Branding Basics: What You You Need to Get Started

In my experience as a virtual assistant and social media manager, one of the most helpful resources when working with clients is their branding guidelines. Unfortunately, many people do not have this or understand the value of clear branding.

Your brand is your business identity! It is one of the most important aspects of creating a recognizable and successful brand.

I thought I would share some important aspects of branding to get you started. Creating strong branding usually takes the work of a professional, but if you don’t have the means to hire someone, here are some things to consider.

Logo Mark

Most people have at least a logo mark for their brand. The most common issue I’ve seen is that their logo mark is not vectorized. If you created your own logo using something like Canva, it is most likely a raster image. This means that if you scale your logo up it will get blurry. A vectorized logo can be scaled without losing its quality. A good rule of thumb when creating a logo is to ensure it looks good in black and white. If it doesn’t work in black and white, it may not be a strong mark.

If working with a graphic designer, you want to make sure you have at least two versions of your logo, a regular mark, and a long mark. This gives you options depending on where you use your logo.

You should also have a dark version and a light version. This is helpful depending on the background you put your logo on.

Brand Colors

Next, it is important to have brand colors. Having a color palette creates cohesion throughout your brand. When building a color palette, you should have at least one lighter color, one darker color, and a neutral. These colors should be used on your website and social media.

Brand Fonts

The fonts you are using are also important. It is good to have a headline font, a body font, and a font for accents or quotes. Whatever fonts you choose, use them consistently throughout your website, newsletters, etc.

Brand Voice

Brand voice is the tone and lens you communicate through either in written word or verbal. This is a topic that you could take a deep dive into but I am just going to touch on some basics. At the very least, you should have a word bank of the language you use consistently and maybe some words you don’t use. This should relate to your target market. It’s also helpful to have a clear tone to your writing that you use consistently. Is your communication informative? Serious? Friendly? For more help with your brand voice, I would recommend hiring a copywriter.

Other Considerations

Another area to consider is your photography. Do you have branded photography? How does your photography communicate what your brand is about? Do you use your brand colors in your photos? Is your style of photography consistent?

Do you have brand personas? A brand persona is an imaginary ideal customer. This is sometimes called a brand avatar. You should have a clear picture of who your target market is. Your persona should have a name, gender, and age. It is also helpful to know their profession, education, and if they are married and have a family. It is helpful to have a clear picture of who you are talking to when creating content.

Here is an example of my brand guidelines . . .

Branding is so much more than just these basics and I highly recommend you hire a graphic designer or an agency to help you. Having a cohesive and consistent brand not only builds brand recognition with your customers but it builds trust and connection. It may seem like a big investment but it truly helps to have clear guidelines for your brand. It is also extremely helpful when you hire additional help so they can work within those guidelines.