How to build your brand the easy way as a small business owner
As a creative small business owner, I’m sure you juggle many hats.
You are constantly building, marketing your products and may possibly be dancing on reels and even dealing with the non-fancy stuff such as replying emails and other boring administrative tasks.
I feel you.
You are doing all of these while trying to grow your small business.
You go over to the online space and look for tips and tricks on how to grow your small business and when you google about it, they talk about building a brand or branding.
What even is building a brand? Or branding?
There are so many big words and jargon on branding and building a brand. It can get overwhelming at times with jargons such as vision, mission, values and more.
You are looking for a simplified and easy way to build your brand without all the fluff. You are looking to build a brand that aligns with your values and your lifestyle. You are not trying to be like the big brands out there, grossing over millions. You are just trying to grow your small business in your own way.
If branding scares you just a little and you are unsure if you can actually build your brand your way. I’m here to tell you, you can build your brand in your own terms.
By using a simple and easy approach. This approach comes with no jargons.
Before we get into it, we gotta get down to basics and understand the big words.
What exactly does a brand means? And what is branding all about?
Contrary to the popular belief, your brand is not your logo or your products.
Your brand is how people perceive your business.
This is a quote from Seth Godin which talks more in depth about how people perceive your business.
“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.” – Seth Godin.
And branding is the process of showcasing what your brand does and who it is for. To put it in a simple way, it is how your brand acts, talks and looks.
Before you even start to build your brand, you got to take the time and figure out what your brand is all about and how you can showcase and live it.
And it all starts from the inside.
I have this simplified framework which can help you get started.
The 7 Steps on how to build a brand the easy way
Know your Self
Know your Core
Know your Product
Know your Quirk
Know your Personality
Know your Type
Know your Market
1. Know your Self
If you don’t know what you are working towards, how can you know the steps to take to build your brand?
This is the part where you get clear on your goals and how you want to build your brand to reach your goals.
Everyone is completely different and we all have different ways on how we want to build our brand.
What are your goals for your brand in 1 year’s time, 3 years’ time and 5 years’ time?
What do you want to achieve as a brand?
What does success looks like to you?
Why did you start your brand?
What is your story being your brand?
2. Know your Core
If you don’t know who you are as a brand, how can you know how to express yourself?
Your core is all about the inner being of your brand. Think of your brand as a person and think of the following:
What do you believe in?
What do you want to be known for?
What are some of the things you swear by?
What are some of the things you refuse to be seen doing?
Knowing both who you are and who you are not will help you get clear on how you show up as a brand. It helps you get clear on your values and beliefs.
3. Know your Product
As a small business owner, I’m sure you started off with the most important thing - creating your product. You definitely had an idea of what you want to sell and spent lots of time researching and perfecting it.
That is great! Let’s take it one step further.
Nobody knows your products better than you do. But you certainly want your target audience to know about your products as well as you do.
How can we make them want to buy your product?
This is the part where we understand the unique features of your products so we can translate it to the benefits for your target audience.
Most of the time, your target audience is not looking to be sold to. They are looking to buy. Feelings help trigger them to buy. They want to feel something when they buy your products.
If you talk about how great your product is all day long, they are just being sold to. They can’t see beneath the features of your products. They want to know what is in it for them.
Don’t sell your features of the products, sell the feelings and benefits they get from buying your product.
Understanding the features of your product is great but if you are able to use your product’s features to connect it with their desired outcome, that is where the magic happens.
What is the benefit of your product?
How do you make wanna make them feel with your product?
4. Know your Quirk
Everyone has those little quirks. So does your brand. It can also be known as your differentiation or your unique selling point.
This is the part where you get to explore more about your brand beyond your product.
Your product is great but they may not be revolutionary or life-changing.
But you can differentiate yourself through showcasing some of your differences.
What is something that you think differently in your industry?
What do you bring to the table that is not commonly seen in your industry?
What is your unique point of view?
5. Know your personality
If you truly want to build a strong brand, it’s gotta have some personality.
Can you imagine showing up online without any personality and just blending in with the crowd? It is gonna be hard to stand out from everyone else. If you are just doing the same thing as everyone else.
The trick to show your personality is to treat your brand as a person. Think about the human characteristics that your brand have.
Your brand personality will set you apart from the rest. It’s how you form an emotional connection with people.
It can be the little things from the way you talk to how you want to make people feel with your presence.
Are you more informal or formal?
Are you ok to cuss and ready to call people out on their bullshit?
Are you more gentle and nurturing?
Just like a person, your brand does not only have singular personality traits. The strongest brands are those with unexpected and diverse personality traits. Gentle and sassy, loud but cheeky.
By using your diverse personality traits, you get to build a brand that is not one-dimensional. It has more depth and it feels more real, just like a person.
It is able to connect with your customers on a deeper level.
6. Know your Type
After spending the time getting to know all of you and your brand from the inside-out, you get a clearer idea of who you are and who you are not.
This makes it easier for you to know what’s your type and what’s not your type. You know what are some of the things you stand for and what are the things you can never compromise on.
Knowing your type means identifying who you want to serve. It is just like finding a partner in real life.
You both share the same values and beliefs. You both want the same things in life and you both have similar personalities. As the saying goes, your vibe attracts your tribe.
After identifying your ideal type, it’s time to get to know them on a deeper level, to understand how your brand can play a role in their lives.
Think about what are some of the challenges they faced and how you can help them.
What are some of their motivations?
What do they strongly believe in?
What do they want in life?
How can your brand help them?
7. Know your Market
Once you have a clear understanding of your brand purpose and ideal customers, it's important to take a closer look at your competitive landscape. This means researching and analyzing your direct and indirect competitors in your industry.
By doing so, you can gain a better understanding of what your competitors are offering, their unique selling points, and their marketing strategies. You can also identify any gaps or opportunities in the market that your brand can fill.
Think about some of your direct and indirect competitors.
Who do you consider to be your competition in your industry?
What do you think they are doing really well?
What makes you different from everyone else?
It may be intimidating and overwhelming to build your brand as a small business owner. But I promise it doesn’t have to be overly complicated and corporate like the big companies out there.
I chose to explain building your brand in an informal and casual way that is easy for you to follow. I’m a big believer of making complex ideas easier to understand and doing things in a fun and informal way.
If you think you need a little help in building a brand, you can check out the Passion to Impact workbook below below. It goes through this framework in depth. It has helpful prompts that will make you think deeper and get to the core of your brand, following the 7 steps to build your brand that I swear by.
Free Passion to Impact Workbook
How to build an impactful brand as a creative small business owner with non-corporate BS jargon
