3 Common Branding Mistakes—and How To Fix Them
We are supes excited to have our good friend and colleague Julie Smith as a guest blogger this week! Julie is one of our go-to graphic designers, as well as a social media strategist and marketer. Read on to see what branding mistakes she sees most often in her work with non-profits, foundations and small businesses, and how they can be fixed.
Mistake #1: You don’t have brand standards
Brand standards do not have to be as complex as, say, Verizon’s might be. But if you don’t have any documentation laying out the proper guidelines for how your brand (meaning your logo, your fonts, your colors…) should be presented to the world, your team is destined to use eight different colors of blue, and even possibly *gags* comic sans in their email signatures.
Why does it matter, you ask? As The Good Lemon said in this earlier post on branding:
“Your visual identity presents the perceived worth of your business and what you're offering. Investing in it can bring you big returns by helping the right customers find you and know, right away, that you're right for them -- if you're high-quality, if you're legitimate, if you're worth their investment.
A well thought out visual identity is how small brands can project huge value, and how big brands can be recognized worldwide.”
A solid brand standards document should outline, at a minimum:
Your Logo – Should the logo always be published with the tagline? Can you use it white on a dark background? Can you make it any color you want, or stretch it out vertically? Be very clear about how your logo should be used in every possible scenario.
Your Brand Colors – Your specific color numbers (CMYK and HEX) should be documented, along with a description of which are primary colors for your brand and which should be used more sparingly.
Your Brand Fonts – State which fonts should be used for your headlines, subheads, and body copy, at a minimum. Pro tip: Use Google fonts, since they are free, they can be used across Apple/PC, and many website and email builders use them as well.
Mistake #2: Your designer gets bored, and your content becomes stale
Designers are creative people, which is great! However, an in-house or contracted designer who works with the same brand all day every day might be tempted to “switch it up,” because they need to express their personal creativity and/or because they want some variety.
What’s wrong with your designer wanting to change things up?
Imagine if a designer working with Starbucks got tired of using their mermaid logo, and tried to change the next coffee cup design to a logo with pirates instead. Guess what? That idea would be buried at the bottom of the sea, along with Starbucks’ attempt at a coffee-flavored soda.
This isn’t to say your brand can’t evolve, but it should be done with a carefully thought-out plan, and for a specific reason—not just because your designer is disinterested in adhering to your brand standards.
Mistake #3: Your templates are inconsistent… or they don’t exist
Think about the materials that you use to create content every day for your organization. One day, you or your designer might be working on a PowerPoint presentation; the next, you might be crafting an infographic; the day after that, your colleague could be whipping up an Instagram story. No matter what you’re making, each of these content types should have a set, yet flexible, template that adheres to your established brand standards.
For example, a PowerPoint template should include a variety of possible layouts: image only, single image plus copy, multiple images, etc. PowerPoint allows you to have multiple master slides, so you can create a template for every possible scenario. This not only makes all of your decks more consistent, but it also makes it easier for members of your team who are not as creatively-inclined to design an on-brand and sharp-looking deck.
Spend the effort to create nice, branded templates now, and you’ll save yourself hours of time and hundreds of dollars later. It’s worth it!