Your brand is the face of your business. It's how your audience experience's your business even when you aren't around.
If you've had a business for a while or you have been doing your research, you know your business will need a logo and a color palette, and even a few fonts. But, what about the brand's touchpoints?
A brand touchpoint is a way your brand directly interacts with your audience. From your website to your contracts your brand should be present.
1 | WEBSITE AND BLOG
Your blog and website are your business's "home base". Especially for ECom businesses.
Your website is the one place you can house your products and services, information about your business, and helpful resources. That makes your blog and website the most important touchpoint you need to have branded.
2 | STOREFRONT AND INTERIOR
For brick-and-mortar business's your storefront and the interior of your store can be just as important as your website. For home-based, the same applies as your home should reflect your brand aesthetics too.
It holds your products or services and sets the tone for your business. The type of building you rent, the furniture, ease of shopping all adds or detracts from the brand experience that your audience has.
Focus on creating a space that welcomes your ideal client and reinforces your brand goals.
Don’t forget things like storefront signage, signature scents, decals, and stationery! It’s the little things that make the biggest difference.
3 | SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS AND MARKETING
Social media is an important aspect of any business. Before running any marketing campaigns, you'll need to create your accounts. This means writing your bios, creating resource links, high-quality graphics and stock photography, and creating a marketing plan.
Once your accounts are set-up you want to establish rules and guidelines for how you will market your business. From color palettes to brand voice, a few simple guidelines will make you easily recognizable even when your logo isn't attached.
I tend to tell my connections that a website is a house (mortgage) and social media is an apartment. Where will your business go if social media disappears and where will your audience go if national disasters hit?
4 | ADVERTISING, FLYERS, AND POSTERS
Advertising can be a very crucial part of your business marketing. It gets your name in front of new people and possibly increases your sales. This makes it even more important to advertise with proper branding. Whether you choose to use social media marketing, tv commercials or posters ensure you have your logo, color palette, and fonts present.
5 | IN-STORE AESTHETIC AND APPEARANCE
I touched briefly on the importance of branding your storefront and interior, but I want to go into more detail on the overall aesthetic of your store. As I mentioned above, shopping is an experience and you need to carefully curate the experience that each potential consumer has. For an online business, your area/appearance on live means a lot and as important as a brick-and-mortar interior.
From your team to the music your playing the entire experience should be "on brand". Branding is about more than the graphics, it's how you make people feel.
6 | STATIONERY, PACKAGING AND LABELS
Stationery, packaging, and labels are some of the few things that your audience will take home with them. That makes it highly important that these aspects are well thought out. How you showcase your brand in their home means a lot. People purchase products because of how it makes them feel, not because they necessarily need the product.
When you have a product that someone can take home with them, they are inviting you into their home. Be thoughtful about how you showcase your business through this medium. These brand touchpoints involve the printed materials that your audience will be interacting with. For example, product packaging or labels, envelopes, calendars, etc. A lot of these materials will go home with your audience, it's how they remember you most because they see it more often than the inside of your store.
7 | EMAIL NEWSLETTER
Your company's email newsletter is a great resource for you to foster a community and educate your audience. It's also one of the only mediums that you have total control over. In regards to your social media accounts, there is only so much you can do to reach your audience. With the ever-changing algorithms, it's important to have a direct line to your audience that will always remain yours. That makes your newsletter crucial to your business.
Ensure each email is on-brand using proper graphics and brand voice.
8 | FORUMS AND FACEBOOK GROUPS
A great place to create genuine connections with your audience is through forums and Facebook groups.
There is a lot of value in Facebook groups. It's a way to connect with potential clients, learn from fellow business owners, and create relationships. But, it's important to remember that within these groups you are representing your brand and business.
Keep conversation and conversation topics relevant to your brand and consistently place yourself as a resource. Engagement is vital.
9 | E-COURSES
An eCourse is a way to teach your audience digitally. This often includes videos, slides, and workbooks. Each aspect of the course should be branded similarly. It may even be a good idea to create a separate brand for this course under the umbrella of your business's brand.
Create a separate color palette, font combinations, and logo to create a distinct and recognizable style for your audience.
10 | FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOADS AND CONTENT UPGRADES
Depending on your business, you most likely offer free resources to your audience through opt-ins like content upgrades or digital downloads. These content upgrades can be a great way to build trust with your audience and showcase yourself as an expert in your field. It's also a way you should be reinforcing your brand.
These takeaway files are things they may not remember where they got from, so it's important that you remind them through proper branding.
11 | CATALOGS AND BROCHURES
A catalog or brochure can be a great way to get your products or services in front of people. these can be sent through the mail, handed out at marketing events, or downloadable from your website.
As always, ensure your brand's logo, colors, fonts and voice are prominent.
12 | RECEIPTS, INVOICES, AND CONTRACTS
This may be one of the most overlooked branding touchpoints of all. It's also one of the hardest mediums for you to incorporate your brand. For this touchpoint, I err on the side of not over-thinking it. Including your logo, colors, and proper fonts will suffice a majority of the time.
13 | WEBSITE AND PROMOTIONAL GRAPHICS
Your website, social media accounts, and collateral will all acquire graphics. From photos to illustrations to icons, it's important to understand a quality graphic and an on-brand graphic.
As with any aspect of your branding, it's important to create guidelines for your graphics. Create consistency through similar colors, editing techniques, and fonts. This reinforces your brand to your audience and helps them recognize your business even when your logo isn't present.
14 | BOOTH EXHIBITION (POP-UP SHOPS)
Whether you own a brick-and-mortar or not, a booth exhibition can be a great way to promote your business. When designing your table, focus on the experience you're creating for the attendees. Is it a booth they want to stop at? How do you welcome them and begin showcasing yourself as a resource?
Focus on the benefits your audience can take from the table rather than the ROI you'll receive from the exhibition and you shouldn't have a problem.
I hope these touchpoints helped and if you need further assistance with the above, live chat us so we can help!
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