Have You Branded Yourself?

We are entering a time of year where lots of emails and packages are going to be sent out.  Before you get busy with all those orders, now is a great time to take stock of your business presentation!  Anyone who is selling online immediately has thousands of competitors.  So what might make you stand out and be remembered?

1.  Store Logo - At Etsy, we have a very distinct store banner and an avatar.  Both of these should be on your computer file so you can use it wherever it fits!  Even if someone else made it, just download your own image.  Customers need to see the same image many times for it to solidify in the brain.  Even if it looks repetitive to you, a customer is only seeing it a couple of times.  They will start to remember you.

2.  Business cards - they are so easy to make yourself on cardstock and you can use your own online images that are being shown on your shop, blog , auctions etc.  Once a template is made and saved, you can use it on whatever stock you prefer!

3.  Invoice - have you created a beautiful, coordinated invoice to mail in every single package?  I created an invoice using my ad box ad here at The Vintage Village on paper that matches my business card.  It was an easy creation just using Word!  Now the customer has 2 items in different sizes to remember the business.

4.  Packaging - even if you use recycled materials for packing, do you make the "last wrap"  attractive?  I have little fancy gift bags that the jewelry and smalls go into before they are securely wrapped.  The very last thing my customer has to do is unroll a suspenseful tissue wrap before s/he finds the treasure!  Very shortly an abundance of gift wraps and ribbons are going to pop into the stores.  Watch the sales and stock up!

Personal expression is easy online so let your juices flow.  Whatever style or niche you choose - keep on repeating it in your orders.  You will be remembered!