3 Steps to Better Branding in 2023
It’s the beginning of the year and deep into winter–the perfect time to slow down and reflect on your business! Branding can be an overwhelming piece…it’s all-encompassing, ever-evolving, and lives in every aspect of your business. A brand is more than a logo. It includes brand colors, fonts, voice/tone, copywriting, photography, customer service, and so much more.
But as overwhelming as it might seem, it’s actually quite simple. Once your brand is in place, it takes the brain work out of everything. Building a new website? You’ve got all the assets in place. Designing some social posts or marketing collateral? Don’t waste time picking fonts, colors, or photos–you’ve already got ‘em.
But here’s the thing: many businesses understand the importance of branding and invest in a solid brand and brand guidelines, but then, tragically, it goes out the window after it’s been created! Social feeds become the wild west of Canva templates, in-store graphics don’t match the website, logo files meant for print are used online, the horror! It may seem dramatic, but implementing strict brand guidelines creates professionalism, recognizability, and simply saves time and money in the end.
“It may seem dramatic, but implementing strict brand guidelines creates professionalism, recognizability, and simply saves time and money in the end.”
Does the above sound all too familiar? Don’t fret. Pour a cozy cup of coffee or glass of cab sauv, and start with some simple improvements. Here are three things you can do right now to improve your branding (and business) this year.
Branded Social Media Templates
Yes, it is my mission this year to end the Wild West of Canva templates. Don’t get me wrong, Canva is a fantastic tool, especially for social media templates. But its users tend to have a little too much fun with the templates, throwing brand guidelines out the window. What’s more? Businesses all across the internet are using the same templates you are. So when a user is mindlessly scrolling social feeds where your logo is but a small speck, they can hardly tell what business the post is coming from. It’s not recognizable and it’s not memorable.
Instead of using a base template, edit it to match your brand guidelines. Use the correct fonts, brand colors, photography style, and brand voice. Create templates for common posts such as special hours, weekly specials, promotional offers, or event announcements. Not only does this save time creating posts, but it makes the social graphics unique to your own brand and therefore more memorable and recognizable in the few seconds you have with a viewer’s attention.
example of inconsistent, off-brand feed
example from disruptiveadvertising.com
example of cohesive, on-brand feed
Le Petit Poutine
Use Multiple Logos
This might seem counterintuitive, but having supporting/secondary logo variations is so important! As a business grows, there are more and more applications for the logo. Business owners tend not to consider this until the situation presents itself–far after they’ve already had their logo done. Here’s just a few situations where having an alternate logo format will be necessary:
Digital banner ads: these tend to be restrictive and small with very narrow dimensions; a horizontal logo format will allow the logo to be more legible
Merchandise: apparel, glassware, and other merchandise will have a defined print area that a print vendor must abide by. Depending on what it is, different logo formats will be necessary to best fit these print areas.
Packaging: if you sell a product, you need packaging. Depending on whether it’s a bottle, a box, or a bag, there’s going to be unique panels, sizes, and printing requirements. Maybe you ‘ll want to save costs by doing a two-color print vs. four-color. You’ll need a two-color logo to do so.
Co-branding & Collaborations: this one comes up more often than you may think. Perhaps your company is doing an event where logos are displayed together on various materials. A logo that’s significantly more horizontal than the rest will appear much small in its designated space. Or you only have a logo in .jpg form, so yours is the only one with an odd background. Maybe you’re releasing a product collaboration in which two logos will be displayed on the packaging. The logos should be similar in size to work well together.
collaboration example
banner ad and logo formats example
Digital Brand Audit
Block out a few hours to do a deep dive on your business’s online presence. Google it and see what comes up, view all social channels as a visitor, check in to your Google Business Page. Some questions and things to look for:
Is information up-to-date and consistent everywhere that customers are finding you?
Is the brand visually consistent across website, social channels, and third-party sites (sites like TripAdvisor, The Knot, Yelp, etc)?
Is the logo consistent across all sites and platforms?
Is there a site that just isn’t serving your business? For example, has it been more than six months since your business was active on Twitter? Delete it! The risk of customers assuming you’re closed and the stress of trying to keep up with the platform might not be worth it.
Is it easy to contact you from wherever customers find you?
The main purpose of a digital brand audit is to look at your business through the eyes of a potential customer. Most people will do online research before making a purchase, so it’s critical that your brand is in tip-top shape to give the right impression. A digital brand audit should be done at least once per year.
And that’s a wrap! Save this blog post, block out some time this winter, and take some simple, actionable steps to improve your branding in 2023. Branding is never a one-and-done project, it must always be nurtured to continue to work for the business.
