Free Brand Message Playbook: Build a Brand Style Guide for Your Small Business
Most small businesses don’t have a branding problem, they have a consistency problem. The logo on the website isn’t quite the one on the truck, the Facebook graphics use a different orange than the business cards, and every new flyer gets a new font. People notice, even if they can’t say why. So I put together a free playbook that walks you through building a simple brand style guide you can actually use.
What’s inside
- Your brand message: mission, values and a one-line message formula
- Your voice: how your brand sounds, with before-and-after rewrites
- The color of marketing: what 12 common colors say to customers
- Your palette: the 60-30-10 rule, HEX, RGB, CMYK and contrast
- Fonts and logo rules: pairing basics, plus a logo family that works on an embroidered shirt
- A one-page Brand Sheet you can print and fill in today
Three quick wins you can do today
- Write down your exact color codes. “Orange” isn’t a color in a style guide, #E4813A is. Record the HEX code for your website and the CMYK values for print so every designer and printer gets the same shade.
- Get a one-color version of your logo. Embroidery, stamps and single-color printing all need one. If your logo relies on a gradient or thin lines, it won’t survive a polo shirt.
- Pick two fonts and stop there. One for headings, one for body text. Use them everywhere, and check that the license allows business use.
The playbook builds on two of my articles, How to Create a Brand Style Guide and The Color of Marketing, and it’s part of my free playbook library. When it’s time to make graphics, grab the Social Media Size Cheat Sheet and resize your images with the Image Utility Drawer. Looking for fonts? Browse thousands of free ones at Font Zoom.