We might ask ourselves ~ Is brand indentity and awareness even important for a business? Well, according to edelman.com "81 percent of consumers said that they need to be able to trust the brand in order to buy from them”. How are you able to get someone to trust your brand or your business if they don't know you? Well, that is why brand identity and awareness is so important ~ to get your business out to the consumer and gain their trust! But, creating a brand that can be trusted by consumers can be a daunting task. A good place to start according to Sophie Newman of Florida Winter Marketing is by asking yourself these questions:
What do you want to be known for?
Who do you best serve?
What is the story only YOU can tell?
When answering these questions you need to keep in mind that being authentic is key! Being authentic is the fastest route to being trusted by consumers.
80% of consumers said “authenticity of content” is the most influential factor in their decision to become a follower of a brand.
After you answer those three questions and begin to have an understanding of the “feel” or mission of your business the question now becomes ~ how do I get my brand seen by consumers?
The answer is Brand Awareness.
Brand awareness (defined by info.zimmermarketing.com) is "critical to the success of your business. When people are aware of your brand and its logo and other marketing, you will sell more. People are more likely to buy from a brand they know or click a website from a brand they are aware of."
To create brand awareness you need to develop your brand identity. And according to learn.g2.com the 8 Elements of brand identity are:
- Name
- Logo
- Colors
- Slogan
- Image
- Shape
- Graphics
- Typography
Let’s break each of these elements down.
Name: You probably already have the name of your business, but if you don’t please take time to come up with your name. You want it to reflect what you are as a company and what you do and/or sell.
Logo: As a former graphic designer I can’t stress the importance of your logo enough. You want the logo to be simple and easily recognizable, you want it to stand out from other brands. If you already have your logo, but don’t love it ~ you can always change it and do a brand revision.
Colors: Using a signature color can increase brand recognition by 80 percent. Colors set the mood of your brand. You want to pick a theme of colors and stick with them. Make your brand and your social media feeds cohesive. You want people to see your content and know that it is coming from you before they even see your business name!
Slogan: Your slogan should go with your mission, but be short and memorable. Make sure it projects what you do as a company.
Image: As stated by 8 Ways Media, it takes about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for people to form an opinion about your website! YIKES! So, you want your images to be great! Your images are similar to color in that you want your images or photos to be cohesive. So, you can either do your own photoshoot to get your “look” down or pick stock photos that have the same look or feel to them. If you need help with this check out our workshop on How to Photograph Like a Pro HERE.
Shape: This is for businesses with products. You want your product to stand out from others especially if they are on the shelves at stores. One way to do this is give your product a unique or eye catching shape. One that people can start relating to your business.
Graphics: Again, like your images and colors you want your graphics to stay consistent. When creating graphics you want to use your brand colors and your brand logo. You will also want to use the 8th element of brand identity ~ Typography.
Typography: The typography for your brand are the fonts usually used in your logo. But, you don’t have to just stick to those 1-2 fonts for all of your graphics. You can pick a few that go well together and again…..you guessed it ~ Stay Consistent.
As stated above we suggest you add your logo to all graphics and content you create. With that said, if you find content that you like make sure to credit who said it or where your found it!! Not only is this a way to stay out of legal trouble, it’s just good business. Someone worked very hard to create that content ~ it’s not cool to steal it. What is cool is to share it! Even if you create that quote or idea into your own graphic/post give the person credit. You simply state who it came from in the graphic. You can also tag them in the comments it will help their brand recognition and most likely they will share your share and help you become seen by their followers! It usually is a win~win!
If it isn’t clear, the obvious theme with brand identity and awareness is staying consistent. Consistent presentation of a brand has seen to increase revenue by 33 percent according to Lucidpress! You want your colors, images, and graphics to have a feel that represents the mission you created for your business. You want to make sure that these are used throughout all of your channels and social media platforms, so no matter how someone finds your business it all looks like YOUR brand!
We have an added bonus freebie! Let us begin by saying we do highly suggest getting a professional graphic designer for your logo and images for your website, but we know that hiring a graphic designer for all your social media posts is not in everyone’s budget. That is why we are big fans of canva.com. They make it super easy to make beautiful content with there templates. Now for the FREEBIE! WCE has created a quote graphic template for you! Once you click on it you will be taken to Canva. If you do not have account with Canva it will ask you to create a free one. Once you do that you will be able to change the colors and add your logo, website and whatever else you need to do to it to make the graphic YOURS! You can download a template we made for you HERE or by clicking the quote image below!
If you have never used Canva or not sure how to upload your brand colors and logo or use any of the other great features on Canva you check out our Canva Workshops lead by Media Jasmin! Design Like a Pro: A Canva Workshop 1 can be found HERE and Design Like a Pro: A Canva Workshop 2 can be found HERE.
We really hope this helps, along with our Canva Workshops we have other amazing workshops to help you become the best business owner can! Our upcoming workshops can be found in the “Upcoming Events’ tab or by clicking here. And all of our past workshops can be viewed in the "Shop" tab or here. Make sure to browse our articles for more free downloads and other tips and tricks. And please don’t forget to join or FREE facebook group where you can connect with other entrepreneurs, share experiences, and promote their businesses. And always if you have any questions or concerns please never hesitate to contact us at: wearewce@gmail.com
