When we talk to people about our design services they generally seem to get the idea. However, there are many who we speak to that, despite running a great business have no idea what a style guide is or more importantly how it can help a business strengthen its brand.
Here are 5 MAJOR REASONS to invest in a style guide for your business.
1. ESTABLISHING BRAND IDENTITY
A well-developed style guide is an essential tool for establishing brand identity. A brand style guide acts as a key document that helps content creators communicate a consistent message to your audience, so it's a great asset for creating consistent, on-brand content. Remember, your brand
identity is more than just the overall look of your business. It's how the business operates, speaks, acts, and essentially does business with its existing and future clients..
2. WORK FLOW
As your business grows. More and more people will collectively work on the same projects within your business. For example, one campaign could consist of a, Web Designer, Web Developer, Graphic Designer, Copy Writer and Photographer. In order to keep all of these guys working in harmony your style guid plays a huge part. Large companies with teams in different locations across the globe can benefit hugely from making their style guides available online. Skype, Adobe and Trello all publish their brand guides publicly so that employees can access them whenever they're needed.
3. DIY
We understand that you may want to create your own documents or promo material etc due to budget or whatever. There is absolutely no problem with that. However in doing so, you could be doing more bad than good. Too often we see business ads or posts with, stretched logos, incorrect colours, bad positioning, pixelated images and so on. To avoid all of this it would be best to enlist the help of a graphic designer. But, using your style guide could be just as useful. It will tell you most of what you need to know in order to effectively create your own material with consistent, strong branding.
4. TRUST
We all know the importance of trust in business, or at least we should. And building that trust is done primarily through your branding. How your business is perceived directly relates to your sales and/or customer experience. This isn't the end of the story though, because as mentioned earlier you want to keep the expected perception at all times. The key is CONSISTENCY. Following your style guide will ensure consistency in your branding efforts, thus, building trust with your audience.
5. CLARITY
Having a style guide can give you clarity on your business branding. Pointing out things you may have never thought about had it not been for your style guide. A style guide can consist of many components but what those components will be is up to you. Think of the most important messages you want to get across and how you may do so visually and/or audibly.
I hope this was helpful.
Want to discuss your brand style guide? Get in touch.