Every small business starts on a similar playing field. It’s the branding efforts you put forth that bring about the fan base of large corporations. Here are a few examples of how some businesses have established their brands using special engagement offerings. Each one focuses on engaging the consumer and the lessons learned for small business branding efforts.

Have a little fun

Start off by having some fun. People are more likely to do business with a company they enjoy, so be playful. Oreo, for example, loves to play with their food. Every childhood memory that combines cookies, milk and messes is showcased in their advertising and marketing campaigns.

During their recent 100^th anniversary celebration, Oreo debuted a cookie a day to commemorate a significant historical event. The Mars Rover landing was incorporated by using red cream filling with tracks pressed into the cookie. Elvis Presley’s head was perfectly carved on another cookie during Elvis week.

Every company has a fun side. Figure out what it is and make it a part of your branding strategy. The most popular brands are experts at relating to people. A great example is Sharpe. The company’s Instagram account has 95,000 followers because they make a point to post colorful pictures of employee drawings and clearly show the markers, too.

Let your users contribute

Get your users to contribute. Companys like Expedia do a great job with this by encouraging travelers to share their experiences in posts on their website. Branding strategy tactics should include conversations between businesses and consumer. If you do this well it can connect you to even more potential customers and get them to grow your brand.

Who doesn’t love a contest

Competition is in our nature, some more than others. RadioShack had a really fun contest when it began selling Verizon phones. The branding strategy used Twitter to reach the masses and create a competition. It worked by encouraging users to send Tweets to the company’s account. Verizon placed several phones on a table and set them to vibrate, every time a Tweet was sent to #itskindofabigdeal, the phone moved. The person responsible for sending the Tweet that sent the phone off the table won the contest.

Don’t worry be happy

There are dozens of successful large corporations who have made a point to make their employees happy. Google did this a few years ago by letting the public see how the business works from within. This particular branding strategy showed employees lounging around working on laptops, wearing comfortable clothes to work and even playing ping pong and other fun games on their breaks.

Treating employees well is a concept Zappos managed to conquer in addition to its dominance in customer service. Employee happiness is a strong indicator of how well a company is actually doing. Remember, happy workers are productive workers. The Zappos logo gives a warm and fuzzy feeling because of the company’s values.

If you’re looking at ways to build your brand, Susan J. Campbell Copywriting Services can help small businesses develop unique ways to create fun and effective branding strategies.