Did you know that the human brain actually thinks in images and symbols? It then uses storytelling or words to communicate what it envisions. This means that what you and your business put out visually communicates to your audience well before you ever say a word. But how do you effectively translate important meanings into a visual storyboard? Well, in business, it’s by building a seamless brand. Are you ready to start communicating exactly who you are to your target audience? If you’re ready to build a visual brand that connects you with your ideal customer, it’s time to meet Canva. Canva is a low-cost brand-building and design platform that allows you to create content faster, engage your audience, build your brand, manage your design assets, and increase design productivity. Keep reading to learn more about brand building with these fool-proof design tips! 

Getting Started On Canva!

Canva allows you to set up a free account, and begin producing professional, visually striking media that represents your brand. You can use the ready-to-go templates to insert words and images into conversion-driven designs that meet ideal graphic specs depending on the platform you are designing for: Facebook, Instagram, website banners, advertising banners, email headers, book covers, and more! But before you begin, be sure to take these 3 essential communications steps, absolutely necessary for effective brand building. 

Step 1. Design Only For Your Target Audience

A brand is supposed to reflect who you are and who your business is. But the truth is that YOU are supposed to reflect your target audience. If you still do not know exactly what your audience wants and needs, and you are creating services and products based on what you need, guess what? Sales are more than likely – painfully slow! I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: survey (ahem…talk!) to your audience. You can do this by sending out an email survey to ask about your clients fears, challenges, needs, wants, and desires. Thankfully, now key platforms like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms allow you to poll your audience. At the very least, you always have analytics to see demographic data on your website visitors or social audience. 

Market research helps you identify your position in the market. Don’t be afraid to ask deeper questions like:

• What is your age? 
• What is your income level? 
• What is your profession? 
• What is your household size?
• What is your biggest challenge?
• What is your goal? 
• What made you choose us over a competitor?

Step 2. Write a Design Story That Speaks Emotionally

Next, it’s important to establish a strong emotional connection with your audience. Your story should be very simple and illustrate what you do as a company, why you do it, and what values are important to your business. These key bits of information tell a person why you’re motivated to make their life better. Therefore, your storytelling should be authentic, consistent, and of course – unique! You can use this story in your brand kit to determine colors, tone, imagery, and also incorporate it into social media bios, marketing campaigns, and your mission statement. For example, if your goal is class and sophistication, your brand must represent that. If your business is more about positivity and joy, this must be conveyed visually. Does your brand focus on building strength and confidence? Ditto.

TASK: To begin writing your brand story, first answer these questions:

• Why does my company exist?
• What is the story of  how my company came about?
• What problem does my company solve?
• How does my brand impact my customers?
• How does my brand benefit my community?
• What makes my company different from the competitors?

Step 3.  Typography, Colors, and Images

Now, you are ready to get creative. After you have selected the Canva template style, you’re ready to start designing with the easy to use interface. The goal is to distill each design design piece into a succinct and recognizable symbol of your brand. 

Typography

Font should always suit your brand, and be legible. You must identify a uniform set of font styles to create visual consistency, and align the design style (font, size, layout) to suit your brand. Font pairings should work well together, and not contradict one another in style. And, remember, please communicate with words that illustrate key values and motivations of your brand! When you pair different fonts together like headlines, sub headers, and design elements they should be attention grabbing, easy to read, and give the overall effect of your branding. 

Colors

A brand color palette reflects the mood of your brand. If you have yet to create a mood board of your brand, use this color palette tool (https://www.canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator/ ) to get started. As you may know, colors represent powerful psychological messages. The color combinations that you choose will be used to evoke the feelings that you want your audience to associate with your brand. Learn more about the  ByFerial universal 4×4 color system to build the perfect color theory and analysis foundation.

Images

Media, illustrations, photographs, and other image elements should create a coherent visual experience. In other words, they should convey balance and harmony in addition to representing your brand aesthetic. Professional stock photos are always a great go-to option, but you can also use editing effects like filters, crop features, or background removal tools to create simplicity, clarity, balance or supply a bright, natural, subdued, sexy, or clean tint to the image.

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Are you just starting out as a solo entrepreneur and getting ready to build your brand? The best place to start to build this foundation is as a member of the Empower Group. Level I members receive unlimited opportunities for professional and personal development with private mentoring and coaching, as well as special pricing on business tools, products, and training. To learn more about the Level 1 membership —> CLICK HERE!