7 Secrets to Branding Your Small Business - What Every Small Business Needs to Succeed

Hey everybody, welcome back. Let's talk about seven branding secrets for a small business. How to dominate your niche. When it comes down to it, the real secret to small business and entrepreneurial success is just plain hard work. But when you're working hard, you wanna make sure that you're working hard on the right things, because there's nothing worse than putting in sweat equity and not building any brand equity for your sweat. So in this video, I'm gonna share with you seven secrets, seven major themes for small business branding that if you focus on them, I guarantee you, you're going to be on the right track to success. And to be honest, the principles of branding have remained unchanged for decades. But I want you to stay with me to the end because I'm gonna share with you one big thing that has changed about branding that could mean the difference between the success and the failure of your business in today's market environment. Now, the first secret is brand story. You might've heard me say this before, but humans value humans over brands. That's why word of mouth referrals always triumph over any kind of marketing. But a brand isn't human. Sure, there are humans behind the brand, but if you don't tell their story, who they are, why they started the company, what their mission is, then no one, no customers are ever gonna care. That's why founder stories are so powerful. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their garage in Palo Alto, California, building the first Mac out of Radio Shack parts and plywood. These are the things that business legends are made out of. Here's another one. Colonel Sanders started Kentucky Fried Chicken as a side hustle in retirement. And after a lifetime as a salesman and a gas station manager, he started KFC and a converted gas station in North Corbin, Kentucky. And 10 years later, thanks to franchising, it was the largest restaurant chain in the world. Now, these are human stories that people remember. They feel them in their hearts. So I want you to think about what is your brand story? How are you gonna tell it in a really evocative way? How are you gonna make it resonate with people on a very human level? Number two is brand look and feel. You've heard me say it a million times by now. A brand is not a logo. But let's say it this way. A brand is not only a logo. To build a strong brand, you have to design the brand. You have to create it with intention. You need to create a brand look and feel. Yes, with a logo, but also with a color palette, specific fonts, photography, illustration styles, possibly even pattern or textures, layout styles. You might even consider sounds or smells or animation styles. And then you have to use them religiously, consistently from day one. In all my years of branding and in the agency business, this is the biggest mistake that I see small businesses make. They don't invest in brand design at the beginning and before you know it, the whole thing is an inconsistent mess of logos and styles and colors. And that mess, I tell you, is very expensive to clean up. So if you have a small business or you're thinking about starting a small business, I wanna take a moment and tell you about a really great YouTube channel that I found. And they happen to be the sponsors of this video. GoDaddy's YouTube channel is dedicated to sharing content specifically curated to small businesses. They're on a mission to make entrepreneurship more inclusive for all with support and tools and insights. If you're just starting out or you already have a business, they have educational and inspiring content on their channel to help everyday entrepreneurs take their ideas online and share them with the world. They have a lot of great playlists on their channel too. There's one called Makers x GoDaddy, which is filled with inspiring entrepreneurial success stories. There's another one called Made in America, which features stories of minority-owned small businesses that are pushing towards success. There's one called The Journey, which is a playlist of videos that help you build the skills that you need to be successful in your small business. Now, the link to GoDaddy's channel is in the description of this video, and I would definitely suggest that you subscribe. I did, and I promise you, you won't regret it. Now let's get back to the list. Number three is brand voice. Just like you have to create a visual appearance for your brand, you also have to make a conscious decision about how you're gonna sound. What is your brand voice going to be? Are you going to be stern? Are you gonna be soft? Are you gonna be sensual? Are you gonna be friendly? Are you going to sound comforting or cautionary? Are you gonna guide people? Are you gonna be protective? Are you gonna be inspiring? There are tons of voices to choose from. Your voice needs to align closely with your brand story and resonate with your customer avatar and what they really need from your brand. It has to be what they want to hear, not necessarily just what you want to say. I have this quote that I like to say, which is the graveyard of broken brands is littered with companies that only cared about the message that they wanted to push out and not what their customer was yearning to hear. Number four is brand presence. Now, this one is a biggie. Where are you gonna show up? How are you gonna show up? Now it's time to start building your brand ecosystem, your website, all your social channels, your content footprint, things like podcasts and video content, blog posts, articles, newsletters, imagery posts, live streams. This also has to include your push marketing, what your paid advertising and promotions are, as well as your pull marketing, which is your inbound marketing, including things like content. Where are you going to be seen? And where will you be heard? What is your presence going to be? And what is your message going to be? Now here's a power tip I really want you to think about. Think about what you can do consistently. Many small businesses try to be everywhere at once and they end up being invisible everywhere. It's always better to go deep on one or maybe two platforms and only expand after you've been consistent with no gaps for six months. You have to show up enough to be recognized and remembered, which is part of the three R's I'm always talking about, recognized, remembered, and revered. That brings us to number five, brand promise. Okay, now, you know where and how you're gonna show up. What is the value you are going to bring? This isn't just the value of social media or content. This is the big value question. What are you bringing to the customer that's an irresistible solution to their problem? What is the brand promise that you're making? What is your mission? How are you better? How are you different than your competition? This promise to your customer has to be chanted like a mantra by every single person and employee in your company. Your product has to deliver on it. Your services have to deliver on it. Your people and associates have to have it in their DNA. A brand promise is like a wedding vow. It is forever. Number six is an awesome one, brand equity. This one isn't something that you actually do. It's something that's a result. It's the result of everything else that you do. When you show up consistently, when you look and sound authentic, when you deliver that value and make good on that promise, equity is the result. Brand equity, like financial equity, is built over time. It's like compounded interest. It takes time, but if you build brand equity in your customer base, then a magical thing will happen. They will share you with their friends via word-of-mouth marketing, and word-of-mouth marketing is the brand-building gold standard. And one of the things to remember about brand equity is that brand equity generally has a really long lifespan. Brand preferences are passed down to children. Brand preferences are passed down through generations. Think about it. Were you a Tide or a Gain family? Did you have Coors or did you have Bud in your house? Was there Coke or Pepsi on your picnic tables? Were you a Mac family or a PC family? Did you eat Skippy or Jif? Did you go to McDonald's or Burger King? People are brand loyal. Even when they don't say it in customer surveys, they are proven to be brand loyal over long periods of time. Like I said, sometimes even generations. What our parents use, we tend to use and trust, because if it was good enough for mom, you get the idea. Number seven is brand engagement. This is the big change in branding that I mentioned at the beginning of this video. Branding is not a one-way street anymore. Back in the day, there was a TV ad. Your mom bought the detergent, rinse and repeat. Everyone was happy, life was simple. But now we post content, we do live streams, we host events and conferences, we tweet, we post stories and shorts, we have comment exchanges on DMs and AI and chatbots, and then we deliver the product or the thing. There are infinite number of ways to engage today. But the important thing to remember here is that brand building is now much more of a two-way street. The customer has a voice and they have a platform for making their voice heard. To build strong brand equity in your small business, you have to engage with your customers. You have to engage authentically and honestly, like a human being, living the mission of your brand in every action that you take and every conversation that you have, every single day. Let's do a quick review. Number one was brand story, where we came from and what we are. Number two was brand look and feel, what we look like. Number three was brand voice, what we say, how we say it, what we sound like. Number four is brand presence, where and how we show up. Number five is brand promise, what is the value and what do we deliver. Number six was brand equity, the results of our labor, and number seven was brand engagement, conversations and true relationships. So that's it, seven secrets to building your small business. If you like this video, please hit the subscribe button, bang that notification bell, and remember to check out GoDaddy's YouTube channel. You will really be glad you did. The link to their channel is in the video description below or you can just search it on YouTube and GoDaddy's channel will come right up. And so with that, thanks again for watching. Bye for now.