It’s so tempting to focus on visuals first when it comes to building your brand. After all, that’s the flashy, fun part of branding. As a design, I’d agree with you 100%! If I’m being honest, it’s my favorite part to work on, but if we only did what we wanted all the time, we wouldn’t get very far in our business, would we? It’s imperative that when we sit down to work on our brand, we aren’t just assessing visuals and moving on.
Typically, if a brand’s visuals need work, that’s actually not the main problem…it’s a symptom of an aimless brand without a strategy. So why not start with the strategy first?
It’s important to have a strategy for your brand so that it can inform the visuals you create. Often, I see people really dig into their strategy when they’re focusing on copywriting but throw it out the window when it comes to their visuals. Having a brand strategy means your brand will have consistency in all aspects, which leads to easier and quicker connection with potential clients. Your brand will never be as strong as it can be until your copy and visuals align with the same goal, and the only way to do that is to know what your strategy is.
So how do you do that? So glad you asked…
Know your brand values, and use them for more than just copy.
Your brand values are the foundation of your brand strategy. Once you hone in on what your values are, it’s so much easier to start to think about how to position your brand. An obvious way to use your values is to write copy that brings them to the forefront. But a really strong brand doesn’t stop there, even though you might be tempted to. To take your brand to the next level, think about creative ways to communicate them visually instead of just explicitly talking about them.
Our client, Peach & Pine Interiors, does a great job of this. We weave pieces of their brand manifesto visually into their site with “We Believe” statements, but then we take it a step further by creating a fun “Favorite Things” chart that goes a little deeper and subtly shows what’s important to Chandler and Jeremy and the business they’ve created together in a visual way. In addition to incorporating little touches like this, your overall brand design should take your brand values into consideration by making sure appropriate emotions are evoked through your colors, fonts, logo and layout.
Help your ideal clients see themselves in your brand
After cementing your values, knowing the ins and outs of your ideal clients is the next step in creating your strategy. But it’s not enough to just know them. You must help them see themselves in your brand and make them feel comfortable and like they know you and belong.
The best way to accomplish this is by knowing what emotions they have surrounding the service your provide so that you can speak to their fears and concerns, aggravate it a little, and then show them how you have the perfect solution. As with values, connecting with your clients never stops with your copy. It must continue into your visuals. So, in addition to making sure your designs evoke your values, they must also connect with the emotions of your ideal clients. If they feel scattered and overwhelmed, then your design should feel calming. If they are a quirkier crowd, then you might need to show them a more unconventional, creative look that they identify with. Just like your copy shouldn’t just talk about you, your visuals can’t only appeal to you. Making sure your copy speaks to your ideal clients and your visuals appeal to them and make them feel an emotional connection is essential to a great brand.
Find ways to align your in-person and online experience
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking your brand experience only matters in person (or via Zoom). While your process and how you work with clients is the bread and butter of brand experience, if that’s not consistent with what’s reflected in your online experience, then you’re not using your brand strategy to its full potential.
Walk through your process (which should reflect your brand values and how your ideal clients want to interact), and go through your website as a visitor to look for inconsistencies. These are opportunities to align your in-person and online experiences. If you want to read more about how to align your brand and website experience, click here.
Make sure your voice and visuals play nicely together
You should be noticing a pattern by now. All of these ideas point back to creating consistency in your brand through your copy and visuals. Brand consistency leads to connection, which leads to brand loyalty. Loyalty is the holy grail of branding, and it can’t be achieved without brand consistency. Consistency will never be achieved without a strategy. So next time you look at your website, copy or visuals and feel like you need an upgrade, make sure you revisit your brand strategy first.
