Simple Steps to Build a Branding Strategy for Your Small Business

Branding is important for businesses in general. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are. In fact, many big corporations like to present themselves as a small operation just to garner the attention of those who prefer such brands.

Now, all business operators understand this fact. Without branding, there isn’t much of a business to rely on. However, the question isn’t about whether branding is important – it’s actually about why branding is important.

Most business operators understand the link between branding and business success. They see this and are inspired to bring about the same level of success for their own brands. If you’re a small business yourself, you’re probably also aware of the fact that branding goes beyond creating a superficial image.

But, here’s the thing – you are likely unaware of how successful businesses treat branding. Branding plays a far more pivotal role than what you already know.

There are several benefits that a well-defined brand can bring. When customers develop a connection with your business, it’s usually because they share the same values and vision. This is what encourages them to continue patronizing your business and provide continuous revenue. This is also why they become loyal to you and also, begin to advocate for you.

That’s the ultimate goal of branding and it’s far more effective than handing out discounts. Plus, a well-established brand image can make it easier for you to bring in new offerings.

But, how can you develop your brand strategy that eventually leads to this goal? Well, here are a few suggestions that’ll help you get started.

Evaluate

Start by carrying out a thorough assessment of your business and your competition. They are obviously a few strengths that you enjoy and a few weaknesses that you want to address. Make a not of it. Consider your greatest strengths. There is obviously something that sets you apart.

Now, do the same for your competitors. Assess their strengths and weaknesses. Then, compare yourself with them. How do you fare against them? Is there something that sets you apart from the competition?

Determine customer perception

The next step is to find out how the customer perceives you. You may have certain strengths that make you good at identifying and addressing the customer’s pain points. But, you will have to verify that with your customers.

In fact, all your key strengths or what you think are your key strengths need to be verified with your customers. By gaining a clear picture of how your customers see you, you can move forward with developing a proper branding strategy because you have accurate information to work on.

You will be able to gain better insight into their perception and work on a strategy that addresses their concerns. Social media can be quite helpful in this regard. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are great avenues for collecting customer feedback.

One effective way to acquire feedback is through incentivization. Offer benefits to customers who respond to your surveys and participate in the overall process.

Develop the strategy

Now, compare your own evaluation with the feedback received from the customers. Were there things that both of you agreed on? Well, if you did, those are obviously your core strengths. These qualities are obviously what set you apart from your competitors and what make customers prefer you.

In other words, the qualities that you and your customers deem as strengths are your USP. So, start working on those qualities even more and improving them.

Also, look at your strong qualities in relation to your overall goals. This will help you develop a strategy that is in line with your strategic goals. Also, make sure the personality of your business is retained and in harmony.

Connect

Branding is also about creating robust relationships with your consumers. This will help you retain a loyal customer base and also turn them into advocates for your brand. So, take the time to get to know your customers. Make sure your employees are trained to understand and know their customers in an in-depth manner.

When you take the time to know your customers, it becomes much easier to understand their need. This, in turn, helps you serve them better. Needless to say, the end result is a happy and satisfied customer.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a business is to think that your customers are simply revenue generators. Smart businesses are those that treat their customers as assets, developing intimate relationships with them. Though this doesn’t work for every customer persona, it does for most.

So, start working on clever and creative ideas. Consider providing personalized experiences.

Communicate the brand

Once you have a rough idea of what you stand for as a brand, communicate it. Your clients and customers need to know what the message is. There are several ways in which this happens. You can communicate through direct interaction or via advertising and marketing.

However, do make sure that your brand image and messages remain consistent across the chain of interaction. Consistency is key in the world of brand implementation. So, a branding strategy that is focused on the consistent representation of your business’s top qualities can play a pivotal role in altering or shaping the public perception of the brand.

Establish guidelines

Speaking of consistency, having a set of guidelines to refer to can be quite helpful. In general, small businesses find guidelines or style guides of any kind to be an alien concept. However, successful branding requires guidelines.

A clear set of rules can help you maintain a certain amount of order and uniformity. On the other hand, not having guidelines can lead to chaos. It’s easy to go off the rails and lose your original identity when you have nothing to instruct you.

As you can see, branding isn’t an overnight task. It requires a certain amount of confidence and a thorough understanding of your business. For more expert branding advice, get in touch with Crafted.