Branding doesn’t necessarily need to be an expensive process and there are a few creative ways you can use to effectively brand your business without having to break the bank. This is particularly helpful, especially if your business is a start-up.
These creative, cost-effective ways do however require the investment of your time but don’t be disheartened, your efforts will be rewarded. There are also many resources and tools available to assist you with the creative process.
Important aspects to keep in mind when embarking on your brand building journey include, keeping your clients in mind and delivering messages that speak to your business’ overall mission.
7 budget-friendly steps to branding your business
Below are the 7 budget-friendly steps to branding your business. It’s worth noting that these steps can mostly be completed without spending money, which is a big plus!
- Create your ideal persona
If you want to attract the ideal client, then you need to know your audience. To do this, you need to pay attention to them to gain an understanding of how they operate.
The next step is to use the information gathered to create a buyer persona. This is a semi-fictionalised representation of the characteristics and values of your ideal client. Creating a buyer persona helps you to identify certain challenges that the client may be facing and allows you to figure out where exactly your business fits into solving their problems.
Bonus! Once you know these basics, it will also be easier to create marketing messages that will appeal to and attract them down the road.
- Develop your brand identity and voice
Okay, so you have developed your buyer personas, now it’s time to create your brand identity and voice. This process will be very similar to creating your buyer personas, the only difference will be that the questions you ask will be more introspective in nature and will be about your brand. Questions like, What are your company’s values, what do they represent, and how do you want people to talk about you?
When answering these questions, also think about the types of content that can be created to support them.
- Decide which social media channels you want to be on
The next step is to find out where your ideal client spends most of their time on social media. Take a look at your competitors to see which channels they are the most active on and look at your audience’s engagement to see how they interact on social media.
If your findings suggest that the majority of your audience prefers one social media channel over the rest, then allocate most of your resources there. But don’t ignore other social channels completely. It’s a good idea to diversify and build a presence on multiple social channels.
- Start a company blog
Create content that clients are looking for on search engines. This content can also serve as great material for your social media channels. Write about topics that your audience may be interested in by doing keyword research first to help you choose the best ones. Again, this process does take time, but it is so worth it!
- Customer service needs to be a priority
Believe it or not, providing excellent customer service to your clients can save you money on marketing and advertising. Why? Because it creates positive word of mouth among both existing and potential clients. It’s something known as earned media which is the recognition that your brand has earned by doing something remarkable to earn people’s loyalty.
- Look into co-branding
When you are starting out and trying to build a brand, you might not have the reach necessary to appeal to a large audience immediately. But if you want to fast track the process, it’s a good idea to partner with a brand that is established and who has significant reach.
Just make sure that the brand that you choose is aligned with your goals so that it makes sense in minds of your audience.
- Host a webinar or masterclass
This is a fantastic way to grow your brand and earn leads at the same time. A masterclass is typically 45 to 60 minutes long and usually includes an overview of your business’ expertise.
Hosting a webinar only takes an hour out of your day and helps to provide data that supports credibility and highlights your business values, which includes giving helpful and educational content to your audience.
As you have seen from above, branding on a budget is absolutely doable! So have fun with building your brand and embrace the creative process.
