Branding Bridge Essentials {How to Stand Out From Your Competitors}

Today I am talking about bridging the gap in your branding. When working with new clients, I find that they need to identify their colors and fonts. If they have a high-resolution logo, and their patterns and images are complete, all these things are essential to a brand. Listen to the podcast When working with a freelance designer or agency: it is vital to understand and have that guidebook to identify all the things that go with your brand.

With a logo: you should have different color variations, a full color one, white, black, something to that extent, and extra file sizes, PNG, JPEG, EPS. You want to have all these components of a logo so you can use them in different ways.

For example: if you have an image in your logo, you can use that as a watermark or your Favicon. I have a shortcut installed so when I go to a client’s website; I can find their colors, their family for their fonts, and their size. I can put all that information together in a folder and give it to them, so when they are working with someone, they have it all right there.

With Holiday campaigns: you still want to keep it on point with their branding. To do that and still use fun colors, I can use black and red for black Friday, accent it in their colors, and add some images.

I create template-based graphics for their social media when taking on new clients, making the content and strategy.

Strategy first: figuring out what to post. It is not as simple as a motivational quote. We want to be strategic with what we post. I have different templates; for example, I have one for motivation Monday, Tuesdays tips, and Wednesday is new releases, like new blogs or videos. Then there are some for meeting the owner, and here are our services. Then I will rotate them out based on what they need, and then the branding is consistent.

Then I can go back to the pattern and images and use them on social media, email, or print. It helps to figure out where your branding is.

As an agency, we don’t always need your logo; that is a minor thing: We need to figure out what your personality is, your tone, who your audience is, your colors and fonts. These are all the things your brand needs to be successful. 

Think about what you have in place for your social media. Is it all over the place, is your branding and website all over the place?