The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the regular operations of many small businesses in Canada.

Around 85% of Candian small businesses say that it is hard to manage their business activities during these uncertain times. Being a small business entrepreneur in Canada, you would have also come through these unexpected situations.

Through effective branding methods, you can stay in touch with your existing customers and potential audience even at the time of difficulties. Of no doubt, branding is the lifeblood of Canadian small businesses that paves a great way to steadily run your business and provide a hassle-free experience to your clients during uncertainties.

Further, branding creates a unique image for your small business that distinguishes you from the rest of your competitors. With effective branding techniques, creating brand awareness, conveying your brand message, and improving your reputation becomes a piece of cake!

If you haven’t experienced all these perks for your small business, then embark on branding your small business. Here, we have outlined the importance of branding your business that clears all your doubts regarding branding and encourages you to brand your business.

Scroll down to learn more about branding.

What is Branding?

In simple words, your brand is the exact face of your small business and branding refers to the strategic approach of establishing your brand in the competitive marketplace.

Through logo design, customer support, product quality, website appearance, social media creative design and presence, online reviews, search results visibility, and other elements, you can create a memorable impression for your brand on the minds of your prospects.

If you don’t have ideas on how to create a brand, then it is good to take inspiration from other small businesses. Do check out our blog to get more branding ideas and inspirations.

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Significant Role of Branding in Canadian Small Businesses

Branding plays a vital role in building a unique profile for your small business so that people can easily recognize your products & services.

By implementing smart branding techniques, it is easy for you to create an awareness of your brand, persuade the prospects, change the misconceptions seen in the audience about your brand. Here, we will walk you through the various advantages of branding your small business in Canada.

Creates a Unique Identity

Every small business has different requirements and objectives. This difference can be showcased to the audience through unique brand identity. It refers to every action that you do to present your business before the right audience and outrank your competitors.

Through branding elements like name, logo design, quality, deals, pricing, and other features, you can create a distinct profile of your small business that stands out from the competitors.

Generally, people compare two or more products to choose the best one. When you show some variations in your brand, you lay down a broad path for your prospects to choose you without any excuses.

Tips to Create an Excellent Identity for Your Small Business

• Research about the interests of your audience
• Analyze the branding strategies used by your competitors
• Choose the right tone for your brand voice
• Design a creative visual identity like a logo with bright colors, stylish fonts, typography, and others that best picturizes your brand
• Build unique content like blogs, videos, podcasts, social media creative design posts, etc
• Upgrade your identity consistently

Statistics say that people take 90 seconds to make a subconscious judgment about a product. With the help of an attractive brand identity, you can grab the attention of your prospects even at first sight.

Builds Trust

A study from PwC found that over one in three ranked ‘trust in brand’ as among their top three reasons that influence their decision to shop at a particular retailer, other than price. If you want to successfully run a small business in Canada, then building trust is a must!

Only when your prospects trust you, they will choose you. 92% of global online consumers trust word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family above any other form of advertising.

Branding will highly assist you to show your reputation to your audience and gain back their trust. Now, you might be puzzled not knowing how to gain the trust of your target audience. It is possible in a few simple ways listed below

• Understand the issues faced by your target audience
• Be transparent while mentioning about your products and services
• Build a close relationship with your customers
• Provide valuable content to your consumers at all times
• Stay at the reachable end to your audience

Trust is an essential ingredient responsible for earning fruitful benefits. Strengthening your brand’s presence across all platforms like social media, search engines, advertisements, and others will help you showcase your brand and earn the trust of your audience even at the time of uncertainties.

Persuades Prospects

Being a small business owner in Canada, encouraging people to leverage your products and services is slightly a challenging task. Once you have a unique brand image, it will be easy for you to persuade prospects.

Here are a few tips on building a unique identity.

• Communicate with a natural tone
• Showcase the quality of your brand with a proof
• Listen to your target audience and understand their pain points
• Educate the unique features of your products and services
• Show an active visibility on social media
• Send personalized emails to targeted customers
• Add an engaging popup on your website

Effective Ways to Successfully Brand Your Small Business Online

As branding offers you these many benefits, you would like to create a unique brand identity for your small business in Canada. It is possible to brand your small business through effective branding techniques. Here are a few techniques that help you erect your brand in the competitive business world.

Focus on Your Logo

A logo is a symbol designed with elements like typography, numbers, images, etc that represent your brand in the marketplace. As these logos are posted on social media, billboards, business cards, etc, they have a great role in making or breaking your business. Attractive logos with impressive color palettes, enticing symbols, intricate calligraphy, and fabulous design art stand as the epitome of your brand.

Through well-designed logos, you can build a rapport with your target audience. Before creating a logo for your brand, looking at some of the logos of the existing brands will give some ideas on how to create a logo. Here are a few logos of the popular Canadian small business brands for you to take inspiration.

• Harvey’s logo includes its brand name in-between a hamburger bun. If you don’t want to take more space for your logo, then this would be a good idea to reduce the spaces
• National Film Board of Canada’s logo includes a little man holding his hands above his head resembling a human eye. If you want your logo to showcase your services on the logo, then you can use this tactic
• Tim Hortons’ logo includes its owner’s initials. If you want to showcase your creativity and royalty, then this would be a good option

Build a Professional Website

A report from E-Commerce Foundation reveals that 88% of consumers research products online before buying in-store. Therefore, it is crucial to establish an online presence for your brand. Websites are an ideal platform that enhances your visibility in the online world.

It is important to consider certain of things before building a website. Here, we have listed a few areas you have to concentrate on while building a website for your small business.

• Smooth navigation
• Mobile responsive layout
• Compatible with online booking platforms
• E-commerce support
• Live chatbot facility
• Faster load time

For instance, Cunningham Team, a real estate website, has a user-friendly interface. It allows you to select the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, location, and price from the categories section. After specifying the details, you will be directed to the page which lists the availability of homes where you can book the house you prefer. Moreover, the attractive back-drop image, well-organized menus, and much more gives a minimalistic look to the website.

With the help of an intuitive website, you can easily provide a hassle-free experience to your customers and establish a unique identity for your brand. Moreover, there are various website builders to develop your own website. If you like to know more about the top website builders, check out this blog on best website builders for small businesses.

Implement Local SEO Strategies

Optimizing your brand’s website for local SEO will heighten your visibility on local search results too. Google says that “local results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence. These factors are combined to help find the best match for your search.”

Here are a few smart local SEO techniques when implemented right will help you establish your identity for the best relevant searches.

• Maintain consistency in your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) across your webpages using Schema Markup
• Manage your Google My Business (GMB) account
• Embed Google Maps on your local business website
• Focus on-page SEO elements like title tags, meta tags, heading tags, etc
• Encourage visitors to leave their reviews and ratings

Moreover, there are so many local business listings including Google My Business, Yelp, Foursquare, Manta, Yellow Pages, etc for establishing your brand’s visibility. Understand your business requirements, target audience demographics, and competition in the market to implement the best result-driving techniques. Check out our SEO case studies blog to get an idea of how things are done.

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Collaborate with Reputable Local Brands

Partnering with reputable local brands is a great an advantage for branding your small business in Canada. For instance, if you have launched an energy drink for athletes. For example, by partnering with local fitness studios, you can request them to give your products as compliments for their trainees, leave your product samples at local departmental stores, medical shops, etc.

Things to consider in local brands before collaborating

• Brand quality and reach
• Business location
• Business size and type
• Relevancy to your services and target audience

For instance, Sun Peaks wanted to increase awareness about several of their top winter attractions, including crowd-free ski runs, seasonal festivals, and the region’s jaw-dropping natural beauty. For this, Travel Mindset designed a campaign partnering with Canada’s top adventure photographer and Instagram influencer, Callum Snape. Attractive images, regular Instagram stories, and short Facebook videos regarding the Sun Peaks drove over 200,000+ views. To learn more about this, click here.

Rob Slee, founder of MidasNation says small businesses should use strategic partners when those partners can better serve their customers. Before partnering, you have to make sure that the partners will support you to resolve your pain points instead of adding burdens to your sack.

Be Active on Social Media

According to a 2020 report, there are over 4.5 billion internet users worldwide, among which 3.8 billion people are active on social media platforms. Social media is a huge platform for blowing your brand message among both local & global prospects.

Popular Candian brands like Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, AirCanada and much more utilize social media channels to capture the attention of prospects to their brand. 80% of consumers are more likely to evaluate solutions from the brands they follow on social channels.

For instance, women’s shoe company Shoes of Prey wanted to build brand awareness in their local market. For this, the retailer tapped YouTube influencer and beauty vlogger Blair Fowler to host a giveaway on her channel and help spread the word.

The video resulted in generating 750,000 views, 15,000 comments, coverage from The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, and increased sales by 300%.

Statistics show that around 37% of consumers take shopping inspirations from social media channels. By establishing an active presence on various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc, it is easy to build a strong awareness for your brand and increase the engagement.

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Final Word

We hope that this article would have given you a clear picture about the importance of branding for your small business in Canada. By now, you would get many ideas to brand your business but before branding, you have to pay close attention to certain things. Make sure that you have given a proper & catchy name for your brand that is easily understandable to the audience.

It is better to be transparent about your products & services rather than complicating your brand in an unnatural way. Do something that your competitor missed doing instead of copying the same techniques.

If you think that it is hard to maintain both branding and your core business activities, then hire a professional team that can take care of your branding activities and elevate your brand’s social media presence with impactful visuals, consider seeking professional social media design services from an experienced agency like ColorWhistle. At ColorWhistle, we clearly understand your business requirements, demographics, objectives, etc, and then build a successful branding for your Candian small business. Feel free to reach us via message or call +1 (210) 787-3600 at any time. We are happy to work with you!

Do you have any questions regarding our branding services exclusively for Canadian small businesses? Let us know in the comments section. We are ready to clear all your doubts.