Today we’re delighted to bring you this fascinating guest blog on how to achieve brand consistency for your business. Thank you to our amazing resident photography expert, Stephanie from Summers Photography, for allowing us to share!
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Personal branding for your business is the one key element that makes your business unique – you! With 5.9 million SMEs in the UK in 2019, it is key to make our companies stand out from our competitors and get noticed. Branding is a huge topic with many multi layers that are all as important as each other, however the following top 5 are here to help you up-level your brand consistency.
Perhaps you have been set up for a short time and would like some direction to make it feel like a ‘proper’ business. Or you are an established business looking to grow your brand. The following will help you channel your energy into the right areas that need to be developed in order to achieve true brand consistency.
1) What is your client seeing?
Set aside half a day in your month and look at the big picture. Bring up your website, Facebook page, Instagram account, LinkedIn and any printed material that you offer clients. Does your logo tie in with your site, does the colours you are posting on your blog reflect your social media? Is there a theme running through it? A colour, font, look? This is all integral to setting up a great visual presence. Whilst you are on your platforms, check for inconsistencies and be honest with yourself. Does it look dated? Have you steered away from one visual element? It might be time for a refresh and update of your portfolio of work.
2) You!
Are you showing up in your business? Are you putting yourself out there? You are the one element of your business that makes your company who it is. There might be 100 other sellers locally that offer your product range; but people buy from people and your customers want to know who they are purchasing from.
3) How do you keep your images fresh for your business?
Have you thought about having photography days? You might be a cake maker that has no time to photograph your produce before it is collected from an event. Why not make a sample and photograph it. Florsit? Create a display for the next big content day (Valentine’s / Mothers Day etc) and photograph it in a variety of styles. Don’t think of it as a waste of time or resources; think of it as a way of growing your reach with clients that will be interested in photographing that one item. Suddenly that sample could bring in X amount in sales.
4) Who is your voice?
Is your copy reflective of who you are? Is this supported by suitable imagery? It needs to reflective of you. If you feel that your voice is different to who you are; then this will come across to your clients. We are a very conversational company, a lifestyle approach and this is reflected throughout our use of language, it is not a surprise when our clients meet us in person – we are who we are in real life as well as who we are online.
5) Use a design template for your social media posts.
Instead of posting plain images; why not incorporate latest feedback, dates of next workshops or quotes as overlays on your images. This can easily be done in Canva where you can set up your brand colours and apply your logo instantly to each branded piece of literature. Of course, if you are Adobe proficient, then you can do the same using In-Design or Photoshop.
We can help you get noticed in your business in two ways – personal brand photo shoot and our business photography courses. You can find both links below. Alternatively if you have any questions, then we would love to hear from you at info@summers-photography.co.uk.
Click for business photography courses or a personal brand photo shoot.
