When you want to get a new website built, two common hiring choices are a branding strategist or a web designer. Why should you hire one over the other? And what’s the difference between these types of professionals? There’s really no right or wrong answer here, the key is to find someone who can fulfill your needs in your current journey.
In this blog, I will walk you through the major differences between web designers and brand strategists and how they can play a part in helping you advance your business.
Brand strategists vs. Web designers
So what’s the difference? Which one should you hire for your project?
For starters, here are some of the pros and cons of hiring a brand strategist vs a web designer:
- Brand strategists have more experience in marketing and sales while web designers typically don’t. Web designers don’t care about branding, while brand strategists know that everything in business is encompassed by marketing and not just design.
- Brand strategists are concerned with the big picture strategy and development whereas web designers are more focused on design and making your site look good.
- Brand strategists will offer you personalized services that are tailored to your business while web designers tend to use templates or generic solutions to get the job done.
What a Web Designer can do
Web designers are responsible for building and designing websites. They’re the ones who take your content and build a website around it. Web designers can also help with layout and design, as well as make sure that everything is functioning properly on the site.
Some other things designers might do are:
- They come up with design ideas, apply color schemes and make sure everything is technically sound.
- They have the experience and knowledge necessary to create stunning websites.
- A web designer may need you to come up with a list of deliverables that you need and they will work off your direction to complete the list of goals.
If there’s a lack of direction, this may lead to an ambiguous design that does not align with your true brand values or needs.
Overall, web designers will provide you with a first-rate website that you can be proud of. They are good at design-focused needs, but they may not be able to give any objective opinions about a business’s strengths and weaknesses.
What a Brand Strategist can do
A brand strategist is a marketing specialist who will help you build your online presence and website. They’ll help you figure out what your business should be about and where it should be situated in the market. They’ll also help you develop a strategy for how to best sustain that online presence so that people are constantly coming back to your website.
Brand strategists can offer helpful advice based on the marketing needs of each individual business. They’ll conduct surveys, research competitors, and find out which areas of the site need improvement.
Some other things strategists might do are:
- Strategists will make sure that the user interface of a website not only has a good user experience but functions around your end goal.
- They will conduct focus groups to learn more about your audience, their interests, and how they view your business or website.
- Analyze data in order to get an overall picture of how your website is performing and what makes viewers turn into customers.
- They are responsible for simplifying complex plans of action based on competitive research for your company’s future growth.
Overall, a brand strategist will create a user-centric process and build an aesthetically pleasing website with functionality for growth.
Why should you hire a brand strategist over just a web designer?
When deciding which type of professional you want to hire for your website, it’s important to ask yourself why you need one:
- Do you want them to design a pretty website for the sake of having a website? Or do you want them to help with the full strategy that leads to a purposeful website?
- Are you looking for a quick solution to patch tech issues, create a simple landing page or set up a backend tool in your site?
- Are you looking for help with strategy development and marketing, to make the growth of your new website sustainable for years to come?
In today’s world, creating a website is not enough to make any business successful. If that’s all you’re looking for, then a Web Designer is the way to get started.
To have a powerful online presence, a business needs to understand how to make their message stand out, how to differentiate themselves from the competition, and how to use cohesive branding in different areas of their business.
In order to create a brand different from the rest, you need to create a unique connection with your audience. It’s more than just a logo or re-arranging the same old content. It involves creating a pillar of intentional elements that help customers remember your business.
Brand strategists will help you to develop a unique brand that drives the message to your audience.
The right strategy is the key ingredient to creating a successful and profitable business.
Conclusion
Making a great first impression is crucial to creating a successful business. When building an online presence, branding should be at the heart of your online marketing efforts and not an afterthought.
A powerful brand strategy is of the utmost importance to have a consistent website and business assets that attract the right people to your services. Having a strategy in place before the design process will only make your business more successful in the long run.
If you’re looking to create a complete online presence for your business, as a brand strategist, my focus is to understand where you currently are, where you want to be and the people you are trying to reach. Your brand’s development should be a collaborative effort and without it, you can lose the most important part of your business, your identity. Today’s business environment is highly competitive and you need to differentiate yourself from the competition in a unique way.
Schedule a call with me if you’d like to create a clear visual system to help with your brand’s implementation. The BrandScape Method is my signature service to where we can help you achieve consistent messaging, a strong and memorable identity, and an impactful online presence.
