Helpful Branding Tips for Small Businesses!

Step One – Define Your Needs & Objectives.
• Define Your Needs & Objectives.
• What are your overall business and marketing goals?
• What would you like to achieve qualitatively and quantitatively?
• What is your brands identity?
• Do you need or have a corporate ID in place?
• What role will various promotional tools play. ie; your website, online marketing, sales materials, public relations etc?
• Do you have a budget for marketing and new marketing initiatives?

Step Two – Paint a Picture of Your Customer
• Who are your ideal customers?
• What are their demographics?
• What attitudes do they have about your product category?
• What are their problems, wants and emotional needs that your product or service meets?

Step Three – Assess Your Competition
• Who is your best competition?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?
• How do they position themselves?
• What are your strengths compared to the competition?

Step Four – Create a Compelling Marketing Campaign
• What will the elements of your marketing campaign be?
• What do you want to accomplish with each element?
• For your website, what functionality should it have?
• How will you measure success for your marketing in general and for each promotional tool?

Step Five – Identify Your Creative Strategy & Key Message
• To create your positioning statement: How do you uniquely solve an urgent need of your customer and prospect?
• To create an effective Corporate ID: What do you want your logo to convey in terms of style, tone, main message and colors?
• To create compelling messaging: For each distinct audience, what are the key messages that will engage them emotionally and motivate them to do business with you?

written by Patti Bond, bondmarcom.com