Your brand is arguably one of your small business’ most valuable assets. In short, your brand is summed up by how your product or service is perceived by people. It’s the immediate feeling that your small business generates within someone who sees or hears your business name. Although your brand isn’t tangible in the way your product or service is, it’s often the main thing for driving sales because people tend to relate with businesses that align with their values. Sometimes your brand simply creates a perception that it’s “better” than others. This is why creating a strong brand when starting a small business is so important.

The first element of your brand that people encounter is your visual and verbal identity. Think Nike swoosh, McDonalds arches, or the immediately recognizable red color and logo of Target stores. Here are a few quick tips for creating your visual and verbal identity as part of the brand guidelines for your business.

This is what makes people recognize and differentiate your business from others. Your logo, brand colors, font, imagery, and unique icons are all a part of this.

Logo - The logo you create should reflect your brand's personality. Is your small business playful, scientific, romantic, techie, etc.? Logos incorporate a range of styles from typography-based (read: text or font-based) or icon-based to imagery-focused. There is no right or wrong way to create your logo but it should be a strong representation of the type of business you are and designed to stand out in the marketplace. Simplicity should be the general underlying trait—complex logos aren’t memorable.

If you don’t have a logo yet, hiring a freelance graphic designer can help bring your vision to life. You can look on gig-work platforms like Upwork or Fiverr for a qualified graphic designer at an affordable rate. Or if you have the time and skill, you can purchase a template to customize yourself (medium skills) or build your own logo in Adobe Illustrator (advanced skills) or Canva (minimal skills). Once you have a logo, you should upload your brands assets in Enji where it will be easy to find and share as a part of your brand guide.

Brand colors - When choosing your brand colors, you want to think about what both you and your customers like. For example, if you’re building a romantic brand in the wedding industry, think about soft pinks, blues, greens or subtle grays. But if you are building a more fun and unique brand in the wedding industry, you can think about brighter and bolder colors.

Choose colors you love, work well together, and give you some flexibility in how you can use them. Again, platforms like Canva or Adobe can provide a “color palette generator” to help you find colors that work well together—searching for inspiration on Pinterest is also a great way to create a color palette yourself. If you have the budget, you can hire a graphic designer to create a color scheme for you. Once you have a color palette for your business, set it up in the brand assets section of your Enji account to add it to your brand guide.

Font - Font is really about personal preference. You want to consider a font that is functional, versatile, readable, and stylish. Many businesses choose Google fonts like Montserrat, Playfair Display, or Open Sans for their business. But truly, if you stay away from Comic Sans, you’re probably okay! If you’re not sure where to begin, start by searching through Google fonts (they're free to use!). Once you've picked the ones you are going to use for your brand, choose from the list of Google fonts or upload your custom font to the brand assets section of your Enji account to add it to your brand guide.

Imagery and visuals- Brand imagery isn’t just photographs. It can be, but it’s also visual elements like illustrations, graphics, and icons. Brand imagery is an important part of your brand that define how your brand looks—and how it is remembered. Again, consider your type of business and make sure to select imagery, illustrations, or icons that reflect the personality of your brand. You can create galleries of your brand imagery and visuals in your Enji account too!

Your small business’ brand voice (or verbal identity) can get pretty complex with things like grammatical style, product naming, and UX copy rules. But for most small businesses, identifying your brand tone of voice for consistency across all your marketing channels is the most important thing to do.

Your tone of voice standards are how your brand speaks and sounds to your customers. It’s not about what you say, but how you say it. Your brand voice serves as a guide to anyone who writes for your business: on your website, your blog, your emails, direct mail, or in print.

Think about it? Is your tone formal, humorous, or enthusiastic? Once you’ve defined your brand tone of voice, it should become part of your brand guide (feature coming soon!)

Don’t forget, your small business’s brand is uniquely yours! It helps people identify with your company or product—and over time it can really be a strong tool for influencing customer buying behavior.

Have fun creating your brand and sharing it with the world!

‍

‍