Digital marketing and digital branding are two essential components of any modern business. Believe it or not, poor marketing is one of the most common reasons why 90% of startups fail.

Fortunately, you can protect your business in various ways, and it starts with a killer digital marketing strategy. However, you shouldn’t stop there. Let’s talk about digital branding vs. marketing and see what’s right for your business.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Marketing is how you draw people to your brand in hopes of making sales (or other intended conversions). In the modern world, companies can’t survive long without digital marketing.

Fortunately, dozens of affordable (even free) digital marketing options are available to companies of all sizes.

For this reason, it’s recommended that businesses spend around 8% of their revenue on marketing, as it’s essential for drawing in new customers.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

Of course, business owners know why marketing is important.

There is no substitute for marketing without spending too much time on the topic, and there’s no excuse not to use it. You can’t expect people to know about your brand without marketing, and the most significant benefit is that you have an endless supply of tools at your disposal.

1. Easy Access

If you’re reading this, it means you have access to the internet, where you can find dozens of free marketing tools to use. Creating a website should be top of your priority, as this acts as the center of your entire digital marketing strategy.

2. Options

From there, you can build an SEO content marketing strategy, launch an email campaign, or use any social media platform you want to build brand awareness. The list doesn’t stop there, and you can get as creative as you want!

3. Fast Payouts

Also, there are paid advertisements, which often have near-instant payouts when used correctly. With a stellar ad campaign and an optimized website, you can create a conversion funnel that generates revenue within hours.

What Is Digital Branding?

Your brand is not determined by your logo, title, or founder. A brand is everything from your color scheme and font to your tone of voice and message.

Every brand can create a unique aesthetic, tone of voice, and brand messaging that they can consistently use in their public relations strategy. Over time, this identity will become instantly associated with your brand among people familiar with it.

Across your website, packaging, products, social media, and every other business asset of yours, you have a chance to display a unique brand identity that consistently stays in the minds of your intended audience.

Essentially, marketing drives sales, but branding drives loyalty.

Benefits of Digital Branding

The benefits of digital branding may be less obvious than those of marketing, but that does not mean they are less significant. A proper branding strategy can yield profound long-term benefits for a business.

1. Building Brand Recognition

To demonstrate this importance, let’s try a word experiment.

Think of a sleek, futuristic piece of technology. The only colors you see on the screen are silver, black, and white, and these colors shine. What brand comes to mind?

If you said Apple, then you’re absolutely right. Well, that’s a relatively challenging one, considering a white screen with four colors instantly puts Google in your head. 

2. Industry Authority

It isn’t just tech giants that benefit from proper digital branding. Thousands of brands across thousands of niches are as recognizable as Apple or Google among their respective target audiences.

Moreover, your brand can benefit from the same recognition, which will ultimately lead to better brand loyalty, repeat customers, and your brand becoming a household name.

3. Lasting Results

When your brand becomes a household name, it’s far more difficult to “fade away,” as countless brands have.

Essentially, by solidifying your brand’s identity in the minds of your target audience, the chances of your brand becoming irrelevant decrease substantially.

Digital Branding vs. Digital Marketing: Which Is Better?

Now that you understand the importance of and the difference between digital marketing and branding, you may be wondering which is more important to implement into your business strategy.

Honestly, there can’t be a clear winner between the two, as it entirely depends on how the strategies are used and how effective they are. However, we can say that branding and marketing are more powerful when used in tandem.

When Is Marketing Not Branding?

Because your message and tone of voice are crucial to building a brand identity, any marketing effort you use is a form of digital branding. Essentially, marketing with intent is always branding.

Blending Digital Branding And Marketing Methods

Across your entire digital marketing strategy, you should display a clear brand identity. If you haven’t yet tried this, it’s never too late for a rebranding of your company.

Building a successful brand marketing strategy takes lots of time and diligence, but the rewards are too significant to pass up.

So, is branding part of marketing? When used correctly. It’s even easier to integrate the two than you may think.

How do I get started with a branding/marketing strategy? If you plan on building a unique brand identity, we suggest hiring a marketing team that offers brand identity services. They will help integrate your branding and marketing strategy to help you get the most out of both in the shortest period.

Branding Comes First

Lastly, developing a brand strategy comes long before launching your first marketing campaign. Not only that, but it will be around for much longer.

Moreover, each marketing campaign you try will come and go, but your brand will stay forever. So, businesses need to maximize the effort to achieve a brand identity they are comfortable promoting.

Launch Your Campaign

Now that we’ve settled the score on digital branding vs. digital marketing, you know what to do. Position your company on its best foot forward for long-term growth by investing in branding and marketing services. The sooner you do, the better results you will see!

Stay up to date with our latest business advice, and feel free to book a free consultation for any help with your campaigns!