The Importance of Branding Your Business (and 3 Branding Essentials)

Branding = recognition and awareness

Many small local businesses wonder why they should allocate the time, money and effort into a branding strategy. They don’t realize that branding is just marketing jargon for how consumers recognize your company and their awareness of what you offer. It doesn’t matter if you’ve invested in professional branding services or not, people are aware of your company and recognize it based on what you are or aren’t making available to the public. 

For example, it takes a site visitor 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your brand based on your website. When your website is a jumbled mess that doesn’t adhere to any branding guidelines, people who navigate there will think of your company as disorganized. They associate the presentation of your website with how you conduct business. 

The same goes for everything else associated with your business’ brand—logo, letterhead and product packaging, for example. A recognizable logo makes it easy for your brand to stick out among the competition. Letterhead brings an official feel to any documents or statements your business puts out. Product packaging can make or break a customer’s experience with your goods—like Apple’s product packaging, for example. 

All this adds up to a cumulative experience for customers. If you have a strong, cohesive, identifiable brand, your customers will have a positive experience with it—one that drives sales, advocacy and reputation. 

Strong brands build strong businesses

Data demonstrates that 43 percentof customers spend more money with the brands they love. Branding builds customer loyalty and, ultimately, brand evangelists: the people who sing your praises with every new product release or company update. 

Everyone is loyal to at least one brand. Companies like Apple, Starbucks and Coca-Cola are among those businesses that have legions of brand evangelists. These are the people who follow their chosen brands and jump on board with every new rollout, product release or system change. Believe it or not, you make purchase decisions based on those loyalties, even if you don’t realize it. 

One of the most important reasons to build brand loyalty with your client is retention. Retaining customers is cheaper than engaging new customers. Research finds that 65 percent of an enterprise’s business comes from its existing customers. 

The big 3 branding essentials

So how do you build a strong brand? Where should you start with branding? Once you’ve decided to nurture a brand for your business, consider the following three essentials—brand identifiers that have proven themselves invaluable time and time again.



• Logo: How powerful is a logo? Think about McDonald’s Golden Arches, the Apple logo, Nike’s swoosh or the Starbucks Mermaid. They’re instantly recognizable. Your logo appears everywhere from business cards to social media profile pictures. Your logo is the symbol that represents your brand. Make sure it’s professionally designed, eye-catching and something you’re proud to stand by as the core element of your brand 
• Website: Maintaining a digital presence is another crucial component of branding. This begins with your website. A designer and content creator should work together to develop a site that reflects your brand’s values and engages users. Make it intuitive, easy to navigate, eye-catching and, above all, helpful to the people who might be visiting it. Your website is the most experiential part of your brand, aside from the products or services you offer.
• Documents: Anything you would present to an existing or potential client should align with your branding guidelines. All documents, PowerPoint decks, brochures, eBooks, flyers and other assets should coordinate with your branding aesthetic. Make everything consistent—fonts, colors, logos, verbiage and more. Presenting a unified front on all materials serves to solidify the strength and recognition of your brand.

Branding your business is an intensive process that requires in-depth knowledge of how to tackle this task economically and efficiently. If you don’t have experience with branding, hire professionals to handle it. Reach out to Interactive Design Media now to discuss branding your company with the expertise of our knowledgeable team of graphic designers and content marketers.