Branding And Messaging - Overlooked By Most Small Businesses

While teaching a class for the Small Business Development Center, I found that more than 80% of all small businesses represented in that class did not have a defined approach to their marketing. Most had no idea how to begin, much less define their messaging. A few had logos designed and a business name picked out, but usually it was designed haphazardly with no thought to any cohesiveness of how they would be presented in print, and on the Internet. Most did not have any idea what colors were used or that it mattered if they wanted to present a consistent look to their potential customers.

Branding can communicate many different things to a potential customer. One client of mine wanted to communicate humor, good nature, and that he is unique. He chose to place humorous graphics on his website that presented an outer space theme for his company, Stellar Insurance Services. His logo was designed with the "stellar" in mind using a bright star graphic alongside the name. Throughout his Web site, stars were used as bullet points. Subliminally, he was also presenting the idea that he provided stellar, meaning high quality, better services than his competitors.

Many small businesses don't realize that time spent on defining their branding and messaging can be fun, and deliver great results. Logos don't have to be huge, or overly grandiose. Who doesn't know what the GE meatball looks like? Who doesn't know what the Coca-Cola typeface looks like? Sometimes, it is as simple as selecting the right typeface in order to develop a logo that stands out and can be recognized.

When starting out to define your look and messaging, begin with defining what you will offer to your clients. Then ask yourself what type of client do you want to attract? Who will be your audience? Do you know the best way to reach that audience? Defining your audience helps in determining what your branding should convey.

What messages do you want to communicate to your customer? Professionalism? Skill? Knowledge? Best In The Business? Exciting and new? When defining your messages, it is important to choose words and placement carefully. You don't want to be telling your customer that you are the best at breaking their plumbing pipes, but rather fixing them. You also don't want to tell the older generation customers that you are the "coolest" or "hottest" in town if they would respond better to "trustworthy" and "responsive."

A professor of mine once said to use the airplane barf bag method of picking out your good ideas. The idea was you dump out all the ideas you have into the bag, and then begin to pick out the less effective ones, leaving you with the good stuff in the bag. Sit down and begin a list of words and phrases that you think you want people to associate with your company. Build a list of words that describe your services or products. These words will help you later when you build a Web site and need keywords and descriptions for Search Engine Optimization.

Once you have all the words and phrases, examine them and see how they work with different ideas and concepts you could present to potential customers. As you review them and try them out on others, you will begin to see what works and what doesn't. With one of my clients, I attended a networking meeting and when introducing him, I tried out different phrases to describe the company just to see what kind of results they would get. One phrase in particular stood out and garnered lots of interest every time it was used. That was the phrase I recommended that they use consistently in their messaging.

Defining your branding and messaging actually helps you to define your company and its direction and should be done when you begin business or very soon after. Occasionally, branding and messaging will be adjusted and redefined throughout the life of your successful business when new types of customers need to be reached, or your growth warrants a "fresher" look. Be mindful of the reactions customers have to color, as well as design when defining your look. Most of all, have fun with this part of your business and try to enjoy it.

Susan McLain is proprietor of The Writing Way a business that provides writing and design services as well as marketing and advertising consultation and solutions to small and large businesses nationwide. Susan provides individualized consulting, writing and design that helps small businesses define their branding and messaging. You can contact Web sites are: http://www.thewritingway.com and http://www.thedesigningway.com