With so many companies focused on building their brand image these days, it’s easy to get discouraged. The renewed emphasis on this part of the marketing process has, naturally, caused consultation costs to rise dramatically. Fortunately, there’s no reason that you can’t take control of the situation yourself and start to develop your own brand image by using a few simple tricks that can help to dramatically improve your visibility without eating into your wallet.
You’ll want to start by working on the visual appearance your company shows to the world. Image presentation and logo design can go a long way toward making people take notice of your brand. Since consumers can make an impression within 50 milliseconds of landing on your company’s page, you’ll need to catch them fast.
Showcasing Your Firm with a Smart Look.
Photography is a very important part of catching the eye of online shoppers, and it shouldn’t cost you a dime to add more or better photographs to an existing design. Taking photos of the products you already provide with a camera that you’re already carrying in your pocket shouldn’t consume any extra resources besides a slight amount of electricity. That means there’s no excuse for not doing it.
On top of this, you’re going to want to invest in a better logo design. Considering the fact that your budget may be extremely tight, hiring a professional graphic design firm might be seen as an extravagance. At least consider working with a freelance artist and think about upskilling some members of your team to deal with typography and color palette arrangement. Keep in mind that simple logos tend to be the most memorable.
Some companies have come up with detailed sheets that explicitly spell out how they want their teams to create branded content. This is a good idea in theory, but it can be hard to adhere to these kinds of rules once they’re put into place. Nevertheless, brand guidelines are free to come up with so they’re a good idea if you do plan on upskilling someone on your team.
Once you have a new visual style in place, you’ll need to do something to promote it.
Branding or Rebranding Your Firm Without Breaking the Bank.
When it comes to marketing, nothing beats social media in terms of your potential return on investment. It doesn’t cost anything to create an account on the most popular social sites, and it shouldn’t cost anything to post content if it’s made by you or another member of your team. Do your best to post material that engages your followers so it doesn’t look like you’re just putting out rehashed content all the time. Try to give your followers tips and information that’s useful even if they’re not buying into your brand.
At the same time, you’ll want to ensure that you’re connecting with people that would be the most likely to buy into the kind of goods or services that you’re selling. If you were selling organic food products, then you might want to share material about harmful additives that are put into mass market foodstuffs. A tech company could share tips on how to use certain devices. This can attract people who might not otherwise follow a brand-building social account.
Depending on your company’s financial situation, you might want to consider building a marketing budget that does allow you to hire at least some professional content creators on a case-by-case basis. This could be a good idea for growing companies that are just starting to get a little cash and want to make sure they’re spending it wisely.
Consider working with an outside creative team that’s experienced with providing services for small-to-medium sized businesses. According to experts from DesignBro, it’s better to have a few decent designs than pay for a large number of ones that you’ll never use. While it might take a little more time to find the right team, it’ll certainly be worth it.
Once you have your team together, all you’ll need is a framework to bring everything together.
Using the Right Framework to Build Your Brand.
Some marketing experts have promoted what they call the MACE concept:
- Mastery: Help your consumers see you as a master of your particular market segment
- Accessibility: Make sure that your products and services are accessible to them
- Cadence: Ensure that you’re posting new content on a regular basis
- Ensnarement: Create network effects so your customers stay with your brand
Over time, your consumers will become less and less likely to switch to a competing brand if you stick to this kind of marketing framework. Best of all, you won’t be spending any more than you would if you were attempting any other marketing technique.
Naturally, there isn’t one surefire way that’s going to meet every company’s needs. However, if you take the time to really think your brand-building tactics through you’ll find something that works for you and doesn’t cost you a red cent.
