6 Ways Strong Branding Can Help Your Small Business Grow Faster

When starting and growing a small business, every owner must juggle many goals. However, not all objectives are equally important.

Nonetheless, some objectives are necessary for establishing a successful and long-term business.

Building a strong visual identity and brand should be one of your top priorities. The best way to do so is to constantly improve your company's branding. Here are six ways that effective branding can help your small business grow faster.

1. Consumers increasingly see brands as interchangeable.

It's a common misconception that well-known and beloved brands must commit major blunders before most customers give up and do business with competitors.

However, according to the findings of a recent study, this is not always the case. According to the study, 75% of brands could disappear overnight, and the majority of people would not mind or would quickly find alternatives. According to the study, 71% of respondents are not confident that brands will keep their promises. Only 34% of those polled believed brands were honest about their commitments and promises.

There is no quick way to persuade customers that your company provides products or experiences that they will not find elsewhere. You can, however, start by being consistent. Most people prefer what they know, so going to a new business is a risk.

Examine your branding to see what you can do to help people have positive experiences with every company interaction. That could imply training your employees to greet each new customer within two minutes of entering a store or responding to support tickets within a few hours. It could also imply that you redesign your company's website to make it easier for customers to find what they need.

It's unrealistic to expect people to buy whatever you sell rather than another company. Creating a great customer experience and strong branding will increase brand equity and make prospective customers less likely to look elsewhere.

2. Email marketing benefits from good branding.

When you consider ways to strengthen your brand, many of the options that come to mind are likely to be costly. Such costs are understandably prohibitive for those who own or operate small businesses. Keep in mind, however, that some efforts to strengthen your brand are free or low-cost.

According to one global survey of marketers and small business owners, 82% of them used customized email signatures to increase brand awareness. That makes sense given that 61% of people working for small businesses said they send at least ten emails per day during the study.

However, it is critical to include the information in an email signature so that people can learn about your brand as easily as possible. According to the study, 98% of email signatures included a company name. Furthermore, 81% included a call-to-action in the email sign-off.

If you don't have a business-related email signature, there's no better time than now to start. If you have one, examine it for areas for improvement. Is there anything you could do to draw people's attention and keep them interested in certain details?

Using an email signature isn't the only free way to boost your brand. However, you can begin using it right away, perhaps within the next few days.

A branded signature can also convey professionalism and assist customers in associating faces and names with the company. This is especially useful if customers want to know which sales and customer service team members they previously spoke with.

3. Strong branding demonstrates that you understand your target audience.

If you don't have a well-defined brand, a variety of undesirable events can occur. In the worst-case scenario, customers will not understand what you sell or why they should buy from your small business rather than another.

Some businesses attempt to appeal to too many market segments at the same time. In such cases, people are likely to believe they are unsure whether your company meets their needs and desires for a business.

People are more likely to engage with your company for repeat purchases if you know your customers well and operate accordingly. According to one study, 94% of consumers would make more purchases from businesses that they perceive to provide excellent customer service.

You won't have to think long to come up with creative ways to connect your customers' knowledge to their experiences. Perhaps you own a cafe and notice that many people come in with their dogs. In that case, you could:

• Install outdoor fixtures that allow people to secure their dogs' leashes before entering the house.
• Place water bowls outside for easy canine hydration.
• Collaborate with a local pet store to sell dog treats at your cafe's counter.
• Create a special menu item and donate a portion of the proceeds to an animal shelter.
• Increase the number of outside seating options so that pet owners can stay close to their dogs.
• Attach dog-friendly signage to the door and other visible areas.

All of these options demonstrate to dog lovers that you welcome them, and they are unlikely to alienate people who do not own or enjoy dogs. They are also things you can do that will not overshadow your desire to run a cafe.

Improving your branding entails paying attention to what customers want or value and making the necessary changes.

4. Content marketing benefits from improved branding.

This could be the year you double down on content marketing or take it seriously for the first time. According to a recent business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing survey, 80% of marketers used content marketing to increase brand awareness in the previous year.

Create infographics, e-books, and other assets with your company logo in the corner to strengthen your branding with content. However, using content marketing strategically can help your branding efforts in a variety of ways.

According to the same study, 72% of brands built credibility and trust with their audiences. Furthermore, 68% of marketers said that content helped them educate their audiences. People will think you're credible and trustworthy if you share educational materials with them. This will help your brand.

You could make a simple social media graphic that summarizes your company's core values or explains why you decided to start a small business. These strategies help current and prospective customers connect with you.

There are numerous opportunities to expand on that initial piece of content and further develop your brand. Creating a short video to teach people about a specific process is an excellent way to set yourself apart from competitors.

Consider setting goals that are related to your content marketing strategy. This makes it easier to assess overall success. Perhaps you update the company blog twice a week. In that case, a good goal would be to increase post traffic by a certain percentage over a specific time period. Alternatively, if you haven't yet created regular content, your goal might be to figure out a workable schedule for creating and posting it.

Don't be concerned if you don't have time to be active on social media and promote your content. It is simple to find a small business solution that allows you to automate your social media marketing.

5. Customers can find your company online if you have good branding.

According to a Google survey, 41% of shoppers use its search engine to discover new brands. That's a strong reminder to do everything possible to make strong branding visible across online and offline channels.

Perhaps you know from prior research that another company on the other side of the country has a similar name as yours. In that case, it's a good idea to include your location as a differentiator in your social media profiles, website, and other materials.

It's also a good idea to make sure that anything people find about you online has recognizable elements. They could include the company logo, color scheme, font, and tone. This consistency helps people know what to expect from your brand in the future.

Brand elements can also encourage people to refer you to others. Consider a website with a pink polka-dot theme. They could then tell their friends, "You'll know you're in the right place when you see the cute pink dots."

Remember that your company's website or another online channel may be your first opportunity to make an impression on new customers. Look for things like misspelled words or broken links. People are more likely to form favorable opinions of your brand if they come across it on the internet.

6. Brands with a purpose attract attention.

According to a recent Deloitte report, "purpose-driven enterprises" are companies that link their role in society to long-term value. Taking that approach can help to strengthen branding, but it can also backfire.

According to Deloitte's research, nearly one-quarter of respondents strongly agreed that positive and purposeful actions improved their perceptions of brands. Then, 1 in 5 said it influenced their purchasing decisions positively. However, 66% of those polled said they were aware of negative brand actions, and 1 in 4 said they went elsewhere after noticing them.

Deloitte cites the Ella's Kitchen organic baby food brand as an example of a purposeful brand in the study. It wishes to contribute to the development of healthy eating habits that children will maintain as they grow older.

Ella's Kitchen provides resources on healthy eating to parents and caregivers in addition to selling its products. However, employees at the company understand that not everyone can afford to feed their children nutritious foods. Ella's Kitchen has given away hundreds of thousands of food pouches to underprivileged children.

Investigate what your company could do to increase its community impact in genuine and appreciated ways. It's even better if you can tie such efforts back to your brand in some way, as Ella's Kitchen has.

However, the Deloitte report states that the commitment to purpose must be long-term in order for the positive effects to occur. People may perceive the actions as less than genuine if they are not.

Are you prepared to enhance your brand?

These examples provide some of the many reasons why you should focus on branding this year, as well as options for putting the advice into action. Setting relevant goals can assist you and your team in remaining motivated. Prioritizing better branding is another excellent way to build a more memorable brand.

It takes time and effort to improve your company's branding, but it almost always pays off.