For some business owners, understanding the line between branding and marketing can become blurry.
Here are the differences between marketing and branding.
Marketing and branding often confuse business owners. People interchangeably use both terms not understanding what the difference is and why you need both. A simple way to explain is branding is the foundation of your business.
It’s knowing who you are, what you offer, and what you stand for. It’s the ability to effectively and efficiently communicate the brand message. In comparison, marketing is communicating that clear message to more people and platforms.
The focus of the clarity in the brand message is so you connect with marketing to reach the people that want your services. If you aren’t able to connect and communicate effectively and consistently, you won’t have the level of success you could have.
They may know what you do if your messaging is great. However, if you aren’t consistent, you won’t stay top of mind and they will likely forget about you.
For some business owners, understanding the line between branding and marketing can become blurry. Here are the differences between marketing and branding.
What’s the Difference Between Marketing and Branding?
We’re sharing insights on the difference between marketing and branding. Our goal is that you take away our outline and put it into action with your branding and marketing.
Knowing what the core elements are in marketing v. branding and what to focus on in your business will save you time and money.
So, why don’t more people spend time learning the difference between marketing and branding? Well, they may not think it’s important. They may think what they are doing is working. They may not see an incentive in learning something new.
Don’t let this be you. Marketers and business owners sometimes don’t start paying attention until its painful. Prevent the pain and learn the difference between marketing and branding. The last thing anyone wants is your business to decline before you realize you missed the mark.
Branding
Branding is the story of your brand. It’s sharing the mission and the vision. It’s about sharing the message, results and how you help. It’s sharing why you do something.
It’s an art and science to connect the concept to text, a website, and logo design. Where some branding gets disconnected is there is an amazing mission, but the graphics aren’t connected to this. The opposite is also true.
A company will invest a significant amount in graphics without the intention of connecting why the brand exists. The alignment between the mission, why and communication is key.
The communication in branding occurs in your text, your social media and your designs simultaneously.
Marketing
In comparison, marketing is sharing your story with people consistently. It’s narrowing down the voice and the graphics. It’s about being clear about who you serve and who you are talking to in your blogs, ads, social media, newsletter.
You want to identify your community and where they hang out and how they speak. This is where the magic happens because it starts to feel like your branding is flowing effortlessly into your marketing.
It is the result of the foundational work done on the front end with the branding. The alignment between the two is important so that people see consistency in your text, colors, and tone no matter where they find you.
This is how communities and movements are made. Your tribe flocks to you because they feel like they get you. The marketing process begins to feel effortless like you are talking to friends because you are. People feel like you get them because you do.
It becomes easier to set up blogs, podcasts, social media, and ads. You and your team simply feel like your sharing the same information on different platforms. It’s the beauty of clarity, simplicity, and scale.
This is exactly what a business wants.
Marketing vs. Branding
It is important to set your foundation of branding while thinking strategically about your marketing. You could think of branding as the inside of the home that you invite people to come to see.
In comparison, marketing is the actions you take to invite people to your home. We hope that the lines between marketing vs. branding are clearer for you.
Share your biggest takeaway for your business with us and feel free to read more on marketing and branding on our blog.