Branding can be complicated and difficult if you let it. But it can also be learned very easily for beginners and entrepreneurs starting off on their business journey. Let's break down the basics, so that it is easy to understand.
Here is a guide on branding for beginners!
1. Identifying Your Audience
You can easily identify who you are targeting by envisioning the ideal client or customer. Who are they? Where do they live? What are they like? These questions answered will bring you closer to successful branding.
Key Points:
Who is your audience?
What are they like?
How can you align your brand to speak to your audience?
2. Understanding your Mission, Vision, and Core Values
As a beginner in any field, in order to create your branding, you will need to know your mission or purpose, your vision for what you want long term, and your core values that you or your company will operate off.
Having these clearly laid out will allow you to follow your brand with ease. As time goes on, brands evolve, but having a basic foundation to build off is what makes a strong brand.
Clearly write out your mission, vision, and core values. You can display them on your website or physically in your office or space. This will not only ensure you stay on the path that you intend but to uphold your integrity as an entrepreneur or business owner.
Key Points:
1. Outline your Mission
2. Decide on your Vision
3. Create your Core Values
4. Write them out or hang them up
3. Create Branding that STICKS
When you begin your branding journey, you want to ensure that your branding is timeless. Branding that is flashy and modern can easily go out of style. There is a way to maintain class and be modern at the same time.
When you are envisioning your brand, envision it 10 years from now. A beginner entrepreneur is often focused on the now, but keeping the future and long-term in mind is going to create timeless branding.
4. 5 Branding Basics
5 Branding Basics
- Style
- Colors
- Font
- Images
- Messaging
All of these things are the key elements of branding, and they should all complement one another. Using Canva for example is a great start to see all kinds of branding for beginners and experts. You can see hundreds of fonts, logos, style variations, how brands incorporate images, and how they display their company through their messaging. When you tie all of these things together, they will create a clear image for your brand that makes people remember you.
Another point to note is that testing and experimentation can play a large hand in your branding. Don't be afraid to test and try something new. One of the most important things that I have learned in my career is that UGLY marketing works. What is ugly marketing? It is something that doesn't seem like it would be attention-grabbing or that you find aesthetically pleasing, but it WORKS.