You don’t need a big budget to make a big impact with your brand. The most important aspects of creating a brand have nothing to do with how much money you can contribute to your business. It’s all about making the right connections with the right customers. Whether you’re just starting your business as a startup or you are looking to grow an established business, branding is essential. Creating an amazing brand might just be easier than you think! Here’s how to create an amazing brand on a micro budget.
Understand Your Customers
The most important step for any business is understanding customers. If you don’t know who you’re speaking to, you’ll end up being heard by nobody. In this industry, customers rule. Too many businesses fail because they keep the focus on themselves when it should be on the customer. Understanding your customers needs to go beyond just knowing the basic demographics of your target audience. It means you know how they think and how they like to spend their money. You know just how to speak directly to them in a way that will be heard and understood.
Key Messaging
Big businesses have thousands or even millions of dollars to spend on their brand strategy. They can afford to include several different messages in their marketing plan since they can afford to follow through on all of those messages. When you’re working with a small budget, this isn’t the case. Instead of losing the focus of your marketing and your business, focus your branding on one key message. What is it you want to communicate with your branding? Are you an eco-friendly startup or a new app? How does your branding communicate this? Avoid overdoing it or sharing too many messages at once which can get confusing quickly.
Tell a Story
Branding isn’t about color or your logo. It’s about storytelling. How can you tell your story in a way customers will want to hear? The best way for small budget business to make a big impact with their branding is to incorporate their story into all of their messaging, colors, and more. It’s not just about how something looks on a website, it’s about how it tells your audience something important about your business such as storybrand brandscript. Authenticity through storytelling creates strong bonds with customers, and these bonds lead to higher conversion rates.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is dominating the industry right now, and for a good reason. By sharing high-quality, relevant content with your audience, you not only build a stronger brand, but you encourage users to connect with your business. Content marketing is generally done through a blog, but it can also include downloadable guides, videos, or even emails. When creating a content marketing strategy, make sure the focus is on educating and entertaining the audience. Don’t sound like a robot or like a salesperson. It’s all about connecting with your audience and building real relationships!
Branded Products
Branded products are another inexpensive way to incorporate your brand into your business. You have a lot of options nowadays, from creating a custom t-shirt to backpacks. Encourage your customers and your employees to use these branded products to not only increase brand awareness but to promote a community. Your business shouldn’t just be about making money but also about building a community of supporters. You can use branded products when collaborating with other individuals or companies, and also just around the office. As you gain popularity, you can even market these to your customers.
Influencer Marketing
Like content marketing, influencer marketing has changed the way people interact with businesses. Influencer marketing is when a business collaborates with someone who already has a well-established audience to promote a product or brand. As a new brand with a smaller budget, you should be able to find smaller or niche influencers who fit your demographic. This is a great way to not only gain a valuable content within your audience, but to reach a wider range of people.
The Power of Branding
Branding has the power to make or break your business. While great branding often goes unnoticed, bad branding will leave a bad impression. Having the right branding doesn’t mean you need a big budget. It just means being in touch with your audience and thinking outside the box when it comes to your brand strategy. Follow the tips above to create a brand your audience falls in love with!
About The Author
Ashley Lipman
Ashley is a super-connector who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry and competition.