How to Make Your SME Business Look More Professional

in Business

Both new and established businesses are faced with the challenge of maintaining their image. For formal businesses, it can be hard to promote the brand without seeming garish, flashy or cheap. Choosing the correct marketing channels and tactics means you can establish a business effectively, without compromising your quality of professionality. This guide identifies the best ways to cultivate a professional business image, whilst effectively promoting the brand.

  1. Lanyards

It’s common to see receptionists and those who represent the front of a business wearing lanyards around their neck or clipped to their shirts. This is because it makes them easily identifiable as a professional that customers or clients can approach. Businesses can implement this tactic very easily; it would be most suitable for those employees who are client-facing but can elevate the appearance of any business very quickly.

As lanyards are commonly associated with extremely corporate companies, SMEs can benefit from incorporating this into their business. It will be cheap to execute and could make employees more approachable, as well as more easily identifiable. This could boost brand visibility, but also encourage consumers to identify and speak to a business representative when they have a query, perhaps fueling leads, too.

  1. Set Up A Business Account

Using a generic server to host emails looks unprofessional. It gives off the appearance that a business is casual and perhaps is not capitalised. This can be very counter productive when attempting to convert customers and to build trust with consumers.

Simply creating a dedicated email server that features a business name, such as jane.smith@yourbusiness.com is cheap to do. It is likely to only incur a small annual fee. However, it gives off the impression that the business is bigger than it is, even if it is just a single-person operation, it doesn’t appear that way. Moreover, the customer is able to address someone by their given name, rather than an anonymous shot-in-the-dark, general address when they get in touch. This can help to build positive relationships because it does add a personalised touch in a professional way. The immediate contact on a business website or listing should still be something like hello@yourbusiness.com. Again, this gives off the impression there are more people working for the business and that you are a professional company, equipped to handle customer needs.

  1. Order Business Cards – And Use Them!

Designing and ordering business cards can seem unnecessary, but it can help to contribute to the professional success of a company. It’s a little old school, but it is effective. Businesses should encourage employees to attend networking events and hand these out. It can also be extremely valuable to hand business cards out at non-industry events, too. This is because the individual can build a reputation for their profession, with the potential to drive leads.

Ensure your business cards are designed professionally, handing out a scruffy card that has overlapping text and a blurry image is not going to promote an efficient and established image. It will be worth the price of investment. Similarly, investing in a web designer and developer is the best way to ensure the functionality and aesthetic look of your business represents the quality of your company.

It’s important to present a business, as small as it might be, to target an audience. This is the best, and most cost-effective method to generate leads and make sure the customers that contact you are going to be valuable with the potential to use or buy from your business.


Image Credits: TeroVesalainen

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