It has never been easier to start a business than it is today. Anyone can create a simple website at minimal cost to market their new company, and the benefits of a website are numerous.

You can reach people all around the world – or, if you spend a little on targeted ads, you can talk directly to people in your region. You can keep customers informed on the day-to-day progress of your business. You can have a virtual shop for your services or products that anyone can browse with no need to even leave their home. And, of course, people can contact you more easily than ever before through email forms.

But here’s the unpleasant truth: that’s not enough.

Make no mistake, in terms of public-facing marketing, a website is probably the most important asset a business can have. But, in a world where 571 websites are created every minute, standing out is nearly impossible. Well, if you try to do it alone. Plenty of businesses do just that: they build a free website with easily accessed web tools, fill it with content, and… nothing happens.

There is a solution. And that is to let a professional help you build something that can really stand out from the crowd, which is why you need a professionally branded website.

There are lots of tricks that a talented web design and development team can use to improve your site’s functionality and its reach in search engines and through digital advertising. It is often overlooked that strategies are needed to make sure customers can easily find your website, this together with ongoing customer engagement are paramount in this, the customer-age. Of course, if the content on your website is anything less than professional quality, that won’t matter – people will land on your site and leave it within seconds. So you’ll need a talented copywriter and graphic designer to make it look great and read well, and probably a wider team to deal with production, editing, and proofreading.

Guess what: even that is not enough.

While a professionally created website can do a great deal for a business, without good branding, it simply won’t push your business as far as it can go. Many people mistakenly think that having a brand is optional – it is not. Every business has a brand, because a brand is simply the core messaging that customers pick up from it. The difference when you design a brand is simply that you can determine what that messaging is. This is the most powerful truth in creative marketing.

Consider the following: 90% of customers expect that their experience will be the same across all platforms and devices. If you haven’t decided what your core values are, developed a suitable logo, tone of voice, and marketing strategy, your brand simply cannot deliver that. 91% of consumers are more likely to buy from what they consider an “authentic brand” – unless you have built your brand carefully and deliberately, that is not you. 77% of customers make their purchases based on a brand name: will it be yours? If you are relying on luck rather than the services of a professional, the answer is almost certainly no.

Perhaps the simplest way to think of it is this: Coca Cola has outperformed Pepsi for most of its life. That’s not down to the drink itself – blind tests demonstrate that people prefer the flavour of Pepsi. It’s down to Coke’s legendary branding.

At Kiss Design, we have a wealth of experience in building brands and websites together. We believe this is the simplest and most sensible approach: your brand is the most important marketing element of your business; your website is the very first thing it should be applied to. But don’t take our word for it: just check out the testimonials and case studies on this website – if you understand the value of branding, then perhaps the next business we add to these sections of our site will be yours.