Branding Best Practices For Small Businesses

Best Branding Best Practices for Small Businesses

If you want your small business to succeed, then you need to put an emphasis on branding. Essentially how you market your business and your products, branding is essential because it separates your company from the competition and gives you an edge so you can sell more products and continue to grow. Here at Semper Fi Design, we specialize in the fields of marketing and website design, so we can offer great tips for how to get started when making your own brand. Let’s talk about branding and some best tips and practices

Branding

In essence, branding is how you stand out against your competitors. If you have a smart branding strategy, customers may recognize your company without you saying a word. Just think about companies like Nike and Coca-Cola. You can just look at the logo associated with those companies and instantly know with whom you are doing business.

Branding also helps to give your business a personality. For instance, if you are a computer ink company amongst a slew of other printer ink companies, you need to stand out to get the business you need to thrive. A smart logo, mascot, or memorable catch-phrase can instantly draw the attention of your customers, and if your product is good, they may come back to you for life.

In addition to recognition, branding is also important because if you have a good strategy then you can connect with your audience on an emotional level. Customers have a million options when it comes from choosing where to purchase their products, but if you can relate to people on an emotional level, like what Proctor and Gamble did when they created a campaign called #BecauseOfMom back in 2014, then you are connecting on a whole new level. Once you have attracted customers in that way, they may stick with you for life.

How to Reach Your Target Market

Part of creating your branding strategy is identifying and reaching your target market, and to do so, you will need to do some research. Start by defining your market. Are you selling to a certain age range, gender, or people with specific interests? Once you figure that out, you will want to further research to figure out what appeals to them. How can you best market your product to pique their interest?

Once you learned that your branding works and you have gained interest and made sales to a small group, you need to branch out to a wider audience by creating a referral system. When you get a customer, give them a referral code and tell them to share it with their friends. If your branding is strong then your customer pool will continue to expand.

Outsourcing to Graphic Designers

When you get some ideas for your specific branding approach, you will want to put your plan in action, but if you are new to marketing then you may need some help. Once you have an idea for a logo or other attention-grabbing branding strategy, you will likely need the assistance of a graphic designer and editor who can help to perfect your design and create several variations so you can pick the best option.

If you have an idea of what you want, feel free to sketch some drawings or put together a mock logo on a program like Microsoft Paint. Once you have some PDFs and files that you want to transfer to the designer, you may have to modify the file size so you can easily email your ideas. Before you try to send them, compress PDF with a program online, like the one offered by Adobe, which is easy to use as you simply drag and drop what you need and then send the new, smaller files.

While we break down the branding process here, the reality is that creating the perfect logo or branding strategy will likely take some trial and error, so patience is key. If you need help with your ideas, Semper Fi Design can help. Drop us a line at 803-237-2209.