Now more than ever, having a strong branding for your business is essential to standing 
out over your competitors. But as a small business owner, we know it is tough to compete against those with big advertising dollars who can easily promote their branding image. So what do you do?
We found some helpful tips from an informative blog targeted to small business owners. It’s called smallbusinessbonfire.com and here is what they recommend for boosting brand awareness on a small budget:
Attend local Networking Events. A great way to spread the word about your business is to attend local networking groups that are usually free or a minimal cost as compared to larger events. For example, in Orange County, CA a local writer did an Internet Search on networking groups in her area and found a number of events within 15 minutes of her home office. Eventbrite and Meetup are a good place to start.
Once you join and put in what you are looking for, you will start to get invites to join other similar networking groups. These groups give you an opportunity to publicize your business, hand out business cards and find out the needs of other entrepreneurs in the areas. It’s important to follow up with those you meet who made an impact on you and you want to get to know better or for future business!
2. Publicize through other blogs. For a reasonable cost, you can look to purchase advertising space on blogs that pertain to your industry. In addition, if you have blogs that you particularly like, take some time and leave a comment on a blog post. It helps you by connecting with other people in your industry and you can promote your business by having the comment link back to your website. Be sure to leave a comment that makes you look good and doesn’t work against you! Keep in mind that The Savvy Socialista offers advertising on our blog for businesses that compliment. If this is something that interested you please send us an email.
3. Be a guest blogger. As you start to connect with others and you find out that some of them in your industry (and not competitors) have blogs they maintain, offer to write a guest blog post. It positions you as a thought leader and gives your business added credibility. Click here for an article to also help build your branding online image. Again, The Savvy Socialista welcomes guest bloggers.
4. Join the Social Media Wave. We at The Savvy Socialista are obviously big fans of social media and believe as a small business owner, you can’t afford to not take advantage of the variety of social platforms out there. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram are the more notable ones and these are great to connect with your audiences and showcase your business brand and personality. You can set up and manage these yourself or rely on a business like The Savvy Socialista to help you with that. To understand how important just using Pinterest is you may want to read this article. If you haven’t started a Facebook page, now is the time! Facebook is a great way to get your branding out to potential clients. We shared ideas with you on how simple it is to set up a Facebook Business Page recently and you can check that out here.
5. Collaborate. Lastly, we recommend putting the new connections you make through the above four tips and find opportunities to collaborate with them. For example, you could work together to offer a bundled product or service special to customers or volunteer a bundled package of items together to donate to a well-known fundraiser event in your community. Keep in mind that when you help others, words gets around and it can do wonders in helping you with your branding efforts.
Still confused or need help with your branding? We are here to help! Fill out an Insight Form and we will look forward to working with you.