Today I want to get real and honest with you about when you should invest in your brand (and when you shouldn’t).

A quick caveat, before we dive in. Firstly, this post does not comprehensively cover every moment to invest in your brand – your brand is ever-evolving and the timeline for that looks different for everyone. Instead, we’re zeroing in on three core stages that offer the most impactful opportunities for brand evolution. Secondly, “investing in your brand” extends beyond logos and visuals. It encompasses your strategy, brand experience an embodying your brand as a whole.

Anyway . . . back to it.

In my eyes, there are three main times to invest in your brand:

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1 . The Starting Line

Before you even start your business, I believe you should consider the basics of your brand.

At this point, we’re not digging too deep (we’re not planning out a strategic offer suite, crafting a 20+ page brand voice guide or anything like that.) Because in the first 3, 6, and 9 months, your brand is going to change so much. And it should!

This is a time of transformation where you start working with clients, creating content and doing the work. Through that process, you’ll figure out what you like, what you don’t, who you like working with, who you don’t, what the biggest transformation you can facilitate in somebody’s life is, and so on. At that point, you can reassess and start planning things in a deeper way to create the biggest impact that you can, rather than just creating something on a whim.

At this early stage, free and low-ticket resources are your best friend. This is why I would not suggest that anyone just starting, financially invests in brand strategy, at least not very heavily. Because your brand is going to change so much in that first year that it’s just a bit of a wasted investment.

If you are going to invest at this point I’d recommend it be in your visuals. You’ve got your very basic brand strategy and off the back of that, come up with a colour palette and typography suite – and stick to it. Will it change? Inevitably. Will you as a brand evolve? Yes. However, will being consistent and picking something good in the beginning, be beneficial for you anyway? 100%.

Example: You’re just starting out as a social media manager. You grab some free resources on brand strategy and put in some time to get your basic strategy down. You invest in a semi-custom brand kit to give proffesional looking visuals at a small financial investment. You start consistently posting, interracting with potential clients and landing your first clients.

2. The Growth Period

The second time I’d recommend you invest in your brand is what I call your growth period. At this point, you’ve been in business for a while. You’ve worked with people, you know what you like, and who you like working with. Ultimately, you’ve got a much clearer idea of what the biggest transformation that you can facilitate in somebody’s life is, and you want to start positioning yourself as an expert, rather than just another option.

You’ve built the skills, and you’ve got the social proof, now is the time that you want to start honing in on who your ideal client is (at every stage of their evolution) and taking them on a journey.

And this is a point I would recommend hiring a brand strategist and designer. Somebody to work on your brand with you. Because, yes, you want to uplevel your brand strategy. You want to think about things a lot more deeply than you would have in the beginning, and develop a really clear brand strategy and brand position. But that positioning portion also requires you to level up your brand visuals. Why? Because you can tell somebody that you are a professional, but if you still look beginner, they’re likely still going to see you as a beginner. They say, an image speaks 10,000 words and let’s be honest bad design does too. That’s why at this point I’d recommend investing in your brand strategy, your brand identity and your website.

Example: After working in your business for just under a year you know that you want to specialise in helping product based busineses to level up their social media. You enlist the help a brand studio and create together you create a brand strategy and identity that matches your next step of growth and a attracts your ideal clients.

2. The Scale

As the name suggests, at this point you are ready to scale.

This is when you are ready to be the authority in your industry. At this point, your brand investment is about much more than just visuals. Yes, you should have a consistent colour palette. Yes, you should have a consistent typography suite. But at this point, they should be so second nature, that it isn’t really the focus of the brand investment.

It’s about digging deep into your brand strategy, realigning, and making sure that you have a very clear brand voice, point of view and positioning. It’s about making sure that your position is so clear, and your brand is so solid, that the visuals are just an extension of that brand clarity.

At this point, I’d recommend a full brand strategy, brand identity and brand experience investment. You want a solid strategy, manifested into a holistic identity suite and then extended into a strategically crafted brand experience that is consistent across every single thing you put out (and at this point, you’re probably putting out quite a lot).

Example: You’ve been working in your business for two years now and you’ve worked with a lot of people. Your full-time management client roster is full and you are now ready to scale your business to help you expand your impact and your revenue even further. You enlist the help of a brand studio again to help you craft an offer suite that helps your ideal client at every stage of their evolution and provides you with profit at every step. You refine your brand identity to ensure your solid position is clear and you map out your funnels to create a client experience that is visually consistent and sustainable for you as a business.

So there we have it. My take on the three main times to make a brand investment. At each of these stages, you’re at a pivotal moment in your brand and it can feel scary to let someone into your business to help facilitate this expansion. But the reward can be life-changing.

If you’re at the point where your looking to invest and you’ve still got some hesitation this post about Questions to ask your brand designer before you invest might help you navigate that process or if you are ready to go and just looking for the right person, hit up our enquiry form and get a totally free discovery call to see if we are the right fit to help you reach your goals.

Until next time, have a great day!

Emily
Founder, Cecile Creative Studio