Beginner’s Checklist to Building a Brand for your Small Business

Branding a business to make it a successful one that is recognisable and much preferred in the market goes beyond a tagline, logo, and business card. In branding, you are creating a link that connects the customer to the company and vice versa. That link is the voice of your business. It is what protects your business from competitors and is the source of different impressions your customers will have about your business. Branding gives your business identity; it is everything a customer needs to know about your products or the services you offer.

To give your business a good brand, you’ll start with these essential parts of a branding strategy: design, assets, content, mission, message, and values.

Branding Design

Create a mood board: a mood board is a visual collection of images, texts, and ideas that defines your brand and communicates your brand identity. It is a great tool to use to represent your creative ideas. Think of it as a reference to remind you of your vision for your business as you start the branding process. 

Design your logo: the purpose of a logo is to identify your business. When designing your logo, it is advisable to make it simple and neat, and also hire a professional designer who is equipped to create a logo that communicates information about your business and can make a significant impact on a company’s public perception. 

Brand fonts: when developing your brand, it is important to have a persistent type of font that will be used throughout your website, social media graphics, and other branding materials. There is more to fonts than meets the eye. Fonts have personalities, and they play a role in sending a message about the company to the public. It is important to choose fonts that stay true to you and create positive first impressions for your potential customers. 

Brand colours: colours convey feelings, emotions, and experiences. They set the mood of brand expression and create a mental association to the meaning of your brand. What brands come to your mind when you see a black apple, a red can of cola drink, a green tractor, or a bar of chocolate wrapped in a dark rich shade of purple? When picking your colours, go for colours that define your brand’s values, enable awareness and customer recall, and distinguish your brand from its competitors.

Brand Assets

A brand asset is any digital file/document that is used for branding purposes. It contributes to the holistic perception of your brand. Your brand assets include templates, websites, business cards, social media images, business emails, professional headshots, video footage, product photos, etc. All these when they come together tell a story about the products and services your company offers. 

Brand Content

Brand content is content that is created by a brand that aims to connect the consumer to the company through mediums such as videos, newletters, blog posts, podcasts, articles, and even live events to improve its image, increase brand awareness, and generate engagements among its target audience. The purpose of brand content is to capture attention from a target audience and evoke an emotional response from consumers and potential customers. 

Brand Mission, Voice, and Identity

While brand mission, voice, and identity are related and one can easily get confused, they distinctly play a role in defining and developing your brand. 

Mission: a mission statement defines what the purpose of your business is and why it exists for both your employees and your customers. It aims to create an emotional connection with your audience.

Voice: your brand’s voice is your style of communication. It is what you and the tone you use in speaking to your audience. Your brand tone can vary from warm, playful, positive, friendly, authoritative, to inspirational, powerful, ambitious, and so on. 

Identity: a brand identity is a collection of your brand’s core values and how they are visually presented to the public. Visible elements such as logo, colour, and design are what make up your brand’s identity. 

Brand Core Values

Your brand core values are a set of guiding principles that define every aspect of your business. They are the beliefs that you as a brand stand for. These principles are at the core of your brand and they guide your brand story, personality, actions, behaviors, and decision-making process. 

Values help you make decisions that align with your brand’s mission, create a clear sense of purpose and direction for your brand, boost your brand’s consistency while helping customers connect with you over the competition.

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Featured image: istockphoto