Branding Advice for Small Businesses
Branding isn’t easy. I know.
Where do you start? How do find your brand voice? What if you hate your logo? Can you change it later on?
No one really tells you what to do and how to do it. You just know you need a logo.
Here are a few questions to consider that should help you get started. But just know it can sometimes be a work in progress when it comes to branding.
Who is your audience?
Before you even start working on a logo or instagram posts, you need to think about who your ideal customer is (your target market) and what kind of branding would appeal to them? For example, if you are a clothing boutique and you’re targeting 20-30 year olds, you’ll probably want a playful tone with lighter more neutral colors (hey- glitter never hurt anyone). If you’re a therapy office, you’ll consider a calm and helpful brand personality matched with warm colors. Ask yourself - what would they like?
PRO TIP: You’re the one who will have to wake up everyday and create branded content so make sure you love the branded elements too.
What’s your brand voice and personality?
Yes, even your brand has a voice and personality and your potential customers will pick up on it - quick. From first impression to continuous communication. Every message counts. It’s conveyed through your emails, social media posts, website, presentations and even customer support communications. This might be the most important part of branding.
Most company brand guidelines include specifics for “Language'“ which typically includes your Brand Voice, company description, and more. An example of a Brand Voice description is: Bold, informative, helpful, positive. This is the way you will communicate.
Another section of a brand guideline would be “Brand Identity” which includes your Brand Personality, core values, mission statement and more. An example of a Brand Personality description would be: Human, energetic, clean, modern. This is the image you should reflect. It should reflect in how your website feels and looks (from photography to tone) and in all the content you create.
Let’s go back to the clothing boutique example targeting 20-30 year olds. Their Brand Voice will most likely be playful, light, fun, and relatable to their customers. Their social media captions might sound like this “Hey babes! Are you a sucker for pumpkin spice and everything fall? Then, you’ll love these new cozy fall sweaters. We’re open from 12-6 pm!” A GREAT example of brand voice is this purchase confirmation email below from Native, a personal care products company.
Imagine ordering a product and receiving this confirmation email. They paint a picture of the team behind your order and you’re the star of the story!
Native does a great job pulling you into the email because they made it about the customer. They made the customer feel special and their order -important.
You could say their Brand Voice is fun, cheerful, and customer-focused.
Determine what your personality and voice is and keep your messaging consistent.
PRO TIP: No one gets excited to read an email that is all about the business and sounds like every other ad they’ve ever seen. “We are an experienced group of individuals focused on selling your house, fast!” That won’t set you apart from any other realtor and sounds like every other real estate website. Be conversational. Write like you’re talking to someone one-on-one. Relate to what they care about. Look at it as growing a relationship with your customers and prospects.
How do you choose?
How do you pick a logo? How do you choose a color palette? What if you want to change it after you’ve launched?
The last piece of advice I can give to small business owners is to go ahead and launch your business first. Create a simple logo. Gather some main colors. And launch. Branding is sometimes the most common reason people never start their business. Once you launch and work out the kinks, start to develop more content and connect with buyers, you’ll get a better sense of who your company is. Your Brand Voice will become clearer. And the look and feel of your brand will start to develop. It’s okay to update your logo and streamline your branded content after launching. Unless you have a really clear picture of what all that looks like it’s normal not to be 100% sure when starting out.
The image above is Pink Guava’s color palette. I chose five colors that all easily compliment each other. I also have a green accent color that is not displayed here but meant to give my content a pop of color when needed - especially to break up monotonous instagram content.
Now, I wouldn’t recommend a complete overhaul where people won’t even recognize your company anymore but improving your logo, re-designing your website or adding more colors to your palette after launching isn’t a bad thing. So, create a logo (name and symbol preferably), gather some main colors (from dark to light and up to five colors), and start building that website. Don’t let your logo be the reason why you take another 6 months to launch.
PRO TIP: Use a design platform like Canva to help you create a logo, color palette, fonts, and branded content or if you need help, simply schedule a call with me below.
Happy branding!
Michelle
