Needing help getting your branding plan in order? We’ve compiled a list of items in a branding worksheet to help. You can download it too.
1. GET ORGANIZED – CREATE A BRAND FOLDER
Build and organize your arsenal from the beginning. Simple, but you’ll thank us later.
2. KNOW YOUR DEMOGRAPHIC
Every great brand story starts with knowing exactly who your audience is. There are plenty of resources online on how to focus your demographic. The basics are: Who are your clients? Where do they spend their time? What do they spend their money on?
3. MEMORIZE YOUR VALUES & ELEVATOR PITCH
Answer these questions, form your pitch, print it out, put it in your phone… never forget it! When someone asks you what you do, you should be able to answer clearly with 1-3 sentences MAX. Keeping this in your mind at all times fuels the way you think about your own marketing. You can then look back at your social posts, blog articles, anything, and verify that they always align with your core focus.
- What do you do?
- What are your values?
- Why do you do it better than anyone else?
4. CREATE VISUAL GUIDELINES
Creating guides for yourself will not only speed up your time spent on marketing but also show your audience that you’re trustworthy. Pay attention to the details. The little things, such as color matching, don’t go unnoticed!
- Things to include in your guide or brand folder:
- Your logo, in a variety of formats
- Define where each logo variation should be used
- Stock Photos to rotate
- A Color Palette document and graphics
- Illustrations you may be using as secondary elements
- Fonts to use Icons
- Patterns
5. CREATE TEMPLATES
Another way to make your life so much easier! Store templates as a way to look at your brand as a whole and make sure everything fits.
- Helpful templates to store in your brand folder:
- Color Backgrounds and gradients based on your palette
- Templates for Canva or wherever you create your quick graphics
- Instagram stories templates
- Instagram posts template
- Facebook Timeline templates
- Facebook Cover Banner template
- PNGs of anything you plan on overlaying through photo apps
- Anything you catch yourself recreating over and over again, save it as a template!
6. WHAT’S YOUR VOICE?
Defining your voice could be a little daunting. But we got you. Use this list of questions to help define how you speak to your audience!
- How much of your personality goes into your brand? If you ARE your brand, speak how you’d speak in person!
- What is your tempo?
- Do you convey excitement? Empathy? Sass?
- What are your pronouns?
- When speaking on behalf of your company do you say “We”, “I”, or 3rd Person?
- What is your jargon like? Are you goofy or witty? Do you want to come across as sincere and caring?
- Does your audience care more about what you have to say or your visuals?
- What length of text is best for your audience to digest? Short and sweet or do they pay attention to every word?
- Are you in on current events or memes or does your business solely focus on internal affairs?
- What other brands sound the way YOU’D like to? What do you like about theirs?
Write out a mission statement based on Question 1 and this section to really hone in on your voice!
7. PLAN YOUR SOCIALS
At least for one week to see how it feels. While we normally root for organic posts, paying attention to your feed as a whole, the type of content your posting, and the captions will help you better understand what your audience’s reaction is to your brand.
Some things to pay attention to:
- Put yourself in your fans’ shoes. Would you want to follow or interact with yourself?
- Does your feed (on any platform) feel consistent and concise?
- At a glance, does your feed make a pattern / show you pay attention to detail? Does each post have a matching vibe?
- Does each individual post make full sense for your brand?
- Are you following a color scheme with photos, graphics, and videos?
- Does each caption feel on brand?
- Need inspiration? Follow brands and influencers that inspire you! You don’t have to copy what they are doing but having an example in front of you helps form your own ideas.
- Focus your platform – choose which one you like best and grow that one. Don’t try to do it all. Prefer Instagram over Facebook? That’s fine, the true fans will follow you.
If you prefer to be on multiple social platforms, choose the theme for each! Perhaps Facebook is more focused on your services / products. Instagram is great for a look into your day to day life. Twitter can work for general sharing. Try to keep each platform fresh and different for your visitors.
If you have any other ideas on how to help with your branding, we’d love to hear!
