Why a small business needs a strong brand
When you’re the owner, operator, frontline and behind the scenes of your small business, it might be hard to prioritize creating and maintaining a brand identity. Many businesses don’t take advantage of the opportunities a strong brand offers. Thinking branding is only relevant for large corporations just isn’t true. Branding for a small business is just as important, especially today. Building a brand is more accessible than ever, has a truly measurable impact and can be the glue that holds your organization together.
Branding is more than a logo. A little further on we’ll talk about why the effort to develop brand standards and set up brand guidelines is definitely worth the effort and where to start, but right now it’s important to understand that a strong brand goes far beyond a design or tagline.
Your brand is the first interaction any person has with your business and should act as a sort of summary of what they can expect. Whether it’s the logo on the door, a direct mail piece or visit to your website, your brand is the first impression. Leave behind thinking that you can’t judge a book by its cover because what your prospective customers, employees and partners think is a big part of your chance at success.
Why is branding so important?
Recognition. It might seem tedious to discuss the capitalization standards or decide between this red or that red, but every time someone sees something related to your brand, it strengthens their awareness. But if they see something different every time, it’s impossible to be something memorable.
Credibility. Step into the mind of someone making their next purchase or looking for their next job. They’ve encountered two brands on social media. One business is all over the place, every post looks like it was created by a different person. The second business has consistent messaging and imagery that clearly fits together. A strong brand creates trust, both consciously and subconsciously. Humans are drawn to something that feels professional (and will value it more highly too).
Support. By giving that extra level of thought to your brand, what is different about your offering and perspective, your marketing becomes uniquely yours. If your messaging is copied and pasted from a template, how do your new customers know why they should choose you? Without a strong brand in place, you also don’t give the opportunity for someone to see, ask or learn more.
How do you start?
By setting brand standards and brand guidelines. This, of course, includes visual considerations like variations of your logo, what fonts to use and capitalization standards, and colors. We recommend having an open conversation internally, but also formalizing these things to easily engage employees, customers and partners. You should always be ready to hand over the right logo when sponsoring an event or getting published in an article. If you’re still not sure, choose a marketing partner that completes the brand package for your organization.
The process for setting brand standards should also go deeper to include tone of voice, messaging and core values. By doing this, you set your brand up to be strong enough to turn to when there are questions about how your organization should act and react. When your brand can take root in what your organization stands for, it also acts as a way to engage employees and creates a workplace to be proud of.
Your brand should matter to your customer, it should work to bring your organization together. No matter the size of your business, the most successful are ones that have established themselves by creating a strong brand.