My 3 Top Branding Tips

WE ARE STILL HERE and possibly even more determined to succeed

Sitting down to write this, I started thinking back on the last few months, It has possibly been the strangest time any of us have gone through.

We’ve all grown, changed, gone sideways, up and down, but we are still here and possibly even more determined to succeed.

This past year has taught us a lot about who we are and what we really want from our businesses. i’ve noticed a lot more business owners undertaking courses and trainings, refreshing their skills, updating websites, defining their brand and, looking for new ways to build their business. This is fantastic, it shows we are determined to beat this situation we’ve been thrown into.

i’ve done exactly the same, i’m a graphic and web designer, so my business has always been online, but i’ve had ups and downs, clients have left due to their own businesses suffering, i’ve taken on new clients who are re-evaluating their business, i’ve had new clients refreshing their graphics, looking for consistency and a new way to be heard on social media. i’ve had to change, adapt, tighten my branding and increase my social presence, i’m happy to say that this has really paid off, as i won Theo Paphitis #sBs on Twitter on the 5th October, to say i was excited was an understatement. This just reinforced that if you really want something no matter how small or big it may be, you can achieve it.

so during lockdown i created a canva for beginners course, and canva template packs to help make businesses stand out more on social media, it has become extremely noisy and very difficult to be seen or heard. Great looking graphics are a good start.

making sure our business can be seen is vital and social media is a brilliant way to do this, however we can’t just add any old thing, staying consistent and within your brand will make you memorable, will help people see and recognise you and your business. Building trust between you and your customer or client.

Colour - Using colour within your business is a big part of your brand, stick with a couple of core colours, then use different shades of these, don’t use lots of colours. check out www.canva. com/colors for more combinations and different meanings of colour (banks use blue for security, florists use pink for love, purple for royalty and prestige)

Fonts - Use 3 fonts. Main header font for your business name. Sub-header font for dividing paragraphs and smaller titles. Body font for your main body text. You can add a forth fancy font in if you want for buttons, call to actions and so forth…

Images - Finding images that represent your business or where you want your business to go, really helps you shape your branding, use these images in your social media, just make sure they all follow the same theme, or colours (that you’ve chosen above) to keep consistent and recognisable.

If you would like to find out more about what I do and if I can help you in any way, you are more than welcome to contact me or have a look at my website, I also have a group on Facebook, which has turned into a fantastic supportive community of brilliant small business owners, it’s also where I add in different tutorials, tips and lots of information to help with Canva and Wordpress.

Laura Goodsell

laura@anchoronline.co.uk www.anchoronline.co.uk www.facebook.com/groups/anchoronlinedesigns www.twitter.com/Anchor_Online