How to Maintain Brand Consistency as a Creative Entrepreneur

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Consistency is key,” once or twice, especially if you run your own business. But do you realize how deep consistency runs? It’s not only about how frequently you post on social media or if you uphold your branding design. It’s actually about all of it! In this blog post, I want to focus on how to maintain brand consistency as a creative entrepreneur and why it’s important.

What is brand consistency?

Brand consistency is the overall presence of your business: how you present yourself in your messaging, values, your visual brand design, all of it. Brand consistency is important because it’s what allows your audience to identify you, connect with you, trust you, and ultimately spend money with you.

When brand consistency is in place, you’re setting your business up to be easily recognized by current and potential clients.

When your brand is consistent, it can help you:

• Increase brand awareness, visibility, & recognition
• Set you apart from your competitors
• Establish trust & authority
• Increase client loyalty

The benefits of brand consistency speak for themselves, but it takes more than having these elements in place. It’s the strategy behind them.

How to Create Brand Consistency

Creating and maintaining brand consistency is only possible when you know exactly who your brand best serves. Your target audience plays a key role in what consistency means for your brand because it is your audience that you must speak to, create products/services for, connect with, inspire, motivate, and sell to.

If you haven’t already, make sure you have your target audience defined. Creating an ideal customer persona will help you in more ways than one and is the pillar of creating a consistent brand. When you know who your brand is targeting, you can decide what your brand looks, feels, sounds like.. you get the picture.

Related Post: Why Customer Personas Are Essential for Your Small Business

How Your Brand Identity Can Help Maintain Brand Consistency

I want to focus on the two major parts of your brand, the strategy behind your brand and the visual identity that makes up it.

Brand Strategy & Consistency

An effective brand strategy is the foundation of your brand design and defines your company’s mission, values, culture, brand voice & vocab, client needs, etc. It defines your brand’s position in the market and how it compares to its competitors. Your unique value proposition (aka your one-liner statement that describes your brand’s product/service advantage to its target audience) also fits your brand strategy and helps you stay aligned with what matters most.

Your brand strategy should always come before your brand identity design because it is your strategy that guides the design process. How do you know who you are designing for without knowing who your brand best serves, where to find them, what they like and don’t like, etc? When you understand all that your brand encompasses, you’re able to make strategic decisions about your brand design.

Related Post: Define Your Brand Voice & Vocab

Brand Identity Design & Consistency

Sometimes you are your ideal client, but you have to make sure you’re making decisions about what you like and what is best for the brand to connect with its clients and customers. Whether you work with a brand designer or decide another route, you should know how important the strategy is when designing the brand’s identity.

Color, typography, logos, presentation, imagery, marketing collateral, and patterns are all part of your brand’s visual language. Ensure the brand’s visual language and strategy align for impactful brand consistency.

If you’re having trouble with your branding, check out this Brand Audit Checklist from our client, Sarah of SHP Brand Bash! She’s a professional brand strategist & photographer who helps brands take their imagery to the next level. Including my own!

Why Brand Consistency is important

When you create a consistent brand, you’re paving the way for clients to quickly and easily recognize and trust your business. Think about brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, or Google. You can quickly recognize and differentiate each from their competitors because of their logos, commercials, product design, or packaging. Each brand stands out from a competitor EASILY, from how they make you feel and the authority they’ve built with their customers.

Brand consistency is important to help you stand out from competitors, make a stance, create culture, explain values & mission, and ultimately create a brand that people know and love.

Is your brand consistent?