Get Small Business Leads With These 5 Brand Building Strategies

Introduction

When looking at the customer’s journey, customers rarely buy right away. Your audience will become aware of your business, and once you start to prove that you might be a good solution to their problem, they may take the next step to dive further into your world. This might look like joining your email list or texting campaigns.

How Do Small Businesses Generate Leads?

How do we help them to take that next step? A cohesive brand identity, paired with an optimized website, can be a game-changer for generating high-quality small business leads. In this guide, we’ll explore branding and website design strategies that can help small businesses stand out, engage potential customers, and turn casual audience members into loyal clients.

Branding Basics for Attracting Small Business Leads

Branding goes beyond a logo design or color scheme—it’s the perception and feeling that your audience has when they think of your business. A strong brand communicates who you are, what you stand for, and why customers should choose you over competitors. Companies that invest in cohesive branding are better equipped to build trust, establish credibility, and attract the right small business leads (all while repelling the wrong people).

When working with my branding clients, these are some of the ways that we set the foundation for them to build a memorable brand:

• Define The Brand’s Mission and Core Values: These help to answer the questions – what do you stand for and what is your ultimate goal as a company? A clear set of values resonates with customers, creating a deeper connection that builds trust and attracts small business leads who align with your ethos.
• Consistent Visual Identity: This includes everything from your logo design, color palette, font system, iconography, patterns, photography style, your website and social media. Every marketing touchpoint that you have with your audience should incorporate your signature brand style.
• Brand Storytelling: Every business has a story – from how it got started to the day-to-day work. Share these stories with your audience to form connections with them. This helps to bring a level of authenticity and reliability to your brand.

Pro Tip: What I have found with my clients is that the bolder that you can go with your brand identity, the better! So many industries are muddled with the providers that all talk about the same things, and they all have similar aesthetics. To disrupt your industry, you’ve got to differentiate in a BIG way. Make a list of every common opinion and practice within your field and see if there are ways that you can do the complete opposite of what everyone else is doing. Is there a common opinion / strategy in your industry that you find unethical? Start talking about it!

Example: These are some branded marketing materials that I designed for my client, House of Modern Realty, a real estate brokerage based in Atlanta, Georgia. In a niche that is typically very transactional, HOM takes the opposite approach, priding itself on bold brand through helping its clients through hyper-personalization techniques, human-first education, and community involvement.

Creating a Lead-Generating Website

Your website is a critical tool for capturing small business leads. With a strategic design, your site can guide visitors through a seamless user experience, making it easy for them to take the next step. Here’s how to design a website that attracts and converts leads:

1. Homepage Essentials: Your homepage should clearly convey what your business offers, who it serves, and how it can solve a problem for potential leads. Include a strong call-to-action (CTA) that guides visitors toward contacting you, scheduling a consultation, or exploring your services.
2. Easy Navigation: An intuitive site structure is essential for user experience. Organize your pages logically, keeping the most important information easily accessible. For example, have a clear “About” section, a “Services” or “Products” page, and a “Contact” form. Your website visitors won’t linger around if they have to figure out where to go to find what they want. You have to make it easy on them – or they will wind up abandoning your website.
3. Clear Calls To Action on Every Page: Every page should have a specific purpose and a CTA that aligns with that purpose, whether it’s inviting visitors to subscribe to a newsletter, download a guide, or contact your business. This helps guide small business leads through your website without confusion. One strategy that I use with all of my clients’ website builds is to use the brightest brand color for links and buttons – this helps to draw attention to the most important components of your page.

Pro Tip: Optimize for mobile devices. Over half of internet use is conducted via mobile device, and ensuring that viewing your site at these screen sizes is essential to generating small business leads.

Are you struggling to get the small business leads that you want from your website? Don’t worry, friend – I’ve got you covered! Grab my FREE website checklist full of website design and branding strategies that will help you build trust with your audience and stand out in your market.

Leveraging Brand-Driven Content to Attract Small Business Leads

Content is a core component of both branding and lead generation. When your website hosts valuable, informative content that aligns with your brand, you’re more likely to attract engaged small business leads who trust your expertise.

These are some of the ways that you can create value-packed content that resonates with your audience:

1. Blogging and SEO: Publish blog posts that address common questions, offer tips, and solve problems for your target audience. Integrate keywords naturally in your content to help improve search engine rankings. When you publish consistent, well-optimized content, this can help to drive organic traffic to your site, increasing lead potential. Don’t be afraid to give too much away. Information is free and easily found on the internet. Your goal with this strategy should be to showcase how you are providing a different solution to everyone else in the market.
2. Lead Magnets: Create downloadable resources such as eBooks, checklists, or templates that provide immediate value to your audience. Offering these in exchange for an email address is an effective way to grow your list of leads while showcasing your brand’s knowledge and expertise. Consider what your audience is struggling with right now – and craft a freebie that helps them get a small win in the right direction for tackling that problem. Pro tip: I love using Flodesk (affiliate link) to set up forms to give away my freebies because they make it so easy to deliver the goods to your audience and put them into a drip campaign to build further trust with them.
3. Branded Visuals and Media: Infuse your brand’s colors, fonts, and style into your visual content. High-quality images, infographics, and videos not only enhance your site’s appeal but also help visitors remember your brand.

Pro Tip: Showcase case studies or client testimonials. This content provides social proof, reinforcing your brand’s credibility and encouraging small business leads to take the next step. Not only do potential clients want to see the work / results you can provide, but they also will be curious about what it’s like to work with you on a personal level. I typically like to include photos or video of the person giving the testimonial as well to deepen the humanization factor.

Tapping Into Social Media For Small Business Leads

Social media is a prime opportunity for building brand awareness and attracting new small business leads. Platforms like Tiktok, Instagram, Threads, and Linkedin allow small businesses to showcase their brand personality and engage with potential leads directly.

• Consistent Branding Across Channels: Ensure your brand colors, logo, and voice are consistent on all social media platforms. Your goal with your social media should be to call in the right small business leads by speaking to directly to a specific type of person, their struggles, and desires.
• Engagement and Relationship Building: Respond to comments, messages, and tags (pro tip: this is a great opportunity for infusing your unique brand voice and personality). Social media engagement builds trust, making it more likely that your audience will consider you when they need your product or service.

Building a Brand-Driven Email Marketing Strategy

Strategic email marketing is a powerful way to nurture small business leads and build relationships over time. With branded, value-driven email campaigns, you can keep your business top-of-mind and guide potential leads through your sales funnel.

1. Welcome Series: When a new audience member subscribes to your email list, add them to a welcome series that introduces your brand, explains your values, and shares helpful resources. A well-crafted welcome sequence builds trust, establishes your brand’s voice early, and primes your audience for what type of content to expect from you.
2. Segmented Campaigns: Segment your leads based on behavior, interests, or stage in the sales funnel. This allows you to deliver relevant content to different groups, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions. Your offers may serve people at different points in their journey, and this is why segmenting is so key. For example, you don’t want to send a beginner audience member a more advanced training. It won’t feel aligned with where they currently are, and will make it more likely that they will opt out of your list.
3. Regular Newsletters: Share updates, new blog posts, special offers, and industry tips. Each newsletter is an opportunity to reinforce your brand and remind your audience of your expertise.
4. Provide Direct Calls To Action: Give the opportunity for subscribers to take the next step with you. A great placement for this link/button is within the PS. section of your newsletter because there are some folks who will scroll directly to the bottom.

Pro tip: Flodesk (affiliate link) is my go-to email marketing platform. It’s super easy to use with tons of gorgeous drag-and-drop templates, and has awesome segmenting functionality, so that I can get the right message to the right audience member.

Conclusion

A strong brand and well-designed website can be transformative for generating small business leads. When your brand identity resonates with potential customers and your website offers a seamless experience, you’re more likely to attract and convert quality small business leads.

Investing in branding and website design isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about building a foundation that drives more aligned small business leads your way… which eventually turn into sales.

With a strategic approach, your brand and website can work together to position your small business as a trusted leader, creating a steady stream of leads who believe in your mission and want to be a part of it.

Take The BOLD Branding Persona Quiz

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Ready To Step Into Your Bold Branding Era?

I would love to help your creative business stand out from the crowd and attract your dream clients! Check out some of my custom branding work and if it feels aligned, reach out via my contact page. Once I receive your application, we can have a quick chat about your website goals and overall vision for your bold branding. I look forward to hearing from you soon!