For many new entrepreneurs, building a brand identity might be the last thing on the list. There’s already so much to do with naming your company, getting a business license, finding new clients, filing for any needed permits, planning for marketing, and so on. Branding just is not something you have time or money to invest. But what if I told you that your new business’ brand identity is the key to make your company successful? And that it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Yes, when you have enough revenue to hire an experience professional designer or a brand agency to really build your brand strategy and polish the visual brand, I highly recommend you do so. But you have just started out and need to get your brand up quickly without major investment, and there are a lot of things a non-designer can don to start building their visual brand.

So, why do you need to build a brand identity? There is a whole list of reasons.

1. Recognition and differentiation

This might be the most common sense reason there is. You need to build some sort of identity for your business so that it is easy for your customers to identify you in the market. According to a study conducted by 3M, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual and visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text. This means people will recognize things much quicker when there are visual cues. And visual cues help us retrieve memories, meaning your clients and potential clients will remember your business much easier when there is some visual identity attached to it.

Some brand experts like to push you to be different from your competition for the sake of recognition. And sure, it does have big advantages if you have authentically unique brand. But my advise always is: be true and authentic. Creating something different simply for the sake of being different has little value. Being authentically you will always pay off with bringing you customers who are loyal to you because of who you are. This is especially true for the service providers out there.

2. Establishing trust

For a new business, it is super important to look professional. Right now, you are a newcomer in that space as a new business, so you want to be extra careful i and make sure you come out as trustworthy, professional, and like the expert in your field that you are. I always say that having an amazing logo alone won’t bring you new customers, but having a crappy looking one will definitely cost you business. In other words, your logo does not have to dazzle your potential customers, but it can’t look like your nephew on third grade made it with Word clipart. If you want to learn how to make professional looking logo quickly without professional software, subscribe to our newsletter to gain access to our How to create your first logo guide.

Vast Marketing Solutions writes on their blog post The Importance of Visual Content in Social Media that according to the same M3 study referred to earlier “46% of people say a website’s design is the number one criterion for discerning the credibility of the company.” This means that design has a big part in making you look credible and professional.

Branding goes beyond your logo. It is an entire system you create around your business identity. Logo is certainly a part of it, but the design system you build to make your brand visible (and visual) typically has much bigger part in the process. The consistent and purposeful use of this design system creates the professional and stylish look you’re after so that you won’t be putting off the half of the traffic that comes to your site.

3. Identification

You don’t only want to evoke trust, you also want your target audience to be able to identify themselves with your brand. This is extremely important when you’re building a loyal customer base. You want your customers feel like this product or service is meant for them. They need to feel like it is part of the stage their life is in and the circle they operate in. They have to be able to see themselves using your product or service. Branding has a powerful effect on how businesses are perceived. This comes through the visual stories you’re choosing to tell and the visual language you’re choosing to use.

If your audience is 20-25 years old women, you need to use visual language and tell the visual stories that appeal to this audience to build a brand they can identify with. Don’t show images of 60+ years old men and use colors and typefaces that appeal to older audiences. Show images they can identify with and design system they love. To best know what kind of visual brand appeals to your audience, you need to get to know your audience and research them. Knowing you customer is everything!

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What is your biggest challenge in building your brand identity? Tell below in comments of come share with us at our Daily Creative Facebook page.