Branding
Many small business owners that are just starting believe, mistakenly, branding is not important for them. Believing branding is not important is a false assumption. Branding is one of the best ways to reach your target audience and keep your business stuck in their mind when they begin shopping for your product or service. Effective branding helps to decrease your advertising costs, as customers automatically think of you to meet their needs, and they go looking for you. Therefore, it’s best to build your brand before beginning any other marketing.
Large businesses know how important branding is. Some examples of effective branding include Google. (When you think of searching the internet, do you think of “Googling it?” Coca-cola. (When you think of ordering a cola, do you think of ordering a “Coke?” Band-aid. (If you need a small bandage, do you ask for a “Band-aid?” While as a small business, you aren’t likely to reach this level of branding, you do want people in your service area to think of your brand first, so they go looking for you and not your competitor.
When most small business owners think of a brand, they think of a logo and maybe a slogan. Branding is much more than this. When building your brand, you should consider the following:
- You’re unique business and personality
- You’re product/service and industry
- You’re target audience
- You’re mission
- You’re USP (unique selling proposition)
Some of the ways you demonstrate your brand include:
- Logo (of course)
- Slogan
- Mission statements
- Colors
- Tone/Voice. Is your marketing brand:
- Professional?
- Serious?
- Whimsical?
- Fun?
- Fonts
All your marketing should have a cohesive style. Consideration of your unique business and target audience will help you make decisions to develop your brand. Your brand should be evident throughout your marketing including web content and blogs, social media, email marketing and even your TV, radio and print advertising.
At Christy’s Marketing Solutions, we help develop your brand or rebrand. We know an effective brand can help lower your advertising costs by assisting your customers in remembering you when they want or need your product or service.