There seems to be a lot of confusion about branding, especially by those who are new to the marketing world. Can your new business be a brand when you’re making $1,000 a month or do you have to be a known company like Apple to be recognized as a brand? That’s a typical question that many people have, and I’m here to help clear it up.
Can anyone be a brand?
The correct answer is yes, anyone can be a brand, but someone has to know about your company first. Think about it this way; would you buy from a company that has no reputation? You might, but the chances become much lower. Whenever making your next marketing strategy, make it your goal to establish your brand before you start selling your products and services. This will increase the chances of making a sale.
What does it mean to be an established brand?
There are many ways a business can be viewed as an established brand to an audience.
Here are some of the best ways:
A good name
A good name establishes trust, adds character, and shows professionalism instantly. Good names should be simple, short, and easy to remember.
Professional website
Same as having a good name, a well built out website will help you establish trust, it will show professionalism, and it will form an instant bond with the potential visitor. To increase sales, your website should be clean, easy to use, and professional.
Great reviews
The more positive reviews about your company that you have, the better. Nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before they make a purchase. You should always strive to get more great online reviews.
Testimonials
Testimonials are a great way to establish trust with people. Interview your customers and turn those interviews into stories on your blog. Let those blog posts get indexed on Google so that people can find them when researching your company.
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Focus on gaining PR from great authority brands. When others publish articles about your company, it makes you a big deal. Not everyone can get a full-page article without some great story. Even if you are new, get creative and someone somewhere will want to write a story about you or your company.
How would an established brand sell online?
There are countless ways to sell online if you‘re an already established brand. For example: if there is a review site where you have a well-known presence in, then you most likely are considered an established brand in that particular space. People who shop that site will probably buy from you right away, especially if you have tons of great reviews present on that site.
If you’re selling on Facebook, for example, you should probably warm up your audience. Send material about your company and then ask for the sale.
Here is an example:
My small business is about pet walking, and I target a group of people on Facebook with five different blog post ads:
- Company… just donated $5,000 to shelter…
- Company owner of… was just featured on…. for saving this dog from….
- This company gives free baths to dogs on the weekends.
- Company… is now responsible for 200 dogs being walked around New York.
- Joe from… started company…. when he was 24 after this happened.
Do you see what we are doing here? We are building trust. We are showing the potential customer how we care about animals, which people need to know before they give you their dog for an hour every day. We are also showing them who the owner is and we are getting them involved with the company. That audience is slowly being nurtured, and you’re establishing yourself as a brand to that specific audience. You can either ask for the sale after they viewed a few or all the articles or there is an excellent chance that they loved your content and they end up buying without a sales pitch. If the search engine is full of positive things about your company, making a sale will be that much easier.
Use the strategies above to establish your company as a brand in your space and let us know how it went.