WHAT THE HECK IS A BRAND GUIDE?

I just wrapped on one of my favorite brands to-date, and I had the thought--"Millie. You haven't written a blog post in a hot minute, you need to get on it." So here I am, sitting down at 3:15pm on a Wednesday, Redbull in hand, to tell ya'll about one of the most-asked questions I get:

"What the heck is a brand guide? Do I need that?"

YES!! You need that. More specifically, your business needs that. Your brand is literally how the world views your business. It's comprised of your logo, your colors, your fonts, layouts you've used for social media, the way you word your website...EVERYTHING.

That's a lot of things.

And that's a lot of things to know what the hell to do with 100% of the time. What font are you going to use for that social media graphic you're creating? What should the button color be on that blog post you're writing? What logo color combination do I use on top of this photo?

You know who knows those answers? Your brand guide.

A good branding guide will include all of the "rules" about the usage of your brand elements, including (but not limited to):

-your logo

-different color versions of your logo and what situations you should use them in

-your brand color palette

-typography styles and where/when those specific styles should be displayed

-grids and layout examples for social media, print, and web

and so so much more (depending on how much money you're spending on your brand, and what designer is creating your guide)

"Okay, but WHY do I need a brand guide? Can't I just like...make it up as I go?"

I mean, you sure can. Would I recommend it? No.

Again, your brand is the way you present your business to the world. And the designer you hired to create that logo, pick your colors, choose your typography? They designed all of those things for a specific demographic of people--your clients & customers.

When you throw colors or logos or different fonts around like you're throwing glitter on a birthday card, your target audience has no clue what is going on, who you are, or where to direct their attention.

Also, the larger your business becomes, the more hands that are going to be on board creating material for your business. Whether it's blog posts, or labels, or stickers for that event next month. The really amazing thing about having a brand guide? You send the new guy your PDF and he knows how to create something to match what you already have.

Three things are going to happen to your brand if you diligently follow guidelines

and stay consistent:

1. Strong messaging -- people are going to know what you're about, every time. because the graphic you just created using your brand guide? it's on message.

2. Brand recognition -- when someone sees a sponsored post on Facebook with your icon on it, they're going to know that it belongs to your brand. Or when they're scrolling through their instagram and someone posted about your soap company? They're going to know it's you.

3. You're going to reach your customers -- now...this is dependent on how good your graphic designer was. but if your designer created your brand around your audience, you are going to be drawing them in like flies, because you're using your brand how it was intended.

just. like. magic.

bye for now!

-millie