How to Build Your Brand Online and In the Real World

Starting a small business and maintaining it in the real world requires some marketing savvy.

While many entrepreneurs are not necessarily trained in the rigors of professional marketing, and many can’t afford a full-on advertising effort to help build the business, there are some low-cost online strategies out there to build your brand. If you’re searching for tips, here are some great ideas to get you started. 

Getting Started with Online Brand Building

The goal of brand building is simple; it’s to create awareness about your business by using online, or digital, marketing techniques. Digital marketing is an online effort to attract customers and build name recognition and interest in your products and services. The goal is to share the unique value of why your service offering is important to your target audience. 

While that may sound good, understanding where to start may be the most difficult part of digital marketing. If you’re feeling stuck, consider what your competitors are doing by asking yourself these questions:

• • How and what are your competitors marketing? 
  • What kinds of messages are they using? 
  • Do they seem to have the same audience that you’re targeting? 
  • For that matter, who is your target audience? 
  • What is the age, gender, socioeconomic, or other characteristics of your potential customers?
  • How does your product or service fill a need or want that they have?

Answer all of these questions before you even consider online brand building.

Tips for Digital Marketing Your Small Business

As you’re thinking about building your brand online, consider that the messaging you use there should be consistent with your storefront, any print marketing materials, and certainly on your website. Your advertising should remain consistent with colors, designs, and messaging in a continuous flow out to potential customers. The goal is for your audience to begin to recognize and grow comfortable with your company and the products you’re selling. 

 
Once you have the basics of a brand established, you’re ready to set up a strong online presence. Start with three low-cost but effective online marketing strategies:

• • Your website is often the first-place customers encounter your brand. Take the time to ensure the customer experience is a good one on your site. This can be complicated, but today there are many online web hosting and web site commercial companies that are low cost and easy to use. Just make sure your design fits with the overall theme of your business and the website does a nice job of telling your story in a compelling way.
    (Tip: Advertise your website on all your marketing materials to get more traffic.)
  • Content marketing, which is the creation of online video, blogs, or other written materials to attract customers, is important. Taking time to create a blog on your website will improve your SEO (search engine optimization).The goal is to have original content that attracts customers while making it easier for them to find you in a Google search.
    (Tip: If you’re a house painter, create a 5-minute video on how to prep walls before painting.)
  • Finally, concentrate on social media to build your brand. Set up a Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn page (or a combination of social media sources) and start to build a following by posting details of what’s going on with your business.
    (Tip: If you have a bakery, post pictures of your cupcakes on your social media page.)

Starting a small business and marketing your brand can be challenging. While we’ve covered the low-cost basics, marketing is one area where spending money really does pay off in sales. That’s where Benetrends can help. We offer our expertise in small business funding to help companies like yours launch and sustain growth.

To find out more, download Innovative Funding Strategies For Entrepreneurs.