5 Simple Steps to a Strong Visual Brand Voice

In the busy online world, it’s more important than ever that your company is easily recognizable to potential customers. Having a strong visual brand voice is an essential component to standing out and being distinguished from the competition.

Your visual brand is made up of items like logos, color selection, type selection, your website, and digital graphics. Here are some simple things that any business can implement to create a strong visual brand voice.

1. Communicate to your ideal target audience

Your visual brand is more than just a pretty look, it’s a communication tool. Items you choose to represent your company should serve a purpose and emphasize your message. What will your ideal target audience think and feel when they interact with your visuals? Do they evoke the right emotions?

Step into the shoes of your potential customers and imagine it from their point of view. If you want them to feel energies and happy, choose colors and fonts to match.

2. Gather Feedback

The best brands know their customers intimately and go beyond imagination and delve into the actual data. As you publish new materials, test out alternate versions and see what performs best by utilizing A/B testing.

If A/B testing isn’t an option, a small focus group made up of your ideal customers is another great way to gather feedback on existing brand collateral. As you gather data, continue to make strategic improvements that serve your ideal target audience.

3. Treat your visual brand as part of your marketing strategy

Sometimes visual branding can be treated as an afterthought, but it is a crucial way that you can build credibility with your potential customers. It might not result in immediate ROI, but in the long haul you will establish a recognizable brand that your customers trust – and people buy from brands they know and trust.

4. Assemble Your Brand’s Creative Elements

A great way to create a recognizable brand is to have consistently across your creative elements (brand colors, fonts, images, icons, etc.). It’s important to select a few common elements and then use these items as the “building blocks” of your brand, which you can mix and match in an infinite number of ways to create new assets such as brochures, fliers, presentations, and more, all while maintaining a consistent look and feel so that even if someone saw your item without a logo, they’d likely recognize the brand just by the colors, fonts, and images used.

A few quick tips:

• Use 2-5 main brand colors. If you don’t have a color palette already, try generating one at coolors.co.
• Use 2-3 fonts. Fonts For inspiration, check out Canva’s ultimate guide to font pairing.
• Choose images with a similar look, feel, and tone. If you don’t have photos of your own, you can purchase stock photo collections from sites like Creative Market for a nominal cost.

You can also download my Brand Identity Cheat Sheet here for a visual reference for these elements.

5. Be Consistent

The most important component of any branding is to be consistent. This doesn’t mean boring, but it does mean that your customers can recognize that the brand collateral you are distributing (whether it be print or digital) is coming from your company.

You can help your team create consistency by taking your brand’s creative assets and elements and creating your own Brand Guide. This doesn’t need to be a “professional” brand guide, just open a Google Doc and list your fonts, colors, and drop in your basic brand elements like logos and icons that you use frequently and make this accessible for the team in a shared folder.

This also makes it easy to share your brand assets with others outside the organization when you have an upcoming event such as a tradeshow, where your branding will be printed on signs and booths.

In Conclusion

With a little attention, care and consistency you can create a strong visual brand voice that will get you recognized and remembered.

Happy Branding!