Every small business faces tough challenges, from battling the competition to getting their name out there. One aspect that many small businesses get wrong is their branding. It doesn’t matter if you’re Disney, Google, Facebook or a start-up with five employees, if your branding isn’t on-point, you won’t make the impact that you hope for.
When you consider notable brands, you can picture their logo and know exactly what they do. This is achievable with your own branding, and through reading the following tips you can better understand unique ways that your small business can make a huge impact with its branding.
Sponsor Events and/or Teams
One way that small businesses can get their name out there is by sponsoring events or teams that operate in your local area. It’s a superb way of spreading the word about your business and becoming a name of the lips of people in your community.
But more than that, it’s a chance for you to support your community and show that you care about other things than your business. Consider sponsoring a local kids sports team. Maybe the football team you used to play for needs a new kit? Your logo would look pretty great in the middle, and people would certainly take notice.
Create Patches for Your Clothes and Work Gear
You have to think creatively in this day and age, and many businesses are now designing custom goods such as T-shirts, hats and all manner of accessories, and selling them via their websites. They’re also great for handing out as freebies at events, whether as prizes from winning a competition or purely as giveaway goodies to impress your guests.
If you want to discover more cool options, why not consider custom patches for your uniforms, laptop bags or anything else you might like to brand with your company logo. People remember when they’ve seen something cool and interesting, so consider something like clothing patches as a way of creating some subliminal marketing for your brand.
Start a YouTube Channel
YouTube is the third biggest website in the world after Google (who own YouTube) and Facebook and has 1.3 billion people are active users. With numbers like that, it truly pays to have a YouTube channel.
As an extension of your brand, YouTube is a perfect way of posting How-To videos, announce new products and services via ads and animations, and posting videos of any events that you host and film. It’s a fantastic way of boosting your audience in an immediate, fun and engaging way, and you don’t need to be an award-winning filmmaker or Martin Scorsese’s editor to put together and upload videos that make an impact online. The majority of big-name YouTubers grew their audience just by facing the camera and being themselves. The name of the game is to be engaging, post regularly, and give something back to your loyal subscribers in the form of useful and interesting video content.
Launch a Podcast
Podcasts have become hugely popular in the last five years, with most media outlets and topics being covered in some capacity. Launching a podcast could be a great way for you to branch out beyond video content and online blogging, and help people make a connection with your brand by getting to know you via the airwaves.
You can start a podcast via the office by recording on a laptop or smartphone, or hire out a recording booth once a week for a more polished sound. Whether you want to talk about ways of running a small business or something more specific to your type of business, you will soon find an audience and boost your brand significantly.
Research into popular podcasts to find those with a great following, and such examples can serve as a useful guide on how to put together your content in the visual medium.
Get Involved in Fundraising
Everybody has a cause that is close to their heart, whether it be from personal experience, a loved one or simply a charity that you admire runs close to where you live. If you want to give your brand a significant boost, you should consider getting involved in fundraising. This can be in the form of providing services to competitions that charities are running, hosting events run by local charities or taking part in individual fundraising events and posting details and your achievements via your social media pages, they will all have the same effect. They will show you care about the community and important causes, and raise your profile and reputation considerably as a result.
Create Content that is Unique To You
Businesses work around the clock to try and create something that goes ‘viral’ online, and therefore boost their brand, website visitors and online/offline sales as a result. But nobody truly knows how to predict what will go viral, so the best course of action for your small business is to create content that is unique to you.
This way, if it becomes hugely successful and known in your industry, it can be traced back to you and your company will get the credit. The types of content you can create include online adverts/video content, animations, infographics (hugely popular in the marketing industry – people love statistics) and guides in the form of eBooks and blog posts.
People Love a Freebie
Small businesses need to capture information such as email addresses and mobile numbers in order to broaden their horizons and seek out new customers. One way they can do this – and grow their brand reputation at the same time – is to give freebies away via their website in exchange for their information.
Many businesses give branded gifts away such as pens, T-shirts and more, but others chose to give something more substantial like a paperback or eBook of exclusive content not available to anybody else. It could be a How-To guide for small business owners or a book of statistics from your specific industry that you have compiled over years of research and experience.