Your business’s image goes a long way in communicating your brand, services, and values to customers. An aesthetically pleasing logo gives your business personality and style, and consistent graphics, font, and colors create consistent branding so consumers recognize you in any context.
Wherever and whenever a customer interacts with your business—in-store, online, and through advertising—your visuals should be unified with a similar look and feel.
When we say visuals, that’s anything with your company’s name — employee t-shirts and free swag like water bottles and keychains, as well as your website and social media, signage, and ads. A cohesive graphic identity reinforces your brand every time a consumer sees it.
Of course, these elements can fall through the cracks between your daily business and long-term goals. After all, most business owners and operators aren’t graphic artists.
That’s where Federated Media’s marketing specialists come in. Our branding experts can help your team develop and manage the essential graphical components key to marketing and branding.
Here are the graphic elements every business needs to have.
Primary Logo
A logo visually represents your business, so make it count. A skilled digital designer or design service can help you translate your company’s brand, products, services, location, industry, and values into a memorable design.
Once you have that design, it’s essential to stock up on the versions you’ll use in a full suite of formats. Ask for alternative logos, including watermarks, emblem only, and an all-white version, to meet various design needs.
Also, collect all the file types you’ll need, including vector files, a PNG with a transparent background, and a JPG version.
Brand Colors
Your business’s colors communicate your products, mood, and even location. If you live in a college town where the university’s colors are red and white, your business might opt for similar colors. A beachside business might opt for calming blue and bright yellow, while a contractor or home services firm could select clean neutrals with a bold accent.
Whatever direction you choose, keep the colors consistent across all media, products, and merchandise.
Be sure to define your colors with technical precision: include hex codes, CMYK, RGB values, or Pantone specs for both print and digital consistency.
Fonts
Your graphics type style conveys tone. Fonts can be playful, serious, bold, or demure. Partner with your design partner to select a primary and secondary font representing your products, services, personality, and image. Make sure to choose fonts that are easy to read in both print and digital materials.
Pro tip: Share a few options with staff and loyal customers to gauge their reactions and ensure you communicate the right message.
Document Templates
Once your graphics are locked in, use them consistently across your print and digital assets, including letterhead, social media signature, email signatures, business cards, and print and digital presentations.
Provide your team with ready-to-use templates and a style guide so they know how and when to use the graphics.
Pro tip: Build blank templates of frequently used assets so your staff can quickly access and copy graphics without error or missteps.
Style Guide
Several people in your organization, as well as marketing partners, will likely use your graphics, so setting key rules is essential. A style guide is a cheat sheet for using your elements, including the logo, colors, and when to use the different formats or fonts.
This document can start with simple directions and be expanded over time as your usage and assets evolve.
Social Media Assets
Many customers will discover your business through social media. Make that first impression count using polished, branded assets across social channels. Use them across your profile pages and your Facebook and LinkedIn cover photos. Your style guide can dictate the look and feel of graphics created for social media content, both organic posts and ads.
When your business has well-designed graphic elements, it is more likely to stand out from the competition. Using your graphics consistently across platforms and assets will help keep your business top of mind and convey your reliability, values, and expertise to current and future customers.
Ready to elevate your visuals and see how graphics can transform your marketing? Federated Media’s branding experts can help design and implement the graphic assets and guidelines your business needs to shine.
