As a small business owner trying to gain more visibility, adopting a strategy for your branding is essential in scaling up your productivity and profitability.

If you’re concerned that you need a huge budget to get your branding on point, don’t worry: we have you covered. Head to our previous post discussing branding your small business on a budget.

This piece will cover the basic but important aspects that you need to focus on when branding your small business. 

5 Tips to Launch Your Small Business Brand 

Establish a look and feel

As you start to build a brand identity, it is crucial to consider how your brand will look to your customers, and the feelings that you want your brand to evoke.

Try starting here…

• Describe your business in three words
• State your unique value proposition or what you are known for
• Explain your business’s values and core mission
• Define your business goals and the difference you hope to make in the industry

Providing clear answers to the above will help you establish your brand’s look and feel, and decide on the emotions that you want to evoke. Once you’re clear on these messages, they can be infused into your branding for uniqueness and authenticity.

Develop your brand identity – Colors, Logo, Fonts, Brand Guidelines

Once you’ve established your brand’s identity and the feelings that you want to be associated with it, it is time to put a visual stamp on that identity. 

To do this, you’ll need to focus on the following.

• Brand Colors – The color is the first thing people notice about your brand, making it integral to your brand recognition. The colors you settle for should align with the feelings and emotions you have identified with your business, as colors can trigger emotions.
• Logo – The logo is a pictorial representation of your brand, and just like your brand colors, it is an important part of your brand identity. Your logo is the design that will act as a base for all other visual assets for your business.
• Fonts – Choose the fonts to be associated with your brand, and make sure that you use them consistently across all channels and messaging.
• Brand Guidelines – The brand guidelines brings together all the assets that make up your brand identity in one cohesive piece. The goal is to ensure that your visual assets are utilized effectively and professionally in all contexts.

A great brand identity will increase your brand’s value, promote consistency, and help your brand to look professional across all channels.

Roll Out Brand Materials with your Creative Assets

Get everyone on board with your creative assets and brand identity. Even if you are a small company, everyone on your team needs to understand your brand’s mission and identity. 

Brand the following materials with your visual assets to further cement your brand identity.

• Internal Materials – Create/recreate your employee handbook, mission statement, training materials, memo/newsletter template, etc.
• External Materials – Update external business materials such as eBooks, proposals, pitch decks, company brochures, and company newsletters in accordance with your new brand identity.

Choose a Brand Tone and Voice

How your brand communicates with your target audience is just as important as the effort you put into coming up with the creatives for your brand identity. Depending on your brand’s values and identity, you can choose to be professional, cheerful, assertive, quirky, fun, or a mixture of any of these. 

The brand’s tone and voice should be used in all content you put out, as it is one of the ways to build a unique personality for your brand that your audience can identify with and engage with. 

Develop Content and Verbiage for your Website

Your brand’s website is your shop window that introduces your business to your target audience and potential customers. A brand website helps you to establish what your brand does, what it stands for, and why you are different from others in your industry.

Your brand identity should shine through on your website, and your brand’s tone of voice should be clear and consistent.  

Implementing these essential tips will help you to perfect your small business brand’s identity in no time. And once you’re all set with your brand identity, you can start to focus on other aspects of your business. 

Take the branding tips mentioned above to create your own Brand Kit with Benchmark Email. Your brand kit ensures your emails look on-point and aligned with your branding. Sign up for a free account and build your Brand Kit today.