branding

April 17, 2023 Content Chat Recap: How To Achieve Consistency In Your Content Branding

April 23, 2023 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

If you took your brand’s name and logo out of your content, would your community still recognize the content as yours? For many content marketing teams, the answer is “no”—and we want to explain why that is an issue and how to fix it.

In this #ContentChat recap, Erika joins Melanie Graham (@MG_Content), content marketing manager at Gemtem Health, to discuss how to achieve consistency in your content branding. In this recap, you’ll learn how to define your brand voice and create a content style guide and messaging framework that empowers all creators in your company to reinforce your unique branding.

Read through a few highlights from the conversation below, and listen to the full recording here.

Q1: What is meant by consistent branding when it comes to content? What are the elements of content branding?

A consistent brand carries the same voice, tone, style, and visual identity across all content.

A1a: Consistent branding means your brand has the same voice, tone and style across all its written content and the same themes and color schemes across visual content. #ContentChat
— Melanie Graham (@mg_content) April 17, 2023

A1b: One way I like to think of consistent branding: If you removed your logo/company name from all of your content, would your audience still recongize it was your brand? #ContentChat
— Melanie Graham (@mg_content) April 17, 2023

A1. Consistent branding when it comes to content is consistency in;
👉Tone of voice
👉Messaging
👉Brand identity
👉Customer persona
👉Customer journey#ContentChat
— Shruti Deshpande 🇮🇳🇬🇧 (@shruti12d) April 17, 2023

Erika uses Super Bowl commercials to explain the importance of consistent branding. Listen to the audio recap for more on that, and to hear Erika explain how an awful experience with Chewy customer service felt like a “gut punch” and contradicts their historically inclusive brand voice.

“I think a great example of [the importance of consistent branding] is the annual Super Bowl commercials. If you asked people who weren’t already customers of whatever brand ‘who was the company that sponsored the ad,’ frequently people don’t know. And that’s because [the commercial] wasn’t consistent with [the company’s] branding, in addition to going out to an audience that isn’t the right audience. It’s absolutely critical to focus on having that consistent content branding, and having it go beyond just the logo and brand colors being on everything.”

Q2: A brand voice is one of the most important—and potentially difficult to implement—elements of consistent branding. How can a team define its brand voice?

How to Create a Powerful Brand Image with Canva Pro’s Intuitive Platform

January 11, 2022 by Dayana Cadet Leave a Comment

We’ve mentioned the importance of building a personal brand on the blog before. From keeping your social media up-to-date to sharing your expertise as a thought leader, your personal brand is the best way to show off your professional chops to the world.

But what does it look like? Aside from high-definition headshots and maybe a signature color, does your personal brand have an identifiable visual blueprint?

Building a brand is just as much about showing as it is about telling. Humans use visual cues to come to all sorts of conclusions—so building a personal brand with a memorable aesthetic is a great way to show others what you’re made of before you’ve even uttered (or typed) a word.

Brand Basics

If you’re wondering what makes up a personal brand, some key elements to consider are:

The name (yours and/or your business)
The logo
The color palette
Typography
Iconography and/or illustration style

These elements are the most visible aspects of your brand, can be used and repurposed in a number of ways (both online and offline), and as mentioned above, serve as visual cues about who you are and what you offer.

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November 1, 2021 Content Chat Recap: What Marketers Need to Know About Company Rebrands

November 3, 2021 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

Following years of media scrutiny and increased legislative attention, Facebook announced last week that it will now be called Meta. The company claims this will help it more closely align with what it does as it reaches into areas like virtual reality.

From a marketing lens there are two top-of-mind considerations stemming from Facebook’s rebrand to Meta:

How is Facebook’s communications team doing?
Why should a company rebrand, and what does it mean from a marketing standpoint?

In this #ContentChat, we explore what marketers need to know about company rebrands. Read the full recap below, where we explain the common reasons that companies rebrand, what marketing teams should do during a company rebrand, and more.

Q1: Why do companies rebrand? What are some common scenarios that lead to a rebrand?

Companies can undergo a range of rebrands, spanning from light changes to the brand’s visual identity to a full-blown overhaul of the company’s purpose and naming.

A1a: There are so many reasons that companies rebrand. Frequently, when a new marketing leader comes onboard they kick off a visual refresh or overhaul in their first few months. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) November 1, 2021

Company rebrands happen for a variety of reasons, including a change in team leadership, if the brand has become outdated, or following a merger or acquisition, or to distance the brand from negative press (just to name a few).

A1b: Brands often take a step further to rename themselves when the old name feels outdated (see company names with the word “online” in them), or they’ve changed focus through mergers and acquisitions, like Google rebranding its parent company. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) November 1, 2021

A1 At my last employer, we rebranded because the company was moving from academic-oriented consulting company to a data-based technology company. We needed a name/branding to reflect that new positioning. #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) November 1, 2021

A1: So many reasons! Sometimes, it’s to overcome a PR disaster and to try to disassociate from bad press. Often it’s because the brand’s name, focus or value prop has changed. #ContentChat
— Melanie Graham (@WriterGirlMel) November 1, 2021

A1 When a company is purchased by another there can frequently be a rebrand that comes soon after, especially if there was mismanagement of the company previously
It can be the new management making a statement that they’re different, etc
-Alyx#ContentChat
— Charlie & Alyx – Charlie Appel Agency (@ColfaxInsurance) November 1, 2021

If it was a merger of equals, a rebrand can also make sense so neither party feels like they are seen as the lesser brand. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) November 1, 2021

A1 If they’re expanding their product or service line is one of the more common reasons I suppose. #contentchat
— Nate (Formerly known as the Jazzy Goat🎷🐐) (@UncensoredNate) November 1, 2021

In the case of Facebook/Meta, the rebrand is intended to reflect larger company goals. However, ‘Meta’ is already a broadly used term and will likely create new challenges for the brand’s marketing team.

A1c: In the case of Facebook, it seems to be that they are trying to distance the company from the slew of bad press the Facebook platform has raked in over the past few years, and to reflect larger goals. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) November 1, 2021

A1d: However, in going with a company name that is already a broadly used existing word, “meta”, they are likely to have a whole different set of brand association and confusion issues. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) November 1, 2021

Q2: What are the top considerations for marketers as they prepare for a company rebrand?