Smaller businesses face numerous obstacles when it comes to surviving — never mind taking on the bigger players in their fields. One of the biggest obstacles that small businesses face is brand recognition.

That doesn't just mean that people won't know what the business is when they spot its logo; brand recognition is more than that. It is the expectations that people have when they hear the name of the business and the feelings that it gives them. It's also the values and emotions that the thought of the business evokes. It is, in other words, what keeps customers coming back time after time.

The value of brand recognition

An easy way to understand the value of brand recognition is to think about your own day-to-day life. When you're hungry, how often do you find yourself going to the same national or international fast-food franchise that you always go to, rather than that cool hole-in-the-wall place you discovered one Saturday?

Even if the food's better at the latter, you've come to associate the former as the place you go to whenever you're hungry. With that in mind, it's worth looking at how smaller businesses can build the kind of brand recognition that not only gets customers coming back to the business time after time, but also recommending it to their friends and family.

Here are two ways to build your brand recognition:

1. Tell a story and make it personal

One of the most powerful ways to build brand recognition is to tell a story. Who started the business? Why did they do it? What is the business trying to achieve? These are all things that should be made clear to a customer from the first moment they interact with the business.

Customers are much more likely to remember brands that reach them on a personal or emotional level. But it's also important to remember that if a business wants to retain customers, they need to feel like they're a part of the business's ongoing story.

That doesn't just mean keeping them up-to-date with any new hires, expansion efforts and community initiatives; it also means providing them with offers and insights that are unique to them as individuals.

2. Use the SMS as a communication tool

While it's possible to achieve this to a degree with social media, a much more effective way to do it is to build up a database of customers that you can contact through SMS.

That's not to say that social media and other channels aren't important — they undoubtedly are. But when it comes building brand recognition, SMS is still the ultimate weapon in any small business' arsenal. 

This is especially true in a mobile-first market like South Africa, where there are an estimated 90-million mobile connections. SMS doesn't require the customer to be online and it doesn't cost them anything to receive.

Moreover, it's incredibly effective. Research shows that 98% of all SMSes are opened and that, on average, it takes someone 90 seconds to respond.

As such, it's vital that small businesses focus on building customer databases that include phone numbers from the start. Providing incentives in the shape of specials and discounts is a great way to do this.

Once they've built those databases, businesses need to view SMSes as the hook for something more personalised and visually appealing — and not just the medium for delivering their message.

Using Smart SMS technology, SMEs can direct customers to personalised web pages with specials, offers and discounts that are relevant to them.

Creating that sense of relevance is vital. Today's customer constantly has companies of all sizes begging for their attention. The brands that they'll latch onto, no matter how big or small, are the ones that they feel will fundamentally understand them as individuals.

Using the right combination of technology and nous will help small up-and-coming businesses build their brand recognition just as effectively as their much larger counterparts do.

For more information, visit https://www.mobiz.co.za. You can also follow Mobiz on Facebook or on Twitter.