Times are tough for small businesses, now more than ever! We at Happy Giraffe wanted to give you five of our top tips to get you through.
1) Define yourself.
When it comes to branding, understanding exactly who you are and where you stand within your industry can be the difference between success and failure. Even without an international pandemic, making sure that you stand out is crucial.
It may not seem like it right now, but being in lockdown is the perfect opportunity to strengthen your brand by looking into the aspects that are sometimes glossed over.
The three things that you can focus on from home are:
• Your Voice
• Your Values
• Your Visual Assets
Your Voice is what your brand is telling people that you are.
Does your company name and logo tell clients who you are immediately? These two things are generally considered the most important part of your company because they are the first thing that a client sees.
Did you know that, on average, you have 2.6 seconds to impress a potential client? Not many people do, for more information on how to impress a client quickly, click here
Your Values are what create a lasting connection between your company and your audience.
Your values should include:
• What makes you different from your competition? What your USPs are and how they are beneficial for your clients?
• How you are going to address your clients, formally or casually?
• The defining aspects of your brand persona
Your Visual Assets are what connect your website, social media posts and any collateral marketing that you have. This is achieved well by using consistent colours, typefaces and imagery that reflect your brand.
2) Work out who your target audience are.
You may be thinking that this step is a patronising one; you probably have a good idea of the clientele that you actively appeal to.
However, the difference is that now we are facing social distancing behaviour this can be used as an opportunity to create more of a community with your clients.
What you need to consider when finding and addressing your target audience on an online platform are:
• Age range
• Gender – Where important
• Their education level – This will affect your tone of voice and the wording that you use
• What they care about and what they would like to see.
3) Research what your competition is doing.
Knowing what your competition is doing, saying and offering may seem redundant at this time but, as a business, it is something that you should be checking as you don’t want them to be more visible than you are.
Even if what they are doing is getting little interaction, try to think as the client, understand why it isn’t working and apply that to your own social media and website, which brings us to tip four.
4) Keep your clients up to date.
Unfortunately, you may be a business that has had to postpone trade for the moment. It is now, more than ever, important to keep your client’s up-to-date with regular social media posts, stories and well wishes. This will help you stick out in your client’s minds.
Make sure that you are keeping your social media within the structure of your brand values, making sure that the language is appropriate, supportive and informative.
5) Keep things light, airy and entertaining.
The world is not a fun place to be right now, so why not be the source of cantharis that people need. You can make easily sharable posts that people will want to follow or laugh at.
For example:
If you are a café owner, why not share some test recipes that you are thinking of bringing in?
Or, if you are a brand that makes or distributes alcohol, why not share some of your favourite drinks that you can create.
Why not get employees involved? Have them create some content and share your videos with their friends.
However you face this pandemic, make sure that you do it in style and showcase the strength of your brand to stick it in the mind of your clients.
Get in touch if you need a brand revamp, help creating a strong set of values, or if you need fresh and appealing social media strategy. We may not be in the office, but we are still working hard from home. If you have any questions on how we can help your brand, ping an email over to kerry@happy-giraffe.com.