Building a cohesive brand identity is the foundation of your business

I have noticed that one of the areas that often gets neglected in a small business is a cohesive brand identity. This will obviously develop as your business grows but just  remember that having a cohesive brand image is really the foundation of your business. The more professional that your overall presentation is the, more successful your business will be. Here are a few low cost ideas to consider.

Branding goes beyond business cards, logo design, and your marketing material.

Lets begin with your email address!

An email address tells people how to contact you and also aides in branding your business. I have two email address. My professional email address which I pay for is marc@marcreece.net and I also have a personal email address which is free.

I cant tell you how many small business owners I have spoken with over the years that use their personal or free email address to conduct business. Think about it this way if you work for Comcast than your email address should end with @comcast.com. If you own a business, then your email address should end with your domain name.

Google offers a variety of business applications including email and other services for about 50 dollars per year I’m a not only a  fan of Google but have incorporated a few of their services into my business including hosting my email account.  A professional email address also serves another purpose, it helps with the branding of your business. Which leads me to my next point

Own your domain name!

Your business needs a website or blog, think about it as the marketing hub of your business. In today’s competitive business environment people expect to find you on the web. If you don’t have one, do you really exist ? A website will help connect your customers and clints to your business and brand.

There are two types of web hosting accounts you can get, many hosting providers offer both free and paid hosting services. Stay away from a free hosting account, its free for a reason! Most hosting providers that offer free accounts do so because they advertise on your site, limit your bandwidth and the number of pages you are allowed to have .

Why would you allow someone to advertise on your site for free? If you are into that please let me know.

I buy my domain names from Godaddy but my hosting provider is Hostgator. The thing I like about Hostgtor is that they are affordable you can host a website with unlimited bandwidth for about 4 dollars a month and their support rocks, not to mention my sites load quicker.

Never miss a call!

The third and final point I would like to talk about is the way clients or potential customers can get a hold of you when you are away from the phone. Google offers another service which I love, Google voice. Google voice offers a local phone number, voice mail, voice transcription, call screening, conference calling, call forwarding, sms to email, and number porting all for the low low price of free. Now business calls get forward directly to my cell phone so I never miss a call.

In the past I also used a virtual receptionist service. This is perfect for a someone working from their home. This  allowed me to have an auto attendant, call routing, an 800 number, local number, voice mail to email and a variety of other services. My favorite feature was when someone called in they could press 1 for sales, 2 for accounting, 3 for support, 4 for customer service and so on, you get the idea!

No matter when someone called or what department they choose to speak too, all calls were routed directed to my cell phone so no matter where I was my clients could always get a hold of me and business could be conducted. I never wanted to miss a potentially important phone call.

Prices vary depending on the services you choose I believe that I paid 30 dollars per month but considering that you will have a more professional small business identity it will be worth the price if you can afford it. I paid 30 dollars a month, the price was minimal and the ROI can was incredible.