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Creating a brand, finding the right voice -it sounds so time consuming. Who has time for that?
You’re busy with the actual important parts of building a business. There are services or products to create. Sales to close. Employees that need to be hired and managed.
I know all about it as I fell into this trap myself.
As a side project, my husband and I have been building up a website - ItsYomTov.com. It’s meant to be a one-stop-shop for Jewish holiday related products, ideas and inspiration. We spent hours and hours developing it, adding content and coming up with new ideas to perfect it.
But - it reached a point where in order to take it to the next level, we need partners to help us promote it. Then the hard truth his us in the face. As good as the site is for something we built entirely on our own, our half-baked work wasn't gonna cut it to get partners on board.
Did I ever create a full-fledged brand identity and voice for this business? No.
Did we hire someone to build the site with the advanced capabilities we want? No.
Did I implement the content and email strategy ideas vaguely floating in my head? No.
True, I don’t feel it was a waste of time. The past two years were a great proof of concept and showed us there is interest and excitement out there for what we want to offer. The site has also been crawling up on the SEO charts, ranking higher for more and more keywords.
But - I also understood that the lack of proper foundation held us back. If we had taken the time out to do this right a year ago, we would be in a completely different place.
Now, we’re working on implementing all those things I mentioned above. There’s a fantastic branding and relaunch project in the works.
Yes, it’s going to mean an investment of funds and time.
Because that's what is needed to properly develop the business and make sure the world sees it the way I want it to be seen.
You think you’re saving money and time by just working on the actual products and services. And of course, those are the basics. If you don't have a good product or service, you don't have a business.
But at the same time - if you don't have customers, you don't have a business either. And the best way to get the right customers and keep them coming back is by honing in on your brand. Paying for any kind of advertising - without first setting the foundation - is actually the fastest way to bleed dollars and see no results.
Do it right the first time. It will save you time, money and frustration in the long haul.