Building Brand Guidelines for Your Business

Brand Guidelines don’t have to be complicated. At its most basic definition, Brand Guidelines are the instructions on how to communicate your brand to your audience. It gives you a clear path to follow so you know exactly what to say and how to say it, so there’s no room for inconsistency in your marketing. 

You can create your own Brand Guidelines by developing these seven elements:

Mission and Vision Statements

Here’s the important thing to remember about the difference between a Mission and a Vision statement: Your Mission statement defines what you do and who you do it for, and your Vision statement defines the future aspirations of your business. These are both guideposts that will remind you of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. 

Company Perception

Include the Past, Current, and Future Perceptions of your business. What did people think of your business when you first got started, currently, and how would you like them to think of you as you move forward? What did you notice about the kinds of customers you attracted then, and now and would you like to attract in the future? It’s important to know this so you can always come back and remind yourself of how you’re growing, or of how you need to tweak things to start growing.

Core Values

Core Values are crucial to your business. Whether you’re a solopreneur or have a staff of employees, you need to have these visible at all times to encourage positive company culture and express to your audience what you believe. These values can let your audience know what you believe and what matters to you, and evoke an emotional response that can trigger your audience to take the next step in your sales funnel. Pick five values and make sure they are unique to what you truly believe. 

Core Messaging

These are the messages you’ll want to continuously repeat to your audience over and over again. (Of course, we don’t mean literally, but these messages need to be expressed in whatever you write on behalf of your business.) Your audience wants to trust you, but they need to understand what you’re trying to say to them first and believe it. If you’re constantly sending out mixed signals in your messaging, your audience will get confused or frustrated and make an unconscious decision to no longer trust you. 

Brand Position

This is where you separate yourself from the competition. Complete this sentence: My company is the only company that...

You are probably not the only business in your industry to offer certain services, but perhaps what separates you is your approach to customer service, the relationships you create, or the way you perform those services. 

Value Proposition

This is what your business or product offers that the other guys don’t. Why buy your product or service? Why should a customer choose you over the competition? 

Visual Brand

This is where you house your logo, your specific hex color codes, your typography (fonts), and your imagery types. 

Don’t know the hex codes in your logo? You can go to your designer and ask, or you can easily download a Chrome extension that can help you locate the hex codes, like Just Color Picker, which allows you to scroll over color on your screen and get the hex code of that color. It’s important to know these codes so you are using the exact colors in your marketing materials every single time. 

To get a complete idea of what a finished set of Brand Guidelines looks like and get inspired for your own guidelines, check out our portfolio!