If you’re a small business startup, you have a lot on your plate. You have everything to plan, everything to gain and you have to think clearly about what you want for your business. One of the areas that requires a lot of planning is your branding strategy. Without a brand, your business is not going to be recognizable. The golden arches? McDonald’s. The signature purple? Cadbury’s. You can recognise different brands by their typography and colours more than you can about their slogans sometimes, so visual branding has to be a priority for your new business.
Your business needs marketing and print services that can help you with bespoke business cards, flyers, booklets and more to have a consistent brand message. All of these things will help to make your business stand out, be counted and look credible. As a new business owner, credibility is extremely difficult to come by, but it’s something you absolutely must lean into. You want people to trust you. So let’s take a look at what you need to know about branding.
- Your brand will need development. Success from your branding is not going to be something that happens overnight. Creating a brand is not a fast process and it could take you a lot longer than you expect. One of the main reasons for this is that building a brand requires some trial and error as well as time to build others’ trust. Your success will come, but you have to differentiate whether you are a brand new startup or an existing business. If you’re an existing business going through a rebranding strategy, that should be clear to your customers.Both of the approaches that you take will differ, but there are some proven principles that you can use to expedite the process. Either way, you need to give your brand some time to develop into something successful.
- Unique consistency. There are two main points to consider when beginning the journey for your brand. What’s the message that you want to send through the look and the feel of it? What experiences do your customers follow? Plenty of brands out there try to cover all of the grounds, but offering those services don’t always directly pertain to the purpose. Stick with the main solutions that you offer and sell them. Don’t try and diversify too much and confuse your customers on what you can and cannot offer.
- Don’t forget your tagline. Colours and typography are important, but you do need to have a slogan too. You’ll probably remember the McDonald’s slogan or the Burger King slogan depending on where you are. If you have your own slogan for your brand, people are going to find what you do way more memorable and you want to be inspirational and indirectly evoke purpose in people. Branding should have a target and the tagline of your brand should support and strengthen it.
- You need trust. As you build your brand, you need to know that you can go beyond a great logo so that you can build trust in your base. How are you displaying your trust? One of the best places for you to begin is to look at how clear your brand message presents you both off and online. If you step into the shoes of your customer, you can have an objective look at what your brand looks like offline. This will help you to determine whether or not you need to make any tweaks to your branding strategy and how you market. Building trust with your customers takes time, but it does start with having a brand that is consistent across all channels. Your business cards, your print marketing efforts and your digital marketing should all be matching your brand colours and your brand message.
- Without marketing, nothing is going to happen. It takes a big risk to leave all of your business to word of mouth. Yep, you could probably build a good customer base, but it’s not going to be as effective as if you use print or digital marketing to help.Where is your promotion and how are you selling? You should never underestimate the worth of your marketing, especially now when online marketing is becoming more prevalent. Being online will help you to reach bigger and better customer bases, but print marketing still has a place. You wouldn’t turn up to a meeting without business cards to hand out, right?
- Invest in your brand materials. Not only do you need decent brand material that is printed on the right quality paper, but you also need to invest in it so that it’s elevating and distinguishing you from everybody else. What is it that you offer that’s different from your competition? With your right branding strategy, you can showcase exactly what you can offer and put it out there into the world. Your branding material should be a strong investment as it’s your gesture to the world. It should elevate you and it should distinguish you from every other brand in your industry. Without that elevation, you might struggle to be visible.
- Remember that sales and branding are not the same. The greatest companies in the world don’t focus on sales, they focus on their brand. Apple and McDonald’s are two giant examples of this. Apple works on building relationships with their customers that will last, and they deploy all of their energy into their showcasing and branding. They make out that your life will change with Apple products, and people believe in that until they buy into Apple products themselves. It’s not the same as pushing sales because with branding it should be spectacular enough that you could step back and enjoy it happening without you needing to stir it.
- It’s all about networking. You should learn what you can from businesses around you, even your competition. This can help you to better your own brand and reach new achievements that you may not have seen as possible. By comparing yourself to the competition, you can see not only what you are missing out on, but what they are lacking from you. Networking will help you to get out there and talk to others in the same industry and understand more about what you should be doing with your branding than you are doing right now.
- Get yourself on social media. A large portion of your customers will be interacting with you on your social networking accounts. You should make sure that these are easily accessible and kept up to date with company news, announcements and brand related posts. Well over half of your online advertising is going to be accomplished through your website and interactions on social media. The way that you hold yourself on social media will make a big difference in how people view you and how they trust you, and whether or not you can bring what you say you bring to the table.
- Think about colours. The psychology of colour is big for a reason. The graphic designer that you work with can help you with this one because specific colours can evoke specific feelings. Each colour sends its own message, and you may not be able to spell that message out, but your customers will still feel it. Red and purple excite and urge people to action, but blue is considered to be secure and stable. If you want something cheerful and warm then you should go with orange, and if you want something more natural then green is your best bet.
- What is your brand communicating? When you decide on your branding strategy, you need to brand for your audience. How are you engaging your target demographic? Think about your position, your outlook, and your business and brand for those things. Your brand is going to be your individual outlook and differentiates you from the competition. What is it communicating to your customers? Putting yourself in your customers shoes and viewing your brand from their viewpoint can help you to understand more about this and learn what you could be doing differently.
- Align your goals with your sales. Branding and sales are not the same thing, but you need to align those goals together. They are more directly linked than you may think because both affect the amount of sales and total yearly revenue you ultimately end up with.Branding brings your sales, and sales brings your revenue. When you track and reach your goals, you’ll be able to see what success looks like. It’s really that simple. If your brand isn’t accomplishing your business goals, enhancing your business plan, or withstanding the personal time, you need to reevaluate it.
- Focus on growth. The number one branding goal for your business is growth, and without it, you’re not going to be able to push forward. In every initiative that you make for your brand, you should be able to accomplish your overall goal, enhance your business plan, and withstand your business through every season of time.
