Your small business is not about you or the skills you have. Your small business is really about brand relationships and what makes you great.
How your customers think and feel about you is what makes your brand stand out from the rest. The goal of a brand is to stand out from the rest and be memorable.
Close brand relationships with your customer is how you make it happen. The goal is to have a close relationship and give your customers such a wonderful experience they can’t wait to come back for more.
The first way to build personal brand relationships with your customer is to be seen as a real person and not a faceless brand.
Show Yourself
Being a small business and not a huge company gives you the benefit of being able to show customers who you are. That means you have the benefit of attaching your brand story to your own.
How closely you attach your story and yourself to your small business can dramatically change how people see your brand. Unlike a large business, when somebody buys from a small business, a real person does a happy dance.
The meaning behind that for others is tremendous.
When a customer buys from a small business, a real person does a happy dance. Share on XYour face should be the poster child of your small business. With your face attached then people know who they’re doing business with. Everywhere online gives you a chance to show your face. Be sure you take advantage and show your face.
Show yourself because a faceless, stiff company never does as good as personable, human company.
Showing yourself is all about the brand relationships that allow you to build close relationships with your customers. Showing yourself can only go so far, though, which is why you also have to be yourself.
Be Yourself
Showing yourself is one thing because not much has to go into it. Being yourself is much more difficult, though.
Being professional is important but there is a place when professional can go too far. Never be so professional that you lose sight of who you are and what makes your business special. If your business is in health and wellness then talking in stiff business talk won’t get you very far. A picture of you in a suite and tie also won’t look authentic.
Brand relationships are about matching who you are, what brought you into your industry, and mixing that together into a brand image. Acting like a person will get you a lot further on social media than acting like a business.
Be natural, be yourself, and let yourself shine through on social media and beyond.
You’re a small business, take advantage of the opportunities that affords you. You don’t have to be a faceless company so be yourself and let people connect with you.
A big company has the financial resources but you have something even better. You.
Never try to be a faceless company.
There are small things you can do to add a personal touch to making your brand relationships more personal.
Add Personal Touch
If you’re the owner of your small business and the only employee it’s not too hard to add a personal touch to your brand.
What if you have a few employees, though?
There are some small things you can do to help your employees add their personal touch when representing your small business. Letting customers know who’s behind the company can help your employees do that.
On social media, allow your employees to represent your company as themselves. Something as simple as signing off on social media messages with their initials or name can give a personal touch for your customers.
Buffer
Buffer does a great job at this. Each happiness hero (customer service) signs replies to customers with their name. With that customers know who they’re talking to and can build a relationship with that person.
Check out the types of relationships they’re able t build with their customers:
Hey there, Ray! We've got a few team mates in the UK. Could this be our first New Year Resolution for 2017? :D -Dave
— Buffer (@buffer) December 10, 2016
Even though Buffer has many employees, they’re able to keep the relationships personal and employees can represent the company as themselves and not a faceless representative.
Be Fun
Everyone loves to laugh and nothing will build a relationship better than making someone laugh. Strong brand relationships can be forged with some humor shown from your small business.
Don’t hesitate to show some humor because it’ll help make people fall in love with you and your business.
A little humor can go a long way when forging new relationships with likely customers. Share on XOf course there’s always the chance that humor from a company can go too far and offend someone. It’s important to know your audience and understand what will make them laugh and what will make them cry.
If you’re not sure if something is going to hurt you more than help, it might be a good decision to stay away from it.
But don’t be afraid and stay away from humor and fun altogether. The benefits it can give your small business and the brand relationships you can build with your customers are huge.
Be Present
Being present to your customers is an essential way to build brand relationships that will grow with your small business. Social media helps you reach new customers and stay in contact with current customers but does it help you bring in new customers?
It may but it may not.
A website is the best way to be present for your customers and make it easy for them to contact you. Social media is important but your website is still the most important.
Having a way for your customers to interact with you on your website and ask questions will help you build the brand relationships that will grow your business. It could be as simple as a comment form but it could be as complex as live chat on your website.
In either case you need some way to solve communication problems and be present to your customers.
Get your free personalize Online Presence Report to see how well you are connecting with your customers. See if there are opportunities for you to grow your small business online.