What Should You Invest In First: Branding Or Website Design?

What Should You Invest In First: Branding Or Website Design?

Branding —–> and that means… to invest in your business and the future of your business early on, in order to benefit in the long run.

It may sound scary, but getting your branding together first, before you commit to a website project is very important.

Here’s why.

– – – – – – 

Creating a brand for your business *first* can make life easier for your business in the long term:

“What is a brand? – The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole.

What is identity? – The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.

What is a logo? – A logo identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon.”

(Justcreative.com)

Knowing who or what your brand represents and what it values at its core will support you in growing your business from the root. These things are valuable to know before you work on your website, because having a successful brand identity in place before you start the website work is important.

Why is it important you ask?

Well, a strong visual brand identity is key to communicating the right visual message to your audience. A website needs to complement your branding and support your key brand message: your values, your vision and your message. To do this well, it is key to make sure your message is well-communicated so that it is remembered by your audience. A website which reflects your brand also means potential customers/clients can easily identify your business.

Essentially, having your branding in place before you head into the world of websites makes everything much easier to do.

How is this so?

1. Firstly, you will use your branding in everything you do…

Everything! From marketing, advertising, sales, products, services, networking, communications, business conversation, business cards, promos… and of course your website.

2. Branding guides you in using the right graphics and imagery

The right photography and graphic elements are key in representing your business authentically. Part of your visual branding process will be to find and/or create the right images that strongly represent your business – who you are and what you do. This means, when is comes to website design, you will either have new imagery and/or graphics that represent your business’ brand.

3. It enables you to create and focus on your key message

Whatever your key message is… it’s vital to have that clearly planned out and definitely written down… You will identify this through branding your business.

4. Your brand message helps you create a clear Call-To-Action (CTA) that’s in line with your business goals

Your CTA (usually on the homepage of your website) and CTA strategy will be closely linked to your business mission and branding strategy. You need to know what you want your audience to do when they visit your website. Essentially, a well thought out CTA guides your ideal customer to wherever you want them to visit on your website. Whether it’s to buy something, read something or learn something etc… Your branding helps this happen.

5. With your branding in place you can create a branded website with ease

Whether you create a website yourself or work with a designer, you will need your branding and logo files to help bring everything together. Customising a web environment to reflect your business as it’s true self, sets the tone of your business and the brand for your visitors as soon as they log on.

I’m leaving you with my 3 top tips!

Although exciting, investing your time, money and effort in a new brand or web design project can be a little daunting. It’s important to feel comfortable in the way you go about it. Here are my 3 top tips:

  1. Choose the right route for you: Should you DIY the project yourself or book a free consultation with a designer?
  2. Set a budget to spend: This should be an amount your comfortable with and that’s slightly flexible for unexpected fees – and remember, you get what you pay for (sorry, it’s true so!)
  3. Invest in yourself: It’s important to actively be part of the process. Building a brand and/or website is pretty big, so commit to being ‘present’ during the journey. i.e: Talk to your designer, offer helpful feedback and if you’re creating your own work, then step away, get feedback from friends or family and be true to your business goals.

Want to hear more? Got a question? Drop me a line.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.