What Branding Does A Startup Need?

Whether you’re venture-backed or bootstrapping, you need to be consistent in how you show up across marketing channels.

You know you need to invest in branding as a foundation for building reputation and trust with potential customers and investors. You’re not going to become the next Apple or Google overnight, but where should you begin?

A common misconception is that branding is basically just a logo, a font, and some colors. The reality is not just that branding is a far more complex exercise, but also that branding is more important than ever in a fast-moving, smartphone-tethered world where you need to act fast to win the battle for attention.

A well-crafted brand makes it easier to catch your public’s eye, explain who you are, and stand out. A lot of brand work is about research and definition. Let’s review the foundational elements of brand work.

1. Your unique value proposition (UVP)

Successful branding and marketing requires clarity around your unique value proposition, or what benefits your product or service offers and how your offering is different than what’s already out there. You need to have an answer for why anyone should choose you versus the competition.

The exercise of defining your UVP can be very revealing. You will likely emerge with a clearer vision for your target audience and better able to articulate how you meet their needs.

2. Brand purpose and mission

A brand mission statement defines your startup’s core purpose and goals, outlining the value you aim to provider your audience. It answers the “why” behind the business and serves as a guiding principle for decision-making.

A purpose-driven mission that resonates with both your audience and your team helps guide decisions and keep your startup focused as it grows. Clarity around your purpose helps you more readily align with others’ values and needs, building stronger emotional connections and loyalty.

Additionally, purpose-driven brands often attract more engaged employees and investors who are aligned with the brand’s mission.

Hand-in-hand with the brand mission is your brand story, which will likely flow directly from clarifying your mission. A brand story is the narrative explaining how your brand came to be, humanizing your brand by sharing the experiences and motivations behind it. While the mission is forward-looking, the story focuses on past and present events that shape the brand’s identity.

3. Brand voice

With a clear sense of who you are and what your goal is, you need to decide how you speak to your audience. Your brand voice is the unique personality and tone your startup takes on across communication channels, from your website and social media through ads, blogs, and emails.

Your brand voice needs to reflect the way your target audience sees themselves, since you want to reflect their language in your communication. Using the same words your audience uses to describe their needs makes it easier to express how you are the solution. It also elicits a layer of familiarity that makes your audience more receptive and loyal—and more likely to convert.

Documenting this brand voice in a central guidelines document and communicating it across your teams helps ensure that your brand is consistent and has a fair chance of building momentum.

4. Visual identity system

A strong visual identity is more than just a logo; it’s the face of your brand. Your visual identity system is the cohesive set of design elements that visually represent your brand, and it’s imperative to clearly define and document them to make sure you consistently show up across all touchpoints.

Elements to define within your visual identity system include:

• Logo and usage guidance
• Color palette
• Typography
• Iconography
• Guidelines for photos and illustrations
• Design patterns and secondary elements
• Banners and avatars for social media
• Examples of the brand in use

With these elements set, you can now focus on building your website and social media presence.

Many startups try to keep branding in-house at first, but they often don’t realize what they don’t know. Eventually, it becomes clear that working with a branding agency can help, often because of plateaued marketing efforts and low overall engagement.

Agencies have the right experience and processes to sharpen up a startup brand faster, whether through accelerated design sprints or more traditional branding projects.

Interested in branding for your startup or VC firm? Let’s talk through your needs and build a plan.