We all know how important a strong and consistent brand is for your business or venture, just what are the steps to get there though? If you have the budget, you could hire a designer to help, but the following steps should always have you involved.
- Create your amazing mission statement! This runs alongside all of your visions, aims, goals, dreams for your business and it does really help shape your brand. For example, with Gwe Cambrian Web our tagline is “Getting Wales Online”, but our mission statement is to increase the use of Welsh on digital.
- Always check out your competition. See what other people in your field are doing, not only for ideas, but also it’ll help you see some gaps and give you ideas as to where you can fill in. You might already have a good idea for a brand or logo, but spot competition already has it, which is another great reason to check them out. Just don’t get bogged down.
- Figure out your target audience. It’s a horrible task and I hate doing it but it’s really useful. One method I see often is thinking of your “perfect client”, and mapping that client out (Sophisticated Sarah anyone?)
- When it comes to creating your logo, there are a few considerations. You’ll want to decide on colours (colour theory is a major part of any brand creation), fonts and your tagline. You can even extend this further and think about how you want to come across – because your logo is going to be your first impression to many clients.
- Decide on your brand language. This comes up a lot when I go to conferences, and it’s really easy to think, “yes, I’ve got it down”… and then write completely differently. Tone of voice and the language you’re going to use is all part of creating that authentic (sorry, buzzword!) brand.
- Finally, get yourself a brilliant brand message and “elevator pitch”. Super important if you’re going to networking events and conferences, so you don’t stumble over your words when someone asks what it is you do? I’ve been there, and usually end up saying, “oh not much really, just design websites”. Which is bonkers.