When you’re a small business and you’re creating your website, social media accounts, business cards, and signage, maintaining consistency in your branding efforts can be difficult. It can be tempting to slap your logo on everything you produce as a business and leave it at that.
But consistency in branding does not just mean making sure your logo is everywhere; it also means using the same colors, fonts, and slogans across all of your business and promotional materials, both internally and externally.
The first step in brand consistency is creating a logo, or getting a logo created for you, that matches your business’s personality. You want something that stands out from the rest of your competitors, but you also typically want a logo that is related to your industry. For example, a construction company might want to incorporate a hammer or a screwdriver in their logo, and a mountain resort might want to include a pair of skis in theirs. A company’s name or initials are also typically included in their logo.
Whatever you decide on for your logo, be sure that it’s unique and well-designed. If you don’t feel confident in your design capabilities, ask someone else at your company to try their hand at creating your logo, or enlist the help of a marketing agency (like us!).
The second part of consistency in branding is creating and maintaining a specific color scheme for your company. Most businesses choose one main color and one or two accent colors. The main color should be incorporated into your logo in a major way. Your accent colors can also be a part of your logo, and should definitely be incorporated to your website design and other publications by your company, like your newsletter.
If you are unsure of how to achieve the exact same colors in your branding, you can use the eyedropper tool in an Adobe Creative Suite program such as Photoshop. If you don’t have access to Adobe programs, you can use a simple, free, online color picker like this one.
Once your branding is in place, it’s important not to change it too often. A rebrand is only necessary every seven to 10 years, depending on your industry. Maintaining your branding build your business’s reputation and recognizability, so be sure to keep it consistent for as long as possible, until your branding no longer fits your company.
Happy branding!
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