Things You Need to Know before Branding

Your branding is not just about your logo and colors.

It is the entire experience someone has when they encounter your business and when they interact with you. It is your messaging, it is your font choices, it is the images that you use, it is what you are doing on social media, and it’s how a client feels when working with you. All of these pieces come together to create your branding. It is a big deal. 

Branding is how people connect with you, how they remember you. So you wanna make sure that you are creating the right vibe, the right feeling your business you want to have with all of the components – visuals, messaging and marketing.

When you are the face of your business, your branding needs to be like you, and sound like you. You are the only one who has a unique vision and style of talking. Your website should look like how you seem or sound.

You wanna make sure you were making people feel the way you want them to feel when interacting with your business. You wanna be creating that connection with people because that connection is gonna make them feel comfortable and excited to work with you. You want your marketing in your website to be doing so much work that when you get in contact with them they already wanna go for you. You want people to have that experience with your brand.

Parts of Branding

Color Scheme 

Consider how you want someone to feel. What aspect of your personality do you want to come through in the brand?  Your favorite color is connected to the personality that you want to come through. You want to make sure that your color choice speaks of who you are. But remember that sometimes your choice of color may not be aligned with how you want your ideal client to feel when they come to your site. For example, if you are in interior design and your ideal clients are high-class people then you may wanna be using green and gold or royal blue or purple even though you may want to use pink or orange to show who you are.  Remember, keep your ideal client in mind.

Decide on a color combination that compliments each other. Pinterest is very helpful in giving ideas on which color scheme to go for your business branding.

Font Choices

You also want your business fonts to be in line with the vibe you want your ideal clients to feel. Certain fonts provide a more elegant feel, bold or casual. Some people are more drawn to certain fonts and you wanna make sure that it is in line with how you want ideal clients to feel. It is worth the time and energy in finding the right fonts for your brand. 

Imagery

This is so important. You wanna make sure that your images are cohesive and at a vibe that connects. Some people prefer to use stock photos or use their own photos for their brand. If you want your brand to look good then invest in good-quality photos for your website. If you decide to use stock photos, there are plenty of sources to get free stock photos from Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash, or paid ones from Haute Stock, Styled Stock, Kate Maxx, and istock. Also, book a photoshoot with a professional photographer for your brand, and get some good photos of yourself and your products. Make sure that you have chosen your colors before the photo shoot so it is cohesive and in line with your branding.

Messaging

Your written content and the way you talk to people is also part of your branding. It is ideal that you write your own website copy otherwise you can also hire a copywriter to help you with this if you really struggle. You can also take a copywriting course if you wanna get better and get comfortable in writing. If you are the face of your business and someone is directly working with you, the easiest way to write your copy is to write how you talk or how you think. You’re not trying to be anybody else but yourself. When you talk to someone you just talk so whatever you think put that down on paper and that is the best way to create messaging that is gonna sound and feel like you. Write how you speak. That is gonna give the voice of you not someone coming in putting words for you. They can enhance what you wrote but I encourage you to be part of your messaging. 

Cohesiveness

You wanna make sure that your colors, fonts, imagery, and messaging stay cohesive. You can use Canva to put everything together like what I did for my brand.