How to Raise Up the Image of Your Small Business

Creating a positive business image using advertising should be looked at as a long-term project for your business, partially falling into marketing and public relations. While it's not impossible to create a positive image of your business in a single ad, it's better to have people exposed to your business using multiple methods. Think about companies that you view positively. Most likely you may have seen or heard their commercials, heard other people talk favorably of their service, know that they contribute to the community, and their name just seems to come up a lot. Ideally, you want your own business to have a similar reputation. It then becomes a matter of breaking those positive impressions into actions you can take. Every business has a different budget and target audience, so you'll obviously need to do some planning in advance before choosing your method. Here are some general ideas to keep in mind however:

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A small business (can be online or traditional)
• The desire to raise its image or reputation

1. Repetition Leads to Reputation
   
   Think of how many different ad campaigns Coca-Cola has had during your lifetime. Even though they've used various methods to advertise, there are elements to their ads that have remained the same over time. From a psychology standpoint, people are more likely to trust the business they've heard of the most.
   
   While you may not have the financial means to do the same thing as Coca-Cola does on a national level, many business owners have the means to have a similar approach on a local level. It's good to study strong businesses in your area and figure out techniques they're using. You can then adapt them to your own needs.
2. Show Some Genuine Caring
   
   People have a way of detecting when someone has given money to a charity or non-profit just for the attention because they try to squeeze every bit of publicity out of it as possible. If you take the time however to get involved in community issues that you care about and not make a big deal of it on your own part, people will recognize that as well. This can have more to do with your general integrity as a business owner than an advertising campaign, but it is still important.
3. Put Your Business in a Position Where Word-of-Mouth Works for You
   
   Even if you have practically no advertising budget, providing an excellent level of service can always work in your favor. Your existing customer base has the ability to be your best advertising technique. Find ways you can reward your customers that don't hurt you financially, such as adding value through product combos and service packages.
4. Consider Partnering With Related Small Businesses With Advertising
   
   Just as an example, a house cleaner, interior decorator, and closet organizer installer can all team up on certain forms of advertising, even though their businesses are all independent. If you can find other people with integrity, you have the ability to offer deals to customers that you may not have been able to do on your own. From a customer standpoint, there are some fields where it's easier to favor a network of people as opposed to a single business. I think it's the idea that these other businesses wouldn't want to be associated with you if you didn't do quality work.

Tips & Warnings

• I want to encourage you to seek out a lot of other resources before making major decisions. This is not something you should expect to develop overnight, but it can definitely be done on a small business level.