1. Website
50% of internet users consider a website’s design when forming an opinion about a business. So, splash your logo, color palette, and typography across your website. Don’t use anything but your predefined assets in your brand guidelines.
Your website is a major part of your company identity — if it doesn’t reflect your brand, it will only create a jarring customer experience. Also, be sure that all web copy, calls-to-action, and product descriptions speak with your brand voice.
Real-Life Brand Example: Shopify
Shopify‘s website perfectly embodies its brand. The clean, minimal design and straightforward copy reflect Shopify’s mission to simplify ecommerce. Consistent use of brand colors, fonts, and illustrations create a cohesive experience.
Testing It Out
For the social media marketing platform’s website, I applied the teal and gray color scheme and rounded, friendly fonts. The copy emphasizes ease-of-use and authentic connection, in line with the brand voice. Customer testimonials and case studies showcase successful small businesses to inspire and build trust.
2. Social Media
Increasing brand awareness is a top goal for social marketers, according to 2022 research. All profile photos, cover art, and branded imagery should reflect your brand. Consider putting your logo as your profile photo. This will make it easier for customers to recognize your business. As with your website, be sure all profile information, posts, and captions show off your brand voice.
Real-Life Brand Example: Wendy’s
Wendy’s social media presence is a masterclass in branding. Their profile photos feature their iconic logo and mascot. Their tweets are sassy, playful and on-brand.
Testing It Out
Across social profiles, I used the branded chat bubble logo icon as the profile photo. Cover images feature the vibrant teal and photos of small business owners connecting with customers. Captions are written in a friendly, encouraging brand voice, with tips and resources to help small businesses grow using social media.
Consistent use of branded hashtags (#AuthenticSocialGrowth) reinforces key messaging.
3. Packaging
If you have a physical products business, your product is probably the most tangible way that customers interact with your brand. For that reason, your packaging should highlight your new branding — in its design, colors, size, and feel.
Real-Life Brand Example: Chobani
I love Chobani yogurt (confession: I’m eating it right now). Their branding immediately tells me that they produce authentic, healthy Greek yogurt.
That’s one of the main reasons I buy Chobani. It makes its yogurt packaging with recyclable paper cups — an intentional decision that supports the overall experience they’ve paired with purchasing and eating the Chobani brand.
4. Advertising
Advertisements (digital and print) are often used to establish brand awareness and introduce consumers to your brand. In fact, according to HubSpot research, 33% of marketers use paid ads to increase brand awareness.
Because of this, it’s critical that they display your branding. In fact, your branding should make the ad creation process easier. With your brand style guide, you already know how your ads should appear and what type of copy to write.
Real-Life Brand Example: Oatly
Oatly‘s ads are quirky, bold, and instantly recognizable. With irreverent copy, stark black and white imagery, and the consistent Oatly logo, they command attention. The ads perfectly capture Oatly’s unconventional brand.
Testing It Out
Digital ads for the social media marketing platform feature bold text in the brand fonts and colors.
Copy focuses on the pain points of the target audience (“Struggling to grow your small biz on social? We can help!”) and the benefits of the platform.
Branded illustrations catch the eye while reinforcing the message. A clear CTA encourages clicks.
5. Sales and Customer Service
A brand is only as powerful as the people behind it, and if your people aren’t putting your brand to work, it won’t work for you. Moreover, your brand applies to more than your marketing.
Inform your sales and customer service folks of your brand guidelines and tell them to use them, especially when they engage directly with customers. Whether they’re sharing a branded product demo or answering customer questions, encourage them to use your logo, tagline, imagery, and brand voice.
Real-Life Brand Example: Amazon
Amazon is known for its exceptional customer service, which is a key part of its brand promise. For example:
- 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and chat
- No-hassle returns and exchanges
- Proactive communication about delays or issues with orders
- Personalized recommendations based on purchase history
Testing It Out
I developed a brand training for all customer-facing teams. It covers the platform’s mission, target audience, brand voice, and visual guidelines. I also provided buyer personas using persona templates so teams understand who they’re addressing better.
Sales reps use branded slides for demos, and stress ease-of-use and authentic connection in their pitches. Customer service reps spend as much time as needed to help small business owners succeed on the platform, in a friendly and encouraging tone. All teams have easy access to approved brand assets.
Check out these examples of small business branding for more inspiration.
Branding Terms to Know
Here are some other brand-related buzzwords you should know. They show the importance and value of branding your business.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness refers to how familiar the general public and your target audience are with your brand. High brand awareness leads to brands being referred to as “trending,” “buzzworthy,” or “popular.”
Brand awareness is important because consumers can’t consider purchasing from your brand if they’re not aware of it.
👉🏼 Strong branding makes your business known.
Brand Extension
Brand extensions are when companies “extend” their brand to develop new products in new industries and markets. Consider Honda lawn mowers or Martha Stewart “Good Things.”
Brand extensions allow companies (or individuals) to leverage brand awareness and equity to create more revenue streams and diversify product lines.
👉🏼 Strong branding brings in more money.
Brand Identity
Brand identity is the personality of your business and the promise you make to your customers. It’s what you want your customers to walk away with after they interact with your brand.
Your brand identity is typically composed of your values, how you communicate your product or service, and what you want people to feel when they interact with it.
👉🏼 Strong branding gives your business more than a name.
Brand Management
Brand management refers to the process of creating and maintaining your brand.
It includes managing the tangible elements of your brand (style guide, packaging, color palette) and the intangible elements (how it’s perceived by your target audience and customer base).
Your brand is a living, breathing asset, and it should be managed as such.
Brand Recognition
Brand recognition is how well a consumer (ideally in your target audience) can recognize and identify your brand without seeing your business name — through your logo, tagline, jingle, packaging, or advertising.
This concept goes hand-in-hand with brand recall, which is the ability to think of a brand without any visual or auditory identifiers.
👉🏼 Strong branding keeps your business top-of-mind.
Brand Trust
Brand trust refers to how strongly customers and consumers believe in your brand.
Do you deliver on your marketing promises? Do your salespeople and customer service go above and beyond?
These things can create trust among your customers, which is important in a world where a mere 14% of people feel confident in large businesses.
👉🏼 Strong branding builds trust with your customers.
Brand Valuation
Brand valuation is the commercial valuation of your brand derived from consumer perception, recognition, and trust.
This concept goes hand-in-hand with brand equity. A powerful brand can make your business invaluable to investors, shareholders, and potential buyers.
👉🏼 Strong branding increases your business’s value.
3. Establish your mission statement.
Let’s return to a question I asked in the last step: Why did you create your business? Answering this will help you build your mission statement. This statement defines your purpose and passion as an organization.
Before you can craft a brand that your audience recognizes, values, and trusts, you must be able to show what your business has to give. Then, every part of your brand (logo, tagline, imagery, voice, and personality) can reflect that mission and vision.
Your mission statement is a building block of your brand manifesto. It encompasses why your organization exists and why people should care about your brand.
Real-Life Brand Example: Patagonia
Clothing brand Patagonia’s brand purpose is to “Save our home planet.” This clear and impactful purpose guides everything they do, from their product design to their environmental activism.
Customers love it and consider it the most reputable brand in the United States.
Testing It Out
I wrote the following mission statement for the mock social media marketing platform: “To empower small businesses to authentically connect with their customers and grow their brand through innovative and accessible social media marketing tools and resources.”
This mission statement reflects the brand’s purpose and the value it aims to provide.
4. Define your unique values, qualities, and benefits.
There are probably lots of businesses in your industry and niche. It’s easy to focus on your competition (and there’s a time and place for competitive analysis), but, for now, let’s focus on you.
What’s one thing that your business has that no one else can mimic (er, legally)? Your brand.
Because of that, you must make sure that your brand is made from and inspired by elements that are solely yours: the values, benefits, and qualities that make your company unique.
Take a moment to jot down a list of what sets your business apart from others. I’m not talking about product features (like appearance, components, or capabilities). I’m referring to how your products or services improve lives and contribute to success.
Real-Life Brand Example: Tower 28 Beauty
You may have heard of Tower 28; they’re a beauty company that went viral on TikTok in 2021. I order their skincare products for two reasons:
- They steer clear of harmful ingredients, and
- I trust and respect the brand (and it’s gorgeous.)
On their website, they’ve clearly and simply outlined their unique values and benefits as part of their overall brand. This makes it easy for customers like me to trust their products and choose them over competitors.
Testing It Out
Some unique values and benefits I defined for the social media marketing platform:
- Affordable and accessible for small businesses on a budget.
- Enables authentic connection and engagement with customers.
- Simplifies social media marketing to save small business owners time.
- Empowers small businesses to grow through social media.
5. Create your visual assets.
At this point, you should understand your target audience, your mission statement, and the unique qualities that make up your business.
Can you say with confidence that you’ve finished these steps? If your answer is yes, it’s time to move on to one of the more exciting parts of branding — the visual design. We’re talking about your logo, color palette, typography (fonts), iconography, and other visual components.
As you create these elements, build a set of brand guidelines (or a brand style guide) to govern the composition and use of your visual assets.
This will ensure that whoever uses your new branding does so accurately and consistently. Check out these examples of brand style guides for some inspiration.
Note: Design can be just as intimidating as it is exciting. Consider hiring a professional with logo and identity design experience or starting with a few helpful design templates.
Testing It Out
For the social media marketing platform, I selected:
- Logo. A chat bubble icon incorporating an upward trending arrow to symbolize growth through conversation
- Colors. A vibrant, friendly teal as the primary color. Gray and white as secondary colors.
- Fonts. A rounded, approachable sans-serif font for headings. A clean, easy-to-read sans-serif for body copy.
- Imagery. Photos featuring small business owners connecting with customers and growing their business. Minimalist illustrations. These visual elements create a cohesive brand feel that’s modern, approachable, and conveys growth.
6. Find your brand voice.
Next, consider the voice of your brand. What would your brand sound like if you had a conversation with it, or if it texted you?
How you communicate with your target market is also considered part of your branding. You want to define a brand voice that connects and resonates with your audience — otherwise, they probably won’t pay attention. Because of that, don’t hesitate to return to step one to get familiar with to whom you’re speaking.
From your advertising campaigns and Instagram captions to your blog posts and brand story, your tone must be consistent.
So, give your audience a chance to get familiar with your brand and learn to recognize the sound of your voice. Better yet, create a fun, entertaining voice, and your customers will look forward to your social media and email updates.
Real-Life Brand Example: MailChimp
MailChimp is a great example of a brand that speaks with a clear, consistent tone. When I used their free plan for my small business, I always chuckled when receiving their emails and scanning their Instagram feed.
From its web copy to its social media posts, MailChimp has a clear brand voice that’s personable, fun, and accessible. It can be hard to explain the technical parts of a software product (like A/B testing), but MailChimp has finessed that, too.
Testing It Out
I defined key traits of the social media marketing platform’s brand voice:
- Friendly and approachable.
- Informative but not overly technical.
- Empowering and encouraging.
- Occasional use of humor.
7. Put your branding to work.
Your brand only works if you do. Once you finish designing and creating your new brand (or rebrand) integrate it throughout every inch of your business.
Pay extra attention to make sure that it’s displayed anywhere your business touches customers. Here are a handful of tips for applying your brand across your organization. Want to build an effective, measurable brand? Download our free guide on how to build a brand.
Testing It Out
To implement the new branding for the social media marketing platform, I’d take the following steps:
- Apply visual branding elements to the platform interface, website, social media profiles, and any marketing materials.
- Refine messaging on the website and in marketing copy to align with brand voice
- Train team members on the new brand guidelines.
- Develop branded content like blog posts, social media posts, and email newsletters.
- Ensure branded visuals and voice are used consistently in all future designs, product updates, and customer interactions.
| Branding | blog.hubspot.com |
