As a product-based business, your brand is a key selling point. When it comes to establishing and reinforcing your company's brand, you need to take every possible opportunity. That sometimes means looking for branding opportunities in places you wouldn't otherwise expect. For example, when you're shipping products out to customers, you can spotlight your brand identity in several ways. The key is not only in knowing where to start but also knowing how to create a cohesive presentation across all of your shipments. Here are a few tips that will help you to transform your shipping materials into built-in branding for your business.

Start With Custom Packaging

If you've ever ordered from one of those large online stores and had the box arrive at your door with the company logo and slogan printed on it, you understand what custom packaging is. When you have all of your shipping cartons printed with your company logo on them, it's a great way to enhance your business branding.

You can get everything from black-and-white printing to full-color images put on all of your shipping packages. When you pair that with cool features like colored shipping tubes, you'll really make your shipments stand out. You can even add cutouts, windows, and other features to the boxes.

Opt For Pre-Printed Shipping Tape

In the past, commercial shipping tape was always clear or brown in color and pretty boring. The simplistic nature of the tape made it an afterthought in the shipping process. However, new advancements in the types of materials used to create shipping tape has opened up all kinds of different options.

Not only can you get shipping tape in a variety of different colors, you can also have it pre-printed with your company name, logo, and slogan, or any variation of the three. When paired with the right color tape, you can really enhance your brand image, especially if the tape color matches your company colors. While custom printed tape is more expensive than your everyday shipping tape, it's another great feature for creating cohesive packaging.

Add Specialty Packing Peanuts

For most businesses, packing peanuts are stored in the shipping area in large-sized bags, and those peanuts are the traditional white or green Styrofoam material. If you're really looking to enhance your brand's reputation and image, consider investing in packing peanuts that are biodegradable to reduce the effect on the environment. You can go even further with this message if you provide consumers with an option to send all of the packing material back to you free of charge, showing your brand's environmental commitment. You'll get an added branding bonus if you can get the peanuts in your company colors because that will help to bring all of your packaging together.

Consider Expanding Your Shipping Offering

Once you've settled on how you're branding your boxes, it's time to find ways to get them out there more often. Obviously, the more your packages are seen, the more widespread your brand will become. You can take a step toward that on your own by establishing a monthly subscription service for your products and similar things your customers might be interested in. This will bring in added revenue in the subscription fees, but it also gives you the chance to send out more boxes each month. Since everyone in the shipping chain will see your logo, it's an opportunity for additional marketing that isn't costing you a ton of money to obtain.

As you can see, there are many ways to enhance your company's branding even from the shipping dock. Look for custom packaging, including colored mailing tubes, from your local shipping supply store or custom design center.