Why You Shouldn’t Wait to Start Developing Your Brand Posted on April 20, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Procrastination is a natural human tendency, but in the competitive world of small business, it can prove devastating. The waiting game is particularly damaging when it comes to brand development, for, the longer you go without clarifying your brand and targeting the right audience, the more time and money you waste on ineffective marketing campaigns. From fear to indecision, your reasons for stalling may vary, but no matter you excuse, your failure to define and develop your brand is causing your business irreparable harm. The following are a few of the most common excuses for stalling on brand development — and why those excuses are invalid. There’s Not Enough Time Small business owners never have enough time, and while it’s true that life as an entrepreneur is crazy busy, some things — including brand development — need to be prioritized. Ultimately, the upfront time commitment you place in creating your brand will pay off, as it will ensure that you do not waste precious time on pursuits that do not support your long-term goals. You’re Lacking Financial Resources When it feels like your new business can fold at any time, the last thing you feel like doing is focusing on big picture issues such as developing your brand. However, a clear vision can ultimately make it far easier to secure the resources you require. Investors have absolutely no interest in supporting entrepreneurs who lack direction. They’ll be far more likely to give your pitch the consideration it deserves if you present a polished, confident image. A focused brand allows you to immediately demonstrate what you’ve accomplished thus far, and where you’re going. You’re Still Working on Team Building Instead of gathering an unorganized team of employees and then trying to pigeonhole them into a suddenly defined mission, your vision needs to be clear from the beginning. This will ensure that those who join your team are truly on board. A loosely-defined brand will attract similarly-minded individuals who lack passion and are simply working for the paycheck. Is that the type of person you want on your team? It’ll Shutting Out Consumers Many entrepreneurs hesitate to focus on a target market because they fear excluding other prospective customers. This is a viable concern, but if you fail to identify a target audience and tailor your message to fit that audience, your brand will not strongly appeal to anybody. Focus your vision and watch as your customer base grows, both in size and loyalty. The longer you wait to define your brand, the more opportunities will pass you by. From potential investors to employees, the best and the brightest want to be associated with easily-identifiable brands created by entrepreneurs who are clearly passionate about their respective industries.
4 Branding Strategies for your Small Business Posted on December 30, 2015August 29, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Is your branding message truly getting across or are you simply blowing hot air? If you don’t have definitive guidelines for your brand and if you are not following them across all platforms, you could be missing out. Here are several ways to boost your branding and ensure that you are actually creating a cohesive and recognizable brand for your small business. Define Your Brand Guidelines Make sure that every promotional piece, press release, and Tweet that leaves your office conforms to your branding guidelines. Clearly outlining your brand expectations and how your logo, mascot, and merchandise are to be referred to can prevent mismatches and mixed messaging for your brand. Disney is one of the masters of branding and everything they put out is designed to clearly represent the brand. From the annual blockbuster movie to the whimsical, talking trash cans at the theme parks, every single item is carefully created and screened with the big picture in mind. A simple list that depicts phrases or things we “always” do when speaking with customers or promoting the brand can help create a consistent and positive message across all of your platforms. Putting together a Brand Guideline for your company can help you make sure everyone is on the same page – even if your business is small. Here are a few areas to address: Logo: Using your logo consistently across all channels adds cohesiveness to your brand. For example, is it ok to display your logo without your tagline, or not? Do you have a version of your logo to use on light colored backgrounds and a version you use for dark colored backgrounds? Is there an emblem in your logo that can stand alone, or do you always want to include the wordmark with the emblem? Staying within specific brand guidelines for your logo will help boost recall and recognition of your brand. Color: Even a color as simple as “red” has variation to it, and everyone has their own interpretation. Setting guidelines on what your brand colors are and how to use them will help everyone stay within the lines of your brand when working on print, web, or promotional materials. Identifying a Pantone (print) and corresponding hex color (web) will help keep your brand looking sharp and consistent everywhere your prospects and customers see you. Voice & Tone: Branding is visual, but there is also a copy element that comes to play. For instance, carrying a serious tone on your website while you’re funny and irreverent on social media would give your brand a bit of an identity crisis. Decide if the voice and tone should be professional, playful, comedic, introspective – whatever best reflects your brand and culture. Naming Conventions: What you call things can increase brand equity – and even help build a sense of community around your business. Think Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeers, Rackspace Rackers, and, of course, Hatchbuckers. From your tagline to your product and service lines, naming consistently gives and instant lift to your branding. Message Consistency Once you’ve established some brand guidelines, you need to share them with everyone on the team, from the employees who create the packaging and images to the ones who answer the phones. One of the most often overlooked branding slipups is via your social media channels; make sure every site you use has a fully branded profile and that the person posting your tweets, updates, Instagram shots, and pins is correctly representing your brand. Enhance your Brand with Inbound Marketing Inbound marketing allows you to position your brand as a go-to for education, innovation and expertise. When you put informative branded content out there for prospects to find, use, and share you’re building focus on your brand in a positive way. It doesn’t matter what you sell as long as you’re getting information into the hands of people who can use it in a good light. This will automatically enhances your brand. Leverage Social Media If you have social media accounts just because you “should”, you’re not using them with branding in mind. Your social media accounts can be valuable brand builders, provided you cultivate followers and actually engage with users. Simply throwing up a (branded) profile page isn’t enough, you need to join the conversation. A quick look at your social media accounts can tell you how you are doing in this area. If you are not consistently posting and interacting with followers and connections, you’re missing out on a powerful way to build your brand. Branding may seem like a task left for the bigger guys, but defining your brand and staying consistent across all channels can be extremely valuable to your small business. Invest some time in developing your brand to develop instant recognition and recall of your business when it’s time for your audience to buy. Original source of the infographic: Better Business Brand