When looking at your business image, sales funnel and how you are bringing your company to market, it can be difficult to separate the words being thrown around. Branding and Marketing are two concepts it is difficult to see a difference between.
Let’s start with the definitions of each;
Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
Branding is the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design.
Essentially, the difference is that marketing is about the tools, processes and strategy used to actively promote your business. Whereas branding is about defining who your company is, your values, mission and what makes you unique. So, if your company sell orange nail varnish, your branding would be along the lines of “vegan, cruelty free orange nail varnish”, and your marketing would be everything you do to get your customers excited to use it.
Why employ a Branding and Marketing agency?
The combination of both building a brand, and having consistent and powerful marketing campaigns gives you an unbeatable power for sales, customer trust and ensuring your clients feel they know who you are.
Before you begin any marketing for your business, ensuring you have a brand is vital. This goes further than a logo and a beautiful website! You’ll need to consider the following points;
- What are your core principles and values?
- What is your mission statement?
- What inspired you to build your business?
- Why do you want to offer your products or services to your target audience?
- What makes you unique?
- What is your internal company culture?
- What is your professional sense of style?
- What are your communication characteristics?
- What do you want to come to mind when someone hears your business name?
- How do you want people to feel when they think of your business?
- How do you want customers to describe you as a company?
Your brand needs to encompass these, people want to do business with brands they trust and brands they believe in. With solid branding, your marketing strategies will lead back to a brand showing potential clients that they can trust and believe in you.
By employing a branding and marketing company you can be assured that the agency you choose completely understand who you are as a business. Your agency understanding your branding from the very beginning gives them an insight into who you are as a company, and allows them a total overview of what you want to achieve.
A well-communicated brand is a game changer. Customers are even willing to pay more if your brand has a clear purpose. And about your website? Well, 38% of users will stop interacting with a website if the layout is unattractive. That’s a pretty strong case for a brand first approach.