'Why branding is important for small internet businesses' branding

Branding is now more important than ever because of the proliferation of diverse social media and the ability of potential customers to access your product. Once customers are interested, they click, bookmark and forward your information to others. Your brand will be seen in many places and formats and that’s why it’s essential to have a consistent message that’s easily recognizable and readable. More importantly, a consistent and recognizable brand helps grow your company and become permanent within the marketplace.

When designing or choosing a logo keep in mind you will be using it in print and online. Choose colors that you like but that represent your product or company feel. If your product is a specific color use that in your design. Keeping the design clean and simple will help with brand recognition. Be sure that your design will reproduce well in small and large formats. Use Adobe Illustrator and create it in a vector format so it is scalable.

If you don't have Adobe Illustrator hire a designer who does. Paying a good designer for this will be well worth the cost. Make sure they know that you want a corporate branding package when you start working with them. This will tell them they are designing for multiple uses. Most designers will give you 2 or 3 choices to work from. Try to give them a good idea of your product or corporate culture. That way they will be able to give you the best possible choices initially. Ask them to design a black and white version also. You may find occasions when this will be needed such as in the newspaper.

Along with a logo image you will want to create a marketing tag or slogan. This statement should be about what makes you different from competitors with similar products. Why should someone select your product instead of theirs? What differentiates you from the rest of your competitors? What do you do better? What can you or your product do to improve or simplify your customer’s life? Consider your answers to these questions and create a concise slogan to be used in your marketing. Recall some familiar slogans that you hear or see every day. Try to make your slogan as descriptive and as memorable as those. The best ones are short, relevant and clever. When you have written a few sample slogans, test them out on friends and neighbors. Ask them what they think of when they hear your slogans. When you have a slogan that best represents your brand, include it in your overall logo design. Ask your designer to create designs with and without the slogan.

Now that you have a creative brand and slogan your product is ready to be unleashed on customers across the world?