Twill's six top tips: How to build a brand for a small business

You might have just started setting up your own business – either with clothing, food products, or another product or service. Now, it's time to make this product attractive and desirable. And with that, it is time to build your brand for your small business.

We've pulled together six top tips from our webinar series "Scale up your business", in partnership with ITC SheTrades, on the topic of how you can build brand strategies to attract new customers. Let's look at the tips from our expert Ade Adeluwoye, Global Head of Marketing Strategy at Maersk!

1. Understand why brand building is so essential for your business

First and foremost, it is important to know what a brand means. A brand is an overall experience and perception that differentiates a company or product from its competitors. It is defined by multiple direct and indirect interactions with the brand. Branding is every touchpoint the client comes in contact with over the entire span of the company's existence.

There are clear benefits of strong branding for a small business. Studies show that brand strategies are essential for big and small companies. 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values. And 75% of consumers cite brand awareness as a significant influencer in making their buying decision.

Of course, small businesses do not have large budgets to spend on branding, such as larger companies have. But small businesses can learn to build an inexpensive branding strategy effectively. This will enable you to withstand economic downturns and adversity. It guides customer decision making and allows you to charge premium prices, acquire new customers and keep the ones you already have.

2. Create a unique value proposition

A value proposition promises your customers why they should buy a product or service from your business – and not your competitors. Your value proposition should describe the following:

• How your product or service solves/improves problems

• What benefits customers can expect

• Why customers should buy from you over your competitors

There are three steps to create a good value proposition for your business:

Your value proposition should be on point – easy to read and be understood within five seconds. Then you are all set for the next step.

3. Develop brand consistency

To build a brand strategy that attracts new customers, brand consistency for your business is critical.

"Brand consistency creates trust. Trust creates more customers. More customers allow you to scale up your business."

— Ade Adeluwoye, Global Head of Marketing Strategy at Maersk

Here are the six most important tips and tricks to keep brand consistency:

1. Keep logos and fonts consistent

2. Create a set of brand guidelines for your business – dos and don'ts

3. Audit and update branded materials – signage, Social Media, Sales content, Webpages

4. Keep a consistent and authentic tone of voice when speaking to customers 

5. Website: Make sure it includes your value proposition and has a look and feel consistent with your branding

6. Listen and review – establish feedback loops with customers

Then you are all set to move to the next step – building emotional connections through your brand and with that sales success for your business.

4. Build emotional storytelling and content

To boost your brand, you need to move from functional to emotional messaging. But how do you build emotional storytelling for your business? Here are some guidelines:

1. Show your industry expertise by establishing yourself as a go-to resource and subject matter expert in your field.

2. Create the right content: Do your research to figure out what kinds of questions your customers are asking—and then create content that answers those questions. Moreover, you should involve customers in your brand and show your success via customer stories.

3. Connect with your customer's emotional side and identify the following: their freedom, security, pleasure, status, health.

4. Create partnerships: To boost your brand and engage with a larger audience, another big opportunity is to team up with a business that offers complementary services to yours. With this, you will get the opportunity to take advantage of synergy, which can effectively build your brand.

5. Create customer centricity

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, said once: "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room", this shows that customer-centricity should be at the core of your business.

So, make sure that all your decisions are made with the customer at heart. You should think, "is this the best for the customer, and what does the customer need?" Customers will notice the difference when dealing with your business.

Do you ask yourself how you can incorporate customer-centricity in your everyday business life? Here are some first ideas:

1. Send helpful emails or special promotional email campaigns

2. Use customer loyalty programs

3. Create strategic customer communication loops with constant satisfaction surveys

This will help you to overcome potential barriers between your business and your customers.

6. Focus on brand building and let Twill take care of the logistics

Having logistics specialists at your disposal can be invaluable to your business' growth – whether they're taking management of your logistics off your hands or providing advice and expertise to help you avoid costly delays or charges. That's why Twill is here to help you. At Twill, we are supercharged by industry leader Maersk, providing you with an intuitive digital logistics platform that lets you book freight shipments in minutes. Discover more about Twill now.