When it comes to building a successful brand, consistency is key. If you aren’t following a consistent style throughout your marketing, your target audience can quickly get confused. Which leads to disinterest and lack of trust as a professional in your industry.
It’s easy to just create social media posts, blog posts, flyers and emails that you think look good. But if you’re not ensuring your brand is represented as a whole throughout ALL of your marketing, from an outside perspective it looks like you’re having an identity crisis.
Check out our top 8 tips for keeping a consistent brand and how to avoid an identity crisis.
1 Create Brand Standard Guidelines
With an internet connection and standard business software, almost any one of your employees could create content based on their version of the brand look or message. To avoid this, having set Brand Standard Guidelines is crucial.
Brand Standard Guidelines set parameters for not only the look and style of your brand, but your tone of messaging. From the fonts, the colors, the imagery and how to talk to your target audience(s). With these in place, every employee in your business will have guidelines to follow so they represent your brand as you first envisioned.
2 Develop Content with Your Brand Standards in Mind
Once you’ve created your Brand Standards and know your style, make sure to actually use them when planning your content for your marketing efforts. Keeping your colors and font selections consistent across all media’s is going to be the most important visual factor.
PRO TIP: If you’re using a design application such as Canva, take the extra time to make their templates reflect more towards your brand by changing the colors and fonts
With all the digital and in-person opportunities to make an impression on your target audience, consistency across all your marketing channels and engagement points are more important than ever.
3 Don’t Mess with Your Logo
There is nothing designers hate more than seeing a logo stretched out of proportion, pixelated or altered with new colors that have nothing to do with the brand. Your logo was originally designed and approved for a reason, don’t mess with it! And to be honest, seeing a messed up logo looks simply unprofessional.
Here are some tips:
When you’re re-sizing your logo in a document, hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard to keep the proportions correct.
If you’re blowing up your logo to a larger than normal size, opt out of using a JPEG or PNG and choose a vector based file such as an EPS or AI.
Make sure your brand standards have guidelines on the colors on your logo. No one should have the freedom to alter colors of your logo. This is super important in ensuring your brand remains constant.
4 Know Your Audience
Knowing your audience will allow you to understand what type of content to create and how to create it. Whether your audience prefers to digest information through videos, likes to read or only stops their scroll on creative designs, knowing this information is key for how to be successful as a marketer.
Watch your analytics throughout your marketing platforms and hone down your target audience(s). This will help guide you into what content to create instead of just creating content to create content.
5 Use a Marketing Calendar to Plan Ahead
Marketing calendars allow you to map out exactly what your content and messaging will be. At Careiginal, we map out our marketing plans a month in advance so we have time to adjust and pivot, if necessary. Not to mention, it helps to clearly see what your content creation looks like.
While mapping out your content for the month, try incorporating a pattern into your posts that add a sense of style and flow to your marketing. Every post shouldn’t be the same, keep it fresh so your audience stays engaged!
6 Don’t Be Afraid to Look for Inspiration
You’re most likely not going to come up with a genius creative idea every time you post — and if you do, kuddos to you. Don’t be afraid to seek out inspiration. Searching through ideas on Google or checking out what your competition is doing is a great way to spark new ideas and challenge what you’ve already been doing. Push the boundaries and never stay stagnant.
Full Charge Ahead
When it comes to building a successful brand, consistency is key. By keeping your brand consistent across all your marketing efforts, you’re not only building awareness, but positioning yourself as the expert and building trust. Every interaction your audience has with your brand should embody the brand promises and values.
How do YOU keep a consistent brand?