5 Incredibly Useful Branding Tips For Small Businesses

When it comes to building brand awareness, many businesses go for tried and tested ideas. One of the most popular is online advertising. Another is placing ads in local newspapers and relevant publications.

If you're looking for more ideas to complement those marketing methods, what should you do now? Well, the good news is that you have a plethora of options at your disposal. Here are five incredibly useful branding tips you need to know:

1. Get your customers to market your brand for you

It might seem like a strange idea at first, but it's a proven method to increase brand awareness. In a nutshell, what you do is offer your customers an incentive to spread the word about your brand.

There are many ways you can do that, such as setting up a referral program. In exchange for leads that convert to paying customers, you could offer them an extra perk as a thank you. An example might be a free product (or a discount on their next order).

2. Let your clothes do the talking

There is a high chance that you will be making face-to-face contact with your customers each day. And the likelihood of going places where you could drum up trade might also be high.

With those thoughts in mind, why don't you let your clothes do the talking when you're out and about? Branded clothing is, without a doubt, one of the easiest ways of brand awareness. That's because you don't have to lift a finger or even spend any money to do so!

3. Give potential customers a reason to want more

If you sell products (physical or virtual), have you considered a ‘freemium‘ pricing model? In a nutshell, this is where you provide a bare-bones version of your product for free.

To get more features out of the product, your customers would have to upgrade to a ‘full' version. Or, they would need to pay for a subscription to unlock extra features.

4. Wrap your car

You will likely have seen cars, vans, and other vehicles that are sign-written. Vehicle wrapping is one of those classic branding ideas that pays for itself many times over!

If you have a ‘bricks and mortar' business, it's a good way of increasing brand awareness in your local area. Some entrepreneurs even park their sign-written cars and vans in prominent areas. They do so because they know places with a high flow of traffic will spot their vehicles! Vehicle wrapping is a brilliant passive marketing method to boost any brand's awareness.

5. Run competitions on social media

Another way to get your customers and followers to market your brand is on social media. In this final tip, what you can do is offer something for free to your followers.

In exchange, they have to like and share your posts on social media. As you can imagine, some of their friends will do the same and vice-versa. Let's face it: everyone loves free stuff!