One thing I’ve been focused on for the last several months is branding, our own and our clients’.
Branding is often thought of as simply the logo, tag line, colors, and fonts used for a website, marketing collateral, advertising, etc. Because its impact isn’t always understood, branding is considered “airy-fairy” and relegated to the back burner.
Creating a successful brand that resonates with your audience is all about the “why” — which often gets left out of the discussion. For example, who you are and what makes you different, the customers you work with, and your company’s values, to start.
Also important are product design, customer interactions, your website user interface, the images you use, and the stories you tell on social media.
**Everything matters** because every element conveys a message, whether intentional or not.
Because I’ve carried my own Brand Guidelines in my head for years, I decided to create a written document for Huff Industrial Marketing. Writing out the Brand Guidelines was a very good exercise and included several days and drafts on my part. Once I was done, I had Rachel Cunliffe design the PDF.
When I saw the finished product, I thought, “Wow. I wish I had done this sooner.” It clarified so much and has given me and my team a renewed focus.
Download the Huff Industrial Marketing Brand Guidelines PDF.
Newsletter challenge: Outdated format; two brands
Once the Guidelines were complete, I tasked Rachel with creating a brand new newsletter template. I’d been struggling with my newsletter for a long time because I essentially have two brands: Huff Industrial Marketing and the Keep It Made USA Blog.
I’d been trying to force both into an old newsletter format that no longer worked. It’s why I stopped publishing twice a month and was barely publishing once a month.
This scenario is something we see regularly with manufacturers and their websites. Product lines or services get added or deleted. Key people leave or get added.
Marketing then falls by the wayside because it’s a lot of work to rethink things. It takes time and energy that you can easily put to use in other areas. Trust me, I get it!
No company ever stays the same. It’s why, when you find yourself trying to make something work using old ways and old thinking, you have to take a few steps back and reconsider — and maybe even trash the old stuff and start anew.
While working on these two projects, I made dozens of updates to our website in order to ensure it aligns with our new guidelines. What a huge help they were!
Using this momentum, I finally created a Newsletter subscribe page that also lists archived issues.
I’m really proud of my Keep It Made USA newsletter and how Rachel Cunliffe incorporated both brands (and my dog Rocky, too!). I love the energy and the excitement.
