When you think about some of the most impactful brands in the world today, what comes to your mind first?
It could be FedEx, Nike, Apple, Instagram, Facebook… Companies like these do an incredible job with their branding because they know how to utilize the various elements that come with effective branding.
You can’t just create a logo and expect to go viral because of a cute image.
There’s more to it than that, and that’s exactly what we want to share with you in this blog post. Let’s talk about the 3 most important elements of branding: visual branding, branding messaging, and social media branding.
Before we get into it, welcome to the Legacy Creative tribe!
On this blog you’ll learn about branding, communication and taking your business to the next level, meaning more clients, more profit and more transformation. If you’re into any of that, join the weekly Brandable Bites email, where you’ll get branding tips and tricks we don’t share anywhere else.
Be sure to take notes, because if you’re ready to bring your business off the ground, your branding is something you’re going to want to have nailed down before anything else moves forward.
Visual Branding
Your visual branding is the overall look, feel and vibe of your business in colour, text, and images. Whichever font family you choose to use for one web page should be the same font family you use across your social channels and even any physical product. This ensures you create a sense of linearity across any and all platforms you’re on.
The goal here is to own your chosen colour scheme, fonts and images so much so that as soon as people see them — they know it’s you.
Think about an Apple commercial. As soon as you see bright, action, wholehearted moments without any speaking but just some really great background music, you know you’re about to watch an Apple commercial.
What about Nike? You know they typically have bold, white fonts across a black background. They’re sleek, to the point and love to use periods.
These brands have worked diligently to ensure their vibe is consistent throughout every single piece of work they produce. They know that as human beings, we can’t help have our senses and memory triggered whenever we see a familiar colour, font or image. Purple and orange? FedEx. Red and white? Coca-Cola. The list goes on…
Brand Messaging
When it comes to your brand messaging, a good copywriter might come in handy because this includes everything from your company name to your individual product titles. Essentially, this comes down to marketing.
What words do you narrow in on when you think about how you want your brand to make people feel? When you think about how you want your brand to stand out? When you think about your brand, period.
This part could (and really should) take a lot of research, because something that’s clever and catchy might roll off the tongue easily, but it might not be the best representation of your company and what you promise your consumer. So don’t let the allure of a witty title trick you into believing that’s the way to go. Sometimes KISS is the best rule of thumb… Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Just like your visuals, your messaging should also be consistent across anything and everything you touch, right down to your Customer Service team (especially your Customer Service team, as they’re often the heroes behind the scenes representing your business).
Really, anyone who you hire should have a strong understanding of what language represents you and your brand so that they can continue to be a perfect example of what your company believes in and offers, no matter their role. You want your team to be a living, breathing embodiment of your business.
Words really do have that much power.
Social Media Branding
Branding your social media is a huge opportunity to showcase everything about your brand and add to your brand evolution — from your colour scheme to your overall vibe. You have a blank slate to work with and paint your business across so as soon as someone lands on your channel, they immediately know what you’re all about.
If you can catch someone’s eye just from the design of your Instagram feed, you’re doing something right.
This involves nailing down an overall theme — so you’d use the same tones of filters, use similar imagery, use the same font families, have a mix of text posts and image posts. You really just want to make it appealing to the naked eye, because that’s your audience when it comes to social media. You can’t really control who will see your posts, you just want to set out in a way that allows your posts to be seen.
It may seem like a daunting task, but this is what Social Media + Brand Managers are for! A Graphic Designer will come in handy too when you’re laying out the theme and tone of your social channels. You can plan in advance and have months worth of posts ready to add, and they’ll all look incredible side by side.
If you don’t have your branding crystal clear, the rest of your business venture is bound to be a bumpy ride. We hope these tips will help you map out your branding tasks, because it really is one of the most fun aspects of putting a company together — so learn, and enjoy along the way 🙂
We can’t wait to see what you create!
Here’s to your brand evolution,
- The Legacy Creative Team
