Branding is not just about having a powerful logo and a cool website. These elements definitely help you create an identity for your business.
But that’s not what branding is all about. It’s more about the experience you create for your existing and potential customers. This is true for businesses of all sizes.
Whether your business is small or big in size, its success depends solely on the number of customers you can have and retain. The more customers you have, the more sales you make. And the more sales you make, the more profit you can earn. So it’s important to make your users feel important and valued.
But how do you do that? Let’s look at 4 of the easy yet powerful branding tips you can use for your small or mid-sized business.
1. Build Strong Relationships
Building strong relationships is one of the essential steps to consider when you’re working on branding your business. And as a small or mid-sized business, you have the edge over the big names on this point.
The size of your business makes it easier for you to create a rapport with your users by reaching out to them on a more personal level. This may not be possible for larger companies. So take advantage of it to do your best to connect with your users.
You can start doing that by communicating with your users more efficiently. This can be through social media or even through email newsletters. Instead of simply focusing solely on promoting your business, try identifying your user’s problems. Then figure out how your business can help them solve those problems.
To make things even better, encourage your users to offer their feedback. It’s a great way to hone your user’s needs and find the best solution to their problems. By taking action based on their feedback, you show them that you’re listening to them.
Another way of making your relationships stronger is by showing appreciation to your long-term customers by rewarding them with loyalty points. Allow them to redeem these points to get discounts.
2. Build a Strong Community
Most major businesses focus on building a community around their businesses. They do this because they know that by gaining people’s trust for these communities, they can extend that trust for their brand as well.
So instead of investing too much in paid promotions and advertisements, they choose to make their communities stronger. There are several ways to build business communities. You can create your online communities using different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
So invest your time and effort in building these communities. You may not be able to grow them all at once. And it’s alright if you can’t. Just focus on one or two platforms at a time for the best results.
Once you gain a certain number of followers, shift your focus to another platform. But don’t forget to keep your existing community active. You can do that by posting helpful and high-quality content consistently for your users. You should also continue to reply to your user’s comments to keep the conversation growing and connecting with them better.
3. Create Authority
Another brilliant way of branding your business is to create authority for your brand. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on hiring a subject matter expert to do that. You can simply do it with your content by making them in-depth, high-quality, and problem-solving for your users.
When you do that consistently, you can present yourself as an expert and establish your authority over the subject matter. As a result, your users start trusting you, and they count on your blog as their go-to resource when it comes to finding a solution.
You can also use your content to establish and reinforce your brand voice to demonstrate who you are and what you can do for your customers. As a result, your relationship with your customers becomes stronger. This is a great way to encourage your customers to come back to your site again for more purchases and increase your overall conversions.
4. Offer Top-Notch Customer Support
You may be wondering how customer support can help you build a stronger brand. The reason behind this is simple. Good customer support services can help you make an impact on your customers and build long-term relationships with them.
It’s important for you to remember that there are hundreds of companies that are doing the same business as yours. This means that your customers have a lot of choices to pick from. So to make them select you as their go-to business, you have to do something different so that you can stand out and draw your audience’s attention. By offering top-notch customer service, you can easily stand out as a unique option. Make it easy for your customers to solve any problem they are facing with your brand. Always remember that customer support services are not only for ensuring a smooth onboarding process.
Sometimes you may have to deal with angry customers who come to you with their grievances. Be patient with such users and listen to their problems without losing your temper. Now apologize for their inconvenience and assure them to help them solve the issue. If you’re not sure how to tackle it, give them a specific time in which you can solve the matter.
Make sure to keep your promise. If you can’t solve the problem, ask them how you can compensate for it. You might even offer a refund if it makes the customer happy. Doing this can help you retain your customers and attract more traffic to your business. It’s also a brilliant way to stand out and achieve success.
So these are some of the easy yet very powerful branding tips for small and mid-sized business owners. Now it’s your turn to utilize them for the best results. In the meantime, if you know of any other tip that works for your business, do let us know in the comments below.
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Syed Balkhi is an award-winning entrepreneur and online marketing expert. He is the co-founder of OptinMonster, WPBeginner, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.