Deliberately setting out to build your brand will enhance your business reputation and attract investors and customers. A brand is more than just a name or a symbol or a design that makes your company stand out; it’s more accurate to think of it as your company’s public image.
When new companies think of developing their brand, they often default to using standard advertising on radio, television, and print. While there is nothing wrong with this approach, there are many other different, often overlooked ways, to attract attention to your brand that has a longer lasting impact.
Here, then, are 4 affordable ideas to consider when it comes to building your brand.
1. Attending trade shows, festivals, sporting events, and county fairs.
Trade shows and other outdoor marketing campaigns are an excellent way to build your brand—provided you go about it the right way. A good way to manage an outdoor marketing opportunity is to buy a few durable custom tents for different events around the country. A tent with aluminum poles and tough canvas will withstand harsh weather conditions like strong sunshine or heavy winds. Besides protection from the elements, these tents are also spacious enough to set up your booth area to project a shop-like ambiance. All you have to do to pull this illusion off is to create enough space for easy customer access and then configure the tables in a way that allows you to display your product line.
2. Put your name on all your packaging.
Putting your name on all your packaging, from boxes to paper bags, will make your packages part of your marketing materials. When Amazon vendors ship boxes out, the Amazon name is somewhere on the plain brown box or package. It may be either printed on the box itself or printed on the tape. If you are part of their prime program for free shipping, it will also be mentioned on the packaging. Why does Amazon bother slapping their name on boxes when it just increases their cost of business? It’s because it’s one of the most effective ways to build their brand. It not only thrills you to see that a package you ordered is sitting on your doorstep when you get home because it’s clear where the package is from, but it also impresses your neighbors, who begin to think how convenient it would be to order their stuff from Amazon instead of driving all over town to get their merchandise.
3. Use promotional materials.
The best way to win goodwill with customers is to give them free stuff. Promotional giveaways are always useful things that people use, carry, or wear. Every time it rains, for example, and a customer pulls out a promotional umbrella that you gifted them, hundreds of people see your company name as the customer scurries through the rain-drenched streets. Promotional giveaways can be distributed through direct mail programs, distributed during the launch of a new product or service, disturbed to promote a big sale, and distributed at community events.
4. Sponsor an expert spokesperson.
Besides giving away tangible things, you can also be generous with your information. Let’s suppose you own a hobby store and sell chess sets. However, you don’t sell cheap plastic chess sets that are less than $10, but Staunton chess sets, which are a particular style of wooden chess pieces that are held in such high esteem that this is the official style used for competitions. These chess sets range from $50 to $150. Suppose you want to build your store’s brand as a purveyor of only the highest-quality toys and games, and you want to use your fine collection of Staunton chess sets as your standard bearer. How would you go about doing it? Would you post full-page magazine ads showing that you have Staunton chess sets? You could, but a cheaper and more cost-effective way would be to hire a local club chess champion to be your spokesperson and put up chess tutorials on YouTube showing people how to improve their opening, middle games, and end games. By providing this free instructional material, you are indirectly attracting attention to your store.
In closing, building your brand is essential to growing your business, and you can do it by literally putting your name out there in many ways.