Episode 198: How DIY Branding Is Really Costing You Money

Logistically we’re taught that DIY branding will save you money, but here’s the catch to this logic—DIY brands come with their own costs. Your homemade branding can cost your real money and potential money. When you’re first getting started, you’re focused on this idea of done is better than perfect, but that homemade strategy can only serve you for so long. If you have a goal of setting yourself up as an expert in your industry, then your visual brand and identity needs to match that. DIY Branding DIY branding can actually serve a purpose for a certain season in your business, but there comes a point where it’s actually holding you back more than you might realize, and it doesn’t actually add up to a smart business decision that is going to help you achieve your goals. When we look at it with that surface level logic, it tracks—by creating your brand yourself, you’re able to save the upfront money that you would invest in hiring a designer. Here’s the catch, DIY brands do come with their own costs, even if they aren’t specifically positioned as dollars that you hand over to a designer, your homemade branding can actually cost you real money and more than that. Let’s discuss if you’re DIY Brand is serving you well. Identify If Your DIY Brand is Serving You Well 1. Is your DIY Branding requiring you to make constant updates? If you’re not a professional designer, you’re likely trying to keep up with current trends, that’s going to require that you’re constantly tweaking your website, sprucing up your logo, updating your branded visuals for social media and so much more. Additionally, you’ll spend way too much time watching tutorials on how to do things. It becomes this endless cycle of updating and updating and seeing what other people are doing and making changes that I don’t want to see you stuck in. 2. Is your DIY Branding robbing you of your time? Speaking of constantly making updates, this is time consuming. When you don’t know how to do something, you’ll spend hours and hours learning how, which doesn’t add value to your brand. Imagine your accounting, if you were to do all of the paperwork for your taxes for business and self-employment, you’ll likely spend hours on that too, but by outsourcing to an accountant you don’t have to worry about it. This is the same concept with your brand design. 3. Is your DIY Branding positioning you as an expert? If you’re taking the DIY route, you’ve likely not considered any strategy behind your branding, but rather just the visuals. As a result, if you’re going to DIY route and you’re leaving out strategy, then you are not sharing a fully formulated identity with your ideal clients that positions you as the expert that they’re looking for. 4. Is your DIY Branding driving quality inquiries your way? If you’re not positioning yourself as an expert through your branding, you might find that a lot of inquiries that make their way into your inbox aren’t quite the quality that you were looking for. If you want to connect with your dreamy ideal clients, time and time again, it’s important to be connecting with them through a brand that speaks to them, that resonates with where they are and their season of life, and positions you and your services as the experience that is going to take them from where they are to where they’re dreaming of going.