It's hard to run a business these days because it's extremely hard to stand out from your competitors.
These days, your ability to create a recognizable brand is as important as the services your business provides. If you don't have one, it becomes almost impossible to get your business off the ground, let alone experience any form of success.
If you feel lost when it comes to branding, we've got just the post for you. Today, we're going to discuss 7 of the essential elements of brand identity. The better you get to know and understand them, the more easily you'll be able to apply them to your business branding, and turn that into the basis for the way you present yourself to your customers.
Branding and The Elements of Brand Identity
The first thing that you have to do is distinguish between what a brand is versus what brand identity is. Branding encompasses pretty much everything about your business - your look, your voice, customer service, and company culture, among other things. It's what distinguishes you from other businesses and makes you attractive to your customers.
Brand identity gets a little more specific. It's how you visually communicate your brand values to your customers with images, logo design, typography, web design, video promotion, etc. Using the following elements of brand identity, you can attract your desired audience and turn them into lifelong customers.
1. Figure Out Your Target Audience
Whether you're talking about your brand as a whole or, more specifically, your brand identity, you need to know who you're doing it for. You can't build an effective brand from scratch without understanding the wants and needs of your desired customers.
To find out who your niche audience is, you just have to think about what you're bringing to the table. Who is your product or service meant for? What problem is your business trying to solve?
You can also look to some of your competitors and aim to steal some of their customers. This is a good starting point and you can expand into different realms as you define your own brand identity.
2. Defining Your Brand
Defining your brand starts with identifying your target audience, but it encompasses everything you do afterwards as well. Figure out what it is that makes your business particularly unique and better than those competitors that you're trying to get a leg up on. That's how you're going to be able to attract their customers and convert them into your own.
To get to the core of your brand, you need to be able to answer some pretty large-scale questions, like why you started your business, what your core values are as a company, and what emotions you want your brand to evoke. Think about how you want those new customers to view you and where you see yourself in 5-10 years as a company.
You'll be surprised how quickly those core branding ideas will come when you can answer these questions.
3. Create A Logo
Once you've got the macro figured out, you can start focusing on your identity. The look your portray to the public is super important because first impressions are everything in business and you need to convey your brand as quickly and concisely as possible. One of the most important ways to do that is with your company logo.
Creating a company logo isn't something you should take lightly. It has got to encompass everything that we just discussed, and give off the proper vibe to your audience. There are countless examples of timeless logos that perfectly represent the ethos of the company and even more that fail to do so.
Dedicate time and money to creating a logo that works for your brand because that will be the backbone for your entire brand identity moving forward.
4. Color Scheme & Typography
Your logo will help inform the color scheme and typography that you go with, but it's still important to give it some thought. Specifically, the colors you choose will play an important role in defining the mood that your brand will have. The psychology of color is an important thing to consider in this process.
Choose one or two fonts that complement your logo and use them for everything for everything that you do. It should be easily readable, not too decorative or something that you'll get sick of in time.
5. Consistent Images and Videos
There are numerous ways for you to convey your brand identity these days. In particular, the various social media platforms make it possible to appeal to millions of people with branded images and videos. Use them to their full capacity, but be sure to maintain consistency at all times to keep your brand identity intact.
When you start to diverge from the aesthetic that people have come to expect from your brand, your customers are going to get confused. You need to build that trust by keeping things consistent across the board, from social media and email campaigns to indoor business signs and office décor.
6. Genuine Positivity
You want your brand to have a positive effect on those that follow you. Try to put a positive spin on what you bring to the table, rather than focusing solely on the problems that your business is solving in the industry.
People always gravitate to positivity and optimism, but it has to be genuine. A lot of businesses put on a facade of positivity to draw customers in, but that's only going to work for so long. It has to come from a very real place, so try to find that positivity inside yourself and your business and you'll succeed in building this element of brand identity.
7. Consistency With Evolution
Lastly, as we've said, building your brand is all about maintaining consistency with what images and videos you post and the attitude and service you provide, but it's okay to evolve and change as well. Like any good business, your branding will evolve over time, as you learn more about what you do and what your customers want.
Sending out the same branded message for too long will get stagnant and your audience will tire of you. To avoid having them move on to one of your competitors, you should constantly be thinking a few steps ahead. Keeping the core messaging of your brand intact can help, but you can tinker with your brand identity to keep it feeling fresh for years to come.
Build a Great Brand Today
Now that you understand the most important elements of brand identity, you can start building your brand today. It takes time to develop something that is genuinely you, but once you figure it out, it's almost like you've unlocked the key to brand identity success.
