A question I frequently see pop up in Facebook groups is ‘How much should I spend on branding and/or web design for my business?’. So I thought I would address this question in today’s blog post.

Branding is an investment

There’s no doubt about it that branding or a new website is an investment for any business and that’s exactly what it should be seen as, an investment. Investing in your business is one of the sure fire ways to see growth and therefore it shouldn’t be something that you shy away from. How much to invest entirely depends on your financial circumstances and what stage you are at in your business.

Invest at least 10% in marketing your business

I would recommend setting aside at least 10% of your overall yearly turnover to invest in marketing your business. Therefore, for a small business who makes £60,000 a year, that’s £6K a year to spend on marketing and branding falls under the category of marketing. The likelihood here is that you are unlikely to rebrand each year so when you spread that cost out over three years, a business who is making £60,000 a year and spends £2,500 on branding once every three years, is investing 1.4% on branding their business. A pretty small amount when you look at it like this and most definitely one that is affordable.

Compare like for like

You need to look at what you get when comparing packages and pricing. For example, some packages will only include a logo whereas some will include logos, brand marks, font choices, colour palettes, stationery and more. When it comes to websites, there are a variety of different platforms available such as WordPress, SquareSpace, Showit or Wix. These platforms alone may determine why some designers charge more than others. For example, all of my web designs are completely custom to each business. I don’t use a template for any of my designs which means that I am designing and building a website bespoke to each client. Whereas some designers may use a template as a base for the design and customise the template to suit the brand. It’s likely that this is what designers charging the lower end of the scale are doing.

How I’m priced within the market

You can get a brand and web design for £500 or you can get one for £5,000. I fully believe in the saying ‘You get what you pay for’ and the same applies when it comes to investing in branding your business.

I am currently priced in the middle of these two figures and this is mainly down to the length of time that I have been in business. My branding and web design package currently sits in the middle of this range and this is a figure I currently feel comfortable charging. I book a limited number of clients each month to ensure I can deliver high levels of customer service to each client.

Given my ideal target market of entrepreneurs and small businesses in the wedding and lifestyle industries, pricing myself this way will likely put me out of the price range for new businesses just starting out or those in their first year. That being said, I have booked and worked with a number of new businesses so again, it depends on financial circumstances within the business.

Typically I target myself to businesses who have been in business for at least a year and are looking to uplevel their brand. I fully believe that the first year in business is all about experimenting and it’s likely that the brand, services and target audience you first set out with will change. This is why it’s not always advisable to invest thousands of pounds into new branding and website only for it to change a year later.

As I said above, there are designers that charge £500 (or less!!!!) for branding and website design and these designers may be more suited to those companies just starting out or who are in their first year of business.

So what’s the answer?

So what’s the overall answer to the question ‘How much should I invest when branding my business’. Well there isn’t one. It is all dependant on your financial circumstances, your current position in business and your view on what you feel is worth investing.

My advice, if you have been in business for a year or more and have a clear direction of what you want to achieve then definitely look at investing at the very least £2,000 in branding and a new website. After all, this will hopefully last you a couple of years and when you spread out the investment over this time, it really does make it a worthwhile investment (plus you can put it down as expenses).