Over 700 local businesses were nominated in our recent Best in the New England promotion. One thing that was really striking is how many don’t have a logo or even have a basic Facebook page for their marketing.
There are plenty of simple, low-cost ways for local businesses to improve their public profile. We teamed up with New England Times partner and local branding expert, Ingrid Rothe from Vivid Thinking, to share the top three things you can do today.
- Have a logo
A large number of nominated businesses did not have a logo.
People often think logos need to be expensive and designed by a professional, but that’s not always necessary for small businesses.
“Some of the best logos are just text—like the New England Times logo—simply the business name in a consistent font and colour,” Ingrid said.
“If you are going down this path, choose a font you like that isn’t too common or hard to read, and pick a colour that reflects your business. Then save it as a graphic and use it consistently—on your Facebook page, invoices, everything.”
“Think of it like a stamp. Is it yours? Then it needs your stamp.”
For bigger businesses or those where branding is crucial, it’s worth hiring a designer for a full brand identity guide. This includes fonts, colours, logos, and how to use them consistently across your business materials.
“You are better off waiting until you can afford to have someone do a full identity guide for you, because it’s not that much more expensive to do it right.”
“Be wary of someone offering to create just a logo and calling it ‘branding.’ A brand is much more than a single graphic,” Ingrid said.
If you do decide to go for a budget-conscious logo, there are a couple of traps to be aware of. Make sure they are doing the logo from scratch, and not, for example, using a Canva template. You don’t want to put your logo on everything and then find out you don’t own it, or there’s lots of other businesses with the same logo.
“And make sure they are providing you with high res logo files, not just low res files for digital use,” Ingrid said.
- Have a Facebook Page (and update it)
A Facebook page is essentially a free, easy-to-use website. It’s hard to break and automatically reminds customers of your presence. In the New England, Facebook is a key platform, so having a page is a basic yet effective marketing tool. It’s the most basic piece of marketing you can do, with a huge return on investment.
“Setting up a Facebook page is quick and easy, and you can manage it from your phone,” Ingrid said.
Here’s a quick setup guide:
- Use a photo of your business, your products or yourself for the banner image.
- Set your logo as the profile picture.
- Name the page after your business—adding your town name is optional.
- Choose a username that creates a custom link – that is, it looks like a website address such as www.facebook.com/netimesau instead of www.facebook.com/739334018236 – instructions on how to do that are here.
“It is quite surprising how many Facebook pages don’t do the basics like having the name of the business as the name of the page, or have no image in the banner. Such little things but they make a huge difference.”
Make sure to update your page regularly. Set a reminder or make it a habit to post once a week.
“You don’t have to overthink it—just post a quick photo of what you’re working on with a short description. The key is to post regularly so people know your business is active,” Ingrid said.
The final step is a really important one – tell people about your page.
“Invite your friends to follow your page, and share it in local groups with a simple ‘We’ve got a new Facebook page, follow us!’”
- Have a professional email address (and check it)
Many businesses nominated in Best in the New England either didn’t have a business email address, or used unprofessional ones.
Most customers won’t feel confident emailing an address like ‘crazybunnyears666@hotmail.com’. Unless your business is selling bunny ears, of course.
If you can’t afford to have your own domain name and email service – that is, have an email address that looks something like name@businessname.com.au – try to create a professional email address using free services like Gmail, in the format businessname@gmail.com.
“There are affordable options for business email, many for just a few dollars a month. You might already have it included in one of your subscriptions, and just need to buy a domain name,” Ingrid said.
Set up your business email on your phone so you can check it regularly without hassle. And checking it is important – while most of your loyal customers will just walk through the door, new business and out of town business will more often than not come in via email.
Email is also the main tool of most business suppliers, so it’s the best way to make sure you’re getting the offers and promotions that can help reduce your costs or expand your offerings.
If you’ve already done these three things, well done! Here are a few more easy and affordable things to improve your marketing:
- Get a website. You can set one up for as little as $100 a year on some of the online services, but, a bit like the logo, you are better off talking to a professional and spending a little bit more to both help you set it up right in the first place, and to have on hand to help if you break it.
- Get multiple social media accounts, all with the same branding. Tools like Metricool offer free entry-level plans that let you post to all your social channels at once.
- Build an email list. Email is still one of the most effective and affordable ways to advertise. A monthly newsletter is one of the best tools to bring in repeat business.
- Try some paid advertising to give your business a boost. Whether online or traditional media, it’s often cheaper than you’d think. Advertising sales people at most local media outlets will usually give you free advice on what they think will work for you, so you don’t need to do heaps of research, just have a think about what you want to achieve, and what you’re prepared to spend, and have a chat to someone.
- List your business for free on the New England Times directory and similar free services. Good idea to keep a list of everywhere you have put your information, so you can keep them all updated and looking good.
- Consider joining a business networking group that can help refer business to you. That could be your local chamber of commerce, BNI, or similar organisation.
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