If you’re a small business owner, you know that branding is essential to your success. But what exactly does branding entail, and how can you create an effective branding strategy for your business? In this post, we’ll walk you through the basics of branding and show you how to create a strategy that will help your small business stand out from the competition. Let’s get started!
What exactly does branding entail?
At its core, the word “branding” represents how you, your company, and your products are perceived by others. When it comes to small businesses, that means that branding is essentially about building trust with customers so they will remember you when they’re in need of your product or service. It’s about standing out from the competition and finding a way to make your business memorable so that customers will choose you over lower-priced competitors.
Brand is how we build trust, and it’s about making sure that what we do is trustworthy. At its very core, branding is: clear and honest communication: people need to understand what you say and be able to trust it; continuity: there needs to be a clear sense of who you are and what you do; consistency: this is about quality, not just quantity — people need to know that they can count on you to deliver what you say.
Brand is also about your values. Branding agencies work with companies’ executive teams to discover their values and then weave them into a cohesive story that’s communicated to customers. Often, the result is a mission statement — something that provides a clear sense of who you are and what you do.
The mission statement serves as your “brand book,” which outlines the principles and values of your company in a way that can be easily shared with staff, partners, and customers. This mission statement should be something that everyone in your business can easily memorize so they can refer to it when needed.
How do you create an effective branding strategy for your small business?
The first step of creating a branding strategy is to assess what kind of reputation you have now. Are there any gaps between the perceptions of your ideal customer and your current customer base? If so, you’ll need to work on bridging that gap. You can do this by creating a persona for your business, which is a fictional representation of your target customer.
Creating a persona involves developing a detailed profile of your ideal customer, including their age, gender, income level, and other information that will help you and your staff understand and provide the best possible service to them. Once you know exactly who your ideal customer is, it becomes easier to tailor all of your business activities — from advertising and promotions to customer service interactions — so they’re aimed at attracting customers with similar profiles.
Once you’ve identified a clear picture of your ideal customer, the next step is to create a brand strategy that will help you reach them. This involves developing a positioning statement, which is a clear and concise explanation of how your business is different from the competition. Your positioning statement should be based on what makes you unique, not what you’re copying from the competition.
Conclusion:
You’ve done the hard work of creating a great product and unique marketing materials. Now it is time to put your branding strategy in place so that you can attract customers who will love what you have to offer. At Designhill, we want to help by providing a platform for creatives from all over the world with top talent in graphic design, web design, logo design, etc., at an affordable price point. So if you are looking for someone or something that can be customized just for your business needs, look no further! Get started today with one of our many pre-designed templates or upload your own designs through our online marketplace—our team is ready and waiting 24/7 to answer any questions.