Three Places Your Logo Should Be (Besides Your Website)

Commonly, small business owners comprehend the importance of having a clear logo as well as having consistent branding on their website. However, most of them vastly underestimate the opportunities that exist beyond digital. Your website might only receive a couple of hundred visitors a month, but strategically placing your logo around the physical world can net you thousands of impressions. The key, though, is to pinpoint high-traffic, high-relevance areas where your brand is consistently exposed to potential customers, referral partners, and decision-makers within your target market.

Instead of high-priced billboards and ads, other, more valuable placements might be areas within your business. These everyday contact points include the places where your staff spend their time, the people they interact with and the areas frequented by your potential customers. The more repetitive your logo appears in these specific contexts, the more familiarity and credibility your audience associates with your brand and, arguably, without your active advertising efforts.

On Your Team, Every Day

The people who work for your business are arguably the best and most valuable placement for your logo. Your staff is always present outside the office, whether they are driving to the office, working on the properties of the customers, going to get supplies, or grabbing lunch.

Branded gear increases marketing opportunities in each of those moments, and lack of it creates the opposite effect. A field crew in plain clothes generates zero marketing value. A logoed team in synchronized shirts, jackets, and even hats will turn every single public effort into passive marketing.

All placements succeed because they are contextual. A crew in professional work attire will signal opportunity for the service being offered and the logo will act as a gentle reminder for the service provider. A social media random impression ad is way less effective than this. Random billboards barely register in a person’s thought and have even less impact than that. Real life evidence of the work performed is far more important than a marketing claim, and that’s why a random reputation is far more effective.

In the case of any impact, the second highest impact placement is wherever your clients or prospects are, specially places where many purchase decisions are discussed. For companies that work with the hospitality or craft beverage industries, that could mean retail merchandise in tap rooms or tasting rooms.

The decision makers like property managers and Facility directors spend time in the waiting area, offices, or the open spaces on the premises for contractors and service businesses. Your logo, on staff apparel, showcased business merchandise, or partner business gear, is on display. It remains top of mind for the decision makers during the consideration phase of the decision.

This tactic creates ambient brand recognition without a brash push sales effort. A logo on a hat worn by a brewery staff is not a traditional ad, and yet, it works the same. Customers see it frequently, associate it with a positive scenario, and recall the brand during the time of purchase. The same goes for service businesses whose clients share offices. When your logo is in the shared environment, it shows you are not some random vendor, but a part of the industry.

Let’s Talk About Customers and Advocates with Your Business whome You Are Reach Extending

The third placement is frequently the most neglected. However, it falls on the people, who already advocate for your business. Customers, clients, and referral partners are more than happy to sport your brand, if you offer them something worth wearing.

Most companies make the mistake of treating this as a giveaway instead of a strategic asset. Promotional products worth a few cents will inevitably become part of the landfill. On the other hand, people will actually wear high-quality gear, which means your logo will be showcased in contexts you might never be able to access otherwise.

A contractor’s best client, for example, can wear your branded hat to an industry event where your logo will be visible to hundreds of prospects. A brewery client, also, has the ability to wear your gear at a farmers market or concert, introducing your brand to an entirely new audience. A property manager whow wears a company hat covers on-site visits with other vendors and service providers, creating more opportunities for visibility with people that can refer new business. All of the above can be done with particularly less effort from the company, working as passive marketing that strengthens the brand overtime as more people wear it.

Why Quality is Better than Quantity

The unifying theme in all three of these placements is that quality drives usage, and usage drives results. A logo printed on a cheap item that will fall apart after two washes generates minimal value.

As people tend to wear good quality apparel with a logo stamped on them for long periods of time, visibility is maintained, and brand image is positively reinforced. This is the reason why businesses go for premium options such as custom wholesale hats instead of promotional merchandise. Although the initial expense is higher, the return on investment keeps increasing as the products continue to circulate and produce impressions month after month.

The same concept applies to placement strategy. Market saturation with poorly branded products will generate short-term visibility, but does not develop trust or loyalty. Placing your logo on value-packed branded merchandise and on your employees, clients, and advocates who help you expand reach ensures sustained brand visibility and awareness, which results in more referrals and repeat business. It should also be noted that the goal is not to get the logo in front of as many people as possible; rather, it is to strategically position it in front of your targeted audience.

Steps to Implement a Successful Placement Strategy

Many businesses already have access to all three placements; they just haven’t had the right strategy. To begin, standardization should be used to determine what your employees are required to wear.

Ensure that each team member possesses wearable high-quality branded apparel, and delineate when and where it should be used with specific standards. After that, find business environments that interact with clients and where your logo will fit seamlessly on staff apparel, retail products, or in collaboration with synergistic companies. Develop a strategy that makes sure premium branded products go into the hands of customers and supporters who will advocate for regular wear.

The combined effect of these placements is a multiplier effect. Your team’s visibility adds to the clients you are already servicing. The branded customers help you gain new potential leads. Each addition enhances the others, creating a market awareness that would cost over a hundred thousand dollars with traditional advertising. What makes it different and more valuable is that it all ties to genuine interactions and true advocacy without pay media.