It takes less than a second for someone to form an impression of your business website. With your company site serving as a virtual first impression, you can’t afford to lose anyone. Small business marketing is all about building relationships, starting with a strong first impression.
Small business branding isn’t just about having a nice logo or the perfect colors. Those basics will only take your company branding so far. A strong brand is defined by the quality of everything in its digital marketing strategy.
Why Is Small Business Branding Important?
Learn why (and how) effective branding makes and breaks small businesses. Check out these top tips to set yourself ahead of the pack and impress your customers.
1. Create Trust and Credibility
Consumers buy from brands they trust. In fact, over 80% of consumers need to trust a brand before they even make a purchase. Your small business branding needs to communicate credibility and trustworthiness.
Building a strong brand means understanding your customers. Do you know what your target audience values? How much of your current digital marketing caters to them?
Pain points are critical marketing points to address. Your branding can be the solution. Your business offerings need to communicate what your brand stands for.
If it’s unwavering customer service, include this in your brand voice. Don’t be afraid to shout from a virtual mountain top that your business will bend backward to appease customers. If you value something else in your brand voice, tell your customers.
The more you value customer feedback and resolve to offer the best goods and services, the more they’ll trust you. Sharing your mistakes (and how you remedy them) is one way to build trust. This kind of transparency carries over very well in social media marketing.
2. Build Awareness and Recognition
The more customers trust a brand, the more they talk about it. Using tools like official hashtags can boost your recognition, too. Integrating branded colors and icons also helps.
Another standout feature for awareness is a memorable logo design. If you haven’t revamped your logo (or never had one professionally designed), fix it! Your logo is often the first thing consumers see or think of when they recall your brand.
Brand recall is critical to increasing awareness. Word of mouth marketing isn’t dead online, especially with social media. Your small business marketing can showcase its uniqueness with a strong logo.
When customers recognize your brand, they share it more. Even it’s a funny ad that struck just right; your brand becomes more known. Emphasizing unique graphics or fonts ensures your brand’s memorability.
3. Increase Perceived (and Actual) Value
When people talk about something and share it online, it’s because they find some inherent value. Building this value is up to your digital marketing campaigns. How you choose to present your brand voice impacts what people think of it.
Perceived brand value is crucial for small business branding. If you communicate your company ethos through cause-based marketing, consumers will look at your brand differently. Some brands prioritize transparent pricing to show the worth of their goods and services.
You can leverage perceived value to build actual value. For example, companies like Girlfriend Collective communicate their commitment to sustainability in their marketing. Their branding communicates a company ethos and how they take action to commit to this cause.
These branding tips emphasize cause-based marketing due to its rise in popularity. Your current brand strategy should evaluate any gaps and how your business can address them. Brainstorm any possible causes related to your brand and go from there.
4. Develop Community and Loyalty
Focusing on a cause builds more than actual value. Sharing your company’s values can inspire loyalty. Loyal customers can serve as a valuable tool for social media marketing.
You use this loyalty to build a community of followers dedicated to your brand’s mission. That kind of impact is critical to recognition and trust. It is difficult to ignore a company with a community that cares about it.
When people care about something, they don’t stop talking about it. This kind of attention generates leads and builds actual value. Increased awareness means more people paying attention to parts of your business, like your website.
The more people pay attention to your company, the more you’ll want to invest in quality web design. If you build a strong community, you could develop your site as a virtual gathering space. Consider new ways to rebrand and develop loyalty (for more than profit).
5. Generate More Leads and Sales
It’s easier to build strong relationships if your brand is connected to a strong community. Using digital marketing, you can generate better quality leads. The more reliable leads are, the more sales are closed.
Even if lead generation isn’t one of your key performance indicators, it’s connected to successful small business branding. Maybe you measure your business success by revenue or in other ways. Leads indicate how well and consistently you communicate your brand voice.
When you experience better qualified leads, it results from increased awareness and trust from consumers. Better leads and increased revenue are the results of your hard work and successful branding.
Elevate Your Small Business Branding With a Holistic Approach
With your new understanding of small business marketing, you’re ready to strengthen your brand. To accomplish your strategy’s overall development, you need a holistic approach. That means working with an expert in marketing, design, and branding.
Bianca Frank Design is here for your small business branding needs. We offer support and direction for any project based on your specific needs. Contact us today to leverage your brand voice and stand out from the virtual crowd.