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How to look after your own brand when you offer branding as a service

You’ve heard it all before: a clear and recognizable brand is the essence of your company. Your vision, your voice, fonts, colours, logo … the list goes on. It takes a lot; we should know because we offer branding as one of our services. With so many elements intersecting to create a clear brand identity, how (like in the case of us at Ideaseed) do you look after your OWN brand when you build brands for OTHER businesses?

Honestly? It takes secret superpower ninja tactics that can’t be taught. Alas, we jest! Here are a few ways that we hold tight to our Ideaseed brand while making yours look fab too.

Make your brand clear

To start with, your brand needs to be clear before you can advise on anyone else’s brand. Not just because who would trust you, but also, if you’re not clear on who you are you could easily start to shift without realizing it.

Have a personality

One of the easiest ways to have a clear brand is to make it striking and give it ‘personality’. Once you give your brand a ‘life of its own’ you become attached to it and almost loyal, which means you won’t just go changing on a whim because you saw some other brand that looks cooler! For example, at Ideaseed we are fun, approachable, flexible, accommodating and organized. That’s our ‘brand’s personality’ and we like it that way.

Make your own branding unique

If you look like everyone else, it’s easy to lose sight of yourself. For example, Ideaseed’s branding is not like the branding of most other design agencies. Take our colour palette: we are minimal, often monochrome while many other agencies are very colourful. We can clearly see our difference so it’s easy to stick to. Simple! (Get it?!)

Excel at your unique offering

Don’t just make your branding unique – your offering has to be unique too. For example, our offer of providing collateral that is EDITABLE and EASY to use is one of our points of difference and we are more than happy to spread this message all day long. That way we’ll never forget it (and you won’t either!).

Consistently content market

Even though we create so much collateral for other clients, we don’t neglect our own content. We regularly add new blog posts (hi!), send out eNewsletters, post to LinkedIn and we love Instagram. This exercise reinforces our brand to our audience but just as importantly, it lets our internal team see our brand in action.

Make sure new hires ‘get you’

It’s crucial that any new staff you hire are aware of every element of your brand and we don’t just mean your style guide. The way you sign off emails, the types of language you use and the ethos behind what your company stands for all make up your brand and need to be understood by everyone who represents you. We also hold regular team meetings and use these as an opportunity to clarify what’s ‘us’ and what’s ‘not us’.

How do you think we’re doing?If you want to see the Ideaseed brand out in the big wide world, head over to our Instagram page or sign up to our monthly eNewsletter for free tips, downloads and the occasional cheeky discount.