We speak with so many business owners that feel overwhelmed when it comes to their content and messaging.
There are so many ways to market your business.
A logo is just one piece of your brand—An important piece, but it can’t carry all the weight. Simplify content for yourself and your team by setting up for success with the right tool for the job. Make marketing more straightforward and, more importantly— more effective by reaching for your brand guide or brand style sheet.
Brand Guide Versus Style Guide
Brand guides are a comprehensive doc that outlines graphic, color, and font rules. It also shows examples, lists important attributes that align with the company’s mission, defines copy voice, and lays a visual and creative strategy for communicating a brand as a whole. This internal document helps communications remain consistent and professional externally by giving your team, outside consultants, and vendors clear direction about who the brand is and why customers should care about what they’re selling. Every company can benefit from the value of repetition. It’s one of the quickest ways to begin building awareness for your company.
With that said, I can hear the choir of complaints coming from startups that are singing about their low budget for marketing. To you beautiful melodic doers and dreamers, I say make it a goal to have one in the first three years.
In the meantime, benefit from a brand style sheet which is an abbreviation of a brand guide. It defines style rules and an approved 300 to 500-word boilerplate to use for press releases and other marketing materials in one to two pages. It’s invaluable to keep the image of your company consistent. This is an affordable way to do it. Keep in mind that it’s usually more expensive and time-consuming to detangle customer misconceptions after running the business than to create a thoughtful concise guide that keeps everyone on task from the start.
Use It, Don't Lose It
Once you have a brand guide or brand style sheet, don’t forget to use it. It’s one thing to create a set of rules, but it’s another thing entirely to enforce them. Lead by example and challenge your team to commit to the guide.
Get Started
Think about who you are, who your customer is and how you want them to experience your brand, service, and products. Then, ensure your customers are getting the right message, email Hart House creative at hi@harthousecreative.com.
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