While having a professional, easy-to-use website is essential there’s a lot more that goes into a website than design. The biggest mistake a site owner can make is not understanding the importance of branding.
What is branding? When you think of big corporations, you probably recall their logo, their slogan, a mascot or event a specific style in which commercials are shot. These are all part of their brand, but a brand isn’t only important for big companies.
Individuals and especially small business owners can benefit greatly from branding. And yes, branding goes beyond just a logo. Every time someone sees your name, your company, your site, your business card they should be able to tell it’s related to you, immediately!
The big questions here are:
How can you benefit from branding?
When you don’t know what your brand is, neither do your clients and customers. And when your branding is inconsistent such as the logo on your website vs. the logo on your business card, it creates a disconnect and confusion.
One of the biggest benefits of building your brand is it gives your unique voice a visual stamp. And that sets you apart from competitors. It turns a small business into an individual and helps build trust with whom you are interacting. Would people rather do business with a faceless corporation/website or would they rather talk to a unique, professional human being?
How do you implement branding?
Red Bison Media can help you implement branding in your website, providing a logo, web pages that share the same brand, style, text and images to prevent brand confusion. But remember, this about more than that!
If you type out your company name 30 different ways with different punctuation, text, and capitalization– it trivializes your brand name. You should have a standard on how you write names, products and anything related to your brand.
Most companies develop what is called a style guide; it’s a set of standards for the writing and design that should carry over from your website to your business cards, presentations, social media and any written content. This set of standards sets up the important branding guidelines that need to be followed. What keywords need to be used, what keywords should never be used, when to capitalize, italicize, what text fonts to use, etc.
This style guide is dependent on you! While basic design can start you on the right path, building a memorable, unique brand takes time and consistent effort!
What are you doing to build your brand?