How Creating a Style Guide Can Help with Your Branding Strategy

Strategies Behind the Storytelling of a Sports Brand

From Day 1 I knew it was important for the WSF to have an editorial style guide. Not only do I love creating them, I have a slew of reasons why I think any company can use this as a way to help establish their brand’s communication standards.

For one, a style guide can help your brand with consistency. Our organization is a 501(3)c. Are we a nonprofit, a non-profit or a not for profit? Just as important as which we chose is that everyone in the company, from the executive director to our volunteers, all write this the same way. More importantly this will make it less confusing to our customers.

A style guide can also help you establish the terminology you want to use in your communication. When I was a reporter ate Sports Illustrated, we never used the word legendary in the magazine. While at Martha Stewart Living, editors axed all mentions of drapes for the preferred curtains. I want our organization to adopt language that sets the tone for how we want to communicate with our audience. And that includes using terms we want and those we don’t. Establishing this editorial guide will make it easier to avoid mistakes.

Another good reason for this document is it serves as a grammar refresher. Between 140 character tweets and our text conversations, it is easy to forget some of the basic grammar we learned in elementary school. But effective business communication requires good grammar not text speak. What if the recipient doesn’t know what ICYMI stands for? Grammar skills speak volumes about your brand’s professionalism and customers will know if you get it wrong.

The work I put in to create a style guide was well worth it for establishing our brand’s communication identity. I fully expect this living document to expand as it should alongside our organization’s growth. At some point our next step will be to produce a graphic style guide, with elements that will create a consistent tone for our visual identity.

Have you included creating a style guide as part of your company’s communication strategy?

Tracey Savell Reavis is the Director of Communications for the West Hollywood Sports Festival. The WSF is an award-winning festival that brings together recreational sports leagues in a multi-sport event to compete on the campus of UCLA on Labor Day Weekend.

In this series I share lessons from my own experience creating a sports brand. Help yourself to the tips and tools you can use. Follow @tsavellreavis to share her branding journey.  #BuildYourBrand