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Brand Building for Small Business

Brand Building for Small Business

A Blog for Entrepreneurs Looking to Create and Develop their Corporate Identity

  • Your Brand: The Beginning
    • Why Bother?
    • Build vs. Buy
    • Where to Begin?
    • What’s in a Name?
    • Design Your Own Logo
      • Don’t Let Them Mess with Your Logo
    • Know Your Audience
    • Vision Statement
    • Brand Style Guide
    • Choosing a Color
    • Business Cards
      • Microsoft Word
      • Corel Draw
    • Mission Statement
    • Business Letterhead
      • Microsoft Word – Instructions & Template
      • Microsoft Word – Video Tutorial
      • Corel Draw – Instructions & Template
    • Business Envelopes
    • Choosing Paper
    • Annual Brand Checkup
    • Side-by-Side Comparisons Can Be Helpful
    • Your Brand Manager
    • Role of Branding in Business Plans
  • Opportunities for Publicity
    • 10 Minute Branding
      • Ask a Customer (Just One) To Do a Review
      • Build a Contact Prospect List
      • Conduct an Ongoing Three-a-Day Sales Campaign
      • Sponsor a Community Team
      • Go Shopping!!
    • Social Media
      • The Simplest Social Media Strategy
      • Get Your Business Started on Pinterest
      • How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Business
      • Social Media: One More Reason to Bother! (Betting on the Long Shot)
      • Creating a “Follow Us on Social Media” Sign
        • Microsoft Word
        • Corel Draw
      • Creating a Mail Merge Document for Direct Response Mailing
      • Branding Through Blogging
      • A “Legal-Approved” Free Collection of Social Media Icons
    • Social Influencers
      • How I Learned Social Influencers Rule the World
      • Approaching Social Influencers
      • Approaching Social Influencers: Sample Text
    • Reviews
      • Getting Reviews for Your Business
      • Review Request Sign
    • Direct Mail/Email
      • Role of Branding in Direct Mail/E-mail
    • Press Releases
      • Press Releases as Another Opportunity for Branding
      • Press Release Generator – Identifying Your Content
      • Press Release Generator – Sample Press Release Announcing a New Hire
      • Press Release Generator – Sample Press Release Announcing an Employee Promotion
      • Press Release to Introduce Ourselves as Part of National Small Business Week in May
    • Campaign (Re)Launches
      • The One That Got Away!
    • Small Bus Saturday
      • What Comes Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
    • Holidays
      • Holiday Cards
      • Free Holiday Card Template for Your Business
      • Holiday Branding
    • Charitable Contributions
    • October 27th:  National Blogger’s Day?
    • Bad Press
    • “Best of” Business Awards
    • National Small Business Week
  • Cultivating Your Presence
    • 10 Minute Branding
      • SEO
        • Make Sure Your Web Site is Included in Search Engines’ Index
        • Review Your Web Pages’ Titles
        • Review Your Web Pages’ Descriptions
        • Meta Keywords
      • Brand Consistency
        • Always Have a Back-up on Hand
      • Monitoring Brand Mentions
        • When was the last time you googled yourself?
        • Make Google Alerts Work for Your Business
      • Favicons (and a Favicon Generator)
      • A Match Made in Minutes
      • New Year Greetings
      • Order Pizza for Your Employees
      • Protect Your Brand: Check for Copyright Infringement
      • Visit a Competitor’s Web Site
      • 2023 – Start a Fresh, New “To Do” List!!
    • Design Resources
      • FREE Pictures Are Also Worth a 1,000 Words (and Can Help Promote Your Brand)!
      • Optimal Resolution for Optimal Output
      • How to Get the Best Fonts for Free
      • Finding the Right Font: A Review of the Best Available Font Viewers
      • A Few of My Favorite Fonts
      • Nicely Branded Displays Help Sell! (i.e., Branding and Your Trade-Show Booth)
    • Advertising
      • Role of Advertising in Successful Branding
      • Creating Ads that Communicate Your Brand
    • Web Design
      • Attention Small Business Owners: Yes, You Need a Web Site!
      • Web Design: Everyone has to Start Somewhere
      • A Simple SEO Hack from Neil Patel
      • SEO Resources
      • Landing Pages
    • Customer Service
      • Branding Through Customer Service
      • In Search of the Holy Grail (of Branding)
      • Clever Customer Service
    • Personal Branding
      • Personal Brand(ing) – Another Way to Build Your Small Business
      • Small Business vs. Entrepreneurship vs. “Influencer”: Which Best Describes You?
      • Personal Branding and the “Newspaper Test”
    • Crisis Management
      • Crises Management: Messages Sent Now Will Define You Forever
      • Weathering the Storm
      • Branding and the Pandemic
      • How to Market Your Small Business During Coronavirus Pandemic
      • Customer Service During Crises
      • Time to Rebrand?
      • Rebranding and the Cancel Culture
      • ZOOM!!
      • Considerations When Starting or Restarting a Brand
      • How to Protect Your Brand When You Receive Bad Publicity from Customers
    • Branding Calendar
    • Thank You Card
    • Happy Birthday Card
    • Political Branding
    • Copyright Protection
    • Motivation
      • Confidence
      • Dream Big
      • Getting Started
      • Moving Forward
      • Opportunity
      • Success
    • Brand Recognition
    • Today’s TIP
      • Another Way to Build Your Brand
      • Branding and the Role of Leadership
      • Bridge Building and National Small Business Week 2022
      • Celebrate
      • Embrace Responsive Branding
      • Fonts Matter
      • Give Thanks
      • A Good Brand
      • Invest in Your Brand
      • Keys to Branding
      • Listen to Your Customers
      • Montor Your Web Site Branding Over Time
      • Pride Month
      • Reputation is Everything
      • Request Testimonials
      • Role of Introspection
      • The Roles of Perspiration vs. Inspiration
      • Saying Thank You
      • Shaping Your Brand
      • Take a Break
      • The U.S.A. as a Brand
      • Volunteering
      • A Way to Welcome a Brand New Year
      • You Can Multiply Each Customer Contact X 11
      • Your Brand Story
  • About Us
    • Bob Thomas
    • Carole Mancuso
    • Current Approach to Branding
      • How to Build Your Brand 10 Minutes at a Time
      • Weeeeeeeeeeee’re Back . . .!
  • Other Resources

Tag: customer service and branding

Considerations When Starting or Restarting a Brand

With many small businesses of necessity reinventing themselves, we thought the most useful approach for us to take at this time in helping small businesses reboot was to highlight certain articles that – when read together – would provide a branding tutorial.  (For those readers just getting started rather than restarted, this collection should provide a helpful shortcut, too.)

Build vs. Buy
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2019/08/28/your-brand-build-vs-buy/
This article considers whether to take a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) approach or to hire some outside expertise to help with your branding efforts.

What’s in a Name?
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2019/08/29/brand-basics-part-i-whats-in-a-name/
This piece examines some of the considerations in selecting the right name for a well-branded operation.  (For those businesses looking to reboot that may or may not need a new name, we suggest you also read “Time to Rebrand?” below.)

Design Your Own Logo
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2019/09/08/brand-basics-part-2-design-your-own-logo/
This tutorial provides a very hands-on approach to building your logo.   Whether you are considering a totally new design or simply looking to adjust, adapt, and tweak an existing one, these tips (including where to find needed tools) should prove useful.

Know Your Audience
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2019/10/15/know-your-audience/
A very basic but essential part of any branding or rebranding exercise should be to make sure you still know your audience and have chosen branding elements that properly reflect their characteristics.  This article reviews some of the basics for you to consider.

How to Create a Mission Statement
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2019/10/16/how-to-create-a-mission-statement-including-definitions-examples-and-a-mission-statement-generator/
Never got around to writing your Mission Statement?  Or, perhaps, your business has changed pretty dramatically and you forgot to review this document at least annually to make sure the message still properly applied to you.  If either of these statements (or several others I can imagine) apply to you, this article should help you get up to speed.

The Role of a Brand Style Guide
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2019/09/17/brand-basics-part-3-the-role-of-a-brand-style-guide/
Once you have completed each of the above activities BUT BEFORE YOU BEGIN BUILDING BASIC TOOLS LIKE BUSINESS CARDS OR LETTERHEAD OR INCORPORATING THE ELEMENTS INTO MARKETING OR ADVERTISING EFFORTS (we’ll provide a refresher on those soon), take the time to create a style guide that puts into writing the most basic rules that must be observed to properly build the visual element of your new brand/rebrand.

Note:  Helpful downloadable tools/templates are provided to add extra value to the pieces described above.

Worth Another Look at this Time

Time to Rebrand?
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2020/04/15/time-to-rebrand/
As the title suggests, the narrative is dedicated to examining some of the indicators that a rebrand is in order. 

Customer Service During Crises
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2020/04/09/customer-service-during-crises/
This blog entry reminds us that branding involves far more than just creating a few recognizable visual elements.  Customer Service is always at the heart of your brand.  Taking a close look at this time helps identify those branding qualities that will resonate with your audience.

Branding and the Pandemic
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2020/03/31/branding-and-the-pandemic/
Specifically, the second half of this article includes some information on the importance of self-reflection.

In Search of the Holy Grail (of Branding)
https://brandbuildingforsmallbusiness.com/2020/02/13/in-search-of-the-holy-grail-of-branding/
Why does branding matter?  Why do we invest the time, effort, and resources to launch a branding campaign?  This article tries to answer that question!

In upcoming posts, we plan to prepare similar recaps on:

  • Building essential branding tools such as letterhead, business cards, etc.
  • Incorporating branding to marketing and advertising sales campaigns.
  • Maintaining your brand.

Bob Thomas Uncategorized Leave a comment May 11, 2020May 12, 2020 2 Minutes

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