Last Updated on Mar 31, 2020 by James W
One of the most important marketing intangibles is branding. It is practically impossible to measure the worth of a brand ad. Companies pay millions for branding campaigns. For years, Honda has put out million dollar ad after millions dollar ad saying absolutely nothing about their cars. At this point, it is pretty much all brand ads. It must be working for them.
Then again, they have millions to burn on brand advertising that may or may not do the job. How’s your budget? If not the millions, does it run in the hundreds of thousands? Tens of thousands? Thousands? If you are like most small businesses in their early days, you will be lucky to have a marketing budget that breaks the hundreds.
Across traditional media, brand advertising is expensive. Even if you had it to spend, you don’t need to put $400,000 into a 30-second ad in the Walking Dead. You don’t need a million dollar campaign in the New York Times. Here are some smarter and budget-friendlier way to get your brand in front of potential buyers:
Label Everything
If you have access to a label printer (like the Kiaro! from QuickLabel), you can and should label everything. Whether you need 10 labels at a time or thousands of industrial labels, by investing in your own custom labeling solution you can be prepared to label just about anything that can act as a brand ambassador.
When you are done professionally labeling your products and packaging, and custom marketing folders, put a label on your kid’s lunchbox, your dog’s collar, and your car’s bumper. The absolute simplest way to get your name out there is to print it out on a label and put it out there, just about anywhere will do.
Sponsor It
You are already paying an arm and a leg for your kid’s sports league gear. Why not pay a little more and have it pay you back? Don’t just pay for your kid’s jersey. Pay for all the team jerseys. But don’t just pay for them. Sponsor them.
There are some excellent reasons to sponsor a youth sports team, including:
- Unbeatable value for the price
- Generate community good will
- Likely tax incentives
Sports league sponsorships provide a lot of flexibility and opportunity for branding. You can place a small logo on the front and back of the jersey just above the numbers. You can place a full on ad in the program for every game. You can put branding on and around the concession area. Don’t forget the scoreboard and fences.
You can pay as little as $100, and upwards of $5,000 or more. During sports season, the branding opportunities abound. You don’t have to be limited to one team. You can support them all. When it comes to creative and inexpensive branding opportunities, support your local sports league and swing for the fences.
Bless It
You don’t have to be a believer to take an interest in your local church. The pews are one of the best branding opportunities money can buy. Hymnals are pricy for small churches. A church with old, dilapidated hymnals in the back of the pews means opportunity for you.
Many churches have songbooks that have an ad on the front page because they either sold it to a local funeral home, or that funeral home was enterprising enough to invest in new song books for the church. In thousands of small churches, the main source of air conditioning is a handheld fan sponsored by a local business. They cost next to nothing to make.
If you are worried this sounds a bit too sacrilegious, don’t. St. John XXIII Catholic Church advertises their advertising opportunities. They are far from alone. Church bulletins are little newsletters that go out to tens, hundreds, and even thousands of parishioners so per congregation. There are even more opportunities on the websites. Churches welcome your business’s business.
Whether you label it, sponsor it, or have it blessed by a higher power, you can juice your branding efforts for a fraction of what you thought was possible with just a little creativity.
