Branding tips for small businesses

Branding tips for small businesses

Are you a small business with a limited budget and a small team? Are you planning to set your startup in a coworking space until it takes off and you, as a leader, manage to get the hang of things? In this article, we are going to examine some easy and cost-effective branding tips that will help you make a name for yourself in the industry.

Use an archetype in your branding

Archetypes are simple and everlasting ideas that appeal to human nature to a great extent. These archetypes will help your customers and clients identify with your brand’s concept. Many of the biggest and most significant businesses in the world have used these concepts to gather around the proverbial fire and listen to the story you have to tell.

Some of these essential archetypes include the hero, the outlaw, the explorer, the creator, the caregiver, etc. Of course, your business cannot use these archetypes in their raw form. This is the 21st century, and you need to relate these ancient ideas to the ideas and requirements of the new age.

Make it personal

Ok, you need to have an archetype in the initial concept of your business. But you should also make it personal so that the customers will relate to the idea you are offering. For instance, many businesses prefer to present their customers as the hero of the story and themselves as the wise old man/woman who provides wisdom and knowledge.

Telling a story like this will help your business look real to the customers, something they can follow passionately and get invested in. obviously, hero and guide are not the only personalized archetypes you can use to tell your brand’s story. Sometimes, the truth is so much more incredible than anything you can come up with. So maybe you can use the true story with some archetypal embroidery!

Set some ground rules

Now that your story and all its elements are ready, you need to decide what you want to do and what you can’t live with or without. Setting these ground rules and values will help you make better choices in the days and years to come. You can use the input from your team members in a brainstorming session and see what values everybody holds dear.

When you ask for everybody’s opinions, people feel more invested in the values of the business and bottom line. You will have a loyal team that moves collectively towards the company’s success. What’s more, having a rulebook you can stick to in every situation will make your leadership a more pleasant and smooth experience.

A good logo can speak volumes

The next step in creating a successful brand is to create a great logo. You can elicit the help of a professional group in creating a logo. More important than the designer is the decision you make as a group about the shape and logotype you want to have. It’s a good idea to talk to your team before inviting the logo designer for the briefing session.

You are the only people qualified to decide on the colors, themes, and shapes you’d like to see in your logo. In the briefing session, try to tell your story and branding strategy as completely as possible. The communication of these matters can lead to fewer disapproved sketches and prototypes.

Get on social media

Now that your story, guidelines, and logo are ready, it’s time to start your existence on social media. Before starting your accounts, you need to set up a strategy for your social media activities. First, you have to decide on your purpose. Why do you want to get on social media? Is it to gain recognition and increase your brand awareness? Is it to get more customers? Is it to tell your story and get more followers? Or simply to introduce yourself to the market and your potential customers?

After picking the reason, you can decide on the activities you want to have on different social media platforms. A content calendar can help you have a fixed plan for the next week or month. Investing in social media advertising can also be a good idea for gaining more recognition and fast-tracking your social media goals.

Influencers can help

One way to reach the greatest number of people in the shortest span is to elicit the help of influencers. The thing you need to remember about influencer marketing is that the person or people you pick needs to have interests close to yours.

Because influencers usually have a loyal group of followers, there is a high chance that investing in influencer marketing will increase the number of your followers to a great extent.

Be socially responsible

Every company and business has the responsibility to give back to the society it has risen from. These activities not only help you fulfill your duties to the less fortunate but also get recognition on social media and promote your image as a company that gives back to society.

The opportunities are limitless. You can provide people with internships, host charity events, set regular giveaways, collaborate with local NGOs, or set up parties to clean up local forests and national parks. All these activities can gain you immense recognition among your followers and promote your name in the industry.

Ask for feedback

Asking your followers and customers for feedback has a double purpose. On one side, it lets you know what your customers think of the goods and services you offer. You can take these opinions into account for developing new options to offer. When your followers and customers see that their feedback matters and can make a difference, they are encouraged to stick with your brand and become loyal customers.

On the other hand, asking for feedback increases your communication with the customers. Google and Meta recognize this increase as successful customers support and further promote your brand name in their communities. As you know, customer support is very important to the runners of social media!

E-mail marketing really works

A lot of people believe that with the advent of social media, other platforms such as email and website banners are dead. This is not true at all! Email marketing and website ads have proven time and again that they can play a significant role in increasing your reach to a larger population. In fact, research has shown that businesses that invest in email marketing and website banner campaigns manage to grow out of their local area and reach national and international customers in shorter periods.

Therefore, when setting the budget for your marketing campaigns, you cannot forget about these ads along with the usual social media and Google ads. Using these marketing methods, together with providing excellent customer support, can help you reach your short and long-term plans in no time at all.

Be consistent

The one and only key to becoming successful on social media is to be consistent. This consistency needs to have several aspects. First, it’s physical. You need to be present on social media every single day and let your followers know what’s happening in your business throughout the day.

Second, you need consistency in your story. The story you decided upon at the very beginning on the road did not end there. It’s an ongoing story that needs to stay alive as long as your business is out there. So, you need to find creative ways to remind your followers where you have come from and where you are going.

And finally, it’s about your values. You need to be consistent in upholding the values you defined at the beginning. If you decide to keep a constructive connection with your followers, you need to answer every message and comment, even if they are not what you like to hear. If you decide to respond to every complaint, you need to do it no matter how overwhelming it might get. No matter what you do, consistency is key.

Final thoughts

Small businesses have a long way to go before they can reach the fame and fortune they dream of. This winding path contains so many twists and turns that you must manage with your team. That is perhaps why setting up your business in a coworking space is always a good idea. Because in these spaces, you are never alone. You can always get help and advice from people who have been on this route longer than you and know what to do in different situations.

Following these steps and asking for help from your coworking space follow business runners whenever you get stuck are the best things you can do to make sure you can reach all your long-term plans and establish yourself as one of the serious names in your industry. God Speed.

small businesses working in a coworking space face many challenges. These tips can help them succeed in their branding efforts.
Written by theHUB

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