But … We Can’t Afford to Do Branding

Actually, you can’t afford not to.  Sure, branding can get incredibly expensive if your idea of branding is a nationwide television and print campaign.  But it doesn’t need to be.

Here are 4 low-cost actions you can start on today to help your small business create, build and reinforce brand:

1) Start with clarifying what your brand stands for.  What’s that “one thing” you want customers to think of, when thinking of your company?

    Most knowledgeable — that is, your representatives can help the customer choose options in a complicated product environment?
    Speed — such as your 10-minute lunch menu, or same-day delivery, or fastest time to create a customized solution?
    High quality — especially when all the competition is low quality?
    Something else?

Think it through.  If you or your team are confused about that “one thing” that sets your company apart, customers probably will be, too.

If you’re not sure what this is, find out.  Schedule a strategy session and hash it out with your team.  Do a customer survey to ask existing customers what they value most.  Start asking new customers what made them choose your company or product or service.

Try to limit it to one thing or at most two things you want your brand to be known for.  If you end up with a laundry list of 20 things, go back to the drawing board and narrow it down. Customers don’t choose a vendor for 20 reasons. It’s usually one or two reasons that push them over the decision edge.

2) Audit your marketing materials.  This is low hanging fruit. Check over your website, your Facebook page, your brochures, your ads — every piece of marketing you have.  Do you have words in them to clearly convey “that one thing” that you want to be known for?

Or are your marketing materials sending mixed messages, with brochures emphasizing lowest cost, while your website emphasizes unparalleled quality?  Maybe you deliver both, but in that case the combination of both should be conveyed, not one or the other.

Is your company name abbreviated in your marketing materials with cryptic initials that customers may not understand?  Just because you refer to your company internally by an abbreviated acronym doesn’t mean customers have any clue what you’re talking about.

Look at sales scripts, too.  Are sales reps conveying what your brand is, the way you want them to?  Or are they saying something different?  You may even learn something from them — they may have discovered through trial and error what customers value most and how customers perceive your company.

Make sure everything reinforces what you want customers to think about your business.

3) Demonstrate it with stories.  Stories make your brand “stick.”  It’s not enough just to say over and over that “we offer high quality.”  Show it!

Write up case studies about how you helped a customer with your high-quality solution to solve a problem that no one else could solve.

Or get a testimonial about how your product outlasted other products by five years.

Write your company story in the About section of your website, and repeat that story in press releases, interviews and other communications. Create a video about your company “story.”

4) Use colors, symbols and other elements to create visual associations. Check your marketing materials for consistency.  Are you using an outdated logo on some materials?  Do you even have a logo?  Are colors consistent?

Visual elements are important clues that trigger other associations and help customers remember your business.

Remember, branding isn’t just for large corporations.  When customers have seemingly endless choices, branding becomes a crucial competitive edge.  That’s the value of branding for small businesses.

Source: http://smallbiztrends.com