There are thousands of ways to make your business stronger, but we’re going to focus here on the simplest, most affordable, and most effective techniques.
1. Use Promotional Products
The low-cost printed products with your logo that you can hand out freely to customers, friends, and family alike. The more people who see your brand, the more potential customers your business will have. Choose products that are useful, durable, and relevant.
These simple products will do the trick.
- Business Cards: Business cards remain the single most important way to market yourself. Having your name and number at your customers’ fingertips, on a high quality business card, is critical for building your reputation and relationship with them. It makes you available, approachable, and helpful. Business cards stick around long after a meeting or networking event, and a great card design can easily set you apart from your competition.
- Mugs: A great way to get your business added exposure is by giving out branded mugs. Universally loved, these products are not only environmentally friendly, but they are also practical gifts for customers, vendors, and employees. Daily use of this item means that your brand will stay top-of-mind for months (or years) to come.
- Pens: Pens are durable, useful, cost-effective, small and easy to pack, and most importantly, they are easy to give away. Did you know that *79% of people use promotional pens that they have received from a business? Pens also tend to get shared and passed around, which then puts your pen (and your brand) into the hands of more potential customers. That’s powerful marketing. While the other two products stick around because they’re important, pens stick around because they’re practical and universal.
2. Create a Strong Online Brand
It’s important to take time to strengthen your online presence, even if your business is small or your business is done primarily offline. Potential customers are increasingly researching and making purchase decisions online. To capture these customers, at a minimum, you should have a website and Facebook page. To get the most impact from your Facebook page, make sure your profile picture and cover photo both have your logo, and both look great. You need a logo that will scale, and not look blurry or stretched out when expanded into cover photo size.
Another important part of building your online presence is your business email. To show potential customers that you are a professional business, make sure to have a professional email address. What’s more professional: [email protected], or [email protected]? To get started, make sure you have a domain based email address, such as [email protected]. Remember to put your logo in the signature of your emails for a polished, branded look. Include a professional sign off with your name, title and contact information. This combination will immediately make your emails look more credible and professional.
3. Have a Consistent Brand Message
One of the most important principles in all of branding is consistency. Your logo should be on everything – this includes all business cards, office supplies, marketing products, and online assets. Remember, any time you use your logo, be sure to keep your color scheme consistent. By keeping your color scheme the same across all your materials, products, and signs, your brand will be more recognizable. Staying consistent with your brand tone is also vital to maintaining a cohesive image. If your business persona is funny and friendly, the written materials for your business, such as signs, emails, customer communications, and promotions should reflect this. Whatever the style and tone of your business stay true to it.
*”A Study of Writing instruments in US households” http://www.ppai.org/
