Why you should stop tweaking and changing your branding
How often do you find yourself scrolling through fonts to see if you can find something ‘nicer’ or something ‘better’ for the graphic you’re creating? Do you see a colour you like and then look at incorporating it into your own branded materials?
You go into Canva and up pops one of their own snazzy new templates. So you put your colours and fonts in and you have a lovely new graphic.
But when you keep doing this, your branding starts to change. Sometimes we do make improvements, but when you keep changing those little things it can actually do your brand more harm than good.
Take a supermarket, for example. Let’s say Sainsbury’s.
We arrive at any Sainsbury’s store and the first thing you will see is the big illuminated Sainsbury’s sign that sits above the entrance. It’s always the same font, the same colour and has the same spacing. We go into the store and the orange theme continues - directional signage, shelf signs, floor stickers, staff uniforms - it’s the same simple colour palette of orange with white and burgundy.
You pack your shopping and if you’re anything like our household and have forgotten your ‘bags for life’ then out come the orange carrier bags emblazoned with the same Sainsbury’s logo you’ve seen around the store.
You might not be into shopping in store, you might prefer online. In which case, you’ll visit the website, where again, it’s the exact same logo, fonts, colours and general brand style. You may even have a voucher to use, or have seen an advert with an offer - again you know straight away it’s Sainsbury’s from that recognisable orange and the familiar logo.
Your shopping is due to be delivered… the delivery van turns up. What colour dominates the van? Orange. The same orange that we’ve talked about being everywhere else. The delivery driver - guess what he’s wearing? Yep, the exact same uniform that his colleagues are wearing in store.
This all sounds pretty obvious doesn’t it. And you’re probably thinking that it’s all well and good for a large company like Sainsbury’s as they have the money to put into their branding. But let’s look at what is actually going on beyond the colours and fonts…
Imagine your online shop turned up to your house. And the van livery said Sainsbury’s but it was in a different colour, or a different font. And the delivery driver was wearing green with a script style typeface making a Sainsbury’s logo…
Not what you were expecting?
Do you start to question whether this is actually Sainsbury’s. Or whether this is a sub standard version? Are your shopping items going to be up to their usual standard? Will that bakery bread be as fresh and bouncy? Will the apples be juicy and crisp? Are all the items even there?
What’s happened?
You’ve started to lose trust.
“Trust is built with consistency.”
Quite simply, being consistent builds trust and shows you are professional and dependable.
It often takes many touch points before a client is ready to buy from you so you want to be consistent every time they see you.
If you keep changing your colours, fonts or any other part of your styling you’re missing a trick in strengthening your brand presence. If your socials are different to your website, and your business card is different to that, and a flyer different to that, there’s no consistency.
When you’re consistent, clients will feel like they can trust you. It shows you are dependable and they’re much more likely to feel secure in knowing you can deliver what you say you can to them, so they invest in you.
This is really important when you want to attract more higher paying clients. When clients are looking to invest in higher value items and services they want to feel they can trust you. If there’s any doubt or question they will look to someone else who looks to be more dependable.
You don’t need to change things in your branding all the time - and you shouldn’t be. All those little tweaks and changes build up to big changes over time and will end up with you actually losing your identity (and wasting a lot of time trying new things).
If you’re constantly making changes because you don’t feel happy with things it’s probably time to address your branding as a whole and create something you are happy to stay consistent with.
Once you have a brand identity you feel happy with here are a few things you can do to help you stay consistent…
HAVE A BRAND GUIDELINES DOCUMENT
These can be as simple as a single sheet. But make sure you include your colours and their values (the number references for using in print, digital and web). You will also need to include your brand fonts - and it’s always useful to include a link of where they should be sourced from. Include your logo and explain the variations and where and how it should be used.
You can go into more detail by including information about imagery style, tone of voice, social media graphics, typography etc.HAVE A SUITE OF BRANDED TEMPLATES
Create your own branded templates (or have them created). Think about what type of graphics or documents you use regularly and create a suite of consistent templates. Think about things like social posts, Reel covers, proposal documents, emails, slide decks, printed material.
You then have master documents that you can simply add your own content to. Not only does this help you stay consistent it also saves you a whole load of time!USE YOUR BRAND GUIDELINES & TEMPLATES
This sounds obvious but if you have brand guidelines and templates make sure you actually use them. Always keep them somewhere you can access easily. Take the time to upload them along with any brand assets to a particular folder or software/platform so they’re already there.
And make sure any team members or people you outsource to are aware of them and have access to them
Is it time to start making small changes and tweaks to your branding and give it an overhaul so that you have something you feel confident to level up and attract those higher paying clients with?
If you want to chat about where you want to take your brand and how that might look by working with me you can book a free call and we can jump on Zoom and take a look at where you’re at and where you want to get to.