Establishing a brand for your business is important. It immediately tells your customers who you are, what you do and will be on of the primary ways they will remember you. That is why it is important to create a strong brand that is consistent throughout all of your businesses practices.
Social Media
In this day and age, social media is one of your best tools for establishing and growing your brand. You should set up business accounts for all the major social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. You should the use this to inform people about your business; who you are and what you do. However, it is important that you don’t just use it to try and sell things. This won’t work. You need to strike a balance between that and also sending messages about other things that are tangentially related to your business. This will show people what is important to you and make you feel less like a corporate entity and more relatable. Images work great on all of the platforms (especially Instagram), and LinkedIn is great for networking and linking with peers in your industry.
Website
You will need a website. On your website, you will also need a blog. Your website might have an online store or other ways for people to contact you so that you can get work, but it also needs to have a blog. You can use your blog posts to tweet on Twitter or send messages on other social media platforms, too. The reason why you need to have a blog and regularly update is that it will help to establish your brand. Through blogging about your industry and things that are important to your company, customers will learn who you are and what you are about. Blog posts are also excellent for getting clicks on your website which could turn into business for your company. If you don’t want to do the blogging yourself, then you might consider hiring a freelancer to produce and article on a regular schedule. Your website itself needs to speak to your brand and be consistent with how you have presented yourself on social media. This means using the same color scheme, type of writing and, most important of all, your logo.
Logo
Your logo is what people are going to remember the most from your business. From Pepsi to McDonald’s, the logo is at the forefront of their businesses. It is from the logo that all other design and marketing decisions grow. You need to have a professionally designed logo that can represent your business. You will want something that means that customers can at a glance see and it will instantly remind them of your business and what it is that you do. Once you have a logo, you will want to begin to put it everywhere. It will want to be on everything from your business cards and stationery to social media and your website. If you produce t-shirt, then it should be on the labels. You can get all of these made for you including the business cards, and the consistency is the key part of growing your brand. Sites like GB labels can make labels with your logo on, and Vistaprint can create your business cards. You will feel far more professional with branded items rather than just plain white or only your company name on them.
Packaging
This one might not apply to everyone as not every business will sell products, but if you do, then you should try to put your branding on your packaging. This might make the costs increase slightly, but it will be worth it. The packing is the first thing a person sees when they get on of your products, so showcasing your brand and forcing them to recognize and associate it will go a long way to them remembering you in the future. It doesn’t need to be a lot; just your color scheme and logo will do. These two things are the core of your branding, but including links to your website and social media accounts will also be beneficial as it will encourage them to engage with you after they have made their purchase. This could be as simple as using colored packets to send your items and then having your logo made into a sticker with a business card with your website and social media accounts on. It doesn’t need to be layers of branded packaging and can be just as effective with a more minimalist design – plus this way it will be cheaper, too.
Image: DomJ