How to brand your business on a tiny budget

Branding is what distinguishes a good business from a mediocre one. Branding is not just a strategy for developing your product; it is analytical work that allows you to understand the consumer’s needs in detail and communicate the value of the product.

Branding will pay dividends as consumers become more aware of the ideas that went into the business. But how to make it work?

1. SMM

54% of social browsers use social media to research products. This is just one of the many facts that show that social media is a very important channel when branding your business.

The main value of SMM is that it helps to increase your brand awareness and maintain constant communication with your potential and existing customers.

Social media allows your audience to feel connected to your brand. Increasing the number of users who subscribe to your page will increase your visibility as a brand. Besides, it will help your site appear at the top of search engines.

How to use SMM effectively?

The list of tips on this subject could be endless, but let’s pick up on three important points:

• Think about which social networks your business should be present in, based on the specifics of your niche and market analysis.
• Develop a content strategy, a strategy for promoting your pages, whether it’s advertising or organic user engagement.
• Maintain two-way communication between your business and users.

2. Email marketing

4 out of 5 marketers said they’d rather give up social media than email marketing.

Sounds curious, so let’s dig into what makes email marketing so cool.

Email remains a significantly more effective way to engage customers than social media — nearly 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined, according to Mckinsey.com. That’s because 91 percent of all U.S. consumers still use email daily, and the rate at which emails prompt purchases is not only estimated to be at least three times that of social media, but the average order value is also 17 percent higher.

Impressive numbers, aren’t they? I think the question of why email marketing is important for your business branding is already off the table. But let’s keep digging.

Your task, as a brand, is to build a proper email marketing strategy, determine the types of emails that work for your niche and choose a platform that can handle the volume of emails you need.

Automation will make email marketing as effective as possible. But it’s important to analyze key metrics, which include: subscriber growth, delivery rate, OR, CTR, unsubscribe rate, spam, and complaint rate.

Important tips when planning your email strategy:

• Get the user’s permission before you start the mailing, otherwise, there may be problems and questions from the customer with abuse reports.
• Let users know what information they will receive and how often they will receive it.
• Do not spam. Use only relevant and useful information in your emails.
• Segment your audience to keep your emails relevant to your subscribers.

3. Content marketing

Content marketing is one of the most effective tools in building brand awareness and as CMI states, content is one of the most effective ways to promote business. Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less according to their data.

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of useful content that helps people solve their problems while building and increasing consumer trust. Content marketing is effective when it is relevant to your audience and helps solve their questions.

What are the goals of content marketing?

• Lead generation
• Increasing the target audience
• Increasing customer engagement
• Boosting brand awareness
• Driving organic traffic
• Reactivation of passive clients
• Building loyalty
• Upselling and cross-selling

Articles, blogs, long reads, video content, checklists, online surveys, and events — all of this is related to content marketing. Depending on the specifics of your business, and based on audience analysis, your task is to determine the most appropriate format and start using it. If you use it wisely, you’ll find that quality content can save you a lot of money spent on paid advertising.

4. Business blog

Websites with blog content have 434% more search engine-indexed pages than those that don’t publish according to Content Marketing Institute. So let’s proceed with blogs.

A business blog is a powerful tool for increasing your brand awareness and reaching your target audience. By generating content on your blog, you can increase your value to potential clients and customers, which in turn can lead to better conversions, increased sales, and customer retention.

On top of that, when you get new traffic through your blog, there’s an opportunity to convert it into leads.

Blogging greatly improves the SEO performance of your website page. High-quality and repetitive content allows you to be on the first lines in search results. For this, you need to use keywords in your articles but don’t overspam, remember who you write for. Google and other search engines will help find your site for these keywords and you will get extra traffic.

Besides, a blog can be monetized. You can generate income from blogging in almost any field with business models like affiliate marketing.

5. Q&A sessions and meetings with business users

For zoomers and those born after the start of the pandemic, Q&A sessions and meetings with business users are kind of like an open podcast in real life, where anyone can raise their hand and have a chance to ask a question.

This way the brand can learn more precisely the needs of its consumers and build its development model to meet those needs. It’s also a good way to reach new audiences.

The point is to make these meetings of high quality. You’ll need well-thought-out information hooks to set up such sessions. Organize these meetings so that they are unburdening to both sides and serve as a basis for further rapprochement and productive cooperation.

Well, you’ve reached the end, reader. Let’s finish with a quote:

Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.

Elon Musk.