“As soon as I’m established, I’ll focus on building my brand.”
Sounds familiar?
This is a common mindset among small business owners who are focused on marketing and selling but forget that their organization is both a business and a brand.
While you may feel like you’re preserving time at the juncture, ignoring your brand identity only provokes headaches in the long run.
Foregoing branding signifies your statements may be getting through loud and clear, but produce undesired results and create long-term problems. While it may not appear immediately, the impact of this approach will manifest itself in multiple ways during a short period of time; you’ll get more questions than sales, audiences won’t understand what you’re offering, and the competition will steal your customers.
For small businesses to contend, you must construct and cultivate emotional connections with your audiences through your messaging, marketing, and engagement. Your brand is the most worthwhile asset in your enterprise, and when it is done right, the advantages and ROI are measurable and prompt.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to learn about creating a company identity for your small business.
What is Brand Identity?
From your website’s appearance to your messaging style, building a brand helps your company form a visual presentation to the world. From your mission report and brand values to the sorts of imagery you’ll use to highlight your products or services, these elements are all key parts of your brand identity. A strong company identity produces a cohesive message to your audience and creates confidence.
When you think of small business branding, it’s easy to associate the word with logos or color palettes. However, branding confines much more than that: brand positioning, client background design, promotion campaigns, marketing materials — the list goes on!
Why is a Strong Brand Identity important?
Brand guidelines is crucial because it gives your company a unique persona. Your business becomes an entity that the clients can relate to. Here are five of the most noteworthy ways that you can aid from a strong brand identity:
• Constructs a Personality
Your mind automatically creates particular connections and conjures up some qualities and attributes associated with these ideas. These qualities and traits are what distinguish one notable brand from another not-so-memorable brand.
• Assists in Impacting the Market
Now that you can create a brand essence in the mind of the market, you can influence the market. Notice how we said ‘influence’, and not just be present.
This is only possible when you are sure of what your brand stands for and your vision for the market. A strong brand strategy allows your brand to make a lasting impression on the minds of potential clients. As an upshot, their tendency to buy from you increases too!
• Results in Higher Client Loyalty
This goes without expressing — the stronger your brand identity, the better your probability of retaining your customers.
Take Apple for instance. An Apple user seldom ever considers purchasing an Android. Why?
After all, at the end of the day, both have the same functions at their core.
The dissimilarity is that Apple has a strong essence in the market — you can set a face to it. There are certain assurances of quality that you instantly associate it with.
• Offers a Competitive Edge
Understanding why you engage in the industry that you are in, and translating that reason to the market is no cakewalk. It all cooks up one question— “Why should I purchase from you”?
Think of company visual identity as a response to that question. It’s easy — if you can persuade the market with their ‘Why’s, you might flourish. Although this sounds easy, this is where most organizations fail.
What could be more promising than being on top of your clients’ minds?
Believe it or not, research revealed that 59% of customers purchased a product from a brand they are aware of, while 21% bought a product simply because their favorite brand had brought it out!
• Helps Create Employer Branding
Brand identity is not only about gaining more consumers or clients to buy from you. It is also about baiting the proper kind of talent to work for you. The more reputed your business, the better are your possibilities of attracting more candidates.
Ready to grow your business? Speak to our growth experts and learn how to expand your customer base, drive revenue growth, and optimize your business operations.
