Branding and marketing are separate but integrated. Both are important for your business. Marketing can have a more direct effect on generating money for your business, but if you invest in your brand first, you’ll save time and money on your marketing.

When you develop your brand, you create one finalized way of representing your business. This includes a consistent format for:

1. Your visuals. In addition to a logo, your visual identity includes your colors, fonts, typography, and images.
2. Your words. Developing a Unique Value Proposition, elevator speech, and key talking points are part of your brand story or key messaging.

To be able to successfully brand your business with the best visuals and words, you must figure out three key elements first:

1. Key traits. What essential elements of your product or service should come to mind when someone experiences your brand?
2. Differentiators. What are the things you excel at that make you stand out? How are you different or better than your competitors, and what benefits are most appealing.
3. Ideal Clients. Who is most likely to buy from you? What are their <demographic and psychographic> details?

Thinking about your branding first will help you know which strategies are most likely to work best to promote your business, and you’ll be able to launch your marketing programs more quickly and easily.

Know where to invest your marketing

There are hundreds if not thousands of different ways to market your business. If you talk with other business owners, they may tell you about their success with Instagram, Google ads, writing blogs, BNI groups, industry trade shows, cold calling, or radio ads. The list is never-ending.

But just because a marketing strategy worked for another business doesn’t mean it will work for yours.

Once you know your ideal client, you can quickly evaluate which channels will work best for your marketing. For example, if you’re selling cooking classes, a print ad in a guide to farms and markets makes sense. If you’re promoting your bookkeeping services, LinkedIn is where you’ll find prospective business owners.

Complete your tasks more efficiently.

Nearly every marketing activity will involve words and visuals. If you feel like you’re staring at a blank screen, not sure where to begin, you’re struggling to get your marketing done. But if you already know what to say and what it should look like, everything can be done faster.

For example:

• Once you know your value proposition, you can quickly write a headline for your ad or social media post.
• Once you have set colors and fonts you always use, you can create your e-newsletter faster.

You need to work on your branding and marketing to have a successful business. But investing in your brand will help make your marketing more efficient.