How To Craft A Great Brand Experience: The Sweet Brand Show Episode 29

Think about it: What brands do you remember most?

Whether recently, or from childhood? What sticks out? Likely it was the memories made, the way it made you feel, how the employee made your day, how you were delightfully taken aback by _____(whatever, fill in the blank)_____.

The reason it sticks in your mind is because of the experience you encountered.

We don’t remember brands fondly just because. There’s usually something – good or bad – associated with it, and that something can vary depending on the person and the situation.

You can’t always control when or where people encounter your brand, or even how they react to it, but what you can do is intentionally set your brand up to hit the most important areas to try to create an optimal environment.

One where they are surprised, or ___fill in the blank___, whatever your ideal outcome might be for your audience. Keep reading – or tap to listen – because we’re going through my top tips for creating a great brand experience on today’s show!

Don’t have a brand yet but want to get started somewhere? Tap the link in the show notes or go to designwithclarissa.com/toolkit to grab The BYB Toolkit. It will teach you basic brand processes, show you how a brand designer makes decisions (like choosing fonts and colors), and give you a plan for consistency. That’s designwithclarissa.com/toolkit

Okay, there are a wide range of things you could focus on in order to create a memorable brand experience, but that would make this episode way too long – so I’m going to focus on the things I think are most important to get right, first, starting with:

#1. Brand Identity

Brand visuals are one of the first things anyone thinks of when they start a business or want to sell something. Of course you need something to brand your services or products, like a logo and brand suite.

However, a brand identity isn’t just about your logo.

It’s all encompassing. It includes supporting graphics, photography and videography, and a consistent brand voice and messaging.

All of these things play well together to bring a brand experience to life. If you have a logo, but don’t have any other imagery, there’s nothing else to look at.

If you have imagery but don’t have any sort of messaging to go with it, you’re missing out on conveying what you really mean.

The different elements that make up your brand suite are important to crafting a well-rounded experience for your clients or customers, no matter when, where or how they interact with your brand.

#2. Design Consistency

If you’ve been listening to this podcast or following me for any amount of time, you know I talk about design consistency quite a bit. I have resources, blog posts and podcast episodes on it that you can go back and listen to – I’ll be sure to link those in the show notes.

If you’re new here, welcome to my philosophy on branding and consistency. Here’s the cliff notes:

You can’t have a clear, well-rounded brand without brand consistency. And this isn’t just about your logo, fonts, colors, and supporting graphics – although those things DO need to always, always, always be consistently used. Don’t use colors or fonts or graphic elements that aren’t part of your brand.

But also, be consistent with all of the NEW things you create!

I think this is where it really trips people up and they kind of fall off the wagon.

They have this beautiful brand they love, but they don’t know how to take it from there and use it well for social media, website, products and services and all the new things they need to create.

And of course, most small business owners do not have a dedicated in-house brand guru or marketing person that knows all about branding and consistency that can help them.

They’re usually relying on third-party vendors, printers, contractors, to help them create their materials. Everything from signage to social media posts needs to look and feel consistent with your brand. So HOW do you ensure consistency?

This is where something like a brand style guide really comes in handy. It will have the important components of your brand like your colors, fonts and logos, and, depending on the type of guide it is, it may also include ways your brand should and should not be styled.

It’s super helpful for you and your third-party vendors to know how to handle your brand, and a brand style guide is the #1 tool to relay that information in a clear, concise and efficient manner.

Keeping up with design consistency ultimately aids in your brand experience – because people need repetition to know who you are and what you do.

They need to encounter your brand up to 7 times before making a purchase, and each time, they need to be seeing the same elements so their brain can make that connection of, “oh yeah, that’s THAT brand”.

If you saw a Walmart ad and their normally-yellow-and-blue logo was purple and black, you’re going to wonder what the heck is going on. It would be weird.

The same goes for your brand: Keep it visually consistent so your audience isn’t confused and so they can make that same connection time and time again.

#3. Focus on Your Team

Having been an employee of other businesses, as well as having my own individual clients, I’ve learned a thing or two about what it takes to create a great brand experience from the vantage point of an employee or team member. I’ve even helped create some of these things as part of my different roles at companies.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that branding starts from within.

Whether it’s just you by yourself, or you get to where you lead a whole team of people – even if those people aren’t actually considered employees on paper but they are vendors or contractors.

No matter what way you look at it, branding starts from within, and it starts with you first, and then trickles down through to your team.

Now I’m not in HR, and I don’t have a degree in company culture (if that’s a thing), but from my experience I can tell you a few things that work well to help you create an internal brand experience that eventually breaks through the walls of your business and can be seen and felt externally, starting with internal programs that build the person and therefore build the brand, such as:

  • Leadership training
  • Customer service training
  • Social media training
  • Personal development courses or classes that the employee is able to find or choose on their own

Of course, all of these will need to point back to the business in some way – You’re not going to pay for someone to learn how to train their dog if that doesn’t align with your business goals. However, you can offer resources for them to grow in ways that satisfy your business goals but also interest your team members both professionally and personally.

#4. Creating Content

One of the quickest ways to get customers to see your brand for who it really is, is your content.

Whether you’re able to do a weekly newsletter or a podcast, or whatever that looks like for you, even if your customers haven’t bought from you just yet, if they’re following your content and continue to listen or read or engage with it, the chances of them making that purchase are only going to grow.

Think about it: If all they have to interact with or see is your website, you’re probably not going to get very far – and not because you’re website isn’t great or doesn’t serve a purpose, but because people aren’t going to sit there and comb through every static page and look at all your cool images and read every word.

They don’t have time for that, they don’t want to make time for that.

And even if they are the type to look through some of it, they will skim, they’ll feel like they got the gist, and then might never visit again. Your content, on the other hand, gives them a reason to come back.

It gives them a reason to keep checking in with you and follow you, because you’re always putting out something fresh on a consistent basis.

It doesn’t have to be everything, everywhere, either.

You can choose to just do ONE thing, like an email every week.

And that’s it.

That’s enough for the audience you want to attract. It doesn’t have to be some big content machine – although those are great and definitely help and serve a purpose, it’s not always about more is more. Sometimes it’s about what’s the ONE thing you can do, and do really well, that will help you move the needle?

Content you create and give out for free is something a lot of us sleep on, myself included, but that really does give a return over time, and ultimately, helps you craft a brand experience you can be proud of.

#5. Continuous Improvement

The work is never done, personally or professionally.

Whether it’s improving yourself, your process or products, elevating your services or creating new things that your clients and customers need, the work is never really done and there are always improvements to be made. Keep taking feedback, and keep improving and making things better.

Make them look better. Make them feel better. Make them more efficient or add much-needed enhancements.

Continue personal development, training and learning.

Staying static or going with the flow has its place in certain seasons, but the idea that we can always make things even just 1% better is where I like to live.

Making things better for your clients and customers will only make them want to come back for more. Continuous improvement is key to a memorable brand experience.

You Can’t Do It All At Once

And that brings me to my last point: You can’t do all of these things at once, and you can’t do them all well at once.

They will take time to set up.

A great brand, with a memorable experience is in it for the long haul.

We’ve all heard the term “overnight success” but there’s really no such thing.

Listen to ANYONE that seemingly has a successful anything, and they will tell you, it wasn’t always like this. They started with nothing or they started somewhere, they made mistakes, they quit things or pivoted – all to get to where they are today.

Be in it for the long game, keep that mindset, stay consistent, and that’s what will help you move the needle and create a great brand experience.

Thanks for being here – Don’t forget you can always listen to The Sweet Brand Show on all major podcast platforms!