By Henry Brown

Your small business is up and running. You have a dedicated (and growing) clientele of repeat customers. And, because you’re ambitious and hungry for new challenges, you are already charting a path to sustainable growth. But here’s the thing. As your business grows, your branding will become more and more important. It will differentiate you from your competitors and represent a set of ideals and standards that will dictate quite literally everything you do.

In your early years of business, it’s all too easy to get lost in the quotidian calamity of daily operations and as such you might have very little thought to spare for your branding. After all, you have a logo, a slogan and a mission statement. Aren’t you done with branding now? Far from it, I’m afraid. Your branding is so much more than just your logo.

Here are some things you must never forget about your small business’ branding, especially if you have growth in mind…

It needs to be consistent

Good branding is able to make a positive association quickly. If you’re thirsty and the colors that first come to mind are red and white, you can thank Coca Cola. Your branding needs to be consistent if you’re to gain an edge on your competitors. It needs to be all over your online and physical spaces as well as every product you ever manufacture. Seeking out a company like Pro-Motion Industries, LLC can help you to create consistently branded and eye catching labels for your products.

Your employees need to embody it

It’s not just your products that need to embody your brand. Your employees do too. And that doesn’t just mean wearing the right colored shirt or nametag. Your brand is a set of standards that should influence every aspect of your employee training and onboarding. Every customer interaction you see should embody your brand. Your brand should also give employees a sense of purpose and belonging, helping you to develop them in-house and reduce the potentially punishing impact of high employee turnover rates.

It needs to make a promise

The best brands are ones that make a promise. The ones that ensure that customers know exactly what they’re getting before they’re getting it. People don’t flock to McDonalds because they offer the best hamburgers. They go because they know exactly what to expect. What promise do you want people to associate with your brand? Reliable products? Great customer service? A frictionless customer experience? All of the above? The promise of your brand will influence everything from the research and development of new products to the content marketing on your website (i.e. blogs, vlogs, infographics, tutorials etc.).

It needs to deliver on that promise consistently

Of course, anyone can make a promise. Not everyone can keep them consistently. But that’s exactly what you’ll need to do if you hope to attract new customers while retaining the new ones that will help your business to grow. Every employee needs to know how they can deliver ion your brand’s promise, and what can happen if they don’t.

A little consistency goes a long way.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.