Establishing company identity is very important when you are fighting for a place in a market or a certain niche. You may know exactly who you are but you need to get your name out there and for people to be aware of your existence also.

There are many ways you can establish company identity in a local community or around the world.

Donations

Donations do you a lot of justice when it comes to establishing company identity around the local community and anywhere else. Many companies or non-profits offer plaques with your name on them, engravings in the wall, and other things when you donate money to them. This gives you exposure.

When customers see your name as a company that made a donation, not only does it look good for you but it gets the company name out there permanently. This part of the branding your business process is important because it helps the business build credibility and trust with the customers in the market.

Investments

Investments are very important also. When you invest in a company it is important to be sure they are in the same industry as your product or service. Investing helps build a name for your company, give you more exposure and more.

When you invest in a company, one of the agreements you can make when lending your money is that they provide exposure or advertising for you. Investments are very beneficial and help with the branding process and establishing company identity.

Give Free Information for Establishing Company Identity

So many companies upset customers because they want to charge money for everything. This leaves a customer walking away with a bad taste in their mouth about you and only causes you to look dishonest or greedy.

There are things that you can give away for free when it comes to information. There is no way you can teach a customer everything you know in just a few minutes of talking to them or in a few pages that they can read.

Many people practice giving tips and advice through flyers and brochures.

You may want to place a few useful tips on the back of your brochure. This will help build credibility and trust with customers that you are not greedy and you are willing to help them achieve certain goals.

It will also prove to them that you actually have the knowledge to perform certain tasks within your company. You don’t have to reveal secrets of the trade but you can give out helpful information that is useful.

Giving useful information may include offering tips and advice when you are out on a service call in a home. If your company offers plumbing services and you are on a call that the customer has frozen pipes under their home then you may recommend they leave the water dripping overnight.

This type of advice is useful to the customer and will help them not end up in a situation with a burst pipe. Although, continuous broken pipes may be a profit for you it is only one customer.

You may think it will not benefit you to tell them how to avoid problems because then they won’t need you. However, there are plenty of other reasons they can call you. Plus, you will be the person they will turn to any time they need something repaired.

In addition, word of mouth goes a long way with customers and the customer may attract you plenty of business your way. Word of mouth should always be considered when you are establishing company identity and because it helps the business build credibility with prospects.

Adding Value to Your Business and Establishing Company Identity

When you are branding your business it is important to add value with everything you do. Adding value means making yourself valuable to the customers and the community. This may include giving out free information through tips and tricks, statistics, and other useful bits.

You can make the business build credibility and be more valuable by adding a little extra in everything that you do. A voice mail message might include a quick tip on fixing something or a way to prevent a computer virus.

The signature on your email should contain more than your name, address, and phone number. You might include a useful sentence underneath that is a quick tip or useful bit of information.

Making yourself useful adds value to your business and to the customers. The customers need to believe that they need you and this is a part of proving to them you are useful and the best person to turn to when they need something.

Getting Your Brand Out There and Establishing Company Identity

So you have designed a logo, a name, a tagline, and anything else. Now you need to practice other methods to get your name all over the place. This can be done with clothing, pens, cups, and other paraphernalia.

Clothing is one of the best things you can get out there on people. If you design t-shirts with your company name and logo on them people will wear them.

These should be free items that you give away to people as they visit your booth, table, or even take a survey. You may offer the t-shirts to people if they give you feedback on their opinions for certain things.

They may provide their information or email which also is a contact you just made. Always hold onto this information as you can use it in an email campaign.

One thing to consider when establishing company identity is that when you ask customers for an email address, always ask them if it is okay to contact them via email. Do not assume that it is okay or you may upset them.

One thing that is okay is sending a flyer, brochure, or coupon in the regular snail mail.

Clothing works in many ways. People wear free t-shirts all over the world. They may travel to different destinations like a gym working out, a beach, or a fair.

This is exposure for you for every person that sees this person. The more t-shirts you get out there the better for your business.

One thing to keep in mind with printed materials as advertising techniques to spread the company name is that you want to create things that are useful for people.

A pen with your company name is more useful than a koozie. Pens will never be thrown away because someone will use them until the ink runs out.

They are very cheap to make and easy to distribute. You can give a package of pens to a business that you know spends a lot of time traveling around the world.

Before you know it your pens were left in meetings and other places and now you have people checking out your site from other countries. It is as easy as that when you distribute items with your company name on them.

You have to get your name out there and create your popularity. You can do this by designing t-shirts and other useful things for the business.

Try to give these things away for free so you can have the best results with your branding. Also, make sure that the items created look nice and represent your brand as you want to be portrayed. Match the scheme.

Get One on One with the Customers

Getting one on one with the customers is very important. You need to talk to the customers and let them know that you are there for them if they have questions and that you really exist.

Companies need representatives of a business so they are existent. It is hard for a business to gain exposure when they don’t have someone to actually talk to.

If your business targets a local community then it is important to get out there and talk to the community. Remember you are looking for the audience who is going to benefit from your product. These are the people you want to talk to.

If you have a business on the web then you will need to get one on one with the customers by providing access to a direct chat option. This gives customers a good feeling they they know that someone really exists and is a great tool for establishing company identity.

When you offer a direct chat they have the ability to contact a live person rather than talk to a machine. Customers despise machines, automated phone systems, and more.

They will try to avoid them and it can give them a bad taste in their mouth about the business. Try to be as responsive as possible with the customers.

Local Business Events and Establishing Company Identity

Other local business events are extremely important. Not only do you want to target your local or national audience but you also want to attend other business events.

You may find a company struggling that may need your assistance. You might find a company that you can work with together on a project in trade for advertising or even help you build your credibility.

Local business events help you network in the big industry that you may be working in. It is important to talk to companies and let them know you are out there.

Maybe you will recommend one company while they recommend you. Always talk to other businesses, let them know about who you are and what you are all about, what their benefit is by knowing you, and how you can help each other. Give them something to remember you by and make an impact.

When you attend events and network with other companies and people then you provide another form of advertising. Networking works very well because when someone does come across a situation where they could use your product or service they will remember you.

Creating contacts is a very big part of branding your business and establishing company identity. It also helps instill your company name in the minds of people around the industry.

Media Consideration

Media is extremely important when branding your business and it helps the business build credibility and trust in the community. There are many different outlets and they can be used in many different ways to your advantage and even for damage control.

Proper branding means staying tight with the media as your friend. Some say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer and this is true with the media.

They can make you very popular or ruin you but nothing really in between. You need the media on your side at all times.

Local Media

There are many different local media outlets that you might consider using when you are looking to brand your company or a product.

You can use local newspapers to announce sales, events, and other things. The television stations are useful when running advertisements or events on the news.

One thing to keep in mind is that public television stations are free and they cannot charge you money to run something on them. If you are a non-profit organization looking to brand your organization the best way to do it is through public television stations.

You can announce events like blood drives and other things on public television. This is great exposure and it is free.

Other methods of local media may be local websites for town members. Some towns have a site for the community where people can post things like classified ads and other things. They are free sites and sometimes used more than the newspapers because of this.

Article Writing for Press

Another way you can use the media to your advantage is to write your own articles and distribute your articles to the press. This is very beneficial. If the press comes across times they need to fill additional space in their paper they may use them.

Sending articles to the press is free. The will not charge you to use them. If you write beneficial articles to magazines in the industry you work in then you may even get paid for the article.

Article writing is a very beneficial way to advertise your business and helps with the branding your business process and establishing company identity.

Sponsors for Establishing Company Identity

Looking for sponsors is very important. It is very similar to getting an endorsement. You may make a deal with companies to sponsor you that might include putting up an advertisement at a local event or charity you are holding.

Sponsors need to see a benefit in it for them and they are usually willing. When you find local sponsors it helps build credibility with your business. You should always look for local or national sponsors.

Sponsors can be used on your website and at your local business. The most common way to obtain a sponsor is by offering them advertising for their business.

Written Testimonials

Written testimonials are very important in the branding process because they work in two ways. They help build credibility and trust with the targeted audience.

When you sell products or services to customers it is important to gather as many written testimonials that you can from customers.

A customer can write up the type of product or service they purchased from your company and their experience working with you. The more written testimonials you have the better.

Written testimonials are beneficial because they create hype. They increase the excitement about your business and make people want to try your product.

Testimonials tell the public that you followed through on delivering the promise made. This means that consistency is present and it is very important.

Without written testimonials it is hard to prove that you deliver. It is hard to build a brand without people to back you like endorsements through public figures and people in the community.

Special Offers

Building a brand also requires you to provide offers and special discounts to the customers. Customers are always looking for a great deal and when they know they can get it from you they will shop from you.

You might offer discount codes to customers for specific items or even a buy one get one free deal. These are excellent ways to promote a business. If you have an online company then you may offer free shipping or other types of discounts to people during a specified period of time.

Special offers work very well with customers. Free items usually work the best because customers find that nothing is ever free. Although it is not cost effective to give away free items you may include something free with a purchase of a bigger item as part of establishing company identity.

Referrals

Another media consideration when you are building up your brand is that you need to work on referrals. Referrals work very well in building up your brand. This is word of mouth through customers who swear by you. These can be difficult to build up but when you get referrals it helps with credibility.

You can help with gaining referrals to your business by offering specials or discounts to customers that refer you to other customers. This may be a $5 discount on their next purchase or something else.

When the customer sees there is a benefit in it for them they will often times refer the company to gain the benefit. This helps increase a customer base, revenues, and build up your brand.

Inserts

Inserts are very beneficial to brand building and a perfect use of the media. Some newspapers or brochures may have a cost associated with adding an insert in a newspaper while others may allow you to provide an insert for free.

Inserts in newspapers and magazines allow for more exposure of the company. Even if a customer doesn’t thoroughly read an insert they will remember the name of the company and your logo. It creates a stamp in their mind about you and the products and services offered.

This way if they come across a situation where they need a product or your service they will think of the business. Inserts work well and are very beneficial for getting into the mind of customers and for establishing company identity.