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Expert Answers to Biz Questions
Listen in! Pick up some expert advice to a reader's question that we selected from CyberSchmooz.
Cost-Effective Solutions to Growing Brand Visibility
For small businesses, few things matter more than branding. Your ability to get your message out there is what will allow you to build relationships and generate revenue for many years to come.
3 Tips for Cost-Effective Branding
As a small business, you probably don’t have a six- or seven-figure budget for marketing and branding. In fact, you might not even have a five-figure allowance in your budget. But don’t let this dissuade you. The success of your branding isn’t directly correlated with the amount of money you have to spend. It has much more to do with your ingenuity.
As you search for opportunities to increase brand visibility and drive potential leads to your business, you should find the following cost-effective tips helpful and encouraging.
1. Get Your Logo Out There
Familiarity is the fodder for strong branding. In order to stand any chance of increasing brand visibility, you have to begin by getting your logo in front of as many people as possible.
There are obviously thousands of ways to put your logo in front of your target market, but here are a few creative and cost-effective ideas:
- Put your logo on water bottles and give them out at different events and gatherings. It’s cheap, customizable, and – best of all – everyone drinks water.
- Hand out free t-shirts with your logo at public gatherings and events. When someone wears a shirt with your logo on it, they’re essentially a walking billboard.
- Whenever you create a visual, produce an image, or develop a piece of custom content on the internet, make sure your logo is watermarked on it. Each time the content is shared, the logo ties it back to your brand.
2. Create Viral Social Media Content
Speaking of content, one of the quickest ways to grow your brand is to create viral content. While easier said than done, viral content essentially does the dirty work for you.
The question is, how do you create viral content? Internet marketer Neil Patel says it’s all about social currency: “People share and talk about things that make them feel cool or improve their self-worth, this is one of the driving forces behind using a social network.” If you can create content that makes people feel good, you’ll see results.
3. Try Co-Branding
For small businesses, a lack of reach is often the biggest branding challenge. One way you can overcome this is by co-branding with a larger company that has significant reach. You’ll obviously have to bring something to the table that the larger brand doesn’t have, so keep this in mind.
“Consider selecting a well-known and respected nonprofit as a co-brand,” marketer Amanda Zantal-Wiener writes. “More and more people’s purchasing decisions are based on a brand’s social responsibility – in fact, 85% of millennials say that makes them more willing to recommend a brand.”
Co-branding isn’t always neat and perfect. It’ll probably take a while for you to find a brand that’s both (a) willing to work with you, and (b) has a significant overlap with your audience. Take your time and don’t get frustrated.
Efficient, Sustainable Growth
One of the biggest challenges, from a branding perspective, is to walk the fine line between micro managing and not being involved.
“An important point that you, as a small business owner, should understand is that you can only set your brand in a particular direction, but you may not be able to control it entirely,” MoreBusiness.com explains. “How your brand image is perceived is totally dependent on the audience. The best you can do is to make branding a continuous marketing process, and try to bridge the gap between how your brand image is and how you want it to be.”
Efficient, sustainable growth requires you to be involved, without being overbearing. This means pursuing cost-effective branding strategies, while maintaining strict brand integrity that leaves room for flexibility.
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