A brand style guide is a comprehensive catalogue of your business's branding aesthetic and tone. Whenever we work with a new client, we ask for their style guide. This ensures that the assets we include in their video are consistent and faithful to their branding. We recommend that you provide your style guide to anyone creating your branded content, including videos, blog posts, social media posts, graphics, product designs, emails, and anything similar. Keep reading for our top tips on how to utilize a style guide for your small business.
1) Solidify Your Mission Statement
A mission statement connects with your audience to share the "why" of your business. By establishing a clear, concise mission, you set the tone of what your branding is intended to portray. We recommend that you start your brand guide with your business's mission statement. This way, it's sure to stand out as a critical reference point for anyone using the guide. It's crucial that your vision remains the starting point for every piece of marketing your brand publishes, and solidifying your mission statement makes that possible across a range of content and creators.
2) Identify Fonts and Colors
You wouldn't believe how many times we've asked a client for their small business's font, and they simply respond with, "we don't have one"--just because they hadn't consciously chose one. If your business has a website, then your brand has a font! Keeping all of your fonts consistent across your branding is one of the easiest ways to to keep a cohesive look. Be sure to establish a header font for titles and a paragraph font for the rest. Your style guide needs to showcase the exact fonts (name, size, bold/underline/Italics, etc) and when/where to use each one. To make the most of your small business's style guide, be sure to incorporate your brand's colors, as well. The guide should include swatches of the color(s) and their HEX and RGB codes. The codes provide the exact shade of your color. This ensures that we're not just using any color purple--we're using your purple. Your brand should have 1 primary color, with 2 secondary colors, and your guide needs to outline when/where to use them.
3) Highlight Do’s and Don'ts
A style guide not only outlines aesthetics, it also communicates the do's and don'ts of your brand's entire image. Be sure to include your business's must-haves and must-avoids in branding. For instance, which words/terms do you avoid using? For example, many service industry brands insist on referring to their customers as "guests." This small but noticeable change in verbiage facilitates a much more personal connection between the brand and its consumers. Also consider how your brand presents itself in text/posts: Does your business use "we" or "I"? Do you use third person instead? How do you refer to your service and/or products as a whole? Having a clear guide to all these little details keeps your image consistent, professional, and accurate.
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