Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

In case you missed it (or would love to hear it again): The March 18 webinar on “The Truth About Small Business Branding” is available for re-play. Click here to play the webinar.

The all-star panel, led by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, featured:

• » Karen Post – The Branding Diva & Author of Brain Tattoos
• » John Moore – Creator of Brand Autopsy & Author of Tribal Knowledge
• » Sam Horn – Author of Pop! – Stand out in any crowd
• » Aaron Weiss – Chief Product Officer for MarketSplash

Join us March 31 for the next webinar, Creating Marketing Materials. Register now!

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In my last post, I discussed how to get the golden touch by producing a DICEE product or service. This advice was at the 2,000-foot level. Now I’d like to take you up 48,000 feet and provide a higher-level view of innovation by discussing the business of ice.

Ice 1.0. Did you know that there used to be an ice harvesting business in New England during the late 1800s and early 1900s? It involved “Bubba” and “Junior” cutting blocks of ice from frozen lakes and ponds. This was no cottage industry—in 1900, people harvested 10,000,000 tons.

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Your brand identity should be the basis for all your communication with your current and potential customers. When you have developed a strong brand identity, you will find it is much easier to stand apart from your competitors and win the hearts and minds of your customers.

There are three key areas that you need to think about when you are developing your brand identity. These are:

1. Who are your Competitors?

Every brand has competitors and you want your key customers to buy your brand over theirs. Therefore, when you are developing your brand strategy you need to have a very good understanding of your competitors and their activities.

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Yes, if you have a small business, even a one-person shop, you have a brand. Many small business owners don’t think this way, but when you grasp what a brand really is, I think it may become a clearer.

A brand is little more than the collective perception and association of your business in the minds of your market. So, even if only half a dozen people know your business exists, their thoughts about your business make up your brand.

I like to define small business branding as the act of intentionally becoming more knowable, likable and trustable – in a way, much more aligned with how we might think about a personality.

Let’s face it there are certain traits that make one person a more attractive total package than another – so, I’m wondering, could your business stand a brand (personality) upgrade?

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Here’s some eye candy to get you thinking about branding ~ feel free to click any of the images above to find out more!

The first thing that comes to mind when i think of Branding and Identity are these three questions…
1) Who are you?
2) Who do you want to be?
3) Why are you special?

And then take that, mix it all together, and be consistent and unapologetic about it. Because ultimately your Identity (be it as a brand or a person or an entity or a product) is who you are!

That being said ~ from a visual perspective ~ what i deal with as far as branding and identity on a day to day basis beyond the usual (business cards, etc) are things  like… email signatures, twitter/aim avatars, favicons, etc ~ all those little details on your websites and in your pocket. THIS is where the consistency begins to be key. Don’t let the details slide ~ inconsistent branding with a different logo, or a different version of your logo all over your site, materials, business cards, press releases, etc ~ is just confusing and messy and doesn’t reflect well! So take a peek at the growing list after the jump ~ and i’d love to hear more that you think of as well!

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