Stop thinking about your next marketing move right now and start thinking about your brand. Branding is different than marketing; it’s more cerebral, detailed and consistent. Brand tenants range from logos, to fonts to corporate colors and when done properly, rarely change. The brand assets move as a group and swim inside of marketing campaigns, buoying the message and reeling-in the opportunity.
Without a strong brand, your marketing efforts will be less effective, especially in the long term.
Admittedly, in an era where there are dozens of quick-hit marketing tactics to apply, this can be difficult. Trendy plays like Groupon, Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook and Twitter all make it easy to jump from marketing tactic to marketing tactic, searching for a winner. But the truth is, even though many modern communication channels provide excellent marketing platforms, without a strong brand, you’re not going to accomplish much.
For the purpose of this specific post, let’s focus on digital branding, especially since almost 85% of local consumers use the web to find local products and services. Generally, when people search locally for products and services they search generically. Keywords like Dentist, Landscaper, and Catering Service are what get searched for. What they get back is a myriad of results to select from. From the results, they select the most familiar. How do you become the most familiar and consequently the chosen? You guessed it, by building a brand.
However, this takes time and patience. The good news is that in a digital world, we can make headway much faster than in past decades. So where do you start?
The first step is develop your identity guide. Because every time someone receives a communication from your company an impression is made, you need to have a consistent identity. Establishing an identity guide will help ensure that all initial and follow-up communication to clients and potential customers is uniform.
By making certain those impressions have a consistent look or image, you’ll reinforce that your business is a professional, client-focused organization. A consistent look helps people understand who you are and what you stand for. Many of the world’s most admired brands are instantly recognized by the consistent symbols and messages they repeat in creative ways.
The key to a consistent, clean and positive graphic identity is establishing and following guidelines. Adhering to this guide will yield a clear perception of your business and will strengthen the long-term visual impact of all of your communications.
Let’s briefly look at the 4 fundamental components that should be included in your brand identity guideline:
Logo – Your logo should be modern and relevant. Most of all, it should be professionally designed. The creative expression should be relevant to your industry and including a tagline will also help define your value in a way that can be repeated. If it’s been more than 10 years since your last logo design or if your existing logo was developed by a non-professional, consider a logo redesign. There are dozens of website that can be leveraged to design a logo quickly. Logobids.com is one of my personal favorites; there you can post what you’re looking for and then freelancers will submit designs based on your desires. Most logos are $200 and are completed in 2-3 days.
Design system – Primarily this refers to the color palette. The color palette will go a long way in shaping your identity. The palette is made up of both primary and secondary colors. Primary colors will be used as the defining emphasis with the secondary colors being used most for highlighting related ideas, products or services. Color also helps create an emotional connection with your target audience. Blues tend to generate feelings of calm and trust while red denotes authority. So put some thought into your audience and consider how they will respond to the colors you use.
Typography – Your typography is the style in which you present text. Typically, most brands will use one typeface. The consistent use of the typeface contributes to a cohesive look and reinforces your brand. Much like the colors you choose, typography will go a long way in generating emotion from a reader. It should also be easy to read for your entire audience so again, consider who your customer is and what your true goal should be in selecting a typographic style.
Photography – Photography will play an important role in communicating your brand. The style used will be key to the impact a photograph has on its audience. A few fundamentals to consider regarding photography include use of bright lighting, approachable people and also make sure to be personable, confident, candid, working, engaging and friendly.
So there you have it, a down and dirty guide to transitioning a marketing campaign to a branding strategy. Don’t get me wrong, these are all much harder than they sound to complete. A lot of careful thought should be put in. The reality is though that if you begin to think about branding instead of marketing you’ll make smarter choices that will incrementally add up to strong brand. Strong brands remain relevant, regardless of marketing trends. And just because you’re a small business, you’re not exempt to thinking big brand – unless you want to waste big dollars on lots of small and futile trends.
Stop thinking about your next marketing move right now and start thinking about your brand. Branding is different than marketing; it’s more cerebral, detailed and consistent. Brand tenants range from logos, to fonts to corporate colors and when done properly, rarely change. The brand assets move as a group and swim inside of marketing campaigns, buoying the message and reeling-in the opportunity.
Without a strong brand, your marketing efforts will be less effective, especially in the long term.
Admittedly, in an era where there are dozens of quick-hit marketing tactics to apply, this can be difficult. Trendy plays like Groupon, Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook and Twitter all make it easy to jump from marketing tactic to marketing tactic, searching for a winner. But the truth is, even though many modern communication channels provide excellent marketing platforms, without a strong brand, you’re not going to accomplish much.
For the purpose of this specific post, let’s focus on digital branding, especially since almost 85% of local consumers use the web to find local products and services. Generally, when people search locally for products and services they search generically. Keywords like Dentist, Landscaper, and Catering Service are what get searched for. What they get back is a myriad of results to select from. From the results, they select the most familiar. How do you become the most familiar and consequently the chosen? You guessed it, by building a brand.
However, this takes time and patience. The good news is that in a digital world, we can make headway much faster than in past decades. So where do you start?
The first step is develop your identity guide. Because every time someone receives a communication from your company an impression is made, you need to have a consistent identity. Establishing an identity guide will help ensure that all initial and follow-up communication to clients and potential customers is uniform.
By making certain those impressions have a consistent look or image, you’ll reinforce that your business is a professional, client-focused organization. A consistent look helps people understand who you are and what you stand for. Many of the world’s most admired brands are instantly recognized by the consistent symbols and messages they repeat in creative ways.
The key to a consistent, clean and positive graphic identity is establishing and following guidelines. Adhering to this guide will yield a clear perception of your business and will strengthen the long-term visual impact of all of your communications.
Let’s briefly look at the 4 fundamental components that should be included in your brand identity guideline:
Logo – Your logo should be modern and relevant. Most of all, it should be professionally designed. The creative expression should be relevant to your industry and including a tagline will also help define your value in a way that can be repeated. If it’s been more than 10 years since your last logo design or if your existing logo was developed by a non-professional, consider a logo redesign. There are dozens of website that can be leveraged to design a logo quickly. Logobids.com is one of my personal favorites; there you can post what you’re looking for and then freelancers will submit designs based on your desires. Most logos are $200 and are completed in 2-3 days.
Design system – Primarily this refers to the color palette. The color palette will go a long way in shaping your identity. The palette is made up of both primary and secondary colors. Primary colors will be used as the defining emphasis with the secondary colors being used most for highlighting related ideas, products or services. Color also helps create an emotional connection with your target audience. Blues tend to generate feelings of calm and trust while red denotes authority. So put some thought into your audience and consider how they will respond to the colors you use.
Typography – Your typography is the style in which you present text. Typically, most brands will use one typeface. The consistent use of the typeface contributes to a cohesive look and reinforces your brand. Much like the colors you choose, typography will go a long way in generating emotion from a reader. It should also be easy to read for your entire audience so again, consider who your customer is and what your true goal should be in selecting a typographic style.
Photography – Photography will play an important role in communicating your brand. The style used will be key to the impact a photograph has on its audience. A few fundamentals to consider regarding photography include use of bright lighting, approachable people and also make sure to be personable, confident, candid, working, engaging and friendly.
So there you have it, a down and dirty guide to transitioning a marketing campaign to a branding strategy. Don’t get me wrong, these are all much harder than they sound to complete. A lot of careful thought should be put in. The reality is though that if you begin to think about branding instead of marketing you’ll make smarter choices that will incrementally add up to strong brand. Strong brands remain relevant, regardless of marketing trends. And just because you’re a small business, you’re not exempt to thinking big brand – unless you want to waste big dollars on lots of small and futile trends.
