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If you are a new business or a small business in need of a rebrand you need to follow some conventional steps and stages to create a brand that works and speaks to your target customers. In this post, we give you a brief overview of the process and some of the things you need to keep in mind. 

Research Target Audience 

For a brand to be successful you need to build it from the ground up and that means starting with your target audience. Know whom you’re going to market to makes all the difference in brand creation– it gives you focus and a throwout that will be invaluable going forward. 

Brand Personality 

Every Brand needs a personality. Think of Volvo cars, their brand is reliable and down-to-earth, Tesla on the other hand is innovative and exciting. Identify your core values in the planning stage, these will be vital for creating your brand personality that will provide value for years to come.

Choose Brand Name

The barman name You choose comes after you create the Brand Personality. Why? Because you need the name to communicate something of the personality – this is what is coping to connect with your target audience at a deeper level. They will form a relationship with your brand, like reliable old Volvo. 

Write a Slogan

Now that you have your Brand name and personality it’s time to create a Slogan that really sticks in people’s heads. You want something that is catchy but true to the brand’s image – Just Do It – Nike – is something everyone knows and probably uses in speakers from time to time – can you top it? 

Select Colors and Font

The colors and fonts of your Brand are also extremely important and fundamental to its success. You want something that looks “right” simple but speaks to the heart of your brand personality and your target audience. It needs to be something your customers will want to associate with  

Design Logo

Designing your logo can be fast or frustrating. It really depends on how much time and effort you put in during the planning stage. If you have a vision for your brand like this effective shop signage it might be advisable to work closely with a graphic designer or a team of graphic designers to get it right and at the lowest cost. 

Launch Your Brand  

The time has come to launch your brand. Its an exciting time but this is also a process you need to get right or risk losing the all important reputation. Consider a brand launching event to kick things off, but don’t forget to prepare the ground with lots of marketing and social media activity. 

Conclusion 

Creating a winning brand from scratch isn’t difficult  but you need to be aware of the steps and stages to make it work. You wouldn’t build a house bay making the roof first and the foundation after, it’s the same with a brand, tray to nail that business personality really on and left the speak for themselves. 

Why Should Small Businesses Protect Their Intellectual Property?

There has been a tremendous rise in small businesses with the pandemic, whether it’s on Etsy on their own websites or running their business from home. A lot of merchants have come into their own. But, what happens when Intellectual Property gets involved? Your business may have intellectual property (IP) – copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets.  Basically, a lot of things that make your small business what it is! So, you have Intellectual Property Rights! These intellectual property rights give it the exclusive rights to use your invention or creation commercially, sell, and license it. Your ideas are your currency. So, it must be protected.

What is Intellectual Property?

Intellectual property (IP) is defined as any type of idea, information, design, invention, logo, symbol, image, or name issued in commerce. If it has value, someone is likely to copy it. If your IP is infringed on  (stolen), there are rules and regulations in place that can be used to help you take your case to court and to protect property rights, but here are some tips on other protections you can use to take care of your business. 

Automatic protections – this means no one can use a piece of work without the owner’s permission. There are two types:

Copyright: All pieces of writing, literary works, art, films, photography, TV, music, and more are instantly protected under the law. This includes all work that is created by employees for the business. For the best protection against infringement, you should register your copyright with the copyright office. 

Design right – the shapes and configurations of all objects are automatically protected under law for 15 years after it is first created or 10 years after it was first sold. 

What Protections are available for Small Businesses?

Intellectual Property Lawyer

Using an intellectual property lawyer, you can implement intellectual property laws. They assist clients with asserting ownership of their assets, using patents, copyrights, trademarks, licensing agreements, and more. They also represent clients upon whose intellectual property other parties have infringed. Having someone with experience fighting on your side for your livelihood is the most essential protection a small business could have. 

 Trademarks

It is good to register company names, brand names, product names, and logos as trademarked. It takes four months for an application to be registered. 

Digital Trademarks

It is essential to secure your domain name, Twitter handles, and Instagram handles for your company or brand’s websites.   There may be opportunities to monitor the Intellectual Property Office, which may try to sit on URLs and social media accounts and demand a lot of money to release it to you. 

Patents

Patents are designed to protect inventions and products, for example, machines, tools, or medicine. It takes about five years to decide to be made by the intellectual property office, which has to investigate the evidence submitted and ensure that the patent does not already exist.

The bottom line is, it is always better to protect your business to lower the possibility of theft, your business is your livelihood, and your ideas are your currency. They must be kept safe and protected from infringement. 

Your business’s website plays a vital role in helping you attract new customers and retain your existing ones. Building a loyal customer base is an excellent way to enjoy sustainable long-term success for your business and help it thrive. But, to achieve this level of success and sustain it, you will need to ensure your customers engage with your brand and feel motivated to return to your business time and again. Retaining customers is no easy task, but it is less expensive than continually trying to attract new ones. It is incredibly rewarding to see the same customers return to you for repeat purchases. 

One crucial way you can keep customers coming back to you and engaging with your brand is to build a website they love using. Here are some of the ways you can ensure your customers have a great experience each time they use your website:

Informative, Engaging Content

When you create website content that is engaging and useful, you are sure to see visitors to your website increase. Creating high-quality content will ensure your website visitors stay on your site longer, are more likely to return, and increase your likelihood of making a sale. If your content is really great, you may even find it becomes link bait and brings even more visitors to your site, offering more opportunities to gain loyal customers.

High-quality content should be well-written, reflect your brand’s personality, be relevant to your company or its ethos, and informative. To achieve the best results from your content, it is crucial to focus on quality over quantity.

Easy to Navigate

No matter how much customers love your products, they can be put off shopping with you if your website is challenging to use. Offering a positive user experience for your website visitors is a crucial tool to encourage them to stay on the site for longer and encourage visitors to become customers. If your website does not offer a positive user experience, your customers have little incentive to keep shopping with you and may choose to look at competing sites instead.

To make sure your website offers an excellent experience for your customers, you should ensure pages load fast, there are no broken links, it is easy for customers to find what they are looking for, and essential information is in an easy-to-find place. Focusing on these factors will ensure every customer has a great experience and will be more likely to return in future.

Fast Checkout

Poor conversion rates and abandoned baskets are something no business owner wants to see in their website statistics. If you have an issue with these, your checkout process may be deterring customers from completing their purchases. To keep your customer returning to buy more from you and complete their transactions, you need to have a simple checkout process that takes payment quickly and efficiently. With a fast checkout in place, you should find customers who love to shop on your website and will return to buy again.