Branding – is it really necessary? Isn’t it enough to just put your products or services up on your website?
The truth is, a memorable brand matters. Here’s why every business needs a strong brand.
A Strong Brand Helps Customers Remember You
Think of some of the popular brands of today. By simply seeing their logo or hearing their name, you immediately recognize them, know what they offer and stand for, and associate certain feelings, attitudes, and thoughts with them. That is the power of a well-crafted brand.
Brands can be an extremely powerful memory tool, so use it to your advantage. The key here is to be consistent. Nothing confuses potential clients or consumers more than an inconsistent brand identity or conflicting brand language/messaging.
So ensure that your brand is consistent across all of your marketing efforts and platforms. This includes your website, social media accounts, marketing materials, email marketing campaigns, and more.
A Strong Brand Creates Credibility
Creating a strong brand builds credibility in the eyes of potential clients or consumers. When a company is clear on their mission statement and vision, knows what they stand for, are consistent in how they treat their customers, and have cohesive visual elements like a professional logo, typography, and packaging, that company is likely to be found more credible in the eyes of consumers. This leads to an increase in trust, which makes someone much more likely to purchase from or work with that company.
A Strong Brand Builds Customer Loyalty
Customers love to get behind brands that they care about and identify with. This is why sharing your mission, vision, and story are so important to creating a lasting and memorable brand. But don’t just share your story and mission in one place – share it on your website, your social media accounts, when meeting with prospective clients, etc.
Encourage consumers to connect with you and your business, and treat every customer with the utmost respect and courtesy. At the end of the day, your business is about so much more than just making a sale or selling your services – it’s about fostering individual connections and forming relationships with your customers.
A Strong Brand Sets You Apart from Your Competition
Regardless of your industry, chances are, you have competition…and a lot of it. How will you set yourself apart from your competitors and help potential clients/consumers remember you in an overly saturated market? One powerful way is through creating a unique brand.
Share the unique story behind your business, how you got started, what you stand for, what you believe in, etc. Let people get to know “the why” behind your company and show them how you’re different from others who offer similar products or services.
How do you approach your business differently than your competitors? Do you have a simplified onboarding process? Source materials from higher quality suppliers? Utilize a different methodology? Highlight whatever sets you apart from others.
Differentiation also comes into play with the visual aspects of your brand like product packaging, primary and secondary logos, etc. Craft visual components that perfectly reflect you and your business and make sure it stands out from the crowd.
Wrap Up
Your brand is your opportunity to help people remember you, foster credibility and trust with your target audience, build customer loyalty, and help differentiate yourself from the competition. Because it’s so important, many business owners hire a brand designer to help them create a strong unified brand that will resonate with people. As explained in the article Why Business Owners Need a Marketing Budget, this isn’t so much of an expense as it is an investment in your business and its future.
If you’re interested in building a strong brand and would like assistance in this area, I would love to help and am passionate about helping business owners create memorable brands. Feel free to check out samples of my branding work here.
Regardless of whether you hire assistance or do it yourself, create a brand that gets people talking!