Creating a Brand the Right Way.
Can we all agree that “wing it” on Canva, or Pinterest doesn’t create you a brand?
Creating a brand identity is essential for any business, and many business owners rush or skip this process thinking it’s not crucial to make sales— unless your product is as vital as water and air, your product needs to be properly branded.
Before we jump into the steps, let’s talk about the common mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they rush this process or don’t consult an expert.
Inconsistency: They are using different logos, colors, and messages across platforms. Cause you can’t remember the code of the color, the name of the font, or that phrase you said was your slogan, suddenly doesn’t sound as good.
No brand story: Their brand is coming off as generic and forgettable, easy to forget!
No understanding of your target audience: The brand doesn’t connect with the right people, this can translate as “clients” that can’t afford your product, or client’s that don’t understand your offer.
So what are the steps into creating a brand?
We are dividing this process in 3 sections. The first section is often the toughest one, were most people get stuck and end up doing something rush, the planning stage.
Stage 1: Planning and research
Define Your Brand Purpose and Values: Clearly articulate what your business stands for, its mission, and the core values, define your long-term vision and what you aspire to achieve in the legal field.
Research and Understand Your Audience: Determine who your ideal clients are, their needs, preferences, and pain points. You’ll need to conduct research to understand market trends, client behavior, and competitive landscape.
Analyze Your Competitors: Study your competitors' branding strategies to identify what works and what doesn’t, and most importantly what will set you apart.
Now we get to everyone’s favorite part, the stage where we create and design!
Develop Your Brand Identity: Create a memorable brand name and a compelling tagline, build a professional logo that represents your business identity. Ensure it’s versatile for various formats and sizes.
Choose a color scheme that reflects your brand’s personality and evokes the desired emotions, and select fonts that align with your brand’s image and ensure readability across all materials.
Create a Brand Voice and Messaging: Define the tone of voice your business and how you’ll use it in communications (e.g., formal, approachable, authoritative). Develop key messages and elevator pitches that clearly communicate your business value propositions.
Design Brand Assets: Design business cards, letterheads, brochures, and other marketing materials. Develop a cohesive look for your website, social media profiles, and email templates.
Now that you have all the design phase done, you already printed all your business cards and your vision is coming to reality, we get to a crucial step where most entrepreneurs that decide to do DIY their brand start realizing they indeed need someone that knows about it to help them.
Create Brand Guidelines: Document guidelines for logo usage, color schemes, typography, and imagery to ensure consistency. Provide templates for common documents and presentations to maintain a consistent look across your team.
Implement Your Brand Across All Touchpoints: Ensure your website reflects your brand identity and is user-friendly, maintain a consistent brand image across all social media platforms, and use your brand guidelines for all client communications, including emails and reports.
Educate and Train Your Team: Conduct training sessions to ensure all employees understand and adhere to the brand guidelines.
Monitor and Evolve Your Brand: Regularly gather feedback from clients and employees to assess your brand’s effectiveness, and be open to evolving your brand based on market changes and feedback to keep it relevant and effective.
In simple words trying to “wing it” it’s just going to harm your business and slow your growth. It’s not 2020 when we all started a business and used the same Canva layouts.
Taking the time to interview designers and adding it to your budget will be worth it! Passing this task to expert hands guarantees your business branding identity is crafted with actual care, expertise, consistency, and a deep understanding of your target audience. Ready to take your branding to the next level? Check out our services or schedule a call with us today to see how we can help you create a cohesive and compelling brand that stands out in the competitive market. Let's work together and grow your business!
