Are you a startup or a company that’s thinking about branding or rebranding your visual identity and storytelling?
Here are a few tips for you then:
- Know your business - It’s amazing to realise that some companies don’t have a clear idea of who they are. They know the premise of what they want to be but don’t really know how to explain what they do or why. This is particularly true when it comes to tech startups that sometimes end up wrapped up in too much jargon leaving their consumers dazed and confused. So first thing is first - drop the lingo, keep it simple and try to make sure that when you explain who you are and what you do everyone can grasp it.
- Know your audience - Each industry and client base has their own way to communicate. Make sure you know them well, understand their pain points and how your company products can address those issues. It’s not just about showing off what you can do, it’s more about what your customers need from you.
- Know your competition - Even if you consider your company in a class all by its own the truth is you’ll always have someone competing for at least one of your client segments. Study them. Study their brands, their external communications, their website, their socials, their general content and their campaigns. Next, don’t copy them but do try and learn what worked for them and what didn’t, analyse patterns and define your own path forward. Authenticity is key so make sure you are true to yourself and your values.
- Ask your employees - The people in your company and sales team, the ones who are in the frontlines already have a very good idea of how to communicate what you are doing. They know what works and what doesn’t. Take in their input and include it in your narrative.
- Define your tone of voice (TOV) - If your brand were a person how would it communicate? Would it be friendly, would it be authoritative, would it be chilled out, would it be mysterious? It all depends. Define it and make sure your TOV provides clarity on this and aligns with your mission, vision and values.
- Develop your storytelling - Start with the promise your brand wants to deliver on and then add on historical facts about the company and use it to prove to your customers how you plan to deliver on your promise.?
- Don’t try to please everyone - One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen companies make is trying to please EVERYONE all the time. This is just simply impossible and will only create convoluted communication resulting in disenchantment and lack of authenticity. So focus your efforts on your main business goals and your customer base’s needs and wants. Those are the ones that will increase your revenues and you need to build up trust with them before they give you any consideration.
- Find your “uniqueness” - Make sure you know what differentiates you from other brands and flaunt it. Your brand’s purpose will be to create an imprint in your customers minds and the only way to do that is to stand out from the crowd.?
- Make sure your visual identity aligns with your narrative - When hiring a creative agency make sure they fully understand who the company is, what you do and who you are speaking to. They will only be as good as your brief. So if you don’t have a clear idea of what your company is or who you are selling to they won’t either and chances are the visual identity won’t match up with what you need or your expectations.
- Build your brand guidelines - As any designer will tell you, the brand guidelines are vital both for internal and external partners. Your brand experience needs to be consistent across platforms and products. Consistency creates easy identification and top of mind placing.
- Build your content style guide - This is the narrative equivalent of the brand guidelines. It should have do’s and don’ts so that anyone in the company writing in the name of the company can make sure it all reads the same and its personality doesn’t get lost.
- Build awareness - Don’t be afraid of trying new things. In a world overpopulated with branded content it’ll take a while for you to figure out what exactly works for your brand. So, don’t forget to A/B test your strategies and always optimise your campaigns.
Have I missed anything? Please comment below and let me know.
