8 Visual Ways to Make Your Business More Memorable
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Hey there! I'm back with a brand-new series for November. If you've ever heard "consistency is key" but had no clue how to leverage that for your business, you'll like what we're talking about this month.
Welcome to my 3-part series on how to "Create More Consistency" in your business through branding. Your brand = how people think and feel about your business. This month, I'll be sharing ways that you can influence your brand through improving your consistency visually, in written ways, and how you conduct business and interact with people.
Consistency may not be your favorite buzz word. In fact, it may make you feel like - "Crap, yeah I need to be more consistent!" But I'm not here to tell you everything's gotta be consistent (no one's perfect at this - me included) - but I am here to say is, it's always worth improving!
When I say consistency, I want you to consider a different, related word - MEMORABLE. This series is all about the notion that the more CONSISTENT you are in how you share, talk about, and run your business - the more MEMORABLE it will be, the greater AWARENESS you'll have, and the more likely you are to grow and be SUCCESSFUL.
When you are telling the same story through your business everywhere we find you as prospective clients, the more likely we are to remember. We're inundated with marketing all day long in today's smart phone world, so you give yourself way more opportunity when you make your marketing more recognizable wherever people may find it.
Remember - it takes people seeing something 8 TIMES before they begin to process it. You want your marketing to be consistent so people start to remember, and more than remember - become attracted and engaged in what you're doing!
Without further ado, today's story is all about --
8 VISUAL WAYS TO MORE CONSISTENCY IN YOUR MARKETING
Think about printing out all of your current marketing (your website, social media, print pieces, business cards, etc.). Does it tell a consistent story? Do you recognize the business from piece to piece?
Becoming visually consistent is a challenge for every business owner. One of the professional solutions I offer is a full brand package that covers all of what I'm about to share with you. But whether or not you're ready for a pro to come and create these solutions, there's a ton YOU can do to amp up how you're sharing your business visually.
Here are 8 different ways you can get more consistent and more memorable to your prospective clients.
Use a Universal Headshot: Use the same headshot of yourself across your website, LinkedIn profile, speaking engagements, social media and more. This is a strategy I've been using for years, though I have a large library of headshots. The thought is that the more you use that picture, it becomes easier for people to recognize you because they've seen that picture somewhere before, right? Pick a favorite and use it throughout your profiles - easy peasy.
Choose a Color Palette: Pick a brand color palette and stick to it primarily for all of your website, social media posts, presentations and more. Choose no more than 6 colors and learn their hex codes so you can use them online, in programs like Microsoft Word, and even in your email signature. When you don’t use consistent colors, you’re harder to recognize online visually and quickly. I encourage you to think about the color psychology and your ideal clients, but a good place to start for shade inspiration is DesignSeeds, a website chockfull of color palettes.
Identify Your Business Fonts: Just like you picked some colors to use throughout your marketing, go ahead and pick 2-3 brand fonts and use them in your proposals, contracts, presentations, social media, website and more. Here’s an article with more of my advice for selecting your own brand fonts.
Create a Branded Microsoft Word Template: If you’ve got a logo, brand fonts, and a color palette - guess what you could create? A digital letterhead template in Microsoft Word! I create these for most of my branding clients because they are incredibly useful and a super simple way to create documents without a designer. If you create a digital letterhead template in Microsoft Word, suddenly you have a way to make branded, consistent and professional contracts, proposals, invoices, client resource forms, and more. Tip: Make sure to save your document as a PDF and it’ll retain all your special fonts, too.
Create Logo Variations: Ensure you’re using your logo where possible, including in your client documents. In places where it’s not appropriate to have a logo or your logo doesn’t fit (because, for example, it’s a square space and your logo is very wide) - consider creating a logo variation that can stand in. This offers brand recognition and fits in spaces your primary logo can’t normally go. Here’s an article explaining more about logo variations and why you do, in fact, need more than 1 logo!
Brand Your Photography: Select a handful of images that feel like the client experience of your business. You can pull from your own brand photo library or search through a stock option like Adobe Stock. Then use this handful of images throughout your marketing, on your website, and even as your background photo on LinkedIn. This is another great way to communicate the feeling of your business and get people to recognize it quickly.
Brand Your Thank You Notes: You can get your thank you notes at Target, or you can hop over to VistaPrint, add your logo to a notecard, and send branded stationery. Now, your clients are receiving a visual reminder in the mail of what your brand looks like! Bonus points if you use your logo or a logo variation to create a return address label that coordinates - another opportunity for visual consistency.
Create Your Own Brand Identity Guide: Sometimes referred to as a “brand board,” if you complete many of these activities - like picking fonts and colors - document them in a branded PDF! You can then use that as a reference and share it with your team, interns, and more to communicate the visual “standards” of your business marketing. I create these, including logo variations and secondary graphics, for my branding clients. I pair them with all the foundational marketing wording to create what I offer as a “Brand Story Guide." This functions as the ultimate guide to written and visual business marketing consistency for your business.
If you have any questions about the above or need help, I offer complimentary 20-minute consultations. Grab time with me right here and we'll take a look.
Your Consistency Challenge:
I challenge you to pick 1 of the 8 things and do it this week! Let me know with a REPLY what you're choosing and let me know how it goes.
Next time: written ways to make your marketing more consistent.
In my next issue in this 3-part series, I'll break down several ways to improve your communication and written consistency in your business marketing.
With November kicking off the full-on holiday season, note I'll be writing newsletters for you every other week this month and trying out that format! I know people are busy and often folks get behind with the weekly cadence - especially as these series have gone more in-depth. To see if it's of value to spread things out, I'm going try every other week this month and see how it goes. Let me know what you think as it goes!
Next issue will be posted on Wednesday, Nov. 16 and til then... stay awesome!
