How to develop a digital brand for your business

Can consistency in your brand's voice make or break your design business? Join us on Designer Discussions as Jason, Maria, and Mirjam unravel the secrets to building a digital brand that resonates with reliability and professionalism. Discover the art of crafting comprehensive brand guidelines, covering everything from logo variations and font styles to mission statements. By maintaining uniformity across all digital platforms, your brand becomes easily recognizable and trusted by clients. Whether you're a seasoned business owner or just starting, Jason's insights into creating consistent brand messaging are indispensable.

We journey through the essentials of developing a client avatar and understanding your target market, fundamental steps that shape your branding strategy. Empower your team and external partners, such as marketing or PR agencies, with these guidelines, ensuring they represent your brand accurately. This episode is packed with valuable advice to enhance your digital presence and fortify your brand identity. Tune in to learn how a consistent brand voice could transform how clients perceive your design prowess and operational dependability.

If you would like to get the links and show notes for this episode, click on the link below:​

• https://www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-128-How-to-develop-a-digital-brand-for-your-business

The links and past episodes mentioned in the episode​ are:

• https://www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-2-branding-for-high-dollar-sales
• https://designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/store/products/23
• https://www.designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/pages/academy

Transform your marketing with Designer Discussions Academy. In weekly face-to-face sessions, we equip busy business owners with cutting-edge PR strategies, marketing insights, and time-saving tools to not just work in your business, but on your business. Join us to outshine competitors and elevate your business.

Join us for our weekly live sessions and workshops: https://www.designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/pages/academy

Designer Discussions is an educational interior design podcast on marketing, PR and related business topics. We also provide in-depth, actionable products in the Marketing Studio including time-saving templates and guides to help design professionals grow their businesses.

Download our FREE Client Avatar Guide https://designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/store.

Designer Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS; Maria Martin, founder of DesignAppy; and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY

Episode Transcript

Mirjam Lippuner (00:00):
Welcome to Designer Discussions with Jason,
maria and Miriam.
Today, jason is going to talkabout how to develop a digital
brand for a business.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions podcast with Jason
Miriam and Maria, where we talkabout marketing, pr and business

(00:21):
advice for design professionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:26):
So this is a topic that we haven't talked
about in a long time.
Actually, when we began thepodcast, way back in 2021, we
actually had Johanna White on it.
She talked about branding forhigh dollar sales and that was a
good episode.
A lot of people liked it, butwe really haven't touched on

(00:47):
branding again since that time,and it's vital that a design and
remodeling to have a brand andwhat are the elements that you
need to have in that brandBranding is vital.

(01:09):
That's how you are seen from theend user digitally across the
web.
So you want to ensure thatwherever anyone sees your assets
whether that be website, video,social media posts, anything
that you write that they couldconnect that to you and your
voice as your brand.
And it needs to be consistentthroughout all platforms.

(01:32):
And that's one of the things wefind on the marketing end when
we work with remodelingbusinesses.
That is, they don't have aconsistent brand voice and the
branding across the web is notthe same.
So you have to realize thatthat's vital for your marketing,
because if it's not consistent,the end user will feel like

(01:54):
well, if you're not consistentwith your own brand, what are
you going to do when you remodelmy kitchen.
Is it going to be eclectic?
Now, they may like eclectic,but generally, if it's not
consistent, they're going toview you as not consistent in
how you operate as well.
So making sure your brand voiceis consistent throughout all

(02:15):
channels is vital.
One of the things you need tohave is brand guidelines, and
that just shows what your logolooks like.
If you have differentvariations, so you'll honestly
have a color logo, but what ifit shows up in black and white?
You should have a variation ofthat.
If anyone in your organizationor if you hire a marketing

(02:39):
agency works on your content,they need to know how to
represent your logo the rightway.
Font style, with the fonts youmay be using Arial, you may be
using Times New Roman.
Whatever it is for you, youneed to have it consistent

(02:59):
because that's how your brandvoice is viewed throughout.
You need to have also throughsocial media.
You should have a template ortemplates of the types of social
media posts so as anybody, asan end user or a homeowner,

(03:20):
views your post, they canconsistently see that that is
you.
That's XYZ Remodeling Company,and we know who they are because
they operate this way.
This is how they are shownthroughout the web.
Having that within your brandguidelines is vital.
So you want to have some typeof brand guidelines where you
have your logo, your font type,your mission statement, which

(03:42):
you need to have, which goesback to if you haven't heard any
of our episodes on developing aclient avatar.
You need to have a clientavatar because that's going to
help you with your branding aswell, because once you know who
your audience is, now you knowwho to market to.
Now you know how to communicateyour content the right way.
Making sure that you have thatin there.

(04:04):
You want to also have in therewho your target market is.
Have that.
So anybody and this is not justfor you as the business owner,
this is for the organization,any new hire that you have on,
or any marketing agency that youwork with or any PR company
that you work with they need tohave access to your brand

(04:25):
guidelines so they know how torepresent your company the right
way.
So having this is not just anexercise for you as an owner,
because you may already know.
But how about the people thatyou work with?
How about the people that workfor you?
Do they know what the logoshould look like in black and
white as in color?
Do they know what the missionstatement is?

(04:46):
Do they know who your idealclient is?
Everyone that interacts withyour company should know or have
access to your brand guidelines, because it ensures that you
have the same consistency acrossthe digital platform.
Ok, imagery is one of the otherthing.
A lot of designer remodelingcompanies will often ask me when

(05:08):
we're doing a web design orwhen we're editing their website
, do I need to have all of mypictures on my site?
My answer to that is often onlyuse the pictures that represent
your company the way that isideal for your ideal client and
that matches up with your targetaudience and that matches your

(05:29):
brand guideline.
As you work longer and longerin the industry, you're going to
take on jobs that may not beideal, that are a complete fit.
It just may be you just mayneed to take a job to pay the
bill, so it may not be a projectthat you want to represent on
your website, but when you pickthe images that are on your
website, that are on your socialmedia channel, that are on

(05:53):
YouTube, that are anywhere, thatwill represent you, they are
representative of your idealclient brand voice and they tie
into who you are marketing, toAlso look at the quality of the
images as well.
So you may have done an amazingproject, but it may not be
photographed correctly.

(06:14):
I implore you to hireprofessional photography if you
do not have somebody in-housethat knows how to take
professional photography,because that can impact your
branding as well.
So you may have a great project, but if it's not photographed
correctly, that can hurt yourbrand voice.
Making sure the images, whereverthey appear, represent your

(06:38):
brand the right way.
You want to also do acompetitive analysis.
Look at what is happeningacross the landscape in your
locale, okay.
See how other design andremodeling companies are using
their branding, because it maygive you some ideas on things
you may not have thought aboutto incorporate in your own brand

(07:00):
.
And again, ensure that you havea consistent brand voice across
all channels.
Okay, now we're actuallytalking about all of this
information in the academy, andso this is the month that we're
going to be talking about allthis.
So if you're interested, clickon the link and you'll be able
to get access and see what we'retalking about.

(07:23):
But this month is all aboutbrand voice, branding and
website design.
So make sure you plug in andyou understand how your brand
can impact the jobs that you getand enhance them at the same
time.
So this is just what I want totalk about today.
We hope to hear you all in twoweeks on Designer Discussions.

Maria Martin (07:45):
Did you know that your client learns 80% of what
they will know about you beforethey ever contact you?
Now imagine when your potentialclient searches for the perfect
kitchen remodel.
Will they find you or yourcompetition?
We can help you make sure it'syou.
Our Designer DiscussionsAcademy membership with your
favorite podcast hosts provideweekly steps to simplify your

(08:08):
marketing and boost yourbusiness.
Sign up atdesignerdiscussionscom or follow
the link in the show notes.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review and share it with
your friends.
We look forward to having youback next week.
For more information on thepodcast and the marketing studio

(08:30):
, visit designer discussionscomand follow us on social media.