What makes your business different?
Historic character? Specialist ingredients? Modern flair?
Chances are, these traits are what make your customers love and connect with what you’re selling, whether that be a product, service or experience. They make your business what it is. They make it stand out. They make customers want to keep coming back.
Why then, when online platforms have become such a key way of marketing your business, should you represent your brand identity any differently on your social media, website or blog?
Essentially, if you strive to maintain a sense of luxury throughout your business, that same sense of luxury should be equally conveyed through every aspect of your online presence. If your aim is to create an environment where people can feel relaxed, then that same feeling should be communicated through the content you distribute.
Here are a few of the most important factors to consider to create and maintain a successful, memorable brand identity, including a few examples of our favourite brands doing it right.
Keeping your branding consistent across both online and offline channels is essential for brand recognition.
In most instances, your branding is the first thing that your audience will acknowledge across all aspects of your business. It creates the core of your organisation’s identity. Though this may sound obvious, some businesses fall into the trap of designing an entirely separate logo and colour scheme for their online channels and ignoring their existing brand guidelines, perhaps through a lack of access to the right digital files, or a temptation to try something new.
When you already have a logo and a set of guidelines associated with your business, which is designed to resonate with your target audience, moving away from these on digital platforms is likely to be confusing and may even put people off interacting with you online if they think they’ve come to the wrong place.
If you don’t have a digital copy of your logo, or the means to create one yourself, go back to the person who designed it originally and ask them to generate a version which can be used across your online channels. You’ll find the ideal dimensions for social media use on the Hubspot blog.
If you want to try something a little different and not just text, use a symbol or an image that could also be immediately associated with your business. As long as your business name is accurate and the image isn’t too abstract, this will still be as appealing and recognisable to your target audience while allowing you to stand out from the crowd.
The same idea of being recognisable and staying true to your brand values applies to the images and graphics you use on your profile. We’ve found that it is surprisingly common for brands to use imagery which simply doesn’t compliment the underlying values or merits they are trying to convey.
More often than not, it seems that businesses make the decision to take photos and design graphics in house in order to save money, but this can be damaging to brand image and reputation.
Build up a strong collection of photographs, taken as professionally as possible. This is particularly important if you work in an industry which relies heavily on visuals, such as hospitality, travel or food and drink. High quality photos will reflect the high quality of your organisation and sticking to one photographer will ensure that you have a strong level of consistency across your social media and digital channels. Need a recommendation?
If you want to use graphics, create one or two templates using the colours, fonts and styles from your existing brand guidelines and simply change the text depending on what you want to share. This way, some of the information you post becomes an engaging, staple content series which will gradually become associated with your brand.
Using a platform which offers the use of image filters? Either avoid this altogether and keep your photos as they are, or choose one particularly effective filter and add this to every photo you share, remembering to alter the strength of the overlay if necessary. An Instagram profile consisting of mismatched, poorly edited photos can look messy and unprofessional, as well as sending out a confused representation of your business.
When less is more, as it often is online, it can be tempting to use jargony language, capital letters and predictable buzz words to capture your audience’s attention. In some instances, this is great, but we believe that this strategy has become so popular that it’s faded into the background and can be more annoying than it is powerful.
You may not feel that the tone you use in offline literature or your customer services fits with your online presence, but there’s always a way to adapt your language and give online audiences the same experience that they would get offline.
Consider how you would speak to a customer or visitor in person and try to replicate this as closely as possible. If you were a host or server welcoming a party to your restaurant, you wouldn’t yell your greeting in their face before going straight into a hard sales pitch about current offers. You’d make them feel welcome, ensure they were comfortable and tailor the information you shared with them, and how it is shared, to the demographics present.
Just because the language that one business uses seems to resonate with their audience, that doesn’t mean it will have the same effect on yours. Think about your brand values and what you want your audience to get from your product or service, and apply this to the way you promote it. A guest at a fine dining restaurant would perhaps expect formality, high quality and creativity - three characteristics which could easily inspire your tone online.
As with every component shared above, keep your tone consistent. Not only will it strengthen your brand identity, but it will also let your audience know what to expect when they deal with a member of your team personally.
We’ve seen brand identities get sidelined online, so we prioritise understanding your organisation so we can successfully represent you online. If you’d like to learn more, or would like advice on your brand image, you’ll find further information on our blog.
You'll receive an email update every 2 weeks with insight and advice to support you in your digital marketing journey. We treat your email address with care, and you can unsubscribe with just a click.