Be ‘on brand’ to raise your content game
Create content.
As a small business owner, this is voiced a lot from experts and influencers in the marketing field. But there is a lot more involved in ‘creating content’, and it needn’t be difficult to obtain quick wins and start seeing an impact.
Being visual.
The first touchpoint with your target audience tends to be through the use of graphics; this is before they dive on in and read, watch, listen and actually consume the content itself.
With this is mind, it’s important to spend a bit of time considering the graphics that will be going along with that video, lead magnet or blog post. With the amount of content that is being shared and consumed it’s important to stand out, make an impact and make sure all the graphics you are creating are on brand.
Setting your ‘brand style’ will raise your content game by strengthening your brand, helping you to look like an expert, be trusted and will work towards building your brand awareness, as anything you design will become instantly more recognisable as yours.
Once you have set your visual style across all touch points and become consistent in doing so, you will be more likely to gain trust and potential customers in the long term. Your content will stand out against the noise as customers start to remember and notice your individual brand style.
How to be on brand?
So, how do you go about making your graphics ‘on brand’? There’s many ways to bring your brand into your graphics. It’s always a great start by creating an overview of the brand assets you have.
Your logo, your brand colour references, your fonts, any imagery you may have including headshots, any additional patterns or illustrations.
Creating a mini toolbox of all these assets that you can use and refer to going forward will help with being consistent and will add depth to your brand and strengthen it visually.
All your content marketing efforts and everything you’re creating and sharing to the world from now on should be on brand and should shout ‘you’ as soon as it’s seen. And a great test to do is the logo test:
If you took away your logo it should still be recognisable as you.
If you have a designer you use, talk to them about your ideas and goals to ‘up your content game’ with the use of visuals, alternatively there are great resources to use on your own. Canva.com for example is a great graphics tool. I would suggest setting up a template for the various graphics you may need so you can update text and images as you go, without having to create from scratch everytime. You can create social media graphics, video thumbnails, e-books, lead magnets, you name it. Andrew and Pete have a couple videos on that over here:
▶ How to Create Social Media Graphics
▶ How to Create an Ebook in Canva
Where to Start? Quick upgrades on Current Content
Once you’ve set your style using your brand assets, go back to any content you have already produced, especially blog posts for quick wins. You can now upgrade these pieces of content with new graphics. Add a new feature image and some secondary graphics. Again, this helps to add depth to your content and reinforces your brand throughout. Being on brand really does have a big impact and will raise your content game to the next level.
Getting to another level again, it’s worth bearing in mind the content itself, your brand tone of voice, the style, and the type of content. Everything about your content should be recognisable as you, which will go a huge way to being noticed, increasing engagement and setting you up as an expert in your field.
Claire Harding is a Graphic Designer specialising in brand identity and content creation, helping small businesses to understand their brand and become proud and confident of what they are showing off to the world.