Your branding is the face of your business. It covers the logo you use as social media profile pictures, the promotional materials shared online or posted in the streets, and the packaging that sticks in consumers’ minds when they’re choosing between providers that offer the same thing.
To boost your branding in 2019, your approach should be memorable, up to date, and utterly characteristic of who you are as a small business. Here are some strategies you can adopt in order to achieve just that!
Create a logo
For certain, a lot of your decisions about branding revolve around the fact that humans are visual creatures. Your visuals should introduce your brand’s identity from the first moment and leave a lasting impression with one glance.
The most important branding image you will need is your logo, simply because it will be the most ubiquitous. It will be displayed on your business premises, your website, your promotional materials, your product packaging, and even your company uniforms — so make sure it’s an image that you will be proud to see everywhere! Take it on yourself and use a logo creator to generate that perfect image. It should be representative of your identity and what your business can offer.
Some logos use the business name or the main word in a clean font and signature color; others use an image made up of elements related to your industry. The blending of elements, colors, and font must support your unique selling point and be instantly recognizable among a host of others offering the same service. Take full advantage of the fact that pictures evoke emotions in people, and make sure your logo brings out feelings of wanting to work with you in your customers!
Have a signature color palette
Color psychology will also inform elements of design in your website, physical store, and packaging. Red is a strong color associated with passion and love. Orange evokes feelings of warmth and hunger, while yellow signals fun and lightheartedness. Green is associated with fertility, health, and wealth, blue with intelligence, confidence, and serenity. Violet is about spirituality, mystery, and creativity. Brown is a natural, earthy hue. White is about innocence and cleanliness, and black is about power, sophistication, and taking a walk on the wild side.
To up visual appeal, you’ll need to choose more than one color! You’ll most likely be using three hues: a primary signature color, a secondary signature color, and an accent color. Follow the 60-30-10 rule: 60% of your material will use your primary signature color. 30% will use the secondary signature color, and 10% will use an accent color for emphasis.
The colors you choose should complement each other, as well as communicate what your brand stands for. Look up tools like Adobe Color CC to help you choose a tasteful palette that’s representative of your small business’ values.
Strengthen your social media presence
The fastest way to achieve brand awareness is through word of mouth, and nowadays, the fastest way to get word-of-mouth recognition is through social media. Compared to other forms of advertising, social media marketing is cost-effective and easy. Creating accounts for your small business on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest is totally free! You can wait until later to take out paid advertising in proportion to your business’ budget and audience.
Small businesses have the advantages over large corporations when it comes to social media marketing, because the cornerstone of social media marketing is customer engagement. On your page, customers can make inquiries, write reviews, and raise concerns quickly and easily. To make your social media campaign work, your responsibility is to engage. Reply to their comments, like or reshare posts made about you, and answer messages promptly.
Small businesses by nature tend to be more hands-on and individualized when responding to their customers — something they will appreciate online as much as they do in person.
Go local
The Internet will help your small business reach customers as far as the other side of the globe, but don’t neglect your own little corner of the world! Local advertising is just as important of an investment in order to create a customer base in your area, and to set the tone for long-term working relationships with local residents.
One local business branding strategy is to register your store location. For example, signing up for Google My Business puts your store on Google Maps. Interested customers can easily get directions or transportation to you and drive foot traffic to your store. If your business is listed as a location, visitors can also tag you in their social media posts. Followers can click on your store’s location and view posts and photos from visitors in your store, strengthening your online presence even further.
You may also consider running physical advertisements in your area via billboards, newspaper ads, television ads, or fleet marketing.
Partner up!
Business isn’t always about competition. Sometimes, it’s about collaboration! Team up with other small businesses near you (that aren’t your direct competitors) and tackle the same target audience.
A simple way to boost two or more small businesses is to host giveaways online. You can ask participants to like, comment, or share posts from the social media accounts of you and your partners. Or you could hold a contest that invites customers to create posts of their own at your store or using your products. They can tag their friends and use your business’ hashtags to maximize exposure. The winner will receive items from all partner businesses.
If you have the means for a physical collaboration, get a group of similarly-themed businesses together and rent out a small venue for a weekend where you can all sell your products. Trade fairs and artist conventions are great examples of this. This strategy enables customers to be introduced to and buy from several small businesses in one go.
Branding is just the beginning
Branding might require a lot of thought, but don’t break your brain trying to come up with a strategy that makes promises you can’t keep. For example, a good logo doesn’t make the business — it’s good business that makes customers associate the logo with a pleasant experience. Focus on how you can make your brand deliver, and you’ll boost customer loyalty from 2019 and beyond.
