5 Steps That Will Make Your Small Business Look Like a Brand

Nike, Apple and Levi’s Jeans. Some businesses have reached that magic sweet spot that makes their name synonymous with a product. The ultimate association between business and product is not just about clever marketing. That instant connection can be summed in one word: branding.

Branding is the process by which a business establishes a coherent message and translates that message into their marketing. It is such an important factor, that the effect of the branding process can often account for the success or failure of a business venture.

Establishing a brand means that your business has a unique and confident voice, that it is able to communicate fluently with its target audience and that it successfully established trust, as well as anticipation, with the audience in question.

So how does a small business make the leap to becoming a brand? Here are the 5 key steps you can take to make your business brand-worthy.

1. Establish a brand identity

Before you start thinking about marketing and profits, you need to figure out what is it that you’re trying to market and who are you selling to. Your brand identity will guide you throughout all future branding steps, so think carefully about your tone of voice.

Here’s a questionnaire that will give you a good foundation to work with.

• What are the five main characteristics of your business?
  
  
• What is the issue or problem that your business offers to solve?
  
  
• Which audiences would be interested in the solution you offer?
  
  
• What makes your business stand out in your industry?

2. Develop your brand voice

Building up on how you defined your brand identity, you can move forward to develop the “voice” you think will be most effective for your business’ success. What we mean by voice is actually quite straightforward: How do you want to represent your small business to clients and potential clients? What is the message you want them to hear and how do you make sure they hear it loud and clear?

Let’s say you answered the first question by naming the following as your main business characteristics: fun, accessible, reliable, family-oriented and stable. Now you need to think what type of language, style, looks and atmosphere will best communicate these traits to your audience.

3. Devise a coherent marketing plan

While every business ultimately has the same goal to succeed, the ways to get there can vary according to the identity and voice you established for your brand.

A business that is trying to brand itself as exclusive and elegant, probably should steer clear from sales and promotions. On the other hand, a business that targets gamers as its audience, should focus marketing efforts on media channels that are popular with this group.

4. Set up design and content guidelines

Now that you have your brand voice figured out and a marketing plan to match, the next move in branding would be to establish how your brand should literally look and sound like.

We recommend that you start with your brand name and tagline. Together they should express your brand essence in a nutshell and will later on provide the basis for texts that you use in campaigns, on your website, in your ads and in the communication with your customers.

The next step will be to translate the brand essence into a design scheme. One of the key things that separate a small-fry business from a real brand is the use of a coherent and consistent design on all the relevant visuals. Your dream goal is to have people recognise your brand instantly based on the design alone. Who doesn’t know the Coca Cola font or the Starbucks logo?

5. Get your online presence straight

Successful branding, especially for relatively new businesses, relies heavily on online presence. Internet platforms are highly effective in reaching target audiences directly and they are accessible to small businesses in a way that most traditional media are not.

You want to start with a professional website that ties together all of the elements we discussed here above (identity, voice, marketing, content and design). To maximise online branding on your website we recommend that you use this checklist.

• Customised domain name

  A URL that is identical to your brand name guarantees that people know how to find you online and it projects professionalism and reliability to your website visitors.
  
  

• Mobile website

  Don’t rely on the fact that people will only access your website from a desktop. Make sure your website is fully operational with an optimised mobile version.
  
  

• Powerful newsletters

  Email marketing and newsletter distribution are valuable methods for staying connected to your audience.

SOURCE: Wix