Beginners Guide to Branding

Branding is an important aspect of any business’ success. Your brand is a combination of a range of different elements that help to define your business. These elements include your business name, logo, slogan, business ethos and motto.

Naming your business

The first step for any business is to come up with a business name. When choosing your business name it is beneficial to start off by brainstorming a list of different names that you could build a brand from. Once you have done this you would then need to shortlist these names and then settle on one that you feel is the perfect option. If you are still struggling to think of a great name for your business, you can use lots of name generators online to help you.

Your Logo

Once you have decided on a name for your new business you need to come up with an eye-catching logo. This logo must be memorable and it needs to be present on all of your branded items so that when you are advertising and selling your product it is easily identified. If you’re not the creative type, this may be worth outsourcing to a creative professional. You can get someone to do this on a freelance basis, so it doesn’t have to bust your budget.

Finding your voice

It is then important to find your voice within your business. This voice will match the audience that you intend on targeting through your brand and will need to be evident in all aspects of your business, from your marketing material, to your slogan and on any social media profiles you have set up for your business. For example, if you are trying to portray a professional image, then it is important that your marketing material, slogan and social media all use formal language. Whereas, if you are trying to portray a warm, “can-do” attitude, then more informal language will be more appropriate. And this is not always defined by the target audience (perhaps contrary to popular belief).

Take the serviced accommodation specialist Situ. Their target audience is corporations looking for serviced apartments for business trips and extended stays for their employees. Yet it’s important they sound warm and welcoming, with a “can-do” attitude that reassures their corporate clinets that they will go the extra mile to arrange the best accommodation options around the globe. It’s important for Situ that they show they are not a cold, faceless organisation – so they don’t sound like one either. It’s more important to create lasting relationships built on trust and understanding so they steer clear of corporate speak.

Or, take Axion Now Events, the organisers of trading card game events for Lorcana and Magic: The Gathering, who have a very niche target audience. The company needs to be able to demonstrate that they are not only great at organising events at iconic venues such as Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham. That’s a given. What they also need to be able to demonstrate is that employees are also fans of and skilled players of these most complex trading card games. This means they can talk the same language as their target audience within the content they produce. Here’s an example with their Beginner’s Guide to Magic: The Gathering.

Whether you create this content yourself or have a copywriter do it for you, it’s wise to consider the tone of voice and document guidelines about your preferred tone to refer back to or to pass onto anyone you outsource your content to.

Bringing it all together

The next step in branding is to ensure that all aspects of your business portray this image. If you have created a website to display your business, then every page of your website needs to portray your brand. So for example, if once again you want to portray a formal professional image, then every page of your website will need to use formal language and should also include your logo, which should coincide with colour theme throughout your website so as not to confuse and overload your audience.

As time goes on you and your business is underway, even if it is very successful, you may need to update your brand from time to time, to meet the needs and requirements of your developing customer base. One way to do this is through research. While some brands have stood the test of time well, others may need to change to reflect the changes occurring within your business.

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Our services include business mentoring and coaching plus bespoke one-to-one training for small businesses. We also provide general tips and advice for small businesses on our blog based on our own broad experiences (and mistakes!). Let us know about your business problems, challenges, successes and mistakes in the comments of any blog post, because sometimes it’s good just to chat – a problem shared and all that.

We have specialist small business skills such as how to amplify your online marketing through the use of video with subtitles and voice overs to make your website more accessible to a wider audience. And how to expand your business into other countries by using a specialist voice over agency to add foreign language voice overs and subtitling to your video content (BTW we use Matinee Voice Over Agency for our video voice-overs and subtitles). We cover issues and challenges that can give you a better chance of succeeding first time round.

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Many startups that have secured funding don't prioritise cost-saving efficiencies particularly when it comes to business premises. But new offices in a smart part of town are a major, and often long-term, financial commitment. There are much more cost-effective options available, for instance, office space in a business startup hub. Or smart storage options like those from Storing.com which can keep costs down by renting smaller office spaces and additionally using off-site storage. Many employees prefer the flexibility of some remote working so large office spaces may not be necessary.

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