It’s hard to believe that you can change the trajectory of your small business through the simple process of branding. After all, what is a brand but an idea that you create in the mind of your consumer? And do ideas really have so much power?
The answer is that if you make people think of your product or service in a certain way, you can boost sales, not just in the moment but in the long run. As a result, you can brand your small business from debt to success.
Expenses of Starting a Business
Keep in mind that being in debt is not unusual for a small business, especially if you’re just starting up. There are so many expenses that go into setting up a business.
Even if you solve the problem of location by starting up in your garage, you’re still going to have to hire some people and invest in some equipment.
And there are a number of businesses that can’t be started in garages. So the problem of location does come into the picture. And renting a space can be the biggest expense of them all.
Why You Should Start Branding Early
A lot of entrepreneurs think that branding is just something that applies to medium or large-sized businesses. But this is not true.
It’s actually important to start putting some thought into your business brand at the very beginning from the time that it’s small. This will ensure that you’re creating the right impression in your consumers from the time of inception.
And as your business grows bigger, you’ll be able to maintain and develop that brand further, thus creating a linear development which is much easier to manage than a complete turnaround at a later point.
Branding Questions to Ask Yourself
Now in order to brand your small business, you have to start thinking about what your business stands for. What are the qualities you are trying to promote?
Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself:
- Why did you start your business?
- Did you sense certain inconsistencies in your field that you were trying to improve upon?
- Were there alterations that you wanted to make to the products that were available before?
- Did you see something that wasn’t working?
- And did you want to change it?
If you can answer these questions with a definite yes then you’re already halfway towards setting up a brand.
Case Study: The Artisanal Pizza Brand
For example, maybe you felt that the pizza parlors in your neighborhood were just serving generic style pizza and you wanted to introduce artisanal pizza made with the best cheeses, fresh tomatoes, fresh herbs etc.
In this case, your best bet would be to emphasize quality and artistry. So these become qualities of your brand. Think of your brand as a person... what personality qualities would it possess? How would others descibe you? What words come to mind?
Outbound and Inbound Marketing Methods
Once you have the basics of your brand in your head, you just need to put it into action with your marketing campaigns. Make sure that your brand is clearly reflected in your advertisements, marketing emails, website, blog and social media pages. The brand personality has to be visually conveyed in all of your marketing - from your consistent font choice and its usage to the colors and imagery you use. It all matters and it all speaks to your brand messaging.
Nowadays, it’s best for every business to go with a combination of outbound and inbound methods. Outbound methods are the traditional ones, like TV ads, print ads, direct mail marketing and email marketing.
Inbound marketing methods involve setting up an interesting, well-organized, informative website and constantly updating your blog and social media pages.
The effectiveness of outbound methods is decreasing as time goes on but you shouldn’t ignore them completely. Branding is most effective when the same message is being put forward in both, outbound and inbound marketing methods.
I hope you have a better understanding on the importance of branding and how it can benefit your business growth.
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