When You Don’t (Yet) Have The Budget For Branding
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Branding is a crucial investment in the future of your business, but we understand that not everyone is ready at the beginning stages of their business journey. While cashflow may be an issue, it’s still important to portray your brand effectively! Here is what you can do in the meantime until you’re ready to hire a branding expert.
01 / Figure out who you are targeting and how you want them to feel.
This may seem overwhelming at first, but it’s really quite simple - what do you offer, and to who? Then think about how you can connect and engage with those people. Come up with some keywords you’d want people to use to describe your brand - are you fun & energetic or calm & composed? Playful & fun or refined & serious? These all form part of what you want your audience to feel when interacting with your brand and will be a starting point for you to create visuals for your brand.
02 / Use your brand keywords to create a mood-board.
Go onto Pinterest, or a similar site, and use those keywords you thought of to search for references that you can save to a moodboard. This should help you to gather inspiration that “feels right” to you and what you what your brand feel like. Be careful not to get caught up gathering too much inspiration as this can cause confusion and overwhelm. A good tip is to keep removing your personal preference from the process - keep thinking back to your audience and how you want them to feel and what will connect with them.
03 / Stick to simple, type-based logos and don’t follow trends.
It may be tempting to follow trends and include some popular illustration styles and fonts. If you believe that strategically these make sense for your brand (and that you’ll be able to stay consistent with them long term) then by all means go ahead, but don’t jump on the bandwagon just because you think it looks pretty. Using trending colours and design styles without strategy will not make you stand out from your competitors. Create something simple and timeless, preferably just type-based - this will work for you until you’re ready to invest in custom branding. Try a platform like Looka, an AI powered platform that helps you create (and own the copyright to) a logo.
04 / Pick 2 or 3 colours and 1 or 2 brand fonts and use them consistently.
Nothing looks more unprofessional than inconsistent use of colours and fonts when looking at an Instagram profile or website. Generally, you have about 5 seconds to make an impact when someone lands on your profile - so create something memorable for people to connect with and remember. For brand fonts, pick one or two free, web-safe option from Google Fonts and decide how you will use them. For colours, try a website like coloors.co that will help you generate colour palettes to use.
05 / Use high-quality imagery - either professional product photos or stock images
An image speaks a thousand words so you should either work with a photographer to get professional photos taken or use high-quality stock images from websites like Unsplash or Pexels.
Once you have these basics set up, you can use a tool like Canva to create presentations, templates and graphics using your brand assets. Remember to always update any Canva templates you find with your own brand fonts, colours and logo for consistency.
This should set you up as a good starting point - and when you’re ready to invest in professional branding, you know where to find us - reach out here.