Marketing goes far beyond pulling new leads into your pipeline. It has to do that, yes, but if that’s all you’re asking of your marketing efforts, you’re not getting nearly enough out of it. We’ve been writing about and sharing how marketing functions well outside of simple sales this month and we wanted to share another way marketing makes an impact on your brand that you probably haven’t considered before.
Marketing might be the last thing on your mind when training a new employee. Sure, you have social media guidelines you go over to make sure nothing negative is posted out by one of your team members, and for a lot of companies, this is where the conversation ends for brand image and marketing. Unless of course, the new member is in marketing. Most of us don’t think about how the materials gathered from a branding project or website rebuild can help new team members not only assimilate to the new team but flourish faster with more confidence.
How Personal Emails Affect Brand Perception
Have you ever been in an email chain with a few different people from the same organization and felt like they were coming from completely unrelated companies with very different aesthetics? I’m not just talking about the tone and the style the person uses when writing. I’m not even talking about an abundance of exclamation points or emojis. I’m talking about the more subtle differences that add up to create the look and feel of the company even through simple email communication. You probably know someone who loves to use a script as their font of choice. And you can also probably name someone off the top of your head with a long email signature with links, messages, and flairs of personality. Now not all of this is wrong, we all want to feel like we’re talking to a person even when it is coming through email, but it does present conflicting images of one brand that really should be succinct.
The Small Brand Details Make A Big Difference
Small things like email signatures, fonts, and letterheads add up to create a much bigger picture of a brand. You probably don’t notice it when these are consistent, but they stand out as odd when they conflict with one another. One of the most common branding blunders we see is with the omnipresent powerpoint presentation. Still alive and well in businesses around the world, these presentations differ wildly from person to person across an organization. People do the best they can with the tools given, but a clear and high-resolution logo sets a much different tone on a huge screen at the beginning of a presentation than a blurry, pixelated one. When the colors of the slides are just a little off and there is no semblance of consistency in font type from slide to slide. It’s noticeable.
Making these changes and implementing consistency is a lot easier than you probably think. You just need to use your marketing materials to your advantage when someone new joins the team. Clear and detailed brand guidelines answer all of the questions a new hire might have about what is expected for any outward facing communication. This strengthens and solidifies your brand in the eyes of potential customers because it makes your brand recognizable and consistent. Different colors, logo variations, even capitalization difference of your business name conflict with your message and brand awareness.
Creating Brand Consistency
Creating a little consistency for your brand doesn’t take a ton of effort or man hours. Just arm your team with the best tools possible for upholding the brand. You’re helping yourself, your business, and the poor frustrated person trying to put a powerpoint presentation together and not being able to find a good version of the logo anywhere. Here at Iconic, we love consistency. It builds brands. It helps people feel united, and it helps your audience pick you out from the crowd. So please, for the sake of your brand and the people in your company pulling together presentation after presentation, give them the tools to be successful and on brand every single time they send an email out the door or stand up to pitch a presentation! We’re here to help you get back on track and flex your marketing muscles in new ways.
