How to Brand A Small Business Website

Branding of your website is important because it contributes to the long term value of your business.  It creates a sense of customer confidence.   For a small business - your brand is the niche value you bring to the market.  Its the expectation of value in the customers mind about your product.  Part of building a brand is creating an impression in the market.   There are a number of ways you can do that with your website.

• Memorable Logo - a logo is not a brand although it represents one.  All great brands have a memorable logo.  Your website should have one too.  Its not the most important thing - but it can symbolize the value you bring consistently.
• Email List - You have to have a way to engage your customers.  Email is one of the easiest.  You can start having a small relationship by sending short emails to your customers.
• Press Releases - You should publish anything of interest about your brand as often as possible.  There are many free online press release sites.
• Free Content - Give away something of value.  This could be an small e-book or a pdf file.  The kinds I appreciate the most are things that are of real value - not just sales pitches.  Many online businesses use free content to get email addresses.  I personally lean toward just giving material away without requiring an email address.  You might try a combination if you must.
• Blogging - Having a blog is a great way to demonstrate your brand.  Google loves blogs and indexes the pages quickly for blogs that are updated regularly.  
• Twitter - Twitter is becoming a premier search site.  If you have a truly unique offering - making updates about it on Twitter can drive traffic to your website.   You can set up a Twitter account for your business.
• Compelling Content - You will have to be prepared for your visitors by having interesting pages.
• Newsletter or Ezine - Offer to your email subscribers a periodic newsletter.   Your logo and brand slogan should go out with the email if you can.  Try something like MailChimp.com
• Auto-responders - Send an email out to any one who requests it - night or day.  Most hosting companies provide this.
• Domain Name - Use your domain name everywhere.  Make sure its in your email signature and all your correspondence.