Why Brand Reputation Is Important for Small Businesses
Small businesses often fall into two traps with branding – they believe they cannot manage it because they are small and they believe branding is primarily about products. Branding does feature the products or services that a business offers but this is only a small part of it. Brand reputation is something that can benefit businesses of all sizes. Here are a few reasons to seriously consider working on your company’s brand reputation.
What is Branding?
In its’ simplest form, branding is about creating a unique identity for your business that means even when you sell the same products or services as other companies, you stand out from the competition and attract customer’s attention. Small business branding is often viewed as challenging because you cannot compete with the big companies in terms of resources or manpower. This might certainly be the case in terms of resources; however, it does not mean your branding cannot or will not work for you just as well as theirs.
People relate better to companies that not only have strong branding but more importantly have an identity. They vote for which branding works for them with their visits, clicks or purchases. By having strong, cohesive branding, your company can be the one that they notice, feel a connection with and therefore purchase from. It can also create brand loyalty and those crucial returning customers.
Recognition Leads to Trust
Studies have consistently shown that recognition of a brand builds trust and people are more likely to buy from a company if they feel they can trust them. Therefore, trust and reputation are key to your businesses success and branding plays a big part in this.
By having that strong, identifiable brand, even the smallest company can begin to build trust with your customers. This leads to customer loyalty – 48% of customers say they are more likely to become loyal to the brand during their first experience or purchase with them.
There are several ways to create your brand to make it recognizable. Everything from catchy slogans and creative names to eye-catching color schemes are effective options. Writing a compelling Brand Story and using our Brand Board Template will help you define or redefine your brand. The most effective brands combine use a combination of those elements. They work on the principle that we retain only around one-tenth of the information that we see when we read something.
When you include visuals with that information, this rate of retention rises to almost two thirds. Therefore, having that catchy slogan paired with great graphics, a clear color palette, brand voice and other elements means you have a better chance of people remembering what you do. That is why visuals are so popular on social media and almost three-quarters of marketers use them ahead of even video.
