Why Your Brand Needs Consistency

Consistency within your brand translates to trust with your customers.  Like any relationship, trust is the cornerstone to success, including with your customers and potential customers. 
 
Your business exists for a reason. At a high level, your products or services provide a solution for your customers’ needs. Customers turn to your brand because they have trust in you. When you are consistently meeting those needs with high quality work, your business does well.
 
While this concept seems so simple, you need to make sure that your marketing efforts are as consistent as the products and services that you provide. After all, consumers trust recognizable brands. Giving your customers a consistent experience across each channel of communication is as important as providing them with your dependable product or services.
 
Do your social media sites align with your website? Does the tone of your content match your emails? Are you using your colors, and logos appropriately? How about the images that you use in your brochures? There are countless ways that your customers are communicating with you. Social media, phone calls, email, and in some cases postal mail.  Keeping your messaging and graphics similar across all of these channels is essential for a successful marketing strategy.
 
When your brand has the same look, feel and voice, you are promoting yourself in a way that helps to build trust.  Even the smallest of businesses can gain a lot from providing consistent messaging and branding.  Not only will it make your brand seem more dependable, but also customers will appreciate your attention to detail.
 
Some simple ways to create consistency across your various communication platforms include:
 
·      Use the same graphics or style of graphics. If you like icons, utilize those icons across all channels and content.
·      Make sure your tone and message in your writing is the same. Use the same voice across all channels, whether you decide to be more formal, or conversational.
·      Create a style guide for your brand, so everyone representing your company can refer to this one document to see everything from the type of font to use, to the colors to use.
·      Along with the style guide, make sure your team has access to logos, colors and images. If you make it easy for them to find, they are less likely to go rogue and create their own look.
 
Regardless of what industry or sector your business operates within, consistency is key to building a brand that your clients trust.