To succeed in any business, you need to reach potential prospects who want the goods or services you offer. It’s also important to succinctly communicate to potential customers why they should do business with you over your competitors. Establishing a reputable brand identity helps you do this.
Take the Nike “swoosh” for example. When people see that on the side of a sneaker, they immediately know the brand – and probably have something from the same company in their closet at home. Similarly, you want people to associate your company name, logo or other brand representations positively in relation to your business being able to fill their needs. There are many ways to do this both in your community and beyond, and six of these are listed below.
Attention-Getting Logo and Store Signage
The first way to quickly establish a unique brand identity is to make the symbol that represents your brand as unique and eye-catching as possible. Many businesses treat their logo as an afterthought, but you might want to actually put some time and thought into it. Make it grab people’s attention. Then, you should put it on well-designed signage for your company.
Dominate Local SEO
You might think being high up in internet search results is not important for getting local customers and building local brand recognition. If you believe this, you’re still living in 2010. Today, 86 percent of consumers rely on the internet to find a local business. Even the Yellow Pages, that time-honored reference to find a local company in ages past, is almost exclusively online nowadays. Get your company listed in local business directories, and use geo-targeted keywords in your SEO efforts to target your overall area as well as neighborhoods.
Have a Mobile-Friendly Website
This tip is more of an extension of the local SEO one above. The vast majority of these people searching locally for the products or services your business offers will be doing it on their phones. Given this fact, you better make sure your website looks and performs every bit as good on their phone as it would on a laptop or desktop computer. Also, Google’s search algorithm has insisted for years now that a website be mobile-friendly if it’s going to have a chance of ranking highly in their search results pages.
Distribute Branded Promotional Products
This strategy is an oldie but a goodie. It predates the internet, so plenty of especially young entrepreneurs might discard this idea out of hand. That would be a mistake. When it comes to building your brand awareness in your own community, getting corporate merchandise like pens, pads, refrigerator magnets, t-shirts and other products emblazoned with your name and logo out there around town is a solid strategy. What are some effective ways to get this branded merchandise out there? Read on to the next tip.
Get Involved in Local Events and Charities
An excellent way to build your brand awareness in your community is to literally get more involved in your community. Participating in local events and helping out local charities are the two biggest ways to do this. As far as a positive brand image, the charity involvement, in particular, shows you’re a company that cares. As an added benefit, charity and other events give you a place to distribute your branded promotional items mentioned above.
Create Your Own Branded Hashtag for Social Media
This tip can help you build awareness of your brand locally and beyond. For just one example, if your business name is “CompanyX” then create the hashtag #CompanyXCares to add to any social media post about a local charity event. You can also create a hashtag that includes your company tagline instead of the name. One general hashtag guideline is to make it fairly specific since this means it will be a more targeted audience. Also, don’t make the hashtag too long. One example in an article from HootSuite about Instagram hashtags is using “#SFCarLovers” rather than “#SanFranciscoLuxuryCarEnthusiasts” to promote an auto show. Additionally, on Instagram, people can follow hashtags now even when they’re not following you, so use your hashtags far and wide for greater visibility.
