Consistency is key to branding that works.

I love creating branding. It’s fun, pulling together all of the things that make what you do unique, and crafting a visual identity from it. It’s my favourite part of what I do, honestly. But that branding? It doesn’t matter how magical the materials I create for you are, if you’re not using them consistently and effectively after I give you the tools and hand over the keys to the kingdom.

Consistency in your presence overall is absolutely key to your branding working for you long term, and helping to convert clients for your business on repeat. Without it… a brand is just a little pdf with pretty graphics in it.

Staying consistent isn’t always straightforward.

The problem, obviously, is that the actual application of your branding once you have it, is NOT the easiest project in the world. And this gets even MORE complicated if you’re going the DIY route for your branding, instead of working with a professional designer. I’m not a pro who tells people they HAVE to work with someone like me to have branding that will be strategic, and work for their business – you absolutely CAN create it yourself. But… you’ll be tying your hands behind your back in a variety of ways if you do choose that path.

And part of that, actually happens when you get to the “using your branding” aspect of creating it. When you work with a professional branding strategist or designer, you get the tools you need pulled together for you on a silver platter, and might even have a set of templates that you can use to create your social content in a consistent way! But if not… you have to either source those things all over the internet, or make them yourself. And that’s… a lot.

But I believe in you, and your ability to DIY the living hell out of your brand materials. So, I want to walk through some of my top tips for keeping your presence consistent, so you have a bit of a starting point for sticking with it in your DIY process, and after, while you’re using the materials you’ve made for yourself!

Top Ten Tips for Brand Consistency:

1. Start with a professionally designed brand

   • Okay so this first one is a little bit of a cop-out, but I have to mention it so it’s going first and we can just get it out of the way early. The easiest way to make sure you can stay consistent with your branding content? Have it designed by a pro, who knows exactly what tools to provide that will help you continue using your materials consistently throughout the life of your brand. When you get a package of branding materials designed professionally, you don’t have to worry about guesswork. You’ll get everything from a ready-made palette to use, to social media templates, or surface pattern designs – branding packages can include anything and everything you need. The best way to stay consistent, is to have tools that make it as easy as dragging and dropping. But… like I’ve already said, sometimes the best option you have for creating your business’ brand is DIYing the project. So don’t worry – the rest of the tips in the list apply whether you’re working with a pro, OR designing your brand yourself!

2. Choose components you’ll want to continue using

   • Staying consistent is in part about not getting bored. If you get bored with your branding materials, then you’re a LOT more likely to get tempted into using something… unbranded. Random. Pulled from left field. And sometimes a left-field addition is a GOOD thing! Sometimes it can augment your content. But that’s not usually how it goes. Usually, it means you’re straying away from content that’s recognizable and effective to promote your business, in favour of content that feels novel to YOU. But… what feels exciting to you is actually not always an indication that it’s the right choice for your brand. Especially if the components you’re choosing don’t line up with the established branding for your business. We get antsy to change things up for all kinds of reasons, and there are always exceptions – sometimes, you NEED to change the tools you’re using in your business. But more often than not… your branding isn’t actually the issue, and using content that’s off brand is just a distraction from what’s really going on.
   • So, when you’re designing your brand, or having it designed by a pro, make sure the colours, fonts, graphics, and other tools you’re picking are components you’re going to feel okay continuing to use long term! Part of this means making sure you’re not just choosing them because of trends, but instead lining them up with the values that underlie your business.

3. Properly license your fonts for use

   • Speaking of fonts, you know what’s the absolute worst? Having to stop using a font because you grabbed a “free for personal use” version online and you actually got called on using it for your business. It doesn’t happen often, don’t get me wrong – but if you’re going down the DIY route and you feel like using unlicensed materials is a corner you can cut to keep costs down, or make your life easier… I promise it’s not worth it in the long run. Make sure when you’re choosing fonts (or any materials, really) that you want to use long term as a part of your business’ brand, that you have the proper licenses to use those materials. The good news, is if you’re working with a professional, they usually take care of that work FOR you, and either provide licensed fonts, custom fonts, or fonts that are readily available for use, that you can install on your Mac or Windows PC. But if you’re at all worried, talk to your branding professional about the licenses for the materials you’re getting! Being forced to change everything (or pay fees that are outside your budget) for a tool that you’ve been using for ages… it’s just not fun. So set yourself up to NOT have to do it!

4. Keep your brand standards handy

   • Your brand standards should be able to serve as a promotional content BIBLE for your business! Everything you need to know about creating graphics, using your logo materials, what fonts to use for headings and body content – even the tone and editing style of the images you use… it should all be in there. Whether you’re working with a pro or designing the guide yourself, do not underestimate the power of having a slide deck or a PDF with all of your guidelines handy while you’re using your branding materials! It can help you make sure you’re referring back to the standards for your content, and that the individual tools you’re using are in line with the overarching tone of your brand. And lining those things up? Well that’s consistency in a nut-shell, right?

5. If you use stock images, use them in the same style

   • When you promote your business, you’re going to use a combination of photos taken by a professional photographer, photos you’ve taken, and stock images you’ve collected from around the internet. But even though these photos come from different places, in an ideal world, you want them to all work together! So, when you’re choosing stock images (if you’re the one choosing them) you want to make sure they’re all also aligned to your brand standards, use a similar tone to your overall brand, or are licensed for editing so that you can add filters or edit them yourself to line them up with your branding tone manually! Otherwise, you’ll end up with stock photos included in your content that REALLY look like stock photos. And no one wants that, especially your audience!

6. If you work with a photographer, provide them your brand guide

   • Just like you have your brand guide to help you choose stock images to include in your content, your photographer should have your brand guide before your session with them, that way they can ALSO have your brand guidelines in mind while they’re capturing you and/or your work! It’s so important that everyone who creates content for your business, professional or not, is on board with the standards you have in place for your branding, otherwise you’ll end up with communication issues. And I don’t just mean between you and your professionals – I mean with you and your AUDIENCE, after you start using the content itself! But avoiding that problem is straightforward, and like everything here… it’s all about consistency.

7. Use templates when you’re designing graphics

   • You know what’s easier than starting over every time you create a design for your business? Not starting over. (If that sounded like a trick question, it wasn’t LOL). But seriously, don’t start over. Never start from scratch! Use. Templates. Whether those templates are designed by you to use over and over, or a professional custom creates them for you, or even if you purchase a set on a marketplace or from a designer whose work you love… it doesn’t matter. What DOES matter, is that you start from something that already considers your brand guidelines, from the very first post!
   • When you recreate the wheel every time you go to make an Instagram post, you’re putting yourself on the back-foot, unless you’re a designer yourself. Starting from nothing means more room for error, more time designing, and more opportunity for inconsistencies. And who wants that in their process?

8. Remember consistency sells

   • A few of the key tips that will help you stay consistent, aren’t actually about your content itself, they’re about your brain. Promoting your business and actually growing, is in no small part actually a MENTAL exercise. I mean, if you’re a small business owner, you’ve definitely had those days where you couldn’t really feel like putting yourself out there, no matter how hard you tried, right? We can all relate to that? (I’m going to pretend you said yes, and continue here). You HAVE to remember that consistency sells, because there will be points where you feel like your content needs to change, because “it just does” and “it’s not exciting”. But a brand that converts isn’t always about being exciting, or new, or fun. I mean sometimes it is, but that wholly depends on your business and what you need your audience to feel. What it IS about is being recognizable. And consistency is the breeding ground for recognition, EVEN when it feels boring.
   • If you change your logo or your colours every ten minutes… there’s no time for your audience to build that recognition. AND you’ll be far less consistent… because if you’re changing things regularly, the only consistent part of your branding is you. And your brand… it’s not you, and you’re not it, either. It’s its own entity, and that’s how it should be!

9. Remember your audience doesn’t see ALL your content

   • One of the reasons we get bored of consistency, is we think everyone ELSE is bored of our content. But you have to keep reminding yourself that really, when you’re posting new content, most of your audience is NOT going to see it, even if you have really great retention rates. It’s just how the algorithms work at this point. Gone are the days when 30% of your audience saw posts on Facebook, and nearly all of your followers on Instagram saw every post you make.
   • It’s just not a realistic expectation. But that comes with bonuses! Like remembering that such a small percentage of your audience will actually SEE your individual posts, that you don’t have to worry nearly as much as you are about “boring” them. And the people who are seeing it all? They’re seeing your content on purpose, it’s not just being fed to them by the algorithm. They’re what we’d call “superfans”. And your superfans aren’t bored… that’s why they’re superfans!

10. Don’t confuse anxiety with a reason to change your branding

    • This is last on the list, because it’s the hardest one to come to terms with. And I get it – I also sometimes get the itch to change my branding when I get anxious. But it’s not about my branding. Nine times out of ten, what’s really going on is I’m struggling with some other issue, and I just want to distract myself by dumping a bunch of energy into my brand, or a ton of time into my website. When really, I need to get to the root of the problem, and solve THAT instead. So when you get that feeling to go off script – the little voice that says “it’s time to change everything” – ask yourself. Is your content still directed at your ideal audience? Is it still targeted to their needs? If the answers to those questions are yes, then you don’t need to change your brand, you need to figure out what’s ACTUALLY getting to you… and change THAT. Stick to the guidelines for your content, stay consistent, and work through it.

Staying consistent isn’t always easy, but it’s WORTH it

Consistency isn’t easy. It’s ignoring the little voice that says “CHANGE IT ALL”. If you’re DIYing your content, then it means getting outside your comfort zone, and creating something you’ve never created before. It’s not about being boring, but it IS about sticking to some rules you’ve designed for yourself. And in the end, it’s worth it. Because like I keep saying, consistent branding is what brings clients and customers back again and again, and it’s what communicates your values clearly and directly to your people. So when it’s time to change things, by all means change them. If your audience shifts, or the NEEDS of your audience shift, or you start doing something new – or you need to lean back from trends. But if that’s NOT what’s going on, get to the root of the problem, instead of blaming your branding.

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