When you’re just starting out with a new venture, building brand awareness is critical to getting your business off the ground. After all, new customers and clients can’t even consider trying out your products or services if they don’t even realize they exist. One of the most cost-effective ways to build early word of mouth about your new brand is to convert people into brand evangelists for your business, singing its praises to anyone who will listen.

In a world saturated with businesses and individuals trying to do the same thing, whether you’re a fresh tech start-up in the Silicon Valley or looking for your big break in the NYC fashion industry, audiences need more to relate to then a resume—they need you. So, at your next networking event, interview, and across social media, always remember to BYOB—Bring Your Own Brand.

Guess what—whether you know it or not, you are marketing your own lifestyle brand to family, friends, peers, and outsiders on a daily basis. From your outfit to your lingo, anything projected to others will contribute to how they perceive your lifestyle and personal brand. Whether or not this is a priority will vary from person to person depending on their social or professional goals. With the advent of the World Wide Web, there are many more channels and opportunities available to market ourselves, and to be effectively noticed, we should be leveraging most digital and traditional channels.

Allocating a portion of your marketing budget to social media is essential in today’s digitally dependent world. Consumers spend hours each day connecting with brands through the screens of their smartphones. Many are spending that time on Instagram seeing what posts are trending under their favorite hashtags or maybe seeing what their favorite bloggers are up to. Depending on the nature of your business, it might be smart to allocate a relatively large portion of your social media budget to Instagram marketing, but here are a few ways to save you some money if you don’t have the resources.

Building a personal brand that trends isn’t easy. It takes time, persistence, and an element of trial and error. You will be your own marketing director, your own social media director, truly your own boss! This is the opportunity to utilize tactics that you have may not been able to use in the past for one reason or another. When beginning construction, ask yourself these key questions in order to get organized in the right place!

Brand positioning is similar to a first date. When you meet someone you want to know better, you put on your best behavior and try to impress them. At least, that’s the goal. You aim to convey who you are, and what you are interested in. If you are genuinely focused on identifying whether or not you are the right fit for one another, you will be true to your character, your interests, and your values.  The same is true of your brand.

Branding is generally that word that many small business owners or entrepreneurs hear over and over again. But do you really know what branding means? Are you clear on what it takes to achieve a lasting, significant, compelling brand? Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly how you contribute to your brand? How this affects your customer and business growth? This article will provide five major steps necessary for the beginning stages to building your brand. 

Last week, we received a project request from a great organization that’s ready to rebrand their company. Quite frankly, they believed the best way to re-create the company would be to truly tell their story – express to their audience the characteristics, values and attributes that makes them unique and clarifies who they are, what they do and what their business is about.

Branding your small business involves projecting a strong, consistent image throughout all your marketing channels, regardless of whether you’re using online or traditional media. Creating a consistent online brand helps you maximize your brand presence, enabling potential customers to understand the value your products/services provide. By projecting your business’ unique personality, you send a clear message about who you are, your ideal clients and what your business stands for.