In this digital age, a consistent and memorable brand identity is crucial as it helps your business establish a unique and recognizable presence in the vast online landscape. A brand identity is more than just your logo and colour palette. It’s the way you’re representing yourself online and the way you’re connecting with your audience. Not only that, a truly effective brand identity instantly communicates your brand’s values and keeps your brand top of mind with your customers.
The digital world is saturated with social media profiles, websites, and personal blogs, so it’s important that you stand out from the crowd with your personal brand identity. Your brand identity should be well thought out and unique, representing not only who you are as a brand but as a person too.
Your brand’s identity includes visual elements of your brand, like your mark, logo, typography, voice, color palette, fonts, and icons, as well as your messaging and brand voice. It is what makes you and your brand unique and is how you’re recognized across social media platforms and the web. When a consumer identifies a product or service with a brand, they form a relationship with the brand and the product or service it represents. If you don’t have a strong brand identity, you’ll struggle to stand out in the crowded online marketing world.
What is brand identity?
Brand identity is the combination of your company’s values, principles and vision expressed through visual elements of your brand like your logo, and colour palette as well as through your messaging and voice. It can take time to establish a clear and strong brand identity for your company, but it’s important that you take the time to carve one out. A strong brand identity builds brand recognition amongst your audience and potential customers. It also sets you apart from your competitors and helps to keep your brand at the forefront of your customers’ minds.
Why is brand identity important?
Strong brand identity is important because it helps your audience feel connected to your brand and the mission of your company. A strong brand identity also helps to build value in your business and product, as consumers are more likely to buy from a company they recognize and are familiar with than one they are not. Brand identity is also important when it comes to creating trust with your audience. A brand that appears professional with consistent branding will appear more trustworthy and will encourage potential customers to interact with your brand.
It’s also important to be consistent in your design and messaging because if there are too many inconsistencies, it can erode the trust you have built with your audience. If you’re using colours, brand voice or typography that’s not consistent with your brand across your various online channels, it can look unprofessional.
How do I create a strong brand identity?
To create a strong brand identity, you need to start by getting to know your customers first. Knowing and understanding their interests and goals will help you identify what they are drawn to and what they connect with. From there you can start to build the brand identity that will resonate with them and that they will be more likely to support.
Start by doing some market research to learn more about your customer demographics. Once you have a clear understanding of your customer, their interests, and their pain points, then you can start to pinpoint the parts of your brand that may have the greatest impact, like your brand’s voice, mission, and values. Knowing what you believe in as a company can impact your brand identity and will serve as the foundation for other elements of your brand such as your logo and typography.
Creating your brand identity can seem like a huge undertaking but if you break it down into manageable steps, it can be easily done.
- Look at your current situation
Take some time to evaluate where you stand with your current brand identity. Is it clear? Do you have voice and a purpose? Is there a common theme among the pieces of content you’ve created recently?
Dive into your current content, including visual pieces, logo, colour palette and written pieces and see if you can find a common theme in terms of style, tone, and visual design. It’s also helpful to take a look at the biggest competitors in your market, so you can understand how to differentiate yourself from them. You want to stand out from the crowd, not join it!
Make sure you also spend time looking at your audience and what appeals most to them. This could be done by taking more of a deep dive into your socials and seeing which posts, captions and visuals resonate most with your audience.
2. Ask your audience
It doesn’t hurt to get honest feedback from your audience and peers. Take some time asking those close to you what they think of your personal brand and how it comes across to them. Don’t be afraid to ask them what they think you should change. Sometimes having a different set of eyes can bring new perspective and can ultimately lead to amazing change.
Also be open to asking your followers how they would describe your brand. If you’re up for it, create a poll on your Instagram stories to see what people like/dislike most about your brand. You don’t have to necessarily make any decisions based on what they say, but it may give you ideas of how to create your brand identity that you hadn’t previously thought of.
3. Become the expert in your field
If you’re creating a brand, you want your brand to be seen as the leader in your field. And to do so, you need to position yourself as an expert, with the right knowledge to back it up. Do your homework and make sure you have all the answers to any potential questions that may come out of your product, your business, and your brand.
4. Create your brand voice and tone
Once you’ve done your research and your homework, you’re ready to start building your brand voice and tone. How you come across on your social platforms and your website is a big part of your brand identity. Do you want to sound fun and playful? Cheeky? Or formal and serious?
Once you’ve identified what you’d like your brand voice to be, you need to document the guidelines for your brand voice so that no matter what content you create, your brand will consistently sound the same.
5. Create your visual brand
Now comes the fun part! Creating your visual brand is fun because it’s what sets you apart visually and is what makes your brand appealing to your audience. Think about the times when you’ve been scrolling social media, there are certain brands and looks that appeal to you more than others.
When you create your visual brand, make sure that it’s not only visually appealing to your audience but that it also works with your digital marketing channels. There are often restrictions and requirements for the sizing and placement of brand elements, which means your visual branding needs to be tailored towards the digital marketing world.
Once you have your brand voice, tone, and visual elements, then it’s time to document your brand identity. Consistency is key and documenting your brand identity is one way to ensure that anyone who works with your brand or creates any digital or print marketing is on the same page. Brand guidelines are a good way to provide written and visual information about your brand identity. These guidelines should include how to use the various brand elements found within your brand identity. This includes your brand elements such as logos, colour palette, fonts, voice, and tone. It should also include some guidance as to how to use each element in your marketing.
Building a brand identity may seem like a daunting task but it’s essential to the survival of your brand, especially in the digital age. Defining your brand identity is the first step in ensuring you’re setting yourself apart from your competitors. It’s also important to remember that your brand identity should be an authentic, consistent representation of you and your brand. If you find yourself struggling to come up with a clear and cohesive brand identity, reach out to the team at Trilogy Solutions. Whether you need help with the full brand identity or just elements like your logo, they will work with you to come up with the solution that meets your needs!
