by Miriam Hara | Jul 7, 2023 | Agency, Branding, Creative, Design, Marketing, Social Media
A brand style guide is more than just a collection of fonts, colours, and logos. It’s the roadmap that leads every piece of your brand’s communication, ensuring consistency across different platforms, media, and teams. An effective style guide is the cornerstone of a strong brand identity, guiding your brand’s voice and visual representation while leaving room for creativity and evolution.
Consider, for instance, the brand style guides of Mailchimp and Shopify. These aren’t just sets of rules or constraints; they are comprehensive narratives that tell the brand’s story.
Mailchimp’s style guide is renowned for its perfect blend of clarity, detail, and brand personality. It outlines the brand’s tone of voice, typographical choices, colour palette, and even provides specific examples of do’s and don’ts. It’s not just an instruction manual; it’s a reflection of Mailchimp’s quirky and friendly brand personality.
Shopify’s guide, on the other hand, strikes an exquisite balance between aesthetics and functionality. It delves into the details of the brand’s visual elements, typography, and even provides guidance for writing product copy. It’s a testament to Shopify’s commitment to providing user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing e-commerce solutions.
So, how do you create a brand style guide that informs, inspires, and tells your brand’s story? Here are some best practices:
Understand Your Brand: The first step in creating a brand style guide is understanding your brand’s mission, vision, and values. What does your brand stand for? Who is your target audience? What is your unique selling proposition? Answering these questions will provide the foundation for your brand’s visual and verbal identity.
Define Your Brand’s Visual Elements: This includes your brand’s logo, colour palette, typography, and imagery. Be specific about when and how to use these elements. Provide clear examples and guidelines to ensure consistency.
Establish Your Brand’s Voice and Tone: Your brand’s voice is its personality, and its tone is how it communicates in different contexts. Is your brand voice professional, friendly, or playful? How should it adapt to different situations? Outline these in your style guide.
Include Practical Examples: Don’t just tell; show. Include real-life examples of how to apply your brand’s style in various contexts. Mailchimp’s style guide, for instance, showcases specific examples of how to use (and not to use) their logo, typography, and colour palette.
Keep It Flexible: A brand style guide should be a living document that can evolve with your brand. Allow for flexibility and updates as your brand grows and adapts to new trends or market changes.
Creating a brand style guide is an investment in your brand’s future. It ensures consistency, aids in decision-making, and sets the foundation for all your brand’s communication efforts. Above all, it tells the story of your brand – a story that is uniquely yours.
Share your brand’s story here…we’ve love to hear!
by Miriam Hara | Jun 9, 2023 | Communications, Content, Marketing, Social Media
In the realm of digital communication, the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” has never been more pertinent. It’s not about replacing words with visuals, but rather about merging these elements to create compelling visual storytelling that resonates with your audience. And in today’s world, visual storytelling does not only refer to images…but videos! True, this is nothing new. Motion pictures…commercials, they’ve been always been around for decades however, videos are now a media that is available and accessible for all brands, regardless of the budget, and industry!
According to a study by Wyzowl’s 2022 State of Video Marketing Report, 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, up from 63% in 2017. This uptake in video use isn’t accidental. The same report indicates that 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.
These figures underscore the power of visual content in influencing consumer behaviour and decision-making.We all consume so many videos on a daily basis I shudder to really think how many videos I watch on my feeds and in my day to day life! We’ve all personally seen how video content has taken over social media platforms. Regardless of how many videos are offered up to us on a daily basis the fact remains that this the preferred form of communications today. And that mean brands need to get on board in the right way.
From a brand’s perspective, it’s crucial to know how to go about creating compelling visual narratives. Here are some insights I’d like to share with you:
Understand Your Audience: Knowing who you’re communicating with is the first step in creating effective visual content. Understand your audience’s preferences, interests, and pain points to create content that resonates with them.
Tell a Story: Us Humans, we love stories!. They evoke emotions and create connections. Make your visual content more than just an image or a video. Use it to tell a story that speaks to your brand values and mission.
Quality Matters: Go high resolution!. High-quality images and videos not only look professional, but they also communicate your brand’s quality. Remember, a brand is the sum of all it’s communications and that includes the production value of the communications.
Keep it Simple: Be focused! Creating engaging and dynamic content, doesn’t mean you can do it all in one … Don’t overcomplicate your visuals. Single focus can and is often be more impactful. Aim for clear, clean, and concise visual narratives.
Embrace Authenticity: Authenticity…even though it’s the most overused word of the decade, it is imperative. Resonating with audiences can only be achieved by being authentic. Don’t be afraid to create genuine connections with audiences by using real-life scenarios, customer testimonials, or behind-the-scenes peeks into your business.
One great example of a brand effectively harnessing the power of visual storytelling is Nike. This world recognized campaign always features high-quality videos telling emotional stories of athletes (professional and not) overcoming obstacles, aligning perfectly with their tagline, “Just Do It.”
Ultimately, visual storytelling needs to be way more than a pretty picture. It’s today’s method to communicate a brand’s identity, values, and message in a way that connects with and engages audience.
So, are you ready to unleash the power of visual storytelling for your brand?
Visual storytelling is a powerful way to connect, engage, and create lasting relationships with audiences especially on social properties (Instagram, Facebook, Tim Tok) The narratives you create reflect your brand’s identity, mission, and values. Invest the time to know and empathize with your audience, create authentic stories, and show them off!
Your brand’s audience is out there, waiting for your brand’s stories to be told. So, what are you waiting for? Start your journey in visual storytelling today. Craft narratives that resonate. Speak volumes without writing a word. As Nike has shown us, ‘Just Do It’. Your audience is ready, are you?
Remember, in the realm of digital communication, a picture could be worth a thousand engagements. So, take the leap and start harnessing the power of visual storytelling now!
by Miriam Hara | Jan 10, 2017 | Advertising, Communications, Content, Marketing, Social Media
[Guest Post from Skilled.co]
The proliferation of smartphones has brought about a new trend in consumer buying behavior called mobile commerce. According to recent research the mobile commerce trend is expected to continue to grow globally in the years to come. Business owners who have developed a viable long-term mobile commerce strategy will profit from this trend the most. Mapping out an effective strategy can be challenging if it is unclear what the target audience expects from an m-commerce service. The best way to overcome this is to talk to the the customers directly.
![10 Must Do Steps to Improve Your Mobile Commerce Strategy [Infographic]](https://skilled.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FINAL_Improve-Your-Mobile-commerce-strategy.png)
Presented by Skilled.co
Below are 10 easy-to-follow tips for devising a successful mobile commerce strategy. The tips are based on data obtained from 2016 Smartphone User Behavior Report and a survey which polled 2000 US millennials. This is the demographic group with the highest rate of smartphone ownership and usage. The millennials who took part in the survey were asked to answer a series of questions regarding their mobile commerce habits.
1. Target Millennials
Millennials and their smartphones are rarely separated, this is supported by the data collected that reported that 28% of Millennials in the US prefer to shop on their smartphones. According to the survey results millennials are invested in mobile commerce and they consider the prospect of online shopping to be one of the top three advantages to being a smartphone owner. Mobile shopping is also huge with high school students and millennials on maternity and paternity leave. Owners of online retail business should keep in mind that women in this age group are twice as likely to spend money on clothes via their smartphone compared to men.
2. Don’t Waste Any Time
Mobile commerce is yet to become the number one shopping method for US millennials. It was reported that 72% of US millennials currently prefer shopping on their desktop. There is room for growth within mobile commerce for businesses targeting millennials.The highest potential for mobile commerce expansion is within services like hotel booking, flight tickets and fashion stores. These were ranked as the three lowest priorities in terms of spending money via smartphones according to the 2016 Smartphone User Behavior Report.
3. Focus on Social Advertising
Millennials and social media are inseparable. It was reported that approximately 82% of young adults in the US check their smartphones within an hour of getting up and 73% go to sleep with their smartphones by their bed. To keep up to date with current events in the world Millennials prefer to use social media. The data collected showed that 68% of millennials choose to use Facebook as the social media network of choice for news consumption. Twitter is the second most popular source of news for this demographic group with 21% reporting use the microblogging site to find out about current events. It has been reported that 41% of millennials check and update their social media as soon as they wake up in the morning therefore, targeting young adults through social media marketing should be an integral part of every great mobile commerce strategy.
4.Know Your Target Audience
In order to come up with a unique and effective strategy to implement mobile commerce, there must first be a complete understanding of the needs and preferences of the target audience. For example business owners looking to target millennial consumers might be interested to know that, 40% of those polled in the survey spend more on flowers when shopping via mobile than on any other product. Millennials also use their smartphones to order a taxi and book various services. Young entrepreneurs are fond of ordering transport services like Uber via their smartphones while high school students are more likely to use their devices to order food. Young parents and full-time employees normally use their phones for online banking and bill-paying services.
5.Encourage Sharing
1 out 4 millennials reported suffering from the ‘fear of missing out’. This is where millennials develop anxiety that someone is having a great time without them. This phenomenon is particularly common among 18 to 22-year-olds who suffer from the fear of missing out marginally more than other millennials. For millennials sharing is one of the most popular features on social media platforms. The survey highlighted that 1 out of 2 millennials ranks sharing life moments with friends and family as the key advantage to owning a smartphone.For business owners who wish to develop an innovative approach to m-commerce they should encourage their millennial customers to share online content.
6.Include Health Information
Millennials are often accused of being overly confident about their lifestyle choices and irresponsible in regard to their health. This does not mean that young adults are not interested in learning about different ways to lead a healthier lifestyle. Out of the millennials polled in the 2016 Smartphone User Behavior survey, 46% ranked the opportunity to find health information online as the key advantage to owning a smartphone. One good example of mobile commerce done well is the app called ShopWell. This app offers nutrition facts and healthy eating tips based on the supermarket receipt scans, courtesy of a team of diet experts.
7.Make Security Your Top Priority
Online business owners who want to plan out an effective m-commerce strategy should always keep customer safety at the top of their priority. The survey results show that 25 to 30-year-olds feel the safest paying for products and services with their smartphones. Approximately half of the surveyed millennials reported that they feel unsafe paying with their smartphones. This is the same for high school students. The data collected reported that 1 out of 3 feel unsafe shopping on smartphones. The popularity of mobile wallets is slowly increasing, with 12% opting to use a mobile wallet.
8.Make Use of Notifications & Alerts
Millennials are not just the largest group of smartphone owners but they are also the most obsessive checkers. One in every three millennial checks their phone at least twice an hour while 2 out of 10 confess that they check their devices up to 10 times an hour. It was reported that 43% of millennials admit that they do not go to the toilet without their smartphone. The assumption can be made that the chances of a millennial missing a notification on their phone are small to none. This is why every great mobile commerce strategy should include an app that sends regular notifications and alerts to millennial customers.
9.Help Your Customers Find You
Recent research of mobile shopping trends shows that millennials often use smartphones to find the location of a store. This indicates that millennials are increasingly reliant on their smartphones and even ranked the location feature as one of the top 3 advantages of owning a mobile device. College students and full-time employees are most likely to use their smartphones to find information about their location. For Business owners adding a location feature to their m-commerce will assist in their targeted millennial audience to find their store.
10.Use Games & Giveaways
Mobile games and free giveaways are popular with millennials. Almost 7 out of 10 millennials say that playing games is one of their favorite thing to do on their smartphones. An easy for for business owners planning on mobile commerce expansions is to include millennial-focused games and product or service giveaways. Heinz, one of the most recognizable condiment brands recently upgraded its e-commerce strategy by including game features, QR codes and other engagement methods.
The collected data indicates that the mobile commerce trend is not only here to stay but is going to increase steadily in popularity.It was reported that many young adults are still a little hesitant to switch from desktop to mobile shopping due to safety concerns. This means that there is room for growth for business owners looking to expand their e-commerce. The infographic below highlights the top 10 tips for successful mobile commerce strategy. The data used in the infographic is up-to-date and obtained from trusted sources to support business in implementing these tips into their m-commerce plan.
by Miriam Hara | Dec 21, 2015 | Content, Interactive, Social Media
My mom taught me so much, at a time when there was limited technology, no cell phones, no internet and of course no social media. The social lessons she taught me apply today and I have interpreted them as so that have become my social media takeaways. My mom passed on earlier this year and I think about her every day, and if truth be told, many times a day. As we approach the end of the year I wanted to re-run a previous blog post with slight updates in honour of my mom.
We are all part of a global community comprising of a mishmash of cultures and societal differences. It has become increasingly important for each one of us to implement a code of conduct for our social media interactions. What are the key social media takeaways that would make up a social media engagement code of conduct?
I am reminded of the social rules my mom taught me growing up – with a slightly digital twist!
Here are a few of my Mom’s ‘social media takeaways’ that I live by:
Be helpful. The social media channel has allowed all of us to be part of a larger community – a global community. There are no borders or boundaries. As such, we have opened ourselves to different people’s perspectives and experiences. If someone needs help from LinkedIn, a Group Post or Facebook and you can offer expertise, an opinion or an alternate point of view, do it – not to sell, but to assist. Pay it forward. Like everything else in life, it’ll come back to you!
If you don’t have anything nice say… The last part of this rule of social engagement is ‘don’t say anything at all’. But in the digital space, if you’re not saying something nice, at least be positive and constructive in how you say it. Or go back to Mom’s rule and don’t say anything at all – just click away!
The only thing you can control is your own behaviour. Not everyone is going to like you, want to be your friend or even have the same values as you. That’s true no matter what space you engage in. Understand this and respond to negativity with kindness. If you can’t do that, then disengage. There’s no need to add undue stress to your life. You are not going to change anyone. You have choices, exercise them.
Be mindful. Think about the subjects you discuss and how you discuss them. The immediacy of social media makes it easy to jump right in and text/post/comment the first thing that pops into your head. Although, it’s not conducive or good conduct to just blurt out whatever you have on your mind.
The Social media takeaway that my mom nurtured in me was respect in all ways and modes of interaction. Governing how we interact on the digital space, both on a personal or business level is no exception. Mom’s rules of social conduct for face-to-face interactions really makes senses for social media engagement conduct as well.
Thanks Mom.
by Joyce Turner-Gionet | Nov 13, 2015 | Content, Latest, Social Media
Does your marketing message or social media share need to go viral to be effective? How much momentum needs to be behind it?
Viral Marketing; we see it fairly regularly — content goes “viral”. It captures people’s imagination and spreads rapidly. Sometimes it continues to spread long after it’s posted, even years after. If your content’s still being shared months and even years later it says a lot about your content’s relevancy.
“Viral” was a buzzword that appeared in the late 90s. It’s still a buzzword (although I’ve seen more than one post lamenting the overuse of buzzwords, including this one.) Let’s put the term in context. All content you send out through social networks is considered viral if it’s shared. You want content to be contagious. That’s the point. You want people to re-share it. That way your exposure grows exponentially. We all hope for viewing and sharing responses that send our brand soaring into the elite social stratosphere, but that’s rare atmosphere, on a scale that few posts achieve.
A little background on viral marketing
The emergence of “viral marketing” as an approach to advertisement, has been tied to the popularization of the notion that ideas spread like viruses. The field that developed around this notion, memetics, peaked in popularity in the 1990s.[7] As this then began to influence marketing gurus, it took on a life of its own in that new context.
That was years ago and still no one really knows for sure which content will “go viral”. But the common thread contained in all truly viral marketing is that it strikes a chord with people, sometimes universally.
Does the content you’re sharing need to go viral?
Here’s the kernel in this post — does the content you’re sharing need to “go viral”? It does only in the sense that you need to reach the people you want to reach while at the same time extending your reach in order to grow your business and promote your brand. If your content goes crazy, then fantastic, it means massive exposure for your brand. Well done. Rejoice. But your main objective should be to reach your current customers and expand your reach by attracting new customers. And you need to keep all of those people coming back to you for more.
Viral is as viral does. Who are you trying to reach? Are you reaching them? What’s your ultimate objective for your viral marketing? Are you achieving it? You need your message to go viral on a scale that meets your objective? You don’t need to reach the entire universe, you need to reach your universe. Having said that, there’s still lots we can learn from content that goes viral. There are takeaways for all of us in that success. What went viral in 2015? Here’s a post from AdWeek …
Being in the right place is also important to your viral marketing success. Where do the people you want to reach hang out? Are you there with them? Check out this recent post from Social Media Today …
The World’s 21 Most Important Social Media Sites and Apps in 2015.
by Miriam Hara | Oct 30, 2015 | Content, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
Have brands achieved brand trust through their social media communities? Is the race over?
It seems that we only blinked, but most of us in marketing can now say social media as a platform has been around for a considerable time. Over the last decade if not longer, brands have actively participated in the race to gain social media brand trust with their communities and ultimately their customers. The ever-changing demands to “get it right” have not only propelled the creation of new specialist areas within marketing departments, they’ve created a ‘pioneer ship’ for business in general.
This begs the question whether brands have achieved brand trust through their social media communities. Is the race over? Are brands there yet?
There is no quick and easy answer and the jury is still out. Brands are now more familiar with how to use social media, although not all have acquired the fine distinction of leveraging it. We’ve gone from digital ad campaigns to blogging, to content creation, and visual communications like vlogging — all in the realm of social media. But have we achieved brand trust?
In many boardrooms the underlying concern with any campaign or communication initiative is how to leverage the social media platform. I question whether this is the right question. Isn’t the basis of social media, in its pure context, a platform to develop relationships? Aren’t all relationships built on the aspect of trust? It seems that the term “leverage” implies quite the opposite. Are we looking for leverage or are we building brand trust?
Brand trust through social media is not easy to attain.
In the 90s, marketing departments were touting that consumers were savvier than the 60s, and 70s, and 80s. Now, consumers are not only savvier, but also more demanding of brand personality traits that were at best an image-association in the past.
The delight and wonderment of instant gratification and knowledge has now turned into entitlement. Consumers expect knowledge and information instantly. There are millions of domain sites ready to fulfill that expectation. The Internet has made it so.
What the Internet has also enabled, more so through the social media platform, is niche marketing. Just as consumers have virtually millions of sites at their physical fingertips, marketers and businesses have masses of niche marketing channels to choose from.
As with any great opportunity comes some risk. Developing brand trust through digital niche initiatives takes skill. In order for brands to develop social media trust, marketers must acknowledge that there are real and present pitfalls and realities in developing brand trust:
Be True
If you can’t be honest and true, even at times at the expense of your brand (and how risky is that?), you can’t build social media trust for your brand. Social media trust is only built by the perception of its community. In order to achieve greatness in the eyes of the community you must be perceived as impartial — providing value and knowledge without any ulterior motive and without expectation of return.
Brand Karma (You’re so vain)
Some people just walk into a room and people naturally gravitate toward them. Some people try to be vivacious and exciting and fail. The same thing applies for brands. Some brands have it, some brands don’t. That’s what I call brand karma, something a brand naturally has and exploits. The reality is that no one wants to be with a wannabe. They want to be in with the “it” crowd, the ones that define what the “it” is all about.
Mediocrity Sucks
Average means you’re the best of the worst and the worst of the best. Who wants to be associated with that? In today’s fast-paced environment people want the best, the greatest, the most fabulous information on what to do, what not to do, and how to get it. Offer that and your brand will be well on its way to building the brand trust it deserves and wants so badly.
Make a Stand
What is your brand about? What isn’t it about? Place a stake in the sandbox that is on the virtual beach and preach it — day in and day out. You don’t need to be Sally Field (does any one remember Sally Field’s infamous acceptance speech?). It really doesn’t matter if not everyone likes your brand. It matters that the community you seek loves your brand. That’s an important distinction.
You want it when?
Throw out the 3-year plan, or even the 5-year plan for that matter. There is no time agenda for achieving the brand trust factor. It’s ironic that in such a fast-paced environment achieving social media trust for brands is a painstakingly slow process. Building brand trust has always been about consistent messaging. The situational aspects may change, but the context and the ‘how to build’ it and alas, lose it, are very similar.
So, marketers and social media gurus, are some brands already ‘there’? Has anyone achieved brand trust through their social media What do you think?
#SharedWisdom
