Marketing is defined as the set of tools, processes, and strategies you use to actively promote your product, service, and company. Think of marketing as the actions you take to connect with your customers and get them to buy your products or services. Branding, on the other hand, is the marketing practice of actively shaping your brand. Branding is about defining who you are as a company. It’s your mission, your values, and what makes you special and unique. It’s your key brand elements, like your logo, your website, and your brand style guidelines. If marketing is what gets people to engage with your company for the first time, branding is what keeps them coming back for years to come.

Marketing is used to promote your product or service, branding is used to actively shape your brand and who you are. You need a strategies for both and they have different goals and different results.

Branding comes first, marketing comes second.In the grand scheme of building your business, branding always comes before marketing. And for good reason! You can’t exactly market a brand you haven’t designed yet.