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Take a few seconds to think of your favorite company. What comes to mind? Perhaps you’re imagining a specific logo, a color, or even a slogan. It only takes a quick thought to visualize the company, but what is the key to making it so recognizable? The answer is a style guide that bundles a brand’s identity into one rulebook. Yes, having a “rulebook” for your brand may sound intimidating, but a style guide is a foolproof foundation for building brand consistency.
What is a style guide?
A style guide is a reference document that specifies all visual aspects of your brand. It provides universal instructions on how your brand should (and shouldn’t) be portrayed to your audiences. Key components of a style guide include colors, logos, typography, and imagery that aligns with your brand’s identity. A well-executed style guide also identifies the intended tone and voice of brand messaging, encompassing all aspects of your brand identity.
Your style guide gives direction to any type of content for your company, including presentations, business cards, social media posts, and more. Your style guide should not only be used internally by employees but also shared with external partners to ensure that they are representing your brand correctly.
Why should your company have a style guide?
Consistency is key when creating content for your business. A recent study reported that consistent presentation of a brand has been seen to increase revenue by 33%. A style guide that outlines the standard visual elements of a brand can ensure that all your company’s content maintains a cohesive look and feel. Keeping your branding consistent also increases the awareness of your company. If your content conflicts with each other, your customers may feel confused and less acquainted with the brand.
Remember how it only took a few seconds to visualize your favorite company? Consistent branding plays a crucial role in audience recognition. As a small business, building brand awareness can be a challenge. A style guide is the first step in making your business identifiable to your customers.
While developing a style guide may seem like a tedious process, it will save you time in the long run. Having a style guide will streamline your content creation. When visual guidelines are clear to your employees and partners, there’s more time to focus on creative content rather than spending time deciding what design elements look best every time.
Components of a great style guide
Brand Story: Include a summary of your company, its offerings, its mission and vision statements, and its core values. Your brand story can also introduce tone and voice, intended audiences, and explanations behind the company name and tagline. Putting this information at the forefront of your style guide establishes the brand’s foundation and helps users understand the basics of your company.
Logo: It’s important to specify guidelines for perhaps the most iconic part of a brand. Include all approved versions of your company logo in your style guide along with proper sizing and proportion information. Give clear directions on how much spacing the logo needs in relation to other visual content. If you offer your logo in different colors, make sure to include the correct usage of each variation.
Color: Your brand should have no more than four primary colors. In addition to adding color swatches to your style guide, you should also add all information needed to reproduce the colors accurately. This means including RGB and HEX codes for digital assets, CMYK codes for print assets, and Pantone values (though Adobe is making it difficult to use these).
Typography: Like colors, your number of brand fonts should be limited. In your style guide, note the fonts and their usages. What font should be used for headings? And for paragraphs? What sizes should be used? There’s a lot that goes into typography choices that a seasoned designer could assist you with.
Imagery: Define the genre of images and illustrations that you want your brand to utilize. Whether your company is represented by dramatic action shots or family-oriented portraits, it’s important to outline best practices for these types of visuals. To do this, you should include photos your company has used in the past. You can also display stock photos that represent your brand identity.
The “Don’ts”: Including how NOT to represent your brand can be just as helpful as outlining what you DO want. Don’t be afraid to specify incorrect usage of your logo, color palette, typography, or imagery so those mistakes won’t manifest in your content.
The above are the main components of a good style guide, but the contents don’t have to stop there. The more specific your style guide is, the more consistent and efficient your content strategy will be. Keep in mind that implementing a style guide doesn’t happen overnight. The guide should be enforced throughout your company, both internally and externally, to guarantee success. Make it a habit to refer to the style guide when creating any type of content. Then, you’ll be one step closer to achieving the brand awareness that your company is looking for.
Interested in creating a style guide for your company? Book a call with Sarah today to learn more.
So you’ve got a great idea and want to start a business. You just… start, right? Not so fast. If longevity is what you’re after, you need to work on branding.
Branding is a general term that encompasses many moving parts relating to your business. It establishes your identity beyond just the products or services you sell. It gives your customers something to remember you by, something to engage and connect with. It’s what makes your company memorable and stand out among the competition.
There are so many things to consider when it comes time to brand a business! It can be overwhelming, with so many do’s and don’ts out there. I’ve put together my 10 commandments of branding to try and organize all the best advice I’ve heard and learned by experience.
1. Thou Shalt Not Put the Cart Before the Horse.
Before you think about designing a logo or coming up with a catchy tag line, you must identify your brand’s core. This is typically made up of the following parts:
Mission/Purpose—What the brand aims to accomplish for its audience
Vision—The ideal world the brand is trying to reach for
Values—What the brand believes in and stands for
This core is the underpinnings of your brand culture and should guide everything you do. (No pressure, right?) You should be considering your core when creating your visual identity, defining your brand voice, and creating any content moving forward.
When creating your core, make sure you consider your organization’s past, present, and future to make sure you’re positioning correctly. You don’t want to create a brand now that you will outgrow later. (Design is one thing; you can always “rebrand” visually. Your mission, vision, values—those should be long-term and lasting.)
It’s perfectly OK to let emotion guide your core! The best brands take a firm stand for what they believe in and uphold their promises to their audience. Studies have shown that people are more brand loyal to those that share their values, so be clear about what exactly that is.
After your core is defined, it should be much easier to find your unique selling proposition (USP). This is what sets you apart from your competition and encompasses the benefits and value you bring to your audience.
2. Thou Shalt Keep It Real.
Instead of putting on a show and trying to be something you’re not, you need to strive for authenticity in your branding. This means walking the walk instead of just talking the talk. I know it’s scary—wearing your heart on your sleeve is a sure way to get it crushed. But top brands know that people want genuine connections instead of salesy, immediate-best-friend vibes.
A big part of authenticity is making sure everyone involved in your brand understands the core mission, vision, and values and embodies those principles. If you walked into a Patagonia store and someone was wearing leather pants and drinking from a single-use water bottle, there would be a major disconnect.
Think about Disney World, for example. Every experience on a Disney property is carefully constructed to seem magical. Every employee is chosen to continue this experience, no matter how small the interaction is. Cast members are never to be half-dressed in front of patrons. All this makes sense when you find out their brand core principles:
Mission: The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.
Vision: To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.
Values: Optimism, innovation, decency, quality, community, and storytelling.
That magical experience is a form of storytelling, which entertains and inspires people en masse. And you want to talk about community? How many people do you know who are die-hard Disney fans? They meet someone else wearing a Disney shirt or with a Disney bumper sticker and immediately know they’ve found a kindred spirit.
Being authentic goes beyond the customer experience, though. Your brand’s interactions should be genuine and positive for your employees, too. Without their belief in the brand and participation on its behalf, the company will not be able to pull off the type of customer loyalty brands envy Disney for.
3. Thou Shalt Not Try To Please Everyone
Being all things to all people is impossible, and trying is going to make you spin your wheels with no traction. You need to identify your potential customers, aka your target audience. These are the people you need to relate to, speak to, and identify with.
Some questions to help you identify your target audience:
Who would benefit from my product or service?
What are their pain points (problems they need solved)?
What are their characteristics and demographics?
Are they formal or casual?
Do they take a long time to make purchasing decisions, or will they hop on to a trend?
Where do they hang out online (or even IRL)?
The best way to relate to your target audience is by conducting market research. This can be difficult if you don’t know where to find your potential customers, but do as much investigating as possible.
Once you’ve identified your target audience and learned all about them, it’s time to figure out what kind of relationship you want with them.
4. Thou Shalt Have Personality
Don’t know what a brand voice is? It’s your brand’s personality and the way it speaks and relates to your audience. Is your brand quirky, like Dollar Shave Club? Is your brand formal, like De Beers? Is it comfortable, like Ikea?
Timing-wise, establishing your brand voice should come after you define your core and define your target audience. But make sure you figure it out before you release messaging—and probably even before creating your visual identity. All branding elements are tied together, so you need to show your personality throughout.
Whatever your brand’s personality is, make sure you choose messaging and content formats that convey it clearly. For example, I doubt De Beers is on TikTok… it’s not a formal platform and doesn’t scream “luxury” to me. (Yep, just checked and they do not have an account.)
On the other hand, Dollar Shave Club has a quirky and hilarious TikTok channel with relatable—did I mention funny?—videos. Sure, they promote their products, but they do it in an entertaining way that keeps their brand’s voice and personality on center stage.
Don’t forget to incorporate your brand’s personality into all aspects of the customer experience! Even if it’s a transactional email like a receipt, these are touchpoints where you can interject some fun details that show who your brand is.
5. Thou Shalt Not Operate In a Vacuum
In a perfect world, every business would only have to worry about themselves and their own strategy. Since we live in the real world, you cannot make the mistake of ignoring your competitors! You MUST assess other companies in your space and figure out how you fit into the industry.
This is not permission to get hung up on your competition and try to copy everything they do, though. You still should be doing your own thing, but you need to take into consideration what else is being offered, promised, and delivered by others.
And as confusing as it sounds, you also have to consider who COULD be your competition in the future. Take Corning, for example. It’s a glass company that is known in households everywhere for their bakeware. Guess what they provide now, though? Touchscreen glass. They saw an opportunity when screens were becoming ubiquitous and acted on it. No one could have predicted that move, but other glass manufacturers probably wish they had seen that opportunity earlier.
You also have to be able to recognize trends in the marketplace. Trends become that way because they seem like a good idea, so everyone jumps on. Do you want to be a pioneer of trends, or a follower? It’s OK to follow a trend as long as it upholds your brand core. However…
6. Thou Shalt Consider The Consequences
You have to be careful with trends! There is a bigger picture, and you have to consider all angles.
The key is to remain consistent. “But wait, you just said it’s OK to join trends?” It is possible to join a trend while remaining consistent with your branding. Take the “debranding” trend that’s happening now. Major brands are updating their logos to be more streamlined and simplified. Everyone from Burger King to Burberry has been removing details, shading, and unnecessary elements from their brand identity.
Ben Schott of Bloomberg says that this is in part due to the need for mobile-first design. When you’re looking at a tiny screen, all those details just muddle your logo. Simpler is often better.
To ensure consistency, make sure everyone in your organization knows your brand’s mission, vision, and values. Creating a brand handbook is a great way to keep these top of mind. You can add guidance on visual identity, a glossary of terms and phrases to maintain your brand voice and personality, and tips for keeping your messaging on point. Circulate it to your marketing staff and beyond, keeping in mind all those brand touchpoints across departments.
Even when you have consistency across your brand, you still have a lot of flexibility. As long as everything points back to your brand’s core, you’re free to try out trends—or create them!
7. Thou Shalt Keep It Simple
Anytime content is created—whether it’s your logo design, website copy, or a slide deck—it’s tempting to go overboard with details and information. The thing is, people can’t absorb too much information without tuning out completely. Keeping it simple is always the best way to go.
Just look at Apple’s logo throughout the years. The very first Apple “logo” can’t even be called a logo. It’s a full, detailed image in an old etching style. This didn’t even last a year before the Apple that we all know was launched. Sure, it’s been multiple colors and stylized differently, but that Apple outline with a single bite missing has been iconic for over 40 years. It’s easy to spot and represents the company so well that anyone who sees it immediately knows what to expect.
Other examples of keeping it simple visually are Nike’s “swoosh,” the McDonald’s golden arches, and even Lacoste’s alligator. But simple isn’t just a visual principle. You should aim to be clear and concise in all your messaging, no matter what medium or platform it’s released on. Take a look at the examples below:
Granola’s ingredients are sourced from the highest mountains of Andalasia, untouched by any chemicals. Our products are for the discerning citizen who aims to live their best life in a tiny house by the beach and grow their own patchouli. Granola is the best choice for anyone who wants their food to taste like cardboard!
Eat clean. Live simple. Choose Granola.
Obviously, this is an exaggeration! But the point stands: keeping your copy unfussy and to the point is the key to winning your audience’s attention.
8. Thou Shalt Not Over-commit or Overshare
There are two points in this commandment, and both are firm no-nos. Don’t spread yourself too thin, and don’t be annoying with your content.
First, let’s discuss over-committing. It’s so tempting to be everywhere at once, isn’t it? The minute a new social media channel pops up and becomes trendy, people are curious and want to join. But if you have a marketing team of two people and you’re managing 5 other channels (not to mention all the other duties the marketing department has), will you be able to start a new channel AND do it well?
There’s something to be said for those who can learn to say no. Not to brag, but I am particularly proud of myself for not joining TikTok as a creator. I seriously considered it, but I already have an Instagram account and realized that I don’t have the bandwidth to maintain both. I focused on creating more reels and publishing more consistently on Instagram and I’m staying off TikTok for now.
You don’t want to half-ass anything because that’s just not a good look. Be selective and choose to show up purposefully wherever your audience can be found instead of being everywhere just for the sake of it. Write and develop quality content that speaks to your audience and publish it where you can be—you guessed it—consistent.
Next point: There’s a fine line between being authentic and oversharing, and it’s called having a filter. It’s not likely that every single thing you do in a day is relevant to your brand’s core, so there’s no need to tell them every detail. Each piece of content you publish should be furthering your mission, underlining your vision, or representing your values.
Behind-the-scenes content is a popular way to humanize a brand. An business owner who is also a mom might share some snaps of balancing her work with parenting to relate to her values. She wouldn’t (shouldn’t!) share a photo of potty training her toddler, though. Oversharing is taking things one step too far, and if you have to ask yourself then you probably shouldn’t share it.
9. Thou Shalt Not Make False Promises
This was important enough to include as a commandment, but it should be pretty obvious and not need much explanation. DO NOT overhype your company or its products/services. If you make promises you can’t keep, you’re killing your brand’s reputation. In the age of social media, word of mouth spreads faster than ever before. Reviews speak volumes and there are plenty of platforms for people to make their experiences with you known.
10. Thou Shalt Keep Calm and Carry On
Part of the fun of marketing is being able to experiment with tactics, channels, media, and messaging. You’re going to make mistakes, and that’s OK! I was just telling my daughter earlier tonight that everyone makes mistakes, but we should learn from them and not repeat them.
If you make a mistake that requires an apology, deliver it promptly and sincerely and then move on. If it’s a mistake that affects the company’s bottom line, make sure you analyze the numbers so that you know what not to do next time. The most important thing is to act responsibly, and everything will work out.
Even if you do (or don’t do) all these things and execute perfectly, you can’t expect instant results. Building an audience takes time. Generating leads takes time. Bringing in revenue takes time. Be patient, stay true to your brand’s core, and have fun with it!
What do you think of my 10 commandments? Are there any that I forgot? Are there any you disagree with? I’d love to hear from you!
Hello and welcome to the 2022 SIIA AMPLIFY Conference! 🎙 We’re coming to you live from Washington, DC, where hundreds of nonprofit professionals are learning about best practices in association publishing.
This is my first time exhibiting with SIIA, although I’ve been a member of their Association Council (formerly known as Association Media & Publishing) for years. Building my booth was a bit daunting at first; I’ve attended and worked many conferences but I wasn’t sure what the right angle was for my own business. As we’ve discussed, marketing yourself is hard and I have a particular paralysis when it comes to marketing my own business.
In my previous life at the Federal Bar Association, I purchased a prize wheel and used it during events to promote upcoming conferences. We had smaller prizes that related to the locations of the upcoming conferences as well as big ticket items like a free registration. It was pretty popular—who doesn’t like free stuff?—and also very LOUD while the wheel clicked against the spinner. Good times.
So in planning my Silverbrook booth for AMPLIFY, I reminisced on the good old times with the “wheel of destiny.” I decided to ask my former work wife coworker and conference whiz Melissa Schettler about using the wheel to entice attendees to visit me.
“The great thing about the wheel is that it’s so customizable,” she said. “You can use it to give away free stuff to people in exchange for their business card—which gives you guaranteed leads. If you include some big-ticket items, it’s also a way to showcase some of your offerings and let people know what you can do.”
Sounds like a great business plan, and I also felt like it would showcase my fun personality and help people know that I don’t take myself too seriously. 🥸 I definitely wanted to include it in my booth! So I started the joyful process of buying things to give away. I structured my prizes so that I had more low-ticket items (stickers, magnets), some mid-priced (pencils and pop-its), two work-related but lower-priced items (free blog posts), and one major big ticket item that really shows the value of what I do (a marketing audit). I also made sure to put the actual cash value of the work-related items so that people understood the value of what they were winning. Here’s the final look of the wheel:
The Wheel of Destiny!
OK, so I planned to use the wheel. What about the rest of the booth? The space came equipped with a 6-ft table and a chair, but I didn’t think I wanted to just be trapped behind a table all day. Plus, how would I be able to see the wheel if it was on the table facing attendees and I was behind the table? I decided I needed more assistance from an event planning expert, and contacted Kate Koch of KFK Associates.
“The best thing you can do is either eliminate the large table or find an alternative way to use it,” she said. “You definitely don’t want that division between yourself and the attendees. You also have to remember that you’ll be moving around a lot and interacting with people, attending sessions yourself, and greeting people and shaking hands. The table just obstructs all of that good energy.”
Hmmm. I knew that I needed some sort of table to hold all my prizes and to hide my boxes and bags that I would be carrying, but I wanted to heed Kate’s advice on the booth layout. I decided to turn the table 90 degrees and have it at the side of the booth with the wheel at the front. That way, the wheel is closest to the attendees and I could stack my prizes out of the way behind it. This is how it turned out:
Don’t mind the wrinkles…
Side note: I also bought my own tablecloth in a brand color to differentiate my booth from all the black tablecloths that come with the setup (see in the background). I neglected to take it out of the package beforehand, however, so it is ultra wrinkly. This is bothering me less since it’s turned sideways, but still—ugh. Next time, I’ll steam it before folding it back up nicely!
At this point, I had the wheel and accessories figured out, but I still had no idea what to do about the background of my booth. In some cases, the conference planners will have “pipe and drape” (curtain) walls set up between booths to demarcate the exact dimensions of the booth. In this case, the tables are just out in an atrium and you kind of have to just stake out your space as best you can. Not my favorite, but I made it work. In either case, I knew that a simple banner wasn’t going to cut it.
I researched different exhibit booth branding options, and there was a massive range between $1,200ish and $10,000+. You can buy your own flooring, have multiple walls, have your own lighting, built-in screens for multimedia displays… the options go on and on. I ended up going with a company that offered an 8’x8′ backdrop that promised it could be easily put together by one person (important). The backdrop came with an awesome hard shipping case, which is key, and they have this really cool option of buying graphics that turn the case into a podium! Of course I’m bougie and had to get that option—how cool.
Once I decided on the setup, I had to design the graphics. This was by far the hardest part of the booth choices because I need this investment to take me through several conferences. It needed to be relevant to my brand but also flexible enough to speak to attendees within my target market at different events.
Another side note: This conference sponsorship came with an ad in the Association Council’s magazine, and I had spent a decent amount of time coming up with my full-page ad. I decided then to use that as inspiration for my website redesign and apply the same theme to my conference backdrop!
Because I’m a pro, it only took about 15 minutes to craft the designs once I knew the direction I was headed. I uploaded my art, and a couple of weeks later my booth was delivered! I did a trial run in my living room, which was hilariously cramped, and it really is easy to put together by myself. Here’s how the whole booth turned out:
I lurve it so much!
But, even after all this planning I still wasn’t done. The conference sponsorship also included the option to provide an insert in the bags given to all attendees. How could I pass up that opportunity?! I knew I didn’t want to provide an 8.5×11 sheet or even a postcard that would just get lost in the shuffle. I needed something unique but still cost effective that people would find value in and keep around for a while.
I started thinking about what the attendees would use. These people work in media and publishing, so they likely prepare files for printing at least occasionally. Since print is an area of expertise for me, I ran with that idea. I developed a prepress checklist and a press checklist so that people could cross all their i’s and dot their t’s before going to press. But what format should I use?
I still didn’t want it to get lost, and I wanted it to be useful on both sides of the item. I decided to put a ruler on the other side, which forced the page size to be 13″ and provided and extra bump of value. I included my business card information so people would have it on hand. AND, to add another layer of “don’t overlook or throw this away,” I had them letterpress printed on the same stock as my business cards! An extra expense, but worth it in my opinion. Here’s the front and back of the bag inserts:
If only you could feel the texture.
So I’m sure you’re wondering what the ROI is on all of this work, right? How many people have actually come by my exhibit booth? Well, I’ve collected information from around 65 attendees who spun the wheel, and most of those had conversations with me about my services and shared their pain points with me.
Honestly, when it comes to ROI, I’m not sure I can put a price on the branding element. I’m getting my name known, and who knows how long someone will remember me and my information down the line? I have a great feeling about exhibiting here, and it’s been a really fun change of pace to meet new people in person and represent my company. This is everything I’ve worked toward, and it feels like it’s all finally happening! 🤗
Since the beginning of the pandemic, many workers have proven themselves as being productive when working at home. Now, they are pushing for flexible work arrangements to continue. Fortunately, most employers have no plans to completely end remote work. Recent surveys show that nearly 60% of companies are planning to adopt some form of hybrid workplace. So what does this mean for marketers who incorporate direct mail into their mix?
Plan Early and Build in Time
Hybrid work means people will be splitting their time between work and home. At the very least, this affects your direct mail timeline because you’ll have fewer chances to reach people at their offices. For example, if someone only works in the office Monday through Wednesday and your mail piece lands on a Thursday, you’ve lost that week. If you’re marketing a conference, a sale, or anything else with a deadline, be sure to start planning early! You’ll want to allow more time to develop the mail piece and more time for it to sit on desks before being seen.
Where and How to Send Direct Mail
Are people more likely to open their mail at the office or at home? Given that the average American household receives 454 pieces of marketing mail per year, it’s probably easier to reach people in the office. Most people don’t have store circulars and bills to contend with at the office. In fact, if your prospect list includes entry-level workers, you might make their day by sending mail to them!
Of course, if your main audience is filled with movers and shakers, you’ll need to make your mail piece stand out even at the office. Oversized envelopes have the highest response rate of any marketing mail (an average of 5%). There’s recently been an uptick in these types of campaigns, where a letter and catalog or large (8.5 x 11 size) brochure are mailed in a 9 x 12 envelope. Even when your prospect knows it’s direct mail, they want to open it and find out what’s inside. Remember: Up to 90% of direct mail gets opened, compared to only 20-30% of emails.
Don’t Skimp on Copywriting and Design
Once your direct mail is opened, it’s time for the copy and graphics to do their job. Talk about leaving an impression (printing pun!)—75% of people can recall a brand immediately after seeing a direct mail piece. That’s compared to only 44% who viewed a digital ad. Make sure your piece is branded well and uses copy to entice your audience to learn more.
Do you use direct mail in your marketing mix? Did you know I graduated with a degree in Graphic Communications, and learned to run presses? Let’s discuss!
Would it surprise you to know that marketers often have a hard time marketing themselves? It’s a conundrum, for sure. You’re great at what you do for others—so why can’t you just do it for yourself?
I think the problem comes (at least for me) when overthinking takes over. If I’m writing for another company, I have a clear narrative, scope, and voice to adhere to. When I’m planning my own communications, there are so. many. decisions to be made: What is my brand’s voice? How do I stay true to myself while remaining professional? What the hell am I supposed to take pictures of for Instagram? What if no one likes what I’m doing? Should I do it anyway? There are so many questions, doubts, and concerns that it all becomes muddled and overwhelming.
So, I’ve decided to just be me… with a slight filter. I’m going to put information out and if you don’t like it, you probably wouldn’t like me. (Or maybe give me a chance and tell me why I’m wrong?)
I’m working harder on marketing Silverbrook and expanding my network, so let me know if you’d like to chat. People say I’m pretty cool and I’ve got a reputation for being good at what I do.
