A stronger and more unified brand identity leads to better recognition among your prospects, growing trust and a better ability to attract better, higher paying clients. Here a just a few advantages of a strong brand identity:
-Reveals your unique value proposition and develop a competitive advantage in the market.
-Reflects the voice of the brand through social interaction and outreach.
-Improve the consumer’s experience towards your company through visual elements (logos, color scheme, typography, etc.)
-Maximizes your ability to increase awareness and brand loyalty with your customers.
Here’s some ideas for looking at your brand identity and seeing where you can improve:
Create a Brand Guideline
If your organization does not already have one, this is an essential component to keeping your brand consistent across all channels. Identify key colors and typefaces to be associated with your brand, as well as rules on where and how your logo and tagline are to be used.
Business Cards
-Take a look at all the business cards floating around your office. Do all the employees have up-to-date logos, taglines, colors, paper, contact information and titles on their cards? Figure out what is correct and current.
-Consider using thicker, higher quality paper on your business cards. It makes an important first impression about the quality of your brand.
Other Communications
-Do you have an electronic version of your letterhead and standards for how letters, memos or proposals should look? If not, create some template files for everyone to use.
-Check out email signatures. These don’t have to be 100% consistent from one employee to the next, but ensure that everyone who includes a logo is using the right one and no one is using incorrect addresses, taglines, etc.
-Make sure you and your employees are using an email address from your company whenever you contact clients and prospects. Don’t use gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc.
-Take a look at all of these places mentioned, as well in any printed materials, presentations such as on Slideshare or created in PowerPoint, and see if things are consistent.
Logo Standards
-Make sure you have an organized logo library available to all your employees. Review the files everyone is using, discard any that are incorrect, and post good clean files on a server, dropbox, other other accessible place.
-If you realize that you need variations on the logo, hire a professional do it. For example, there may be times you want to separate the logo’s symbol from the logotype. Or you may need a horizontal or vertical version of the logo. Rather than having employees create these on the fly, have your graphic designer add to your logo library in an organized way to keep your brand consistent.
Merchandise
-Take a look at the promotional products and company merchandise you currently use. Does it reinforce your brand identity? Consider collaborating with your supplier to come up with some new ideas on products that will strengthen your brand.
-Make sure your merchandise and promo supplier respects and adheres to your branding guidelines and company identity. Remember, these items are often a person’s first impression of your company.
Social Media
-Claim your Twitter handle. You don’t have to use it, but you can put your basic contact info there and more information about the best way to get in touch. Also, brand your landing page with a logo that is sized appropriately.
-If you have a Facebook page, at minimum place a logo that is sized appropriately on the page.
-If you are going to use Social Media, have a plan for who is doing the updates, what are appropriate topics, and how available you’ll be. Double check that any links to social media from your web site or email signature are accurate.
-If you are unable or not interested in using social media, remove the links/icons from your web site.
Ultimately, each touchpoint with your customers or prospective clients should have a consistent and recognizable brand identity. These points should give you a good outline to ensure a strong brand identity and reinforce your message.