Small Business Branding – Our Top 10 Tips
Branding is something a lot of small business owners don’t pay much attention to when they start out, but with so many different facets to marketing your company online, it’s important to adopt a cohesive approach.
Here are our top 10 tips for branding your small business online;
- Get a professional logo
Your logo is often the first thing people see when they visit your website or receive an email newsletter from you so it needs to look professional and be memorable for all the right reasons. Your company logo is a huge part of your online and offline branding so it pays to have it designed by a professional rather than trying to do it yourself.
- Get a professional website
It’s all very well having a professional logo, but it’s easy for the rest of your website to let it down due to things like poor quality images, stock photos or a confusing layout. First impressions count online just as they do offline so make sure your website does your business justice.
- Ensure you add a signature to your emails
There are many large organisations that don’t even do this basic online branding. Adding your company logo, links to social media, contact details and web address as a signature to every email you send is good practise and helps to build people’s awareness of your business.
- Choose a good domain name
If you’re just setting up your own small business, it’s important to check that the name you want to use is available online too. Your domain name doesn’t need to describe what you do; a good example of this is Amazon. With so many websites out there, it’s very likely that the descriptive name you want to choose will be taken anyway, so think about building a brand around a name rather than a description.
- Use social media
Using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook can help you build brand recognition if you co-ordinate your profiles with the branding on your website and other online marketing materials. For example you can design custom Twitter backgrounds to keep your image consistent.
- Brand your email newsletters
As a small business you may not have a big budget for sending out email newsletters but there are lots of applications available that allow you to rebrand an existing template and charge you a small amount per email you send. Automating this process through a major provider such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact will give your email newsletters a much more professional feel.
- Forum signatures
If you take part in forum discussions related to your industry or small businesses in general, having a professional forum signature is another key aspect of your online branding you should address because you never know who may be looking.
- Monitoring your online reputation
Online reputation management can play a crucial role in maintaining a positive perception of you and your brand. Try Googling your own name or business name to see what others are saying about you. Online reputation management is the process of monitoring mentions of your name and using a combination of PR, copywriting and SEO to make sure people find positive information when they search for you or your business online.
- Consistency with offline branding
If you’re targeting the same market online as you are offline then it’s important to keep your branding consistent and not give out conflicting images and messages. Many small businesses fall into the trap of approaching these as separate entities and suffer as a result.
- Blogging
Whether you have a company blog or a personal one which mentions your company, you should adopt a consistent tone throughout your communications with existing and potential customers.
Your online branding is as much about what you say and how you say it as it is about appearance.
If you liked this article you may also want to read a beginner’s guide to online reputation management
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