Every entrepreneur knows that competition is brutal. Combined with the unstable economic situation, starting a small business now seems like financial suicide. However, dozens of startups emerge every year and the majority succeed. Their secret? Many customer loyalty surveys show that branding definitely has something to do with it. Studies show that people are willing to pay more for a brand they trust. As small businesses often struggle with setting competitive prices, building a strong brand might be their only way to success.
The Ultimate Small Business Branding Mistake
There’s one major problem that is often responsible for a small business’ failure to build a strong brand. It’s the lack of attention to detail. What many fail to understand is that branding isn’t only about stamping a cool logo onto everything and posting a bunch of ads.
For a small business to build a brand their audience will recognize is to ‘become one of the guys’. One has to provide all their customers with a top-quality experience in every interaction. But it’s also necessary to become an active entity in the targeted community.
2 Essential Small Business Branding Tips That No One Tells About
Get the best web hosting for the budget
Wonder what’s hosting has to do with brand building?
This service determines the performance and security of the website, as well as safety of its visitors by extension. Internet users’ attention spans are so short these days, over 40% of them will leave a page if it takes more than 2 seconds to load.
And if the server’s security is breached and they pick up a computer virus or their personal data get stolen through the business’s website? In this case, its owner will discover how anti-branding works. These people will definitely spread the word about how this site and business aren’t to be trusted all over social media and consumer forums.
So, it’s essential to start searching for a host by studying an independent source of web hosting reviews. Then, go to the best services and see if they have discounts. Top hosting companies often offer great prices to first-time subscribers. And if one searches well enough, they can find fantastic promo code discount coupons for them.
Invest some time and effort in this research, as this decision will affect the brand’s chances of success greatly. Today, small business branding mostly takes place online, and the website is the business’s ‘face’ there.
Become a valued member of the community
Whether the business targets some local community or a wide group of customers online, there must be some places and events where these people gather and get their info from. This can be a local community hall, coffee shop, social media groups, online forums, etc. In order to make a brand recognized and welcome presence there one needs to join or organize social campaigns as well as ‘ride’ the wave of breakout news.
The most important thing here is to give the brand a distinctive voice. To do this, one has to think about what they want people to perceive the brand as. For example, an organic farm wants buyers to see it as a fighter for the betterment of the planet and a protector of their health from dangerous pesticides, etc. These are its defining values that it can promote by entering discussions of such topics, publishing content related to them, and organizing public campaigns to support them. In the meantime, the farm will be spreading their branded products, flyers, and merchandise to make it stick that ‘this is the brand doing all of that for the good of the planet’. And that’s how small business branding is supposed to work to succeed in the era of media noise.
