You know your product is powerful but does the world also know? To position your tech startup in a more successful way and to reach the next growth phase, it might be beneficial to strengthen your brand. In this article, we will explore how your startup can benefit from strong branding and how strategic branding helps to communicate the strengths of your product.
As a tech startup founder, there are a lot of things that can get in your way and hinder your brand from progressing, no matter what stage you are in. Let us have a look at some issues you might be struggling with:
Weak marketing
Let this sink in: 56% of startups fail because of marketing issues (source: Failory). This can be due to various factors: difficulties in communicating and/or explaining your product, weak presentation of your brand, or lack of prior market research.
Dense market saturation
Also, the technology market – Fintech, Insurtech, Cleantech, SaaS, etc. – is being exploited to the fullest. At least 1.35 million new tech businesses are launched every year (source: Netshop). Standing out amongst the crowd of startups is becoming more and more challenging.
Communicating a complex product
You know exactly what your product is about, but does your target audience also know? Products of tech startups are often quite complex, hard to explain, and even harder to understand. If you want someone to purchase your brainchild, they have to get its benefits at first sight.
Lack of trust
No matter how sophisticated your product is, if you are not representing it the way it deserves, the possibility that people trust your product or your business is low. Hence, you have to build trust amongst prospects and users.
Lack of funding
As a consequence, investors need to be fully convinced of a product and believe in the success of the startup. A brand that is too “startupy” in its communication might not receive the attention and funding it deserves. 16% of startups fail due to financial problems (source: Failory).
Juggling too many tasks
When you have created a business from scratch, it is hard to let go and allow others to help you. After all, it’s your brainchild and you know best, right? Wrong! (source: Business News Daily)
Trying to do it all yourself is not only overwhelming but maybe also detrimental to your tech startup. At a certain stage, the technical genius behind the product needs to give away a bit of his responsibility to push the business into the next growth phase.
Strategic branding for tech startups cannot solve all of these issues, but it can definitely help your business to move one step further. Let us explore how a strong visual identity can kick off the next milestone.
Branding for tech startups
First and foremost, in the startup branding process, it is crucial to understand the business and its goals. The brand's values, personality, and positioning as well as the target audience and competitors are factors that influence the branding … Wait, hold on for a moment: If you are still working on your brand strategy, have a look at this article or download our Brand Strategy Toolkit. This is the basis of a unique branding and design concept. So, what does strategic branding for a tech startup involve on a visual level?
Logo
Whether you need a logo from scratch or you want to revamp your existing one, the design of the logo is important as it serves as the primary identification element for your tech startup.
Color Palette
There are typical colors for certain industries, like blueish tones in the Fintech sector for instance. However, choosing a color palette that stands out from other companies might be the right path to go for.
Typography
Maybe you haven't been racking your brain much about that, but typography is crucial. Not only for headings but also for body text, as textual elements should have high readability, especially for digital branding material.
Illustrations and animations
Taking your colors and logo as a starting point, branded illustrations and animations can depict your tech product better than a description.
Brand Guidelines
Your powerful branding should be applied to all relevant touchpoints. That is why a brand book with guidelines on the use of logos, colors, and typography is key for communicating your tech brand in a visually consistent way.
If you want your business to grow, it is crucial to implement your branding on all relevant brand touchpoints such as internal and external communication, your website, your product, and other marketing or sales collateral.
This is how your tech startup benefits from strategic branding
Aha moment
Finally! Branded illustrations depict the product of your tech startup in a way that users will grasp its benefits at first glance.
Establish trust
Solid branding is key when it comes to establishing trust. Consistency on all relevant brand touchpoints and the use of branded elements helps build trust amongst users. Hence, it's more likely that they will become loyal brand ambassadors and even recommend your brand.
Attract investors
Trust is also important when it comes to attracting investors. A visual identity that communicates the sophistication of your tech startup might be the reason why investors decide to take a second look at your business.
Stand out from the crowd
Your unique branding differentiates your tech startup from other companies and makes users recognize it at every step of the interaction. You will increase brand awareness and recognizability of your product or platform.
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Concise and branded marketing material
With your brand guidelines as a cheat sheet, your logo, color palette, and typography will be used consistently on all relevant touchpoints. This increases the visibility of your brand and positions your tech startup in the market.
Reduce workload
The sum of all these factors reduces the workload of your entire team – starting from the CEO, the CPO, and the marketing team … everyone will benefit from strategically designed branding as they will be able to dedicate more time to the topic they are experts in.
In a nutshell
Strategic branding aims to make people quickly identify and experience the essence of your tech startup, choosing you over the competition and converting them into brand ambassadors. It helps to show the world what you already know: that your business is offering a top-notch product. Powerful branding makes your business stand out from the crowd, attracts users and investors, establishes trust amongst them, and will allow you to focus on developing your product and to maximize the value of your venture.
We at The Branx are a strategic branding agency and have been working with tech startups for years. If you are planning to improve your branding, we are always here to lend a hand.
