- Why branding is a critical component of your online business
- Why branding goes beyond logos and ads
- What is the best way to brand your business as established and professional?
Q: Is small business branding as important as it is for larger corporations? How should I create branding for small business?
A: As countless small businesses continue to launch; your small business’s branding is just as important as it is for larger corporations. Branding helps your business stand out among the competition. With a virtual office and well-made branding materials, your brand can better connect with customers, reach new markets, and increase revenue.
Branding for small business is just as important as branding for larger corporations.
Your brand is what separates your business from the competition. The more consumers that can identify your brand, the better.
With countless small businesses starting up and global markets becoming increasingly saturated, your brand is what allows you to separate your business from its competitors and build consumer connections.
Read More: The Importance Of Branding In Business
According to the late branding mastermind, Walter Landor, “Products are made in a factory but brands are created in the mind.”
This means that regardless of the products or services that your business is offering, consumers will create an idea of your brand based on the marketing, logos, advertisements, and narratives that you present to the market.
In this article, we will be discussing why branding is a critical component of any online business, why branding is so much more than simple logos and advertisements, and the best way to brand your business as established, professional, and trustworthy.
Pay close attention to the feelings your brand provokes from customers. Investment genius Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
While the advent of the digital age and the sheer volume of brands vying for attention might have shortened the timespan required to build a brand, the sentiment remains the same. Your branding for small business is the face you present to the market.
- Why branding is a critical component of your online business
- Why branding goes beyond logos and ads
- What is the best way to brand your business as established and professional?
- Business branding with your virtual office
Why branding is crucial for online businesses
Business owners understand that branding is important. They spend time coming up with catchy names and enticing logos, sometimes with exorbitant budgets dedicated to finding material that perfectly encapsulates their business.
They put effort into these things when creating their businesses. But once it’s done, they often forget about it entirely.
They move on, focusing on other elements of their business. While extending your focus to cover all aspects of your business is wise, you shouldn’t do so at the expense of your brand.
Online space
The issue is, as business owners shift to the online space, business branding becomes even more important than it’s always been.
Branding for small business online allows brands to connect with consumers, strengthen brand loyalty, lengthen reach, and drive-up revenue.
Without business branding, your company is relying exclusively on the strength of its products or services, while simultaneously expecting consumers to seek the company out. This is an ineffective way to attract customers.
In the online space, customers or clients have less information to go off. They’re exposed to hundreds of businesses a day, many of which may be unprofessional, poor quality, or even outright scams.
This makes branding critical.
Consumers use a business’s branding to determine its credibility. Since they don’t have much to go off of, every piece of your branding needs to say “professional and trustworthy”.
Preparing for anything
Millions of small businesses were forced to shut their doors in 2020. Primarily due to the pandemic and ensuing shelter-in-place orders, business owners everywhere were reminded just how terrifying times of economic uncertainty are.
Branding for small businesses can create a buffer between your business and economic disaster.
While an impressive brand isn’t enough to get your business through these economic lows, an impressive brand with strong financials and smart operational costs can weather any storm.
Small business marketing helps entrepreneurs build brand loyalty and recognition with consumers in times of economic growth so that when harder times approach, you already have customers that are comfortable giving you their money.
Money becomes very expensive when times are rough, and consumers prefer to purchase from brands whose values they align with.
In fact, pre-existing customers are fifty percent more likely to try any new product offerings that your business might have to offer.
Independently of the efficacy of branding for small business, solely focusing on logos and advertisements isn’t enough to create a well-respected and appreciated brand.
Why logos and ads aren’t enough
While you may turn your attention to your typical branding elements, this is often not enough to win the trust you need to grow your business.
Below, we’ve compiled a list of what makes up branding for small business.
We’ll look at how business owners should make decisions about these aspects without losing sight of the larger narrative that completes the brand.
- Logo
- Slogans
- Mission statements
- Values
- Identity
Logo
When you see an apple with a bite taken out of it, your first inclination is probably to think of Apple and the phones that have become ubiquitous over the past couple of decades.
While the logo itself is concise and clever, without the narrative driven by Apple, that same apple-with-a-bite-out-of-it stencil wouldn’t evoke the same reaction that it does today.
To pick a logo for small business, you must first understand what kind of persona your brand is going to adopt.
Once you know what kind of personality you’d like to showcase, check out your competition, try a lot of different styles, and choose colors that work with each other rather than against each other.
If you’re working with a graphic designer, go over this information with them and start mocking up some designs. Take constructive criticism to heart and create a logo that helps your brand stand out among its competition.
Slogans
When consumers think of Nike footwear, the phrase “Just do it.” is never too far removed from their minds.
Within branding for small business, a slogan is an easily remembered aphorism that’s associated with a particular business. Think of your slogan as your brand’s catchphrase.
Although a melodic jingle might captivate audiences and get stuck in the heads of consumers everywhere, that unforgettable nature isn’t enough to carry an entire business.
In Nike’s case, “Just do it.” speaks to the greater ethos of the company. For a company that sells sporting equipment, sneakers, and other items that active individuals value, “just do it” acts almost as a call to arms for loyal customers.
An effective slogan is catchy, fun to hear and say, and represents your business.
Mission statements
Because mission statements are typically longer and more detailed than slogans or logos, it’s not as common for consumers to identify brands solely on the mission statements they stand by.
Despite this longer form, mission statements in branding for small business communicate a company’s cause, long-term goals, and showcase values for customers to align with.
The lack of memorable mission statements should make it fairly clear that mission statements aren’t enough to build a brand on. Mission statements are better used to align current customers with your brand’s values.
To create an effective mission statement, you’ll want to remember that less is more. You’re not writing a dissertation, so clearly state what your business hopes to do in the long term without being verbose.
Remember, if your first mission statement is a dud – you can always just write a new one.
Values
While values might be presented within a business’s mission statement, a brand’s values themselves are completely separate from a mission statement designed to build customer loyalty.
Chick-fil-a, the fast-food chicken restaurant, is one of the only fast-food stores that is closed every Sunday. Despite the commercials typically showing funny cows trying to dissuade consumers from eating beef, one visit to a Chick-fil-a location will make it incredibly clear that the business likely has some fundamental Christian values.
While values alone can’t run a business, sharing values with consumers is an outstanding way to build brand loyalty and recognition.
When it comes to determining your brand’s values, simply think about the values that you as a person have. Similarly, think about your target market’s values, if these are close to your own for you to claim without sounding disingenuous, do so.
Identity
Your business’s identity is the total of the above aspects of branding for small business.
While your logo might act as your business’s face and your slogan might act as your business’s voice, your brand’s identity is the complete picture. Some marketing for small business ideas that showcase your identity could be registering appropriate trademarks or advertising your brand on product packaging.
If part of your brand’s identity is unique or identifiable and you are registering a trademark for small business, it’s better to file for copyright protection sooner rather than later.
Creating an effective brand identity is as simple as taking a comprehensive look at your business, determining how the visible and foundational parts of your operations coalesce, and deciding what kind of image you’d like to present to the market.
Remember, anyone willing to pay a content writer or graphic designer can create professional logos and written copy for their business. Unfortunately, many scammers or low-quality businesses do just that.
With so many online small business marketing initiatives, consumers are increasingly skeptical of businesses that only have logos and advertisements to offer.
Read more: Direct Competitors Are Your Key to Winning New Markets – Here’s How
While your logo, polished website, and advertisements are all important first impressions, your customers will likely do some snooping before committing to a purchase.
That’s why it’s so important to use the virtual tools at your disposal to set your business apart from the competition.
How to set yourself apart when branding your online business
If you want your branding for small business to lead to continued success, you need to set yourself apart from your competition.
Distancing your business from scams and low-quality businesses
The first step in setting your business apart is making a clear distinction between your business and the numerous scam businesses all over the internet. The major differentiator when consumers start digging around is your business location.
Scam businesses won’t register their businesses with prestigious locations, as they simply don’t want to commit and aren’t interested in setting up a truly professional business. One of the most obvious signs of a scam business is an unwillingness to make long-term commitments.
Many scam businesses will either register with a residential address or, more commonly, with a PO box. When a potential customer looks up the business address, they’ll see that it’s nothing more than a mail center.
One of the most irritating aspects of scam businesses is that even if your business has virtually nothing to do with any scams, potential customers are infinitely less willing to use companies they aren’t familiar with after being taken for their money.
Additionally, with scams continuing to rise, more and more consumers are being affected by bad actors in the online space.
Read more: Consumers lost $5.8 billion to fraud last year – 70% over 2020
While not every business registered with a PO box is fraudulent, it’s often enough to dissuade potential customers from making a purchase. Additionally, some states won’t even allow the registration of an LLC with a PO box listed as the business address.
Utilizing a virtual office
A Virtual Office from Alliance is your key to differentiating your business and creating a strong, professional brand image.
Along with traditional branding for small business, Virtual Offices give your business a prestigious office location that you can promote to remind customers that you’re legitimate.
With locations across the country, you can set your business up wherever works best for your branding. This shows your customers that you’re a serious, established business, giving them the reassurance they need to support you as you scale your operations.
If you’re running a financial services business in Oklahoma and using a PO box as a business address then regardless of how efficient you are, the business using a Virtual Office address in upper Manhattan will always make a better first impression on consumers.
One of the biggest benefits to using a Virtual Office with your branding for small business is the ability to use your virtual office’s address for not only your LLC’s registration, but for the branding materials your business uses as well.
Here are some branding for small business tips that you can use to showcase the professional and well-known address you’ve procured through Alliance Virtual Offices.
- Leverage your business’s address in the various local social media groups where your Virtual Office is located
- Make your Virtual Office’s address an integral part of your small business marketing campaigns
- Alliance uses high-quality and recognizable addresses that lend legitimacy to your business. Take advantage of this and use the address in your branding initiatives.
- Connect with entrepreneurs that are currently using the service and appreciate any feedback given
- Consider using a slogan or logo that references your business address
Having the ability to use your Alliance Virtual Offices’s address on your website and social media pages is indispensable.
The cost of leasing traditional office space somewhere like Silicon Valley or the financial district in New York is prohibitively expensive.
Alliance Virtual Offices provides a cost-effective solution and gives business owners access to the same amenities and benefits regularly associated with traditional office space.
Business branding with your virtual office
With so many businesses at the consumer’s fingertips, branding is more important for online businesses than ever.
While traditional branding elements like logos and websites are still important, they aren’t enough on their own.
A Virtual Office from Alliance gives businesses the credibility and professionalism they need to win the market’s trust.
Remember, your brand is the face of your company that is presented to the market. Giving the face of your company a professional address is just another way to legitimize your business.
A Virtual Office in conjunction with effective branding for small business leads to a widely recognized and trusted brand. That said, creating effective branding relies on an intimate knowledge of the company whose brand you’re building.
Without knowing your target market and ideal customer, and clearly defining your values, no amount of branding will be enough to create a brand personality that consumers can connect with.
Although it isn’t enough to keep a business afloat on its own, a strong brand can help small businesses weather an economic downturn, natural disasters, or other events that are usually associated with the closing of smaller businesses.
Think of your brand as a living being. You want that living being to be an individual that consumers relate to.
The more consumers that relate to your brand, the more sales you’ll see.
Familiarize yourself with your brand identity. Understand the message persona you’re hoping to present to the world, determine where your target audience spends the majority of its time, and do everything in your power to connect with customers there.
Further reading
- How to Deliver on Your Brand Promise, Even During Disruption
- The Importance Of Branding In Business
- Direct Competitors Are Your Key to Winning New Markets – Here’s How
- Consumers lost $5.8 billion to fraud last year – up 70% over 2020
Alliance Virtual Offices provides digital solutions for established entrepreneurs as well as new business owners hoping to break into the virtual landscape.
With Alliance Virtual Offices, business owners can leverage the address of their Virtual Office within their branding for small business.
Vigilant scammers and fake businesses have corrupted the digital landscape.
Because of these bad actors, consumers are far more careful when making online purchases, often avoiding businesses they’re unfamiliar with or businesses with shady logistics.
Businesses with unknown addresses or businesses that have registered with PO boxes might not be scams, but the unprofessional business address is enough to dissuade consumers from using their products or services.
Alliance gives entrepreneurs a way to circumvent association with any of these scam businesses. Don’t let your business’s address create a barrier to your ability to form connections with customers.
Branding for small business is just as important as it is for larger companies. While branding alone isn’t enough to keep your business operational, your brand does play a major role in how your business is perceived by consumers.
Alliance offers a variety of digital tools and solutions for growth-focused entrepreneurs. From Virtual Offices to Live Receptionists, Alliance Virtual Offices can help you automate logistics and menial tasks so you can focus on the core operations of your business.
Contact us today to see how a Virtual Office can help provide legitimacy to your business, integrate with your business branding, and save you money on traditional leases.