Hey honey, did you know that branding is a crucial part of marketing your nonprofit organization? With a unique and strong brand identity that speaks to your organization’s values, you could gather more supporters and donors for your cause than any fundraiser event could generate! However, for your team, volunteers, and designers to represent your organization properly to the public, you must provide them with comprehensive brand guidelines.
A brand guide details your organization’s visual identity, including rules and guidelines to represent your image across various channels and marketing materials correctly.
How to Create Brand Guidelines for Your Hive:
1. Craft a Compelling Brand Story
Everyone loves a good story, especially when it’s well-written and tugs at the reader’s heartstrings. In the spirit of the Halloween season, let’s go dark for a second. Think about how you feel when you watch Michael Myers slowly walking toward his next victim. The physical response is likely anxiety, panic, and fear, right? Now what about when you watch Harry and Sally finally get together? You probably get those feel-good, rom com, warm and fuzzies. You might even shed a happy tear or two! You want your brand story to inspire an emotional reaction from your audience too, but using a narrative that includes facts and feelings created by your nonprofit organization. So definitely not a horror movie response, ok?
Truth be told – your organization already has an existing narrative, but it’s up to you to shape it to influence what others think about your brand positively. When developing a brand story, make sure to include your history, values, purpose, and what others say about you.
By writing an authentic and complete brand story, you can differentiate your organization from others and show people why they should donate to your organization.
2. Include Your Logo Design
The logo is an integral part of the brand guide, as it is how people will identify your nonprofit organization. However, a logo doesn’t just consist of a single design—you must also consider the different iterations.
Your logo is your brand signature, but this doesn’t mean that you have to stick with the exact one at all times. Logos can have variations, but they should still be recognizable. For example, you may include a large and detailed logo for bigger events and a smaller one for particular situations.
When developing a brand logo, discuss with your branding agency the following factors:
- Minimum logo sizes
- Acceptable color variations
- Clear space rules
- Logo design restrictions
3. Finalize a Color Palette
When it comes to brand development, consistency is vital. Whether brochures or social media posts, every piece of content you share with the public must look and sound consistent. As such, it’s crucial to provide designers with your core brand colors to determine what they should use when creating collateral.
Including the hex codes, RGB values, and shades and tints to your brand’s color palette ensures that your content looks consistent, making your audience associate the specified colors with your organization.
Honey Hack: Selecting the right brand colors can differentiate you, making your business stand out in your market. Your brand color palette carries intrinsic meaning in that the colors become central to brand recognition and identity. So make sure you’ve considered what your colors are saying about you!
4. Determine Your Typeface
Your organization’s typography system is another crucial part of the brand guide. Besides the color palette, make sure to include a list of font styles and families your brand uses, as well as the ideal sizing, spacing, and weights for specific purposes.
Let Honey Creative Help With Your Business Brand Guidelines
No business or nonprofit organization can reach its goals without a solid brand identity! Make sure to include every necessary detail in your brand guidelines so that you can provide a consistent and correct representation of your organization. As long as you have a brand guide and work with a reputable branding agency, you’re sure to advance one step closer toward your organization’s objectives!
If you’re looking for a branding agency to help you tell your story easier and more effectively, our team at Honey Creatives may just be the people for the job! Our agency will help you develop a powerful presence so you can share that narrative and amplify your impact. Increase your brand buzz today!
