What is branding?

You may be tempted to get started in your new business without establishing a brand, then see what comes your way. If you use that approach, you won't be standing out from your competition and will come across as an inexperienced business. Becoming a brand is the secret to marketing. Branding is visual, written and audio representation of what your company stands for. You may first think of a color, font or logo, but modern branding is more about a depiction of your company's values and how potential clients judge you.

As a regular person, you’re already branded. You’re drawn to certain colors, design, have a way of speaking, and hold core life values. Branding your business is bringing the "you" into your company. The logo and color scheme are actually expressions of your brand, not the brand itself. When it comes to a personal brand, it’s a combination of three things. It’s a little bit of your reputation, your personality and the feeling a customer has after they’ve interacted with the brand. What kind of feeling do you think your brand has? What kind of feeling do you think your brand exudes to the people that are being exposed to it?

• What does your company represent?
• What is your story?

It sounds so easy when explained, but difficult to put into practice.

• Do you want your company to be known as honest, smart, reliable, funny, least expensive? Start by writing out several characteristics your company would like to be known for.
• Next, write out what makes your service different from the competition.
• Are you specializing in a particular niche? This will all be part of your brand identity.

Brand identity is the feeling you give others when interacting with your business while brand strategy is the execution of the brand identity.

1. How quickly do you communicate with your clients?
2. Do you communicate in a casual manner or a more formal manner?
3. How often are you posting on social media and is it personal or business related?
4. Do you value your clients' privacy or do you promote their names in testimonials?
5. Are your social media photos styled or are they more casual?
6. Does your website have long form content or does it only have contact information?
7. Are your social media posts long form, memes or quotes and what emotion do they evoke in readers?
8. Bottom line, look at all your marketing materials - website, social media, company shirts, written proposals, etc. and ask what kind of emotion or signals are these items giving?
9. Does it appear you're putting professionalism into your branding or are you just checking it off your list?

Bottom line, it's up to you what clients think about your company based on the messages you're sending. The efforts you put into branding will drive your company forward to success. Strong branding means that your marketing materials are consistent – same fonts, colors, design and motto on your materials. You don’t need to spend a ton of money on a marketing firm to develop these materials. You can use a platform like Canva or Microsoft Office to make templates for all of your printed materials.

Your business brand identity includes logo, print design, packaging and visual style. It's important to keep consistency in branding with color, font and design. It’s helpful to put together your own brand guide which also includes the vision of your ideal client and ad copy, or specific phrases or keyword that you will use consistently to convey your messaging. Arrange to have a logo created, then begin to use it in all your marketing efforts. Decide which colors work best for your business and incorporate those as standard colors for everything business related.