Why Your Company Needs a Brand Policy Guide

Having a strong brand is important to any business owner because it sends a message to customers about who you are and what you stand for. It informs customers what they can expect when they purchase your product or service. Having a strong brand also helps set your business apart from competitors.

What some business owners do not understand is that to be effective, a brand needs to have a consistent message every time customers encounter it. To do that, every business needs a brand style guide.

If potential customers consistently hear different messages or have different perceptions regarding your brand, it will confuse them about the benefits of partnering with you. Having an inconsistent brand is worse than having no brand at all because it can break the bond of trust between you and your customers. When that trust is gone, it can be hard to get back.

What is a Brand Policy Guide?

A brand policy guide is a roadmap for your business. It creates a set of guidelines that define how you want to showcase your company to the world. It involves a variety of elements including graphic design, writing style, tone, and voice you use when communicating with customers, employees, financial institutions, and potential clients. The brand policy guide outlines how each component should be used and brings them all together in a cohesive document that directs the way everyone in the organization interacts with the outside world.

Why is a Brand Policy Guide Important?

When your company has a brand policy guide for everyone in the company to follow, it benefits your business and those who buy from you.

• Trust in Your Business

Having a brand policy guide allows you to show the public that you run a professional business that offers a reliable solution to the issue(s) they are trying to fix. When there are no brand guidelines, your products and services can start to look different from each other. The same goes for your marketing materials. If things do not look the same, it will seem like you do not know what you are doing, which can result in your customers losing their trust in you because they do not know what to expect. When there is a brand guide in place, it allows your brand to remain consistent. Using the same colors and fonts on your website and in your print marketing materials might seem like common sense. However, without brand guidelines to follow, it can be easy to get off track on these as well as other brand elements.

• Organization

From a design and content perspective, it takes a lot to keep a brand consistent. A brand policy guide brings all the information together in one place so people do not have to look for it. This guide is especially important for those who are creative, such as the designers, writers, and website managers who use the guidelines every day.

Besides the creative individuals, the brand policy guide is also very useful for other employees who need to know the company’s brand standards. They may not need to know all the details like the creative employees do, but they do need to understand the basic standards when communicating with anyone outside the company through emails, letters, presentations, and other formats.

Brand policy guidelines need to include all the important details but should also be easy to comprehend. If employees cannot make sense of the guidelines, it will be hard for them to be consistent with the brand. If an employee strays from the brand style, then the company’s image, in the eyes of the customer, will begin to wander. For this not to happen, you must keep your brand policy guide clear and easy to understand for all levels of employees.

• Consistency for Your Target Market

Marketing is all about the way you lead potential customers through the process of deciding whether to buy your product or service. A brand policy guide keeps your marketing materials consistent so potential customers can make the right choice regarding whether or not to do business with you.

Your potential customers expect you to guide them through this process in a consistent way. This means all your content needs to be well-written and have the same tone of voice, as well as your brochures need to look like your website in terms of design, color, and fonts. Keep in mind that your content needs to express the same story, or parts of the same story. When the design supports the content, and vice versa, they work together to bring the same message. This lets you know your brand policy guide is giving good direction.

• Let Your Brand Work for You, Not Against You

Creating a brand policy guide takes a lot of hard work because it requires knowing your customers and what they buy. Begin by coming up with a clear vision you want your brand to represent. Afterwards, trust in the experts who understand how colors make a difference in how people see things and wordsmiths who can express your story in a way your audience needs to hear. The rewards of taking the time to develop a brand policy guide will result in building a strong, consistent brand. This will guarantee you will not have to work hard to draw in customers to your business.

Developing a brand policy guide may seem overwhelming, but in the end, you will reap many benefits not only for your business and employees, but also for your customers. If you are having a difficult time creating a brand policy guide, or just simply need someone to provide ideas, contact Intergetik Marketing Solutions today. We would be happy to answer any questions you have and provide our support while you design your brand policy guide.