4 Quick and Easy Ways to Reinforce Your Handmade Brand

Nothing encourages repeat purchases and loyal customers like a personal touch. A named email there, a regular order remembered there – it helps the customer feel valued and seen, so let’s look at some ways you can bring that to all facets of your business:

1. How to create a logo that’s versatile
2. Handmade business touches they’ll love
3. Personalisation for the win
4. Fun little extras

With these ideas, you’ll be well-placed to welcome back your best customers and keep them happy for longer…

Number 1: How to create a logo that’s versatile

Your business isn’t complete without a logo in place to help your customers recognise you. It’s a way to present your brand, to indicate your identity and can be used across your marketing to reinforce your business. There’s a design thinking approach you can take which focuses on solutions and action – not the problem:

• Creating a brand logo starts with your brand identity and what makes you special. Think about things that are important to you and what you want your customers to think of you. 
• Next comes the inspiration. Start by brainstorming things and ideas that you like and list words and images that you think your demographic will identify with. Then get everyone involved to refine the idea and pick out the more appropriate ones. Mood boards are also good for visual inspiration to help you define the aesthetic you’re looking for.
• Market research is important too. Look at what your competitors and other similar businesses are using as their logo – these can help influence your choice and allow you to make sure you’re differentiating enough.

• Choosing a logo type is next. There are a few different styles to choose from including letter marks, wordmarks, pictorials, abstracts, mascots and a mix of these. Generally, letter marks are the most versatile. These are excellent for shortening your brand name and when combined with a small pictorial, they can simply and clearly express your brand identity. What’s more, you can evolve and just use the pictorial section of your logo when you’re short on space.

• Don’t forget to carefully choose your colours and typefaces – they say a lot about your business. 

If you’re feeling confident enough, and you’re somewhat experienced, then you could try creating your logo yourself. Whatever you do, it’s best to have a designer by your side so they’re fully understanding of your wants and needs. 

Number 2: Handmade business touches they’ll love

Once your logo is all sorted, you’ll be starting to think about how you can use it in your marketing and communications. 

For starters, you should share it all over your online persona, from your website to any emails you send out, to your social media sites (which you should really have). They should feature it in a prominent position to help build up that recognition with your customers and make them familiar with the logo. 

If you have a storefront or sell your products online, you can amp up the brand identity on the packaging for an out-of-home boost:

• Use branded boxes or bags to send out your items.
• Source some branded packaging tape.
• Include a freebie such as a small packet of sweets or a money-off voucher.

• Give your tags, leaflets and vouchers a personal touch with a custom stamp.

You’ve got to share and show your business logo wherever you can to get the maximum impact and build up that recognition. 

Number 3: Personalisation for the win

Being known by name has always been a big plus for customers. It often means they’re in for a friendly chat as they purchase and sometimes that their regular order is all ready for them. It’s a much richer and rewarding experience for the customer, which is what you want for your brand perception. 

Now that digital marketing tools and the internet are readily available to all, there’s automation in place which makes personalisation easy, so why not take advantage of it?

You can find loads of ways to personalise your communication with your customers online but the key is to make it relevant. Just because they’ve signed up or given you their email address doesn’t mean you can send them anything and everything. Do your customer research then send out valuable information and offers, or use ads to target your demographic. 

Number 4: Fun little extras

As well as all the traditional brand marketing and building activities such as social media accounts, leaflets and ads, there are a few other activities that can really give you an audience boost. 

• Create new content

Google’s algorithms look at your content and whether it’s up to date for search rankings, so try to create a schedule of when and what content you’re pushing out. Make it SEO optimised and get your staff involved as well – they know the company and demographic better than anyone. 

• Run a competition

If done right, this can be super-effective. Social media competitions are popular, but try to make the effort-to-prize ratio relevant.

• Start a newsletter

With GDPR coming into play, everyone’s mailboxes are a bit lighter, but that doesn’t mean you can’t send out a newsletter to people who want it. Ask for sign up and share relevant content you’ve created, new products and a bit about you too.

Learning how to create a logo and adding in some handmade business personalisation are great tools for your brand and your customers. They boost recognition, loyalty and ultimately sales, so go forth and be familiar and friendly – it’ll do you good in the long run.