Small businesses across the United States and beyond face huge competition – so it’s never been more important to have a recognizable brand. Branding is more than just a specific color or logo, but it’s your personality, your ethos, and what you represent, too. All elements of your messaging, including any written communication like emails, newsletters, website copy, and more, will relate to your brand.
We all recognize the Apple logo, the Nike tick, or the Google colors. That’s their branding! And we know when we see an element of their brand on a TV show, online, or in a magazine, that it’s a product we can trust and buy from. However, branding isn’t just for the big businesses in the world. It’s important for small ones, too. In fact, it takes only 0.05 seconds for someone to form an opinion on a brand online. Therefore you want to make it true to you and make it right for your business. And then, you want it to be clear in every element of your business.
For example, my brand is clear across my website and my messaging. I make sure that every piece of work I put out onto the internet, or somewhere that a potential client or customer can see my business, is representative of my brand. That way, if someone sees my logo, or comes across a blog online, they can instantly connect with my messaging, my personality, and my brand.
5 Reasons Branding is Important
Branding is crucial to get right, particularly for small businesses in a hugely populated market. While there’s room for everyone in the online world, you must be able to stand out and create your own space. But, I want to explain how and why branding is important for your business so that you can elevate your company to new heights in 2022. This blog will explore the five reasons why branding is important for your small business.
1. Stand Out From Competitors
One of the main ways you can separate yourself from your competition is through branding. That’s because of the whole process behind creating the brand itself: who your ideal client is, what your niche market will be, and who you want to work with. It’s important to distinguish who you are and what your business is through your brand. And this can be through everything, from the type of color palette you use to the font, to the way you communicate to your audience! You want your brand to be memorable and to remain clear in your audience’s eye. In fact, by using a signature color in your branding, you can increase your brand recognition by 80%. So, if you are in a particularly busy market and you’re wanting to stand out from the crowd, it might be wise to invest in your branding.
2. Attract Your Ideal Clients
As I’ve already mentioned, a really important aspect of branding is to attract your ideal clients. You’ll work all this out during the process of the branding itself. Certain questions that you can ask yourself while trying to work out your ideal client include:
- Who do you want to attract?
- What are their goals and values?
- What are your ideal client’s pain points?
- Why would they want to work with you?
- What are their ambitions?
By working out your ideal client, and more importantly, who you serve, you can begin to truly understand your brand and what you want it to be. Your brand will resonate with your ideal client – they’ll see their own vision, questions, and goals within your messaging, colors, and any media you put out into the world. Your brand will really help you connect with who you want to work with, which will be phenomenal for your business growth.
3. You’ll Have Consistency Online
I cannot underestimate the importance of consistency online. Brand consistency is ensuring that your brand values, image, and messaging are the same across every channel you have relating back to you and your company. Consistent presentation of your brand is known to increase business revenue by up to 33%. This is because your ideal client could come across your brand anywhere: from a magazine, an Instagram post, a newsletter, a referral, or somewhere else. So, you want to make sure that if and when your ideal client comes across your brand, their customer journey is one of consistency and recognition all the way through. Plus, if you are able to create a consistent brand presence online, your ideal client will be able to trust your brand a lot more.
There’s a truth that being reliable and showing up online will generate trust with your audience, which may cause them to make a purchase from you. We’ll go into this more later.
4. Recognition For Your Business
This draws upon what I wrote about earlier with the recognizable Apple, Nike, and Google logos. Similarly, we could look at McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Pepsi, for example. You want your business to be instantly recognizable: a strong logo and brand will do exactly that.
It’s my goal that when people stumble across my brand online, they know what I stand for as a business. My hope is that my ideal client will come across one of my many methods of messaging, feel a connection, and, if they don’t reach out right away, they’ll remember my brand. Then, if they come across it another time, or if it’s stuck in their mind, there’ll be recognition for my business.
Sometimes a client won’t see your site and make a purchase right away. But, if you keep being consistent with your messaging, and if your brand is true to what you want to represent as a small business, there is a strong possibility that they will come back. That’s how important it is to create a strong brand foundation to gain recognition for your business.
5. Gain Trust From an Online Audience
We touched upon this earlier, but I want to deep-dive into it now. This is because trust from an online audience is so important for your overall brand growth. In fact, consumers buy a product based on trust. A report by Edelman in 2019 states that 81% of consumers said that they need to be able to trust a brand to buy from them. It’s becoming increasingly important in an ever-growing online market that it’s not just about the end product anymore. It’s about the overall client journey, and this begins long before a purchase is made. A client’s journey is not often a quick one, but instead will be a long pathway that requires you to be consistent, reliable, and authentic in every single message you put out into the world. So, when considering your branding, ask yourself these questions:
- What kind of messaging do you want to put out into the world?
- What are you representing?
- Who do you serve?
- Are you being authentic in your brand?
These questions should help you work out how you want your brand to be. And, in the long run, it’ll gain you customers that don’t just purchase once – but instead, long-standing, loyal customers that’ll be with you for years.
Branding is vital for small businesses. In fact, as the online market continues to grow, it’s never been more critical to get your brand right. From the color palette to messaging, logo to tone, everything you put out into the world will represent your company and what you stand for. If your goal is to have long-standing and loyal customers and be able to attract your ideal client consistently during your time in business, then it’s time to invest in your business.
If you are ready to invest in your own business and make a decision that’ll benefit your own economic and brand growth for years to come, then I’d love to have a chat! I’m proud to say that Steph Corrigan Design works on strategic branding for small businesses, and we’d love to support you in reaching your goals. Click here to learn more about our signature branding and web design experience.
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