Bringing your business to life with branding is exciting, yet it’s okay to feel a bit overwhelmed. Some businesses believe the logo is the first and only step. In contrast, others are eager to dive headfirst into all aspects of branding – from logos to packaging, social media designs, business cards, stationery, custom websites, and more. But when you’re in those early years of running your business, what’s the right approach? Let’s simplify it for you. I’ll break it down and share my recommendations for new businesses when they reach out to me.
01 / YOU NEED A CLEAR VISION FOR YOUR BUSINESS.
To successfully launch + market your business, you need to have a clear understanding of the following things:
- The purpose + heart behind what you do.
- Who your audience is, what matters to them + what problems lead them to you.
- How your business or product helps them explicitly.
- Where do you fall in your market/industry, and how do you want to make people feel.
If you can outline these key elements, you’ll be able to build your branding in a way that’s intentional and goal-oriented. You may want to work with a brand strategist to help you create a branding strategy that is expertly crafted to resonate with your target audience, outshine your competition, and evolve with the changing landscape of your business. Many brand designers include a step in their process that covers competitive analysis, strategic planning for your brand design, messaging, visual identity, and more.
02 / YOU NEED A LOGO THAT’S FLEXIBLE.
If you just have a logo, you may find that it only works well in certain situations and limits how you can use it. When I work with clients, I like to create multiple logo variations for them so that they have the flexibility to apply their branding in lots of different ways. The more logo variations you have, the better. But for brands that are just starting, I recommend having at least two variations of your logo:
- Your primary logo should be your business name and will be what you use for most applications. (website header, business cards, stationery, etc.)
- Your secondary logo can either be a:
- monogram/icon that works well for smaller applications (stickers, profile pictures, stamps, email signatures, etc.)
- tagline mark (This is useful if your business name doesn’t easily explain what you do. You’ll use this as a secondary element in places where you don’t necessarily need to show your primary logo, but you still want to have something there that conveys who you are differently.)
- monogram/icon that works well for smaller applications (stickers, profile pictures, stamps, email signatures, etc.)
Having multiple logo variations also helps you create a more well-rounded branding experience for your audience in a recognizable but not repetitive way. Rather than repeatedly using the same logo, you have a collection of different marks that can be used anywhere and all work together to create this overall brand presence.
03 / YOU NEED A COLOR PALETTE + BRAND FONTS.
Another aspect of your brand that will make your business more memorable and recognizable is having a set color palette and fonts that you use across all of your platforms and business collateral.
For brand color palettes, I usually stick to 4-5 colors. 2-3 of them will be more neutral than the most used ones. Then you’ll have 1-2 colors specifically meant to be used as a pop of color for your brand and will help you highlight important things that you want people to look at (like buttons, sale announcements, etc.)
Then for fonts, I recommend choosing 2-3 fonts for your brand that you will use anywhere you share content (website, newsletters, ads, etc.). 1 font will be for headlines and important information. One will be for sub-headlines, secondary information, or buttons. And one will be for paragraph copy.
04 / YOU NEED A PURPOSE BEHIND EVERY SINGLE DESIGN DECISION.
Whether creating your logo or choosing your brand colors, there should ALWAYS be a specific purpose or goal behind every design decision. This is the key to creating a brand identity that will help your business! If you just base your decisions on personal preferences and what you think looks “pretty,” there’s a greater chance that you’ll grow tired of it and want to change everything again in a year or two.
So before making any design decisions, reference your original vision for your brand and ask yourself, if it aligns with the goals and how you want to make your audience feel. If you let that thinking guide your decisions, you’ll have a more sustainable and meaningful brand!
05 / YOU NEED SPECIFIC RULES ON HOW TO USE YOUR BRANDING CONSISTENTLY.
Once you’ve created your brand (whether you hired a designer or did it all yourself), you want to make sure that you have set specific rules for how everything should be used together. This will help keep things consistent and cohesive as you start applying your branding to different business areas (like your website, business cards, social media, etc.)
I like to give my clients guidelines on where each version of their logo works best and what colors should be used for backgrounds or text. The more specific you can get about these rules, the more consistent and professional your branding will look.
It’s great to have a designer create all the things for your brand! Design can impact your business – from increasing your sales to building a stronger connection with your audience. But when you’re still in the early stages of your business, you might not need all the branding bells and whistles. Sometimes it’s better to start with the basics, and these are the essentials that I recommend for newer businesses to help them get started and make sure that they get the most out of their first investment in working with a designer.
