Every day, the internet welcomes 576,000 new websites. However, only 15% of the total websites remain active in the longer run.
With growing digital needs, building a website is a great idea. It holds great scope for the future. But in this fierce competition, you need your startup to stand out. So, branding for any startup becomes crucial from the very beginning. This blog will give you a general idea about the branding costs. However, the costs may vary according to specific demands and needs.
According to the Edelman Trust’s Report, 81% of people across the world want to trust the brand to buy any products. To build trust in your brand, you need to invest time and energy along with your money. Building trust is a gradual process so you need to be patient with spending money on branding. If you spend too much in one go it can affect your potential growth in the future.
Packages of a branding agency for startups typically include:
Brand identity pricing packages may vary accordingly and you need to be smart while investing in branding. You cannot go on spending a huge chunk of your funding on branding only. You need a good startup branding strategy, to begin with. This strategy would be based on the kind of startup you are.
If you are funding your startup yourself then it will be called a pre-seed funding startup. It means that either you are developing your startup on the side while working in a job, or you are using your savings for this. Either way, it would be good not to spend more than 5–15% of your total startup budget on a branding project.
You need to invest more time than money in your brand positioning as of now. It is very important to make people aware of your company’s values. Once you build trust in your customers, you will start generating revenues. Then you can invest your money in brand positioning as well. You might want to read Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout and Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler, prime recommendations by designers.
If you want experienced professionals to create your logo then it might cost you $100-$300 approximately. Although it again depends on your budget, you can design your logos with the help of logo makers. They provide more affordable solutions which can cost you around $10-$50. Websites like 99designs, Fiverr, Crowdspring are some of the examples which can help you in designing your logo at a cheaper cost.
You can hire a freelance website developer or take help from a website builder to make your website. Although using website builders can save a lot of your money. Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, etc can help you make your website for free. In not more than a few hours your website would be ready to go.
When your startup finally starts receiving a significant amount of funding, you can start investing in professional branding help. In Fact, if your company is generating higher revenues, you should consider good startup branding agencies to take care of the company’s needs.
Now that you are growing big, it becomes important to maintain the trust you built in your customers. Consider hiring a consultant for your brand positioning. It is important to rightly convey the core values of your company to the customer.
Take time to hire the right team of designers who understand the intent of your company and who could convey that in the best way possible. A great deal of research and training may be involved in the said task.
The costs for your brand positioning would vary according to the number of people working on your project. It could cost you approximately $5000-$80,000 depending on the complexity of your idea and if you hire freelancers or a large firm.
Along with the growth of your brand you might need to dive deeper into your visual identity. While investing high amounts of your fundings in creating a better visual identity you should expect detailed illustrations, modern stationery designs, and so on. You should also have an advanced visual social media strategy along with the templates. This could cost you $5000-$75,000 approximately.
The cost of your website development would highly vary according to the needs of your website. The more complex your website is, the more money you are likely to spend. And it is worth it. As when your company has grown bigger with time, it requires a great deal of research for content creation. Along with the growth of your brand, the construction of your website becomes more complex and thus requires engineering work. This could cost you $200-$200,000 approximately.
Companies should judicially decide how much they can invest in their startups depending on their fundings. Branding is a vital part of the growth of your business and it can’t be skipped. But start investing keeping the real needs of your company in mind.