Not Just Pretty | Building An Effective Small Business Brand

What's Your Biggest Question About Small Business Branding?

Please answer my 1-question survey about small business branding: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TC55L6T

Brand Memorability

Brand designs help your company be more memorable — which means that it's more likely that people will remember to call you when they need your services. Statistics show that 65% of people are better at remembering what they see than what they hear, read or even experience. Having a strong, consistent visual brand helps to reinforce your company's name and to seat your business more firmly in peoples' minds. 

To increase memorabiity, use a graphic icon alongside your company name in your logo. When paired with words, graphics greatly increase memorability, because then you're appealing to people who learn through words and to people who learn through visuals. Create a rich and interesting visual experience through Visual Vocabulary, photos, illustrations, charts and graphs to give viewers more graphics to remember. 

Brand Credibility

Having a suite of consistent brand and marketing materials designed makes your business look more believable, trustworthy and like you have the expertise needed to fill your customers' needs. If your customers see these qualities in your brand, they will be more likely to trust you with their projects and to let you take care of their needs. Credibility also helps to eliminate customer worry — making for happier customers, even from the beginning of the relationship. 

To make your brand credible, make sure your visuals are in alignment with your company's message and core values. Don't just show your customers what you think they want to see — make sure that you're visually telling the truth about your offerings and what you can do for your clients. And, back up your claims wherever possible with visual evidence — show people what you can do! 

Brand Visibility

Your brand should be visible in the marketplace — not invisible. You want to have a instantly, easily recognizable brand identity that appears on all of your materials — and that those materials need to be as far-reaching as possible. 

To create strong visibility, create an outstanding logo that is eye-catching. Visual simplicity can also improve visibility, but don't sacrifice visual interest in order to achieve simplicity. Expand the visible portion of your brand by adding more graphics to your arsenal in the form of a Visual Vocabulary — all of the other brand elements that support your logo, like backgrounds, an extended color palette, and tagline styling. Distribute your printed materials widely, generously and frequently. Make sure that you get a good search engine ranking and quality inbound links for your website. 

Brand Design Is More Than Just A Logo

Brand Design is about more than just a logo. Brand design is about creating a set of designs that communicates your business's story to your best customers. A well-designed brand includes:

- A clear, concise brand story about your business that covers who you are, what you do and what makes you different.

- A clear definition of your ideal clients and target audience

- A logo that communicates that story to your target audience using the language of symbols, the meaning of fonts and color psychology

- A Visual Vocabulary (all of the visual elements in addition to your logo that appear in your brand - backgrounds, color palettes, patterns, textures, stock photos, illustrations, etc.) that brings your brand richness, consistency, and flexibility

Then, have these elements designed into your printed and online marketing materials  to make them consistent, memorable and more visible in the marketplace.

7 Ways To Define Your Small Business's Brand

Defining your small business's brand enables you to present the most important facts about your business in a compelling story that will help you connect with your target customers.

That's certainly easier said than done, though — defining a business's brand can be tough. Entrepreneurs often have a hard time creating a brand definition for their businesses. This can be because they are so because they're so intimately involved with the business — they work in it day in and day out, and lose track of the bigger picture. Others are so passionate and involved in their mission, that they forget to explain the business to others, assuming that everyone will "get" it intuitively. Whatever the reason, this difficulty can lead to a business that doesn't communicate clearly, that confuses customers or that just isn't compelling.

When the going gets tough, the tough get a process

In order create a brand definition that tells your business's story, you need to define 4 things: who you are (the personality and motivation for your business), what you do, what makes you different from your competition, and your target audience, or the people to whom you're telling that story.

How do you do that? Here are 7 ways to come up with an interesting, engaging and compelling brand story for your small business — and it won't be too tough.

1. Capture your thoughts about your business — in writing. If you were writing a novel, it would be important to start with an outline instead of trying to write the narrative straight from your imagination. The same is true for your business. Taking the thoughts and ideas that you have about your business and recording them can help you take the first step towards being both organized and thorough when creating your brand definition. If writing isn't your thing, try talking about your business into a voice recorder, and then having the recording transcribed; speaking about your business may be more natural than staring down a blank page.

2. Start with the easiest section. Is there one portion of your brand definition that seems easier to articulate than the others? Beginning with something easy and quick can give you the momentum to move through the rest of the process. For example, if you're really clear on what you do, it can help to get that down first and then to move forward from there.

3. Scrutinize your marketing materials. Read your own website, blog, and marketing materials with a curious and critical eye. What do you say in them that really reflects your thoughts on your business? And, what parts of your marketing materials appeal to your audience? Look to your materials to see what's working and what you should continue to use. Remove yourself from them as much as possible so that you don't overlook any subtle messages. And be sure to consider the things that you've said a thousand times before — those bits can be the most genuine. Go back over your past marketing materials as well — you can get a lot of valuable information out of your own history.

4. Review others' thoughts about your business. Go through your customer testimonials, emails, conversation or past feedback, review those to get gems of insight. What do people continually say about you? What comes to you as second-nature, yet still gains you compliments? How do others introduce or refer you? Listen to people who are talking about you — and see if what they're saying rings true. If you don't have testimonials yet, this might be a good time to go out and ask for some — they can help you in both your branding and marketing efforts.

5. Sift through questions you've received. Customer questions can be a gold mine filled with requests for the types of information that belongs in your brand definition. You're not looking so much for questions about the logistics of what you do — your delivery, process, contracts, or policies (though bits of these could contribute to your brand definition). More often, you'll be looking for questions about your beliefs, background and motivation, the answers to which could as a backbone to your story. Questions have the added benefit of coming from your target audience — so you already know what they want to know.

6. Compare yourself to the competition. Read your competitors' websites, blogs, newsletters, and any other marketing materials you can get your eyeballs on. Seeing what they're up to, what they talk about and what's important to them can help you to identify your brand — especially how you're different from them. Look for their brand stories, and use them as a template — fill your unique information into their overall format. Consider doing some hands-on research as well — purchasing their products or services so that you can experience them (if that's practical).

7. Ponder where you want your business to go. Your brand definition should be about both what you currently do and what you wish your business will become. You won't want to create a brand story that you'll then have to change in a years' time — or even within a couple of years. Think about the direction you'd like your business to take in the future. If you can't predict the future, then changing the story won't be the end of the world — but there's no harm in trying to create something that will last.

You can choose from and combine these 7 approaches in whatever ways you need to help you work out who you are, what you do, what makes you different and who you're talking to. That's not so tough, is it? 

Q&A: Should You Include Your Tagline In Your Logo?

QUESTION:

Can you add our tagline to the logo? 

ANSWER:

I strongly recommend that the tagline be treated as a separate piece of artwork. It should be a part of your Visual Vocabulary, which acts as the visual sidekicks to your logo (the superhero of your brand). A Visual Vocabulary helps your logo tell more of your story, offers more visual elements to establish consistency across your brand, and allows your brand to have visual flexibility from one marketing piece to the next.

If you do include the tagline in the logo, it can affect the overall scalability of the logo - because the logo will have to remain large enough to have the tagline be legible in all applications. If the tagline is a part of the Visual Vocabulary, it can add visual interest by being placed in a different area than the logo (for example, along the bottom of your letterhead). It also can always appear at a large enough size to be read. And, if you change your tagline, you won't also have to change your logo.

Itypically develop a tagline treatment along with the rest of your Visual Vocabulary during the design process for your other design pieces - which usually consists of a business card and some other marketing materials. Developing it in practice helps to ensure that the Visual Vocabulary will be not just pretty, but also effective.

Brand Design for Start-Up Businesses

I was interviewed last night by Melinda Emerson, the Small Biz Lady, on her Small Biz Chat on Twitter. Here's the transcript of that talk. 

SmallBizLady: What Is Brand Design?

Erin Ferree: Many people think that Brand Design is just about designing a logo and marketing materials. That’s a part of it, but not the whole story. Brand Design means that you first create the Brand of your company: the story that you want to tell about your company.

Then, you design your graphics and the visuals for your company to tell your company’s story to your best potential clients.

SmallBizLady: Why Do Start-up Businesses Need to Design a Brand?

Erin Ferree: A brand helps your business look established, stable and successful and it helps you look more trustworthy, like you’re a “real” business and like your business will be there for your clients when they need you.  A Professional brand helps start-up businesses overcome three of the most common sales objections you’ll hear:

Objection #1: That you haven’t been in business long enough to be trusted.

Objection #2: That your start-up business might “go under” at any moment, leaving the client without a solution – and out their deposit.

Objection #3: That you might not have the experience to complete the project successfully.

SmallBizLady: What Else Can a Brand Do?

Erin Ferree: A brand contributes to your business’s visibility, credibility and memorability.  Visibility: You want your brand to be visible in the marketplace with a recognizable brand design that appears on all of your business materials. Credibility: Having a consistent brand makes your business look more believable. Your customers will be more likely to trust your claims and to trust your company with their business. Brand Design helps your company be more memorable – which means that it’s more likely that people will call you when they need your services. Memorability: 40% of people are better at remembering what they see (graphics) than what they hear or read. When you combine graphics with text or audio recordings, that 40% memorability skyrockets – to 70% and more.

SmallBizLady: How Should a Start-up Business Go About Designing a Brand?

Erin Ferree: There’s a 3-step process that every business should go through. Defining these factors will help you determine what your business’s brand designs should look like.

Here’s a quick outline of the steps:

Step 1: Define your business’s Brand Story: who you are, what you do, what makes you different and who you can best help.

Step 2: Brand Message. Determine your brand message to communicate: who you are, what you do, and what makes you different to the people you can best help.

Step 3: Brand Design. Develop consistent marketing and online materials to showcase your brand and to market your business.  Making sure that these materials are consistent is key. Consistency gives your business the repetition and reinforcement needed to create brand recognition.

SmallBizLady: How Can a Company’s Brand Design Communicate Their Brand Story to Their Customers?

Erin Ferree: There are 3 major design elements that a brand design can use to communicate:

1. Choose a Symbol. Symbols, forms, shapes and even objects all have meanings. Choose symbols that have meaning for your specific target audience. And, make sure that meaning aligns with your Brand Story.

2. Font meaning. Fonts are a major design element.  Each font has a different meaning or message. For example, Century Gothic is a modern, geometric font and Times New Roman is a more traditional font. Choose your fonts carefully to communicate your Brand Story.

3. Color. You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words? Once you add color to that picture, it can be worth ten thousand words. Colors have different meanings in different contexts and cultures. Make sure that your business’s color palette communicates the message that you’ve laid out in your Brand Story.

SmallBizLady: How Should a Start-up Use Design Elements to Communicate?

Erin Ferree: The most common way to use design elements (symbols, fonts and color) is in your logo. A logo should consist of a unique icon, or picture, that shows what your business is all about, and your business name. Your logo should have a color palette associated with it (though you will have a black and white version too)

SmallBizLady: Should a Small Business Design a Logo Immediately Upon Starting Up?

Erin Ferree: A logo may not be the first piece of marketing material you design – you should wait to design it until your business has its’ “legs”.  You will probably need to design some temporary marketing materials when you first begin your business. This will allow you test your business ideas, refine them, and to get the first few paying customers. By waiting to design your brand, you can make sure your brand story is solid and that you have a story that you want to live with for the life of your business.

SmallBizLady: What Can Happen if You Design the Logo Too Soon?

Erin Ferree: You could waste money. You need to make sure that your logo will be your business’s logo for life – because you don’t want to redesign your logo.  Redesigning your logo is not only a costly process, but means that you have to redesign all of your other marketing materials.  And redesigning your logo means that you lose all the memorability that you’ve built up around your original logo.

SmallBizLady: When Should a Start-Up Business Approach a Graphic Designer?

Erin Ferree: Once you have a defined Brand Story then you should find a graphic designer and have them create a logo that communicates directly to your customers. I recommend working with a designer who has been trained in symbology, font meanings and color psychology.

SmallBizLady: Is a Brand Design Just a Logo?

Erin Ferree: No. A Brand Design consists of a logo and your company’s Visual Vocabulary. A Visual Vocabulary is all of the other design elements that you will use in addition to the logo on your marketing materials. The most basic Visual Vocabulary will include an extended font palette (headline and body fonts chosen to compliment your logo font)… and an extended color palette. These colors can be used for backgrounds, highlights, headlines, etc.

A more advanced Visual Vocabulary will have background colors, effects, specialized font treatments (such as a treatment for your tagline), the type of paper that you print your materials on. All of these elements, plus your logo, are the foundation of your company’s brand design.

SmallBizLady: What Brand Elements Should Be Designed First? 

Erin Ferree:  Once you’ve designed your logo, you can begin designing your print and online marketing materials. You should start designing a business card and a basic website or blog. Then, take stock of which additional pieces would help you communicate with your target audience – and design those strategically.

SmallBizLady:  Why Is It So Critical to Invest In Professional Brand Design?

Erin Ferree: Brand Design helps a start-up – or any small business – to connect more quickly and efficiently with their potential customers.

About Small Biz Chat
Join us on Wednesdays 8-9pm ET follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter.
How to particiate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/S797e
For more tips on starting or growing your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog at www.succeedasyourownboss.com

Define Your Business Brand to Drive Business

Small businesses who want to grow in a big way should create a brand definition, which is a focused story about who you are, what you do, what makes you different and who you can best help. This brand definition can then be used to inform and inspire your communications — your business writing, speaking, and brand designs. And, it can be translated into a business story that is memorable, compelling and engaging.

Having a well-defined business story helps business owners, customers and people working for your business (like employees, consultants and other businesses) to work together to drive your business forward.

For Business Owners:

• Organizes your thinking. If you're just starting your business or beginning the branding process, you may feel jumbled or disorganized in your thinking about your value, your mission, your differentiation, or even your offerings. You may not have a full picture of who your best clients are. If that's the case, creating a brand definition will help you to get really clear about what you're doing and why. This clarity can help you to communicate more clearly, to come up with better marketing plans and campaigns, and to direct your brand effectively.
  
  
• Allows you to build your brand strategically. Your brand definition helps you map out how you'd like to present your business, what you plan to provide to your clients, and who you'd like to work with. Then, you can measure your business's performance against this map and make sure that you're on course.
  
  
• Brings consistency. If you have no brand definition, you may wind up giving an inconsistent impression — because you're "making it up" on the spot. Speaking, writing and designing your marketing pieces consistently will bring repetition into your marketing efforts. Repetition is great for small businesses because it gives your prospects multiple, similar impressions of your business and this helps them learn about and remember you.
  
  
• Separates your business from you. Once you define your business brand, you have begun to build a business — not just a freelancing practice. Even if you are still a single person, working in a spare bedroom, in your pajamas, a brand definition lets your customers perceive you as a full-fledged business. This can help you ask for — and get — higher prices and more respect for your products and services.
  
  
• Gives you a central message. Instead of creating promotion-based marketing (basing your marketing on discounts or specials), you'll be able to base your marketing around your message and content. Selling your thinking can lead to higher credibility and higher prices.
  
  
• Helps your clients tell others about you. Have you ever tried to recommend someone's services and not been able to fully describe what they do? This is a common branding failure. It's easier — and more effective — for clients to pass along a brand story in a consistent, organized way. And, if your clients pass the word about you and give you referrals and increased word-of-mouth, then you win.

For Your Customers:

• Helps your customers understand you. When you clearly tell your customers who you are, what you do, and what makes you different, you‘re giving them the tools to understand what you're really all about. This instills goodwill and builds trust.
  
  
• Assures them that you're "for them". When you create a brand definition, you will define your best customers. When you write and design your marketing pieces, you can create them to speak directly to those customers, in their language. This can be very comforting for your best clients.
  
  
• Disqualifies clients who are a poor fit. For a small business, a bad client can be worse than no client at all. If a potential client who is not in your best client group runs across you, your brand story can help dissuade them from choosing you, and making your job more difficult. As a benefit to them, they can then move on to finding a provider who will be able to be of service to them.
  
  
• Makes it easier to justify purchasing from you. Customers want to know that they are making the right choice and to be reassured that they're spending their money with the right provider. By explaining your business thoroughly, you can remove some of their doubts about making a purchase, and you can also show them that they can really benefit from doing business with you.

For People That You Hire (Employees, Consultants and Supporting Businesses)

• Provides guidance. Your brand definition can help people that you hire to see the road that you are driving your business down. This can show them how they can best help you and how they can best help you reach your destination.
  
  
• Gets them moving in the same direction. If you have several people working with you on your business at once, but they're all pulling in different directions, you're likely to spend a lot of effort getting nowhere. But, if everyone you hire knows where they're supposed to be headed, then they will be able to combine their efforts, move together, and get better results.
  
  
• Reduces the possibility that they'll make it up themselves. Unless you're hiring someone to remodel your business, you probably don't want them to make up what your business is all about. After all, you got into business to make your vision a reality. Help your supporting staff to help you by telling them what you want to see.
  
  
• Helps you hire people who are a better fit. If you are up-front about your brand definition with people you may hire, then they will be in a better position to decide if they can support you in creating that. You can also use your brand definition to create interview questions and initial-conversation talking points that can help you see who can help you reach your goals.

If you take the time to create a brand definition, then you can develop a compelling brand story that can help all of the people involved with your business to drive it towards its goals.

Holiday Gift from elf design

Happy holidays, everybody! 

 

There's a special holiday gift waiting for you at: 
 http://www.elf-design.com/roadmap-holiday.html . It's a free transcript from my "A Roadmap To Designing An Effective Brand" teleclass. 

And, it comes with a special discount code that you can use to get discounts on my design products.

About the Transcript of
"A Roadmap to Designing an Effective Brand"

This 19-page transcript has been fully edited and rewritten to fill in some details that didn't get mentioned in the regular call - so it's closer to an eBook than a transcript. It is designed to help startup businesses create their first brand, and also has lots of information in it to help businesses that have already started down the branding path to improve their brand.

You will learn:

• The 6 purposes of your brand that enable your brand to help your business get customers
• The 3 Brand Design actions that you need to take to make your brand effective

To create a brand that will help attract clients, you'll need to keep these core issues in mind while you design your brand and extend that brand with additional designed materials (print marketing materials, web design and online designs).

Get It Before The Price Goes Up!

Get the Define Your Difference Branding Workbook before the price goes up on January 1!

Do you know what makes your business different?

Until you know exactly what makes your business different from all of your competition, your marketing will be a struggle. And, it certainly won't be as effective as it could—and should— be.

And, in order to know what makes you different, you have to first understand what your business is all about. You have to form a strong and unique foundation for your business brand.

This workbook will help you to do just that. It takes you through all of the questions to form your business's Brand Definition, so that you can figure out Who You Are, What You Do, Who You Can Best Help and What Makes You Different. Once you have those 4 elements clearly defined, creating a clear and effective business brand will be much easier.

28-page PDF Workbook and Microsoft Word workbook (to make filling it out easy)
Includes over 70 questions to help you Define Your Difference

Price: Just $15 until 1/1/2010