How to Create a Brand Identity: 7 Top Tips for Branding Your Business

 Your brand identity refers broadly to the way customers perceive your business, but that doesn't mean that it's out of your control. Here our tips to create your future brand identity !

1. Start With Market Research

Before you can start shaping the reputation your business carries, it's important to reassess what's happening in the current market. That includes researching your target audience and your competition.

What types of brands attract your target audience? What needs do they have that your business can fulfill? What other interests do they have that overlap indirectly with your products or services?

How is your competition branding itself? What trends are you seeing too much of? Where are the gaps in competition marketing that you can fill in order to stand out?

2. Narrow Down Your Niche

When you start looking at the competition, you see how wide the potential target audience for your products or services really is. However, you can't try to target everyone with your branding. Instead, it helps to pick a specific focus or niche that will inform your branding style.

For example, think about the difference between a company that sells adult backpacking gear versus a company that sells family-friendly camping gear. As you can imagine, those two companies could take advantage of very different niches despite their commonalities. One might use brand identity services to create a brand identity that appeals to the adventurous lone wolf while the other would be more inclined to create fun, light-hearted branding materials.

3. Establish a Brand Mission

Having a niche or focus will get you one step closer to establishing your brand mission. You know exactly who your market is and how you differ from the competition. You know what types of emotions or sensibilities you want to appeal to.

Now, it's time to answer the question: why? Why is your company passionate about what it does? What are its values?

4. Establish a Brand Voice

Your brand voice refers to the way you communicate things like your brand mission. A brand voice needs to remain consistent across platforms, from your social media accounts to your in-person customer service. If your brand voice appeals to a customer, they're going to want to rely on it every time they interact with you.

How can you find the right brand voice? Let's brainstorm a few adjectives that could describe your brand voice:

Authoritative

Professional

Playful

Conversational

Technical

Once again, let's look at some examples in action. You wouldn't necessarily want to hire a lawyer whose brand voice was playful; instead, you'd want a lawyer whose advertising felt professional and authoritative. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a teen clothing brand could make use of a playful or conversational brand voice.

5. Start Thinking About Design Elements

By this step, you're starting to have a sense of what your brand is all about. Now it's time to figure out how to package all of that information in a visual and accessible way. If your brand voice and mission say one thing but your design elements say another, customers aren't going to know what to make of your brand identity.

What do we mean by design elements? Start to think about things like color and style. You can pull inspiration from your signature products or from your target audience, itself. 

Keep in mind that color and style go a long way to evoke an emotional reaction. For example, darker tones such as blue, red, and grey can feel very serious and professional, especially when paired with a modern style. Lighter colors like pastels, on the other hand, feel whimsical and joyful, especially when paired with a cute or vintage style.

To get a better sense of design elements in action, take a look at our logo ideas.

6. Create Branding Materials

Now for the fun part: it's time to start designing! Creating a logo from scratch can feel daunting, and we've made it so that you don't have to. Our logo maker is completely free from start to finish, so you don't have to worry about any hidden fees.

Start with a template and customize each element, from color choices to graphics, to your liking. Once you have your perfect logo, you can use it in (and to inspire) the rest of your branding materials.

7. Market Your Brand Identity Consistently

Now, it's time to get that brand identity out into the public! Make sure that you take full advantage of social media marketing as well as other forms of marketing such as print and SEO.

Consistency is key. Your branding materials such as your logo should always remain present. Your brand voice should never waver.

The goal is to make sure that when customers come into contact with your brand, they recognize it right away. By staying consistent, you become more recognizable, more trustworthy, and more successful.

Boost Your Business With an Improved Brand Identity

Your brand identity is, in many ways, crafted by the public's opinion of your business. Yet, by following these tips, you can harness your own reputation and ensure that your brand's values and products or services are clear to all!

It's important not to underestimate how logo design impacts your business. To come up with a fresh and professional logo, get started with our logo creator right away!