“What’s more important to invest in — your branding or website?”
I may be a bit biased as this is what I do for a living, but the truth is that both are important and should be invested in.
But the ORDER you do them in is equally as important.
Branding is your foundation.
In an ideal world, your branding should
ALWAYS come before your website.
One thing I’ve come to realise over the last decade is that many business owners don’t really understand what branding is. Maybe that’s why it’s often skipped over for the more tangible pieces like logos, colours and websites.
From my experience, most people create their brand organically through trial and error – throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. Things develop haphazardly, like a patchwork of half-baked ideas coming together. With the business owner never allowing themselves enough time to slow down and get introspective.
It’s not surprising in our capitalist, hustle culture.
There is one school of thought in business which is “Move fast and break things”. In essence, “Don’t be afraid to mess up, just go fast, try things, and fix problems later.”
There is such a fine line:
Too much fast action can get really messy, really quick, requiring a whole lot of fixing unnecessary mistakes.
And on the flip side, waiting to make everything perfect often results in do action being taken at all.
So we must find a middle ground.
I believe in “slowing down to speed up.” taking your time to plan, reflect, rest, or align, actually helps you move faster and more effectively in the long run.
Let’s explore what designing a website quickly without a branding process first might result in:
• A generic website that lacks depth, memorability, and is trying to speak to everyone (so no one resonates with it).
• A lot of revisions as you go back and forward with your web designer, trying to get the look, feel and words “right.”
Without realising it, you’re basically trying to get your web designer to brand your business while they’re trying to design your website, without them getting paid for it or having adequate time to really do it justice.
A website project has a lot of moving parts as it is. Don’t try to work out your whole brand’s expression at the same time too. That’s way too overwhelming! Chunk it out and tackle one step at a time instead.
• Your website is inconsistent with your other brand touch points i.e. your social media posts look nothing like your website, hello random colours, fonts and graphic styles, EVERYWHERE!
It’s really common for a web designer to work on your website, establish a new style, then not give you the tools you need to manage it yourself, like brand guidelines, brand files, Canva templates, brand training, so then you or your team have a super hard time maintaining consistency elsewhere.
Branding starts by addressing the high-level, strategic stuff that we typically don’t have the time to deep dive into during a website redesign:
- What is your message – what is at the heart of what you’re trying to say?
- What is your point of difference – how are you going to position your brand to stand out from competitors?
- What’s your niche? What do you want to be known for above all else?
- Do you have multiple passions/strings to your business? And how do we plan to thread them all together in a way that will make sense to the viewer?
- Who is your ideal client/customer — the person you’re trying to speak to/attract — and what do they care about.
- What kind of personality are you wanting your customers to experience?
- What are your values, beliefs, emotions and stories you want your brand to be known for?
- How can we establish your credibility — the reason customers can trust you to deliver on promises?
And more…
I am yet to come across a client who has these kind of things fully mapped out.
Even my clients with VERY STRONG personal brands they’ve cultivated over time just by being themselves seem to have a hard time putting their finger on the essence of who they are.
“You can’t see the label from inside the bottle.”
As the founder, you know many of these things deep down, they’re probably floating around in your head and have a somewhat clear idea of your brand, but you might not have the exact words to articulate it. If nothing is documented, it’s going to be hard to outsource your website to someone else.
Once we clarify the HIGH LEVEL direction, it then trickles down to inform how we approach your VISUAL BRANDING (logo, colour palette, fonts, graphic elements, photography style) and your brand VOICE (the words we use, the way you talk as a brand). These are like the building blocks of our brand’s identity.
Then everything you’ve defined should filters down into how you show up on your website (and other marketing and brand touchpoints).
So, as you can probably now imagine, jumping straight to your website can result in some serious misalignment.
But a brand with no home? That’s a missed opportunity.
On the flipside, it always makes me feel sad when clients blow all their budget on their branding and can’t invest in their website properly.
Branding is so so important. But if no one sees it, it’s kind of pointless.
It’s like that old saying: If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Your brand needs to be experienced to get an ROI.
And of course, there are many platforms and places outside of your website where your audience can potentially do so.
However, for the vast majority of businesses, their website is their most important touchpoint and marketing channel.
✅ A well-designed website builds trust and signals legitimacy.
✅ Unlike social media, you fully own and control your website — no algorithms or platform changes can disrupt your presence.
✅It acts as the central point where all your marketing efforts (social, email, ads, etc.) drive traffic.
✅For most service-based and e-commerce businesses, websites are where their conversions happen (purchases, email opt-ins, booking sales calls etc).
No matter how aligned your brand is… if there’s no clear, intentional space for people to interact with it, it won’t reach its potential.
So that’s why it’s important that you do both.
So what do I recommend?
Invest in your branding if:
- You’re brand new to business and have never done any branding work.
- You’re an established business but never did any branding work in the beginning, so your brand is showing up inconsistently, or you feel embarrassed about it right now.
- You’re an established business who feels like you’ve outgrown your brand and are ready to pivot, niche or evolve.
Invest in your website if:
- Your brand’s strategy is solid and clear – you know exactly who you are and how you want to express it
- Your visual branding is created – You have your logo designed, your colour palette in check, you have your brand’s photos done and you’ve defined your brand fonts and graphic style.
- You have no money to invest in both your branding and your website and you need a short-term solution to get some kind of online presence up and running (But make sure you circle back to your branding when you can!!)
For 99% of my clients, we do BOTH – together, one after the other. Branding first, website second.
Because let’s face it: most small businesses are not rebranding or redesigning their website that frequently. When you finalllyyyyy realise it’s time for a change, you’re itching for it.
Things have likely become super outdated and we’re not just talking about your website. Your whole business has likely evolved since the last time you probably got your branding done (if you did it at all).
So before you go through the investment of redesigning your website, throwing caution to the wind and shooting from the hip, I highly recommend you spend time on your brand.
Ask yourself:
- Who am I now in this season of the business/life?
- What am I ready to grow/expand into?
- Have my offerings or ideal audience shifted over time?
- Has my style or voice shifted over time?
- Am I ready to niche down and get clear?
It’s better to do the deep work first, starting slow and intentionally, than whip out something you’re not proud of and want to redo because it’s misaligned.
💌 I’d love to hear your thoughts — reply and tell me if this resonated with you.
