There is a simple business strategy that is often overlooked and has the power to increase your revenue by up to 33%. This simple strategy: brand consistency. When you can achieve consistency in your business through your content creation, brand experience and customer touch points, you will earn the trust of your followers. And trust is the tipping point for turning followers into customers.
IT ALL STARTS WITH A BRAND IDENTITY
In order to achieve brand consistency, you first need a brand identity. Your brand identity needs to be more than a few logos, fonts, and a colour palette. A brand identity that actually serves your business is designed to focus your brand’s direction by establishing:
- logo placement guidelines
- a colour usage hierarchy
- roles for your typography
- your tone of voice and messaging
- imagery style
Using Your Brand Style Guide to Achieve Brand Consistency
All of these guidelines are outlined in your brand style guide—aka your brand bible. It’s important to remember that branding is an experience. Each time someone interacts with your brand—whether it’s online, in store or in a magazine—if the elements are consistent, their brand experience will be stronger for it.
To achieve brand consistency, it’s so important that you and anyone else that may be working with your brand—designers, web developers, employees, project managers— adhere to the guidelines outlined in your style guide to ensure your brand is always cohesive.
Let’s take a look at a few areas of your business that will greatly benefit from brand consistency.
1. YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
Prioritizing brand consistency in your content strategy is huge. Social media has become an invaluable resource to build brand awareness. Brands that are able to deliver content that is both visually consistent and carries a consistent message will attract and retain customers more easily than those that don’t.
What Is Your Content Marketing Style?
Determining your content strategy goals is one thing, but establishing your content marketing style is equally as important for delivering a positive brand experience.
Are you going for a graphic style, using original photography, or maybe video is your thing? Whatever your preferred approach may be, make sure it aligns with the guidelines in your style guide.
This means only using your brand fonts and colours—yes, you need to resist the urge to use that new terracotta tone you recently fell in love with.
People crave familiarity. Studies show that when we see familiar patterns our brains actually produce dopamine.[1] So these little acts of consistency—familiar fonts, images, colours—actually make us feel good. It evokes a feeling of comfort, dependability, and trust.
2. CUSTOMER TOUCH POINTS
Think of all of the places where your customer may interact with your brand. Let’s say a customer first spots you through an ad on their social feed. They then decide to visit your profile and even check out your website. Are all of these customer touch points cohesive?
- Do the images flow in style and mood?
- Are the fonts used on the ad the same as those on your website?
- Is the use of colour consistent?
These are just a few of the questions you should be evaluating when you travel your customer journey. The goal is to keep all of your customer touch points congruent.
 For instance, if you’ve recently swapped out your logo on Instagram for a different colour variation, be sure you do this across all of your social channels.
Do an audit of your older email campaigns: do some feature outdated styles that are still in active workflows? Be sure to keep your overall brand aesthetic up to date to avoid confusion, but also, to maintain that positive brand experience.
3. YOUR BRAND MESSAGING
Having a clear value proposition will help pave the way for consistency in your brand messaging. Your value proposition is your brand promise and should cover:Â
- what you sell
- who it’s for
- the benefit it delivers
- how it’s different
Once you’ve defined your brand promise this way, your brand messaging should always be supporting these aspects of your business.
For example, if part of your mission is to deliver affordable and accessible prices and one day you decide to launch a premium or luxury product—you’re sending a mixed message to your customers.
Consistency in your brand messaging keeps your existing customers loyal and will continue to attract more of your ideal customers.
4. YOUR BRAND PERSONALITY
What type of personality do you convey through your branding? Your brand personality should be factored into your brand strategy as a means of attracting your ideal customers.
Along with your brand messaging and aesthetic, staying true to your brand voice and personality is important for building a connection with your audience. To nurture these relationships, your audience will seek a reliable voice that resonates with them.
Whether your vibe is carefree and casual or conservative and refined, stay in your lane. The personality you put out there is designed to attract your particular target audience. To be consistent here will ensure you’re doing just that.
5. THE BRAND EXPERIENCE YOU DELIVER
All of these aforementioned areas of your business strive towards one common goal:Â to deliver and maintain a positive brand experience for your customers and future customers.
While your content strategy and your brand messaging may rank high on the consistency scale, are you delivering on your promise? You can do all of the right things to earn the trust of your followers to make the sale, but if you aren’t delivering that positive brand experience with your actual product or service, all of it was for not.
In the marketplace today, there are more brands than ever to choose from. Whether we realize it or not, we are all seeking brands that deliver these simple acts of consistency. They make us feel good, they make us trust in brands and they turn followers into paying customers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenny is a brand designer who runs her own boutique branding studio in Toronto. Her mission is to empower passionate entrepreneurs and small business owners through meaningful brands and brand strategy. She wholeheartedly believes in the power of branding to align you in your business so you can better serve your ideal customer base. When she’s not being creative she’s playing with her rescue pup, Samosa.
You can use these tips to create consistency across all of your marketing channels: from your social media, to you website and everything in between. Here’s 10 tips for a successful website.
