3 Need-To-Know Small Business Branding Guidelines

Running a small business means wearing lots of different hats. From product creation to research and development to demographics studies to marketing and sales, there are a plethora of moving parts involved in running a successful small business. One of the most important things you can do for your small business is to define and create its brand. Because we know how hard small business owners work – and how critical branding is – we’ve created the following small business branding guidelines to help you develop a brand your target market will flock to.

1. Know Your Target Market
   Research your target market as if your business depends on it – because it does. Without a thorough knowledge of your target market, you won’t stand a chance of getting their attention. You need to know who they are, where they spend time, their income levels, their disposable income, their hobbies, and their preferred shopping and delivery methods. Surveys and focus groups are simple, affordable ways to conduct target market research.
   Pro Tip: Most small business owners are their target market because many successful products are born from a personal need. Start your research by determining how you’d shop for and buy your product.
2. Define The Personality of Your Business
   From color choices to font selection to company culture, your business has its own personality. Think about it – a children’s toymaker, a bakery, and a law firm will all have very different brand personalities. That means the colorful, playful logo and font that define a children’s retailer cannot be used to accurately represent a law firm. What personality does your business have?
   Pro Tip: The personality of your business can – and should – adjust itself to fit different segments of your target market. Without altering your logo, you can redefine your personality to reach segments like children, vegans, ready-to-wear, etc.
3. Create Custom Marketing Materials
   The marketing materials that work for your small business can differ greatly from what works for others. At MYDRINT, our small business design tool lets you create truly custom, unique-to-you marketing pieces like postcards, flyers, banners, and signage. It’s easy-to-use, easy-to-understand, and features a self-paced tutorial that walks you through everything you need to know to create stunning, effective marketing materials that help your business thrive.
   Pro Tip: Start with the tried-and-true marketing power of a custom business card. From there, choose complementing pieces that tell the story of your products and services. Create custom marketing products to offer discounts and special pricing, lead shoppers to your online and brick and mortar stores, and create unique tradeshow giveaways.

Successful sales happen when you understand the correlation between branding and marketing. When you define your small business branding guidelines, you give your business a much needed competitive edge. Defining your small business branding guidelines helps you create brand consistency, cohesiveness among team members, and makes your brand easy for your ideal consumers to remember and recognize. Making your brand memorable makes it easier to reach your audience, depict your business persona, and drive traffic to your purchase portals.

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