Effective branding for your business is one the most important things for your business, yet for many businesses it is an afterthought. This post gives some key things to consider with your business branding, when you should revisit it, and what are some common pitfalls.
Branding Is Not Just Design
Branding is much more than just a logo and some colors. Thoughtful and strategic planning in the branding design process can evoke a positive feeling of your business or organization before someone has even gotten to know you. This includes the design elements, but also have a lot to do with how you describe your business, and how your customers approach your market. A branding design firm needs to have the ability to also work with you on your messaging and marketing as well as your overall design. Trying to do these things separately can cause significant messaging issues and can lead to lost sales.
Branding Affects Sales
No matter what people have told you or what your reservations are, good branding design sells your products or services. While hard for some to quantify, it does have a significant effect. We see huge cost savings on ad spend and increases on click rates within our digital advertising services when a business implements a strong branding design. We also see increases in search rankings as well as more engagements within social media campaigns.
Branding Is Not a One Time Thing
Many business owners may spend some time on branding in the beginning stages of starting their business, but rarely revisit their branding in the subsequent years. Branding is a way to describe what a business is, and the way a business is described has changed since the start of that business. A periodic assessment of your brand is key to ensuring that your presentation and messaging resonate with your customers.
Branding Should Change if Your Mission, Values or Vision Change
Good branding allows customers to connect emotionally by conveying their mission, values and vision in a meaningful way. Leaving your branding intact while making significant changes to your business mission, values or vision if have an impact that is hard to realize. We have found in countless market research projects that customers oftentimes miss these changes or new product additions due to how the original branding was designed to convey.
Branding Should Change if Marketing Goals Change
Good branding can support your marketing and advertising by providing a consistent message and look between your various products and services. We find that often the limitation of your initial branding becomes apparent when a fresh marketing initiative is planned. A lot of times, a new product or service name gets appended to the end of your business name or logo. If the name is specific or seems to negate that you would have a product or service like that, things can be very difficult to convey to a newcomer that is not familiar with your business.
