Branding and marketing are two separate things, but they go together like peanut butter and jelly. An effective marketing campaign keeps your brand memorable rather than simply focusing on selling one product on one day.

Think about your favorite brands. More than likely, their tagline or even their business philosophy come to mind. Just do it! (Nike). We deliver (USPS). Finger-Lickin’ Good (KFC).

About 77 percent of marketers feel branding impacts the future growth of a company. Branding encompasses how people view your company, what you believe in, what causes you care about and how you treat your customers.

You can’t control every aspect of your branding, because it is how others view you, but you can focus on a few key elements that show how essential branding is to every marketing campaign.

Here’s How Branding Propels Your Marketing Campaign

1. Branding Helps Create a Consistent Message

If you’re like most companies, your message may change slightly from campaign to campaign. However, the overall branding message behind your company should remain the same.

When you tie your marketing campaign to your branding goals, the result is an effective way to send a consistent message and users will remember and associate with your brand.

2. Ability to Stand Out from the Competition

If you’re like most business owners, you have competitors. It’s difficult to find ways to stand out from the competition, especially in industries that are highly saturated. One way you can use branding to stand out is by creating a positive image that draws customers to you.

Even if you offer a great product and excellent customer service, consumers may not associate your brand with positive emotions. Some ways you can develop a positive brand image is by community involvement and coupon offers. Endorsements by well-respected people also help your cause.

3. Maintains an Emotional Connection

Emotional branding allows you to connect with consumers on a level that keeps them loyal to your brand long term. What makes consumers feel emotionally connected to your brand? About 65 percent of those who say they feel an emotional connection feel that way because they believe the brand cares about them.

Customers who feel an emotional connection to your brand are valuable because they will buy from you time and time again and tell others about why they like your product or services.

4. Gives You Focus

Reasons for branding through marketing aren’t always consumer-focused. When you tie your marketing into your overall brand message, it keeps you accountable to the vision behind your company. If your goal is to help senior citizens live on their own and remain independent, then your marketing isn’t going to focus on things that take seniors away from independent living.

5. Improves Recognition

Consistent branding across all marketing platforms increases brand recognition. For example, if you stick with the same color palette for social media, your website, and email campaigns, your customers come to associate those colors with your brand. Using the same colors over and over increases brand recognition by as much as 80 percent.

One way to be consistent is to use the same colors, even if in different combinations and always include your logo. You also want to use the same tone for your branding. So, if your goal is to be slightly edgy and humorous, don’t suddenly go serious.

6. Shows Credibility

Think of the more prominent brands you use and know of. When you hear the brand name Chase, you likely think of a big bank that won’t lose your money. They’ve established a strong brand with their logo, their taglines, the colors they use and even the frequency in which their name is mentioned.

Branding builds a lot of credibilities and gives people a sense they can trust you. Follow up this assumption with actual good customer service and policies that are friendly to your customers.

7. Shares Your Values

What are your values as a brand? Values often tie into things the founders of the company believe firmly in. However, employees who share these values are then attracted to the company as well as consumers who care about the same things.

One big reason consumers trust a brand is because of shared values. Sixty-four percent of consumers indicate that shared values are one of the biggest reasons they choose to do business with a particular brand.

8. Offers Direction for Employees

Your branding message also has an impact on your employees and their attitudes. If your underlying branding message is that the customer comes first, your employees will get that message, too, and your customer service will improve as well as employee interactions with customers.

Branding is magical in that the message reaches not only customers but your employees and serves as a reminder to leadership about the direction your company wants to go.

It’s easy to lose focus over time. The day-to-day routine of work creeps in and employees and even leadership may lose track of the reason you’re doing what you do. However, when your branding focuses on the message over and over again, it’s harder to ignore your ultimate goals.

Branding and Marketing Go Together

It’s impossible to separate branding and marketing. The best marketing campaigns consider your branding strategies. The best branding strategies include marketing campaigns.

While the two are distinctly different, they work together to create an overall impression on your brand that sticks with the consumer and makes them want to do business with you.