How to Brand Your Business

Marketing is a form of storytelling. Getting a customer to choose your business over another one depends on the story you present to them. To find the story that sets your business apart from others takes a bit of soul searching and reflection.

In the marketing world, your dream is your business’s story, aka the Why. It’s the reason you started the business that you did. For example, Google’s Why is: To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google’s mission statement sets it apart from other search engines.

To find your business’s Why, ask yourself these questions:

• Who do I want to serve?
• Where do I want to serve my customers?
• How do I want to serve my customers?
• What do I want to sell or produce?
• How do I want to communicate my services and products?
• Who makes up my workforce?
• Why is this service important to my life?

What will emerge from this reflection is a story. Your business’s Why. This story will guide your product development and your branding plan. Pay particular attention to the parts of the story that set it apart from other businesses. What is different about your journey? What makes your story unique? Use this information in your public-facing messaging, designs, and advertisements to help your perfect customer find your business.

Your values are the guiding principles your business will operate by. Brand values are important because they help you determine how you will run your business. Take a look at Northwest. Our values are simple: Privacy by Default®. We’re Just Not Annoying®. We use these values to deliver great business formation service aimed at helping customers:

• Maintain their privacy
• Start their businesses quickly and easily
• Understand complicated business laws and stay compliant

Go back to your story and pick out some of the values that emerged. What is important to you about the business you want to start? Condense your business values down to 3 or 5, such as Family, Affordability, Humor, etc. These words may appear in the About Us section on your business website or even in advertisements to help customers see what your business is all about. You’ll want this same message to extend through everything you make or do.

Market research helps business owners determine what type of customer would connect with their brand’s values and services. A famous example of market research is Tupperware. Tupperware is the popular home product brand that started in the 1940’s. When Tupperware first started selling its products in the 40’s and 50’s, the bright plastic containers were something totally alien to customers. What turned things around was when the company began encouraging salespeople to host at-home Tupperware Parties, reaching their customers in an intimate home setting. Not only were salespeople able to showcase all the benefits of the products, but they were able to learn about their customers’ needs, wants, and complaints.

You don’t have to do all your marketing research in person, though. The internet offers many ways for you to gather marketing data to help you determine your ideal client base. You can read blogs and websites written by experts in your industry. Taking the information you collect in your research, you can use your knowledge of your ideal customer to help steer your messaging, branding, and voice.

Now that you know your Why, your values, and the people you want to serve, you’ll need to be consistent in how you promote your brand. The easiest ways you can keep your brand consistent are:

• Use similar fonts and color palettes across all branding
• Create a brand voice that speaks to your target customer
• Communicate your business messages in the same tone across all public-facing materials
• Stick to your Why and your values

Being consistent goes beyond just making sure your colors and designs make sense together. You should be consistent in how you communicate with customers too. It’s a good idea to register a domain name that matches or complements the name of your business. Having your own domain lets you promote your brand consistently every time you send a business email or link to your website.

By promoting your brand across social media and building a website, you’re casting a wider net at finding customers who need your services. It’s strange for a business these days not to have a social media presence, but don’t spread yourself too thin. A good rule of thumb is to stick to 2-3 social media profiles. Sticking to a low number of social media platforms allows you to be consistently engaged across all your platforms.

Creating a page or account in line with your story and values is a key step, but you can’t just set it and forget it. You’ll need to post regularly, particularly photos. New product? Post a photo. Customer recognition event? Post a photo. Sharing pictures is the new word of mouth, and a double tap is just as good as a verbal recommendation. Additionally, don’t forget to link to your social media accounts on your website, and update your website regularly.

Check out what to include in your business website.

Brand assets are the design elements of your brand that help customers easily recognize your business from others. They include:

• Logos
• Custom color schemes
• Graphics
• Slogans or tag lines
• Fonts
• Mascots

When you build a brand that has a story worth connecting with, you’ll find that loyal customers are eager to represent your brand by wearing your gear or displaying your logo. Once you’ve created the perfect name, logo, design, or slogan, you’ll want to make sure another business doesn’t copy it. The best way to do this is to register a federal trademark for each brand asset you want to protect. To get additional legal protection, consider forming an LLC. With an LLC, business owners are protected from being held personally liable if the business is sued or goes into debt.