If you own a small business in New York City, there’s a good chance that growth is happening slowly, if at all due to high competition.
According to the Bureau of Labor, twenty percent of small businesses close their doors within their first year of operation, and it goes up to 50 percent within the first five years. So struggle is a common problem.
The good news is, we’re here to discuss some branding strategies that can help even if you’re in a competitive city like New York.
Optimize Your Website<
Making full use of your website means more than just making sure that it contains all your relevant contact information and your available products for customers in your county and outlying areas.
An optimized website will include a user friendly interface, an attractive but functional appearance, and frequently updated content that is full of SEO keywords.
One great way to help with the last point is to include a company blog with helpful articles. One statistic points out that companies with blogs produce, on average, sixty-seven percent more leads every month.
Blogs are great ways to build interest and readership by creating original and engaging content. They’re also the perfect place for including SEO keywords that may not fit organically on your actual webpage content.
Construct A Cohesive Visual Identity
Your brand is about more than just the services and goods that you offer. Your brand is made up of every point of customer interaction, from marketing materials to your website to your follow-up.
A cohesive visual identity promotes your brand in a harmonious way.
Cohesiveness in visuals means that every visual aspect of your brand fits together, plays well together. It doesn’t mean that you have to have a monochrome color scheme, or stick to one font and one font only. In fact, it’s wise to put together a brand style guide that outlines a variety of palettes, fonts, graphics, icons, and the like that can be employed across your visual identity.
A cohesive visual identity allows your customers to keep familiarity with your look while still making room for diversity and adaptability.
Your style guide should be followed throughout marketing campaigns and across platforms.
Choose A Memorable Logo
Your logo is a big part of the visual identity, but it deserves special consideration.
Why?
Because your logo is usually the first contact that a prospective client has with your business. Whether they see your logo in marketing, as a vendor or sponsor, or on your brick and mortar store, it should be memorable.
Effective logos:
Make a solid first impression
Reflect the message of the brand
Are unique
Are legible and easy to understand
Are scalable and adaptable
Not everybody is up for creating a personalized logo that fits a company’s necessary criteria, and that’s perfectly fine. There are plenty of websites out there which can help with that chore.
Use Strategic Promotions
Everybody likes a free giveaway. And most people are more likely to pay attention if there’s a chance they might get a hefty percentage off a product.
Some companies start this way right out of the gate, offering discounts as soon as the doors open. They do this because it works. If your company has really hit a rough patch and you aren’t seeing new clients or customers come in, a “new client” discount could be the answer. Another option is to offer referral bonuses to existing clients who bring in others.
A word of caution: use these carefully. If it clearly has become a habit for your company to offer twenty five percent off every single week, the odds are that your customers will notice, and simply wait for the relevant coupon or daily special. This works well for larger companies, who rely on bulk sales. This may not go so well for smaller businesses, which need repeat customers who are willing to pay a little more for what they get.
It’s true, running a small business isn’t easy, and there certainly is a lot of competition. Some of it can get pretty cutthroat, too!
But with branding strategies such as the ones outlined above, your own small business could be headed for big success.
Author Bio
Olivia Harris is a freelance writer who loves coffee, cats and churros, not in any particular order. She travels to write, writes to travel. Connect with her for writing projects olivia.harris.writes[at]gmail.com.
