Many small businesses do not take advantage of the vast amount of opportunities a strong brand offers. You may think that branding is only relevant for large corporations with an international consumer base, such as Apple, or Nike. But this just isn’t true! Branding for small businesses is just as important. Any business can benefit from a strong, online brand presence.

What is branding exactly? Contrary to what many think, it goes much further than just a logo. Your brand is the first interaction a person will have with your business. Branding should be a kind of summary of your brand experience. This includes things like tone of voice, content design and your customer service. The logo is, however, extremely important and can help you determine some of the other pieces of your brand. When developing your small business’ brand, you must also consider color, font, the tone of speech, customer service, and any other aspect that is part of a customer’s experience. Branding should give consumers a look into your brand and what your business is all about without even having to ask questions.

Why is branding for small businesses so important?

#1 Recognition

The most obvious reason is that branding makes your company more recognizable to the public. Having a consistent design throughout your brick and mortar store as well as online, and helps people become familiar with the business they are dealing with.

#2 Trust/Legitimacy

Let’s say you encounter two business on social media. One business seems quite disorganized and all over the place. They don’t have a logo, and it seems like each post was created by a different person. The second has a logo and brand colors featured in each picture, while post style and tone of voice is kept consistent. Which business would you reach out to? The bottom line is, a strong brand elicits trust from consumers and makes your small business feel more legitimate.

While creating a brand voice encompasses a variety of marketing tactics, imagery is a highly important element that can make or break brand trust. One excellent way to remain consistent in creating and curating your brand imagery is to have an all-in-one design app like Instasize. Instasize allows you to quickly edit images on the go, add beautiful typography, create collages, and more!

#3 New Customers

It may seem strange, but branding can actually help you get new customers! Take, for example , the new shirt you just bought. A friend compliments you and asks where you got it from. If there is no brand, how will you tell your friend where and how to get it? Word of mouth recommendations are only possible if a strong brand is in place.

#4 Originality

There are small businesses with similar products at every corner, so what makes your business different? Your brand! Stand out from the competition and develop your brand further than just a logo. Call BusySeed today to determine which characteristics make your business stand out and how to highlight them in your social media strategy.

#5 Emotional connection

An emotional connection with your consumers should be your business’ top priority. After all, “people don’t have relationships with products, they are loyal to brands” (Goodson, 2012). A strong brand loyalty will ensure that customers will always pick your product over another one. Branding helps create an emotional connection in that a brand reflects your company’s deepest values and guidelines. If a person connects with these values on a deeper level, your brand will serve as a constant reminder of this connection.

Wondering how this ties into social media marketing? Your brand should dictate every decision you make while running your business. At BusySeed, we use your brand to help develop the perfect social media marketing strategy that highlights your business’ strengths and attract new customers. After you have decided on your brand’s colors and fonts, they should be present in all of your social media posts, across all platforms. The tone of voice should be kept consistent in the text of your posts, ads, and in response to any comments or reviews on your different social media pages.

Does brand-based social media marketing seem too complicated or time consuming for your business? Let us take over! At BusySeed, we start by developing your brand if you don’t already have one or enhancing the one that you’ve already created. Next, we develop all the content that will appear on your social pages, develop an ads strategy, manage your online reputation, and even build you a new website! Don’t hesitate to contact us today to start developing your small business’ perfect brand and social media marketing strategy!