For the small business owner just starting out in a very competitive market, building a business brand seems like a long-term goal. Right now, you’re busy just keeping track of inventory and trying to get your products out into the marketplace. If you want to be savvy entrepreneur, however, you will begin building your business brand from the first day you open the real and/or virtual doors of your business, because grabbing the gold ring of your market share and keeping it depend on the loyalty of your customers and your reputation in your industry.It doesn’t make much difference if your business involves direct sales, provides a service, or brokers deals between manufacturers and retail merchants. A brand is equally important in all of these fields. It doesn’t matter whether you operate a restaurant, sell cars, or own a medical clinic. The brand you establish is an investment that will deliver such vital dividends as longevity and continued growth in your industry.As you probably know, a brand is more than your company logo; it encompasses your whole business package. For example, when you think soup brands, you may think “Campbell’s.” You will picture the red and white label, the Campbell kids logo. But this name recognition is only partly what makes you want to buy Campbell’s Soup. You might associate the brand with comfort and home. You might remember the soup label campaigns in secondary school to raise money for schools. You think of the satisfying taste and smell of the soup. You know you can trust Campbell’s quality.See how you can create this kind of recognition, positive association, comfort, and trust in establishing your business brand. Use the following outline as a guide in planning your long-term branding strategy:1. When you choose a logo design, does it reflect your business style?2. Do your marketing materials, including your website, inspire client confidence with professionally designed and written pages?3. Do you have a clearly communicated, pro-customer service policy?4. Have you prioritized service as a top focus for employees?5. How should your business take part in the community, and thus establish a caring reputation?6. How will your ensure that your company keeps apprised of your customer’s preferences and needs?Above all, when working out a branding plan, keep in mind those qualities you most appreciate as a customer, and build those into your brand.

In a business like retail, it is very important that you have a lot of patrons and clients because compared to the wholesalers; you have lesser possibility to earn income from one by one bought. You must assure that you will have a lot of clients that will be loyal to your business name and brand. With that, you can be a bit rest assured that you will have sure income from them but of course you still need more.

One of the most effective ways of earning a lot of customers and clients is through advertisements. If you will have great and really catchy ones, you will surely make the people who can see it to have that eagerness to try your products or services. It would be very helpful if you will make those advertisements new and unique so they will surely give time to check them out. If the ones that you will display to public will be a bit similar to other competitors then the chance of having it being seen and gossiped with is really small. Also, the use of new products of technology such as Interactive Window will be very useful since these are the stuffs that will surely catch anyone’s attention. You can place these Interactive Windows near stations, terminals, outside your store and to other public places where a lot of people will surely can’t get enough of it. When that happens, you can now expect bundles of people who will drop by your establishment to try and see for themselves the goodness of your business.

The next thing that you should do is to make use of your loyal customers and patrons’ opinions about your business. They can always tell the truth and most of the people believe more in the word of the mouth than those encouraging commercial advertisements. You can also ask a favor from them to tell their friends, relatives and colleagues to give your products a try and that they will never go wrong because you’ve already once tried it. Their reviews and reactions with your business brand will always be these statements that will effectively encourage a lot of consumers. It is simply because personal consumer reviews were known to be honest, true and based on real experience so they are more trusted.

Last thing to remember in able to make you business popular and more in demand is to let the people try your products and services for free. This is perfect especially if you have an extra budget, because this is the best way to earn loyal clients who definitely love your products. With a free trial samples, they can able to see for themselves the real things about your products without hurting their pockets and once they already knew the beauty of it, then that’s the time that you can encourage them to buy and use your products regularly. You can also try giving some blog owners and other famous individuals some samples to try on and ask them to give their reviews because with that, you can surely encourage the fans and followers of those people.

Recently I’ve been writing quite a few design proposals for clients. They cover the costs involved with their particular project, the time involved and what kind of work is included with the branding or web design project. It’s occurred to me though that perhaps it would be better to talk a little less about what the cost is and talk a little more about what small businesses could be missing out on by not taking the design of their brand more seriously? What kind of revenue and customers could you be missing?Do people even know what you do?Think about the services you offer, when you show someone your business card or when they see your logo on your store front, can they tell what you do? How often do you have to explain it? “First Impression” is such an overused cliche but it’s true! Are you evoking the right emotions with the first things people see about your company? Can they trust you? Are you a long time local asset? Are you fun? Are you smart? Proper branding, including logo design and identity, can make or break these first impressions.Great, they’ve found you! How professional does your business look?Having a website is not an original concept to small businesses any more. Many businesses, however, rely on something that was created years ago, or have let their domains expire and simply not renewed them. Just having a website isn’t enough any more. Don’t just be found, give your customers a reason to visit your site! Introduce some interactivity or capture their attention with a clean, professional user experience. I’m not saying that you need to take advantage of every new technology that has come down the pipe in the last 5 years but online aesthetics changes just like fashion. You aren’t still rocking a mullet and pinch rolled jeans, are you?How much more time can you spend not having a well thought out brand? How many more clients will you miss out on?The cost of having a professional designer or creative agency work with you can pale in comparison of the income you are missing out on. This lost income comes from people that:A). Don’t know you exist because you are one of a dozen similar companies that doesn’t take their brand seriously.
B). Decided to go with a competition because they just looked more professional.
C). Know your business but don’t know your services or just can’t find you. Design is great but without content that’s relevant to your business, it’s just meaningless decoration.Focus on your strengths as a company. Design is about perception, if your business is having a perception problem then change it. Start thinking creatively, be open to new visual ideas and you can capture the attention of your customers and keep it! Your business relies on it.