When you’re developing your copywriter business it’s a great idea to develop your brand’s messaging and also its visual identity. It doesn’t need to take you long and can be fun too!
What is visual identity?
The visual identity of your copywriter brand is basically all the visual elements that tell your audience about your brand.
Plainly said – the way your brand looks.
It can also be called brand visual identity or just brand identity.
Developing a clear visual identity can really make your copywriter business stand out.
Over time, people will be able to recognize your brand from a clear visual identity.
What is the difference between branding and visual identity?
Branding is the process of developing your brand and visual identity is how your brand looks.
Parts of a great visual identity
When you’re thinking about all these aspects below, it’s helpful to have thought about the ideal community you want to serve, their painpoints, and what your business goals are, so you can serve them well.
My post ‘How do I brand myself as a copywriter?’ is a good starting point. Through the post I guide you to create your USP, develop ideas about who your ideal community is, then develop your brand voice, tone and finally visual identity.
Logo
Your logo is the face of your brand. Your clients’ first impression of you. Try to keep it simple and over time it will become memorable to your audience. It could be an illustration, text format, or, a mixture of both.
If you have a tagline, you could do two versions of your logo. One with your tagline included, and one without.
Colors
Jessie Ford, branding expert, from Untethered Designs recommends you can have between 3-6 colors for your visual branding.
She suggests using … “a “primary” palette, which is the one that you use for your website, most collateral, is used within your logo, etc. But, you can also create a “secondary” palette that you use for smaller graphics, on social media, for special brand projects and more”.
Colors can evoke thoughts and emotions in your audience, so consider this question, when experimenting with colors.
What feelings and thoughts do I want my ideal community to have, when they come into contact with my brand?
Typography
Just as with colors, George Anderson, on Designrush.com suggests fonts too inspire emotion.
He comments that…”the emotions you are trying to evoke with your colors should be aligned with the style of typography.”
So when you’re experimenting with typography, have your colors close by and experiment with what works and what doesn’t
Photography, graphics, illustrations, and icons
Flori Needle, writing on Hubspot believes that you can communicate your brand messaging even through the filter you use on your photography.
When you share images, the style you use to edit them should be consistent and cohesive on all platforms and materials. For example, use the same filters over your images, crop your photos in the same way to be consistent.
They use an awesome example of this from Sean Garrette on Instagram. He favors a brown tone to his photography. He becomes instantly recognizable`if any of his fans are scrolling through their feed.
Why does visual identity matter?
Brand visual identity can help with helping you stand out in a highly visual world. Think of how many visuals we are bombarded with every day. Let’s dig into why it’s a smart move to think about your copywriter brand’s visual identity.
Stand out from everyone else
Mapping out what your brand looks like will help you differentiate yourself. A bit like having a visual form of your USP.
Think about purchases you have made in the past.
Have you ever bought something because it is in such a pretty packet?
I know I have, so it just shows how important visual branding can be.
It’s almost like you are helping your ideal community get a preview of what it’s going to be like when they choose to work with you.
Relate to your audience
You can really build connections with your ideal community, using your visual identity. So if you want to work with women entrepreneurs, your visual identity may reflect a feminine color scheme or reflect a modern, fresh minimal look. Your visual identity can set an atmosphere and inspire different emotions in people.
Take a look at other brands that target a similar audience – what do you notice? Note down the key themes so this informs your decision.
Helps with consistency
Visual branding helps you stay consistent everywhere you put out content. From your copywriter portfolio web pages, blog posts, and socia media posts you publish, to the emails, proposals, and messages you send to clients.
So every time you create content, you know what colors, style of photography, and fonts to use.
Helps you build your like, know and trust factor
If people are seeing a consistent visual message, they will recognize your brand quicker and quicker over time.
Think about one of your heroes in the online world.
One of mine is Amy Porterfield. Her branding is so consistent and no nonsense, I always feel incredibly relaxed, inspired and excited at the same time, when I read her content – no matter where I find it. Whether it’s on her website, on social media, or via her course platform.
What makes a good visual identity?
Aligned
When you present your brand online, think about how you want your audience to feel? Will they feel inspired or jarred by your choice of typography and color?
Do you want to create urgency or calm?
Research directly with your ideal community if possible – get their opinion on ideas you have or examples you see out there.
Your visual identity needs to align with your audience and also with you. After all, if you felt nauseated when you look at your brand, you won’t feel as motivated to create your content.
Distinct
You want to really stand out from your competitors.
To this you need to make sure your brand is different in some way from everyone else.
Will your tribe recognize you? Remember you?
Simple
Try not to make it too complex or you won’t stick with it. It will be difficult to recreate especially if you create a lot of different types of business content.
Keeping visual identity simple can help when you start to outsource tasks like social media posting to your VA.
Consistent
Creating a strong visual identity helps you be more consistent when communicating via:
- Social media
- Sending client paperwork and contracts
- Writing blog posts
- Creating the main pages of your copywriter website
- Using graphics and images on all the above
It works on all platforms
When you are developing your visual identity, it’s important to do some testing on the different platforms you are using.
Questions to ask yourself about your visual identity.
Is the typography legible on every platform?
Is the typography too big, too small?
Do the colors enhance the clarity of your message?
Final thoughts
Although you may be juggling with loads of copywriting learning, pitching clients and so many other things, it is so easy not to look at our own business the way we would a client’s.
Think about how much clarity and ease you will achieve if you create a brand for your own copywriter business.
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