Branding often feels like a non-essential cost — something you can put off when running a cash-strapped startup. However, prioritizing thoughtful branding from day one can yield returns, especially in a competitive and expensive customer acquisition market.
But how exactly do you incorporate branding design services into your pre-launch efforts to shape your go-to-market strategy? And once you're in the market, how do you grow and retain your audience with a compelling brand identity?
When building an organization, some milestones are obvious:
However, the important step of molding the organization’s brand generally has no well-established timeline. This can leave founders and early-stage marketing professionals unsure when to consider brand identity design services.
At its core, a brand entity gives your business a face that potential consumers will recognize when making purchasing decisions. This raises the question: Why is having a brand identity so important?
Businesses compete in crowded markets. A distinct and strong brand identity allows an organization to convey its core values, attracting and retaining customers based on their preferences and needs. Typically, a visual brand identity is a suite of visual elements that collectively communicate an organization’s value and personality to the public.
Regardless of your target market, you can bet your competitors are already using the marketing channels you're considering. One way you can stand out is by building a strong identity that helps you:
The real challenge in making branding and design services effective for your business lies in building cohesion. It involves transforming your business name and values into a personality that resonates with consumers.
Brand identities are multi-faceted, anchored by key elements for consistent visual impact.
Your business logo is the most instantly recognizable part of your company. It serves as a visual foundation and symbol for your brand, capturing your organization’s essence in one image or design. An ideal logo is simple, versatile, memorable, and easy to use across various platforms and media.
It’s well established that different colors can trigger specific emotional responses. You can use a specific color palette to reflect your brand's personality and values. Once you’ve picked a color scheme, integrate it into your logo, website design, marketing materials, packaging, and social media posts to create visual harmony in everything your brand presents to the general public.
Your font choices or typography are another important reflection of your brand. According to HubSpot you can use fonts to amplify brand message, evoke emotions, and capture your audience’s attention. To that end, consider your business's personality and other elements on your site when crafting your typography.
There’s a difference between communicating about your business and communicating as your business. The latter is brand messaging, and it’s how your business talks about itself. With consistent brand messaging, you can inspire word-of-mouth marketing, build a loyal community, and create a unique identity for your brand.
If you’re ready to kick off your brand-building efforts, one question that puts everything into perspective is: How do you create a cohesive brand strategy?
Customers are four to six times more likely to buy from, trust, and support purpose-driven organizations. This means your first step in creating a cohesive brand identity is to define what sets you apart and how you want your target audience to perceive you.
Define your brand’s personality, craft a compelling mission statement, and research your audience. Use these insights to shape your visual identity, tone, and communications in a way that connects your brand to customers on an emotional level.
Pick a logo, color palette, typography, and other elements of your visual representation based on your brand's purpose and audience. You want your colors to accurately define your brand’s personality and fonts to convey a specific impression. Your visual identity should embody the personality you want your brand to convey.
Document your brand elements in a brand book to guide everyone in your organization on championing the brand. With a solid knowledge of your brand voice and elements, copywriters, designers, and developers can work in harmony to represent your brand.
Creating and maintaining a consistent brand identity is critical in building customer recognition and trust. So, implement your brand strategy across various platforms — website, social media, email, marketing, business cards, and brochures — to ensure all your communications cohesively reflect your brand identity.
Graphic design and branding services can seem like unnecessary upfront costs when you're first starting out. Beyond the typical brand identity needs — a business name, mission statement, and logo — most startups ignore branding until they’re big organizations.
But starting early to lay the groundwork by investing in a cohesive brand identity early on can improve your customer acquisition and retention strategies. If you’re short on time or budget to hire an in-house team, a branding agency can handle most of your branding needs.
Whether you’re just getting your startup idea off the ground or you’ve started laying the groundwork, PixelPocket can help you create a strong brand that will get and keep your target market's attention. Our branding specialists can help you shape perceptions of your startup, enhance recognition, and build trust in competitive markets. You’ll also get back time to focus on other important strategic initiatives. Book a call today to discuss your goals with a branding professional.
