How To Start a Branding Agency in Nigeria

Branding companies help businesses establish a unique brand identity that their customers and target market recognize.

But what is a brand?

A brand is anything attached to a business that makes it more easily identifiable. Such things will include the business’s name, product name, logo, design colours, trademark, etc.

But it’s more than just these things. Branding is really about building a whole image for a company and shaping the way people perceive it. It shows in the company’s communication style, the content of its messaging in its advertising and marketing, and the causes it’s involved with within and outside of a strictly commercial sphere.

A branding firm is a company that can create a unified, recognizable image for its client businesses across all the points they connect with their customers and the wider public.

Here’s how to set up an agency that creates strong brands for businesses.

Learn All You Can About Branding

Read all you can about branding. There is tons of web material about branding and its various aspects. Interact with branding professionals and find out what their job entails. Attend branding conferences and workshops, and learn some more from those.

Branding experts tend to be creative people who have an eye for aesthetics, understand how human communication works and know how impressions are created. Some of them might have a background in marketing as well. Being a person with a creative bent certainly hands one an advantage in this field. There are also several free branding courses available online that should help you gain a lot of invaluable knowledge about branding.

Start Small

The big branding companies can leverage years of experience in the field and contacts they’ve built in that time. You’ll want to start small unless you’ve acquired these things from your professional career.

Begin by offering to create logos, manage social media and oversee the design of websites for small businesses to help them establish consistent brands across all aspects of their operations. You can even do this part-time if you have an existing full-time job.

As you learn more about the branding process (both on the job and from reading and interacting with branding experts), you’ll sharpen your skills in this area.

Team Up With Others

Have a co-founder and maybe a team early on if you think that will work for you. Your team members could have skills you don’t possess so that they make up for the things you’re unable to bring to the table in the branding business. For example, you may be a marketing expert, and your cofounder may have a strong background as a graphics designer.

You could outsource things you’ll do for your client businesses: printing materials, video shooting for adverts, etc. This means you may also have to seek firms that provide these services.

Make an Example of Your Own Brand

You’ll want to show potential clients you know what it means to build a brilliant brand from scratch. The best way to do this would be to make an example of your company’s brand. The company name, logo, and messaging should all be on-point and consistent throughout.

Have a website that’s pleasing to the eyes. Make your social media pages a visual feast and a joy to interact with (Instagram would be the preferred social media for banding companies).

Compile a Portfolio

At the earliest stages of your branding business, you should focus on racking up several modest clients who you will reference in the future as companies you’ve helped to brand. Your future clients will want proof that you can deliver on your promise. That proof often means previous work you’ve done with other businesses.

You could offer your branding services lower prices to early portfolio clients to get them on board. When you’re certain you have enough great samples to showcase to the world, you can raise your rates to reflect the quality of service you render.

Grow Your Business

Put your branding company in front of the businesses you’re targeting. Be at business events that are likely to be attended by their representatives, and network with them. Pitch to potential clients via email, phone, and any other means possible. Most importantly, form and maintain good relationships with your clients, so they keep coming back and referring others to you.