Small businesses can be rightly termed as the backbone of a country’s economy as they drive the sales on a micro-level. From the small road-side eatery to a 3-star hotel, you will find many people striving and aspiring to become a big name in the market. But without apt branding, many such businesses bite the dust and struggle to sustain as big businesses can beat them with low prices.

Small business owners might wonder why they should care about their brand in the first place. Do they even have a brand? Investing time and money for managing brands can be tough as there are several other aspects that need their attention. But without a brand, you will not make it too far. In the marketplace, it is all about brands as they dominate local and international markets.

Branding is not something that you can leave on just your brand manager or the marketing team. From the CEO of the company, creative head and even an employee are all part of this. No one does it alone, as branding is not something that you can achieve overnight. Understanding how you are going to make things happen can be tough for startups and small businesses.

Go through the following five points, and I am sure you will learn something valuable that you can use for your small business or startup.

Related Read: It’s High Time Big Brands Slaughter their Ego & Learns from Budding Startups!

1. Understand Your Brand

To begin with, you need a comprehensive understanding of brand identity. How can you describe your company or want to be known? Your mission, vision and values are also critical, so you need to think about them seriously before launching your product. The next step is figuring out your target audience and focus entirely on them. Figuring out their demographics and what they look for in a company can bring you rich dividends when you actually start pitching them your product.

There are some other questions that you need to answer to give yourself every chance to succeed.

• How can you differentiate your product from the competition?
• What, you think, can work for your business?
• What value can you deliver to the customers, and on what values will you work?
• What will you provide to your target audience?

You need to make your business stand out among all the businesses already in the market by highlighting your “Point of Difference.” (POD) Don’t think of introducing a ground-breaking invention. Your honesty in offering the lowest price for your product in the market can be your POD and you can greatly benefit from it by being the most affordable product.

2. Brand Equity

You need to treat your brand as more than just a name or symbol. Your relationship with the customers and their positive perception or feeling for a product can make it a great brand. According to a marketer, “Products are created in the factory, but brands are created in mind.” You need to turn your brand into a powerful one for high brand equity.

For a small business to make inroads in the market, its brand must have the ability to capture customer preference and loyalty. Think of some of the most famous brands in the world, like Coca-Cola, Disney, and Lego. They all have become larger than life icons in not just their respective category but also a brand that is recognizable worldwide. One reason for their success is they have developed deep connections with their customers and have maintained their power in the market for generations now.

Small businesses can learn so much from big brands as they need a favorable reaction from their current or potential customers. Generic or unbranded products are bound to face an uphill battle with brands.

3. Offer a Unique and Superior Product

A local pizza joint, for example, can’t compete with Pizza Hut or Domino’s. It is obvious as the marketing budget is one aspect that they can’t do much about. But a distinctive taste and a unique recipe can be a catalyst in their overall success. As a small business owner, you need to remember that you are not trying to dominate the lager segment: instead, you need to find some space among the big daddies of the business. Start by selling to loyal buyers in a neighborhood use uniqueness, taste, and quality to find a niche for your pizza.

The same strategy can be used for several products like tomato ketchup, sauce, or jam/jellies/marmalade. Don’t think about the current small production of yours. Instead, take time to focus on how you are going to present them. Spend quality time on labels and what pictures/font you can use on the packing to entice a new customer. The use of thank you cards is another way to make a customer think positive about you. Quality-wise a superior product will get you closer to your goal.

Your small budget will not be a deterrent as long as you focus on promoting your strength. You can easily turn your tag of a local business to your strong point versus big businesses. Get engaged with your prospective customers for results in your favor.

4. Visualize your Brand

Small businesses need to think out of the way to create the look and feel of a popular brand. What are the top factors that you can put in here? A catchy logo, cool stationery design, and an appealing website are three factors you need to consider.

• Catchy Logo
  A memorable image in the form of a logo can be your savior. Not many people will remember the message you want to give about your product. But a great logo complementing the product well can be etched in the memory of your target audience.

• Cool Stationery Design
  Just like a logo, stationery design for business cards, letterheads, envelopes, etc. can also leave a good impression on anyone using them. The design must match the logo with the same color pattern and layout for consistency.

• Appealing Website
  This is a no brainer as businesses certainly need an online presence. Don’t think that only a comprehensive 100-page website is the requirement. For a small business, even five pages are enough, but the design needs to be impeccable to create the right impact.

Related Read: How to Improve Your Brand Perception with Effective Reputation Management?

5. Meaningful Content with Smart CTAs

Meaningful content can be termed as the difference between an ordinary product and a hot-shot brand. Great content can be the catalyst to change the perspective of people towards your product. Sadly, many small brands still don’t know much about this. Developing content, just like this blog, is a painstaking and laborious task. But it’s highly cost-effective, and the result pays off well.

You will find several people looking for ‘how-to’ content on the Internet or a blog that can guide them where to go for their next vacation in a shoe-string budget. To create the right impactful, your content must be unique, which is the first requirement. Being informative and precise are other factors that can make an article work well with the target audience. For web content, and especially, promotional one, Call-to-Action words, and phrases must be used to get instant results.

On LinkedIn and YouTube channels, it can take months to get any real traction. That’s why blogging and producing content that is valuable to your target market is the way to go. Content is not limited to written text. You can go for pictures and videos if you think you are not getting results in your desired time. You can showcase animation, videos, and pictures brilliantly to get great results. With customer intimacy in mind, you can expect great results.

Over to you

To sum it up, most of these strategies require hard work and determination to succeed against all the odds. Starting a business in a big city like Dubai can make things difficult for a small business. If you are also looking to try your luck, make sure you get the support of a branding agency in dubai having the expertise in this regard.

If you want to know more about any of the aspects mentioned here or wish to offer your valuable feedback for this blog, you are welcome. Please use the comments section below in this concern.