Any business that wants to connect with its customers’ needs to be focused on building its brand. This can feel overwhelming, especially for small business owners, but remember, it’s just a matter of making a plan and sticking with it. Developing your brand involves identifying your mission and core values and creating a strategy to ensure all of your communications – verbal, written, and visual – support and communicate those values. Determine who your audience is: their lifestyle, age, interests and priorities. Once you have a sense of who you’re communicating with you can share your core values with them in a way they will respond to.
Here, we’re looking at the ways your visual communications can support your developing brand. The visual language you choose plays a crucial role in telling who you are. Once you’ve chosen the core values you want to communicate, all of your visuals should support those values. The logo, typography and color that you use, and the images on your website and printed materials should all evoke those values. Consistent visuals strengthen your voice. All of your customer touch points should have the same recognition and feeling.
Once those are established, it’s critical to maintain consistency. Do this by making sure that all of your visuals refer to same image of the brand. This can get challenging as your business grows, if different departments handle different elements of your visual image, or if you use multiple vendors for design, programming, etc. Establish standards and communicate them.
- Use specific color values, not just “red”.
- Your team should not randomly choose fonts. Set your typography standards and enforce them.
- Have established logo treatments and standards for when each is used.
- Choose images that support the organization’s brand identity. Limit image approval to those who truly understand the brand.
- Establish web standards for images, typography, logos, and general layout and communicate them to vendors, programmers, in-house designers and anyone else who touches your sites.
- Create consistency across social media platforms through using similar cover images that reflect your values and are consistent with the visual presentation of your website and other materials.
Creating and maintaining your brand allows you to differentiate your organization from the competition. It attaches a personality and attitude to your products and services that allows you to connect with customers. When people relate to the values you present, they choose to build a relationship with you and develop loyalty toward your organization.
