Small business branding: how to stand out in your industry

Key takeaways

• An established brand can help your company stay top of mind and build familiarity with yourtarget audience
• Effectivesmall business brandingfocuses on three core areas:brand strategy,brand identity, and brand marketing
• Small business brandingcan help you create a company that’s trusted, memorable, and known as a leader in your industry

Everyone has felt the power of branding—whether you’re on a road trip and scanning for the golden arches or swooning over the latestNikecommercial during the Olympics. When customers are drawn to these successful companies, it’s not only because they believe their products or services are superior—it’s because they evoke an emotional connection. That’s the power of branding at work.

Small businessescan implement similar strategies to establish a recognizable brand that draws in consumers. While a devoted branding budget helps, many free or inexpensive strategies can solidify yoursmall business brandingstrategy and help you stand out from your competitors.

Use this guide to learn how to create a memorable brand, capture consumer attention, and communicate your message.

What issmall business branding?

Small business brandingis the process of creating a comprehensive message and identity for your company. Branding helps create the perception you want consumers to have about your company and differentiates your company from competitors.

Branding is much more than a logo,color palette, and catchy slogan, however. It also communicates your company’s mission and values, helping customers trust and relate to your company.

Basic elements ofsmall business branding

Creating a brand for yoursmall businessrequires planning and strategy. When building your brand, focus on three key factors:brand strategy,brand identity, and brand marketing. Together, these elements will help establish loyalty and trust for years to come.

1.Brand strategy

Effective branding should be built with intention and strategy: Where do you want to take your company? What do you stand for? How do you want customers to perceive your brand?

The goal is to lay out what makes your company different and how you can solve yourtarget customer‘s pain points. A solidbrand strategywill be the blueprint for the future of your company and how you approach the tactical side of branding, like choosing the visual elements of your brand and how you’ll communicate them to yourtarget audience.

Market research

Start by conductingmarket researchwithin your industry on who your customers are, their likes and dislikes, and what they value. This information will help you determine yourtarget audiences. From there, you can build customer personas, which are fictional representations of yourideal customers.

For example, a lawn care company’s customer persona might be a homeowner who wants to set up service without meeting in person. You could cater to this type of clientele by providing low-cost services and communicating with your clients remotely, using email updates and an online payment system.

Competitive analysis

You should also examine the behaviors of your competitors: How do they approach branding? Which branding elements—from logos to advertisements—do they use? Determine what they’re doing effectively and identify areas you can improve on.

For instance, a plumber might notice that successful competitors incorporate funny themes or eco-friendly practices in their marketing. They can apply some of these elements to their branding while staying true to their own strategy.

2.Brand identity

Now that you’ve done your research, it’s time to implement the narrative and visual components ofsmall business branding. There are two areas to consider when building yourbrand identity: yourbrand storyand accompanying creative assets.

Yourbrand storyconsists of what you believe in, the customer problems you want to address, and how you plan to solve them. It’s a mix of facts and feelings that elicits an emotional response.

For example, let’s say you own a heating and cooling company that focuses on energy efficiency and helping customers go green. These environmentally conscious values are a big part of your brand story, and you can use this narrative to guide how you design your branding elements, such as yourlogo, slogan, andtone of voicein your promotional materials.

The second step is creating those creative assets which will serve as the face of your business. They include these elements:

• Logo
• Color palette
• Slogan ortagline
• Typography
• Graphics
• Icons
• Photography

You’ll want to build a cohesive image that can be used across allmarketing materialsand channels, from yourbusiness cardsto your website. With simple graphic design skills, you can design branding elements on your own. Or consider hiring freelance graphic designers who specialize inlogo designandbrand buildingfrom sites such as99designs,Fiverr, orUpwork.

As you solidify your creative assets, build a brandstyle guide为你的公司帮助保持一致性。这s is a document that establishes rules and best practices for your brand, such as when to include your logo, which colors represent your brand, and whichtypographyto use onmarketing materials. Your employees can refer to thesebrand guidelinesto determine how to present your brand to consumers.

3. Brand marketing

Once you determine yourbranding strategyand identity, it’s important to communicate these elements to your target consumers. As you distribute your messaging to potential customers, keep the three C’s in mind: clarity, consistency, and commitment.

Clarity

Make sure your message is clear. Your brand should tell consumers what you stand for, the product or service you offer, and how it can benefit them.

For instance, a local cafe that specializes in organic coffee and baked goods should highlight these offerings in its marketing, whether it’s through asocial mediapost or a neighborhood flier.Including messagingabout the social and environmental benefits of organic coffee aims to attract customers with similar values.

Consistency

Maintaining a consistent message, look, and feel is a necessity forsmall business branding. In fact, the more consumers recognize your image across platforms, the more likely they’ll be to make a purchase: Research shows that maintainingbrand consistencyacross marketing channels canincrease your revenue by up to 23%.

Use the same design elements across all marketing channels, including a consistentcolor palette,typography, and graphics. For instance, yourwebsite designshould have the same look and feel as youremail marketingand yoursocial networks.

Wesley The Keeper ofAkron Honeyshared the importance and impact of brand consistency: “We designed the packaging to stand out, but part of the reason why a lot of people buy the little jars is because they’re so cute,” Wesley said. “It looks as good as it tastes. So what that tells me is, okay, we’ve got this template for our brand. It’s clean, it’s cute, it’s easy to read. Let’s keep that going with whatever we do. The jars should look like the website, the website should look like our social.”

Commitment

Strong branding doesn’t happen overnight. It takes discipline and commitment to build trust among your consumer base and drive your message home.

For example, what if you run ads in print or online and they don’t produce positive results? Don’t scrap everything and opt for a redesign. It’s okay to make small tweaks to yourmessaging, but your brand’s success will come from playing the long game: maintainingbrand consistencyand building recognition over time.

3branding tipsforsmall business owners

As you build your brand, consider the following tips to hone your strategy.

1. Invest in yourbrand identity

As asmall business owner, you probably want to keep marketing costs low. However, your brand will be with you for years to come. Investing in the creation of a brand that impresses and retains consumers can be worth it in the long run.

After you invest time and money in building anew brand, it’s important to also invest in the ways you communicate your branding with yourtarget audience. Consider promoting your brand via online advertising, such as withYelp Ads. This is a great way to get in front of customers with high intent to buy: You can even geo-target your ad to be displayed a specified number of miles away from your business, allowing you to better target your audience.

2. Be memorable and timeless

Yourbrand identityrepresents your business, so it should be memorable, professional, and representative of your brand values.

Just as important, it should be timeless. Avoid using trendy design elements and create something that will stand the test of time. To start, skip the free logo generators—which often produce generic logos—and brainstorm design elements that are truly relevant to your brand, product or service, and customer base.

3. Refine and evolve yourbrand identity

Instead of making drastic changes to your brand, revisit and evolve your branding as you see fit. If customers aren’t resonating with your branding or yourtarget audiencehas changed, try making small changes to improve your overall brand.

You can monitor how consumers are responding to your brand by readingsocial mediaposts and online customer reviews. For example, customer review sites like Yelp provide an incredibly useful way to see what customers like—or don’t like—about your business.Claim your Yelp Business Pageto read through customer reviews that can give you feedback that’ll help you make any necessary adjustments to your branding andmessaging.

Start building asuccessful brand

Astrong brandhelps your business build trust and attract new customers. It can also set you apart from competitors, showing consumers you’re their best choice.

To hone yoursmall business branding, identify yourbrand identityand branding elements. Then, use these elements consistently across all marketing channels to solidify your place as a trusted leader in your industry.

As you fine-tune your branding and overall marketing strategy, check out these tips forhow to attract more customers. Then, watch the video below to hear from successful marketing experts about proven brand-building strategies you can take with you.