Our Brand School membership is packed with value. You’ll get access to exclusive ‘Monthly Meet Ups,’ videos, audio files, brand strategy templates, case studies, industry insights, group calls and a supportive community of fellow small business owners. Plus, you’ll receive discounts on our workshops and one-on-one consultations.

We cover a range of brand-building topics, including:

• Positioning your brand

• Understanding your customer

• Developing your key messages

• Crafting a compelling brand story

• Marketing planning that works

• Practical tips and tactics

• Building customer engagement and loyalty

• Plus our new ‘Get Started…’ series to help you get started with some key marketing tools like Canva, Instagram and CapCut
• Each session is designed to offer practical advice you can apply to your business straight away.

Our one-on-one Zoom consultations are all about you and your brand. We’ll take a look at your current strategy, pinpoint areas to strengthen, and help you create a plan to boost your brand’s presence and impact. Sessions last an hour and can be scheduled at a time that works for you.

No branding experience? That’s really not a problem. Whether you’re just starting out or fine-tuning an established brand, our services meet you where you are. We (that’s Ailsa, Tara & Jen) are here to support small business owners at every stage of their branding journey.

It’s simple to sign up through our website. Head to the “Services” section, check out the upcoming workshops or consultation slots, and follow the steps to book your place.

We understand that things come up. If you can’t make it to a workshop, just let us know as soon as you can. We’ll do our best to reschedule or transfer your spot so you don’t miss out.

Our services are designed to be affordable for small business owners while delivering real value. Our membership is just £35 per month, a one-off consultancy session is £125, and a package of four is available for £500. 

We’d love to hear from you! You can email Ailsa at ailsa@bisforbrand.com or give Ailsa a call at 07572 435156. We’re always happy to chat.

Here at B is for Brand we’re a small but mighty team of highly experienced, strategic and passionate brand builders and marketers.  So if you’re growing your small business and would like some strategic help, we’re here for you.  Our strategic support service is ideal for small businesses looking to grow but not yet ready to take on a full time marketing manager.  Outsource your marketing management to us and we can support you on a monthly retainer starting at £350 – easing the burden on you, the business owner.  We can oversee your inexperienced or developing in-house team to make sure your marketing is focused and effective.

We’ll work closely with you to plan and reach your marketing goals so that you can take care of everything else you need to do to take your business to the next level. Why not give us a call to find out more?

Let’s start with ‘Do you need a marketing plan?’ As a small business owner, it’s really worth while having a basic marketing plan to follow as this will actually help you save time, money and effort – and help you reach the right people for your business!  Once you’ve written your first plan, you will never start with a blank piece of paper as lots of the ideas in your marketing plan will be things you can repeat again and again. So (in our opinion) it’s really worth setting aside just a few hours every now and then to plan ahead.

Your first part  of your marketing plan should contain information about:

The customers you want to reach
What you want to say to them (based on how you can help them)
A list of content ideas (brain dump!) 
Your marketing objectives
Your creative ideas
What success looks like for you
How you will measure progress
A budget

Then each month set out:
Your goal
What you are going to talk about (maybe one theme each week)
Where you are going to talk about that (e.g. in your blog or newsleltter, on social media or at networking events)
And record how you are getting on (how much engagement/how many sales this led to etc)

Take time to review how successful your communication was at the end of the month, so that you can adjust your plan for the following month.

That’s the most basic version of what you need to do when writing a marketing plan.  If you need support or advice, or you’d like us to put your plan together for you, drop us a message here at B is for Brand

If you haven’t had a Eureka moment by then, with your Brand Strategy in hand, it will be much easier to decide which name options are right or wrong for your exciting new venture.

However, as soon as you make even the smallest change to your visual identity (logo etc) inconsistencies can start to creep in (and consistency is the most important thing in branding, right)? The worst case scenario is that the customer doesn’t recognise your business anymore, or gets confused about whether it’s really you. American Business Strategy expert Donald Miller famously says: ‘You confuse, you lose!’

You need a Brand Strategy! Your Brand Strategy will help you find the right TRIBE for your business. There are currently almost eight billion people in the world. That’s a few too many for your business to serve, right? Once you know what your business stands for, what you want it to be known for and what change you want it to bring to the world, you can start to find out who might be interested in doing business with you.

Humans only connect on an emotional level with a small handful of brands over their lifetime and those are the ones they tend to support, talk about and buy from again and again.

You need to start this process by writing your Brand Strategy! ‘People buy from people’ (quote from someone more famous than me) and if you get your message right, tell a story that is authentic and learn to connect with your audience on an emotional level, your customers will buy into you, what you stand for and your story, over and above the products and services that you sell. So by talking less about features and benefits and more about emotions and stories, the process of engagement begins. When a customer connects with your story and identifies themselves IN that story, they start buying from you again and again, choosing your business over others. That, my friends, is brand loyalty.

Building an army or a TRIBE of loyal brand ambassadors around your business starts with your Brand Strategy! People need purpose in life, need something to believe in. If your business operates with purpose, it will attract the right staff. You can use your brand strategy to develop loyalty among your staff. Once your staff are brand loyal, they will help you turn your customers into brand ambassadors too.

Not got any staff? Much simpler, but you still need to start with your Brand Strategy! ‘People buy from people’ (quote from someone more famous than us) and if you get your message right, tell a story that is authentic and learn to connect with your audience on an emotional level, your customers will buy into you, what you stand for and your story, over and above the products and services that you sell.
Once you’ve got people on your side, you need to give them the things you want them to say about your business, otherwise they will make their own things up. That’s where your Brand Strategy comes in (have we mentioned that you need one of those?)

Good question! Probably our favourite question of all time. We’re big fans of a Brand Strategy. We believe that no business should be without one and that every business can benefit from having one.

There are lots of different versions of strategies out there, so we can only tell you about the B is for Brand method of writing a Brand Strategy.

In our version, it’s a single piece of paper, with a few key headings. We’ve seen other Branding Consultants produce sixty-six page documents that they call a Brand Strategy. We like to keep things simple. We tend to drift off by the time we get to the second page. We definitely can’t read, let alone remember sixty-six pages worth of advice!

Our version includes your deepest darkest thoughts on WHY you get out of bed in the morning to do this particular thing and why anyone should care about that (including your staff).

It talks about your wildest dreams.
It talks about the practical next steps you must take.
It talks about your goals and priorities.
It sets out your creative ideas.
In your Brand Strategy, you share what the beliefs and the personality of the business are, so that people can decide if they want to connect with you and be in your TRIBE (because people buy people, right?)

It will put some people off. Well, you don’t want all eight billion people in the world to come knocking at your office door, do you?

When you’re building a brand, you need to get comfortable with the fact that you’re not for everyone and that’s OK.

Once you’ve written your Brand Strategy, you just put it away in a drawer. No, only kidding – don’t do that. But you would be AMAZED at how many people do.

Once you’ve gone to the effort of writing your Brand Strategy (we’re not going to lie, it’s a pretty head-scratchy process), you might as well put it to good use helping you grow your business, right?
The first thing you do is you SHARE it! Share it with your staff, your fellow board members, and anyone who helps you grow your business. Definitely share it with all the creative people. They love a Brand Strategy. More than that, they will produce better work for you because you’ve given them clear guidance about what you want. We’re talking about web designers, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, copy writers, social media bods – all that gang LOVE a clear Brand Strategy.

The best way for YOU to start using your Brand Strategy to guide you is to look at it regularly. We recommend at least once a month. Start asking the question: ‘Does this fit with my Brand Strategy?’.

Like the sound of that?

Your Brand Strategy guides everything else about your brand. It also makes business decision making much easier. The Brand Strategy is the song sheet that everyone in your business is singing from. Singing one song in unison, you make a very loud choir!

What completely change it, or just change it a little bit?
Completely change it: Yes it is. As long as you do it for strategic reasons and consider how you’re going to do it without confusing or losing your existing loyal customers.
Just a tweak or two: Evolution, not revolution is the key to keeping your brand relevant. So if staying relevant is a key part of your Brand Strategy, embrace change.
Don’t have a Brand Strategy? Oooops….(see us after class). 
But in either case, remember that consistency is the most important thing in building a strong brand.

You need to remember what we like to call, ‘The Four Cs’
CLARITY – have a clear message and don’t confuse your customer
CONSISTENCY – pay attention to the details and make sure you are easy to recognise
CREATIVITY – Have fun doing ‘you!’ don’t follow the herd or every latest trend. Create a unique look, style and tone, then bring to life ideas that will make your business stand out and be memorable.
CONTROL – make sure you have really robust Brand Guidelines in place – and use them.

Yes! Here at B is for Brand we offer a strategic marketing support service to help inexperienced marketing teams and support busy, if not overwhelmed small business owners who want to build their brand and grow their business. Support packages start from just £350 per month. Get in touch to find out more.

Usually, one. Most small businesses don’t need more than that. It’s already a full-time job building one brand people recognise and trust. If you’ve got multiple products or services, they can often sit under the same brand with clear naming or messaging. Only split into separate brands if your audiences, values, and tone of voice are wildly different and you’re ready to do double (or triple) the work.

Not always. If your new offer is a natural next step for your current audience, it probably fits just fine under your existing brand. But if it’s a whole new direction (like launching dog food under a wedding planner brand) then it might need its own name, look, and identity. The test? Ask if your current customers would ‘get’ the new thing coming from you. If not, it might be time to rebrand or sub-brand.

White labelling means someone else sells your product or service under their brand. So your name might never appear, but you still make the thing. It can be a smart way to grow income without growing your audience but it’s not right for everyone. If building your own brand matters most, white labelling could dilute that. If you’re happy being behind the scenes (and the price is right), it can be worth exploring.

Brand architecture is how all the bits of your brand fit together including your main brand, sub-brands, products, services, collections, or locations. It’s the family tree of your business. A clear brand architecture helps people understand what you offer, how it’s organised, and where they fit in. Get it right and your business feels simple, even when it’s not.

Think clarity first, cleverness second. Your tagline should tell people what you do or what you stand for in one memorable line. Start by writing a list of plain-English phrases that sum you up. Then play with structure, rhythm, or a touch of personality. Don’t overthink it. If it helps the right people ‘get’ you quicker, it’s doing its job.

Yes, but not in the way you think. Your tagline won’t save a wobbly business, but a good one can stay in someone’s mind and make you easier to remember. That’s the goal of branding! However, it’s a tool, not the whole toolbox. Get the strategy right first, then the words will flow easier and matter more.

Start with your customer. What do they need to hear to say ‘Yes, I’m in’? Then layer in your brand values, tone of voice, and the story you want to tell. You don’t need a million messages, just a few strong ones that show up consistently on your website, packaging, and socials. If you’re always guessing what to say, it’s a sign your brand needs a strategy, not just better copy.

Tell the truth, with structure. Every good brand story starts with a reason (one that the customer will care about). This is likely to be the problem you spotted or the moment you knew this ‘thing’ you do, mattered. Relate your story to the customer and how you help them or make the world different for them. Take us through the journey: what you did, what you learned, what you offer now and why they need that in their lives. End with where you’re going next. Keep it personal, but relevant. Be veery careful not to slip into ‘corporate speak’ because naturally, your story should be in your brand personality and tone of voice.

Your brand isn’t just for your customers. It should shape the whole way you do things, from how you think and act to how your team thinks, acts, and makes decisions. If your values say ‘we’re all about creativity’, your culture needs to give you and your people space to experiment. If your tone of voice is friendly, your onboarding emails shouldn’t be cold and formal. The best brands feel the same on the inside as they do on the outside.

Do the thinking before you do the designing. Logos, colours, and packaging only work when they’re built on something solid. Get clear on who you are, what you stand for, and why it matters. Then keep showing up with consistency and care. That’s how you build a brand that lasts.