The basics of branding for your small business
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any small or large business, it’s what sets you apart from your competition, drives internal action and promotes customer and staff loyalty.
Having an effective brand strategy gives you leverage amongst your counterparts and adds value to your service and/or product offering, however what is “branding” and how can you use it effectively to grow your small business?
In basic terms, your brand is what you promise to your customer, and more importantly you brand is the feeling your customer gets from interacting with your small business. Your brand communicates what it can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates you from your competitors'. Your brand is created from what you stand for, how you operate, the values you operate by and how you want people to feel when they come to your small business.
So who are? The best? The cheapest? The freshest? The most innovative? The most established? Are you fun and friendly or serious and conservative? In essence your brand should be relatable to who your target market is. No point being serious and conservative if your prime audience is young and fresh. Who are you, and who do you want to attract?
A central part of your brand is your business logo or corporate identity. Everything else like your website, signage, brochures, stationery, and marketing materials etc, are all extensions of your brand and should be reflective of who you are.
Your Brand Equity & Brand Strategy
Brand equity (or in basic terms how much people value your brand) comes from the emotional attachment your customer has with your brand. ie. We all have favourite brands for sportswear, cars, beer, or toothpaste, some comes from product quality however most of our brand loyalty comes from perceived brand attributes on how the product or service makes us feel. When people know, like and trust you you’ll have a customer for life, and building brand equity is the sure fire way to achieve this.
Your small business brand strategy is how you plan on communicating your brand messages to your customers, industry and target audience. How you use social media is part of your brand strategy, as is where and how you advertise and distribute you marketing message. What you communicate visually and verbally are all part your brand strategy, on the words and tone you use, and down to colour palettes, typography and photographic styling all become part of your brand strategy mix
Consistent, strong branding leads to increased brand equity, which allows you to charge a premium for your products or services compared to your competitors who may not take their brand and brand strategy as serious as you do. Think about the choices in your daily life when buying basic items like milk, sugar, flour, or cheese. All generally the same product, however do you choose a “branded” product over a generic brand? It’s your perceived brand equity you hold with that product which makes you pay a slight premium for it rather than an unbranded or generic brand .
How to define your small business brand?
As you’re building your small business you take a journey on defining who you are, what you do (and don’t do) as well as the values you choose to operate by (external facing and internal). It can be challenging and tough to articulate, and it also evolves with your business maturing. At first you have to start with the following questions to get the ball rolling
What is your small business’s mission and why does it do what it does?
What are the benefits and features of your products or services to your customers?
What do your customers, staff, industry and potential customers already think of your company?
What qualities do you want them to feel when the interact with your company?
Why do you do what you do?
Read our recent blog post on the right questions to answer before starting a new brand:
“4 Basic questions to answer before branding your small business”
The key here is to do your research and find out what your customers, prospects and staff (if you have any) needs, habits and expectations are when dealing with your company. Don’t assume what they think. Ask them and know what they think.
Because it can be overwhelming and complex defining who you are, Squarely have a great process to help you get started. We first start with our Client Project Questionaire to understand the basics of the project before we get started
Once we’ve helped you define, refine and develop your brand, you need to get the word out there, so here are a few basic tips to help you get started, and get your brand on track to greatness.:
Allow Squarely to help you develop a great logo, and place it everywhere.
Formulate your brand messaging. What are the key messages about your brand yo want to communicate to your customers, prospects and staff?
Get your brand integrated. Your business is your brand, and your brand is your business. Your brand applies to every part of your business - What your email signature looks like, how you answer your phones, how your fleet of vehicles look, how your website functions and operates etc are all part of the brand experience your customers have with you.
Have a consistent language or tone of voice that reflects your brand. Are you casual? Jovial and friendly? Conservative and straight down the line? This voice should be consistently used across all written materials, social media and internal communications etc, with visual cues reinforcing the tone.
Create an impactful tagline or “slogan”. Develop a relevant, short and meaningful line that incapsulates the essence of your business. Not what you do, but how or why you do it, or the result it delivers.
Develop and brand styleguide that visually protects your brand. Create a set of robust rules in a brand style guide on how your brand and logo is used across your business. Consistency is the key to your overall brand strength and recall to memory with your customers. Rules in how to use (and not use) your logo, colours, typography, photography and tagline can all be incorporated into a simple set of rules.
Live and breathe your brand. You’ve created a solid brand, and developed a range of promises you live by to deliver to you customers. Live by them. Customers won't return to you--or refer you to someone else if you don't consistently deliver on your promise them.
Consistency is key. If you want a strong brand that oozes customer loyalty and has high brand equity and recall to memory, then you need to do be consistent in how you communicate your brand, how your brand looks, and how you live by the brand promises and expectations in your customers, prospects and employees hearts and minds.
