More and more people are setting up their own businesses at the moment. During the current climate, people are beginning to reassess their lives, and wonder if their 9 to 5 job is really what they want to be doing.
So many people have dreamed for years about starting their own business and becoming their own boss.
This is not an impossible dream, and many people are following their hearts and doing what they’ve always wanted to be doing.
One thing you’ll hear about time and time again in relation to business, is building your brand, and having a unique brand. But what does this mean, and how do you do it?
Let’s find out.
Why Build A Brand?
Well, simply put, because having a strong brand will make you memorable.
There are so many websites and brands out there, that it can be difficult to be noticed and remembered unless you make yourself unique.
You need to make your company or business stand out, and make people want to visit your website.
A brand is the ethos behind the company, and also having a logo that is easily recognized so people know they are dealing with a business that they trust and want to buy from or do business with.
Putting Your Brand Out There
Once you have decided on a logo and maybe a tagline, brand everything with it. Your logo can include a tagline, but for things like business cards you should also include contact information and all your social media.
Put your logo on your packaging, your invoices, your newsletter. You can get branded hang tags for clothing, or branded mugs and keyring, even pens to give away to get your logo out there.
The more your brand is seen, the more recognizable you will get, thus bringing more traffic and customers to your website.
Believe In Your Brand
Look at a successful business and the person behind it. Any successful person truly, one hundred percent believes in their business. That passion and belief shines through, which makes customers want to interact.
Be honest about what you value, and what the purpose of your business is. You don’t want to let strangers in on your personal life, but people bond more with brands they feel a personal connection with, so let people know the reasons why you started this particular brand, and what it means to you.
Incorporate bits of your personality into the brand, this makes the person behind the brand (you!) more approachable to the customer, they will feel like they know you, and a personal customer experience is much more attractive than an impersonal one.
Look At Your Competitors
Before even starting your business, you need to know your chosen industry inside out. This will start you on much more solid ground than someone who is just winging it.
Once you know your industry, take a close look at your competitors within it. What are they doing that is the same as everyone else? You want to do something completely different, and better.
If you do business differently, and with more authenticity, than your competitors you will get noticed. Being noticed and standing out from the crowd is exactly what you want.
The Small Things Matter
It is all well and good that you sell the most amazing jeans to ever have been made, that are the most ethical, the best fitting, the longest lasting. But, if you post those jeans to a customer in a plastic post bag, and they arrive wrinkled and scrunched up, the customer will notice this, they won’t feel valued and they probably won’t buy from you again.
You may think that things like this don’t matter, but they absolutely do. Your customer wants to feel like a cherished customer, and you will also be missing out on a chance to build your brand.
Make sure that everything you do makes you stand out and adds to the individuality of your brand. So package your items in a unique, and special way that makes it look as if you care about every single purchase – because you do!
Your social media presence should also be well looked after, that is very important in this day and age, emails should have a response that is unique to your company, and so on and so forth, and don’t forget to add your logo to everything!
Make Your Brand Clear
Your brand should be unmistakable. This is, after all, what you want. You want your brand to be associated with your company and no one else.
It’s very important to be consistent in your branding. It should always be the same, no matter where it is, and it should flow together. So colours and fonts etc should fit together with no jarring juxtapositions.
Therefore, the logo you use should be the same on all social media, but it should also be the same logo that you use on your business cards, and the same that you use on your emails.
Keep It Personal
No matter how big your business grows, customers really love and personal touch to their purchasing experience with you.
Whether that be with an email that is sent and tailored to just them from you, so not a generic mass email, or a handwritten note that goes in with each order, customers really appreciate it.
Another easy way to be in contact with your customers is to interact with them on social media. In this age of smartphones, it is easier than ever to interact with people during your commute for example. This is not to say you should be interacting with every post, that would be impossible and incredibly stressful, but you will soon be known for being an interactive business if you reply to just a few.
These are just a few ideas on how to build your brand and make it unique, believe in your brand, and people will believe in you.
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