A Small Business Guide to Branding

Branding is the life and color of your business — it lets consumers know what your company is about and what they can expect from you. Small businesses often overlook branding as a secondary part of their operations.

However, branding is one of the most fundamental foundations for small businesses. Let's take a look at what makes branding so important alongside some best branding practices for small businesses.

What Is Branding?

Many people believe that branding is a new idea. However, its roots may be traced back thousands of years to when farmers would brand their cattle to distinguish them from other animals. Since then, the concept of branding has undergone some obvious changes. 

Contemporary branding is more than just a name, logo, and slogan — it's every piece of media your company produces and how customers interface with your business. Having good branding improves the consumer experience, helps you reach your target market, and makes you stand out from competitors.

Best Practices for Branding

Be Clear

Businesses should use value-driven and purpose-led branding to create a coherent representation of what the company stands for. By doing so, you will establish how your brand is seen in the marketplace and why your target market should care. If done well, branding will create real connections between the company and customers. Once the brand has a clear and relevant stance, it can be applied to all brand materials shared externally and internally.

Be Consistent

Branding should be consistent across all forms of internal and external media. Any variations in branding might confuse your target market, limiting your chances of interacting with them. Furthermore, you may be undermining staff morale by sending mixed messages about your brand, which may lead to mistrust. These risks should not be taken lightly, so striving for consistent branding across the board is an important best practice to follow.

Utilize the Psychology of Colors 

Certain colors may affect mood and state of mind. Many businesses are already using associations with colors to their advantage. Brands seeking to emphasize their environmental-friendliness often use green branding. Also, is it an accident that so many fast food chains use red?

Start by figuring out what message you want your brand to convey, and then find out which colors can best help with this.

Choose Meaningful Brand Images

To develop emotional connections to your brand, choose an image strategy that's tied to your brand's standards. The visuals should not only match the brand positioning, but they should also be high-quality and high-resolution graphics. Take customized photographs for your brand assets and commercials.

Consider Hiring Professionals To Help With Branding

Branding can be a big job, and there's no reason for you to do it alone. You might be able to DIY for some things, like coming up with general concepts, themes, or even building your own WordPress site. However, you might want to hire professionals to bring all of your ideas to life.

When hiring web designers, marketers, and branding professionals to help with your branding strategy, you may want to convert JPG to PDF online when sharing files, as compressing them can degrade the quality. 

If you benefit from discussing topics like this, consider joining your local chamber of commerce.