Branding Guidelines

Last week, we talked about discovery calls and how much we love them. But a few of you reached out with questions about one of the components we mentioned needing to have ready for the discovery call: branding guidelines.

What are brand identity guidelines?

Brand identity guidelines — what we refer to as branding guidelines — are a set of standards and expectations about how your brand is represented, including everything from visual branding to copywriting to messaging. Often referred to as “brand bibles,” these guidelines are intended to be a living document that can change and evolve as your business grows.

What is the purpose of brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines are put in place to help you build a cohesive, coordinated identity for your brand. When you have a set of standards laid out, your brand will be consistently recognizable, both visually and otherwise, and if there’s one thing we know, it’s that being recognizable and distinctive is one of the key factors that drives brand loyalty. Customers rely on cues like standardized photography, logos, brand colors, and messaging to help them hone in on your products rather than picking up another in their place.

Here’s an example of brand guidelines we’ve put together for a client.

What needs to be included in brand guidelines?

At the end of the day, you can include as much or as little information about your brand in these guidelines as you like. Of course, we'd always recommend including as much information as possible to build a stronger understanding of your brand, but if you don’t know the answers to some of these, don’t worry about including them all right at once.

• Brand Overview

• Brand Values

• Messaging Statement

• Logo Information

• Logo Usage Guidelines

• Color Palette

• Type Style

• Image Style

• Copy Guidelines

How do I write brand guidelines?

Once you have all of the important details gathered, we recommend putting them into a deck so that you can easily share them with everyone from your future marketing intern to your photography team (oh hi!). There are TONS of brand identity guidelines templates floating around on the Internet, but we’d recommend using a service like Canva or Google Slides to easily compile all of this important information in one place.

I need help with this.

Lucky you, that’s a service we offer. Hit us up using our contact form or by booking some time to chat on our calendar below. And, as always, feel free to email us with questions at hello [at] fourcoursemedia.com.