Visual Brand Consistency Explained + 5 Steps To Achieve It

Here’s the thing:

Every business owner should learn how to handle their own brand, especially their brand consistency.

I’m not necessarily saying you need to know all the nitty gritty details that a brand manager would know, but I am saying that understanding what it means to have a consistent brand should be somewhere at the top of your list, in my opinion.

It’s like riding a bike, but never learning how to maintain it to keep it running smoothly for years to come (guilty!). It’s eventually going to wear out, and it will do so faster if you don’t take care of it properly.

The same goes for your brand when you start or own a business.

So that’s what I’m talking about today! There are 5 things I believe you should absolutely learn in order to consistently grow your visual brand, and allow it to flourish from a solid foundation as the years go by. Before we get started, here’s the step-by-step breakdown of what I’ll cover:

1. Your L-F-C (Logo, Fonts, Colors)
2. Get Your Style Guide On
3. Act Like The Queen Of Templates
4. Remember To Organize & Share
5. Be Consistent, Carrie

>>>Want to learn more about brand consistency? Grab your checklist and digital template right here!<<<

I get it, especially when you’re starting out, you’re probably running everything by yourself and you don’t have the margin to hire anyone.

Even when you get there, you’re not going to hire anyone to manage your brand right off the bat. You’ll probably look for catch-all person, or customer care position, or accountant, rather than someone to manage visuals.

And since that’s the case, you will need to take responsibility for your brand and learn for yourself what it means to consistently nurture and grow it. Here are my top 5 steps to brand consistency:

Visual Brand Consistency Step 1: Have Your L-F-C Created (Logo, Fonts, Colors)

The number one thing you need to do in order to be consistent with your brand is to get your visual branding created. This includes your logo, your font choices, and your color choices, at the least.

There are other things you can have made, like supporting graphics, photography, social media graphics, videos, your website, etc… the list really can go on.

But your brand designer’s main job is going to be your visual identity, your L-F-C.

How do you get this made?

✔️TO-DO:

ONE: You can hire a brand designer to create a completely custom logo and brand package for you.

–or-

TWO: You might opt for a semi-custom brand package that offers some customizations and usually comes at a lower price point than a completely custom brand.

It really depends on where you’re at with your business financially, and what you want to invest (either now, or save up for).

If you’re not quite ready to hire a designer, I have a few posts on how to choose your brand fonts and colors yourself, so check those out if you’re interested. But really, you’re going to need to hire a designer at some point.

I’m working on getting some slots open for my brand packages, so if you want to be on the waitlist and the first to know when those open, click here!

Visual Brand Consistency Step 2: Get Your Style Guide On

I’ll keep saying this until forever: Your brand identity needs – HAS to have! – guidelines.

If there isn’t a clear set of “rules” for each item, then it’s just going to be the wild, wild west. And while I love the desert and a pretty cactus, I’m not really into letting my brand run that wild.

You can hold your guidelines loosely, and you can always change them (in fact, they’re pretty much always evolving)…

But you do need them.

Once your identity is created, a brand guide or style guide is one of the most important documents you can have when it comes to keeping your brand consistent.

If you’re wondering what a style guide is, I talk about that over here, but to break it down quickly:

A style guide is usually a brief, one- or two-page document that includes the “rules” for your brand’s basic visual elements like logo, typography choices, and color choices. If someone needed to know what colors they were allowed to use when creating a graphic for you, they would reference this document. It’s essentially for you and anyone else inside or outside of your company that creates ANYTHING for your brand.

✔️TO-DO:

Your style guide should come with your brand package when you have it made, but on the off chance that it doesn’t, you can create a simple one yourself. I’ll be sharing something to help you do that soon, so stick around!

Visual Brand Consistency Step 3: Act Like The Queen Of Templates

Branded templates help you get and stay consistent across the board with everything you put out there. 

Having templates for things like your website, blog posts, graphics and social media, ensures that you create a cohesive experience across your brand.

They also make your work 1000% easier.

Seriously.

Utilizing templates for things that you do every week, like making social media graphics or blog posts, allows you to spend less time and effort doing those tasks. You just use the template to pop in the text, change the photo, or arrange the graphics however you need, and you’re ready to go.

Okay, it’s not always that painless, but templates really are a game-changer. I love efficiency and making quick work of my to-do list, which is what templates help me with.

The top 3 types of templates you should have for your brand are:

• Digital templates (social media graphics, blog graphics, video thumbnails, slideshows, blog posts, social media captions, etc.)
• Print templates (letterhead, business card, envelope, fliers, brochures, etc.)
• Document templates (invoices, contracts, etc.)

As a creative business owner, the sea of templates you could possibly use is never-ending – which is a great thing for efficiency, but not soo great if you don’t know where to start.

To focus in a bit on the digital templates, the first 3 I’d say you should have/create are:

• Social media templates (you need a presence in order to establish your authority)
• Blog and/or video templates (you need a long-form written or visual way to establish your authority & show you know what you’re talking about)
• Pinterest Pin templates (to pin your blogs/videos & drive traffic to them)

I personally have all 3 of the above, because those are things I create on a weekly basis (social, blog, pins).

It not only makes it easier and more efficient to complete those tasks, but it keeps my visual branding consistent across the different platforms I use, because my templates already include all of my fonts, colors, logo, and extra graphic elements that I need to stay on-brand.

✔️TO-DO:

Think about what you’re doing, or planning to do, to promote your products or services. Make a list, and then see what kind of templates you might need and could possibly create or purchase to make your life a bit easier.

Whether it’s just you running your whole show, or you have help, branded templates increase efficiency, make the workload a little lighter, and ultimately help to ensure brand consistency.

Visual Brand Consistency Step 4: Remember To Organize & Share

When you have all of these graphics, and images, and documents, and templates made, you need a place to store them. You don’t want to have to grab that graphic off your google drive, or that template off your desktop, or your logo from your email that your designer sent you a year ago.

You really need to create a system and process for storing all of your branded files, whether that’s your brand package files that came from your designer (jpeg, eps, working Ai files, etc.), or the templates you need to make your Pinterest Pins.

✔️TO-DO:

I personally use Google Drive, and there are a lot of creative business owners that I’ve heard recommend that, but honestly use whatever folder/sharing app or system that is easiest for you. If you like Dropbox, use that. It really doesn’t matter, just that you start creating your folders and storing your files in a place where you can easily access them at any time!

Even if you’re an army of one, keep a copy on your hard drive as a backup, but make sure those that need access to your files can have it (printers, vendors, your team if/when you get one, etc.). I can’t count how many times I needed a file, only to remember it was on my desktop and all I had access to at the moment was my phone. Take it from me and put your files in a shareable system!

Visual Brand Consistency Step 5: Be Consistent, Carrie

(^^I say that so light-heartedly. Carrie is my 2nd favorite character right after Arthur on The King of Queens!)

At this point maybe you’re wondering, “What does visual brand consistency mean, exactly?”

Here’s the short of it:

Brand consistency means that you’re going to need to make sure everything that goes out the door is always on-brand: fonts, colors, logo, photos, graphics, social media, videos, website…

Eve-ry-thing.

I get it, sometimes you don’t want to care or you want to be lazy about it…

But in order to create a lasting, memorable, brand that sticks in the minds of your audience – you’ll have to be consistently consistent. 

You just can’t afford to be on-brand one day, and off-brand the next.

For example…

When a brand isn’t practicing visual consistency, it can look like a hot mess and it can be pretty confusing. If you’re not sticking to your brand colors, it’s easy to get mistaken for something or someone else, or have your clients or customers scratching their heads.

This might sound silly, but if Chick-Fil-A suddenly began using green for their logo and on their nugget boxes in place of their usual branded red, you would be like, “What. Is. Happening?!”

Take a look at The BYB Toolkit, which covers more in-depth the things you need to figure out before you get your brand identity created!

Your business may not be as well-known as Chick-Fil-A right now, but having the mindset of a “big” brand is what is going to set you apart from others in your space that clearly aren’t following any sort of brand guidelines or a plan for future brand growth.

In other words, no matter if it’s just you or if you have a team, brand consistency has to be part of your business game plan (not just your branding game plan, but your business plan as a whole, because after all, your brand is your business!)

✔️TO-DO:

Use the tips above, implement them, and start forming a game plan for keeping your brand consistent. Sign up for more in-depth tips on this!

You know you’re doing it right when you have processes in place to take care of your visual brand now, and for the future. It’s not always going to be a happy dance because you’re in line to get your favorite drink, but it will make it easier. Just remember:

1. L-F-C
2. Style Guide
3. Templates
4. Organize & Share
5. Be Consistent

If you’re into learning more about branding, and want to know the difference between these 3 branding terms, head here next. I also just made this post on 6 things you need to know before developing your brand identity. If you’re interested in working with me, sign up to be the first to know when my brand package slots open for clients!

Thank you for reading and subscribing! Please drop me a comment on Insta, @designwithclarissa if you have any questions, or follow along for what I have coming up next.

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