The Importance Of Branding Your Small Business
Creating a business involves many steps. One of the most important steps in creating your small business is branding.
Take a minute to think about big companies like Disney, Apple, and Amazon. These million and billion-dollar companies are champions of branding; when you think of them, their images are immediately conjured up in your brain. These images don’t appear in your head on accident - they've been ingrained into the branding of the companies. Every time someone sees these images they are able to recall the company associated with them.
Creating a successful brand takes a lot of time, creativity, and effort to separate yourself from the rest. Here are some tips to effectively help small businesses be able to brand themselves like bigger companies.
Why should you brand your business?
Owning a small business gives you the power of recognition and presents long-term value. It also helps you separate yourself from the competition.
Branding also makes your business appear legitimate and polished. When a brand is significant enough to be known simply by their logo, they have reached a whole new status with consumers.
Executing a good marketing strategy can help you get to that point. Without a brand, you are simply a product or service without an identity. By branding your business, you increase your chances for future partnerships, credibility among consumers, opportunities for expansion, and overall value.
What's the difference between branding and marketing?
Many people think that marketing and branding are synonymous, and while they may work together harmoniously, they are certainly not the same thing. Your brand is the identity you want to market to consumers. On the other hand, marketing is simply promoting a business's products, services, or even brand.
Establishing a clear identity
Every brand will differ depending on the business you are running, but there are some consistent questions every business owner should ask themselves when first cultivating their identity.
Who is my target? - Find your core demographics, age, gender, location
What is my purpose? - Help consumers understand why you created this business in the first place and why you feel passionate about it.
What is my message? - Cultivate a message to convey to your consumers about your business.
What value do I bring to the consumer? - Establish values that are going to shape the culture of your brand and brand vision.
What is my strategy? - Set milestones for your branding journey.
What is my brand story? - Create a story from the inception of your business to the point you are in right now.