Branding has become one of the most critical areas for a business in this modern world. Tons of companies belong to similar markets and niches. The only way to make a successful business stand out is through superb branding. A name people directly associate with a service or product is vital, and having the perfect brand book will achieve the kind of quality that brand needs. Here are 7 steps to a perfect brand book template to help your startup get started in a way that’s compelling and engaging of followers to long-term profitability.
A brand book’s an official document that outlines your brand identity. You might have heard of it being called a brand manual, style guide, brand guide, or other similar names. Whatever the nomenclature, this doc aims for consistency to your brand on every level, which is particularly important as you bring other parties along to interact with and help build your company. Different departments, providers, partners, and collaborators need to base themselves off a brand book to follow the rules on everything that has to do with typography, logos, colors, and so much more! Having one will also make life much easier for you. It’ll ensure your brand exposure gets exactly the air, tone, and feel you need to position yourself in a market ideally. This is key to attract customers and create long-life value for your brand.
A brand book template is a preformatted document to assist with the definition of the vital guidelines any entrepreneur must follow to have a successful and well-equipped brand book.
Our brand book template, for instance, includes mission and vision statements, company values, and the essentials for your visuals. It comprises typography, color schemes, logo variations, and photography. Yet it also includes communications in emails, editorials, and social media, which we’ll cover more in-depth below.
A good brand book needs to have everything about a company that people need to know for every collaborative effort. It includes all respective elements aligned with a brand’s ideal look. Here are the fundamental elements every brand book should have for it to be useful :
With those brand book basics, let us now share 7 steps to a perfect brand book template to help with your task of putting a brand book together.
What we’re going to create will need to speak of your company’s core. As we’ll describe in step 2 below, it’ll need to convey your brand and company’s voice and soul to get your business where you want. Therefore, it can’t hurt to look around to other brand book samples to get an idea of what others have done before you to fully grasp what we’re discussing. Get a sense over diverse examples before you start working on your own business brand book template. Rather than be ashamed of copying, take pride in starting off with the research of what has brought other companies to greatness. A bit of cheerful inspiration never hurt anyone.
When you’re ready to start work on your own brand book template, begin by telling your business story. And do so in a way that unveils the heart behind your brand. As we announced above and as poetic as it sounds, work on this document until you find your brand’s voice and soul. Once that’s clear, much will fall into place, and you should find it easier to define the rest of what’s needed.
Include a short story about this process in your brand book, if possible. Doing so has the power of getting people to connect with your brand. Then, work on your mission and vision. Beyond a formal requirement, defining these should help make strategic business and marketing decisions down the road.
Get to your do’s and don’ts list in a way that defines what works for you. Do so in terms of colors, fonts, logo design, and more. What helps with these is gaining clarity. When you define what you don’t want, it’s easier to avoid going into anything you dislike. This is the base for designers, editors, and other collaborators to nail the specifics of what you need. Give examples for every item. Following your guidelines should be a smoother process after looking at your do’s and don’ts slide.
Funnily enough, this task on updates is in itself an ongoing one. You know how most big brands go through changes over time? They might engage in subtle changes or go straight into big ones. Either way, you’ll naturally evolve that way, as well. This means you can expect to need constant reminders to edit this branding document as that process unfolds.
The above is partly why it’s essential to keep your brand book updated. The goal is for no one to use an old logo once you’ve justifiably transcended it. Register every tiny change, for small as it may be. The plus side of a brand book is that keeping this updated will allow everyone to access the most updated information. If you keep this up to date and people only get access to this file as a means of working on your brand files, updated distribution becomes an easy process.
Despite the above, your brand is not just about your logo and your colors. Branding has to do with everything from how you sign emails to the tone used in your marketing videos. It goes from how you respond to social media messages to the way your logo is inserted at the start and end of every piece of marketing material. Therefore, spend time setting elaborate communication guidelines. This step doesn’t need to turn into a formal rendition. You can warm it up as much as fits your style.
As you can expect, your branding and brand book need to set you apart. Like your startup offer should have a differentiating factor that makes you unique concerning your competition, so do your branding material need to speak of your peculiarity as a company and brand. To achieve this, researching your competitors is critical. Knowing them profoundly will allow you to create a brand that’s different from what’s out there. It should ease coming up with one that speaks of that differentiating element that sets you apart from other service or product offers.
So, start with in-depth research and then insert that into your brand book as much as possible. It might seem like intangible work, but it’s easy to see companies that know their market thoroughly well and those that simply don’t.
Finally, once your brand book is ready, take the last step out of all 7 steps to a perfect brand book template by ensuring your guidelines are followed. You might need to campaign a little for stakeholders to be familiarized with your brand as they ideally need to be. We’ll say this ahead of time. The time spent putting this together might need an additional push than the response you’d expect for such great material.
All in all, you need to be ready to send email reminders, bring this up over meetings and ask around for impressions for your brand book to be fully settled as an additional tool in your organization. If you start noticing that’s the case, do whatever it takes to ensure everyone you need to be on board has taken a serious look at your brand book.
All the work you’ve done this far is worth it, so don’t let this fall if people fail to appreciate it. On the contrary, stress its value and work on its content. For successful branding, any company should have a compelling and winning brand book.
We wish you the best with your brand book template; we really do. Contact us, however, if you could use any assistance, design, or consulting services. We’ll be happy to lend a hand.
