Branding Strategy Guidelines for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs):

Just because you’re a smaller company doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t have a solid branding strategy in place. Building and maintaining a strong brand is an important prerequisite for all your marketing and advertising efforts, both digital and traditional.

You may be surprised to hear that you don’t need a huge budget or brilliant ad creative to successfully build your brand locally. Many of our Small and Medium-sized Business (SMB) clients have built local recognition, familiarity, trust, and preference for their company and their products and services. A successful branding campaign almost always leads to more website visits from serious prospects, inquiries/leads, and ultimately, sales.

Below are some steps you can take right now to build a simple digital brand strategy that increases brand awareness and drives growth through digital advertising.

What Is a Brand Strategy?

A brand strategy defines how your business is positioned in your marketplace, the “personality” of your company, and why you’re the best choice among competitors.

It answers the following four questions:

  • How should your brand should look, sound, and feel?
  • Who are the unique groups of consumers or clients you serve?
  • What problem do you solve or needs do you satisfy?
  • How are you different and better than others in your industry?
  • Where, geographically, do you want to focus your efforts?

 

While designing a great logo and a fancy tagline is an important part of your brand, a full brand strategy goes much deeper. It’s a structured plan that defines your company’s personality and builds a relationship with your local, prospective clients.

Branding Strategy vs. Digital Advertising

Branding creates demand, advertising captures it. An effective branding campaign begins with a strong brand strategy.  From this, ads are created that that reflect your company’s personality, illustrate how you are a trusted leader in your space, describe the products and services you sell and the unique benefits they offer to your clients, and how you are unique and better than competitors. Digital advertising pushes these ads out to a targeted audience in your marketing area. This is called outbound advertising.

How to Build Brand Awareness Locally

  1. Define your personas (unique groups of prospects and their location).
  2. Create ads that reference your location or testimonials from local clients.
  3. Build an ad sequence that tests strategic copy and creative.
  4. Run ads on several platforms to multiply the impact of your effort.
  5. Be consistent between ads, website, and other marketing collateral.
  6. Run the campaign for a minimum of 6-12 months to make a lasting impact.

The Framework for Digital Brand Strategy

  1. Brand Identity

Check or create a strong brand positioning strategy so your clients know:

  • Who you are, where you are, and what you sell
  • What makes you unique and better than your competitors
  • Why this is important to them – why they should care

Building “brand salience” means being the first name that comes to mind when a prospective client thinks of the products or services that you sell.  Brand salience is built through repeated, consistent ad impressions to a local, targeted audience. The most effective tactics an SMB can use to build it’s brand are:

  • Banner Ads – static ads that show up on relevant websites and locations
  • Video Ads – video ads targeted based on location and related video content
  • Social Ads – static or video ads based on affiliation with relevant groups, topics
  • Retargeting – shows ads to those who searched for your products or services

Simply running ads on these platforms alone will not build your brand, you need to create a campaign plan that begins by showcasing your name and logo and what you do or what you sell, transitions to building trust in the way of testimonials, awards, and/or your tenure in the business, and finally, finishes with a set of calls to action that effectively convert your more passive brand-building effort into a traffic-driving, lead-generation machine.

  1. Brand-Building Advertising Tactics

Advertising on more than one platform at a time has a multiplying effect on the effectiveness of the branding effort.  In the case of brand advertising, 1 + 1 = 3.

Google’s Display Network (GDN)

Static ads are shown on a selected list of relevant websites (placements) from a pool of thousands.  Ads are also targeted at the individual level based on history of Google searches relating to your products or services. A final targeting filter limits ads based on demographics such as gender, age, income, language, and location.

YouTube Advertising

Being a Google-owned company, all of the targeting tactics available on the GDN, are also available on YouTube, with one exception. Instead of targeting based on relevant websites, YouTube offers targeting based on the relevance of videos viewed.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram)

Static and video ads are shown within Facebook and Instagram feeds, stories, and reels, reaching users while they are engaged with the app. Ads can be targeted based on interests, behaviors, website visits via Meta pixel, and interaction with similar content.  Custom and lookalike audiences allow campaigns to reach users that are similar to your ideal clients.  Ads can also be targeted by gender, age, income, language, and location.

Other platforms

Connected TV and streaming platforms give you the ability to target users with video ads and audio ads on smart TVs, smartphone aps, even in their cars. These campaigns are targeted by geography, relevance of content, and demographics (modeled, not individual).

Branding campaigns that utilize several platforms simultaneously, enjoy a multiplying effect.  This “surround sound” marketing strategy puts  your brand in front of your ideal clients everywhere they consume digital media. This builds your brand more quickly and efficiently than placing ads on just one platform.

  1. Digital Marketing Readiness Audit

Prior to launching any new branding campaign, confirm that all of your digital marketing assets are branded with consistency. Also make sure that your pipeline (especially your website) is ready to attract, retain, engage, and convert. The last thing you want at the start of a branding campaign, is a website that drops visitors due to a disconnect.

Prior to launching a new branding effort, perform the following three checks:

Continuity Test
Does your brand feel consistent from ad to website, and all printed collateral in between?

Friction Test
Can visitors immediately understand who you are and what products or services you sell?

Authority Test
Does your digital presence reflect your local leadership in your industry?

By running through these three checks, you’ll be sure that your branding campaign is ready to build your brand effectively and ultimately, to produce measurable results.

Brand Consistency Checklist

Before launching your branding campaign, confirm:

  • Your visual identity is consistent across platforms
  • Your messages are clear (within 3 seconds)
  • Reviews, testimonials and/or other trust-building elements are prominent
  • Calls-to-action offer compelling user benefits
  • Your website is correctly branded, credible, and engaging

Brand consistency directly impacts the effectiveness of your branding campaign.

Steps to Build Brand for an SMB:

  1. Define your position in the marketplace.
  2. Establish guidelines around copy and creative.
  3. Launch multi-channel digital advertising.
  4. Set a strategic level of repetitive ad impressions.
  5. Analyze and optimize performance continuously.

Summary: Why Your Brand Matters More Than You Realize

  • Consumers research before calling.
  • “Selling” no longer works, consumers will come to their own decision.
  • Organic Rank (SEO) builds your authority as a leading brand.
  • AI engines prioritize recognized brands.
  • Positive reviews not only shape perception, they drive conversions.
  • If your competitors are advertising, you should too.

You don’t need deep pockets and a brilliant advertising team to build your brand locally. Companies that successfully brand themselves often command more customers at a higher price. Consistent outbound advertising takes the friction out of the selection process.  It reduces risk in the buyer’s mind and will make your company the first choice.

Branding is not optional – its the foundation that makes every other digital marketing tactic work harder including SEO, GEO, and Paid Search. Great brands enjoy more quality website visits, lower costs per lead, and shorter sales cycles.