7 Branding Elements Every Startup Needs
Is launching a business a part of your New Year’s goals? Go into 2020 with all of your ducks in a row. Whether you’ve been thinking about launching a new business or undergoing a complete revamp, it’s important to have a strong toolkit with the right elements to get your business off of the ground.
Getting these seven things right, the first time, will be crucial to your success.
1. Name
This one is a no-brainer. What business doesn’t need a name? The point is to choose the right one. Besides picking something with meaning that offers a story to share with your audience, choose a name that makes sense.
Do your research. Scour the internet to see what you’re up against--competitor-wise and how you’ll stack up amongst the search results.
Don’t limit your business. Choose a name that you won’t outgrow. You may only want to sell dresses now, but maybe in a year you’ll want to sell suits too, and then in two years your product offering triples. Changing your name is a lengthy (and VERY expensive) process, you’ll want to get it right the first time.
Triple-check availability. Follow all of the legal steps to make sure you name is available, but also do a domain name search. Put your best foot forward and explore handles for your social accounts, too.
2. Logo
Your primary visual. It identifies your business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon. It should be easy to identify and the best combination of colors, fonts, and icons that represent your brand. To us, branding is done best a la carte so you have logo alternates that work wherever you need to use it.
Note: It’ll be important to receive a brand guide on the do’s and don’ts on how to use your logo.
And while it’s of the utmost importance, your logo can’t stand on its own. When you give all of the power to the logo, you miss out on the overall experience your brand should be providing.
3. Brand Identity
The holistic look and feel of your business. This includes your logo, your color palettes, fonts, patterns, textures, taglines, tone, photography style, website layout…need we go on? And like with all great things, consistency is key. Having a strong and cohesive brand identity is what will set you apart from the rest. It’s the way you will uniquely tell the story of your business.
Understanding the importance of design and branding to your business will serve you well in the long run.
4. Positioning
How you define your place in the market. A positioning statement explains who you are, the values of your business, and how you’ll serve your audience. It defines 4 things:
1. Category of One
2. Distinctive Values
3. Unique Offerings
4. Brand Promise
Anytime you need to explain your brand, write social or web copy, or create an ad or promotion, your positioning statement is right there to offer consistent and compelling language. We like to explain it as Your Brand is A Tree.
5. Web
Your website is your branding home base. It’s the core of your digital presence and how the majority of your audience will experience you. The design of your site must fall within your brand identity.
While you have some wiggle room for creativity and brand departures on your social media, your website must be ground zero for your brand in order to be trustworthy to your audience. It’s easy to think that with such a focus on social media your website doesn’t matter, but it does.
Make sure your site isn’t making these mistakes.
6. Digital Marketing
And by digital marketing we mean: social media, email marketing, paid ads, SEO.
Please make room for these in the start-up budget. We don’t have to tell you how many people are online and how that number is increasing by the minute. Digital marketing is important because it provides in-depth ways to target your audience and ways to track results.
7. Printed Collateral
Print isn’t dead. Now we’re not saying to blow your whole budget on flyers, stationary, and stickers, but start with a really stellar business card.
Your business card is the second most important thing after your website. It’s a part of the brand experience. A huge part of being in business is networking, so you’ll want to have something high quality for people to remember you by. You’re providing a high-quality product or service, you deserve a high-quality card that reflects it as such (moo.com is great for this).
Our advice? Don’t put too much info on your cards. Keep it to just your contact info and go for the heavier weight for printing. Don’t believe us, listen to this guy.