The best ways that a company can strike up the brand for success

1. Have a clear vision. Know what your business stands for. If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, you cannot communicate it.

It’s vital for SMEs looking to distinguish themselves against major players.

2. Establish a welcoming corporate culture.

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This is for what we call our ‘internal customers’ (our staff) and external customers. No matter how much you grow, always keep this in mind – it helps develop an identity that is passed through to the customers.

3. Research. Take time to assess your market and keep a close eye on competitors’ activity. Identify the size of the market and give yourself realistic goals to capture a percentage of the market share.

Determine USPs by asking yourself ‘what can we offer that all our competitors can’t?’.

4. Be transparent. Customers are more likely to put their faith in you and trust the business if you’re open about how you operate.

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5. Be honest. If you make a mistake hold your hands up and do everything in your power to make it right. People love you for that.

6. Get social. There’s no good reason for a business – especially an ecommerce outlet – not to have a social media presence. Also, it’s a very cost-effective way for SMEs to engage with their target audience.

We’ve found that creating an online community for people to really celebrate the love of their pets has helped us to build up a loyal following, fast.

7. Spend savvy. Watch every penny you spend. Anyone can spend money on fancy branding and literature, but it doesn’t necessarily convert to sales or build brand loyalty.

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Think of clever and cost effective ways to communicate and engage with your customers. This can really differentiate you from bigger companies.

8. Manage growth. Don’t get too big too quickly and lose track of how you’re allocating resources. If any sort of loyalty or customer relationship management initiative gets neglected, customers will feel undervalued.

9. Always act on customer comments. If your customer is good enough to make a point about your company, it’s often the best information and feedback you can ever have.

10. Build relationships. Work hard to understand your customer base and key stakeholders and devise relationship building activities which will attract their attention, show your commitment and, hopefully, garner press interest to help raise brand aware- ness.

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