Branding used to be that marketing element only big businesses focused on….that was about 10-15 years ago. The advent of social media means that branding is as critical for the smallest of lemonade-stand type businesses to Fortune 500 companies. How you brand your company is critical to the message and ultimately critical to your overall business success.

Branding Basics

If you want customer loyalty, you should be caring about heavily implementing some type of branding element in your business. A brand is about more than just a company name, a logo or a tagline. It’s about a feeling. Branding your business intelligently, passionately, and really understanding what motivates and interests your audience, is your key to success.

First you have to be smart about your business. You have to consider your product and service and find that niche factor that makes you different or worth caring about. Then you have to drive that message across with a staunch campaign.

You also have to remember that there are so many facets to branding, all of which can’t possibly be shared in one simple blog post; explore the different options and see what works best for you. Fortunately there are some great online tools to help make the branding process a little easier.
Vizibility.com Helps You Manage First Impressions
Because your brand isn’t going to get anywhere if people have a poor first impression of you – Vizibility.com helps you “take control” by tailoring Google search results. This may seem like a small first step and you may be asking what this has to do with branding. Truthfully, everything.

As I explained in Protecting Your Online Reputation, most people are going to Google you before doing business with you. What pops up in the search result creates an impression about your brand. Vizibility helps you control some of that so that you can put your best branding foot forward.

The online branding management platform has two areas it caters to – one is for individuals and the other is for businesses.

Individuals interested in Vizibility usually tend to be of the job-seeking variety, but this feature is just as important for small business owners. Even if you hide behind your corporate name, your reputation is just as important as your company’s – after all, you’re at the masthead. A poor search result on you doesn’t reflect very well on your company’s brand. Vizibility offers the following benefits for their individuals package ranging in price from free to $10 a month:

  • Prevent mistaken identities: If you’ve got a common name, you can avoid the wrong profile popping up for your search result.
  • Validate your background by showcasing the best search results.
  • Keep updated with notifications letting you know when your search results change.
  • Know when someone has searched you: Google alerts let you know when you’ve popped up online, but Vizibility’s Google alert lets you know when someone has searched for you.
  • SEO: Improved personal SEO (is just as important as your business SEO).
  • Top rankings: With their Premier Pro plan, Vizibility ensures top placement in Google search results.
Vizibility’s business services offer the same as their individuals package but also include controlled searches for employees, products or services, as well as “SearchMe” buttons you can include on your webpage, emails and business cards. Rates range between just under $30 a year to about $200 a year – making controlled branding very affordable!

Focus on Individual Brand Management with BrandYourself

The competition, BrandYourself, caters specifically to individual brand management by also letting you control Google search results. While you can’t scratch out the negative yields, you can push them down and promote the ones you want ranking higher. The site also lets you create a landing page that showcases you in the way you want to be perceived by your audience; use the platform BrandYourself offers as another tool to promote and brand your business.Where BrandYourself really stands out is in their ability to let you track your reputation with real-time alerts that can measure and grow your following. BrandYourself is also a free service, making it very wallet friendly!

You may be asking what does personalized branding have to do with my business? The answer is everything. Social media has taken branding exclusivity away from big businesses and has shared that idea with small business owners who can develop a brand through word of mouth and customer loyalty just as quickly but far more cost-friendly than Fortune 500 companies. Because an authentic voice and presence is critical for small business and online marketing success, what the internet has to say about your brand becomes even more relevant to your business success.