Branding On A Budget

You don’t have to break the bank to grow and maintain a brand. In fact, you can complete most of our tips shared below without spending money…

Two things to always remember: keep your customers in mind and deliver messages that support your company’s mission. Now, let’s discuss a budget-friendly way to grow your brand on a budget.

1. Create a persona to understand your audience

You’ve probably heard that knowing your audience is the key to creating marketing messages that appeal to them. Create a buyer persona: a semi-fictionalised representation of your ideal customer’s values and characteristics.

Personas outline your customer’s challenges and where your business fits into solving them. The needs, goals, and behaviour of your potential customers dictate how you convey your product or service. Understanding those goals helps you determine what kind of media your personas are consuming, what motivates them, and where they ‘live’ online. With this information, you can also develop a compelling, effective brand that reaches the right people.

2. Develop an identity and voice for your brand

Once you’ve identified your buyer personas, your brand can start to take shape. Create a brand identity – what makes your brand, your brand – and its voice, which is the tone you use in any marketing copy or public communication. Developing a brand voice and identity is similar to constructing your personas but instead of answering questions about your target audience, you’re answering questions that are more introspective to your brand: what are your company’s values, what do they represent, and how do you want people to talk about you?

When you answer these questions, focus on creating content that supports them. Craft compelling emails, blogs, social posts, and multimedia that reflect your company’s mission, values, and how you want to appear to customers.

3. Map out a consistent social media presence

So, we know who your personas are. And now, we have an idea of what and how to create messaging that connects with them. But where are they? There’s a good chance you’ll find them on social media, and that’s an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

Check out competitors – see where they’re most active (and how their language may or may not connect to audiences). Additionally, look at each social platform’s demographic breakdown to better understand who you’re targeting and where.

It’s also important to think ahead of time about the content you’ll be posting on social media and the interactions you want to have with your followers. One of the top reasons why consumers unfollow brands on social media is irrelevant content and too many ads.

4. Start a company blog

It’s a core part of the inbound marketing flywheel, especially the ‘attract’ stage, which turns website browsers from strangers to visitors.

5. Make customer service a priority

When shopping on a new website, the first thing most people do is read reviews. If they see reviews that mention speedy shipping, friendly customer service, and high-quality products, they’re more inclined to purchase.

A Zendesk Customer Experience Trends study found that customer service is a top consideration for consumers when deciding whether to purchase from a brand – more than the product or service itself and convenience. It only takes one bad experience to potentially lose a customer, with the report revealing that about half of consumers will switch over to a competitor after just one negative experience.

6. Take advantage of co-branding

This is way of sharing a budget and saving money but don’t just pick any brand for a partnership. Make sure it’s one that’s aligned with yours, so it makes sense in the minds of your audience. Here are the questions we recommend asking when seeking a co-branding partner:

• Will your partner’s audience be interested in your brand?
• Is this audience difficult for you to reach without this partnership?
• Will your audience trust your co-brand? That’s crucial to getting them to listen to you, so make sure your partner reaches the audience in a way that instils confidence.
• Do you have something to offer your co-brand?

7. Host a masterclass or webinar

Running experiments doesn’t have to cost a penny, and hosting a webinar takes only about an hour of your day. The result, however, is spreading the word about the value of a company, providing data that supports credibility, and promoting company values like delighting customers and giving helpful, educational content to your audience.

Conclusion

Branding on a budget? Absolutely possible. What counts, when you’re brainstorming ways to brand effectively, is how to use the resources you have to the best of your ability. Keeping your audience in mind is the first step – after that, it’s about thinking of creative ways to engage those target customers.

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The full version of this piece, as well a whole host of other useful and informative articles, can be found on our Knowledge Exchange Hub. It’s free to join and opens up a world of possibilities for small business owners, such as mentoring, support, information and much more.