Once you’ve established your business, one of the most important things to do is to get your message out there as clearly as possible, and one of the things that can help you accomplish that is having a strong brand that represents your business. If you’re trying to find a branding agency in Dubai, there are many things you need to consider to find the best team that can work with you and give you the most return on your investment.
To help you get started, here are a few tips in hiring a branding agency:
- Define your goals. Before looking for an agency that can work with you, you first need to know what you want or need, because talking to a team of experts without clear goals or expectations from you would be hard. You should know what you want to achieve and be able to communicate it clearly with your chosen agency.
Define your goals. Identify the steps you need to take to achieve them and how an agency can help you get there through their expertise. Sharing your goals with them will help you get suggestions and recommendations that would lead to your success.
- Do your research. Search for “top branding agencies in Dubai” and read everything about the business to help you decide who you want to work with. Their website should be able to tell you the quality of work they do based on the designs they have on their sites or even the sales copy they have on it.
Check out their portfolios or read about some of the past projects they’ve done. Also, check out the testimonials from their past clients and how they’re rated. You can also ask for recommendations from your business network to find out who they’ve worked with and how they’ve performed. From that information, you can narrow down your list to three.
- Set a budget. Be realistic about budget and all other costs. Working with a team of professional designers could be costly so you should be able to get the most of it. Don’t hire a team you can’t afford but don’t settle for the cheapest one as well. You don’t want to compromise your brand just because you cut your budget short.
Your chosen agencies should be able to present to you their fees upfront to give you an idea about the costs and how much you need to budget for it. If you’re just starting, then hiring a smaller firm would be ideal. Just make sure they’re one of the most trusted companies near you.
- Feel the vibe. Once you’ve chosen your top two or three agencies, invite them for the pitch. During this time, listen carefully about their plans and how they can help you achieve your goals. Learn about the branding strategies they want to implement and see if it’s a perfect fit for how you see your brand.
Aside from that, you should also observe the behavior of the team members – see how professional they are in terms of interacting with you as well as their team members. If you don’t feel comfortable exchanging ideas with them, then it’s probably not a good fit. Move on to your next prospect.
- Believe in your instincts. After your face-to-face meeting with the agencies, you should be able to get a good feeling for one of them. If your instinct tells you to go with the first one or the last one, then go with it. If you feel you’re a good fit during the meeting then you probably are.
You want to work with a team of designers who can build a good brand for you and ensure success for your business in the future. Having a good rapport with the team members is a good sign because you are going to work with them for months.
- Develop a good branding strategy. Start with the basics – what’s your vision of your logo? What color schemes are you thinking about? Good visuals are very important when talking about the logo. Voice your opinion and see what they have to say. Designers have a great eye for these kinds of things and they can help you tweak your design or give better suggestions.
Apart from the logo maker, also discuss other items that would represent your brand, such as the overall look of your website, some printed materials that you want to give away, etc. Don’t be afraid to give feedback because that’s the only way to achieve what you envision your brand to be.
- Start the branding process and grow your brand. Once your strategies are in place, it’s time to implement them. Work with your team hand-in-hand to make sure that everything is going according to plan.
You may not be a designer but you know your brand best so it’s best to see mistakes early on. Once you’ve established a good brand for your business, then the next steps you need to take are growing it. You’ll need to make necessary adjustments in the future and working with a reliable team of designers is the best way to go.
