Well, today I’m here to bust the myth around what branding is and tell you why it’s so important for your business + how to do it well. Ready to dive in? 

Branding = logo?

When you hear the word “branding” you probably think about the logo, the color palette and selection of fonts, don’t you? 

Those are just elements of the brand identity, which is only a part of the branding actually. 

So what is branding? To put simply, it’s a method of making people feel a certain way about your brand. This includes things like the selection of your products or services, your tone of voice, your photography, your brand personality, your customer service and even your marketing strategy. The visual aspect of branding like your website and logo are important, but they are NOT the branding themselves.

To create proper branding you first need to define what your brand stands for, who’s your ideal audience and how you’d like them to see you. 

This means you need to dive deep into your business and create a smart strategy behind it. Once you do that, whatever you create afterwards will surely be purposeful and consistent with the overall idea of your brand. 

Sounds complicated? It isn’t! I even created a free resource to take you from confusion to clarity using our design studio’s signature discovery process. 

5 reasons why branding is important

Now that you understand branding is a strategy behind your business + different ways to communicate it, it’s time to see why it’s so important and how it can absolutely transform your brand.

1. It adds credibility

Would you trust a hairdresser who’s hair is neglected with your own? I wouldn’t. And so would many other people. 

When you see a lack of consistency you lose trust. When you see a brand who hasn’t invested time, energy and effort into their branding, you subconsciously think they are not worth your investment either (cause they probably don’t treat their business seriously).

Just like in real life, trust is built with consistency. When I see a person is true to herself in different situations, I know what to expect of her = I know I can trust her.

When your potential customers can see your brand is inconsistent, without a strategy behind it, it plants a seed of doubt which will be very difficult to overcome. People do not tend to open up and connect with people who make them feel that way.

With branding done right, your audience sees your business as thought through, purposeful, trustworthy and worth the investment both time and money. They see you’re here for the long run and they feel more comfortable buying from you, working with you and refer their friends to you. That’s a huge thing if you ask me.

María Catalá – brand identity for professional makeup artist by Adored Designs

2.  It gives you clarity

Since branding is based on strategy, if you’ve done it right you would have gone through the discovery process and defined your brand’s purpose, personality, voice and ideal customer.

This gives you incredible clarity around things that usually can be tricky to get right. It gets easier to decide which social platforms to be active on, what sort of content to create to attract the right audience and then what to do to get them ready to buy from you.

Everything starts falling into place and you’re not spinning around in circles. Instead, you can move confidently and grow your brand purposefully. Whenever you need to make a decision that will impact your business (like creating a new course or product) you can simply go back to the strategy and ask yourself: is this aligned with my brand? Do my people need it? Will it get me where I want to go?

The answer will come to you a lot quicker when you know you’ve built your brand’s fundaments.

3.  It connects you with the right people

Can you confidently say who your ideal audience is? Our signature discovery process resource is packed with powerful questions to help you make sure you do.

When you understand your audience pain points, doubts and mindset blocks it gets so much easier to meet them where they’re at a build a meaningful relationship with them.

You know exactly what feelings you need to evoke to help them connect and engage with your brand. You know which words and visuals to use to set the right expectations and help them trust you. You know what type of resources and content to create to attract them and when they do land on your website, you can make them feel like your brand exists specially for them.

This makes growing a community and selling more of your products and services so much easier! Instead of trying to appeal to everyone and wasting your efforts on people who do not care about what you have to offer, you attract only those who are the perfect match for your brand.

4.  It makes it easier to promote and grow your brand

With so many possibilities to get the word out, which one do you chose? Which social media platform is the best for you? Should you use Facebook ads or make better use of Pinterest? What about an email list?

Should you create a sales funnel, and if so, what kind? What about video? Insta stories? IGTV?

Getting a headache yet?

The truth is all those strategies are great, but they may not all be great for you. When you create a strong brand strategy though, it gets easier to choose the right one for you.

You know where your ideal audience spends their time and what sort of content they prefer to consume. You know what freebies they download and what sort of support do they need.

You also know what products are they interested in and if they are emotional shoppers who make a decision on the fly, or if they need a little bit more persuasion before they use their credit card.

You can understand what you need to do to take your ideal customer from merely a lurker to an engaged member of your community and a customer. 

No more wasted effort of trying to do all the things and being everywhere.

5.   It helps build an experience

Great branding makes people remember your business and talk about it with their friends. From the very first moment they get in contact with your brand they need to be met with a consistent experience.

You can set expectations about your brand through your copywriting, photos and visuals and then provide a service or product that is consistent with this expectation (or better!). 

This creates a brand experience that builds trust and is worth remembering and sharing. It creates raving fans and helps spread the word about your brand in the best possible way – through satisfied people!

MOTD Cosmetics website by Adored Designs

Where do you start then?

Before you start browsing Creative Market for a new logo or even hire a designer, always do the homework first. Building strong fundaments will save you months (if not years) of wasted effort and going around in circles. It will help you build a strong brand presence people will remember, understand and relate to. 

By getting clear on your brand’s purpose, personality, mission and vision + your ideal audience you’ll speed up the process of building an engaged community that’s ready to hear from you, buy from you and tell all your friends about you. 

Start here and have fun building your own, unique brand!