How branding and marketing work together.

Branding is all important to marketing. Without a strong brand then any number of marketing activities can fail before they’ve even got off the ground. Great branding on the other hand, tells your audience that you know what you are doing and that your business is one that they can trust. Here’s our thoughts on how branding helps with your marketing efforts;

Raise Awareness

Without branded touchpoints, how is your audience supposed to know who you are? While your employees can put in all of the effort into providing the very best service possible (and making it a memorable experience for your customers in the process) ultimately you are still missing a trick if you don’t back this up with reminders at every turn of the business they are dealing with. Your audience is naturally visual and also naturally forgetful. With so many competing interests and distractions, you want to make sure that you give your business every chance of leaving an impression, in whatever form that takes. 

Remind your audience that you exist

Making your audience aware of your existence isn’t enough. It will take at least three viewings of your brand or advert for the average person to even register your existence. After that they will just as easily forget your existence if you don’t continually remind them why they shouldn’t and the value that your brand and business can bring to them. 

Tell your story through branding

You’ll want to remind your existing customers and prospective customers alike not only of your brand, but also what it stands for. Once you have gotten through to your audience, and once many of them have become customers, then is the time to use your branding to really win them over and make them lifetime customers and ambassadors of your brand. Truly great branding does a great deal of the leg-work for your support teams, to support them with your core values and remind customers why they shop with you. 

How do you remind your customers that you exist and why they should buy into you and your brand?

Make a list

In order for your brand to help in your marketing efforts, you’ll want to make a list of all the possible touchpoints your customers currently have with you and your business, and think about how you might be able to use branding within these particular touchpoints. If you regularly send mail to your customers for instance you’ll want to make sure that you brand any documentation with letterheads. For any advertising that you produce, you’ll want to make sure that it is supported with your logo and other distinguishing brand elements so that it is absolutely clear that it is your brand being advertised. Do you work with clients who invest a lot of time, money and energy with you and your brand? It may be worth spending a little extra and gifting them branded merchandise to say thank you, and to always be front of mind. 

Be high quality

When considering how branding can help with your marketing efforts, it’s also worth thinking about how poor branding can damage your marketing efforts. Your branding is your audience’s first impression of you and your brand. Your audience is time-poor and will make snap judgements based on how well you present yourself with your brand. If you do not make the grade then they won’t hang around to find out more and you will have lost your chance before you have even started. So as much as it is great to consider every touchpoint you have with your audience, and to get your brand out there in front of all of the right people, if you are doing all of this and you still feel like you are not reaping the rewards, then it may be that your branding itself needs to be looked at. 

Branding is all important to marketing. If you have a poor brand then your marketing is likely to suffer, and if you have a strong brand, then it can help in multiple ways that go beyond just bringing in leads to your business. Develop a strong brand and then get it out there for everyone to enjoy!

At Kaizen Print we are experts when it comes to your brand. We can help you with your design needs, and also with high quality cost-effective branded materials to help you really let your branding shine. To find out more you can get in touch via our contact form, or by calling us on 028 9002 2474.