Your brand is the sum total of people’s perception of your company’s reputation, customer service, logo, and advertising. When all of these parts are working well together, it shows your brand or business is a healthy one.
However, when most people hear of branding, they think of the big guys like Facebook, Apple, or Ford. But even if these big, international companies operate represents massive brands, the same brand recognition seen in them can also be achieved on a local scale by your small business.
Branding is important to all types of business today, regardless of its size or form. From helping to set business out from the crowd to keeping employees motivated, the importance of branding cannot be overemphasized for small businesses. If you have not been thinking of branding for your small business, perhaps it’s time you have a re-think.
Why Branding Matters to your Small Business?
1. Branding defines who you are
Branding is important for small businesses because that is what shapes people’s perception of them. It is what people think about your business any time they remember it. Since it is a great way to build your company’s reputation, why not invest in it.
Make your brand identity clear enough for all to see. Let your mission statement clear enough so that when your prospective customers or clients come across it, they can easily distinguish your competitors. Consider branding as a way of giving your target audience a reason to choose your business over others in the marketplace.
2. Branding helps you stand out from the competition
With more businesses in the marketplace today, shoppers now have more options than ever. Therefore, you must find a way of defining yourself and staying different from others. Branding is a perfect way to do that. With your brand, you can tell customers what makes you better than everyone else and why they should choose you over others.
As a small business, taking advantage of the opportunity to stay different is the best option for you. Don’t make your customers dig around to figure out your unique points, make it all clear to them through your branding identity. Let your website and social media profiles clearly state what you can do differently and don’t be afraid to showcase examples of your expertise.
3. Branding helps you build trust with your customers
The truth is that people are more likely to buy from a business that appears legitimate and polished. It doesn’t matter what product or services you provide in your business. Also it doesn’t matter if you starting an ecommerce business or a opining a store in the mall. People want to see that they can really trust you before they can commit to you. The best way to convince them is through branding.
Build a brand for your business and make it look professional all-wise and see how quickly you will gain the trust of your customers. Design a clean and professional logo for your business and make the logo appear on your business cards, staff T-shirt, and your business building.
Anyone who passes by your business and sees the logo and the branding will immediately identify your business as one that can be trusted. If you don’t have a logo for your company yet, this might just be the best time you consider that.
Create your own logo online using online free logo maker tool. This is a trusted tool we can recommend for any type of business. It is free and you don’t need any graphic design skills or experience before you can come up with a stunning logo for your business. There are free templates on the site to help make the job easy for you.
4. Branding helps generate new customers for your small business
There is definitely no better marketing strategy than word-of-mouth referrals. People feel more comfortable patronizing a business if it was recommended to them by a friend or family member. The best way to make sure it is easy for your existing customers to help get your name out there is through branding.
Think of it, how can they recommend and tell their friends about your business if they can’t remember the brand? Therefore, build a strong brand for your business, starting from your logo, and see how easily new customers will pour into your business.
5. Branding helps add value to your company
Regardless of what products you sell or services rendered in your company, the truth is they all have life cycles. While your product or services may not last forever, your brand will. So investing in building a strong brand for your business now means setting up the business for success for years to come.
Take time to implement your brand into your workplace culture, website design, social media profiles, community outreach, and customer interactions. It is a smart way of making your business remain in the minds of people for a long time.
6. Branding helps keep employees motivated
While any company can hire employees, only a reputable brand can employ motivated employees that will help ensure the vision of the company is realized. When you have a strong brand, it daily motivates your employees and hence increases productivity in the workplace. The attitude of your employees is a direct reflection of what your brand is.
How Colour Impacts On Your Brand Identity?
Brand identity includes core elements like brand marks, logotype, illustrations, typography, tagline, and brand colour. However, many companies today have totally overlooked the role of colour in their branding. And that is most times the cause of their brand-building failure.
So in this article, we will be looking at some unique ways your brand colour might be impacting on your brand identity.
Unique Ways Color Impacts on Brand Identity
1. Impact on sales and conversion
There are some colors like red or green that are often used in branding to create urgency or approval to continue with a task. Most businesses use red color on their website to announce flash sales. That will send a sense of urgency to buyers to buy right away so they don’t miss out on the discount deal.
Choosing the right color for your brand can help increase sales and conversion tremendously. So make sure you understand what each color means in branding before you use them for your brand identity.
2. Impact on sustainability
The truth is that some colors are seasonal. There are times that some shade of color will be the best deal for a season and all brands will be rushing to use it in their marketing communication. But the best thing is that you choose a color that will be relevant in all seasons. You need to think of continuity when choosing your brand color.
There will be times you might need to change your logo design. Choosing a seasonal brand color from the start may make that difficult. For example, when Coca-Cola was making changes to its logo design, there wasn’t an issue with its red color. It remained relevant to their customers. When there is consistency in your brand color, it becomes easier for your audience to trust and depend on your brand.
Nevertheless, if you also fall into the category of business owners that aren’t sure which color to go for, this tip will help. Take a look at some logos in your industry for inspiration.
Understand color fundamentals
Understanding color fundamentals is also very important. While trends could change, color fundamentals don’t. So before you choose colors for your company logo, see below color fundamentals for ideas.
- Monochromatic color schemes
This color scheme uses color variations with the same hue origin. When you choose a particular color for your logo, you can more variation of the same color to have some more colors. For instance, you can add white to tint the color or black to create a shade of the color. Some logos that use monochromatic color schemes include Oreo, Animal Planet, and Willy Wonka Candy Co.
- Primary color schemes
We all know the primary colors; blue, red, and yellow. They are the basis of all other colors. You can make a slight shift from the norm by adding white to these bright hues. Check the Burger King and Pepsi logos to see how this was done.
- Secondary and tertiary color schemes
You can also use these two color schemes to create a sense of uniqueness in your logo. In secondary color schemes, two or more primary colors are blended together. And in tertiary color schemes, a primary color is mixed with an adjacent secondary color. An example is creating red-orange from red and orange, yellow-orange from yellow and orange.
- Complementary color schemes
We have some colors that are complementary – they appear better when used together. Have you ever wondered why green and red make the perfect colors for Christmas? It is because the two colors are complimentary. Some more complementary colors are yellow and purple, blue and orange, etc. Complimentary colors work well on logos. It has a way of satisfying one’s natural desire for contrast. Mozilla Firefox and Mountain Dew logos are two logos that use this type of color scheme.
Final word
Building a brand for your business is not something super difficult. It is what you can do. So stop trying to put it off. The benefit of branding to small businesses is just too much for any small business owners not to consider. Stop leaving money on the table; build a brand for your small business today go with digital bighit the best digital marketing company in Bareilly!