LEARN THE 3 KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRANDING AND MARKETING.

When running a business you already have 7,655 things on your to do. You want to get our business off the ground, start attracting our dream customers and start turning profits ASAP. The first thing most of you do? Jump right into marketing your business and products. But most often, end up hearing crickets. You have read hundreds of articles on marketing, tried your hand at digital marketing, and spent time showing up over multiple online platforms, but yet there is always something missing. Your marketing is just not hitting the nail!

What you do need is to have a closer look at your brand’s messaging. Are you speaking to the right audience? Do they get that you are THE ONE for them? Is your brand’s tone aligned with the beliefs of your dream audience and your brand’s core values? Well, this is where branding comes to play and helps make your marketing efforts that much more profitable!

You could be scratching your head and wondering “Now what exactly is branding and how is it different from marketing?”. Now, these two terms are pretty different and if you want your business to grow and reach your income and impact goals it’s important to know the difference- and use them to your advantage!

Now, what do people mean when they talk about branding and marketing? Here's how you can get it all together and build a successful booming brand.

Let’s clear the basics:

What’s Branding?

Your business deserves a brand that speaks about its roots, your mission and reveals to your dream customers why you are perfect for them.

Branding is more than just your logo and visual identity. It’s about taking intentional steps to build awareness and reputation around your business and its product or services. Basically, it’s the active practice of bringing your brand to "life".

Your brand is not just printed on your products but is also perceived by your audience. Branding is an integral part of your business, whether big or small. And more often than not small businesses overlook building this foundation and jump straight into marketing efforts.

Branding is more than a transactional effort. It’s actively shaping your brand and defining who you are as a business. This is why intentional branding is what comes first followed by marketing.

Now, what’s Marketing?

Marketing on the other hand is all about promoting your offer, aka product or service, with the intention of making sales, getting new customers onboard and keeping them coming back for more through various platforms.

This can be done through strategies like social media marketing, partnership and collaborations, events, print advertising, and more

Think of it this way, if marketing is what attracts a customer, branding is what would make them stay and advocate. Marketing would get you your new customers, but it’s through your branding efforts that these new customers become your super-fans!

Essentially branding is who you are, and marketing is how you build awareness.

Now that we have gotten our basics covered, let’s deep dive into understanding the key differences between the two and how they can be used to help you get more customers AND make more money.

1. Marketing is all of the activities used to build awareness (awareness of your product or service, your business, or even just validating an idea), while branding is all of the elements that make up the identity, reputation, and perception of your business. Branding and marketing are related, but the focus is different in each.

2. Branding and Marketing are two sides of the same coin. They go hand in hand. Branding is what happens when you tell people what’s in it for them, while marketing is what people see, hear and feel. Branding is how you make your business stand out from the crowd, whereas marketing tells people about you, your products and/or your services.
   

3. The only real difference is that branding is sometimes used to talk about intangible associations like the feel and personality of a business, whereas marketing is used for tangible actions like reaching out to potential customers and promoting your products or services.

Branding and marketing are sometimes talked about as if they were two different things. They aren’t but are both quite important. Although often used interchangeably, branding and marketing are two distinct types of activities working together to help you reach your goals.

To run a successful business, today’s business owners need to make sure their brands come off as more human-like. Gone are the days when brands and small businesses, especially product-based businesses, could simply showcase their products and services and their attached features to make sales.

Customers expect to see a more human feel and know the values behind the brand. Making branding even more crucial for a successful marketing campaign. Now if you are super new to these concepts, but wish to implement brand strategy in your own small business, I got just the thing for you!

Grab your copy of our Brand Identity Checklist to get you started so you can start attracting your dream customers ASAP!

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