A lot of people get advertising, marketing, and branding confused. Are they all connected? Yes, but they are very different things. Advertising is something you pay for to get your business out to the world, and preferably into the hands of your best potential clients. Marketing is how you build your company’s awareness in a variety of ways, and branding is simply who you are.
So what comes first? Your brand comes first. Branding is defining who or what your company is, who your ideal client is, what your visual identity is. Think of your brand like a person, and give it a personality. Is your brand professional, simple, and neutral, or is it bright, fun, and creative? How do you envision your logo? Will it be text-only/black and white, or will you incorporate some hand-drawn calligraphy and small graphic? You should think about how you envision the media on your site as well. Will you have professional headshots, or something more fun? Answering some of these questions will help guide your choices in a logo, website design, copy, page count, everything.
Once you have a brand, you can move on to your marketing strategy. A marketing strategy is all of the company’s goals and objectives combined into a single plan. It is a discussion as to how you are going to reach the people who need to find you. Marketing strategies are long term and can include social media, paid click ads, blogging, and more.
Some initial steps you can take are: building relationships, updating old content, posting consistently on social media channels such as Instagram, Tiktok and/or Pinterest, and developing a quality webinar about your product or service.
Just remember, branding is why. Marketing is how.
Image: Let’s Frolic Together
