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April 25, 2022 Content Chat Recap: How To Create A Brand Style Guide For Content Marketing

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Brand style guides can fast-track your content marketing and empower any content creator to create on-brand content. However, many teams create style guides that address only niche needs, or they fail to document their style altogether.

In this #ContentChat recap, Maddy Osman (@MaddyOsman), founder and SEO content strategist at The Blogsmith, joins the community to discuss what a brand content style guide should include. Read through the below recap to get our free brand style guide templates and learn:

  • How long a style guide should be
  • What to include in your brand style guide
  • How to get started with defining your brand style

If you’d like to learn more from Maddy, order your copy of her book Writing for Humans and Robots: The new Rules of Content Style (available July 18, 2022).

Q1: What is a brand style guide, and why is it essential for content marketing teams?

A brand style guide explains how your brand communicates with its community, and why.

Effective brand style guides create consistency in your content.

Some brand style guides cover just visual considerations, however, we recommend you create a more holistic guide (more on that below).

Q2: What details should a brand style guide include? How long should the document be?

A brand style guide is a living document. When you first create one, do not start with the goal of creating a final, all-encompassing document. Start where you can and refine the guide over time.

The style guide length is less important than its usability with your team. Create multiple guide versions to address specific needs and skill levels.

The community shares the main elements to include in a brand style guide below:

When documenting your brand’s visual identity, include color codes that work for print and online needs. Tod recommends you select Pantone colors for brand colors and use a HEX equivalent for digital.

If are using a tool that you love to organize your brand visual assets, let us know!

Q3: How can a brand get started with defining its style from a content marketing perspective?

Tone and voice are core elements of any brand style guide. See below for resources from Maddy, Tod, and our consultancy to start defining your tone and voice.

Look at example style guides to see how other brands approach their style (but don’t copy their identity).

Collect past brand content that exemplifies your ideal style. Use this content to begin writing your style guide.

Meet with cross-department team members to discuss the brand’s key audiences and their priority topics.

 

Develop a messaging framework to communicate your brand’s unique selling proposition. Tod shares a video from our friend Pam Didner to explain more.

When defining your brand style, it may help to start with a simple “do use” and “do not use” list. List out ideal words and phrases, as well as words or phrases to avoid (with an alternate).

Maddy’s team has a database of trusted sources to help writers complete research faster and easier identify approved sources.

Q4: What hurdles do teams often face when defining their brand style, and how can they overcome these challenges?

Defining rules and examples with your brand style can be challenging. As you edit content, grab examples and share a solution to give context to your rule.

A brand style guide can be as long as you need. But if it is too long or complicated for your team to use, it is not effective. Be conscious of where you go broad and where you are specific. Ask your team for feedback on areas you should expand or trim down.

Internal stakeholders and leaders will often disagree about a brand’s ideal style. Use hard data to explain why your brand should position itself a certain way.

Focus groups can also validate your strategy.

Ensure everyone has a clear understanding of how they can support the process. Designate one “lead” who will get final approval on the style guide.

Shruti recaps a few other brand style guide hurdles:

Q5: What tips can you share to help teams effectively create a brand style guide to keep their content marketing consistent?

Refine your style guide as you edit content. If you come across a style issue often, document it and turn it into a rule.

Grammarly has a style guide feature that notifies your team of guide updates. Or, you can use Google Docs so your team is notified if you comment on new changes. Regardless of how you manage your guide, regularly discuss updates in your team communication channels.

When editing content, call out style guide elements to reinforce why you are making an edit.

Ensure everyone understands the importance of a consistent brand style.

Q6: Do you have a content marketing brand style guide template or example that you can share?

Check out these great style guide examples and resources:

And download our free brand content style guide template here:

Q7: What are the most common style issues that you edit for?

These are some common style issues:

If you’d like to learn more from Maddy, grab your copy of her book below!

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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