The Importance of Branding

As marketing professionals, we get asked this question all the time:

“What are the most important aspects of digital marketing?”

Generally we give ourselves a small chuckle. Just look at the amount of information on our website, all 100% necessary for digital marketing. There are books and books of information on our website.

The questions did get us thinking. Is there any one thing that is more important than all other aspects of digital marketing. So after hours of putting our heads together, we came up with the answer.

A business’s branding! Branding is the foundation that all other forms of marketing stem from. This isn’t exclusive to digital marketing, it covers all forms of marketing.

A company’s branding should be synonymous with who they are. Branding, done properly, creates trust in the market and with customers.

Branding incorporates the story of the business, the name, the icon or symbols of the logo, design, colors, all fonts, the voice of the brand and even the imagery connected to the brand.

Branding is often just regulated to a logo, but honestly is so much more than that. There should be what is called a Brand Guide. In this guide you should have the following:

• Story of the Business – What occurred to bring the business into existence. How did the owner or owners make this happen. The start of opening the business to what is occurring now. The mission statement.
• Business Name – What is the significance behind the name and what it stands for.
• Business Logo – Again the significance of the logo and where the idea concept for the logo came from.
• Color Palette – Generally when producing the logo it will come with a color design. This will give the foundation of the color palette. There might be harmonious colors that can be added to the palette for other promotional material.
• Fonts – There is a font that goes with the logo. This is the font that ALWAYS gets used. Additionally, any copy that is released from the organization has its own font as well.
• Brand Voice – Brand voice delineates the context of how content released from the business is stated. Is it strictly professional, is it happy and enthusiastic, is it more on the conservative side, etc.
• Brand Imagery – This is not a must, but can help in-house or outsourced marketing with what type of imagery you want associated with your brand.

This guide should be available to every employee in the business. When any piece of content is released from the business, it should follow the guidelines.

Consistency = Professionalism. In terms of marketing, the #1 difference between small and medium sized businesses compared to large businesses is Branding.

Having a guide as laid out in the article will help any business bring about consistent branding effort from any business.