It’s no secret that if you’re a business owner, you want to grow the value of your brand by reinforcing its focus and the impact it will make on your market. 

You are becoming more aware of the importance of having a website that you can be proud of, and a brand style guide that’s more than competent is vital for your future growth. 

The problem is that achieving a brand identity that can attract, engage and compel people to do business with you has probably eluded you up until now. You may only now feel the change of wind with how your customers make decisions.

So let me make this very easy on you!

If you want to get noticed in an overcrowded market; and put an end to battling to get your clients to take you seriously and pay what you’re worth, then the very best way to do this is by creating something that genuinely reflects what you’re about, that connects with people emotionally, and that makes your business “a business that can’t be ignored”.

It is essential to create an emotional connection between you, your business and your customer, and once you have this clarity deciding on branding elements is much easier. 

You want to be able to design your brand so that it effectively communicates your values so you attract the right customer. Your customer will decide with their heart, so there has to be an emotional message that resonates. It may be tempting to recreate your brand off an already created template, but you are wasting your time, and the result will be like every other competing brand out there.

To get the brand identity you want:

Determine your creative direction with a mood board

• Get clear with your business’s aspirations
• Take into account the values that you want to depict.
• Get absolute clarity with your personal and business essence, which will form your brand’s personality.
• Look for three words that describe your dominant brand style 
• Source inspiration
• Look at colour psychology to determine your colour choices
• Fine-tune your vision.
• Create a mood board. I use www.canva.com and one of the standard layout templates.

Create your brand-style board

• Create your logo, logo variation and sub-mark
• Select your two dominant fonts.
• Select patterns and textures.
• Look at illustrations and photographs to give you your photoshoot direction.
• Create a style board.

So, what is the importance of ensuring you complete step 1?

If you do not take the time to understand the emotional connection you want to evoke in your brand that authentically represents your values, talents and aspirations, you will end up disappointed.

Creating all the elements together as a “Style board” will give you the clarity to make a website and create marketing materials that you can be proud of.