Developing a brand for your small business is not easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight, especially if you want it to resonate and make a lasting impact on consumers.
Identifying your business strategy, target customers, competitors, and messaging are just a few things you need to factor in your project planning process when building a good brand.
The most important thing you have to remember is that having a strong brand makes you stand out from your competitors.
Just because your name isn’t established in the business world yet, doesn’t mean you can’t have memorable branding. But to achieve that, you first need to understand a good brand and what it takes to create one.
What Makes a Good Brand?
Remember that your brand is how people perceive you when interacting with your business, products, and services. It isn’t just a name and logo to represent in events or something they will recognize in the market.
A good brand combines several elements:
- Clear identity.
- Knowing its target audience.
- Having clear values (mission and vision).
- Consistency.
- Its position in society and the world.
- The emotions it evokes in consumers.
6 Ways to Build a Good Brand for Your Small Business
Identify Your Target Audience and Competitors
It’s hard for the consumer to resonate with your business if you are not consistent and crystal clear with your messaging. Establishing a sense of your target market will help refine your messaging and brand voice and help you speak clearly to the people you want to engage and the people you want to attract in the future. It is also necessary to know who your current competitors are so you would see how you will differentiate your branding from them to make you stand out. Here are some ways to do this:
- Search for your product or service category and take note of the direct and indirect competitors that will show up
- Engage in people who are part of your target market and ask them about brands and product recommendations in your space
- Look for relevant social media accounts and websites your target audience follows so you would know what their interests are
By doing this, you will know your brand’s focus and how you will position it apart from other brands that offer similar products and services.
Share Your Brand Story
A brand story represents who your business is and what it stands for. Most consumers look for the business’s mission before purchasing to know if they share the same values, especially socially conscious customers. They are attracted to brands that they can relate to.
That is why you must determine your brand story to reflect on your brand in different channels and platforms. Make sure to keep it concise and consistent. Then work around these storylines to attract lasting customers.
Establish A Brand Voice
A business that creates a lasting and highly-engaged customer is a business that has a consistent brand voice. Branding isn’t just about what message you want to convey to your customers, and it is also about how you speak to them.
You know you are doing it correctly when your customer feels you are speaking directly to them. So, your brand voice must be relatable and consistent across all of the messaging of your brand.
Choose Your Fonts and Colors
The colours and fonts define more than the aesthetic of your brand. And it also evokes emotions in consumers and invites them to take action. So you’ll need to think about your brand’s visuals, which are valid, especially when you start your website and social media pages.
When choosing a colour, make sure it represents your brand’s mission. Also, be consistent and pick a colour that will differentiate you from your competitors to avoid confusing customers. Colour psychology is a big help in this.
For the font, however, you should pick something readable and pleasant to the eyes. Pick two fonts at most: one for the heading and one for the body text.
Create a Logo
Usually, a company logo is the first thing that comes to mind when developing a brand. But it’s hard to execute if you still don’t have a solid foundation of your brand’s messaging.
So, once you have determined your brand voice, brand story, target audience, and brand aesthetic, it’s time to create a logo.
A logo must be unique and memorable, and it should also be identifiable and scalable to work in all sizes. You need to consider all the places it will exist and see if it still looks good, no matter the size. Invest in a logo that can appear anywhere around the web or in print.
Figure Out Where To Promote
There is no doubt that social media is a powerful tool to boost sales and create valuable business goals, especially for small businesses. The key is to return to the concept of who is your target audience and on what platform they usually spend their time. This way, you can figure out where to post and promote your content.
You can start by picking three core social platforms and focusing on your storytelling and marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Developing a brand doesn’t stop at creating a logo or curating a website. And it’s about consistency in how you interact with your customers.
Building a brand might seem overwhelming, especially for small business owners. But it can be a simple task by following the steps above. Remember that a good brand that is remembered for something more than just the name and logo is a product of patience and effort.