For any small business, effective brand messaging is one of the sure-shot ways to ensure its success. Having a general image that represents its values and expertise is very important. But for a small business, having a well-developed brand image complete with a voice and memorable logo is not always possible, due to various constraints like not having enough budget to put into branding. Moreover, when you’re just starting out, it can be hard to get the time and resources needed to achieve a brand image. 

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What is branding? Why is it necessary? 

In simple terms, a brand is the sum total of all the impressions that a customer has about your business, based on the products and services you offer and on every interaction they’ve had with you. Each of these interactions tells a story to your customers. And why is branding important for small business? For a small business, branding is especially necessary because it has the potential to increase the value of your business, can make acquiring new customers easier and help greatly in retaining the existing customers. 

Branding for small businesses is the need of the hour. Contrary to what many believe, you don’t need to invest a lot of money or hire a professional marketing team to brand your small business. Here are some inexpensive ways in which you can brand your small business within budget :-

Why develop a brand voice and identity?

Identify the target audience of your small business first and then it can start to take shape. Brand voice means the tone that you use in any public communication and a brand identity like creating a logo means all the things that make people aware of what you brand is. Create a logo that is consistent across all your marketing platforms and make sure that your website and social media themes follow a similar colour theme as your logo. Working on your brand’s voice and identity will make sure that there is some consistency in your overall brand and will help in establishing a good base to take things further with your small business. 

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What is the importance of having a consistent social media presence?

Remember, social media is free and consistency is the key word here. If your small business has a presence on different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, then make sure that you post on these platforms consistently. Having good, creative social media content across all platforms regularly will help you establish a solid social media presence and this in turn will help in increasing brand recall and customer engagement. 

Why should you maintain a blog section?

In today’s digital age, we cannot stress the importance of branding for small businesses by creating and maintaining a blog section which consists of engaging content. A blog is one of the most fundamental parts of inbound marketing, as this is where strangers can turn into visitors to your website. According to a recent survey, blogs are the third most trusted source of information, after family and friends. So make sure you write optimized blogs that are relevant to your target audience, consisting of informative content that matches the information they are searching for. 

Why should you make customer service a priority? 

Believe it or not, but excellent customer service can actually help you save money on advertising and marketing. How, you ask? That’s because it can create huge recognition for your brand through word of mouth. Just think of it – providing a great customer service consistently will no doubt increase customer satisfaction which in turn will give you positive reviews from them. And this will increase customer loyalty and retention. Whether you’re a B2B or a B2C small business, that means, whether you’re serving clients or customers, the goal is to create a delightful and memorable experience. When you make client and customer service a priority, it should not cost you much for them to talk about their experience with your brand. 

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Building a brand is not exactly an easy task, especially for a small business where resources are limited most of the time. But as we have seen why branding is important for small business, there are many economical ways to brand your small business and continue to maintain the brand image. With a bit of logic and strategy involved, implementing these tips will surely help you out!

Story By: Samikshya Borse