A lovely logo, crisp color palette, fetching fonts, and titillating typography! How much does branding cost for small businesses in 2024? On average, small businesses will spend $5,000 to $20,000 USD on branding for small business launch OR a strategic rebrand.
We’ve helped many woman-owned small businesses and scrappy startups craft their brands, and we’re here to spill the tea on the cost of small business branding in 2024 with our 2024 branding price guide.
You’ll get a rundown of the average cost for branding services, what’s included, and how much to sock away for YOUR small business branding budget.
👈🏽 Check out our Table of Contents over there to skip to the sections that are most relevant to you, boo!
Key Takeaways (Because You’re Busy AF)
• The most popular branding service for small businesses is logo design and brand guidelines, which will cost $2,500-$10,000. This usually includes a logo, color palette, suggested fonts, and a mood board with photography guidelines.
• Your small business can expect to pay $100-$300 USD per hour for branding and design services. You can hire a branding freelancer, an experienced boutique branding agency, or a large marketing agency.
• Spend up to 30% of your startup launch budget if your small business needs to compete in a highly saturated market. Or, if your branding and website must adhere to strict brand compliance guidelines. This includes nutritional supplements, financial services, real estate, healthcare institutions, and private practice physicians.
• The average cost to rebrand a small business is 2-5% of annual revenue. Many established businesses will invest more to refresh brand image if it improves profits and gives them an advantage over competitors.
Average Cost of Branding for Small Businesses
Small business branding costs $5,000 to $20,000 USD in 2024.
In case you don’t have a calculator handy, we made this handy-dandy chart to summarize potential small business branding costs. To be clear, this doesn’t represent OUR pricing—it’s a representation of the typical fees you’ll see when working with professional graphic design freelancers and branding agencies for small businesses.
Click HERE to jump down the article to what’s included in these popular small business branding services and why you need them in 2024!
Cost to Launch a New Brand + Sample Launch Branding Budgets
As a rule of thumb, if you are launching a brand, you should spend 15-30% of your initial launch marketing budget on branding. Branding will be extremely important for making a good first impression on consumers and clients, so it makes sense to allocate a large one-time budget for branding while also setting plenty aside for a beautiful website, SEO, and a focused marketing strategy that your internal team can use as a springboard.
Spending a chunk of your startup marketing budget for branding may feel SCARY AF, but if you believe in your business idea and want to attract customers and clients immediately, this large upfront investment will pay off exponentially over the next couple of years.
| Your Total Small Business Launch Marketing Budget ($USD) | Your Ideal Branding Budget (15-30% of Total Launch Marketing Budget) |
| $10,000 Small Business Launch Marketing Budget | Spend $1,500 to $3,000+ on launch branding. |
| $20,000 Small Business Launch Marketing Budget | Spend $3,000 to $6,000+ on launch branding. |
| $30,000 Small Business Launch Marketing Budget | Spend $3,000 to $6,000+ on launch branding. |
| $60,000+ Small Business Launch Marketing Budget | Spend $9,000 to $18,000+ on launch branding. |
Cost to Rebrand a Business + Sample Rebrand Budgets
If you are rebranding an existing business, dedicate 5-10% of your revenue to professional branding services. Businesses in a competitive market will be on the higher end of this budget. Local and service-based businesses can get away with spending much less.
| Your Annual Small Business Revenue ($USD) | Your Ideal Rebrand Budget (5-10% of Annual Small Business Revenue) |
| $50,000 Annual Small Business Revenue | Spend $1,500 to $3,000+ on a rebrand or brand refresh. |
| $100,000 Annual Small Business Revenue | Spend $3,000 to $6,000+ on a rebrand or brand refresh. |
| $300,000+ Annual Small Business Revenue | Spend $9,000 to $18,000+ on a rebrand or brand refresh. |
| $600,000+ Annual Small Business Revenue | Spend $18,000 to $36,000+ on a rebrand or brand refresh. |
What Impacts the Cost of Branding in 2024?
So how much will YOUR small business branding cost? Well, that depends on many wildcard factors. We’ve rounded up the most likely factors below.
Your industry and niche.
As we mentioned above, some industries and niches are more competitive than others. You may want to choose a branding agency that specializes in your industry, and this can impact branding costs.
The players in your competitive landscape.
Who else is competing for your customers or clients? Your brand will need to offer something new, different, and unique to get attention. Some competitors make it easy, while others demand a strong brand strategy to rival.
Customer demographics.
If you’re selling luxury home decor services, you’d better have an equally sumptuous logo and branded website that attracts those high-brow clients. Launching a children’s brand? You’d best talk to a branding agency that is prepared to help you penetrate that difficult market! There are also brand agencies that specialize in B2B and B2C branding.
Services or products? Local or online?
Branding for product-based businesses demands a greater budget because you need packaging design, competitive analysis, and a slick website if you want to compete. Service-based businesses can be more frugal with a paired-down logo and brand guidelines. But they’ll need to pay special attention to SEO and competitive analysis before branding.
How decisive you are.
If you anticipate your business will need more discussion and collaboration to pinpoint your brand, it’s wise to choose a branding package that helps you budget for brand strategy and consulting up-front. You’ll blow through project hours with excessive edits and meetings if you don’t map your priorities before the logo design phase.
Branding a new biz or rebranding?
Startup branding means you’ll need help naming your business and market research to position your products against competitors. Rebranding, on the other hand, is all about brand strategy. After all, there’s usually a REASON you’re rebranding. You want to get things right this time to achieve your goals.
Scope of branding services needed.
The biggest factor when determining branding costs is which branding services your business requires. Or, the “Scope” of your branding project as we say in the biz.
Branding Package Pricing in 2024
Most small businesses will choose a branding package that offers everything they need to establish their brand identity. Small business branding packages typically set your business up to nurture customer loyalty and make sales on your website, via social media, at in-person events, and through email marketing and advertising campaigns.
While we can’t be sure what other small business branding agencies offer in their branding packages, ours at LoudBird Marketing are organized by budget range. We usually prepare custom packages based on client needs. But this chart offers a good representation of affordable branding agency package price ranges.
| Branding Cost | Branding Package Tier | Branding Package Services Included |
| $2,500+ | Mini Branding Package |
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| $5,000+ | Basic Branding Package | This 👆🏽, PLUS:
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| $7,000+ | Growth Branding Package | This 👆🏽, PLUS:
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| 10,000+ | Complete Branding Package | This 👆🏽, PLUS:
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Cost of A La Carte Branding Services in 2024
Branding packages for small businesses are super convenient, but you should also understand the pricing and deliverables of popular branding services. Thankfully, we’ve outlined each service below in detail! These prices DO NOT reflect what we offer here at LoudBird, but a range of what you can expect from an experienced freelancer or small business branding firm.
How Much Does Market Research Cost?
Market Research, Competitive Analysis, and SEO Research Cost $1,500 to $10,000 USD in 2024.
We always start the branding process with an affordable Competitive Research + SEO Package. Market research and competitive analysis empower your business to deeply understand your target audience. You’ll learn how you can use your business’s values and mission to build brand affinity and how your competitors have tempted consumers in the past—plus their mistakes, so you don’t have to repeat them!
SEO (search engine optimization) research is competitive research specific to website performance. You can learn about the competitors vying for your customer base and how you can get clients to visit your website and social media instead!
Why Do I Need Market Research + Competitive Analysis for Small Businesses?
• Competitive analysis gives hints at how can you stand out. How have local and national competitors chosen to brand their businesses? Are there gaps in the current market your biz can fill through niche products or services?
• SEO research will tell you how to craft a brand that can compete in search engine results. What’s the best available website URL to secure for online discoverability? Are there any SEO competitors for your business name and URL? What keywords and keyword phrases are your competitors ranking for in Google Search? What organic content have they created that’s bringing them the most website traffic and conversions?
• Market research can give invaluable feedback before you sink money into an ineffective brand. You may love a brand concept while your audience HATES it. Branding is about your customers, not your ego and personal taste.
How Much Do Business Name and Brand Strategy Cost in 2024?
Naming a small business costs $2,000 to $6,000 USD in 2024.
What’s in a name? 🌹 Well…a LOT! Your small business brand name is the foundation of your entire public presence. But how do you find a unique, memorable, clever, and available brand name? Beyond sounding badass, your business name needs to be a larger part of your small biz growth strategy. It should help you rank highly in search engines like Google, communicate your mission and values, and give consumers a hint at what you offer.
The cost to name your small business depends on whether you choose to trademark your business name, if you sell locally, nationally, or internationally, and whether you choose an agency that specializes in small business branding or a freelance designer to craft your brand.
Why Do I Need Small Business Brand Strategy + Naming Services?
• Business naming consulting helps you choose the best business name—both strategic AND creative. Which business name will be the most expressive of your brand, available for trademark, and free of possible compliance issues?
• It tells you what consumers need to see, hear, and FEEL from your brand to become a loyal life-long customer. You’ll need to know which audience perceptions, feelings, and beliefs may impact your business viability and profitability.
• Brand strategy defines what customers need that they aren’t getting from competitors. How can you fulfill their needs faster and better? Who will buy your products or services and how you can set yourself apart with unique visual branding and on-point brand voice and messaging?
• What is your brand’s mission and vision statement? What is your brand summary and unique value proposition? These both tell the story of your brand and give customers valuable context.
• An editorial style guide gets specific about how your brand “speaks” about itself. What’s your brand voice? Which words do you love and which should be avoided in branded copywriting?
How Much Does a Logo Cost in 2024?
Logo design costs $2,500 to $8,000+ USD in 2024.
Your logo is the face of your business—the first thing customers will see on your website, packaging, business cards, and email signature. It better be bangin’ if you plan to grow your small business!
Logo concepts tell your logo designer exactly what you do and don’t like so they fully understand your preferences. You can expect to see 3 to 6 initial logo design concepts.
Why Do I Need Small Business Logo Design and Logo Concepts?
• Having your logo designed professionally guarantees design revisions. With some low-cost branding providers, you get charged extra for logo revisions. Revisions enable your designer to refine your logo through a set number or “rounds” of edits. The revisions process ensures your finished logo is completely perfect and polished.
• Brandmarks, wordmarks, and favicons give you alternate logo versions. You may want to use a wordmark (typography) or brandmark (logo only) version of your logo design for social media or other applications where you have less design space.
• Logo files in popular file formats give you an appropriate file for each use case. Your logo will be used on your website, in print, on social media, and on your packaging. You should receive your logo in .jpg, .png, .svg, and .pdf file formats.
Cost of an Editorial Style Guide in 2024
An editorial style guide costs $2,000 to $5,000 USD in 2024.
An editorial style guide defines your brand’s editorial preferences and rules and gives examples of your brand messaging. More specifically, the voice and tone of your brand and how it should speak to audiences across different marketing channels—like social media, email marketing, and your company website. Editorial guidelines are essential for companies that have SEO-driven growth plans and plan to explore organic content marketing like blogs and social media.
MailChimp’s editorial style guide is one of the best we’ve ever seen! While your small business editorial style guide will likely be much simpler, MailChimp is still a great example of how in-depth YET organized an editorial style guide can be!
Why Do I Need a Small Business Editorial Style Guide?
• It defines grammar and punctuation rules. Your internal team of writers and your copywriting marketing agency will need to know which formal style guide your brand uses (if any) so they can adhere to standard grammar, punctuation, and alphanumeric rules. For example, does your brand use the Oxford Comma? Is the word SALE always uppercase and bolded in your content? Which style guide do you adhere to? AP Style and Chicago Style are popular choices.
• Editorial guidelines clarify your brand’s language preferences. Which words does your brand like to use? Which are no-nos? This can be super important to convey your brand language to freelancers and new employees.
• Where does your business use different editorial tones? For example, your brand may want to sound more casual and funny on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, but serious and professional on your website and LinkedIn.
Cost of Packaging Design in 2024
Packaging design costs $1,000 to $6,000 USD in 2024.
Custom packaging design services include packaging design concepts, mock-ups, and print-ready files varies greatly depending on how many products you have and which packaging design elements you require for each. But one thing is certain. Great branding must be accompanied by intelligently designed and beautiful packaging for product-based businesses to thrive!
And for many online small businesses and e-commerce brands, packaging design goes far beyond the product. If you’ll be shipping your products to customers, take the opportunity to truly “wow” them with little branded touches, like a signed, branded shipping insert or custom tissue papers. You could even offer branded gift wraps to celebrate the holidays!
Why Do I Need Packaging Design for Small Businesses?
• Custom packaging design services make your products look legit and trustworthy! E-commerce businesses often sell online and need to create a unique, branded unboxing experience for customers to mimic that “in-store” feeling. We’ve had clients customize every detail, from corrugated shipping boxes and envelopes to tissue paper, branded inserts, and stickers.
• Packaging design offers the appropriate file formats and precise bleed lines that translate your branding perfectly for mass printing.
• They’re also higher-quality than what you’ll often get from template designs offered by manufacturers. Whether you’re a sustainable business that wants to design eco-friendly packaging or a tech company that needs to protect fragile devices, it pays to thoughtfully design your product packaging!
Cost of Visual Style Guide, Brand Guidelines, or “Brand Book” in 2024
A small business visual style guide costs $3,500 to $10,000 USD in 2024.
Your visual style guide is a summary of the personality of your brand, plus guidance on practical things like logo usage and how your brand speaks about itself. It often contains the design elements we have discussed above, formatted in a pleasant guide format that is easy for employees, your internal design team, website developers, or members of the press to understand.
Why Do I Need a Small Business Visual Style Guide?
• Your “brand bible” gives rules and examples to follow to remain true to your brand. It gives context to your logo and conveys not only the look but also the cohesive feel of your small business branding.
• Logo usage guidelines suggest which version of your logo should be used for various applications, like on social media, on a service vehicle, or on your website.
• Your color palette and color codes isolate 5-10 colors that complement and contrast each other for use in your branding and website design. You’ll be able to quickly share HEX, CMYK, and RGB color codes.
• Typography and font guidelines give suggested font combinations: usually titles, subtitles, and body copy. You’ll receive the name/s of your font family, as well as where fonts should ideally be used. This is helpful for website designers and developers as they build a small business website.
• Other Visual Brand Elements, like photography and custom shapes or textures.
• Brand strategy will be included in a premium visual style guide. This could be brand mission and vision statements, editorial guidelines, and target audience profiles.
LEARN MORE
WHAT’S A SMALL BUSINESS BRAND IDENTITY KIT? DO I NEED ONE + WHAT’S INSIDE
WHAT ARE BRAND GUIDELINES? FIVE SMALL BUSINESS BRAND STRATEGY ESSENTIALS
Website Design and Branded Copywriting Cost in 2024
A small business website costs $5,000 to $10,000 USD in 2024.
Your website is like the home base for your brand. And branded SEO copywriting gives your website personality, pizzaz, AND visibility! Your web presence, if executed properly, will educate, entertain, and inspire loyalty.
The cost of your small business website and branded SEO copywriting depends on how many pages and products your website will have and the functionality you’ll require.
In general, it’s wise to choose a boutique branding agency that also offers affordable website design and SEO to maintain consistency. That’s why agencies like LoudBird are the unicorns 🦄 of the marketing world! We offer expert small biz branding and small business SEO. Web development teams often have no experience with brand strategy, so important branding nuances can get lost in translation. It’s a tale as old as time!
Why Do I Need Small Business Web Design?
• A professionally built website wins new customers through SEO and UX. Your website navigation and design make it more user-friendly, educational, and valuable for your audience. A top-notch website build will include technical SEO—title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, and much more—to help you reach customers organically without paying for ads.
• An effective website encourages repeat purchases and loyalty. It can be five to 25 times more expensive to retain an existing customer than to win a new one. Excellent user experience helps you win repeat purchases.
• Customized website templates give you the functionality of powerful platforms like WordPress or Shopify with a totally custom look. We usually don’t recommend custom-coded websites for small businesses because they require a developer to make changes. Template sites are more user-friendly and far more affordable.
• Branded Copywriting for SEO will reflect the mission, vision, and unique values and ethics of your brand. It will also improve the accessibility of your site and honor your SEO keyword strategy!
LEARN MORE
HOW MUCH DOES A SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE COST?
10 WEBSITE DESIGNER RED FLAGS TO AVOID
Small Business Branding FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions)
Why Should Small Businesses Invest in Branding?
The shortest and simplest answer is that branding can boost profits and increase your business’s chance of “making it”, especially in a saturated industry. Branding allows your business to broadcast its values and ethics, why it is unique, and why customers and clients should choose it over the competition.
Doing business without great branding is like going to a business conference without clothes. You might meet some people and they might remember you—but not for the right reasons! They likely won’t listen to what you have to say, want to give you their money, or approach you EVER again in the future.
When Should Small Businesses Invest in Branding?
Some lucky businesses thrive without branding, but they are the exception to the rule. And it’s much more expensive and burdensome to rebrand OR allow your business to fail because it isn’t equipped to compete. The best time to invest in branding is when you launch. Before you’ve built your brand reputation!
Should I Hire a Branding Agency or a Freelancer?
We 💖 freelance designers and there are some very talented logo designers out there hustling in 2024! But there’s also an abundance of cheap, crappy designers on sites like Upwork and Fiverr. So…be careful. We hope you find a gem, but we’re here to help if you don’t!
Branding agencies offer a ton more security. If you purchase a branding package through an agency, you won’t risk your designer “giving you the slip”. Or, refusing to deliver your logo and brand guidelines. With an agency, there is always a contract and statement of work to reference if there’s a dispute.
Do I Need a Branded Website Or Can I Just Use Social Media?
Plenty of thriving small businesses operate exclusively using a Facebook Page or Instagram Account. But a website is entirely YOURS and it’s necessary if you want to continue to scale. Unlike social platforms, you have full ownership of all the content on your website. AND recourse if someone plagiarizes it.
Furthermore, a small business website simplifies the process of starting and growing an email list. It also hosts SEO content that helps your services rank in Google and primes customers to convert.
What’s the TOTAL COST of branding in 2024?
| Small Business Branding Services | Branding Price Range (USD) |
| Market Research + Competitive Analysis | $1,500-$10,000 USD |
| Brand Name + Brand Strategy | $2,000-$4,000 USD |
| Logo Design + Brand Concepts | $2,500-$10,000 USD |
| Brand Editorial Style Guide | $2,000-$5,000 USD |
| Visual Style Guide + Brand Guidelines | $3,500-$10,000 USD |
| Website Design + Branded Copywriting | $5,000-$10,000 USD |
| Packaging Design | $1,000-$6,000 USD |
| Total Small Business Branding Cost | $5,000-$20,000+ USD |
How Can My Small Business Get Started with Branding?
The branding process is different at every agency, but you can check out LoudBird’s process here! To get started with LoudBird ASAP, get your no-pressure, free consultation with our Foundress, Clair! She’ll give you customized advice on how to accomplish your marketing and branding goals.
From there, our woman-led branding team can usually start your branding project within a week or two. Feeling shy? Take some time to learn more about LoudBird or check out our glowing reviews before your consultation.
Editors Note: This post was originally published in 2022, was updated in 2023, and has since been given a complete makeover by the experts at LoudBird with new small business brand pricing data, images, and tips for 2024!