The Benefits of Branding
What's the difference between a cost and an investment?
If we want to get technical, a cost is “the amount or equivalent paid or charged for something” while an investment is “the outlay of money usually for income or profit.”
Essentially, an investment is something that will eventually help you make money.
When we hear the word “investment”, our minds are typically driven to the more common types of investments—the stock market, cryptocurrency, even real estate. But when it comes to your own business, there are different ways that you can approach investments to help you grow over time. And one of those ways is through marketing & branding efforts.
It’s not uncommon for business owners to wonder how much branding & marketing efforts will cost them. But unlike “traditional” costs like utility bills or supplies, branding & marketing can help you make money. In fact, consistent presentation of a brand has seen to increase revenue by 33% (Lucidpress, 2019). And who wouldn’t want to see an increase like that?!
Reframing these efforts as investments in your business, and not simply as costs, allows you to overcome the false beliefs that might be holding you back. Beliefs like you don’t actually need to focus on design & marketing, that it won’t be worth it, or that it will be too expensive. And once you’ve overcome those mental hurdles, you can focus on taking important steps to help your business grow!
Getting Started
Now, it’s important to note that when you decide to invest in branding & marketing, the cheapest option isn’t necessarily the best option. Since we’re looking at this as an investment, you may find that spending a bit more to work with a designer or agency that is the best fit for you will yield better results, saving (and making) you money in the long run. Conversely, expensive doesn’t always mean better. Different designers and agencies have different specialties & focuses, so finding one that aligns with your business values will help you land on the best end result!
Another thing to keep in mind is timing—you should make sure the timing is right to work on your branding & brand strategy. If working with a designer or agency that’s a great fit for you isn’t in your budget right now, take some time to save up and work with them once it will fit your budget instead of just going with a cheaper option to get the project done more quickly.
It’s important to make sure that you have a good handle on your business & your goals before developing new branding. If you’re just starting out, take some time to get into the flow of your business to better understand your day-to-day operations, the customers you’re attracting, the customers you want, and what you’re working towards. Jumping in too soon might mean having to rebrand after you’ve been in business for a bit longer to better fit your needs and goals. (If you’re in need of a streamlined look when you’re first starting out, pre-made brand kits can be a great option for a professional look at a fraction of the time and $$!)
When the time is right and you’re ready to invest in developing your custom brand strategy & visual identity, here are some of the benefits you can expect.
The Benefits of Branding
Stand Out
Developing a brand strategy will help you gain necessary insights that allow you to stand out from the competition and better connect with your target audience.
The information gathered during the strategy building process will help influence your visual identity to accomplish your goals. Whether it’s developing a color palette to help you stand out from your competitors, or crafting an image style to help elicit a certain emotion from your audience, your visual elements will be rooted in strategy to help separate you from the competition in your audience’s mind.
Recognition & Loyalty
Cohesive branding helps build brand recognition & brand awareness which will allow you to develop deeper connections with your customers.
As your audience becomes more familiar with your branding, they will begin to recognize you from simply looking at an ad or a social media graphic—even if your logo isn’t present. The aesthetic and feeling of your brand will be something that is familiar to them, and they’ll be able to quickly identify you.
Building your brand recognition & awareness is so important because it helps build customer loyalty—one of your most important assets. Loyal customers will not only bring return business, but they can act as brand ambassadors by referring you to their friends and family. Since people are more likely to try a new brand or product following a referral of someone they trust, customers that are excited about your company can help generate more loyal customers,
Credibility
Have you ever been nervous to order something from a website that looked outdated or didn’t have any defined branding / design elements? When you see a website that looks like it was built in 1998, you might feel like the website is “sketchy”. We’ve all been there! There’s just something that feels “off” or untrustworthy when we see a site that doesn’t look like it’s been updated for years. How can we trust that they’re selling quality products if their website doesn’t seem to be a quality site?
Investing in your branding allows you to avoid that situation by guiding customers to view you as a legitimate business that can be trusted. A brand that spends time, effort, and funds on its branding comes across as a serious competitor in the marketplace while providing a sense of credibility and a feeling that not only can you be trusted.
Save Time & Energy
DIY-ing can be exhausting! While doing everything yourself can be a good fit when you’re starting out or for small day-to-day tasks, having an established brand strategy & visual identity system will give you a blueprint of how your design & marketing elements should be developed. (And in some cases you’ll even have pre-designed templates!)
Having a blueprint & templates that you can use instead of DIY-ing everything yourself will save you so much time that you would have otherwise spent figuring things out on your own.
And as the saying goes: “time is money”.
Think about all the extra time you can spend doing what you love, focusing on your business, instead of spending that time on design-related work!
Clear Strategy
While most of the branding efforts your customers will interact with will be the visual elements, your brand strategy will be the real foundation of all that you do. A clear, well-developed strategy will act as a lighthouse, guiding all the different facets of your business to align under a few common goals.
Your strategy will help you better understand your company, your competitors, and your customers so that you can optimize your efforts in a way that will truly set you apart while developing meaningful relationships with your customers.
Improved Confidence
Personally, I think that this might be one of the most important benefits that you’ll experience—and will likely be the most immediate one!
Once you develop an intentional & cohesive look, you’ll start to feel more confident in how the world views your company and as a result, you’ll be more excited and motivated to get yourself and your business out there! Updating your branding is like having a shiny new toy that you can’t wait to show off, and you won’t be able to wait to share your beautiful new visuals with the world!
But it’s not just that you’ll look good, you’ll start to feel more in control. Having a defined brand strategy will give you more confidence in your business goals and direction. You’ll better understand why you do what you do & how it impacts your customers and that insight will help you make decisions that align with your business goals. Once you understand all the “whys” in your business, you’ll feel like you know where to go and how to get there.
If you’re still on the fence wondering if custom branding is the way to go, consider this:
With all of this value that it can add, what would not taking this step cost you?
Ready to start investing in your business?
Connect with us to chat about what you can expect when you partner with Type A!