A view into the process of branding a new business

TL;DR: Marketing and branding are likely the last things most founders and new business owners want to think about, much less pay for. I’ve found that part of the hesitation is a lack of understanding of what’s included in the process and how it ties into everything else an organization does and will do. In this post, I share a view into the 13-step process I’m going through with a founder now to shed light on what branding is and is not for new organizations.

“Who is doing your branding?” If you’re starting a business and you’re not tied into the marketing industry in some capacity, it’s likely not an easy question for you to answer.

For most of the founders I’ve worked with, branding and marketing are undesirable chores. They know they need to do it, but they don’t feel qualified or skilled enough to do it on their own. And as any new business owner knows, the list of services you have to pay for, both one-time and ongoing, is always longer than you’re anticipating.

A big part of the issue is the fault of the marketing and branding industry. There’s not one single definition of either term, what’s included in a package can be wildly different from company to company, and the amount of predatory people and organizations who will scam you out of money rivals the used car industry. It’s no wonder that, to any outsider, the very idea of marketing and branding can feel abhorrent.

We could spend many editions sifting through the merits of the different definitions of marketing and branding (we won’t). For the purposes of branding and marketing a new business, I look at it this way:

• Branding is the process of identifying and articulating who you are, what you do and why you do it as an organization, deciding how you will tell those stories to the people who need to hear and see them, and the execution of each story and element through writing, design and creative work.

  
  

• Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve their problem (definition courtesy of the great Seth Godin). It’s how you reach the people you need to reach, help them understand how you solve their problem, and give them the information they need to decide whether you are the best fit for them, now or later.

Every new organization needs both branding and marketing. The other challenge facing founders and new business owners is the sheer scope of what’s required to do both things well. There’s a daunting balance of up-front costs and ongoing work that can feel exhausting.

In my experience, far too many vendors, consultants and software providers are pitching founders a 25,000 square-foot mansion when what they need is a starter home. If you’ve heard me say it once, you’ve heard me say it a hundred times: if you don’t get the foundations right, nothing is going to work the way it should.

The mistake we often make is to look at the starter home, or the basics, as cut-rate or cheap. If you have limitless resources, by all means, buy a McMansion in the nicest part of town when you’re starting out. I’d rather start small, get the things right that need to be right, and build from there.

So, what does this kind of branding and marketing foundation building look like in practice? To help branding and marketing for a new business feel less overwhelming and more concrete, I’ve outlined in this edition the steps that I, and my amazingly talented graphic designer wife Kristin Kunz, have taken in a recent project to help a founder go from concept to launch.

Remember, simple doesn’t mean easy; there are still 13 steps in the process, and each requires strategy, critical thinking and creative execution. The point of outlining it like this is to help you see that there is a clear starting point, clear milestones along the way, and an achievable, actionable plan. Parts of branding and marketing can feel ethereal; an equal or larger portion follows a set process.

I’ve kept each step brief so you don’t have to take a day off work to read the entire edition. Remember, you can always reach out to me talk through any of these newsletters or posts in deeper detail (I really do love talking about this stuff).

STEP 1 – Get the real origin story

“Tell better stories” (can we all agree to stop saying this?) is often taken to mean “be more interesting than you are.” As a founder, you need to be telling your story. I do this step in person when at all possible, and I approach this conversation like I’m a journalist writing a feature story for a prominent magazine.

I don’t want the hyper-polished version of the who, what and why. I want the passion. The reason they sacrificed what they did to bring this business to life. This discussion (and subsequent conversations on the same topic) set the direction for most of the future messaging.

STEP 2 – Understand how the founder wants the brand to feel

While research is important (see Step 3), the strongest foundations of a brand are built on feel. Just as the story needs to be molded from the passion and emotion of the founder to solve that one critical problem, the look of the brand needs to mean something. The output from this step comes from a combination of a questionnaire and a brief discussion (as well as notes from the story meeting); enough for an expert like Kristin to begin working on various concepts.

STEP 3 – Research the market (red and blue oceans)

I’m a staunch proponent of creating the look, feel, voice and story that feels best to you. That should always be the first step, regardless of where you land. I place research at this point in the process because at least part of the core story and brand identity have been identified. 

Before sharing with our initial thoughts with the founder, we do an in-depth review of what’s already out there. Importantly, this should be done both within the industry and market of the organization and outside of it. Even if you can get away with it from a trademark standpoint, it’s not the way you want to start off or stand out.

If you want more insight into the red and blue ocean reference, read this article. It's extremely worth the time.

STEP 4 – Craft the strategic narrative

The strategic narrative is the central story for every organization, and it’s one of the most critical ways for founders to set and maintain direction for the organization. We build a strategic narrative through a straightforward 5-part framework, starting with the bigger change in the world your organization is driving or is a part of driving and ending with the hard data proof points to back up the new world you’re presenting to your audience. 

Done well, your strategic narrative can double as your pitch deck or call script, easily customized for each potential customer or donor or client. Given the importance of this step, refining the narrative can take a bit of extra time.

STEP 5 – Create and send initial logo package

Either in parallel with the narrative process (the output of which is a manifesto of sorts, including details of the story in addition to potential taglines, one-sentence value propositions and key messages) or after, the founder will also receive their initial logo designs for review. 

I love how Kristin goes above and beyond in this step, sharing not only multiple logos, but also why she developed them the way she did and mock-ups to show what the logo will look like in various applications.

STEP 6 – Core stories, messaging and taglines

As all these flow from the strategic narrative, this step is focused quite a bit on tweaking stories and messages for different audiences, channels and mediums. The work in this step also heavily fuels outputs for steps 7 and 11, so every bit of effort in this process ends up bearing a bushel of fruit.

STEP 7 – Create the bones of the website

You may decide you need a $50,000 website right out of the gate. For everyone else, what we do for a business or organization’s website is more than enough to get you firmly off the ground. The sites look very nice and function very well, and that’s what matters. 

Beyond saving founders money, I prefer to do it this way because it forces us to focus on only the most important elements for the website for launch; what absolutely needs to be there for us to be successful on Day 1.

STEP 8 – Website and logo refinements

At this point, the founder has the core assets they need to start refining in earnest. We tend to have few overall story adjustments at this point, and the tweaks to copy are more medium-specific (e.g., reducing website copy length to better fit the template, etc.).

Since updates to the logo will need to be changed everywhere, we finalize that first, then get into website updates. As most changes are minor, they can be made quickly, speeding up this step.

STEP 9 – Founder shares website, logo and messaging with their circle of trust

I love this step. First, we sometimes receive extremely valuable feedback that allows us to change something important before launch. Second, hearing in their own words what family, friends, mentors and coaches think really brings the brand to life, in addition to giving us new messaging ideas to use for launch and post-launch.

STEP 10 – Create simple distribution strategy and launch

"Simple Distribution" is a brand and marketing oxymoron. We almost always try to smash every possible tactic into every plan, and in doing so, can easily fail to do any one thing well. My philosophy here, similar to the website, is to include what’s absolutely necessary for launch.

Sure, there are times when a surprise-and-delight moment make a lot of sense, and we should absolutely bat those ideas around. In this founder’s case, we’re planning a launch event (to be held a few weeks after the official launch date) that is likely to drive more warm leads than almost any other tactic. But it’s not happening on the launch date. The more you can avoid distractions and do the basics well, the less likely you are to stumble at such an important moment.

For this founder, that’s website pushed to production, launch emails, publication of social profiles and launch assets, posts from company and founder profiles and plans for a post-launch video thanking everyone for their support.

STEP 11 – Create launch assets and prepare social profile content

In this stage, we create a master document (Google Doc with tabs in this case) and folder to store all creative, matching up with the launch plan. It’s a chance for the founder to make final tweaks and for us to look it over once more to make sure we’re happy with the plan and the tactics to bring it to life.

STEP 12 – Pre-launch check-in + Considerations for marketing and branding post-launch

We’ve added this step into the process to make pre-launch communications run more smoothly. Ideally, this meeting happens the day before launch and includes prepping emails as drafts in the founder’s chosen email system, pushing social profiles live (launch posts to be published on launch day) and doing a final review of the website in development before it’s pushed to Production.

It’s also a chance for us to talk to the founder about what we would recommend they do moving forward. Whether they’re continuing to pay us or not, we want them to feel like they have a solid post-launch strategy and at least an idea of the way forward. 

I like this entire step because it feels as intimate as this process should be. PLUS, IT'S FUN AND EXCITING.

STEP 13 – Official launch

This day should feel very good for the founder, and we work very hard to help make sure that’s the case. Everything we can do to take work off of their shoulders allows them more opportunity for excitement and to respond to the messages of support and interest they’re likely to receive from their network.

Hopefully, this breakdown makes branding and marketing feel less like a necessary evil and more like something that can (and should) have a massive impact on your business or organization. The companies who succeed in these areas are invariably those who treat brand as the sum of every interaction someone has with their organization, from a 404 error page to a six-figure contract. 

Your brand is you, your marketing is you, and these things deserve and demand your attention and, in many cases, expert help.

One final note to remember is that neither brand nor marketing are ever one-and-done; “launch” is a milestone and not a finish line. You may pay for a package like ours that helps get you to launch and briefly beyond; that gets you to the beginning, not the end. My friend Bobby Gillespie had a great post on this recently – you can read his thoughts here.

I love this work because it feels like being invited into someone else’s life. It’s personal and intimate and I’m deeply invested in the outcome because I’m deeply invested in the person or people I’m working with. If your branding process doesn’t feel like that, it might be time to look around for one that does.

Thank you for reading!

If you’re interested in talking through any specifics or have questions for me on applying any of this information to your work or organization, email me at dan@heliosmarketingllc.com or send me a message through my contact form.

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