The ultimate guide on how to build a strong Ecommerce Branding Booklet. This detailed guide will take you through the most important steps and explain what to do, and what not to do when it comes to an Ecommerce Business.
Do you want to know:
A style guide is a handbook on your business aesthetics and explains the message you convey. It is defining your story, values and design, all in one place. Creating a Brand Style Guide for your Ecommerce business will help you stay consistent and build trust with your audience online.
Branding Style Guides have both internal and external use: Internally, new employees will immediately understand the ‘who, what, how and why’ of your business. Making a smoother transaction for them when they first join your company. Externally, when companies want to collaborate with you, all the information they need is clearly displayed in this handbook. It covers the do’s and don'ts of your Ecommerce business, the colours they must use, and how they should display your content.
Design is one of the best ways to attract and delight your consumers. It tells your story visually, creates an easily recognisable brand, and leads to a healthy relationship between your business and consumers, without solely using words.
Being consistent, leads to building trust with your audience online. They will become familiar with who you are, and what you deliver. A style guide, when done right, gives you clear direction and a structure you can rely on.
A brand's story is one of the fastest ways consumers will connect with your business. They will immediately see your values, understand your mission, and decide whether or not they will support your cause. There are many ways to convey your story. It is the message you send to consumers about who you are, what you do, and why you do it.
1) Identify:
Is it the value you offer or the price, that relates to your target market the most?
2) Outline:
Tell your story with power. Use emotion to move the reader and make them feel connected to you and your brand. Become conversational, give detail, and take them on a journey. Include all of your ups and downs. Keep in mind, consumers will see through anything that is fabricated. Your story should be truthful and have authenticity.
This is the style of your communication.
How do you speak to your customers? Is your tone of voice casual, with humour or authority? Calmly or with urgency? There are many different ways to communicate. It's vital you stay consistent and use the right tone for your message. Tone is the emotional influence your voice has on the readers, and the voice represents your brand’s personality.
To define your voice and tone, an easy way to start is to list what you are, and what you are not.
According to Jon Morrow: Power words, is a term often used to describe emotion and invoke persuasion in writing. Each category represents a specific feeling and when used correctly, converts consumers into paying customers. Power words are useful for telling a captivating story or encouraging consumers to take action.
1) Fear : To emphasise the ‘fear of missing out’. Most commonly used as a scare tactic, fear will urge consumers that if they don't take action and buy your product or solution now, something bad will happen.
Phrases used in E-commerce:
2) Encouragement : To excite the reader by using words that will brighten their day and lighten the mood. Encouragement is inspiring and motivating, with the aim to increase the consumers' energy to take action.
Phrases used in E-commerce:
Phrases used in E-commerce:
4) Greed: The desire to save money or gain wealth. It’s common to see on Ecommerce sites when aiming to increase sales. These types of phrases create urgency and entice your consumers to make purchases sooner.
Phrases used in E-commerce:
Phrases used in E-commerce:
The tone and voice of your company must stay consistent with your overall strategy. Every element of your Branding Guide should compliment each other, it should feel like a seamless integration of emotion, colour and meaning.
Outline your primary colours: Choose 1 to 3 colours only
We have provided a list of colours and their meanings on our previous blog post to help you create your colour pallet.
For inspiration, you can see a list of current companies and their colour choices here.
Create your primary and secondary colour palette in RGB, and provide the HEX codes. This defines exactly what your brand's colours will look like. From this point forward, no other colours should be used when representing your brand. If you are rebranding, you will need to audit your content to make sure it is consistent with your new styling.
To export the HEX codes for your colour pallet, you can use Adobe's colour wheel.
The font style should be consistent with your brand's personality and suit the voice and tone of your company. Choose a font that can be easily read online, on mobile or portable devices, and in print. Using the wrong font, can quickly change your tone and the way readers perceive you.
For example:
Each of these typefaces can be the same style, or have a slight variation. Typefaces need to compliment each other and fit well with the brand’s style to remain consistent.
For inspiration, you can experiment with different typefaces by using Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts. (Keep in mind, you have to pay for Adobe’s typefaces to use them).
Include the Typeface you have chosen with examples of each font in your Branding Style Guide. Explain how each style should be used to compliment your brand.
Develop a vision board: Create an overview of imagery that matches your brand's aesthetic. It is important to create a holistic vision for your brand and develop the overarching theme.
Create a vision board similar to this example. This can help you assess whether the styling, values, and aesthetics have remained consistent throughout the developmental process. Of course, only include the colours and styles from your branding guide. This vision board acts as future inspiration for your company and ties all of the previous steps together.
The final step is to seamlessly connect each of the elements listed above to become one. This makes the style of your company seem whole, professional and organised. If you successfully connect the dots between your message and visual design, your brand’s style guide will be clear and easy to follow.
A style guide can be a lengthy process to complete, but the rewards are worth it. Your brand will have consistency, consumers will understand you, and your company will be easily recognised. Your brand will have direction and a clear focus for the future.
Being organised and having great design, will lead you to optimise your website to its full potential. When it comes to Ecommerce, digital marketing and design can have a huge impact on consumers. Building a strong brand will allow you to outperform your competitors and enhance your customer relationships.
A Graphic Designer and Brand expert will make an enormous difference to your logo design and longevity of your Ecommerce business. They have years of experience and a world of knowledge that will save you time and money when it comes to designing your Brand. Hiring a professional to design your logo and build a style guide with you, will also enhance the quality of your business.
To implement these steps and see an example of the final product, download the our free style guide template.
Download our sample style guide and gain inspiration to build your own branding guidebook.