How to Build a Strong Brand Identity for Your Business

Having a strong brand identity is a crucial part of your business’s success. It builds trust with potential clients by establishing you as a legitimate business and a leader in your field. 

So let’s talk about why that is. Have you ever been shopping online and come across a product that you were really interested in? Then you click on the link, and the website looks terrible or unprofessional. Did you think to yourself, “I’m not sure if this is legitimate?” I have, and I didn’t end up buying the product. Because scam websites are quite common, online buyers can be wary of unprofessional-looking websites, and rightfully so. Consumers don’t want to lose their hard-earned money. When making a website, creating a polished-looking space will help customers know that they are safe and can rely on you for quality products and services.

So what do I mean by brand identity, and how do you make your brand stand out professionally to attract clients instead of deter them? Brand identity can be broken down into 4 parts. Your business name, what your business does, who you serve, and your unique branding (logo, colors, fonts, & graphics). These elements often cross over each other and can help you make decisions on your unique branding. Let’s talk about each of those elements in more detail.

1. Your business name

Your business name is how people will address you and your business. Because it is often the first interaction people will have with your brand, it is an important decision to make. There are many different ways to approach picking a name, but here are a few questions to keep in mind.

1. What kind of feelings do you want to invoke? Do you want your business to appear spunky and eclectic, or do you prefer a clean, modern feel?

2. What does your business do? Do you want to tie that into the name? For example, I am a website designer and chose to use the word “design” in my own branding. Including what you do may help people looking for products or services find you more easily.

3. Are there things that you already associate with yourself or your brand? Are you wanting to use a certain type of bird or flower in your branding? Are you obsessed with coffee or travel? Is your business a side hustle? How can you incorporate those things into a business name to make it truly unique to you?

4. Is the name simple/user-friendly? Having a unique name is awesome, but you also want to keep your potential clients in mind. An incredibly long or hard-to-spell name may cause issues and make it difficult to search your business online. Not everyone is great at spelling, and the harder it is, the more frustrated a potential client may become.

5. Is it already being used? Once you pick a name, google it to see if it’s already being used. If it is, or if there is another business with a similar name, you may want to consider something else to avoid confusion and potential legal issues (I’m no lawyer; it’s just a tip).

Picking a name for your business can be tricky, and I’ve seen a lot of people get stuck on it. Wanting your name to be perfect is understandable, but don’t let it hold you back from moving forward. It can always be changed in the future if needed, but still, take the time to pick something that you love.

2. What your business does

Having clearly defined services or products will help potential clients understand how you can best serve them. It’s also super important for SEO. Not sure what that means? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When something is optimized for search engines, it will show up higher in the result list when that term is searched on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. If you are a freelancer who does a bit of everything, it may be hard for SEO to work in your favor. Search engines like to guide users to websites most relevant to their search, so having too many things to offer can lower your chances of ending up in their results. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t offer more than one thing, but if you do, make sure they are clearly defined and easy to understand.

Many people will tell you to pick a niche for your business services. This means choosing a specific type of service or clientele. For example, having your service-based business cater specifically to yoga studios would be a niche. Doing so allows you to specialize in that particular group's needs and experiences, driving people to seek you out as an expert. If you are going to niche your services, an example would be having experience as a social media manager, virtual assistant, and email marketer. Instead of doing all three, you decide to focus your services on social media management and work to become an expert in that area. Creating a niche for your clientele and services sets up your business as a leader in a specific field.

3. Who you serve

You may have heard of the terms ‘buyer persona’ or ‘ideal client’. Both of these are examples of who you serve. You can take a more general look at your ideal client: “I work with small business owners in their 20’s and 30’s.” Or you can get really specific with a buyer persona: “My ideal client is a 28-year-old woman who loves to travel and enjoys diverse cultures and experiences. She loves learning and is actively taking online courses in things she finds interesting. She has a small service-based business and is looking to up her sales by 20% this year.”

By identifying who you serve and getting specific, you can better understand who you want your clients to be. You can market directly to them by building a brand that draws them in and fulfills their exact needs. By better understanding who you serve, you can identify pain points and dream points and truly put yourself in your clients' shoes. Ask yourself, “Why are they coming to me?” “What problem am I solving for them?” “What dream or goal am I helping them accomplish?” The answer to these questions will make marketing easier and help clients feel connected to you. For example, maybe your clients are having a hard time growing when their businesses are marketed through word of mouth, and they feel stuck. This would be a pain point. A service that would help is creating websites for small businesses. A dream point along similar lines would be that one of those small businesses tried to make their website themselves, and while it works, they want to increase sales, look more professional, and be viewed as an expert. That is where you would come in as a skilled website designer. 

By identifying your ideal client and buyer persona and then helping those clients overcome their pain points and achieve their dream points, more customers will want to work with you. They will feel seen and you will feel needed. This will help you build your brand by creating a clear target audience and set of services that you can use to make decisions when creating other parts of your brand identity.

4. Unique branding (logo, colors, fonts, & graphics)

Your unique branding is the visual portrayal of your business or your brand's personality. It includes the logo, fonts, colors, and graphics that you use across your website, marketing campaigns, social media, and other platforms. It can evoke feelings of trust, calm, professionalism, peace, or a variety of other emotions. Visuals increase customer engagement by 50-60%. Branding is the glue that holds all of the brand identity elements together. I would argue that as your brand's personality, branding is possibly the biggest deciding factor when a client is choosing to purchase from you or not.

You can have a lot of fun designing your branding and making it feel special and unique. It’s one of my favorite parts of building a brand (I have it as an add-on for all of my packages)

There are several different types of logos you can choose from. A few options are a monogram (or letter mark) logo, wordmark logo, pictorial logo, combination logo, abstract logo, etc.

For the color palette, I recommend sticking to 3-5 colors. More than that can often feel chaotic and unprofessional. There are 7 different types of color palettes. Monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, square, and rectangle (or tetradic). I personally prefer monochromatic color palettes.

There are 4 general categories of fonts for you to consider when making your brand: serif, sans serif, script (handwritten), or display (decorative). Logos can be created using any font you like, but make sure to keep headers and body text legible. Serif and sans serif fonts work best for that. I recommend choosing no more than 3 fonts for your brand to keep things feeling clean and consistent.

Graphics such as flowers, squiggly lines, or doodles can add a unique touch to your brand but are not required for every brand.

Using your brand identity

Once you have a cohesive brand identity, it’s time to implement it. I recommend putting together a branding style board with all your unique branding, ideal client information, services, and business goals. This will allow easy access and make your brand identity shareable if you hire people to help you in your business. A branding style board makes it easy to use these elements consistently across all platforms, keeping your brand seamless and professional.

Ultimately, having a well-thought-out brand identity is a vital part of your business’s success. Putting the time and effort into establishing what you want your business to look like is key to client conversion and business growth. If you are struggling with your brand, there are always professionals out there who would be more than happy to help create an incredible brand for your business. I have a basic branding add-on package that you can add to your website build or you can also check out different freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork.

I hope that this blog has helped you streamline your brand identity process. If you have questions or blog recommendations for future blog posts please email me at contact@heidibanksdesign.com.