Your Small Business Isn’t Going To Become A Big Business If Your Branding Is All About The Visual

Branding and brand identity for small businesses – it’s mostly about the attractive visual with some messaging to boot, right?

I don’t think so.

Almost every small business branding project I’m involved in requires me to solve a mixture of interrelated business and communication problems. From defining strategic purpose, to structuring a product offer, to working out what the target user needs to know now, at the next stage and after that.

Why do I need to do all of this?

Because branding isn’t just how a business looks. 9 times out of 10 the look or message pulls them in, but then the real works begins. The work of explaining what you actually do and building understanding. The work of helping them to navigate a course that ends in a ‘buy now’ or an enquiry being made.

For me, this is real branding. This is when the customer really engages with what you are doing, really gets to know what you’re about and establishes if you are useful.

So no, small business branding isn’t just about the decorative visual up front. It is about creating an attractive and informative end-to-end, embedded experience that starts with your logo and promise and ends on the contact page of your website. To get your customer through that journey you’re going to need – strategic thinking, business insight, research, visual design, copy writing, user experience and then some.