As you’re building a brand, you have to think about the integrity and consistency of your brand and how it is represented online. You want to control as much as you possibly can by setting standards. This goes for your logo, your messaging, the typefaces you use through your website, and anybody that you’re giving freedom to create information about your company. All of these components add up to what is available for web users to get to know your business and its value. Mismanaging these aspects can have a devastating effect on converting someone from curious to customer.
CONSISTENCY = QUALITY
When you’re a small-to-medium business, it’s tempting to cut corners. If budgets are small and hiring a graphic designer seems like a lofty order, that secretary that once tried her hands with an Adobe product or two seems like she’ll do well enough at redoing your logo to suit a different product, right? Does anyone even notice minor dissimilarities? How important are these things, anyway?
Wrong. YES. Very important. Even if a dissimilarity seems minor to you, there are people who have an eye for things like that. And when they see inconsistency, they question your credibility. If you can’t stick with one visual representation to represent yourself across multiple platforms, how reliable will you be to remain consistent on a higher level? And it’s not just those artsy types you have to worry about…
So let’s take the Coca-Cola logo as an example. Do you see the inconsistency between these two logos? You just know instinctively that the logo on the left isn’t the true Coca-Cola logo, don’t you? How does it make you feel about the logo on the left? How does it make you feel about seeing the logo on the right?
SECOND IMPRESSIONS ARE JUST AS IMPORTANT
Let’s consider that the people who are researching your company don’t notice your logo or care about how that represents you. To best market your product or service, you need to emotionally connect with customers in your market. You want to leave an impression that’ll last until they decide to commit to your product or service, not an impression that’ll last until they read something else that doesn’t match up.
A lot of the old model of advertising has gone out of the door, with social media and narrowcasting being the main outlets for exposing customers to your brand. One thing certainly remains: repetition is important. Now, it’s not about slogans or jingles being repeated over radio waves. It’s a connection of familiarity and trust. That’s how you can make a lasting impression.
DON’T MAKE ’EM WORK TOO HARD
Can you think of the last time you were out and you came across someone who was overwhelmingly familiar? You were positive that you knew them from another time or another place. You might have racked your brain trying to place them and their name, or you might have worked up the nerve to ask them where they might know you, only to begin a game of twenty questions between you: Did you go to ___ High School? What about ____ University? Did you change your hair? Until the two of you figure it out.
Now, I know. With social media at the forefront of how we socialize, this doesn’t happen as often anymore. More importantly, the average web user doesn’t have the attention span for this sort of thing anyhow. We’ve mentioned before that there’s a lot of noise on the internet, so make sure that when you’re finally able to be heard, they’ll recognize you next time you say something
