As an agile strategic branding and design business we are fortunate enough to work with ambitious businesses of all shapes and sizes, from start-ups through to large national organisations. Regardless of the business size we find each company that engages us has aspirations of becoming something much bigger and better.

Last week we had a project enquiry that is quite common with smaller up and coming businesses and not unusual for some larger, more well established companies either. The enquiry went something like this…

Hi, my name is xxxxx I am the MD of xxxxx and I was recommended to you guys by xxxxx. We need a new website as ours is out of date and the feedback we’ve had recently is that it’s not communicating what we do in the best way… and so the call went on.

Understanding the bigger picture
On review of the website it was obvious why the client needed a new one. The messaging was very bland and hard to understand; visually it was clearly a re-skinned off the shelf theme and worst of all, nowhere on the site did it explicitly tell the visitor what the company actually did.

Having worked with many businesses over the years, we are able to quickly identify mistakes that have been made with the marketing of the business. Often what we find is a business starts up, a logo is quickly cobbled together, the client secures new business through word of mouth and has built a strong reputation within a large network of contacts, which has constantly fed the pipeline. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, and we applaud the entrepreneurial spirit, but as the business grows and client demands get higher, cracks start to form in the communications.

In every business there is a plan, an objective we all want to target and achieve. With that in mind, if the client had engaged a brand agency from the outset of setting up the business, his website today would not be in the state it is in and would be working better for them. Maybe they wouldn’t need to be paying out for a new site just yet.

There will always be a need to update your website as time moves forwards, but certainly not within a space of six months. The reason their website needs to be redone is simple; it was designed and built without any form of brand strategy being developed first.

Invest wisely in your marketing
Marketing, in whatever form, is important for businesses to sell and get noticed, but the most important thing to note is that branding is the foundation of everything. Unless you have defined your brand strategy, brand language and visual identity properly you should not be embarking on any form of marketing activity. You will only find yourself revisiting your brand in a year or two’s time or creating inconsistencies across your various marketing outputs. You need to take a step back, not run before you can walk and work with a strategic branding agency that understands you and your business from the outset. Everything else moving forwards will just fall in to place and work more effectively.

At Frost Creative we work at board level, getting to understand the business model, the growth strategy, the sales and working processes and long term vision of the organisation. We align the brand strategy and creative to sit effortlessly alongside the business strategy, helping the brand grow efficiently and effectively. The delivery of a website, a brochure, PR campaign or other is a lot more straight forward once the ground work has been done.

A partner you can trust
In order for branding and strategy to be effective you need to work with a partner you can trust. A close collaborative and open relationship is key to its success. At Frost Creative we are trusted with business of all sizes to support them beyond delivery of a brand visually; we help transform the business at all levels.

Speak to us today if want to find out more.