Beginners Guide to Successful Branding

​Successful branding occurs when your brand makes a deep connection with your followers. It’s what they use when building a relationship and developing an opinion about your business. A successful brand needs to convey messages about your business’:

• Purpose & Vision
• Values & Beliefs
• Position in the Market
• Personality
• Tone of Voice & Language
• Key Messages & Stories

But successful branding is more than your logo, business name or tagline. It’s more than having a flash website with all the bells and whistles, more than eye catching social media posts and more than having a recognisable brand. A business which has created a successful brand image, will be one which presents a consistent image.  

How to Achieve Successful Branding
As consistency is key in achieving a successful brand image, you first need to ensure all your ducks are in a row. This means reviewing your branding guide or having a graphic designer create one for your business. Inside this guide, you can expect to see details of the visual aspects of your brand, including your logo variations, fonts, styles and colours. A branding guide can also contain details about the vocabulary used, what can be shared on social media and other decisions about your brand’s visibility.
You then use your branding guide to ensure your brand image is consistent wherever it can be seen:

• Logo variations are used in the right places
• Colours used in social media are identical to your website and print advertising
• Font usage is consistent, including both heading and paragraph fonts

By being consistent with your branding, you are helping to build recognition, loyalty and trust amongst new and existing followers. If you are the owner operator of your business, then you have the sole responsibility in using your branding guide. If you outsource your web design or social media posts, sharing a copy of your brand guide with them will ensure they too practice consistency of your business’ brand image.

Where to Next for Your Brand?
It’s always a good idea to review your branding regularly. Check that it continues to portray the same messages to your audience and resonates with them, has an appropriate appearance for your industry and has all the key visual aspects included in your brand guide. What was once suitable for your business may not be now. That’s where I can help. 

As your graphic designer, I can work with your existing brand to develop a new look or simply tweak the existing look. Big or small, my design skills will help ensure your business makes a positive first impression. Get in touch and let’s have a chat or check out my current branding packages.