BRANDING YOUR OFFLINE BUSINESS

One area that is often overlooked by local business owners is how to build their personal brand. They open up a new store or location and forget about the branding aspect of it. In today’s marketing environment branding is much easier to accomplish, than in the past, due to the availability of numerous online marketing tools.

Let’s take a quick look at how to do this.

Before moving forward, regardless of the direction you want to take your business, all business owners should, at the very least, have a Facebook page and a Google My Business (GMB) profile. We’ll get into the importance of this shortly. 8 Ways to Do Local SEO without Building Content.

The goal of branding is to create a brand or image that helps identify your business. When someone arrives at your Facebook page or any of your social media profiles they should be able to recognize your business.

Business Name

In developing your brand, the first step is to come up with a business name. Now before settling in on the first name that comes to mind. You may want to spend some time coming up with a memorable business name. You will want the public to be able to associate your name with a product or service that you offer.

Secondly, your business name should be adaptable to any domain name that you create concerning your business. These future domain names need to be relative, easy to spell and remembered. When someone looks at your domain they should have an idea of what you offer. It should be relative to the niche you are in.

From a legal standpoint, make sure no one else has your name registered. I have seen this happen too many times. Do your research. Check if someone else is using your business name. This means local, state, and country. We operate inside a worldwide economy. So, look beyond your local neighborhood when coming up with a business name.

With domain names’ it’s impossible to have two of the same addresses or URL’s. What you need to be concerned about is if someone has used your domain name in the past, they let expire, and possibly mislead people and the domain got blacklisted. If this is the case, you can petition Google and let them know you have this domain blacklisted and you would like the label removed. But don’t hold your breath. The path of least resistance is to register a new domain. If you want to check out to see your domain’s health, check out MxToolbox.

Once your business name is registered there is not much you can do about it.

Your one-liner

You can call this your tagline, your mission statement, but it needs to be a line that helps people identify what your business is and the main problem you solve. This tagline needs to be something easy to remember and you can add additional text on your website or blog under the main heading.

Logo

To get started with your brand you want to select a design and colors that represent your business. There are sources out there on what colors represent. For example, Navy Blue is linked to trust, and Red to authority. You get the idea.

If you already have business cards and are happy with them, then use that as your logo. This logo needs to be uniform across your social media pages, your website, or your blog. From the customer’s standpoint, if they come across your Facebook page and then click the link to your website, they will see a consistent message and know, by your branding, that this is your web page. This also holds for your letterhead and promotional flyers. I think you can begin to see why branding is so important and it makes you look professional.

If you’re lost you can easily get a logo created. There are plenty of designers who will design one for you or you can use free tools and design your own. Word of caution, spend some time putting some thought into the logo. Look at how you want to grow your business, just don’t get bogged down with this process.

Tools

Some essential items that you will need are a hosting site for your website and/or your blog and an email provider. There are other online tools that you’ll need as you create content and do some analytics. There is no point in creating content that no one knows about. In my opinion, you are aiming at growing an email list. Another topic for another time. Let’s leave it here, email provides you with the best return on investment. Refer to “Can email still be an effective strategy?”

What’s Next?

Now that you have your infrastructure built. It is time to start growing your business. The most common starting point is to create content. But content doesn’t serve any purpose if no one reads it, sees it, or hears it.

This brings me to the topic that has to do with the SEO algorithm. I know you’re aware that Google is all about the customer experience. What I’m referring to, in customer experience, is that they are constantly looking for ways to promote the best content.

Though branding isn’t exactly a ranking factor for the algorithm. The steps you take to develop a strong brand are. This is why creating content focused on developing your brand is going to satisfy Google’s SEO algorithm.

From Google’s standpoint, if your content is getting plenty of clicks, low bounce rates, and time on site is high. It must be good. In Google terms, if this content is good then it must be promoted higher in the SERPs.  

How To Build Your Personal Brand

Building a personal brand is something that has become increasingly important in recent years. The rise of social media has offered a chance for an increasing number of people to sell their skills and abilities. And creating a brand is a great way to achieve this.

Building and developing your brand can offer you several benefits. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages that you can gain, as well as the top things you need to remember when building a brand for your local business.

Why Build A Personal Brand?

Building a brand for your local bus has nothing to do with ego or arrogance, and everything to do with setting yourself apart from the competition in your chosen field. Building your brand allows you to communicate what you know, as well as your areas and levels of expertise.

This, in turn, can lead to new opportunities in your career, including new contacts, job offers, and chances to network. Your audience will also have a greater level of trust in you. After all, you have proven that you know what you are talking about. Personal branding offers greater control over your online image.

Consider this: when someone Googles you, what are the things that you want to highlight? Cultivating your brand helps you to take charge, and puts you in the driver’s seat. Ways to Strengthen Your Online Presence

How To Build A Personal Brand

There are a few key steps to building a brand for your local, and these include:

Define Your Passions

If you are truly passionate about something, you will have no problem conveying this to your intended audience. True passion always shines through. This also ensures that you have the skills and confidence to go all the way in your chosen topic.

Don’t try to fake something you know nothing about.

It will soon become obvious that you are bluffing, and this can reduce your audience’s trust.

Discover What Sets You Apart

When we think of successful brands, something always sets them apart – a Unique Selling Point (USP). When cultivating your brand, you need to find your USP; this will be at the forefront of your marketing.

Perhaps you offer great job interview advice, have worked for a particular company, or have experience overseas. Find something that makes you stand out and your audience will follow.

Find Your Audience

Remember that no matter how great you are, you can never be all things to every person. This is why it’s important to find your audience.

Consider creating customer personas. What does your ideal audience look like? Where are they hanging out? Who do they follow? Align yourself with these values to endear yourself to new audiences and potential customers.

Remember, it’s better to capture a smaller niche than to spread yourself too thin over every area.

Be Authentic

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to be yourself. Authenticity will shine through. By being open, honest, and approachable, you present yourself as reliable and trustworthy – all attributes that will attract your dream audience.

Final Thoughts

Building a personal brand doesn’t have to be complicated – you just need to do a little research, plenty of planning, and, most importantly, be yourself. This is your recipe for success.