It’s Yo’ Brand!

Brand. By definition, a brand is a “Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.” In essence, your brand tells people who you are, what makes you different, and why they should trust, believe and [insert desirable actionable behavior] from you. To accomplish these things your business must establish and articulate more than just a logo. You must conceptualize and create a brand personality, or brand voice, and – here’s where a lot of people fall off the brand wagon (see what I did there?) – brand messaging.

To create a successful branding experience, you need to first consider what you want people to feel when they think of your company. Your company’s personality … and more specifically, what you want consumers to believe your company’s personality to be … should be reflected in your brand voice. If your company is irreverent and modern, your brand voice should highlight those traits, giving the consumer the sense that you are indeed irreverent and modern.

But how do you infuse this feeling into your company’s marketing? According to SEMPO, that would be through your brand messaging, the “creative messaging that presents and maintains a consistent corporate image across all media channels, including search.” By layering consistent messaging across all marketing channels, you will be able to effectively convey your company’s position and intent.

So, how does this impact your company’s email program? Whether your program is just starting up or firmly established, brand messaging is an imperative element in all email marketing. Here are several things to consider when highlighting your brand in email communications:

1. Implement a Consistent Header and Footer. Maintain consistency across all email communications by creating and consistently using the same header and footer. Headers often contain your company’s logo and images of your company’s homepage (if e-commerce) and social media icons. Be sure to make your logo and any other icons click-able to the correct pages.

Footers should always contain the required content of company address, telephone number and unsubscribe link, but should still reflect your brand. You can easily do that by maintaining a color scheme consistent with your brand.

2. Reinforce Approved Brand Standards in All Communication. Brand standards only work if everyone adheres to them. That includes maintaining these brand standards in all email communications. Your company’s approved colors, fonts, messaging and logo should be utilized at all times. Emails are all about piquing subscribers’ interests through appealing images and copy, but consistent brand standards serve to set and maintain expectations of your company above and beyond the latest sale or product launch. Here’s a great article that discusses the importance of colors in your digital presence.

3. Utilize a Variety of Templates. Email templates are a great way to create consistency and reinforce branding within the design of your message. Your subscribers will come to expect certain layouts and concepts from your company. Maintaining that consistency will increase your brand awareness in your subscribers.

4. Maintain Your Brand Voice. Your brand voice will be what your customers and subscribers “hear” when they read your emails and view your other marketing materials. Law firms probably don’t want to write in a casual way if they want to convey a serious tone. Likewise, who wants to hire a clown who isn’t remotely humorous in their emails? (Although personally I would not want to hire any clown, humorous or not, but I’ll save that for another blog article.) Point is, identify your voice and stick with it across all marketing channels, including email copy.

Follow the above four branding tips and your emails will simply shine with brand personality. But, remember – above all, stay current! Brands change … you have to make sure your marketing materials reflect that. Looking for more tips on creating a professionally branded email? Learn more here.

How do you highlight your brand in your email marketing? Let us know by leaving a comment below, sending us a message on Facebook, or tweeting us @123Print.