Compete with the Big Brands by Doubling Down on your Brand Experience

All too often, it seems as though small businesses struggle to compete. Big companies can offer lower-cost options, often with additional services or products that your small business doesn’t have. However, the reality is small companies can compete with big companies–and can do so successfully. Small businesses need to be aware of what they have that sets them apart to take advantage of the opportunities in front of them.

How can you make the most of your opportunities as a small business? You need to provide something that those big businesses aren’t. By focusing on your branding and personalized experience, your business can offer an incredible experience to keep customers coming back.

Establish a Compelling Brand

What is it that sets your brand apart? Chances are, there’s something about your brand that is unique. Consider:

What is your mission?

That is, what are you aiming to accomplish as a brand? Today’s customers are looking for businesses that often stand for something that has personal meaning to them. Are you looking to enhance your community? To provide something that others in your industry simply aren’t delivering to your customers? Carefully consider your brand’s mission, then develop a compelling mission statement that will allow you to share that mission with your customers.

What is your brand voice?

Are you buttoned up and professional? Fun and lighthearted? Your business’s brand should set the company apart from others in the industry while establishing yourself as a critical player within that industry. Your brand voice should remain consistent across all the channels utilized by your business so that your customers will get to experience that consistency whenever they connect with you.

Don’t forget to add some personality to help encourage customers to interact with you. A compelling brand personality can help customers develop a deeper connection with your brand as a whole.

Get to Know Your Target Audience

Your brand’s target audience isn’t exactly like the target audience for any other brand in your industry, even if it offers similar products or services. While you can use your competitors as a starting place, you want to find your unique target audience.

Don’t just consider average factors like age, income level, or target audience’s position with their employers. Instead, branch out and assess the elements that make your brand’s target audience unique.

Get to know your audience’s pain points and how you can solve them.

Develop a strong understanding of your customers’ problems and how your brand can help solve those problems. Branch out beyond your services and products: a compelling brand experience includes offering value to customers even before deciding to make a purchase.

Understand what your target audience wants from your brand.

When you understand your target audience, you can also develop a better understanding of what your customers want from your brand, specifically. What is it that customers are looking for? Do they need a comprehensive content library to explain how they can benefit from or fully utilize your products and services? Do they prefer to take in their content in a specific way? The better you understand your target audience, the better you can deliver exactly the content your buyers are looking for.

Compete with the Big Brands by Doubling Down on your Brand Experience

Develop a Compelling Brand Experience

Once you understand your brand and your customers, you can take steps to deliver the incredible brand experience your customers both want and need. You may choose to add some of these elements to your brand experience.

Personalize your contacts with your customers and leads.

As a small business, you can deliver more personalized interactions regardless of how many interactions you’ve had with your customers. It’s not just about adding a customer’s name or geographic information to an email chain. Instead, look for ways to deliver precisely the kinds of content your individual customers need, whether that means sending out content about the products and services they’ve chosen to purchase or basing your mailings on their family demographics.

Provide increased value for your customers.

Providing a great brand experience starts with increasing the value you can offer your customers. For example, you might choose to provide your customers with more information about your products and services or to help keep them connected within your industry. Host local events or put together online video conferences. You may be surprised by how effectively you can deliver that value to your customers without substantially increasing your overall costs.

Connect directly with your customers.

As a small business, you can include more direct interaction with your customers. You don’t have to post content that they can passively consume or a few polls they can answer quickly. Instead, you can take information directly from your customers, evaluating their moods, their needs, and their changing desires over time. Try:

Hosting a Facebook group that allows people who use your services to connect with you and ask questions about your business and your products.
Holding contests and giveaways based on user-submitted content.
Interacting with your customers across your social media accounts.
Hosting live videos that allow you to answer customer questions directly.
Creating compelling customer service opportunities that will enable you to deal with customer concerns more directly.
Holding live events, where possible, allows you to meet and greet your customers, answer their questions, and provide direct demonstrations of your products or services.

Are you ready to establish a better brand experience for your customers? Do you want to set your brand apart from the big businesses and help bring more traffic–and more loyal customers–to your company?

A few loyal customers may ultimately be worth more to your business than a steady stream of customers who only check out what you have to offer once or twice before disappearing again–and creating a fantastic brand experience can help encourage precisely that. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you establish your brand and design that excellent brand experience.

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