How Branding Can Save Time and Money

For a lot of entrepreneurs out there, one of the big items that sits for too long on their to-do list is marketing and branding. There is always something else to do and you aren’t always sure how the time and money you invest in marketing and branding is going to contribute to your business.

No one wants to spend money without understanding the value exchange, but sometimes it can be difficult to isolate how to measure value.

Now let’s start by isolating marketing and branding separately and defining them because these two terms get used interchangeably and that alone can cause confusion.

Marketing

Marketing very simply includes all the activities your business does to bring your product or service to market.It’s the broadest definition and includes product design, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Typically when the word marketing is used it’s focusing on the “promotion” piece which covers everything from paid advertising to organic content creation and branding.

Branding

Now when we define branding, we are talking about everything that contributes to the perception and reputation of your product or service.It originated from the ritual of marking cattle with a hot iron to designate ownership. When a customer thinks of a brand today, they think of the companies that lead within certain industries or categories. If I say name type of vehicle, you’ll list off brand names like BMW or Toyota. If I ask you to name a few types of soap, you’ll list off brands like Dove and Ivory. And each of those brands have their own logos, visual design, sales copy, packaging, websites, ads, and content.

Now let’s switch gears for a second to dig into what some potential rationale would be for creating a brand.

1. To create top-of-mind awareness — As customers become familiar with your products, you want them to think of your brand first when they are making a purchase.
2. To separate yourself from the competition — In any given category there are multiple products and service providers. A brand distinguishes one product from another and helps consumers decide what to buy.
3. Repeat business — If a customer likes your product, you want them to be able to easily find your products again without having to reevaluate your product vs all the other products.

Now let’s talk value.

Here are a few key items to consider when thinking about value driven into your business by branding:

• Unit volume — will be higher if more people know you
• Marketing cost — will be lower if you have focused your brand messaging to speak to just your highest value customers
• Recurring revenue — will be higher if you have a memorable product and deliver a positive experience
• Profitability — will be higher as you build sub brands and can add more products to the customer basket after you’ve built that trust as a brand

For all this to work, you have to be diligent about creating your brand.

For example, if your core customer is older women and all your messaging and design speaks to a young male demographic, you will lose customers. If you’re main selling point is convenience, but the only thing you mention in your messaging is quality, you will miss customers and you may lose customers who you didn’t deliver with for your brand promise. If you design a great logo and website, but no one ever sees it, you’ve wasted all of your time and money.

Still not buying it??

The first key thing to understand is that your business can’t survive without customers.

To get customers, they need to know, like, and trust you.

Branding helps that happen. Even if your brand is just you. Your reputation, your experience, your customer testimonials, your handshake, your conversation, and anything you share with potential customers is your brand.

If you want to save time, give the customers everything they need to say yes as soon as possible. Make it easy for them to shop again and to tell all their friends about you. Position yourself clearly in the market and provide all the proof your customer needs to understand that you are the right decision for them.

If you want to save money, be clear and upfront about who you are and what you do so you can focus your energy on the right people. Time is money. And the more time you waste on the wrong customers, the more money you waste. Also, the actual money you spend marketing your product can be saved if you spend it in the right places, with the right messaging, built for the right people.

To put it another way…

When your branding is done right, it’s cheaper and faster to find new customers, to convert them, and to keep them.

Let’s say you do nothing except open a store front. If you put something in the window that mentions what you sell, you’ll get a lot more people that decide to walk in and that even know you are there.

Now does that save you money? Does it save you time?

Technically it cost you money and it cost you time. But the dollars and time invested had a return much greater than the initial investment.

So maybe the question is not how does branding save you time or money. The question is how does it make you money over time.

That’s it! Thanks for reading.

For my entrepreneurs out there, if you want access to me directly and want to build brands with like minded people, check out my Facebook group, Brand Growth Community. Take a look!