Branding on a budget
As someone who's had a fair bit of experience of doing everything in a new business on a budget, I knew from day one how important it was that I started creating my brand before I had the finances to pay an expensive agency any fees.
This meant that while I was still finding my way and fine tuning my strategy, building a brand had to be a priority.
Your brand is so much more than just your logo; your brand is what makes you, you.
While money for campaigns can help to build it, you can't buy a brand, your brand is your business in its most authentic form and is everything that makes you unique. It's your personality.
While marketing to get your services notices is crucial, building your brand is just as important and I thought it might be useful to share with others who are in the same boat a few ways that I've started to build my brand (it can take years and I'm nowhere near where I want to be yet!) on a budget.
1) Know your target market.
This might be super simple but it's often overlooked. If you have a product or service that you believe in, you'll start to talk about it through your sales and marketing literature from your voice. Not right. You need to identify the personality of your target market and work out what it is they want to see, hear and read about.
2) Learn your voice.
Once you have identified your target market which I assume you've done before you've even started, you'll adopt a conversational tone that your audience relate too. This voice will then start to form part of your identify and therefore your brand. Humourous, caring, sarcastic, authoritative - all examples of a tone of brand. Finding and learning your voice is probably one of the most crucial first steps to successfully building our brand.
3) Use social media.
Goodness, I often wonder where we would be without social media, and how lucky we are to have free (for the most part) platforms that are available for us to spread our messages and products, global. Posting on social media is one of the best ways that you can build your brand as it allows you to converse with people and offers a platform for your customer's to have first hand contact with you, this is still a relatively new idea and customer's lap it up. You don't have to post on all social media channels, although you can if you have the time and inclination to do so, but whichever one you choose; post consistently and strategically. Make sure every image post has your logo added to it so that your logo becomes memorable to your followers and you appear in their mind when they have a need for your service.
4) Blog
Blogs are awesome. They serve so many purposes, none more so than building your brand. They are another free platform where you can write in the tone of voice that your audience are looking for and help you create further relationship with your followers. Blogging platforms are free which means the only cost to you to pursue this method of brand building is your time.
5) Be consistent.
If you're building a brand you need to be out there all the time. If you're getting people to know and like your business, it's important that you give them more of what drew them to you in the first place.
6) Create word of mouth marketing.
If you don't have a product or service that is out of this world, and let's face it - while we all love what we're providing, it's not always going to be ground-breaking stuff; word of mouth marketing is created by offering outstanding customer service. People will always tell people when they receive great customer service. They'll flock to your Facebook page to leave a review, they'll recommend you to their friends and your good name will spread like wildfire. By caring about your clients and going the extra mile, all for no extra cost, your brand will build itself.
I hope you find a few of these tips useful, has anyone got anything else to add on how to build a brand on a budget?
This meant that while I was still finding my way and fine tuning my strategy, building a brand had to be a priority.
Your brand is so much more than just your logo; your brand is what makes you, you.
While money for campaigns can help to build it, you can't buy a brand, your brand is your business in its most authentic form and is everything that makes you unique. It's your personality.
While marketing to get your services notices is crucial, building your brand is just as important and I thought it might be useful to share with others who are in the same boat a few ways that I've started to build my brand (it can take years and I'm nowhere near where I want to be yet!) on a budget.
1) Know your target market.
This might be super simple but it's often overlooked. If you have a product or service that you believe in, you'll start to talk about it through your sales and marketing literature from your voice. Not right. You need to identify the personality of your target market and work out what it is they want to see, hear and read about.
2) Learn your voice.
Once you have identified your target market which I assume you've done before you've even started, you'll adopt a conversational tone that your audience relate too. This voice will then start to form part of your identify and therefore your brand. Humourous, caring, sarcastic, authoritative - all examples of a tone of brand. Finding and learning your voice is probably one of the most crucial first steps to successfully building our brand.
3) Use social media.
Goodness, I often wonder where we would be without social media, and how lucky we are to have free (for the most part) platforms that are available for us to spread our messages and products, global. Posting on social media is one of the best ways that you can build your brand as it allows you to converse with people and offers a platform for your customer's to have first hand contact with you, this is still a relatively new idea and customer's lap it up. You don't have to post on all social media channels, although you can if you have the time and inclination to do so, but whichever one you choose; post consistently and strategically. Make sure every image post has your logo added to it so that your logo becomes memorable to your followers and you appear in their mind when they have a need for your service.
4) Blog
Blogs are awesome. They serve so many purposes, none more so than building your brand. They are another free platform where you can write in the tone of voice that your audience are looking for and help you create further relationship with your followers. Blogging platforms are free which means the only cost to you to pursue this method of brand building is your time.
5) Be consistent.
If you're building a brand you need to be out there all the time. If you're getting people to know and like your business, it's important that you give them more of what drew them to you in the first place.
6) Create word of mouth marketing.
If you don't have a product or service that is out of this world, and let's face it - while we all love what we're providing, it's not always going to be ground-breaking stuff; word of mouth marketing is created by offering outstanding customer service. People will always tell people when they receive great customer service. They'll flock to your Facebook page to leave a review, they'll recommend you to their friends and your good name will spread like wildfire. By caring about your clients and going the extra mile, all for no extra cost, your brand will build itself.
I hope you find a few of these tips useful, has anyone got anything else to add on how to build a brand on a budget?