This is a collaborative post
Branding is an effective way to get your business noticed. As a small business, when you level up your branding, you boost your chances of getting sales and growing a community of customers and clients. With so many small businesses popping up, you need to find a way to be different. Here are some ways to modernise your marketing and grow your small business!
Modernise Your Branding Strategy
It could be that your current branding strategy is a little outdated and perhaps was more reliant on a world before the digital one became so prominent. Some marketing and branding efforts might not be as effective as they once were, and while they might still be relevant for use, it’s good to embrace some new methods. With the online world changing so rapidly, it can be hard to keep up with the changes, but it's good to see what is working and what is current. For example, social media is huge and definitely something to not sleep on.
Stay Consistent
Consistency is key when it comes to marketing your business and that includes branding. It takes the average person 5-7 interactions with a business before they come to recognise the brand. That’s a considerable amount of interactions required and not every business has the opportunity to get an individual’s attention that many times.
However, if your brand image and branding stay consistent across the board, then people are most likely to spot you when clicking or passing by.
Think about how your business has been presented both online and offline. Remember, the offline world still exists and still matters when it comes to marketing. Look at where you can tighten the brand’s appearance, whether it’s the colour schemes or even morals. The more consistent you are, the better your brand will do when it comes to competing with all of the other brands out there. And there’s a lot of them!
Build Relationships With Your Customers
Building relationships is something that more businesses need to be proactive in doing. It’s a shame that not enough are looking at the perks that come with customer-centric experiences and the value that customers hold when it comes to longevity within a business.
As part of your brand, it’s good to get your customers involved and to make them feel like they’re part of the company’s growth in general. When you involve customers more closely by giving them an opportunity to express their thoughts and suggestions, you’re more likely to create a more loyal following as a result.
If there’s anything that’s going to level up your branding in 2023, it’s making sure you spend more time fostering growth within your customers. Don’t neglect the influence that they have on your branding and how it’s received when you put new content out there.
Focus On Packaging
Packaging for those businesses that sell physical products is important. For every product you have on the shelf, there may be a dozen or so more that have the same product but in different packaging. Most of us are visually stimulated when it comes to shopping. Whether that’s shopping online or shopping in-store, packaging leaves an impression on the buying decisions we make.
Whether it’s pharmaceutical packaging companies for your healthcare brand to cute and coercive parcel packaging, it’s a creative process that should be utilised. Look at the packaging you’re using when it comes to your physical products and compare these to what is sitting next to them on a shelf or in comparison to other shops online.
Become A Storyteller
Storytelling is a great way to level up your branding efforts as a modern business. Many customers nowadays want personality and a connection with a brand. There’s nothing better than taking your customers on a journey to understand and learn more about your brand.
If you’re looking to capture your audience’s attention, storytelling is definitely a great way to do it. There are plenty of ways to incorporate storytelling into your brand, whether that’s through your website’s ‘about us’ page to the content you share on your social media feeds. Take a look at inspiration online and take a closer look at what your competition is doing to help level up their branding through storyteller marketing.
There are lots of helpful resources online for those looking for storytelling lessons, especially if you’re looking to utilize these efforts in-house.
Provide Value For Customers
Customers deserve as much value as you can give to them. As a brand, there are always ways to improve upon the value that your customers receive.
For example, introducing chatbots and live chat services to your website means customers can get answers to their questions. It could be the difference between them continuing their buyer journey elsewhere or choosing to make a purchase through your site.
It could be offering new opportunities and ways to save money so that they feel like they’re getting more for their buck. Value is something that customers love receiving, so give it to them in bucket loads. Look at what your customers need and what you’re failing to provide them right now.
Build A Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition or USP for short, is what makes your brand stand out from the rest of the crowd. It’s a marketing statement that shows your customers and any potential customers what sets you out from all the competition that they might be looking to buy from.
What makes your product or service better than anyone else’s? Do you have one? If not, then now is the time to revisit your branding and to consider what makes your products or services really shine. When it comes to longevity on the market, you want to ensure you have something that’s going to stick for a long, long time. Remember that your USP needs to be unique to your business and if it’s something that currently doesn’t exist on the market - even better!
Become More Accessible
Accessibility is one of those things that has become incredibly important to focus on as a business, especially as it’s not been given the same energy in years prior.
There are still lots of websites in existence on the search engines that haven’t been adapted for those with access needs. As a brand, to do more when it comes to accessibility is a great green tick for reputation gain. Consider what struggles those with access needs are having when it comes to your branding efforts and look at how these can be fixed. You’ll soon find there’s plenty to get you started.
Focus On Sustainability
Sustainability is something that’s highly important for the world right now. If we’re not making an active effort collectively to be more sustainable and eco-efficient, the world might look very different in the near future.
Therefore, as a brand, look at how sustainability can become your core focus. Look at working with sustainable-friendly suppliers, work and collaborate with other companies that are sustainably-led, etc. You might also want to look at what programs you can get yourself involved with as a business too.
Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Feedback
With branding, it’s important that like all parts of your business, you’re not dismissing any feedback that’s been given. Even if it’s harsh criticism, it’s worth acknowledging because it may identify pain points that your customers are experiencing and need to be communicated.
Feedback can be gathered in many ways, so be proactive in gathering this for your branding efforts this year. From surveys to digging through feedback on your email subscriber list, there’s plenty of data available to make use of. It’ll hopefully make your branding efforts better.
