In today’s society, you can’t turn around without being flooded with an array of products, brands, and services. And thousands of businesses are being created by the day – so how in the world is your business supposed to stand out? Enter: branding. Great branding that’s uniquely crafted for your business can make a huge difference for your business and its growth. Keep reading to learn the difference between poor branding and great branding, and what effects you can actually expect to see in your business with a strong brand + website.

What is branding?

First things first, what even is branding? “Branding is the process of creating a strong, positive perception of a company, its products or services in the customer’s mind by combining such elements as logo, design, mission statement, and a consistent theme throughout all marketing communications. Effective branding helps companies differentiate themselves from their competitors and build a loyal customer base” (Oberlo).

In other words, creating a brand means creating an experience for your audience. People often view branding as one or two logos, and maybe a color palette. While those are very important components, it’s actually a little deeper than that. Building a brand focuses how you want your audience to experience your brand, what story you want to tell, and how you want your brand to be perceived.

Poor branding vs. great branding

How well you brand your business can mean the difference between success or disappointment in your business. So let’s dive into the difference between poor branding and great branding.

Characteristics of poor branding

1. Designing based on personal style 

When designing for their business, people will often fully lean into their own personal style. They pick the colors they love, the fonts they think are cool, and follow the trends they like. More often than not, this sets up their business for failure.

Does that mean you have no say in the style of your brand? Absolutely not! I love pulling in elements that my clients personally love into their designs, but I always make sure to consider both their personal style and attracting their target audience.

2. Having incomplete brand elements

Almost nothing can be more fatal for a business than when they aren’t recognizable across multiple platforms. This makes it next to impossible for your audience to become familiar with your brand, and leads to you being ignored, forgotten, or misunderstood.

If how you represent your business on your website isn’t consistent with how your business is displayed on your Instagram profile, your conversion rates will suffer. Not only will this make it harder for your audience to visually recognize your business, it will create a sense of unprofessionalism in your business – and we never want that!

3. Misrepresenting your business & its story

With poor branding, you will often be inaccurately representing your business or the story you want to tell. Taking the time to understand how colors have meaning, or how fonts have personality, are just a few examples of how you can control how your brand is represented. Your business has a message to tell, after all, and you want to be in control of how that message is being communicated. 

Characteristics of great branding

1. Balances style and logic 

In order to set up your branding designs on the right track, you want to make sure you’re thinking about more than just your own personal design preferences. Things like your target audience must be on the table. Who is your target market? What do they like? How old are they? 

Leaning too much into current trends can produce problems for your business down the road, as well. You always want to make sure your designs will be able to stand the test of time, and won’t look old and outdated two years from now. Does that mean you won’t need a refresh or two? Probably not, as the visual culture in our society is constantly changing. However, brand refreshes should really only be necessary every five years or so.

2. Prepares you for consistency 

When designing your branding, you want to make sure your business will have all the assets it needs to create a consistent presence across any platform. Things like your color palette, font choices, logo suite, etc., will ensure you have the ability to display your business in the best possible way in any scenario. This is why, for example, having a full logo suite can be such a game changer. There will be times when your primary logo simply won’t look its best in certain spaces or at certain sizes, and you should use a logomark instead.  

Working with a professional brand designer will set you up on your best foot forward when it comes to having complete branding assets. When working with my clients on custom branding, I make sure to provide an extensive suite of branding elements like logos, sublogos, patterns, icons, colors, fonts, imagery, etc., to make sure they are more than prepared to take their brand out into the world! 

3. Creates the right experience for your audience

Like I mentioned before, creating a brand means creating an experience. You want to take your business’s unique personality, message, and story, and make sure it’s coming across to your audience. If you’re a children’s clothing brand, for example, you probably don’t want a sleek, luxurious brand design – that would be a huge disconnect! Whatever you want your audience to feel about your product or service should be considered when creating your brand. 

What good branding means for your business growth

You might be thinking, “That sounds like a lot of work. Will this actually make a difference in my business?” No question! Below are just a few of many effects you actually expect to see in your business with a strong brand + website.

1. Creates trust in your business 

First, and most importantly, developing your brand will create trust from your target audience. As humans, we typically don’t trust somebody we aren’t familiar with, and that goes for businesses, too. People are especially hesitant to part with their hard-earned money, so you want to make sure you’re creating a brand that they will trust! I don’t know about you, but when I happen upon a website that has a noticeably poor design, I am extremely less likely to make a purchase through that business. Comes off as a little unprofessional, right?

According to Forbes, First, “38 percent of users will stop interacting with a website if the layout is unattractive” (Forbes). Talk about first impressions!

2. Makes your business memorable

Branding is all about consistency, consistency, consistency. Humans are visual creatures, so we need to use that to our advantage. When creating a brand, you want to make sure that every time a consumer comes across your business, it is immediately and easily recognizable. For example, color alone is able to improve brand recognition by up to 80 percent! (Forbes) It would be a waste not to take that seriously. 

3. Creates value for your product or service

At the end of the day, your business will (most likely) be asking for some sort of financial transaction from your customer. You need to make sure you are convincing your audience that what you have to offer is valuable. This falls right back to high quality branding! With brand messaging, with high-quality designs, with professional brand photos – these will all create a sense of professionalism and value for your business, which is essential when creating conversions.

All in all

All in all, good branding can make a huge difference when it comes to the success of your business. No matter what stage you are at in your business journey, you should always be considering the experience you want to give your audience, and what steps you can take to achieve that experience. At the end of the day, good branding can be the difference between creating enough value for your product or service or having potential customers slip on by.

Whenever you’re ready to invest in professional branding, my doors are always open! Click here to check out some ways we can transform your business!