Marketing doesn’t have to be a hundred thousand dollar word. You don’t have to spend a fortune to build your business’ brand with your customers and potential clients. Here are a few tips on how to build your business’ brand on a small budget, none of which requires much money or a lot of time.
Brand Yourself
Branding usually starts with a logo. If you’re on a limited budget, you can always create your own logo with a program like Adobe Spark. Use your logo on all official documents like your bills, invoices and business cards. It leaves a more visceral impression of your business than the name of the business card, and it has the benefit of reminding them of you even when they do not remember the business name. Don’t forget to select a persona for your business, too, so that you use that same persona when creating marketing videos, content or advertisements.
The Must Watch Video
One of the cheapest ways to market your business is with a must-watch video. Many businesses are trying to create funny viral videos that cost little to make but have made a number of internet businesses into billion dollar brands. A more successful approach is creating how-to videos that answer questions people need answered, while people wearing your company’s logo and showing off the product as part of the solution build brand awareness. You can create behind the scenes videos and “how it is made” presentations if this doesn’t threaten corporate intellectual property. Think of all of these types of video marketing as several minute long commercials, something that has to give the customer a reason to watch and as much of a reason to buy your product.
Relevant Freebies
One job seeker trick is to send food items to the business in question with their contact information attached. Everyone appreciates the fruit, donuts or coffee and remembers the gift giver. Giving something free but valued by your customers creates a similar, positive impression. Sending calendars with local sports team schedules, notepads or to do lists to customers with your brand on them gives customers a reason to keep the item and reminds them of you every time they use it. Some businesses have given industry specific checklists to potential clients to use to solve problems; it leads to new business when someone uses the water testing kit to call for a new water softener or lawn care guides result in calls for yard service.
Thank Your Customers
A thank you for your business card with a company logo and contact information will be read and remembered. It builds brand loyalty while giving them a reason to use you again. Don’t forget to send out emails, as well, thanking people for their business. It is not seen as spam, while it reminds them of why they do business with you.
Consistent Social Media Presence
Setting up a consistent social media presence on every social media site where your customers are located improves your brand’s recognition by both search engines and customers. The backlinks on these profiles to your website are high authority backlinks. The content shared across these platforms leads to social media sharing of content that raises its profile with search engines. And it costs very little in terms of time to do once you set up the social media profiles, ideally with the same handle, logo and formatting.
User Forums
Creating an account on user forums can be a low cost way to build your business’ brand. Don’t use it for hard marketing. Instead, find the questions users are asking and answer it as an industry expert, mentioning your products and services where appropriate. You’ll build brand awareness and loyalty for those who feel you are helping them. Don’t forget to drop in links to your how-to solutions or service department where it answers the question. You can put the company’s URL in the signature line of the user forum profile if it isn’t used too often.
If you want to brand yourself on a dime, tap into the massive ROI of the above branding methods.