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6 Ways to Make a Style Guide: Your Ultimate Branding Checklist

By December 8, 2020December 9th, 2020No Comments
style guide

Are you looking to create an irresistible brand? From the language on your website to the color palettes on your Instagram feed, a strong brand will help your business be admired, remembered, and preferred. With the right style guide, you can control consistency across your marketing by providing all the details needed to create a cohesive brand experience.

At Fort Lauderdale and Aspen-based public relations and marketing agency Durée & Company, we have over 20 years of experience in creating stellar branding, suited to get our clients noticed (and recognized) again and again.

While brand guidelines mainly focus on the visual representation of your brand (logos, fonts and colors), our team at Durée & Company has developed the ultimate branding checklist to ensure that your positioning, messaging and visuals are all consistent.

But first, what should you include in your style guide? Must-haves include:

  • Logo size and placement
  • Color palette
  • Typography and fonts
  • Iconography
  • Photography styles
  • Web elements

Here are Durée & Company’s 6 suggestions on how to make a style guide your ultimate branding checklist:

  • Create a tagline or slogan.

    This should give your customers an elevator pitch of what your business is all about. Taglines and slogans make the purpose of your company crystal clear in a concise yet creative manner. Plus, they differentiate you from other companies that are marketing similar products or services.

  • Distinguish your brand messaging.

    What is the mission, vision, and promise that you make to your customers? Include brand elements that define the purpose of your company. Brand messaging becomes a standard for the brand, and is something you can share with every new employee to help him or her understand what you represent.

  • Define your brand personality.

    Who are you trying to target? Giving your brand a persona from the very beginning should attract an audience that can authentically connect and relate to you. Your brand personality makes your company human.

  • Say it with e-communication.

    From your monthly e-blasts to your email signature, no detail should be overlooked when it comes to where your brand appears. Those who communicate with you electronically should immediately know you not only by your name, but by your brand.

  • Put it on paper.

    Are your brochures, business cards, letterhead and envelopes portraying your brand? Your printed materials should feel connected and consistent with your brand.

  • Identify your digital presence.

    Now you have the tone of voice, your target audience and a cohesive brand, it’s time to share it online. Make sure your website and social media pages reflect your brand. Create branded templates for social media imagery, and grab similar domain names and social media handles.

Need help with your branding strategy? With the help of the seasoned branding professionals at Durée & Company, you can develop a brand that gets you noticed every time. We can assist you in developing a style guide that will ensure consistency and quality. Contact us today to find out how!

 

About Durée & Company, Inc.

Durée & Company, Inc. is an award-winning, full-service public relations, marketing and special events firm founded in 1999. The firm has offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Aspen, Colorado. Durée & Company serves the corporate, agency and nonprofit arenas for local, national and international clients. Services include public relations, social media, marketing, digital marketing, content development, advertising, special events, branding, radio promotions, affiliate marketing and more. Durée & Company clients include well-known names in yachting, business, real estate, hospitality, travel, cannabis and hemp, wellness and CBD, art and culture, fashion, nonprofit organizations, legal and professional services. Durée & Company is a member of PR Boutiques International™ (PRBI), an international network of boutique PR firms. To learn more, call 954-723-9350; g8o to dureeandcompany.com; or visit its new, specialized cannabis- and CBD-specific site at cannabismarketingpr.com. Join the social conversation and follow Durée & Company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter , YouTube and LinkedIn at @DureeCoPR.

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Five Things That Need to be in Your Resume or Cover Letter

To paraphrase Jerry Maguire, help us help you. As we sift through the paperwork, here’s what we are looking for:

1. What you love to do and why.

In PR, you may love writing, editing, interviewing, pitching the media, researching, coordinating events, networking, posting to social media … whew! While we would love it if you had a passion for it all, we’d never believe you if you said as much.

What part of this zany, crazy, whirlwind, yet meticulous, tedious, detail-oriented, profession calls to you and why? Help us make the connection as to how PR is really for you, and call it your Professional Summary.

2. Something you did that changed something or someone else.

If you never showed up to your last job, what wouldn’t have happened? That’s right. Erase yourself. Now which clients disappeared with you? Which articles just fade away? What press releases cease to exist? How much social media did NOT get liked?

We are just meeting you. So take a moment to spell out your impact, and it will be easier for us to see what you can do for the clients of Durée & Company. Share this under your Job Responsibilities.

3. Anything you created.

Feeling humble? Well, stop it. This is the part where you brag. If you craft a delightful blog, master a mind-blowing website, shoot crazy video or direct wonderful events, show us.

Then tell us a bit of how you did it, so we trust that it was your brilliance and not the intern’s. Let’s dub this Your Portfolio.

4. An indication of why you belong here.

At PR firm Durée & Company, we have a culture. Really, all companies do. To learn about ours, do some legwork. At this point, if you’re on our blog, you are in the right spot to begin learning. Hate pink? Not good with women? Live in Kansas? Low energy? Then you might want to reconsider applying. However, if we resemble a group that you’d like to hang out with, share why. You can do that in the Cover Letter.

5. Correctly spelled words – all of them.

Do more than hit spell check. Know how to spell or ask someone to proofread. Correctly spelled words work everywhere, all the time. Consider them the Little Black Dresses of resumes.

So consider these five tips – we’ve just given you a “cheat sheet” about what we’re watching out for. Even if our position may not be for you, feel free to use our advice for another – it may just get you the job!