Branding is an integral part of your business to leverage growth, customer relationships, and marketing. Your brand defines what you offer, to whom, and why. But above all, it defines the impression you make on your customers and how memorable your product is.
Did you notice that brands, such as Nike or Coca-Cola easily stay in your mind and you will always remember their logo? And did you also notice that you associate these brands with a specific image in your mind, a feeling, or even a lifestyle?
Branding goes beyond the colors of your logo and the look of your website. While the Corporate Identity of your business is important, the right branding touches a deeper level of the customer relationship. It evokes emotions in your clients. It speaks to them through feelings. It gives them a sense of being part of something. The power of branding lies in the intention behind the brand.
To leverage your business with branding we compiled some tips for you below!
The 5 Pillars to Start Building Your Brand
Think of the emotions that your brand should evoke in your customers. Is your product playful, innovative, strong, or uplifting? Or is it calming, soothing, nurturing, and relaxing? Start by defining 5 key emotions and feelings that you associate with your brand. Ask yourself: What do I want my customers to feel when they buy my product?
The next step is to define the colors of your brand. The colors are in direct relationship to the emotions you identified so that your customers can feel what your product is all about. Which color tones fit the emotions you want to evoke? Which style is fitting to the colors? Try to find 5 colors that easily complement each other to represent brand emotions.
Then comes the logo. How can your logo represent your idea? You can either go for a logo that is only text, a logo with an image and text, or a logo with only an image. You can also keep two versions of your logo, which can be used in different occasions, such as the full logo on your website, and only the image on flyers.
When you have the colors, the logo, and the emotions of your brand, you also want to think about the tone of voice – the brand tone – in which you speak to your customers. Do you speak colloquially with them or rather with an authoritative voice?
And last but not least, you will want to have a website. Your online presence is your online visitor’s card. It helps you to be found by new customers through google search and to inform curious customers on what you have to offer. Your website will use the colors from your color palette that you identified earlier and include the logo on the home page.
3 Tools that save you Money on Branding
If you work together with a designer, a whole branding package might cost you a few thousand dollars. If you try to do it on your own, it´s going to take a long time to figure out the details of each step. So why not outsource what can be outsourced, to focus on what you do best, serving your customers?
There are several ways to build your brand with little investment, yet with a great outcome. Renderforest for example helps you with the most important steps in branding: It creates your logo, your website, and even an image video for you!
On Canva you can design social media images and banners for all your social channels and Grammarly helps you to autocorrect the text you´ll put in your website and marketing materials.
To leverage your business through branding does not have to be complicated! If you have a great idea, you can start today and use the tools above to set you up for success.
Enjoy.