How to Brand Your Small Business (on a budget)
There is no doubt that we humans are creative peeps. And like it or not, often people buy from small brands that have an artistic brand (logos, business cards, web banners). But you don’t have to pay a fortune for pretty designs.
Many fellow small businesses offer pre-made branding, you just adjust the text to receive a cohesive brand design, often for just a few pounds. If you don’t have skills or software to amend the titles or colours, usually the designers can do this for you, at a small added cost.
Know Why You’re In Business
It’s known that people are prepared to pay a little more, for small independent brands that have good ethics. So rather than focus just on ‘making money’, do a little work on yourself to discover why you are in business, and what you wish to do to help society.
This makes it a lot easier to build a consistent brand, which will help you decide on a mission statement, tag lines, colours, fonts and images.
Be Consistent
If you look at successful brands, they tend to be consistent. The big unethical brands have often not changed their logos and colours for decades, as this builds trust (even from untrustworthy companies).
So do the same. Take the time to come up with a good brand design that you like, and try to keep it for at least a few years, so people get to feel comfortable and cosy with your brand and message.
Know Your Audience
Who buys your products or services? Where do they live, what are their values? Never think of your brand as ‘What can I sell to them?’, but more ‘How can I help them?’ This helps to build trust, so that you should end up with less customers or clients, but ones who remain loyal for years.
Learn a Software (or don’t!)
If you have some techy skills, free programs like CANVA are useful to build your own brand from affordable templates. But if you find this difficult, it’s often easier to just hand this part over to those who have the skills, so you can save time, and focus on your business (and your life!)
CANVA is also good for non-profits, to create free and affordable posters for community events, pet adoption drives and call-outs for volunteering.
You Don’t Need All the Designs!
Most designers offer a wide range of design options across a given theme. But often you don’t need all of them. For instance, if you run a small shop with a website, you likely only need a pre-made logo, perhaps an image for your cloth bags (so customers can advertise around town) and a web banner.
If you don’t have an Etsy shop, social media or email marketing newsletters, save yourself some time and money, and only choose the few items that you need, rather than confusing ‘bundles’.
Choose a Talented Affordable Designer!
Just because someone offers budget pre-made design, does not always mean that he or she has much talent! Spend a few pounds more on designers who have lots of talent and good reviews, then you won’t regret your purchase.
Here are a few talented designers to consider:
Anouska Rood offers pretty CANVA templates for e-books and brochures that you can amend yourself, or have her do it for you. Just pop your info on the pre-designed table of contents and covers, drop photos into layouts, and find pre-designed copyright, planners, worksheets and checklists.
The slide deck templates let you build your own courses, with space for success stories and testimonials. Anouska also offers quick techy design fixes, with top-notch customer service, from over the pond in The Netherlands.
The Design Pixie is a small business run by a young Aussie creator, who offers gorgeous colourful pre-made designs from logos to web templates to price list templates. Everything is super-affordable, and you can create a consistent brand, to fit your particular style.
Bluchic offers nice CANVA templates for bloggers who use social media. You can use these stand-alone, or use them with one of the company’s pretty WordPress theme, to brand your small business.
