Kim George
“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room” – Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon
As small business owners and entrepreneurs with limited budgets, we do not have the luxury of spending millions of advertising dollars to brand our businesses.
Fortunately, and thanks to a fundamental shift in the way that business is being conducted these days, there are a few things that you can do to successfully brand your business without breaking the bank.
I figured for today’s blog post I would round up a list of 7 inexpensive and simple ways that you can brand your business online:
1. Use a branded email signature. Wisestamp is my favorite email signature branding tool of choice. With this tool, you can easily create a customized email signature where you can add some of the following information:
- Your contact information (phone, fax, email, etc.)
- A professional picture or headshot
- Links to all of your active social media profiles
- An RSS feed that features your latest blog post
- A link to a freebie or giveaway
My WiseStamp Email Signature
2. Create a Professional Logo. Your logo is a critical component of “brand identification”. It’s an image that will be used on all of your marketing collateral and etc., and therefore you should consider investing a little money to get a professional logo created for your business.
Recommended Ready-Made Logo Sites:
- Pixellogo
- 99 Designs
- Fiverr (least expensive alternative)
3. Use social media to consistently market and promote your brand. Social media is one of THE most powerful online branding tools that you can use these days –and rightfully so. In fact, the PewResearchCenter reported that as of January 2014, 74 percent of online adults use social networking sites! Before social media arrived on the scene, branding essentially took place via word of mouth referrals or through traditional means of advertising.
Kim Garst Twitter Profile
With free access to social media sites, you can easily:
- Spread the word about your brand on a regular basis
- Interact with your potential and current customer base
- Engage and connect with fellow peers in your industry
4. Create a stand out business slogan and tagline. Like your logo, your slogan should be used consistently on all of your marketing collateral. If you need assistance with creating slogan for your business, check out my post entitled: 7 Tagline Generators for Creating the Perfect Business Slogan.
Shopify Slogan Example
5. Use testimonials to add credibility. Testimonials are one of the most powerful marketing messages and brand boosters that you can have in your arsenal. If you have received “rock star” testimonials from your customers that you have done business, here are a few things that you can do to maximize them:
Kissmetrics Testimonials Example
- Add them to your website
- Tweet them out to your followers
- Add them to your email signature
- Publish them via Facebook
6. Add your brand message to the back of your business cards. I’ve attended plenty of networking and business related events and have in turn picked up a ton of business cards. One thing that I’ve noticed is that often times the back of the cards are empty. Here is an example of a business card that includes a branding message on the back of it:
Back of Business Card Branding
7. Show your customers the face behind your products and services. I don’t know about you but I am instantly more drawn to a brand when I can actually see who it is that is behind the brand. If you have a website and social media profiles, you should definitely add a headshot of yourself (and your team) to connect with your audience on a more personable level.
Flying Cork Media Testimonials Example
And there you have it, seven easy peasy ways to brand your business online. If you enjoyed this blog post, please be sure to share it with others. Thanks!
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