Entrepreneurs, business owners, and founders are all about slashing their budgets and moving quickly. While you might be tempted to skip brand standards to slim down the numbers and shorten your timeline, you will soon find out that they’re enticing shortcuts that are not good for long-term brand health. Viewing brand standards as unnecessary, trivial, optional, or even useless is just plain wrong! Let’s get into the reasons why brand standards are not only important, but why they’re essential to giving your brand the best shot at making it big.
It holds everything together
Completing your brand standards is the glue that holds everything together. We’re not talking about that weak elementary stick glue; we mean that extra-super-hold-cement-paste, don’t-get-it-on-your-fingers kind of stuff. It ensures that all of your marketing materials are cohesive and consistent, even when managers and goals change. No matter if it’s a social post, a flyer, your website, or a team shirt, everything always comes back to the mothership (your brand standards). Oh and did we mention that consistent brand representation can increase revenue by 33%?
It gives you that trust factor
Consistency builds trust! A messy array of inconsistent messaging and design can easily deem you unreliable and unprofessional in the eyes of your potential customers. When you can show your customers that you have it all together (because you do!), it will further confirm that you’re the right brand to support. Trust is everything in business and when your branding doesn’t align across the board and seems to change regularly, it can bring up all kinds of insecure feelings in your customers.
It makes it easier for your team
You more than likely have multiple people working for your company, and if you don’t, you’re probably on your way there! When there are many hands on your projects, like writers, editors, PMs, and designers, that’s a lot of people touching the brand at different points. Having brand standards is the way to make your marketing sustainable for your company and easy-to-replicate for your team. Want to outsource something for your brand? They’ll need all of that information so they can nail the colors and fonts.
It’s a good investment
If you don’t have a big enough team in-house to tackle the oh-so-important task of developing the perfect set of brand standards for your company, outsourcing it is worth the money. Consider brand standards the one time to get it right so that your organization can operate effectively and steadily when it comes to your marketing efforts. Your brand standards will last you years, if not a lifetime (unless you need a brand refresh and we love that!), so you’ll be rest assured that it’s money (time, energy, resources) well spent!
It lets your voice shine
While consistent fonts and colors are essential to a cohesive appearance, the right messaging is equally impactful. While you can get by for a little while without a distinctive, solid, unchanging brand voice, you can get a lot further (a lot faster) when you nail it. Your voice and messaging is housed in your brand standards so that no matter who takes on your social media or newsletter writing, it’s clear who you are and what sorts of things are “on brand” for you to say.
Well it’s probably clear by now that we think brand standards rock! The one thing that we can promise is that brand standards will not be something that sits on your desk and collects dust! The cool thing is that you can develop your brand standards when you start your company or fix them a couple years down the road. It’s never too late! You love your business and you’re still the expert in your field; brand standards simply give you the foundation to build some truly amazing things for your audience that will show off the business that you built in just the right way.
Need help with developing brand standards or refining your company’s voice? Contact us at Lillian James Creative so we can help your business produce content that is as consistent and cohesive as possible.
Like what you’ve read? Want to share similar content with your organization at your next event? Aaron Fulk, CEO of Lillian James Creative, has graced many stages and speaks about finding your creativity, storytelling, personal branding, and more. Book her for your next event!