5 Branding Tips for Small Businesses

Every small business needs to develop its own unique business identity and brand to differentiate itself from the next company. A brand is essentially the foundation of your business. It’s up to you to create the message, the story you want to tell about your business, and get it out there to the masses as best as possible. Building your small business brand doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. You already know the details of your business. Now it’s time to develop your small business branding. It’s hard to know where to start, so here are some useful steps in branding your small business. Good luck, and have fun with it!

1. Define it. What is the essence of your business? What are its purpose, personality, strengths and main goals? What is your brand promise? What is your unique selling point (what do you have that your competitors don’t)? Recognizing your business’ “position” can help you make decisions that don’t steer away from your company brand. Ultimately, you’ll be able to promote it better, which leads to more business.
2. Find your target audience. You might have more than one target audience, so figure out who they all are and put it on paper. Then, make bullet points about what they want/need from your product or service, and how you can help them. Ask yourself “what need is my business filling for this customer?” From there, you can modify your messaging — from ads to social media to newsletters — in order to attract them to your business.
3. Become a storyteller. Shout it from the rooftops! Start telling family, friends and acquaintances (heck, even the guy at the car wash!) what you do, why you’re good at it and how you’re hoping to grow. After a little practice, you’ll get your two-minute brand pitch down pat. Plus, those who believe in you, no matter how close they are to you personally, will be your cheerleaders out in the field. They will spread the word about your business, and word of mouth, as we know, is the key to new business.
4. Assign outside resources to your creative. Find a way to budget for it and work with professional, creative people who know what they are doing to develop your brand’s logo, website (an absolute must-have, by the way), blog and collateral materials. We can’t all be designers and writers and awesome business owners at the same time — something’s got to give, so hand over those creative tasks to professionals who do it for a living. Just be sure to provide them with a lot of direction about your brand. Trust me, it’ll be worth it in the long run.
5. Be a social butterfly. Using social media tools is a great way to build awareness of your brand. Do some research into what makes the most sense for your business. For example, where does your target audience spend its time on the social networks? Do you have lots of photos to share? Are you selling products to consumers? Then you might want to consider social sites like Pinterest and Instagram. Of course, you know Twitter and Facebook are pretty big musts, but make sure you are updating them regularly — daily, if possible. LinkedIn is hugely used by professionals, and is a great way to connect with other professional organizations as well as individuals you know or have worked with before. Because it’s hard to be everywhere at once, check out HootSuite, TweetDeck or Seesmic. They can help you manage all of your social accounts so it doesn’t get too overwhelming.

Do you have any small business branding tips that you can share with other business owners? Please let us know! Leave us a comment on our 123Print Facebook page, tweet us @123Print or write a note below.