10 Ways Building a Strong Brand Boosts Your Small Business Revenue
Building a strong brand is essential for small businesses looking to increase their revenue. With ever-growing competition, I am going to make a bold statement.
Building a Brand and professional-level graphic design work is a requirement for any business that wants to grow past a side hustle or paid hobby.
Your business needs revenue. You need to show people why they should work with you instead of the competition. Your brand is like a secret weapon to the game of business. Below, I reveal the 10 Ways that Branding can make you more money in your business.
Let’s go.
The Process of Building Your Brand and Visual Identity Help Your Business:
Talk to the People that need your Services or Products -
Messaging is so important. Let’s not beat a dead horse, but this can not be said enough. Developing how your tone and style are part of your brand. Having engaging messaging that invites customers to build trust and get to know your business. This results in messaging that converts more leads to customers.
Identify with Your Clients -
Your products and services are NOT meant for everyone. They may help a large group of people but while you are small there is no way to attract everyone. Through research, testing, and decision making you get to create a product or service to solve a problem for a particular person or audience! Match your customer’s expectations with the perception your brand builds. If you want to charge high prices, you need to show and create high value, high quality, or exclusivity. Not only in the quality of the actual products but how it’s presented and represented with visual aids. This is your brand, logo, packaging, and the tone of your messaging.
Attract Customers -
Unprofessional and poorly done logos and visual identities don’t give your company value. Would you give more initial trust to a business that looks put together well or one that looks like a train wreck in all of its marketing? Who would you pick up the phone and call to help you with your problem? A DIY disaster will cost you customers and hurt your business.
Be Memorable -
You remember the people that walk into the room that carry themselves with ease. The ones that are comfortable and confident in themselves. The same is true with a business. You want to do business with companies you admire. Don’t be generic and don’t use templates unless you can make them look truly your own. Being a copycat has never gotten you the recognition or attention you want.
Be Consistent -
Consistency in your visual appearance, your branding is how a business is remembered. Let people get to know you and feel stability. That’s how you’ll build trust. Your brand colors, fonts, logo, spacing and formatting, style of photography, and style of icons should all be repeated throughout your marketing. Be consistent in how you talk about your business and services. Confusion will kill your sales.
Create Great Interactions with Current and Past Clients -
People want fair, honest, and positive treatment. Customers want their problems solved. Building your reputation becomes part of your brand. The perception of your business will glow if your customers love to work with you. They will refer others. This creates loyalty.
Charge More for Services or Products -
Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean by this. Would you pay more for a Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, Bugatti, or Lamborghini? They are all part of the same company. It’s a guarantee that Volkswagen parts make it into all those cars. Yet, you’d never buy a $2.6 Million dollar Volkswagen, but a $2.6 Million dollar Bugatti may be your dream.
Build a Community of Advocates -
When people respect your brand, it becomes the topic of conversation. Even if everyone does not become a client, building a community that supports your mission is valuable. It will improve your bottom line. This doesn’t even have to be on a large scale. People talking in your circle or community is where it all starts. This can be challenging to get going but it’s worth the effort.
Build Partnerships and Collaborations -
Productive partnerships and collaborations can lead to more revenue for your business. Your product or service could be the key to getting more leads to your partner or vice versa. To be effective and strong you have to have a brand that complements your partners in some way. Identifying those ways is key and will create the most benefit.
Stop Competing on Price -
Shopping on Amazon is a great example of why branding is important. With hundreds of very similar products on Amazon, shopping there can be challenging and overwhelming. They all look similar and none of them stick out. Sellers are putting up unbranded products and basically selling off-price or how well they can write a description of the features. Branding will help you show your value in other ways. For example, great customer service, your respect for the environment, or how your business supports your family, the community, or a worthwhile cause.
That’s the list! Branding is powerful, more emotionally powerful than most non-marketers realize. I want you to harness that power!
I do not suggest you got down the road of building a brand by yourself with Google and You-Tube as your partner. Yes, research and learn; but hiring or consulting with a professional is your best route to success. Denying the power of Branding is like pretending the sun doesn’t rise and set in the same place.
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Written by: Heather Marine
Heather Marine is a professionally trained graphic designer and the owner of Elephant Mountain Creative, a marketing agency focused on small businesses and entrepreneurs. She has supported small businesses for over 17 years with strategy, branding, website development, and design.