand out from the competition and instill trust in their customers.
The following are 12 tips for small businesses that want to up their game and present themselves as powerful brands:
1. Create a Brand Identity
If you want to create a memorable brand, then you can’t overlook the
importance of brand identity. In other words, you need to first understand
what your brand is all about. For that, you can ask yourself the following
questions:
- What problem is my brand solving in the world?
- What makes my brand different than others in the industry?
- Why should my customers care about my brand?
2. Design a Logo
When you are starting a small business, then you have to do lots of things
yourself. These include creating a financial strategy, setting up a bookkeeping system, and of course- branding and marketing. Focusing on the last bit, a premium and attractive logo sits at the center of every branding strategy. So, make sure that you create an interesting and attractive logo either with the help of a freelancer or a logo maker.
3. Give the Best Customer Experience
An effective way to win the hearts of your customers and emerge as a lovable brand is to improve your customer service. Remember- your customers will stay loyal to you only if you care for them. In fact, their patronship is pivotal in taking your brand to the next level.
4. Be Clear About Value Proposition
Clarity in communication is the key to establishing a unique brand. What you want is to make your value proposition clear to your target demographic so that they know exactly why should become your customers rather than any other brand’s.
5. Take Your Brand Everywhere
Don’t keep your brand’s visibility limited to your website and blog only but
rather take it with yourself wherever you go. For instance, you can take ideas from some clean minimal business cards and print your company logo on them. You can also personalize your business presentation slides, email newsletters, snail mail, etc. so that each of these items carries your brand through a distinct company logo, color palette, fonts, etc.
6. Use Custom Packaging
You can benefit a lot from using packaging that’s customized for your brand. By using branded packaging instead of regular/generic packaging, you can show others that you are committed to your business and also give your customers the feeling that they are patrons of a premium brand.
7. Be Unique
There is no harm in learning from your rivals. However, you should avoid
copying their branding style and techniques. Instead, get your own thing going even if it’s tough and time-consuming.
8. Help Others
When you help your customers and leads, then you win their love and trust
which goes a long way in building a brand. You can do that by publishing
informative blog posts and tutorial videos or writing an entire eBook.
9. Understand the Needs of Your Customers
You need to understand your customers and their needs/requirements if you want to become more than just a generic business. The good news is that there are many ways you can go about it. For starters, you can ask for their feedback directly on social media and your website. You can also train your customer support agents to record their conversations and highlight the concerns raised by the customers so that you can check the information later and take appropriate steps to improve customer experience.
10. Keep it Fresh
It can be hard to let go of a marketing or branding idea that has delivered great results. However, repetition of the same ideas and concepts will only bore your customers eventually. So, keep on experimenting with new ideas and try to promote fresh material whenever possible.
11. Create a Professional Website
Establishing a big showroom or store can be quite expensive. However, a top-quality website costs only a fraction of that which is why it’s the least you can do. Besides, a professional website can make your business look better than others who don’t have proper websites.
12. Be Consistent
When you are connected with your customers on different channels viz. social media, blog, emails, etc. then you end up using a different tone and follow a different vision on each one. This kind of inconsistency can make your brand weaker which is why it should be avoided as much as possible.
So, there were some of the tips that you can follow if you want to establish a brand for your small business. If you will apply them with dedication and have patience, then you can certainly expect great results. Good luck!