Components of your brand (What you should brand)

Wednesday’s Production Tip for Successful Graphic Designers

Here’s the third part about creating an effective brand for you and your business.

When I first started freelancing, I put a website and thought that was all I had to really do when it came to my branding. I didn’t think of branding as a complete package until I was working on my branding report for my first website.

I then realized the power of seeing how all the different elements and pieces come together as a cohesive unit. I knew then how vitally important it is to have your brand encompass every material that comes out of your company. That’s the power of a complete brand. You brand should immediately identify who you are.

It was trial and error there for a time, but I’ve made a list of things in your business that you can brand with your design style, logo, color(s), and typography. It’s to get yourself thinking of how to better brand your business.

Components of your brand (What you should brand)

1. Stationery: Letterheads, business cards, envelopes, notepads, and labels
2. Paperwork for your business: Invoices, contracts, and forms
3. Promotional / marketing materials: Ads, e-zines, newsletters, postcards, …
4. Publications and/or products: Brochures, calendars, tip sheets, cheat sheets, special reports, e-books, books, …
5. Email: Signatures, backgrounds, typeface used, headers & footers, out of office replies
6. Telephone: The way you answer it, message if you don’t pick up, how long it takes you to get back to those calling
7. Website: Design, latest web 2.0 techniques and the way it’s written
8. Social Media: Your pages and backgrounds for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LinkedIn, …
9. Multimedia: Audios, Videos, Podcasts, PowerPoint presentations (jingles, intros and templates should all match)
10. Business processes: How long it takes you to reply to people via email or telephone, providing quotes, setting deadlines for projects, …

T A K E A W A Y S :

Creating a good brand saves you time and frustration.

A lot of what a good brand is is automation. It’s creating a system of templates that will automate what you do and create. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you have to send out an email or create a brochure; the elements are already in place. Familiarity is your brand.

As Roger C. Parker says, “Design it once, but use it often”.

Technorati Tags: Branding

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1. Extend your brand to your emails
2. Should you have a brand?
3. Elements of a good brand (Have you got the look?)
4. How important is your brand?
5. Branding is all about impressions