[SAM CARVALHO] The Marketing a Practice Podcast will be coming to an end at the close of 2022 with the last episode being published on Thursday, December 29th. As such, I will be taking the month of December to review how to create great branding or improve on your current branding. The 126 episodes published will continue to remain available for you to listen to at any point if you’re feeling stuck in your branding or marketing. It’s been a pleasure going on this journey with you, and I hope you have found value in this content. I wish you all the best in marketing your practice. Welcome to the Marketing a Practice podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you’ll discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand new business visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. When it comes to branding, consistency is everything, but how do you ensure brand consistency when you have a number of departments or designers producing your brand collateral over time? How can you quickly communicate your brand requirements as you grow your small business? If you’ve been listening to my podcast, you’ll know the answer through a brand style guide. A brand style guide is a rule book containing specifications on everything that plays a role in the look and feel of your brand, everything from typography and color to logos and imagery. It lets everyone know exactly how to present your brand to the world. It guides the design for all of your content from blog posts and presentations to offer spaces and business cards. So here’s a walkthrough on how to create a style guide that clearly outlines your brand asset guidelines and ensures professionalism and consistency in all of your messaging. [SAM CARVALHO] Number one is to start with a great brand story. Every great brand is driven by a compelling brand story. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a brand story defines and describes the things that a company cares about the most. It’s used to communicate a company’s value to the public and can also help guide major decision making within an organization. Brand stories can look pretty different at different companies, but there’s one key thread that ties them all together. Brand stories wrap up a company’s vision, mission, and core values in one package. The brand story should always come first In the brand style guide, it sets the stage for the brand experience and should inform the rest of the brand style guide. If you’re feeling stuck, feel free to Google some brand stories for inspiration. Trello, Skype and Facebook all have great ones. Number two, use logo guidelines to create a recognizable brand signature. Brand story aside, your logo is the most important part of your brand. It’s the one thing that everyone should immediately recognize as belonging to you and only you, and to make a logo instantly recognizable, it has to be used consistently. Think about it. Have you ever seen the Facebook logo in any color other than the Facebook blue? That’s not by accident. All of the top brand style guides outline rules for exactly how to use their logos to make sure that nobody sends the wrong message with their brand. That even includes specifications on how much space to leave around logos, acceptable color variations of the logo, as well as minimum logo sizes. Again, have a look at Spotify, Facebook, or Snapchat’s brand style guides for some examples of this. [SAM CARVALHO] Number three, include your brand’s core color palette. To keep brand recognition intact, it’s important to make core brand colors well-known and consistent. In your brand style guide, clearly define your brand’s color palette. This will usually include one primary color and then some secondary shades. Don’t forget to include the necessary hex codes, RGB values, and CMYK color codes to make sure that your colors are presented consistently across all media. Number four, choose typography that matches your visual style. Typography is one of those things that goes unnoticed if it’s done well, but sticks out like a store thumb if it’s not. Allowing font choices to slip under your radar can really cheapen your brand. Again, to ensure you’re applying typography consistently across your collateral, be sure to outline what fonts are used for white purposes in both print and on the web in your brand style guide. You could even go so far as to design a hierarchy of font styles and sizes, text colors and styles for lists and paragraphs. If that’s taking it too far for you though, just focus on your most used fonts, which are usually not more than one or two. Specify your font and design hierarchy with respect to font sizes, for example, big for headers, medium for sub-headers, and smaller for paragraphs and font weights. For example, light, bold, heavy, et cetera, [THERAPY NOTES] Is managing your practice stressing you out? Try Therapy Notes. It makes notes, billing, scheduling, and tele-health a whole lot easier. Check it out and you will quickly see why it’s the highest rated EHR on Trustpilot with over 1000 verified customer views and an average customer rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars. You’ll notice the difference from the first day you sign up for a trial. They offer live phone support seven days a week so when you have questions, you can quickly reach out to someone who can help. You are never wasting your time looking for answers. If you’re coming from another EHR, they make the transition really easy. Therapy Notes will import your clients’ demographic data free of charge during your trial so you can get going right away. Use the promo code [JOE], that’s J-O-E, to get three free months to try Therapy Notes for free, no strings attached, and remember, telehealth is included with every subscription free. Make 2022 the best year yet with Therapy Notes. [SAM CARVALHO] Number five, find your brand voice. The importance of having a consistent brand voice in your messaging should not be underestimated. Spending time finding the style that resonates with your audience and aligns with the personality of your brand. Once you have it figured out, ensure it’s replicated across your channels by spelling it out in your brand style guide. Do this by including a writing sample or two that heroes your company’s brand voice. Number six, include image and data visualization guidelines in your brand style guide. Last but certainly not least, it’s time to talk about imagery. Everything about your imagery, including style, color, and content, contributes to the perception of your brand. Therefore, it’s again important to create some guidelines for imagery such as photos, illustrations, charts, infographics, et cetera, to include in your brand style guide. You can do this by giving examples, specifying when and where to use illustrations and including stylistic choices like background cover color, level of detail, scale, blending modes, et cetera. Photographic style is as important as illustrative style. If you use photographs frequently in your branding, your style guide should specify the level of complexity, compositions, color schemes, and technical specs that make photographs fit in your brand. Whether you work with photos or illustrations, providing lots of examples and thorough descriptions is the way to go. Finally, if your branding features infographics or data visualizations, don’t forget to include some stylistic guidelines for them as well. Specify when and where to use infographics and data visualizations and include style preferences and technical conventions. These sort of guidelines are easy to overlook, but when used properly, they go a long way towards fostering a cohesive brand experience. So to sum up, create a brand style guide in six simple steps. Number one, start with a great brand story, number two, use logo guidelines to create a recognizable brand signature, number three, include your brand’s core color palette. Number four, dictate your topography hierarchy, number five, define your brand voice and number six, specify the imagery and iconography that makes up your visual style. I hope you found this episode valuable, just recapping on the importance of a brand style guide and how to go about creating a great one. I will see you in the next episode. [SAM CARVALHO] Thanks again to Therapy Notes for sponsoring this episode. Remember to use the promo code, [JOE], that’s J-O-E to get three free months to try out Therapy Notes for free, no strings attached. Thanks for listening to the Marketing a Practice podcast. If you need help with branding your business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand, or you simply want some print flyer designed head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon. Marketing a Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.