When you're starting a small business, the competition is tough. Keeping your doors open, making your first sales, and creating your first marketing campaigns can be overwhelming — trying to cultivate a brand identity on top of that can feel impossible. It takes a lot of work to identify your core target market, build buyer's personas, and understand what signature elements will resonate the most with your audience.
In fact, a lot of that work can't be done until your business has already started. Building a thriving local brand is crucial for standing out in a flooded market and creating a group of loyal return customers. Follow these tips to integrate this goal into your other marketing objectives.
Know the Local Market
Every local and regional market is different. Your shoppers will have unique concerns and preferences; everything from the economic conditions in your town and the weather to the historical food culture will determine how local shoppers interact with different brands and products.
So before your brand identity becomes entrenched, learn more about your community by taking part in cultural and seasonal events. Learn more about the local "language" and the concerns your target market needs their purchases to solve. Once you understand what the local market is looking for, you can craft your brand identity around it.
Create Local Partnerships
Even before your brand identity is finalized, it's important to be spreading the word about your business and products. Developing local partnerships with other small businesses is a great way to do this. If your online business partners with a brick-and-mortar store, see if you can have a stand of products in their store. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, offer the same opportunity to your partners or have a wall where businesses can post flyers and business cards.
By working together, you can quickly establish positive relationships with organizations that complement your business. These shared marketing opportunities and dozens of other ways to market jointly get your business in front of more shoppers, and that increased exposure are vital.
Build Trust Within the Community
A significant portion of your brand identity is determined by how shoppers feel about your brand. Lay the foundation of positive regard and trust by focusing on excellent customer service. This includes caring about your customers, which you can demonstrate through one-on-one assistance and personalized approaches to marketing. Displaying (and acting) on your company values also helps build trust. You can do this by using fair trade or green materials, buying locally made supplies, or donating proceeds to complementary causes.
Another crucial element of building trust is responding to feedback — both positive and negative. Whenever it's reasonable, make changes to your company policies or processes based on customer feedback, so shoppers feel they're being listened to.
Boost Your Online Reputation
Local and small businesses often depend on online marketing and local business directories to get new business. So actively monitor and maintain your online reputation by having a solid online process. Create or claim online profiles for your business, respond to reviews, post details of your promotions and initiatives, and more. Staying active online allows you to get in front of negative reviews and cultivate the reputation you want your business to have.
You can also use social media platforms to grow your online presence. Frequently posting about your business and local events, securing promotional posts from local figures and influencers, and engaging with customers on social media are all excellent tactics.
Support a Local Cause
Look for a local cause that complements your business or your business's values that you can publicly rally behind. Cause marketing is an excellent strategy for exposing your brand to new shoppers, partnering with other local organizations, and educating consumers about your brand identity. Everything from participating in a local food drive to sponsoring participants in nonprofit causes can start your journey into cause marketing.
Advertise on TV
Once you've laid the groundwork for your brand identity, it's time to spread the word. Advertising on local television channels exposes new consumers to your brand and products or services across your geographic area. Television-based marketing reaches thousands of households, even locally, and can have between 300 and 500% return on investment per dollar spent. Both broadcast and streaming platforms can help keep your business top-of-mind for shoppers you can convert into customers. Learn how to create a killer TV commercial that quickly captures your audience's attention and gives them the details about your brand they need to know.
Partner With a Media Partner to Establish Your Local Brand Faster
Building a successful brand requires a lot of research, action, and media marketing, and that can be hard to juggle alone when you're focusing on your business. Finding a complementary media partner that works with small and local companies can be of assistance. With expert help, you’ll more easily devise strategies to create brand identities, scale businesses by reaching new audiences and prepare promotional campaigns.
