Big companies have vast resources and entire teams dedicated to the maintenance, communication and policing of their brand usage. But for a small business, the topic of branding and guidelines can be trickier. Happily, there are some simple steps to getting it right.
Use a professional graphic designer
Your brand is more than just a logo, and a professional designer will create all of the elements you need to successfully use it. This includes guidance on imagery, font, tone of voice, colour palette and different logo types – such as full colour, black and white, and reverse or ‘white out’ logos – as well as provide you with different sizes and file types for when you commission leaflet printing, brochures, booklets, flyers and other types of printing. Commission your graphic designer to produce brand guidelines that your team can refer to. Brand guidelines ensure conformity of business branding and sustain marketing messages that are at the core of your business in order to uniform and reinforce your business reputation.
Create templates
You can also have branded design templates created for materials that you regularly produce i.e. a leaflet template. Commercial printing providers can help you with the use of these. Templates help your staff to recreate certain key materials such as flyers, leaflets, posters and business cards, without needing to start from scratch. This means that branding remains on-point and that time is saved by no longer needing to recreate everything from scratch.
Work with a good printing company
A good printing company will be able to advise on the print finishes and formats that will work best for your marketing campaigns and will provide proofs for key materials so that you can check the branding before the button gets pressed for any litho print jobs! It is worth investing in the relationship with your printer as they will be able to do you the best prices for regular and high-volume work, and they will work with you in as flexible a way as possible to give a good service and recommend ways in which you could save money.
Use a copywriter
Many small businesses make the mistake of thinking that operational staff can write marketing copy. However, it is a specialist skill in its own right – like graphic design – and it will pay off to use a professional copywriter who can create impactful, on-brand and engaging copy that drives forward the call to action and helps to generate conversions. Remember, although the use of specialists represents a direct cost to your business, you will ultimately benefit from a higher ROI thanks to better results and by allowing your managers to do what they do best – running, growing and delivering your business!
Still interested in ways that you can brand your business? Check out one of our previous articles that will help you along your way: What Your Graphic Designer Wants You To Know
Whether you’re a large or small business, invest in high-quality printing and design with PrintUK.com to convey your brand in the right way. Contact us today to find out more.