Your brand identity is the image your company portrays to the world at large, to your customers or clients. When people look at your online presence, they should know what you do and that you bring value to the market. Your brand identity should be appealing to your target market and should be consistent in every printed piece you produce and across every online platform.
Consistency is important because it brings name recognition. If people see your logo and/or your brand colors online, they will recognize your snail mail brochure when it arrives, and vice versa. When people recognize your identity, your name is always brought to mind, which is helpful when they receive your email or see your social media posts.
Let’s examine the five most important places to perfect your brand identity:
1. Your Website
Very often your company website is the first element a potential client will see and most people will make a 10-second decision whether or not to explore further than the home page. Needless to say, your identity should be strongly represented on that home page so your potential clients will explore further or contact you.
On your website brand colors, fonts, and your logo are vitally important and should reflect your brand identity. If your message is sobering and you handle tough problems, using whimsical fonts and cutesy graphics doesn’t meld with the serious issues your company handles. The opposite is also true; if your identity and mission are more light-hearted, using deep, dark colors and traditional fonts might turn people away after they make a quick judgment call.
2. Your Social Media Platforms
Not everyone in your target audience will use the same social media platform and those reasons vary widely, so it behooves you to post across multiple platforms to reach more of your audience. However, if your name, colors, and logo are different on all these platforms, when someone jumps from Facebook to Twitter, they may not think yours is the same company because the profiles look different. Or if they receive a piece of mail that looks different than the social media profile, they may also be suspect. Consistency brings recognition and also helps to build trust between you and your clients.
3. All Company Communications
Letterhead, invoices, printed marketing pieces; these should all have the same colors, fonts, and logo as your website and your social media platforms. Just one more way to show your professionalism and attention to detail and your clients will certainly notice.
4. Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Contrary to popular belief, email marketing is still one of the best ways to keep in touch with clients and to keep your company name in their memory. The key is to be relevant with your messages and offer valuable and engaging content. On top of these, create a template that incorporates your brand colors, fonts, and logo. Don’t miss a chance to build that trust between you and your audience.
Other Ways to Be Consistent
If you would like to learn more about how to deepen your communications with consistency, that is one of the 4 topics included in my latest home study course, Beautiful + Smart Business Branding for Coaches. The other three modules will cover: defining what drives your core brand purpose;getting your client—and your message—right; and tapping into and empowering your true self, all of which will help you hone your brand identity. You find software and tools with lifetime access for branding design so you can save lots of money on your graphic design needs without having to pay monthly fees.
