When customers come to look at your website or social media channels, what do they see? Each aspect of your branding communicates something about your company or agency – who you are and what you top offer.

While your products matter, your branding matters just as much, if not more, because it’s what can keep you top-of-mind and set you apart from the competition. Don’t forget – your branding includes everything from your company’s voice, tone, customer experience and values to its logo, content, website and marketing materials.

As tempting as it may be to throw something together and make changes later, the more thought and effort you put into your brand in the beginning, the better your results will be in the long run. Here’s why.

1. Branding Forges a Stronger Bond with Customers

Branding is your first impression with prospects. To build a strong brand and truly bond with your customers, you must be both authentic and transparent. You must clearly communicate the importance of your products/services, mission, and dedication with your brand.

If you don’t have a good branding strategy, you won’t be able to effectively communicate that to your prospective customers, and without that, your customers will lack the necessary insight into who you are as a company that will help them bond with you.

Customers are more likely to care about your brand when they can easily and quickly understand who you are as a company and what you’re doing to make their lives easier or better.

2. Branding Encompasses All Your Products

When you’re launching your first product, it’s easy to focus on its features and specs, at the expense your overall brand. But you never know what the future will bring – more likely than not, you’ll have additional products to launch later down the line, and the best products are manifestations of a strong brand, rather than retro-fit. By focusing on your branding first, you’ll be able to launch additional products with ease.

When starting your branding design and website, you’ll want to do some research on the top WordPress ecommerce themes available on the market, because the closer it matches the intended look and feel for your brand, the better.

You’ll spend less time and money on theme customizations, and may even find themes with features already built in, so you’re not wasting resources on plugins that could bloat your site’s tech and increase page load time.

3. Branding Builds a Loyal Customer Base

When customers do choose to convert and make a purchase from your company, the branding is generally what makes or breaks the relationship. If your customers have a good experience even after the purchase decision, they are more likely to return for more purchases in the future.

There’s a lot to be said for customer retention initiatives, since loyal customers are worth more than new customers, and your branding can help with that. The best brands make customers want to stay with the company, and share their experience with others.

When you build a team of customer advocates, it’s like having an exponentially larger marketing team out there doing the work for you.

4. Branding Supports Your Marketing Efforts

Stellar branding makes it easier for your marketing and advertising staff to go their jobs. When you have a clear company personality and message, the base of everything marketing and advertising needs to get the word out is done.

With a clear identity in place, everything that emanates outward is a variation on a theme. No need to go back to the drawing board every time. And your audience will take note of this consistency.

Strong branding and company content will help the sales and advertising team to create materials that support customer needs and increase lead generation.

5. Branding Commands a Higher Price Point

When your branding resonates with your target audience, your company becomes more valuable. Think about major companies like Apple and Starbucks. They are more valuable for their brand alone – even though they make fairly standard products that most everyone needs or uses.

Your product or service is important, but it’s the brand that makes you different from everyone else out there offering the same thing.

With a well-articulated brand, you’re focusing on why you’re doing what you do. And if you can present a good case for why you’re doing it the way you do, your customers are more likely and willing to pay more for what you sell.

Focus on Meeting Customer Needs First

As long as you put your efforts into creating something that meets the needs of your audience, you’ll have a quality product. But that’s only part of the equation. Without a good brand that effectively communicates your quality and commitment to your customers and beyond, you could have a product that’s 100% better than your competition – and still lose money.

Ideally, your brand should feature your strengths and capitalize on your target audience. When building your brand, think about the overall experience you want your customers to have, and how each piece – from your logo to your tagline, product packaging, and even social media content, fits into that journey.

What do you want your customers to think of when they hear your brand name or see your brand image? What do you want to be known for? Answering these questions ahead of time and thinking about branding every step of the way will make it easier for you to build out your brand as your company grows.