The Importance of Matching Your Brand to Your Small Business

It should go without saying that small businesses don’t have the same luxuries larger businesses can rely on. However, when it comes to brand integrity, this point seems to be lost on most small business owners. While larger brands can shoulder the costs of a full-time marketing department championing the brand’s guidelines, small businesses are often still trying to figure out what a brand even is.

Why is my business’s brand so dang important?

Regardless of how long you’ve been operating your small business, having a finger on why your brand matters can only help your business. The truth is, by honing your message, you can speak more effectively about your business to prospects, customers, and even to your employees.

In the same way your personal identity is made up of the kind of clothes you wear, the way you talk, and the friends you have, a brand identity is comprised of several things.

What makes a brand:

• The logo – the mark or logo is the first thing prospects and clients recognize from a distance.
• The language – how your marketing material sounds can make a difference in how customers respond to your brand.
• The lingo (culture) – the “feel” of your office, the kind of employees you have, and how you handle a crisis, creates an experience that either benefits or hinders your business.
• The legacy – how you handle customers and what you do for them will leave a lasting impression that contributes to your brand.

Without these things to even out the signals your business is putting out, your brand could either not make it to your prospective ideal client, or worse: send the wrong message to them. Indeed, having a handle on the brand image you and your business is projecting, allows you to more effectively target new business.

What’s a brand strategy, then?

Building your brand is more than just creating a fancy logo and putting out an inter-office memo. With today’s marketing fodder at ready access, a definitive plan is critical. Social media and web algorithms should not be tread upon lightly. Be deliberate in how you approach a social-media campaign. Do your research before tweeting or uploading images to Facebook.

A true strategy includes messaging construction—or copywriting—to create coherent and consistent messaging across all the channels your business operates. From how your employees answer their phones, to what the website says, to that latest tweet, your messaging needs to ring true with your business’s mission and values.

So, why is branding on a small-business insurance blog?

SMB Insurance understands that small businesses face big challenges with little budgets and nearly no internal support, so we like to post information about business-related topics. The hope is that you see the value of what we offer (beyond ridiculously simple insurance at a great price). And, since branding and insurance are must-haves for any business, it made sense to write about the overlap.

People buy on emotion. So, if your brand can promote the right image of trustworthiness, convenience, and excellence to prospective customers, then you will have a much easier time building profit. Having a firm grasp on how your employees engage customers; what you’re saying on (and off) the record; and how you handle the customer through their journey, will all help your business grow.

It works for the major brands, even when they were small. How else do you think companies like Zappos, The Container Store, and Starbucks became the behemoths of business they are today? An inspired and consistent brand will create loyalty in your customers time and time again. And that is what will make your small business grow.

While we can’t insure your brand from degrading over time, we can insure your business with a tailored plan. Contact us today to see just how simple we make this process.

Categorised in: Articles

This post was written by SMB Insurance