Building a realistic branding budget for small businesses requires a few upfront decisions.

• Are you willing to outsource?
• What’s most important to you?
• Do you want a custom logo and a cohesive website design?
• How do clients currently find you, and are they the clients you’d like to work with?

Outsourcing branding design and marketing can save you a lot of time and headache, and result in a stunning brand that converts clients. As you approach the decision to professionally brand your business, use this branding budget template to help you get started. Please use this as a starting point and adjust as necessary. We’ve prioritized this branding budget template based on our experience with numerous small businesses. Subsequently, these are the items that were most pertinent and beneficial for them.

1. Brand identity

The first step to any branding project should be determining your brand identity. This can be done with a brand coach or with your specific logo designer or web developer. We are a full-service brand identity and branding design agency if you need help!

2. Market research

How will you stand out from competitors? How do your services differ? Market research ensures that your business will differ from your competitors.

3. Website design

We’ve listed website design before logos because although logos and websites go hand in hand, your logo will serve no purpose if you don’t have a functional, reliable website. Your website should adequately present your products or services, answer questions, and identify with your ideal clients. In addition, website design encompasses:

• Domain registration (buying the actual URL and paying an annual fee)
• Hosting (paying a monthly fee to keep your website live)
• Initial website development (most likely requiring investment for a custom site)
• Updates (learning how to update your site or paying your developer to make changes as needed)
• Email hosting (also consists of a monthly fee)

4. Logo design

To compliment your custom website design, you’ll need a unique logo. This is your primary visual brand identity and will be placed on social media, on business cards, throughout your website, and more. Plus, it adds a level of professionalism, and when done correctly, draws the right clients to you.

5. Professional brand photographer

With website design, comes the need for a professional photographer. Using stock images can result in a basic brand image. Show clients your process and highlight your specific services with professional brand photography! Moreover, these images can be used throughout your website, proposals, pricing guides, social media, and more!

6. Content writer

A content writer also goes hand in hand with a new website design. You can go about this two-fold — hire a professional content editor to proofread and optimize your content or hire a content writer to create everything from scratch. Content writers can help you clarify your message, and some writers also include SEO optimization to increase your search engine rankings.

Remember Messaging is vital to everything. My overall mission with each client is first to help them get clear on what their customers’ problem is and how their service or product solves that problem. When this Brand Script, the overall messaging, comes together, everything else in the branding process falls perfectly into place.

Do you have questions on your branding budget? Reach out, and we’ll help you identify what’s most important for your needs!