Category Archives: Graphic Design

What Should be Included in Your Brand Guidelines?

Brand guidelines are clearly defined standards showcasing how you and others should talk and present your company to the world. These guidelines are a physical or digital booklet to share internally with your entire team and with any vendors or partners.

What is it good for?

Absolutely nothing. Just kidding! By providing a guideline for your employees, vendors, and partners to follow when representing your company, you are establishing consistency. And consistency is no small feat. From your logo and colors to your mission and messaging, your brand guidelines provide direction allowing employees to establish an “on-brand” decision without always needing to consult upper-level management.

The Power of Consistency

Consistency breeds recognition. This recognition generates feelings of understanding and trust that help drive consumer brand loyalty. If you think about some iconic brands, can you recognize their ad campaigns without a logo? In a lot of cases, yes! This is because of their consistent brand elements and messaging. For example, can you recognize the saying “Just Do It?” Doritos took this concept even further and launched an ad campaign that didn’t show their logo or name, but still clearly represented their brand identity. These companies established that iconic recognition by presenting a consistent brand identity outlined in clear brand guidelines.

What should be included in brand guidelines?

What you include in your brand guidelines might differ slightly for each brand. However, as a general rule of thumb, you want to have anything that helps people understand your brand. Remember this document will help guide individuals inside and outside your company, so be sure to include information you assume is even basic company knowledge.

The Basics

No matter your industry, company size, or location, there are certain brand aspects that every brand guideline should include.

  • Company History | Your company story, including why you got started.
  • Logo | Variations of your logo, color options for your logo, and logo sizing and spacing.
  • Brand Colors | Colors you tend to use throughout your brand materials, including the HEX, RGB, and CMYK codes.
  • Fonts | Font variations and text sizing.
  • Imagery | Examples of photography, illustrations, and icons in the proper aesthetic (and ones to avoid).

Culture

All companies have a culture, but only some are intentional about creating one. If your company leans on your culture to help make business decisions, it is essential to include it in your brand guidelines.

  • Personality | Who you are or a list of adjectives that describe your brand.
  • Mission Statement | Why your company exists and what purpose you are serving.
  • Vision Statement | What your company aspires to be.
  • Core Values | Your company principles and beliefs.

Possible Additions to Your Brand Guidelines

Now is when your guidelines become individualized! Brand guidelines don’t have to be limited to the usual brand items. Think of your brand guidelines as a consistency handbook! If there is something you want to present in a specific way, no matter where it’s shared, include it!

  • Target Audience | Specify a target audience and why they need you.
  • Social Media Assets | Profile and cover image styles, team welcome, anniversary, or closure announcements, and company-specific or common hashtags.
  • Voice | Words and phrases your brand regularly uses (and ones to avoid).
  • Grammar | The grammar rules you follow and break. For example, does your company always use the oxford comma?

Brand guidelines are an important part of a brand identity. If you need help putting together a formal document to share with vendors, partners, and new hires, our team of professionals can help.

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Heather Morrison
Heather is the VP of Operations at Innereactive and we are lucky to have her. She has over five years of experience running an HR department and enjoys helping businesses like yours find solutions to their HR needs.

Email Marketing Dos and Don’ts

Email marketing continues to be one of the most popular channels of communication and promotion for many companies. According to OptinMonster, 99% of people check their email inbox every day, with some even checking it 20+ times a day! So, it’s no surprise email marketing is an effective way to reach large audiences. Check out our recommended do’s and don’ts of email marketing below to ensure you don’t fatigue your email list and promote engagement in your send.
The Do's of Email Marketing

The Do’s of Email Marketing

Do Choose Quality Over Quantity

The goal of your email marketing list should not be based just on subscriber numbers. An extensive subscriber list is useless if they never open, click, or buy from you! The most important aspect of email marketing is content & engagement. Creating content that resonates with your audience will help your subscribers engage with what you are sending.

Ever heard the phrase, “less is more”? This phrase rings true even in email marketing. Instead of sending mass emails to all your subscribers, review your content and segmentation lists to ensure you are sending high-quality content first and foremost. If you notice high unsubscriber reports or low open rates, it may be time to scale back or revisit your marketing strategy.

Do Make Sure Your Emails are Clear and Concise

You might think a fancy design, GIFS, or auto-play videos are crucial to catching your audience’s attention and standing out, but the chances of everything loading correctly or quickly are slim. With users viewing your email across various devices and email clients, your cute graphic may appear as just a grey box to many users. If you are investing in heavy email marketing, we recommend partnering with an agency like us or using a tool like Sendgrid Email Testing to catch as many code-based differences as possible.

Tips for Including Videos

If you have a fantastic video that you want to share, take a screenshot and link to the actual video on your website. This tactic will increase your click-through rate, and subscribers will appreciate not having a bulky email in their inbox.

The Dont’s of Email Marketing

Don’t Blast Your Email List at the Same Time

The great thing about today’s technology is that you can set up different times when emails go out, even if you aren’t in the office. If you have customers around the country, make sure that the email blast is staggered based on their time zone and needs. For example, subscribers in New York may want to receive emails early in the morning during their commute, whereas subscribers, where you are from, might wish to have it closer to lunchtime.

Try testing out sending email blasts at different times to see how customers respond or use analytics to determine the highest open rate time for email messages.

Don’t Mislead Your Recipients

Click-bait or misleading subject lines will not only hit spam filters quickly but will also mislead your audience. Be very clear about what your marketing email includes and what action you want your subscribers to take. Avoid spammy subject lines and always welcome your call to action. Remember that email blasts require carefully organized emails to be sent at the right time to the right person.

If you need assistance writing, designing, or sending email blasts, we can help! Our team can help develop your email marketing strategy, write copy, design graphics, develop an email template, and create a personalized schedule ideal for communicating with your customers.

 

Ready to send effective emails to your audience? We can help you with everything from strategy and design, to the development and implementation of emails to successfully reach and engage your audience.

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Marisa Lyon
Marisa is the Finance and Marketing Manager at Innereactive, and we are so grateful to have her. She enjoys helping businesses find the right solution for their marketing needs.

 

What can a good logo do for you?

We get it. Running a small business is a big job! Sometimes you prioritize working for others over working on yourself. It’s a really common problem. The real issue is that you may find yourself several months or even years into running your business without good branding, or even a polished logo in practical files that you can use easily and consistently. Continue reading →