It is a curious topic -transforming businesses into brands. Being a brand is something more valuable than being a business, and it takes a far more strategic approach. But is it really worth the effort to build a brand?
Brand vs. Business
A business is merely an entity that offers certain goods or services. In all respects it is a soulless entity, devoid of a voice or character, and focuses on the end result. Customers may buy from a business, but they don’t create an “emotional bond” to it. They are reserved for the brand.
Brands are essentially “perceptions” that have been carefully crafted by marketers and strategists and encourage customers to equate certain emotions and personality traits to the company.
Importance of Branding for Small Businesses
Branding is more important for small companies than for large companies. The benefits of branding are staggering for small companies with limited budgets rather than large investments and cash flows.
Strategic design and digital activity are the two most important tools in your marketing arsenal that can turn you from an SME into a successful and thriving brand.Here are some strategies and steps to make this change a success.
Digital Transformation Strategies:
1. Your Brand Logo and Other Visuals
A logo is the strongest identifier of a brand. In the digital space, brand strategy becomes even more important for a small business trying to develop its brand strategy. It becomes your identifier, which sets you apart from others in your area. If your logo design is representative of a long-range, strategic goal, employees can participate and understand the brand message it expresses.
In properly update your company’s logo, it must be reorganized (to fit various digital platform specifications) and, in some cases, completely re-imagined.
2. Consult an Expert
If the rebranding seems like too much of an undertaking, don’t feel overwhelmed. You are not alone, many SMEs (33%) are far from digitization because they do not know how to do it and do not have the budget to hire in house digital / IT marketing specialists.
The good news is that there are many design and marketing agencies that provide consulting services for a fee that can support your digital transformation and digital marketing needs.
3. Design a Website
For small businesses, investing in a website can be a difference between success and failure. A website is your digital store, which is always open. It works and gives to its customers even when you sleep, on vacation or with friends and family. It works tirelessly and intelligently. It provides you with important data, generates leads for you, and ensures that your small business budget can be expensive, but the benefit eliminates all costs.
The strategic design of a website is an extension of your brand, which is always associated with the brand and communicates your brand’s message from each page to each interaction point and is presented in the color, font, design and even navigation of your website.
4. Set Up Company Social Media Profiles
Once you create your website, start a thoughtful ad campaign, and regularly publish to your blog, it’s time to get involved in the area where all the conversations take place -social media.
For most of the consumer market (Millennials and Generation Z) social media platforms are their second home. To reach them, you must market where they tend to spend their time. According to 82% of marketers who work with small businesses, social media is the most important aspect of their business.
So, do some data mining and prioritize the social media channels where most of your target audience is hanging out. Then define your social network profile based on the information in the data. The most popular social media channels for most market segments are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter and each one’s target demographic is different and used for different purposes by its audience.
5. Start Email Marketing
To make the most of your digital transformation and consolidate your brand message, you must use email marketing to reach parts of your target market that you may not have reached before.
According to statistics, 81% of small businesses successfully trust email as their primary customer channel. 80% of SMEs use email marketing to retain existing customers and see them as the main driver for these two purposes.
So, there you have what turns a small business into a successful, thriving brand. It’s not too simple or complicated.There are experts available who can iron-out the most complex areas of it for you.
At Dynamic Marketing Consultants, we have a team of marketing experts who have the tools to handle these efforts while you manage your business growth. If you’re ready to set your business up for success, please reach out today to get started.
