Small businesses have great opportunities to leverage their skills, but now more than ever, they need a brand as the digital spot on which to double down their marketing investment, to create a wall from which to defend their territory.

Most do  not have the skills, and become bogged in the jargon and options, so following are 6 simple guidelines:

Simplicity. You cannot be all things to all people, even in a local area and pretty specific market space. The more targeted the market segment, the simpler the communication and the need to provide more and more to attract clients. One of my clients is a personal trainer, but not one of the toned, buffed 25 year olds we normally see, she is an amazingly fit, middle aged mother of two who specialises in helping immediately post natal women get their pre natal bodies back.   Her journey from young Mum with a desk job to successful trainer is a story her clients all relate to exactly.

Differentiation. Even in a narrowly defined niche, there has to be something other than price that makes you different, and the difference must be relevant to the target market. Continuing the story above, a young Mum can come along to the classes, exercise and relax in a very social way with others in the same boat, while their babies are being looked after in a crèche in easy eye-line.

Originality. Being different is great, being original in the manner in which you express your value propositionn is even better, then delivering that value in a differentiated manner  is the core of brand building. The value proposition of a business is remarkably important, and remarkably challenging for most to get right.

Disruptive. Doing things in an entirely different way to everyone else gets you noticed, and when the disruption favours your target market, you can be way ahead, although those outside your target will probably not “get it”. My elderly mother lives in a regional town, and has her fair share of medication and mobility challenges, but still lives alone in a terrific spot for an old girl. One of the pharmacists in town packages up her medications into a card that puts each of the meds to be taken at a specific time in the one blister, then delivers the card weekly. Any change in med is immediately reflected in the updated card that will be delivered the day she tells them, and any remainder from the previous card taken away. On top of that, the pharmacist is one of the few licensed to mix his own meds from ingredient, so rather than taking a handful of pills, Mum takes just one or two that have the actives combined in one pill where they are compatible. As another bonus, they are generally smaller than many of the throat stuffers that come from “big pharma” Guess who has the market for the elderly in that town tied up!

Symbolism. Humans are visual animals, we value and put meaning into symbols that come to mean way more than just the illustration, or expression. Think about the Nike logo, a powerful symbol of sporting aspiration and achievement, or the  Apple logo, a symbol of beautiful, functional original design, or in Australia where I live, the Aboriginal flag, that has come to express the need for our aboriginal people to express themselves as part of, but different to the rest of Australians.

Meaning. I struggled here for the right word, a word to convey more than just relevance, more than just delivering on a value proposition, something that has a deeper humanity in it than just a brand. Several businesses have made a commitment of “one for you, one for Africa” as a way of adding meaning to their brand, and it works.   My personal trainer mate above achieves this by genuinely caring, and demonstrating that care in a variety of ways,  about the health of happiness of her clients, even when they are no longer clients, usually because they go back to work in much better shape than would have otherwise been the case.

Let me know what you have done to build your brand.

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