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When's the Best Time to Work on Your Branding?
Updated: Mar 13
Whether you just started your business, or you've been in the game for a few years, people tend to get confused as to when is the "best" time to work on their branding... so let me demystify that for you in this post! 🙏
Before we get too far into it, it's important for us to understand what branding is, and how it fits into the bigger picture of your business.
(Or if you want the TL;DR version, click here scroll down to the bottom of this post) 👇
What is branding?
I recently wrote a blog post about this, but in short, branding is a marketing tool that businesses use to:
Stand out in a crowded marketplace
Establish their credibility
Create a consistent experience that builds trust with customers
This goes for both business brands AND personal brands!
How does branding fit into the bigger picture of your business?
I'll break this down by talking about the "journey" that every customer goes through when they experience your business.
Most business owners understand what it looks like from the back-end (i.e. lead gen, lead nurture, conversion, service, trust, advocacy, etc.), but it's important for us to know what it looks like from the customer standpoint to fully understand how branding (highlighted in pink) plays a key role in their experience:
Your customers have no idea you exist 😪
They find out about you through social media, advertising, or word of mouth 🗣
They get curious because you seem like you can help them, so they decide to check you out on their favourite channel 👀
They like what they see, but decide to do a little more "research" to get a better idea of who you are 🔎
They check you out on your website, other channels, and maybe even pull up a Google search... 🧐
You pass their "credibility test", but they haven't made up their mind if they want to do business with you yet, so they decide to follow you on social media 👍
In the following days / weeks / months, you share your content and your prospect starts to not only trust you, but they feel like they actually "know" you 💞
One day you put out an offer in your social posts / newsletter / DM's and they jump on it right away... they are SO excited to work with you because that rapport has already been built 🤝
You start to provide your service, and your customer is blown away because the experience of working with you is 100% consistent with how you "market" yourself 🤯
Your customer becomes your biggest fan and tells all their friends & family about you 📣
Needless to say, branding plays a HUGE role in helping your customers know that they're in the right place when they land on your website / social media profiles, and more importantly, it builds the rapport you need to secure your sale!
So when's the best time for you to work on your branding?
There's 2 points in your business when you would want to work on your branding:
Stage 1 — At the very beginning when you feel like you've got a good handle on your audience and your offer, but before you start marketing yourself. This is the prime time to:
Set up your brand foundation with your messaging, visuals & strategy
Discover your unique brand formula (a.k.a. your "secret sauce")
Test what does / doesn't work with your audience & make adjustments!
Stage 2 — At the mid-point when you're a few years in and you feel like you've "outgrown" your current branding, and you are looking to take your business to the next level, whether that means going "pro", building a team, or scaling your business. This is the prime time to:
Do a full-scale audit on your current brand & uncover what's misaligned
Create a game plan for your brand revamp & launch strategy
Get those pieces built out & officially announce the rebrand to your audience!
If you're at either of those stages and feel a bit lost...
I got you! Book a quick call with me to learn more about how I can be supporting you with your branding and see if we're the right fit to be working together! 👇