🔒How to brand your small business without breaking the bank

When you hear ‘branding,’ do you immediately think of a Fortune 500 company dropping six figures on a new logo and ad campaign? Numbers like that are out of reach for most businesses here in Maine, whether you’re selling campers in Kittery or bagels in Bangor.

Yet almost every small business can benefit by investing in their brand, regardless of budget, and here are some low-cost ways to get you started on your journey to stand out from the competition.

What is ‘branding?’

Simply put, branding is how you present yourself to the outside world. It’s one of the key ways you can differentiate yourself from your competition.

While there are many benefits to hiring a branding expert — deep expertise and getting an outside opinion — DIY doesn’t need to mean unprofessional. The important thing is to identify your company›s unique value proposition and personality, then create or collect the assets needed to build that brand.

Creating your visual identity

Most small business owners should not be designing their own logo. (Sorry!) But you can use an AI tool like Midjourney or Dall-E (part of ChatGPT) to come up with some initial ideas. Find one you like and then use a local designer or a service like Fiverr or 99Designs to refine that idea for you at an affordable price.

Creating a color palette can also be challenging…especially if you don’t know your Onyx from your Umber. However, sites like Coolors.co can create color palettes that can be used throughout your marketing collateral.

Fonts can also be a minefield to the uninitiated. (The number of clients who want to use Comic Sans haunts me.) Choose fonts that work well on the web as well as in print, so head on over to fonts.google.com for examples of some creative yet functional fonts.

Photography is another asset to reinforce your brand. Stock is out, authenticity is in. Hire a local photographer for a half-day shoot that includes headshots, action shots and evergreen images you can use on your website and social channels for years to come.

Getting the voice right

Image isn’t everything; sometimes it’s what we say and how we say it.

Here’s an exercise: take samples of your writing (website, blog posts, email newsletters, etc.) and feed them into ChatGPT, then ask it to describe your writing style.

If you agree, great! Ask it to write a detailed description of your writing style.

If you don’t agree, tell it where you think it got it wrong. If you feel your brand and writing style are “approachable” but ChatGPT describes it as “stuffy,” ask it to make suggestions that would make your writing more friendly and welcoming. Once you get to a point where the writing style reflects the brand you want, ask it for that detailed description.

You can now use that description to either write or edit future copy to make sure you’re consistent and “on brand.”

Consistency is everything

Speaking of consistency, branding isn’t a one-and-done exercise. You need to reinforce your brand at every opportunity: in your messaging, your website, your email newsletters, how you answer the phone and how you talk to your team.

Does consistency really matter? According to a report from Marq, consistent branding increases revenue by 23%.

Now that’s a number any small business can get behind.

Next steps

Hopefully you now have several free and affordable ways to start building out your brand, especially your visuals and your voice.

No matter where you’re starting from, it’s been my experience that the most successful brands evolve over time, often with expert guidance. So don’t feel that everything has to be perfect right out of the gate. Start small, stay consistent and invest in outside help only when the timing and budget make business sense.

Remember that your brand is ultimately about creating meaningful connections with your customers — connections that will help your business thrive for years to come.