In the past, we have discussed in detail everything from creating brand awareness and consistent branding to re-branding. After creating your brand, the next necessary step is to create that brand. What better way to do so than creating brand guidelines? In laden terms, a brand guideline is basically a book of rules. Your guidelines not only layout style details such as colors and fonts, but also discusses appropriate ways to use and acceptable alterations to your brand. It also lays out the overall voice and identity of the company to give everyone a greater understanding of how to represent the company. Brand guidelines particularly come in handy to larger corporations but are also a great idea for smaller companies as well. Here is are the main components that should be included in your brand guidelines. Logo + Design Details It’s no secret that companies spend a good amount of time and money on a logo that they feel represents their company well. Things to consider including are minimum logo size, taglines and the integrity of the visual identity such as color use and changes. Other details to include are official colors and fonts. 
Web Styles Web styles are things that are intended to keep the overall design consistent with your brand. Consideration such as fonts, elements such as buttons and links, use of images and tone of verbiage should be included. Brand Tone Your brand tone refers to the style and overall feel of wording your company uses. A company needs to determine how they want to come off verbally to their audience and create guidelines on how to accomplish this. Including writing samples of acceptable and unacceptable verbiage is a great way to convey this. Another aspect of your brand tone is appropriate ways to respond to situations. These situations are essential for customer service. These are important for reps responding to problems and will assist them in creating solutions. This is also extremely needed if there are more than one employees handling client relations and if the company is active on social media. How a company responds publicly to positivity and negativity reflects directly on their brand and integrity. If you do not have brand guidelines already, here are the top reasons to create them: Consistency Brand guidelines can assure a company that no matter how many employees they have, they are maintaining a consistent brand identity and processes on how to represent the company. Focus If your company is one that adds to products or services or makes changes, brand guidelines assist in keeping consistency. Similar to what is listed above, but as a company grows it is easy to lose site of such details. Your guidelines will help you to implement regulations and details on your new products and services that merge successfully with your current ones. If you have any questions regarding your brand guidelines or to create them, make sure and contact us today. We would love to work with you creating a strong brand for your company!