You’ve spent a lot of time and money creating the perfect message, logo, website and marketing materials for your brand. You’ve gone back and forth with the designer to get your logo spaced out just right and worked with the content creator to find an impactful and cohesive tagline and brand message. However, none of this will remain consistent over time without a set of brand guidelines.
What Are Brand Guidelines?
Brand guidelines, also referred to as “brand standards”, a “style guide” or “brand book”, are a set of rules on how to use your branding elements and are often collated as a printed book or PDF file.
They typically include your brand’s elements such as your logo’s usage, colour palette and type style as well as an overview of your brand message, including examples of ‘tone of voice’. The guidelines should be understood by designers, writers or anyone else using your brand’s elements to create marketing materials.
Why Do You Need Brand Guidelines?
Guidelines should be used as a point of reference to keep your brand identity consistent. Whether your organisation is large or small, the set of guidelines are critical in ensuring your brand works effectively. Without them, your brand’s message you’ve worked so hard to establish can alter because the logo has been used improperly.
Here’s why your brand needs guidelines…
- To ensure your brand message is communicated consistently across all marketing collateral
- To provide an organisation’s employees with focus and direction to ensure they imitate the brand’s message in their day to day work
- To avoid confusion. Just because you may know your brand like the back of your hand a new employee won’t know the rules right away.
How Do I Get Brand Guidelines?
Guidelines are created after establishing a colour palette, logo, brand voice and all of your other brand elements. They should be flexible enough for designers to be creative, but rigid enough to keep your brand consistent and recognisable.
If you’re just building your business and brand, now is the ideal time to have your guidelines produced. If you’d like help getting started, or need pointing in the right direction do not hesitate in contacting us for more information. We look forward to hearing from you!
For further insights and guidance, we invite you to explore our blog at 07hm.co.uk/blog. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information tailored to the needs and challenges of SMEs navigating the digital landscape. Additionally, if you have specific questions or need personalised advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone on 01702 410663.
