Top 13 Low-Cost Small Business Branding Tips That Actually Work

Top 13 Low-Cost Small Business Branding Tips That Actually Work

Branding can prove very tricky for small businesses. That’s because a small business would naturally have a smaller budget to promote its brand. 

At the same time, small business branding is essential because it has to compete with established and well-known players in the field and bag a slice of the market share.

Does this imply that small businesses should abandon branding or give it lower priority compared to other activities? Not really. 

In this article, I will be discussing these top 13 low-cost small business branding tips that actually work. And trust me, they won’t burn the proverbial hole in your pocket or business coffers.

13 Top Low-Cost Small Business Branding Ideas

These 13 low-cost small business branding ideas are time-tested and proven. Millions of small businesses worldwide are using some of these ideas to further their brand image. 

As a small business owner, you too could try these ideas for branding your enterprise.

Blogging

Opening a business blog is the best low-cost and highly effective solution for small business branding. Nowadays, it doesn’t cost much to open a good business blog. 

All that you need is a great domain name that matches your brand and website hosting with other essentials. 

You can start a blog effortlessly; using WordPress, you can create a blog with minimal cost. 

Along with the branding of your small business, you can also monetise it, which will help you generate side income from your business blog. You will require excellent content for the blog. 

Research proves that around 90 per cent of all buyers read blogs before deciding to place the final order. A business blog can thus help you in branding, fetching leads, and converting them as customers.

Email Marketing

A lot of small business owners falsely believe that email marketing is equal to spamming. 

Email marketing is one of the best and low-cost ways of branding your small business. You can build a great email list from your business blog. That way, you can send emails to persons that are genuinely interested in your brand. 

Emails are a frequent reminder of your brand to customers and leads. Brand-related emails are very cost-effective too and serve the desired purpose.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the best tools for branding. And it’s highly cost-effective. Nearly half of all sales on Amazon come through its affiliate marketing network. 

Several bloggers will promote your brand through their affiliate links and content when you offer an affiliate program. 

This gives your brand free coverage online, over various blogs and affiliate marketing channels on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and more. 

You have to pay affiliate marketers only when a customer places an order using their affiliate links.

Facebook

Facebook and Facebook Business are two excellent resources for branding your business. 

While Facebook Business requires a monthly subscription, opening a page for your brand using your profile is free. 

Nowadays, every business- small and large- uses Facebook for branding. They post exciting and engaging as well as relevant content for their followers to view. 

If your content is interesting enough, followers will also share it on their Facebook pages, thus popularising your brand.

LinkedIn

Another excellent resource for branding that you can’t afford to neglect is LinkedIn. As you would know, it is the single largest online portal for professionals to network. 

Small and large businesses also mark their presence on LinkedIn. That’s because it allows people to notice your brand worldwide. 

And you can also create your posts about your brand on LinkedIn for people to like and share, as with other social media. 

LinkedIn helps in branding your business, but it can also help your business grow by getting the correct clients.

Create a Wonderful Website

We’re living in the new normal where most people shop online for products and services they require. 

Therefore, to get noticed by customers online, you will require a fantastic website. That way, you can have a solid online presence. 

Furthermore, you can also engage people with your website. Typically, a website would have contact details. 

This allows prospective consumers of your brand to ask questions or express their opinions about your business. 

All these would be potential leads for your small business. Therefore, include starting a website as part of your brand communications strategy for your small business.

Excellent Content Strategy

All the points that I mention earlier require one thing in common. And that’s a solid content strategy. 

Content marketers testify that blogs, websites, and emails with unique content generate up to 120 per cent more consumers to a business. 

And to do so, you would require superb content creation. This means creating content that’s engaging, interesting, and relevant enough to engage people. 

The fresher content you have on your website and blog, the higher the number of people interested in your business. 

That’s because people always want to hear about something new that concerns them directly. 

Your content should also be interesting enough for people to share since that increases engagement with the public.

Deploy Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers don’t cost much. However, they can effectively promote your brand within a small community where they’re famous. 

A lot of small businesses use micro-influencers as their brand ambassadors. You can deploy a team of micro-influencers in your target audience for your brand. 

That way, you can cash in on the followings of these micro-influencers and get to popularise your brand through their fame.

Create a YouTube Channel

Maybe you’re unaware, but YouTube allows you to open a free channel using your Google account. A YouTube channel is one of the best ways to promote your brand. 

You can create amazing videos about your small business and upload them on your YouTube channel. 

Promote the YouTube channel through your business blog, business website, and social media channels. 

Nowadays, people love to watch stories. Therefore, you can create real-life stories of customers satisfied with your brand and upload them on your YouTube channel.

Sell Through Amazon

If your small business is into manufacturing items, one of the best and low-cost branding tips that I could provide is to sell your stuff over Amazon. 

That’s because Amazon is the single largest online retailer in the world. Many small businesses have become popular, and their products found wide acceptance because of their presence on Amazon. 

Amazon charges a fee for your seller’s account when you make a confirmed sale to the customer. 

However, your brand gets worldwide exposure through Amazon, and you can also benefit from their affiliate marketing program.

Own an Online Marketplace

Having your online marketplace also helps in branding your small business while finding customers. This, however, depends upon the nature of your small business. 

You can open an online marketplace on Shopify under your brand and sell the stuff if you’re into manufacturing. Millions of people look for various kinds of stuff on Shopify marketplaces. 

You, too, can benefit from the popularity of Shopify. Opening a Shopify marketplace is economical and doesn’t cost much. Their monthly subscription fees are very affordable. 

The other online resource you can try is Facebook Marketplace. This is a free resource, though it comes with some limitations. You can promote your brand through Facebook Marketplace as well.

Use Hashtags

One of the few people’s little-known branding strategies is to use your brand’s hashtags with your social media posts and blogs. That way, people immediately notice your brand. 

Hashtags help you reach a much broader audience and create a better awareness of your brand than merely social media posts. Therefore, use hashtags where possible on your social media posts. 

I would also recommend you use hashtags on your business website and emails. That way, people can access your content more easily and learn about your small business.

Superb Brand Logo

So far, we’ve spoken about the ways to do branding online for your small business. However, there’s something we need to consider, which is offline and also very important. And that’s your brand logo. 

Your brand logo has to be something that a customer will notice and identify with immediately. A custom logo design speaks a thousand words of your brand as compared to all other techniques. 

Think of how many times you’ve seen a logo and immediately recognised the brand. Several times, I’m sure. 

Therefore, invest some money in having an impressive brand logo that would register immediately in people’s minds and remind them of your brand.

Never Rush with Branding

One of the errors that most businesses make is that they try to rush with their branding. 

Here, it’s worth remembering that branding is a slow process, unlike marketing. You cannot expect people to remember your brand immediately. 

It has to be done gradually, like building a wall, brick by brick, and over time. You cannot build a brand overnight. Again, I will cite the example of Amazon. 

After the so-called magic spell, Abracadabra, the multi-billion Dollar giant, was named Cadabra by its founder Jeff Bezos. 

However, they scrapped the name because Cadabra would translate in Spanish as cadaver, meaning a dead body. 

Therefore, the founder of Amazon had to invest in branding, and it took years for Amazon to become famous and gain its position as the world’s largest online retailer.

Digital Marketing is Important

As you can see from the small business branding tips above, most of them are for online purposes. 

That’s because branding online is more cost-effective than offline branding. 

Nowadays, it’s more important to have a strong brand presence online since most people prefer to do business over the Internet rather than offline.

Therefore, you would also require excellent digital marketing for your online presence, such as website, blog, Facebook, social media, and YouTube channel.

Digital marketing would involve doing on-page and off-page Search Engine Optimisation for your blog, YouTube channel, and business website. 

This increases the chances of your brand being noticed by a more significant number of people. Digital marketing doesn’t cost much. 

Most small businesses enlist the services of a freelancer for digital marketing and pay only when necessary. There’s a strong link between digital marketing and branding a small business. 

Digital marketing could help your brand to become famous online and attract more customers too. 

Therefore, it’s best to consider digital marketing as part of your small business branding strategy.

In Conclusion

Branding by itself is a complex process. That’s because branding can define the line between failure and success of a business with the customer. 

A good brand could ensure that your business prospers and grows, while poor branding could cause it to falter and fail. 

Therefore, I suggest you consider all the above avenues for low-cost small business branding, depending on your needs. 

Promoting a brand online requires much-dedicated effort on the part of the business owner too.