The first thing to do when branding your business

Raise your hand if you’ve spent too much time worrying about the colors on your website or the fonts in your logo. I’m raising my hand too 🙋🏻‍♀️. It’s a trap we all fall into because we naturally want things to look good. I mean when you are first introduced to someone or something, the first thing you see is the way it looks. So it’s only natural that you would think about the look of your brand first.

But did you know that you are missing a key part of your brand that will ensure better success if you dive into the design of your brand first? Instead of jumping to the visuals, this is the first thing you need to do when branding your business.

The first thing to do when branding

If you are guilty of spending too much time and attention on your brand design, you’re missing an important step that comes first. Before you focus on the visuals of your brand, the first thing to do when branding your business is to define your brand strategy.

A brand strategy is the foundation of your business and defines things like your target audience, positioning, and messaging. It’s the bread to your butter and let’s be honest – no one likes eating butter without the bread.

Digging deep and clearly defining these foundational principles for your brand helps you clarify your brand, business, and overall direction so you have your feet firmly planted on the ground before you spend time and money on visuals, marketing, and all the flashy things.

Because you can’t market anything well until you know what it is you’re trying to market.

It doesn’t do any good to invest time and/or money into brand visuals or a website design unless you have taken the time to fully develop a clear brand strategy. Otherwise, your brand and website won’t work as well and you’ll end up having to go back and tweak it again and again.

That’s why I recommend starting with the brand strategy as the first thing to do when branding your business.

Why you want to start with the brand strategy

By defining the foundation for your brand, you will be able to better understand and communicate your message to the right person. You’ll have a guide for the rest of your business growth, marketing, and decisions that will keep you on track instead of wavering inconsistently. It allows you to firmly establish the basis of your brand so that all the foundational elements are set and you can truly focus on your area of expertise.

And even better, you’ll be able to repeat this over and over in your business for even more clarity as you grow your business (and it can be applied to each of your offerings as well as when you shift, pivot, or evolve in your business).

When you take the time to do this as the first thing to do when branding your business, you’ll have the core of your marketing strategy and key brand messaging already established. If you’ve tried all the marketing tactics and aren’t really seeing any results, it’s probably because your brand strategy isn’t solid yet.

Developing your brand strategy first builds trust and loyalty with your community, creates connections and relationships, establishes your authority, and generates visibility so that your marketing can spring forward from this trampoline you’ve built.

Recap

You might think you have a brand strategy, but some notes jotted down in random places doesn’t cut it. Once you have that foundation, your brand will be that much clearer and much easier to execute. Then you can take those things and implement them into your brand design, website, and marketing to build a brand that is wildly successful and widely known.

Take Action

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, inconsistent, or in need of more focus and direction in your brand, this is where you start. Now that you know the first thing you need to do, you need to carve out time to do it. And to help you get through it with confidence and ease, I’ve created the Brand Strategy Blueprint course so that you get the solid foundation you need to grow your business.