How To Build a Brand for Your Trade Business

Highly skilled trade workers are the most difficult workers to find. If you’re a professional electrician, plumber, gas engineer, mason, or HVAC technician looking to take advantage of this shortage, then you need to brand your business properly. Do so, and you'll be able to maximise your business’s impact on your customers and the industry.

Need more help with marketing? Download our free Marketing Plan for Tradespeople!

Now, a lot of tradespeople already know how important branding is to business. They’ve seen big companies attain massive success by building a solid brand. But sadly, many don’t know how to go about building a brand for their business.

So, today we’ll be breaking down the steps every tradesperson needs to build a unique brand for their trade business.

Jump ahead:

• 1. Why tradespeople are branding their businesses
• 2. Understand the brand
• 3. Find your brand identity
• 4. Create a compelling brand name
• 5. Brand with passion

1. Why tradespeople are branding their businesses

When the COVID pandemic struck, it exposed countless vulnerabilities and forced tradespeople worldwide to rethink how they run their businesses. Because of that, lots of tradespeople are beginning to pay serious attention to their business’s reputation, or brand.

Branding involves discovering, developing, and integrating unique features into your business so that customers can easily identify and patronize your products or services. It gives your business a personality, values, and goals that’d make it intriguing, likeable, and engaging allowing people to easily connect with it.

Having a unique brand makes it a lot easier for customers to fall in love with your business and when that happens, your business can easily:

• Attract even more customers.
• Connect emotionally with customers.
• Boost sales.
• Stand out from the competition.
• Encourage customer loyalty.
• Support customer word of mouth referrals.

Here’s how you can build a unique brand for your trades business.

2. Understand the brand

Begin your path to a unique brand by fully understanding your business and its services. Take the time to think about what your business stands for, its mission, vision, and goals. Do you pride yourself on speed? Quality? Customer service? Focus on finding your place in the market and understanding what customers expect from your business.

Understanding your business makes it easier to find the best tone and personality that promotes your company, connects with your customers, and sets you apart from the competition. Once you understand this, you're ready to find your brand identity.

3. Find your brand identity

Your brand’s identity is more than its personality — it's a promise you're making to your customers.

Your company's identity includes what your brand says, your beliefs, how you perform your services, and how you want people to feel when they interact with your business. But, to build a perfect identity for your business, you need to organize everything you've learned about your brand into these categories:

• Big ideas: What are the guiding principles of your company?
• Brand values: What are your personal business values and goals?
• Brand story: What made you decide to start your business in the first place?
• Benefits: What unique benefits do you provide your customers?
• Emotions: What strong emotions do you want your customers to experience?
• Value proposition: Why should customers do business with you?

Knowing the fundamental elements of your brand will assist you in developing a brand identity that correctly represents your business. Document your discoveries in a brand guide. This will serve as a useful reference point when marketing your business.

4. Create a compelling brand name

While building a unique brand for your trade business, don’t ignore a compelling brand name. A great business name is a perfect way to distinguish yourself from the competition and catch the eye of potential customers. The go-to choice for tradespeople seems to be 'name+trade', and while there's no doubt this is effective, you won't stand out from any other names.

A compelling name can also reinforce your brand’s personality in the minds of your customers, clarify your services, and work together with your brand’s tone, personality, and identity to help customers know just what to expect from your business.

When it comes to getting a unique and compelling brand name, one of the best places to start is with a powerful business name generator. Use ours for free:

Now that you’ve discovered your brand’s tone, identity and also gotten it a compelling name, it’s time to let your brand speak to its target audience. But don’t just get your business an exciting logo and typography, embrace social media and use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to build your brand’s voice and reach.

“Gone are the days of the Yellow Pages. Today people use the internet to find everything from a house, to a husband, to a plumber, to a good book.” - Laura Ries, Co-Founder - Ries and Ries

5. Brand with passion

Above all, building a great brand takes time. If you want to be successful, you must do so with passion and dedication. Your trade business's success will be determined by how committed your brand is to its vision and goals.

According to the Journal of Advertising Research, companies that are passionate about their products and services have a bigger influence on their target audience. That’s because customers think that the brand’s enthusiasm will motivate them to work more and deliver better services. So, when branding your business, be passionate and consistent.

Ready to take your brand's reputation to the next level? Download Tradify for a free 14-day trial or pop over to one of our live demo webinars to see the app in action.

Author: Grant Polachek is the Head of Branding at Inc 500 company Squadhelp.com, the worlds #1 naming platform, with 30,000+ customers from early-stage startups across the globe to the largest corporations including Nestle, Philips, Hilton, Pepsi, and AutoNation.