This is the fourth post in a blog series. You can view the previous week’s post about differentiating yourself from the competition here. 

 

Chances are, you’re probably not a marketing expert with tons of experience designing logos or picking out brand colors or coming up with catchy slogans. 

That’s okay. 

Your brand won’t be perfect, and it doesn’t need to be. Because, honestly, branding isn’t all that important in the beginning. 

Sure, in the glamorous days of Mad Men, some brands were able to achieve legendary status as cultural icons.

But that era has passed.

The goal, today, should be to create a brand that works, something that actually does the job of letting people know who you are and what you sell. 

Trust me, you can get deep in the weeds on making decisions like “What shade of blue will communicate the essence of who I am as a company and what I want to accomplish?”

Lots of time and money gets wasted that way. That being said, you don’t want to throw up something that looks god-awful. Here are our tips for getting a professional-looking logo made fast:

• You can create your own logo using a logo builder like GraphicRiver.
• You can hire someone to create a logo on a freelance job site like Fiverr or Upwork.

I suggest going to GraphicRiver first and getting as far as you can with their logo selection. You can then hire someone on Fiverr or Upwork if needed. You should spend no more than $400 or $500 on your logo. Don’t go through 50 rounds of revisions. You just need to build a brand to deviate from

You probably already realize that certain colors and designs work better for certain types of business. For example, an organic farmer might not want to use hot pink in his logo (although, hey, it might work).

Your logo tells a story. Font choice, color, using curved or angled lines—all this will determine what story you end up telling.

Don’t overthink or over-invest in your logo at the beginning. If you spend a buttload of money on your initial brand, you might be less likely to correct course and make necessary changes down the line.

It’s like missing a turn while driving—the longer you keep going the harder it is to turn around. Similarly, if you find out that the cherished brand you spent a fortune on isn’t what the market wants, you’ll be tempted to plow ahead regardless.

The fact is you don’t really know your brand, who you are, until you’ve gone through a whole range of steps, made a lot of mistakes, and narrowed down the field of possible actions. 

You have to learn through research and trial and error what works and what doesn’t. And that process will take time. You can sit around in a boardroom discussing who you want to be and making guesses about how to run your business successfully, but in the end the data will determine who you are and what you do. 

So save yourself the headache. Pick a logo, establish a brand for now, and move on with your life.

Note from the Author

Starting an eCommerce business is like building a rocket in your garage and expecting it to take you to the moon—it might not work, and even if it does, there’s a good chance you’ll get hurt along the way. 

The good news is you’re not the first person crazy enough to try this. There are many others (myself included) who have tried, failed, and tried again. By learning from our many (many) mistakes, you can launch an eCommerce business that makes it safely to orbit and beyond.

In this blog series, you’ll get a step-by-step guide to creating and launching your eCommerce business years 1–3. We go over how to create a functional brand, set up your website, and develop an advertising strategy that scales with you. We’ll go through the various pros and cons, so that you can feel empowered to make the best decisions for your business.

My name is Chris Franks, and I’m the founder and CEO of CleverFunnel, a digital marketing agency that focuses on using straightforward, data-driven strategies to drive real results for our clients.

I’m also an avid lover of indie music, fly fishing, baseball, and sunscreen (although that’s more of a genetic necessity). I wrote this series with the hope that my story could help other young entrepreneurs achieve their goals, without losing their savings (or their sanity) in the process. If any bit of this helps you, it’ll have been worth it.