Is poor branding costing you money?

You’ve heard the expression “don’t judge a book by its cover?” While that is a common expression, it doesn’t translate well in real life. The fact is, people make their minds up about something before they get to know it. 

Here’s why that matters: people judge a business by its brand. That includes your beauty brand.

Stop and think about your own brand for a minute. 

• Do you use cohesive colors that represent your brand? 
• Do you have an established, recognizable logo that you use for your brand? 
• Can someone look at your Instagram page and immediately recognize your business? 
• Do you have a polished look that you carry out throughout all of your marketing?

If you answered, yes, congratulations! 

If you aren’t sure or you answered no, then here is the sad reality. You are leaving money on the table.

The truth is that even if you have the best beauty business around, if the business down the road has a polished business brand, you are losing customers to them. When customers look for a beauty business they are looking for beauty, and that means they are going to gravitate to the business that looks pretty.

Your brand is how you present your business to potential clients. It has the ability to draw customers in or to turn customers away. And, you definitely, do not want that to happen!

Choosing a color

One of the first things to think about, when planning your branding, is your color palette. 

The colors you choose will represent your business, so it’s important to make them count. One way to choose colors is to have them reflect your business name or the products you carry. 

For example, a business named Flair is probably not going to have light, soft pastel colors, while a beauty business that focuses on organic products will more than likely go with natural shades instead of neon orange and blue. 

Think about your own business and products. What colors are you drawn to, and what colors make sense for your name and your products?

Next, think about your target audience and how you want your clients to perceive your business? What feeling or vibe do you want? Fun and playful, sophisticated, flirty, serious, dramatic, soft and sweet, glamorous, energetic and lively? 

Colors evoke emotions or feelings, so what do you want your colors to say about you? 

Here are some examples:

Red- passionate, angry, dangerous, exciting

Orange-energetic, invigorating

Pink- feminine, beauty, friendly, soft

Yellow- warm, friendly, cheery, sunny

Green- calm, natural, responsible, sustainable

Blue- trustworthy, competent, dependable, secure

Purple- glamorous, stylish, elegant, sophisticated

Brown- rugged, enduring, serious, masculine

Black- traditional, strong, formal, sleek, 

Gray- impartial, neutral, balanced, composed

White- pure, clean, simple

As you think about colors for your business branding, you will likely choose a main color and then select accent colors that you can use as well. Most branding color palettes have between 3-6 colors.

You want the colors to work well together, represent your business, and look good no matter where you use them. Typically you will use a dark color for text, light colors for backgrounds, and contrasting colors for highlighting and accents. 

The color palette you choose will be used on all of your branding and marketing, so that means any advertising, correspondence, websites, social media, business cards, bills, as well as inside your store if you are a brick and mortar business. 

Once you have narrowed down your choices, you can then make a strategic plan of how you will use those colors so that you have a polished, cohesive look throughout your business.

For example, think about your Instagram account and the types of photos you use. You want a color palette that will compliment and not clash with your beauty photos. You also want to make sure that your posts have a cohesive look by using these consistently.

Look at this Instagram account's before and after. This is a Beauty Boss Templates follower and customer. Once they chose a color palette to stick to and found a content and posting pattern that worked for them they instantly had a beautiful, branded and cohesive feed to better attract their potential clients!

As a potential client, which one says this business's mission is confusing and which one says this business has its act together and feels soothing, like the facials and massages they offer? I mean, after all, this is a massage and skincare business and clients want to feel relaxed when they go there. The feeling of their Instagram account should most definitely reflect this. 

See how less chaotic and busy the second one looks. The content is broken up with variety, but the overall look has a beautiful flow.

Logo Design

Once you have chosen your color palette, you are ready to think about your logo design. 

Your logo is your brand’s identity. It needs to create a great first impression, be easily recognizable, and clearly represent your business. Logos help drive customers to your business and to help you stand out from your competition.

When thinking about design, a simple logo works better than an intricate design because it will be easier to recognize. You want your clients to remember you and not be confused by fancy design. Think of simple designs you see every day like Apple, McDonald’s, and Pepsi or beauty brands like Ulta, MAC, and Chanel. They are all simple and instantly recognizable.

As you are thinking about your logo two additional things to keep in mind are scalability and how the logo will look in black and white. 

You will likely use your logo in various sizes and for various purposes, so you want to test that it does not lose its quality if made smaller or larger. For example, your design should look as good on your Instagram page as it does on a shirt or small product packaging. A good logo will allow you to use variations in your design and still stick to your brand identity. 

Because you may also use your logo in black and white at some point, you want to see how that looks too. The important thing here is that the logo is clear and readable even if it is not in color.

When selecting the fonts for your logo, you need to go back to your description list from the color palette selection and make sure the fonts you use reflects that tone or vibe. You also need to make sure that your font is easy to read. Your potential client will go someplace else if they have to try and figure out what it says. Typically, you do not want to use more than two fonts for your logo. 

Let’s look at these two logos:

Which one is easy to read, catches your attention and makes you interested in going to that business?

Most likely, you chose the first one because it looks clean and polished. 

When you put the logo and color palette together, the most important thing is that it reflects you. 

Branding sets you apart from other people in the same business, so it is important that you do you. 

That means the graphic elements, color palette, and fonts represent you and your business.  They should be unique to your vibe and your goals. They should stand out from your competitors.

It’s also important that you love your branding. You will be using it and seeing it daily, so if you don’t love it you will get tired of it very quickly. 

Remember, you are giving your beauty business away to others if you do not have polished branding. Since none of us can afford to leave money on the table, once you have branding that you love, the last step is to use your new branding consistently and with intent. 

Your business will be judged by its brand, so let’s create something beautiful that you love!

For more beauty business marketing, branding and social media tips and strategies make sure head over and join my Beauty Boss Society Facebook Group!