Brand Your Business

You have 7 seconds to make your first impression online. That’s it. So to say you need to put your best foot forward from the get-go is an understatement. No one likes to be judged, but the reality is that your business will be judged immediately by your branding – which includes your name, your logo, your fonts, the color ways you use, the imagery and the stories you tell through all of the above.

So here’s our handy guide that’ll help you make your brand memorable in the eyes of your customers. 

1. Make them want to live the life you’re selling.

This is why the best influencers are so successful. They sell lifestyles. 

Everyone wants to dress like them; do their makeup like them; go for drinks on a Tuesday afternoon in a beautiful foreign city; make a career of brunching; and cozy up in the cutest coffee shops whenever they please.

So what story will you tell your customers? Once you decide this, move onto the next steps.

2. Find the colors you’ll use to tell your brand story.

What color story or color way will evoke the feeling you want your customers to feel when they visit with your site or interact with your products?

Look to competitors or brands whose image is similar to the one you want to create for your brand, and see what they’re doing.

Pink is feminine; but gold is, too. Red is bold; but so is black. Play with color combinations until you feel confident that you’ve found one which will resonate with your customers.

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3. Choose the fonts that will elevate your colors. 

Will you use serif or sans serif fonts, or will you use a feminine script? These are not minor things to take into consideration. 

Spend a great deal of time looking at the websites and packaging of your favorite brands.

Play around with different fonts online (I love Canva to easily create and re-design marketing materials, and they have a wealth of fonts to choose from).

4. Find stock photography that sells your image.

It’s okay if you don’t create all of your content yourself. Many of the best bloggers, and of course online magazines, use stock photography.

You can find so many great images from sites where other photographers post their photos – and by far, most of them have affordable options for creative entrepreneurs like you.

Some of my favorites are Canva, Adobe, Shutterstock, Hautestock, and Creative Market. I’ve used all of these at one point or another in my career, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. But I’d say go ahead and compare them for yourself to see who has the best options for your brand.

5. Create marketing materials and social media posts that help sell your brand.

For every blog post you create, I want you to then create 4-5 Pinterest posts. This will really help you think through your brand, and it’ll give you a good gauge as to how your images resonate with audiences across the Internet. This will also help you decide how to design your future marketing materials.

For my Pinterest posts, I exclusively use Canva. It’s been a life-saver and time-saver, because I can re-purpose old images, and constantly create new content for use across my websites and social media accounts. I highly recommend this useful and affordable program.

For more inspiration, check out our article on how to pick your brand’s winning color palette.

Choosing colors for your brand will either seem like a really easy task, or a really incredibly hard task. Either way, it requires some solid effort to make sure you a) pick a color palette you’ll be happy with now, and ten years from now; and b) pick a color palette that resonates well with your target audience and truly conveys your company’s brand values. Take these steps to ensure you pick a winning color palette for your brand.

1. Decide your brand’s values and voice.

Is your company the funny one in the industry? Is it the educator? Or is it the wise older sister? Before you can create your brand’s color palette, you have to first decide who your brand actually is.

Every personality is different, and can evoke different emotions. Colors help bring out these emotions and convey certain feelings to your audience.

A brand with humor or zest might fancy a brilliant yellow as its focus. A brand who is eco-conscious may want to find its signature shade of green. And a brand that is wise and classic may stick to a black, white, and grey palette.

Often, a brand may reflect the personality of its founder, so think about who you are as a person, and think about what colors might reflect your personality. After all, if this is your brand, you’re going to have to live with the colors you choose for a good long while. Make sure you choose colors for your brand that you’ll love for a long time.

2. Create A Private Pinterest Inspiration Board

This is a super fun step, because you get to kind of go crazy, here. It’s kind of like a visual brainstorming session, and it can last for as long or as short of a time as you need until you feel you’re honing in on a color palette you like.

Create a Pinterest board, and make sure to check the button to “Keep It Secret”. You don’t want others poking around in your business’ inspiration board, and it certainly won’t help your brand’s performance.

This board is for your eyes only.

Now start searching color palettes. Save all the ones you love.

Search for anything that you find beautiful and which may provide a color palette that suits the look and feel you’re going for for your brand. This might include flower bouquets or wedding color palettes, or anything else where you might find a great color scheme (baby showers, formal invitations, landscape designs, etc). Anything goes.

Start Pinning away, and don’t worry about if you really love or don’t love something. If you think you like it upon first glance, save it. You can come back to this later and revisit in more detail.

3. Look at Your Favorite Brands That Are Over 20 Years Old. They’ve withstood the test of time.

You probably have some iconic brands that you’ve always loved. I want you to think about some of the brands you feel are iconic and whose branding you love and respect.

Visit their websites and their social media. See what color palettes speak to you, and try to understand if their colors are part of what resonated with you in the first place.

Branding plays such a big part in overall awareness and remembrance of a brand. Iconic branding passes the test of time.

For me, I’ve always loved the branding of Christian Dior. The company never strayed from its iconic, feminine branding, and I respect that immensely. Everything they do is dripping in class.

Pay special attention to the color schemes they’ve used with their brands over time, and note which color palettes have stood the test of time for them. See if this drives an ah-ha! moment home for you.

4. Look At Your Favorite Brands That Are Less Than 5 Years Old.

There has obviously been a lot of branding innovation in the last few years, and you probably have some newer brands that also speak to your soul.

One of the great things about modern times is that brands have really embraced the promotion of a lifestyle. What lifestyle do you want your brand to represent?

Delve into your favorite of-the-moment brands on Instagram and Pinterest, and see what they’re serving up for color palettes. Maybe they’re breaking through the noise with edgy colors. Take a queue from them and try something new!

Newer competition presents opportunities.

5. See Where You Have Overlap In The Above Categories.

Go back through the last three steps, and see if you find any common color themes.

Do you keep coming back to shades of jade?

Is it an ocean blue that inspires you?

At the end of the day, color palettes are a completely personal preference. But you have to be sure you’re going to love them now and in the future.

Take some time to go through the exercise above and see if it helps you jog any beautiful color palettes for yourself.

And if you’re in need of further inspiration, check out our Pinterest account.

Also see our article, How to Create a Memorable Brand Experience.