I started my small publishing business around four years ago now and one of the key things I’ve learned during that time is that branding is key. It’s really important that right from the very beginning, you establish yourself as a strong brand. You want your potential customers to remember you and to instantly know who you are just by seeing your logo.
What is branding?
Your brand is what makes you instantly recognisable. It will include your logo, colour scheme and maybe even a specific font that makes people think of you the moment that they see it. Think about Disney for example, everybody knows their font and their logo.
How do you even start creating your own brand?
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to branding. You’ll need to think about the type of products or services you’re offering, and make sure that your branding fits in with that. For example, if you’re a toy manufacturer, then you’ll probably want bright colours and large fonts. Whereas a solicitor will want to create a brand that looks sleek and professional. You can experiment with free colour scheme software such as coloors.com to find colours that work well together, and then spend some time looking into the fonts you’d like to use too.
Creating promotional products
Once you’re happy with your branding, then you’re ready to start thinking about promotional products. There are a few things you’ll need as the very minimum:
- Invoices
- Email headers
- Letterheads
- Compliment slips
- Business cards
But it’s also a good idea to create some promotional products too. These are branded products that you can give away to potential or existing customers and they can be a great way to spread the word about your business.
There are all kinds of things that you can have custom made with your branding and the type of business you’re running.
If you visit exhibitions or fairs as a business, then you might want to invest in a large roller banner so that you stand out to potential customers and you don’t get lost in the crowd.
You can also invest in all kinds of smaller promotional items that will all help to get your brand seen:
- Calendars
- Notebooks
- Branded pens
- Desk pads
You want your brand to be seen by as many people as possible, this is one of the ways that the big brands get themselves to where they are today.
If you’re currently in the process of building up your brand, then it’s really worth putting some time and thought into your branding. Creating a brand that gets recognised is half the battle to running a successful business.
