Launch Like a Pro: The Essential Branding & Marketing Kit for New Businesses
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From concept to launch, the startup journey is a whirlwind. From crafting a business plan to navigating legalities, the to-do list stretches on forever. But one element deserves priority: your brand. It’s your voice, your image, and the promise you make to customers. In a crowded marketplace, a strong brand is what sets you apart.
Marketing options abound for businesses, but effective marketing requires a solid foundation. New businesses might be budget-conscious or tempted by a DIY approach based on internal vision. However, a lack of design expertise can lead to ineffective branding, potentially deterring potential customers unfamiliar with your company. This is why considering professional branding services is crucial.
Strong branding fosters brand awareness, builds trust and loyalty, increases brand value, and differentiates you from competitors. It’s simply too important to neglect. So, how do you build a strong brand foundation? What are the essential elements you need to get started, and why is getting it right so crucial? In this article, we’ll be exploring all of these ideas to help you get started as you prepare to launch your startup.
Building the foundations of your brand
One key component of a business’s branding is its brand identity. Your brand identity is the essence of your business. It’s who you are, what you stand for (your values) and how you present yourself to the world. Your brand identity reflects your business’s history, personality and appearance and it is these things that set you apart from your competitors. Your brand identity is represented by the key visual elements of your business which are seen by the world – your name, logo, strapline, colour palette and graphics. It is what people see first when they discover your brand so it’s vital that you leave a memorable first impression.
Brand strategy is another important component of a brand. Your brand strategy is defined by your business goals, the customers you serve, your offer, how you position yourselves in the market and your unique value proposition – how you believe your business is different (and better) compared to your competition. To develop a strong brand strategy, you need to have a deep understanding of what your customers want and why you are in a unique place to offer it.
Your brand strategy and brand identity also help to define your brand messaging. Brand messaging is a tool through which you speak to your ideal client sharing why they should choose you over anyone else. It also shows the personality of the brand whether that is friendly and approachable, professional, and more corporate in tone or cheeky and silly. Brand messaging helps you to connect with your ideal client so your messaging should be clear, concise, cohesive, and delivered in a manner that resonates with your ideal client. When you use the same tone throughout all your marketing, it adds to your brand identity and helps to make you more recognisable – even when you’ve not used any visual assets.
There’s a lot to think about when building your brand foundation which is why we suggest working with a professional agency such as ourselves. At Glued, we can help your business achieve its potential and create branding that truly reflects who you are as a brand as one of our recent customers, Sarah discovered:
Case Study: Fountain People and Performance
Sarah Fountain is a people development professional who helps individuals, teams, and whole businesses by identifying their potential, highlighting how they are currently performing, and showing them what and how they can improve. Sarah also helps her clients define their objectives and develop through engaged, purposeful, and fun learning and development activities designed to help them succeed.
Sarah had previously been running her business using the name ODF Consulting – but she’d started to realise that this name didn’t reflect her business or its values. Sarah wanted a brand, look, feel and website that reflected her approach and values in a more personal rather than corporate way. The new name would be Fountain and would use her favourite colours to show off her personality, putting her at the heart of the brand and visually playing off her surname.
Glued created a new logo and developed the people and performance tagline for clarity. A website, templates and banners were also created to support the brand launch all resulting in a personal business brand that reflected Sarah’s bright approach. Glued also supplied brand guidelines so that Sarah would have the tools to manage and run her brand moving forward.
Establish Your Digital Storefront
You can’t run a business and not have a website. Most businesses find that they need to have a digital presence and a website is one of the most effective ways of doing this, offering customers a one-stop shop to find out more about the business, their values and what they offer. A website also can help you attract new customers to your business. Websites that have been optimised for search engines (SEO) are more likely to appear higher in search engine result pages (SERPS) and the higher up you are the more likely a customer will visit and buy from you. But with millions of searches taking place on search engines each day, it’s essential to have a website so that you don’t miss out on potential sales and also to help distinguish you from competitors.
Your website needs to convey your brand messaging, have a design that’s aligned with your brand identity (for cohesion) as well as being functional so that you don’t miss out on any leads. Whilst it is possible to create a website yourself using a basic website builder you usually won’t have the customisation options that a professional web designer or developer will be able to create for you. It’s also harder to make your website stand out if you are using a templated option that’s also available to thousands of other businesses. If you also don’t have the technical know-how, dealing with any issues can be problematic costing you more money in the long run if your website goes down unexpectedly.
Here at Glued, we can help you create a website that perfectly aligns with your branding as one of our clients, Loxley Business Support found out:
Case Study: Loxley Business Support
Loxley Business Support helps SMEs in the B2B sector achieve their business goals with social media marketing and business development support. The business approached Glued because they wanted to grow but didn’t know what that might look like.
Glued conducted research into Loxley’s proposition using our insight process and developed a solution consisting of a refreshed brand with a new website and online messaging based on the values and personality of the business.
The refreshed brand reflected the brand’s personality whilst also providing professional brand messaging that matched the tone of the business. This new branding was applied to marketing materials for both print and digital including a new website.
The delivered project has given Loxley the confidence to grow the services they offer by enabling them to stand out against their competitors with a brand that reflects the identity of the business.
Creating Cohesion Through Imagery and Messaging
Once you start promoting your business and communicating with customers, it’s vital to have consistency and cohesion in both your messaging and your images. However the constant creation and design of social media posts, email newsletters, and other content can be a time-consuming headache. And that’s where marketing templates come in as your secret weapon.
The Benefits of Marketing Templates:
- Save Time & Effort: Pre-designed templates eliminate the need to start from scratch every time you create a social media post or email newsletter.
- Maintain Brand Consistency: Templates ensure your visuals, fonts, and colour palette align perfectly with your brand guidelines, keeping your brand image unified across platforms regardless of who in your team creates them.
- Amplify Brand Personality: Well-designed templates can even subtly reinforce your brand personality. Imagine quirky and colourful templates for a playful brand, or sleek and minimalist for a sophisticated one.
Useful Templates That Every Business Should Have:
- Social Media Posts: Create pre-designed templates for various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter). These templates can include designated areas for text, images, and your brand logo.
- Email Newsletters: Design email newsletter templates with a consistent layout, branding elements, and call-to-action sections.
- Presentations & Proposals: Templates for presentations and proposals ensure a professional look and consistent brand messaging when promoting your business.
For a strong brand, it’s best to invest in the services of a professional who can create your templates for you. Whilst it is possible to create templates yourself, the design knowledge and experience of a professional graphic designer should not be discounted. A professional can create unique templates to help elevate you above your competition and reflect a more professional image – making it worth the investment as one of our recent clients found.
Case Study: GrantCF
GrantCF, a local office furniture solutions provider, is a growing company that recently redeveloped their website to position themselves as a credible, stylish, and affordable partner for businesses requiring office interiors and office furniture. Despite this, it was felt that the business was not reaching its full potential and that more could be done to develop and grow the business further, so GrantCF approached Glued for our help.
In our initial conversations with GrantCF, we discovered they had a CRM which offered e-marketing and communication functions for a growing database of clients. We realised this would be perfect for a targeted email marketing campaign to re-engage GrantCF’s clients.
Glued created speculative options to show how GrantCF’s identity might evolve to make it more contemporary and engaging. We also developed templates as the basis for a series of six emails to be sent out over a period of months which also were used to promote an upcoming event that Grant CF was due to exhibit at.
These emails, aligned with the brand’s personality reflecting the personable and customer-centric approach GrantCF brings to their work, generated excitement and encouraged customers to visit GrantCF’s trade stand at an upcoming exhibition. The result? An increase in visitors to the stand on the day, many of whom were inspired to visit and reconnect with the brand, as a result of those emails.
The Power of a Strong Brand
When it comes to building a brand, getting the basics right is key as a foundation upon which to develop your business. It’s the cornerstone that shapes customer perception, assigns you as the experts in your industry and helps you stand apart from your competitors which is why getting your branding right from the start is crucial. A well-defined brand identity, clear messaging, and consistent personality create a powerful first impression and pave the way for the long-term success of your business.
While many business owners will consider opting for a DIY solution using widely available design tools, if you want to craft a truly impactful brand identity, you’ll need to work with someone who has professional expertise and experience to get the best results. Experienced branding agencies like Glued, understand the nuances of market research, competitor analysis, and strategic messaging. We can help you develop a brand that resonates with your target audience and drives results and whilst it will cost more in the short term than a DIY option, it’s a long-term investment in your business’s future.
Your brand also isn’t static – it’s a living entity that grows alongside your business. Large brands evolve, consider McDonalds, Starbucks, and Apple as examples. Their branding including their logos, colour schemes and messaging has evolved as the business has also evolved. As your company matures and expands, your brand is likely to adapt as well and that’s a good thing. A good branding agency will be your partner in this evolution, helping you refine your message and visuals to maintain relevance and reflect changes in your business. That’s why it’s so vital to get the basics right. Once the foundations are in position, everything else will fall into place.