Why we can’t shut up about “words-first branding”

Controversial opinion, but you can’t build a brand or a business without words. 

“Duh. I know, girl.” But… do you? Do WE, as a TikTok-loling, Love Is Blind-binging, add-to-cart-ing society?! Okay, we do. But in the branding biz, we often see folks deprioritize words when building a business or new career path and crown visual elements the favorite child of their brand identity family.

Look, we love visuals, too. LOGOS? Ugh, adore. Fonts? Squealing. Color palette? Drooling! As a creative studio, Relatable Content is here to advocate for you to put that much time, energy, and, gulp, resources, into the words side of your branding. And ideally first. Even your designer will thank you.

Wow, words-first branding seems like the hill you’re both living and dying on

The v pretty hills we’re living on, in fact

It is. We just believe the strongest brands are built with words first, giving them the ideal foundation.

Their name speaks for them.

Their messaging threads their story across every place and space they show up.

Their visuals are better informed. 

Their teams are more likely to be on the same page, making pitching more authentic and effective. 

Their legacy lives on.

Plus, kicking off branding with a focus on words might just save you time and money.

Saving time and money on branding sounds GREAT. Tell me more…

Think about your brand like plumbing in your house. You can fix a leak here and there yourself, but at some point those pipes are going to burst and then you’ve got a really big, really expensive mess to clean up.

I’m neither a plumber, nor a homeowner, but pretty sure the metaphor stands?

In the short term, delegating naming or messaging of a business to a pro saves you valuable hours you need to run the parts of your business that you’re best at. Prioritizing elements of your brand that you can’t see early on also benefits in a deep audit — of your space, what you stand for, and your opportunities. When it’s time to work with a designer, grow your team, launch your first big thing, your vision is more clear.

In the long term, we’ve found that when words play a leading role in your brand’s beginning, the better it fairs with change. This can protect you from cleaning up that big pipe explosion, er, requiring a rebrand. Rebrands aren’t a bad thing and don’t mean you’ve done anything wrong — all brands, businesses, and people building them need check-in points. Prioritizing words and messaging in your branding journey can help guide your process of building > blowing up.

Let’s see those words-first branding services

While we do a lot at Relatable Content (words are versatile little tools and building materials, after all) our main creative services fall into the following categories:

Naming

Our favorite projects begin at the beginning. We name businesses before they launch, when they’re rebranding, and also name products, places, babies (jk but we would!!!), anything and anyone that needs a moniker.

Messaging

Already have a name? All good. We pen the most beautiful brand pillars you ever did read. We can craft a full brand book or focus on the essential messaging you need to open up shop tomorrow.

Content Strategy

Meet the creative content team of your dreams that you could never afford full-time. No worries, we’ll help you figure out what kinda content actually matters to you and your brand this year, this month, or just in gen. 

Writing

Believe it or not, we specialize in this very popular words-focused activity. Quite well, in fact. We ghost write, craft bios, pen Instagram captions, and bake your brand into copy for any and everywhere it needs to be. 

What if I’ve already gotten the branding party started? With visuals.

If you started your branding journey with visual elements, or are even a fully-existing brand, we’re still very much down to work with you on all things words. “Words-second branding” doesn’t have quite the same ring, but we’re cool, flexible, and love supporting folks at every stage of building businesses.

Many of our clients come to us before they’ve launched; some have visuals already, others don’t. Many of our clients are coming to us for a rebrand, and have both words and visuals that need an evolution. Some of our clients have a name, messaging, or content that isn’t resonating with them or their audience, and we help there, too.

We also work incredibly well with super-talented design partners, like Tributary Design Studio, our sisters in branding. 

No matter where you’re at in your process, there’s a Relatable Content service and support for you. We hope you’ll think of us at the beginning, but we’re here no matter what. Or when.