What is brand?

Just putting this out there. Your brand is not your logo.

Your logo might be pretty, a flag that flies at the front of your ship, but for me, your brand is about who you are and the feeling people get when they interact with you.

It’s how you show up, your story, your soul, it’s about the experience you are creating, the relationship and the memory.

A great brand is the difference between being just another business… and becoming the one people trust, love, and rave about!

Maybe you have a fab logo, that's all well and good, but if your emails sound or look different from your website or socials, it can be very confusing for your audience.

I see businesses (big and small) stuck in a kind of identity crisis. Constantly reinventing themselves, trying out different looks, different tones, and different messages like a teenager in the middle of puberty! It gets messy. And confusing. For them and their audience.

Think of your brand as your ‘business personality’. Is it showing up the same way everywhere?

In case you need help with your brand - here's my free brand download to help you get sorted!

Using a brand kit

Do you ever find yourself halfway through designing something or updating a form and thinking, “Wait… which shade of blue do I use again?”

Then you can’t be bothered hunting for your brand guide (you know it’s in your files somewhere!)… so you just wing it?

The easiest way for you and your team to keep everything looking professional and on-brand is to make it easy for yourself.

Here are a few simple ways to do that 👇

• Set up a Brand Kit in Canva. Upload your logo, fonts, colours, and templates so everything’s ready to go.

• Create a folder of go-to social post designs and reuse them.

• Save snippets of your tone and key phrases in a note or document on your desktop . They’ll come in handy when writing captions or emails.

• If you’ve got a team, share your brand kit so everything your business posts sounds and looks like you.

• Create a ‘Brand Assets’ folder that stores all your logos, images, and templates, so everyone has access to the most up-to-date versions.

• Have a ‘brand voice’ cheat sheet. Write down 3–5 tone words that describe how your brand sounds (e.g. friendly, professional, curious, supportive). Add examples of phrases you’d say — and ones you wouldn’t.

• Check every post against these three brand questions:
  – Does this sound like us?
  – Does it look like us?
  – Does it reflect what we want people to feel?
  If you can say yes to all three, you’re good to go.

• Schedule regular brand check-ups. Every few months, review your website, socials, and print materials. Do they still match? Are they up to date?

Consistency builds recognition and recognition builds trust.
And that’s what your brand is all about.

How do you know if you need a brand refresh?

Have you ever reached a point where your brand just doesn’t feel like you anymore? Maybe you’ve grown, changed focus, launched new products, or simply evolved how you do things.  And now your brand doesn’t quite match what you’re saying or how you look as a business.

It might be time for a brand refresh? Here are a few signs to look out for 👇

• You’re a little embarrassed to hand out your business card (or have to write on it to update your details).
  

• Your website and social media don’t match your print materials (or each other!)
  

• You’re attracting the wrong kind of clients.
  

• You feel like you’re constantly reinventing yourself.
  

• You’re blending in with your competitors.
  

• You’ve added new services, products, or locations.
  

If you nodded along to a few of those, it might be time to give your brand a refresh. It doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch, sometimes it’s just about tweaking so your business feels like you again.

Contact me if you’d like me to take a quick look and share a few ideas. Sometimes a second pair of eyes makes all the difference!