Branding is essential for any business since it’s considered a personality and identifies your product or service. Are you wondering how you can create a brand that stands out from the crowd but not sure how? 

In this article, you’ll learn all about creating a brand and saying goodbye to old and stale branding. Read on to discover 10 tips for creating an identity for your brand and making it pop. 

What Is a Brand Identity

Brand identity contains the visual parts of a brand such as the logo, color themes, and any design that separates one company from another. All of these have a goal in mind which is putting a certain image in customers’ minds. You want to have your brand be recognizable and remembered by customers. 

1. Know Your Target Audience 

When you’re creating a brand, a large mistake many make is not keeping their target audience in mind. 

An example of a target audience:

Age: 25-35

Gender: Female

Location: United States

Education: College Graduate

Income: $30,000-$40,000

When you’re designing your brand, keep your target audience’s demographics in mind such as their age, income, gender, and education level. If you want to dive deeper and really target your audience even more, find their pain points, goals, and motivations when creating your brand.

2. Sell Your Brand

If someone goes to your website, you have about 10-20 seconds to pique their interest. Focus on selling your brand and not your product to really attract and keep your audience’s interest. That’s when your leads turn into sales.

3. Be Consistent

Consumers want to buy from a company that’s familiar to them. When building a brand, you’ll want to make sure that your brand is consistent across all platforms and channels. Whether it’s social media or your website, you’ll want your brand to maintain recognizability. 

4. Research Your Competitors 

Take a look at your competitors and see what branding they’re using for their company and decide what they do well or fail with.

Some things to keep in mind and write down as your research are:

• Quality of products or services
• Competitor’s social mentions or customer reviews
• How they market their business offline and online
• How consistent they are with their identity across platforms

Once you have researched your competitors, make sure your brand stands out, is recognizable, and different from them. 

5. Brand Logo and Tagline

Creating a logo is vital for creating a brand that stands out from the crowd. Your logo will show up everywhere that your business does and will be seen as your identity, so make sure it’s recognizable and clean. 

You’ll want to invest the time and money to make sure your logo is recognizable and piques interest. You’ll want your brand style guide to include:

• Color palette
• Typography and fonts
• Iconography
• Image style
• Web elements
• Logo size

Are you unsure if your branding or logo needs an update? Read on here for 10 signs it’s time your brand gets a new look. 

6. Build Your Brand Message

Let customers know who you are and make them relate to you by having a brand message that’s about 1-2 sentences. This should answer the questions of who you are, what you offer, and why your target audience should be interested. 

7. Reflection of You

You should have your brand be a reflection of you. It’s important to keep your audience in mind as you’re building your brand, but it’s important to keep your type of business in mind as well.

For example, if you’re in graphic design you’ll want to have a clean website and not one that’s too busy or has stiff fonts. Keeping your business in mind is important for your consumers to be able to clearly define what you’re all about. 

8. Have a Brand Voice 

Your brand voice is how your audience responds to you and how you communicate. 

Some examples of a brand voice:

• Conversational
• Professional
• Friendly
• Informative

When choosing your brand voice you’ll want it to make sense for your business and your target audience. Make sure your brand voice is consistent so it’s recognizable across multiple platforms. 

9. Responding to Bad Reviews

Responding to bad reviews is essential to maintaining your brand identity and not letting them hurt your image. Try solving the problem quickly and efficiently to avoid hurting your identity. 

Don’t ever fight with a customer online, that could hurt your image and scare off potential customers. 

10. Reach with Emotion

Depending on your business, you could build your brand by reaching out to your audience with emotion. When you’re writing, you want it to convey a story to your audience they can relate with on an emotional level. 

Explore and find an emotional hook for your advertising, and take your time in doing so. When you put in the time for a strong hook this will pay off in the long run.

For example, a great example of an emotional hook is, say you’re selling exercise equipment, you can showcase success stories showing how happy people are now that the weight’s gone. Think about your products, services, and target audience as you’re coming up with your emotional hook.

Now You Know What Goes into Creating a Brand

Creating a brand can seem tricky but after reading this guide, you should feel comfortable with creating a brand or rebranding an existing brand. Remember to keep each step in mind and really dig deep to learn as much about your target audience as possible for a consistent and powerful branding identity.

If this post was helpful, be sure to share it on social media and bookmark this site for more informative content!

When you start a small business, your to-do list is a mile long. It’s easy to push things like designing a company logo to the back burner — but you’d be making a huge mistake.

There are tons of reasons that you need to start strong with a recognizable logo. You need your brand to have a big impact right out of the gate.

Design, color, font all play a big role in how you’re perceived and what kind of business you attract. For example, almost 100% of customers make a snap decision based on product color alone.

Learn why and how you need to build a business logo that pops right now — keep reading!

Your Company Logo Is You

You know that saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? That’s what a logo is all about.

Your logo is all you. When your potential customer spots your mark, they associate it with your values, quality, and service.

Sets You Apart

Did you know the simple Nike swoosh is the most recognized logo in the world? It goes to show that you don’t have to be flashy to distinguish yourself.

Build a logo for your brand that people will remember, one that stands out among the competition.

Fosters Loyalty

You don’t just want to close a sale, you want to build a relationship. Having a strong logo is all about that post-funnel customer care.

Happy customers are loyal customers. Help them find you and promote you with a memorable logo.

Logo Design Defines Your Values

When you’re designing your company logo, you get to know yourself really well. You have to ask yourself a lot of questions and do a deep dive on your brand.

Don’t just slap together random images. Think about what you stand for and who your customers are.

Even if you’re not creative, you can come up with a few images that you feel represent who you are. You can even use guides, like this template, to help put together the right look.

Use Your Logo to Inspire

A strong company deserves a strong logo. Once you figure out what look you’re going for, stand behind it.

Knowing your brand and having a symbol that represents all that you stand for is key to inspire others. Your employees will feel pride and investors will understand your mission and goals.

Makes Branding Easy

Having a great logo makes it easy to brand your business. You don’t have to work too hard to convey who you are.

Put that logo on tons of merchandise and give it out. Get your brand out into the world and in front of potential customers.

Mark Your Business With an Inspiring Logo

There are plenty more reasons why you should make designing a killer company logo a top priority. These should be enough to get you started.

We know you’re now convinced that an amazing logo can take your brand from good to great. If you want to get more ideas, check out our articles on logo inspiration!

It’s time to get attention for your business but how do you do it?

One of the best ways to get attention is through van branding. If you’re going to be driving around with these vehicles anyway, why not use them to get customers?

While putting logos and images on your van will cost some money, the money you’ll make from the customers you pull in will help you recoup your investment.

Continue reading this article to learn more about the best practices for branding your company’s van.

The 411 on Van Branding and Getting Attention for Your Business

It’s not as hard or expensive as you think to get started with branded vehicles. These tips will help you get started.

1. Know Your Advertising Goals

Before you start branding your vehicle, make sure you know what your advertising goal is.

Do you want people to contact you for a free estimate? Do you want them to book an appointment?

Maybe you want people to buy a certain product?

Knowing what you want to get out of your advertising is key before you start spending money on the actual work.

2. Get the Best Graphics

Don’t skimp on graphic design. Use a great company like Full Sail Graphics to get a design that looks as professional as your work. A weak graphic signals low quality work so you don’t want to have any part in that.

3. Go Big

You want people to be able to see your wording from far away. Go as big as possible when you’re putting text on your vehicle. If only the car behind you can see your text, you’re missing out.

4. Be Careful with Fonts

While fancy fonts might look cool, if people can’t read what your van says, it’s not going to do your company any good. Even if your normal brand font is something funky, consider doing something more traditional like Arial font so people can easily read what you’re trying to communicate.

5. What’s Unique About Your Company?

There may be ten other people in your city that do the same thing you do. Why are you different?

Use your van to spread the message of why people should use your company instead of one of the other many people that offer your services.

Maybe you’re family-owned and operated or you offer a discount to veterans. Whatever it is, make sure people know about it.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Now that you know more about van branding, why not use it to your advantage? When people see well-done graphics on a company vehicle, it builds trust in the brand.

There are many other things you can learn on our site as well. Learning best practices before you start putting your logo on your vehicles will allow you to get the best results.

Browse our site, find your favorite section, drop a bookmark and come back soon for more great reads.

It’s a given that promotional products work, but did you know that they may even work better than digital ads? Let’s look at the evidence in numbers.

A single promotional bag generates around 5,700 impressions. 85% of consumers also remember the company more because of a t-shirt or a hat.

This means nothing still beats a physical product when it comes to increasing brand awareness and brand visibility.

These numbers say something about the effectiveness of a promotional product, but it doesn’t include the quality of those products. 

If you’re planning to print logo images of your company, make sure you choose the right method. You’ll get more out of your investment by ensuring the quality. Read on to know the steps on how to do it right.

1. Prepare the Logo File

You must first have the logo file prepared. It should be compatible with the method of printing you want, which we’ll discuss later.

Your logo should have vector graphics. This will make it easier for you to scale it up or down depending on the material you want it printed on. This allows you to print it on small products like mugs or big marketing materials like banners without it losing quality.

Make sure it doesn’t have a background, too, not even a white background. It should be transparent. If it has a white background, the printed logo will have a white rectangular frame.

As for the colors, consider the product you want to print it on, too. For colorful bottles, consider putting a monotone logo, for instance. 

2. Choose a Logo Printing Method

Once you have your print logo file ready, choose how you want to print it on your marketing product of choice. The right method will also depend on the material. We’ll explain it more below.

Heat Transfer

In this method, you print the image on a sublimation transfer film. This then utilizes the heat from a heat press to transfer the design to another object. Note that the result looks glossy with bright colors.

This method is great for t-shirts, mugs, bags, and more. In general, you can use this method for fabric, plastic, and ceramic materials.

Silkscreen Printing

Silkscreen printing has been in use for over a century. Even today, it remains an effective method of printing.

It’s a popular method for printing on t-shirts. But you can also use this method to print on wood, paper, ceramic, and other materials. You can also use it to print your logo on suitcases, umbrellas, and other objects with flat surfaces.

The printing process involves a screen, a sheet of plastic with cut-outs, and a squeegee. You place the screen on top of the object, then place the sheet of plastic, and then use a squeegee to coat the screen with ink. This “prints” the image on the sheet of plastic onto the object.

Laser Engraving

As this method’s name implies, it uses a laser to engrave words or images onto materials like wood and metal. For metal products, you have to use the cool laser type and the heat laser for non-metal objects.

It’s easy, fast, and it allows you to create beautiful images on a variety of objects. If you use it on glass, it can create beautiful artworks without breaking the material.

The best thing about this method, though, is that it’s one of the cheapest methods there is.

Embroidery

You don’t have to do actual embroidery in this method; you leave this process to the machines. They “print” any image on the object using needles, threads, and a machine that does embroidery. This leaves a 3D and textured print.

As you can guess, this method is only good for promotional products made of fabric. It’s great for hats, bags, t-shirts, and so on. You can even create a different lanyard option using this method.

3. Buy the Needed Materials

For the printing method you choose, you must buy the corresponding equipment. You’ll need a laser engraving machine, for instance, whose costs depend on the size, power, and capacity.

You will also have to take these into account when buying the right equipment.

You’ll also have to prepare the materials you want your printed logo on. Make sure that the products are also compatible with the printing method of your choice.

Silkscreen printing is inexpensive for the most part, but for the other printing methods, you’ll have to shell out a huge amount of money for the equipment alone. Then you have to account for the manpower, materials, and such.

Get a Printing Company to Print Logo Images

For a hassle-free printing, send your logo to a printing company instead. They will already have the equipment and the knowledge on how to do it right. It not only saves you time but money as well.

First, look for a reputable company who does the printing method you desire and who can print on your chosen product. Most of the time, you can source the marketing product from them, as well. This saves you the extra step of finding a different supplier.

Coordinate with the company to learn what file type they need to print your company logo on products for marketing. For the most part, they’ll ask for an EPS file. However, they may also ask for it in PNG or PDF for test runs.

Speaking of test runs, this is a crucial step when speaking with printing companies. You must have mockups first to see if it looks good and for your suppliers to confirm all the details before they mass print your order.

Get High-Quality Prints of Your Logo

Whichever method you choose and whether you want to do it yourself or let a professional handle it, remember to prioritize the quality over costs. While it’s important to stick to your budget, choose a method that will give you the best results.

Your print logo is a visual representation of your brand; if it looks bad, you risk getting the same image, too.

Why stop here? Don’t hesitate to learn more about marketing by reading our other articles and guides today.