Whether you’re in the process of launching a small business, or you already have one, chances are that you’re thinking about how to market your products and services, and build a meaningful brand. Here are 5 simple things you can do as a small business owner to boost your brand, without breaking the bank!
1. Tell Your Story
Often, founders forget that one of the most important pillars of any brand is the team behind it. It’s important to tell your personal story right from the start, even as you continue to build a voice for the brand. Your first audience will usually come from your personal network of friends, family, colleagues, and such, but only if they know what you’re up to! And remember, that you don’t need to limit yourself to talking about your brand or its services and products. Instead, you can talk about your personal story and experiences. So even If you’re thinking about building your company in ‘stealth’ mode, share your journey, learnings, and milestones.
2. Get On LinkedIn
In today’s times, especially with remote working having become the norm, it is almost necessary for professionals of any kind to get on LinkedIn. The platform is perhaps one of the only social media channels that is dedicated to professionals, jobs, and businesses, and can help you in a plethora of ways. LinkedIn can help you find customers, build your employer branding, recruit team members, generate sales leads, and more! As a small business owner, you should ensure that you have a well crafted LinkedIn profile as well as a corresponding business page for your brand. Creating a business page not only gives your brand a separate identity on the platform but also allows users to engage with the brand and for employees to showcase their work on their personal profiles. (Read our article on LinkedIn best practices for small businesses to learn how to optimise your business page.)
3. Create Social Media Handles For Your Business
Whether you intend to create social media content for your brand or not, it’s always safer to create social media handles for your brand on all such platforms. Not only does it help boost your brand’s visibility on search results (SEO), but also protects your brand name and will come in handy if you ever decide to use social media marketing as a growth strategy for your business.
As an added tip, if you are still in the process of choosing a brand name, try and ensure that the corresponding social media handles are available, before making a final decision.
At the very least, you should create brand handles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, but you could also include other platforms like Discord, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, etc.
4. Build (at least) A Landing Page
If you don’t already have a website, consider building at least a landing page for your primary offering. Even if you are an offline business, a website can help boost your brand visibility and discoverability, while also serving as a master ‘hub’ that connects to all of your social media handles and email. If you already have a website in place, ensure that it is indexed on search engines, and make sure that you include links to all your social handles. This helps create a consolidated digital presence and boosts your SEO. Your landing page should include information about your offerings, as well as some kind of contact information. Finally, if you have an e-commerce store, or your website is your primary product (as in the case of online learning platforms), consider creating a separate section in your website that includes information about your brand, the team, contact information, etc.
5. Network!
As cliche as it sounds, networking is crucial for any business owner, especially first-time entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Even as you continue to focus on acquiring clients and users, remember that most successful businesses require access to investors, mentors, consultants, partners, new hires, and more, all of whom are very hard to find. The more time and resources that you invest in building a strong personal network, the easier it will become to find such people and will open up new opportunities. Try and build meaningful relationships rather than just adding more ‘connections’ or ‘followers’, and focus on consistency and engagement.
The Invisible Paintbrush is a small agency for small businesses that offers end to end marketing services for pre-launch & early-stage start-ups, solopreneurs, family businesses, freelancers, and more. If you enjoy reading our articles, follow us on LinkedIn or Instagram to keep receiving updates! To share this article, use the social icons below:
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