Before the digital age, where brands are more accessible to consumers, your brand was defined as a logo and a color palette. Now, it’s more complex.
Customers are judging you like a book’s cover. A weak aesthetic won’t land you much business.
There’s a sea of competition and you need to stand out. You won’t achieve that by looking like a copycat of one of your competitors.
Instead, you need to create an effective yet simple aesthetic. One that’ll attract customers yet make you unique.
Curious to know how to achieve that?
Keep reading to find out!
1. Create a Buyer Persona
A buyer persona is there as a guide. It’s to remind you who you’re truly trying to market to.
You can create one or multiple. Either way, it’s the ideal people who make up the audience you’re wanting to reach.
To start, answer these questions:
- Where do they go for information?
- What’s their annual salary?
- What websites do they frequent?
- What’s their educational background?
- What do they look for in products or services?
Answering these questions will help narrow down who you want as your audience. From there, you can get a feel for the other brands they buy from to inspire your own.
2. Gather Ideas
Now that you have an idea of your audience, we can focus more on aesthetics. Using sites like Pinterest, you can search for design ideas.
If you don’t know what to search for, think of words you’d like people to describe your brand as. This could be professional, witty, even fun.
Once you pick out a few pictures, use a collage maker to store them. This will allow you to see what colors the pictures have in common and what the general theme of them are.
3. Achieve a Balance
It doesn’t matter your industry, we’re sure you can tell the glaring similarities between your competitors. That being said, what can you do to stand out?
Keep in mind, achieving a balance is key. You don’t want to go so far in the other direction that customers can’t tell who you are or what you do.
Instead, aim for subtle changes. If everyone uses the color black in their logo, use purple—it has just as much elegance. Instead of an artsy logo, go for one that’s more minimal.
4. Stay Consistent
Once you have your aesthetic nailed down, it’s important to remember consistency. On the internet, your brand will be everywhere—social media, your website, other’s websites, articles, you name it.
That being said, you’ll want it to remain consistent everywhere it is. You can’t pick a logo then change it months from now.
Not only will it confuse people but create trust issues. No one will trust a brand who’s changing their appearance every month.
If you’re making a drastic change, do so in one fell swoop. Don’t gradually change your logo one month then your color palette the next. Your new brand will come across better if you do the former.
5. A Simple Aesthetic Doesn’t Mean Boring
Following these tips for a simple aesthetic won’t leave you with a boring brand. You’ll be able to capture what you do and who you are with a brand you (and your customers) will love.
Ready to bring your business to the masses? Check out our marketing articles today!
