Starting a business is expensive; there’s really no way around it, so the idea of spending money on design services may seem like a luxury early on. But the decision to skimp on branding will almost certainly be more costly in the long run. Why not invest in your business now—the one you’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears into—and give yourself the best chance at success?
Consider just a few practical advantages of a clear and unique brand.
Credibility & Memorability
You need a consistent style, consistent logo system, consistent typefaces and colors, and consistent messaging across all media, from your email signature to your building and signage.
This insures that customers know who they are dealing with from your first interaction, and don’t confuse you with other companies or worse, your competition. This also ensures that customers remember you, so they not only keep coming back to you but also spread the word about you to their friends and colleagues.
Customer Experience
Your brand — visual assets, language, mission, and both internal and outward-facing — should be easy to understand, access, and implement. It should be well-organized, easy to navigate, and catered to the customers who are seeking what you provide.
A clear and accessible brand allows you to maintain clarity, memorability, and consistency with minimal effort. You can pass along well-formatted logos to third parties, generate invoices, compose email blasts, post to social media, or add a blog post, easily and without the need to call in help. Most importantly, you will provide a pleasant user experience, from personal interaction to web browsing, generating loyalty and a reliable stream of word-of-mouth marketing.
Profit
A well-considered brand isn’t just an aesthetic exercise; it’s an investment in yourself and your company.
With plug-and-play brand assets and a marketing provider who understands your business, you can save valuable time and man hours by focusing your efforts on the business you’re passionate about. Your imagery and brand assets will all be compatible, so ordering shirts, brochures or swag will be quicker and less costly because extra fess are minimized. Your production costs will go down as we employ the best printers for each task. And once your business is off the ground, your annual investment in marketing ensures that you remain at the forefront of your industry and your costumers’ minds, with consistent growth and increasing profits from year to year.
What does a full-service marketing contract cost?
Most successful growing businesses reinvest at least 5-10% of their annual revenue into marketing, depending upon the size, type, and desired growth rate of the company. This is understandably hard to swallow if you’re used to doing everything yourself. Considering all the time and money spent on one-off projects over the year, it quickly becomes apparent that wrapping all those tasks into a consolidated whole is more economical in the long term, especially given the benefits of a focused brand strategy. With a good foundation, every new element — each advertisement, poster, or article — becomes an extension of the brand and adds to the pool of materials you can pull from at any time.
What are the main elements of a brand strategy / style guide?
A style guide should at the very least establish the logo(s), colors, fonts and image styles which will represent the personality of your company. That’s only the bare minimum. If you’re a restaurant, you should know what your menus, your boxes, your mailers, your uniforms, even your building will look like. If you’re a guitar builder, you likely want a UI for customizing builds, several logos which still feel cohesive but have some swagger, and maybe even a custom typeface for setting the names of your different models in. If you’re a music venue, you probably want some poster layouts for bands that might come through. Every company is different.
Why choose TwoFish Media?
TwoFish Technology has established itself as the most trusted tech provider in the region, with hundreds of customers testifying about the care and knowledge we provide. TwoFish Media brings that same level of expertise and customer service to handle your branding, advertising and website needs. With customers spanning the globe and internationally-recognized work, our passionate design team is ready to serve folks right here in Amarillo.
The vast experience of our design team — from creative direction to web development to font design to academic instruction — means there’s not much that we can’t handle. If we don’t do it, we know someone awesome who does. This means you get a great product, with outstanding customer service, at a fraction of the price of similar providers.
Get in touch today to find out how we can help your brand shine!
