The brands you know and love today wouldn’t be where they are without consistent branding. Take Patagonia as an example—the company’s focus on environmental sustainability has set Patagonia apart from its competition and has inspired countless companies with its business philosophy. On the other hand, Spotify has set itself apart with a consistent, funky color scheme and clever copy—both on its platform but also in its marketing. These companies, and so many of the brands you love, have kept you as a loyal customer because of their commitment to consistent branding across the board. So, why is sticking to your brand so important and how can you keep your branding consistent when designing your website? We’re breaking down everything you need to know about brand consistency and how to apply it to your website. Let’s get started!

What Is Brand Consistency?

Your company’s values and core messaging will be communicated properly across the board

To start understanding how you can stay true to your brand, you first must understand brand consistency. In its simplest form, brand consistency is maintaining consistent messaging, values, and design at every point—no matter if it’s a website or sales collateral. With so many brands out there, you need to establish your brand identity and brand guidelines to differentiate yourself from other brands in your industry, and keeping your branding consistent across the board helps people recognize your brand no matter where they see you.  When you think of brand consistency, you have to put your users and their experience with your brand first. Let’s discuss how brand consistency contributes to that. 

Why Does Brand Consistency Matter On My Website?

Brand consistency builds trust with your audience and leads to a better user experience

Now that you understand exactly what brand consistency means, it’s time to understand just how important it is. Brand consistency goes beyond just looks—it can help you attract the right audience to your company while maintaining their trust in your brand. This helps build rapport with your audience to help turn them into lifetime customers or clients. With brand awareness, trust, and customer experience, brand consistency plays a huge role. 

Brand Awareness

It can be hard to cut through the noise within your industry to set your company apart from the rest. In terms of brand awareness, brand consistency can help people familiarize themselves with your company. As they become more familiar with your brand, then they will start to learn more about your products or services. 

No matter if a customer or client is first introduced to your brand through a business card or an ad, that needs to be further reinforced with a website, a social media post, or an email that drives home your company in a way that stays true to your branding. Without consistent branding, your audience may not realize the message is coming from your company, which will impact how your content resonates with your audience. 

Trust

When people stand by a brand, they’re supporting more than just the quality of your products or services. Nowadays, it’s more common than ever that people take notice of your brand values. That’s why it’s more important than ever to establish your values and keep them consistent to build trust within your audience. On top of that, inconsistency in typography, color, and messaging can lead a lack of trust in your brand. 

Customer Experiences

Inconsistencies in your branding can translate to a poor user experience on your website. If your audience is introduced to your brand in one style on social media but gets to your website and has a completely different experience, they will likely leave confused and may not return. To give every user the same experience no matter where they find you, brand consistency across the board is key. 

How Can I Stay True To Branding When Designing A Website?

Your website should reflect your brand through both messaging and design

Your website serves as a resource for your audience with all the information they need to know before becoming a client or customer. From more information about your products to understanding your brand personality, your website needs to hold all the information that someone may need while also showcasing who you are as a brand. That’s why we’re going to be discussing a few of the ways you can stay true to your branding while building your website. Let’s discuss! 

Create Consistent Brand Guidelines

Before you start designing your website or creating sales materials, it is crucial to create consistent brand guidelines. Once your brand guidelines are solidified, you can share them among all departments to help everyone stay aligned no matter what they are working on. When building brand guidelines, be sure to include the following:

• Your brand mission, values, tone, and style
• Your logo + any variations of your logo 
• Your fonts + typography
• The primary color palette + any secondary or tertiary color palettes
• The preferred style of imagery

With these guidelines in place, your team will be accountable for maintaining brand consistency across the board and any external partners will understand your branding from the get-go. 

Utilize White Space

Many times when people see white space, their first instinct is to fill it. Our tip? Don’t! 

With every space on your website filled, it can be hard for the user’s eye to catch a break. With blank space on your website, the user will be able to process the information on your page and understand your brand identity much better without being overwhelmed by too much content. White space can highlight important details on your website and guide the user’s eye through your website. Instead of viewing white space as a waste, look at it as a tool to properly convey the most important details about your brand.

Maintain Visual Design Consistency

Consistency goes beyond just the use of colors and fonts. This can be shown through details in visual design as well. From spacing, layouts, and sizing, maintaining consistency in these elements can help keep the user’s focus on the message rather than the layout. 

Keep Fonts Simple But Memorable

With so many styles of fonts, it can be hard to narrow down the fonts that best fit your brand. The typefaces you choose should be uniform on all branding elements—from your website to social media to sales collateral. Stick to two fonts that you feel emulate the personality of your brand without distracting from your message. Certain fonts pair better with other types of fonts, so test out two together and decide which will be your primary font and your secondary font before you build a website or build any assets. 

Showcase Personality Where Possible

Similar to how people feel about brand values as we discussed above, people really want to get to know the personality behind the brand as well. Seeing the faces behind the brand or getting to know the story behind the business adds a human element and will help your visitors relate to your company. While your “About Us” section on your website is a given for showcasing brand personality, identifying all areas where you can add a human element to your content can help your users remember your brand better. Additionally, you can add testimonials on your site for more credibility for people who are completely new to your brand. 

Remember Your Images

Often overlooked in branding, the images you use must be consistent with the rest of your branding as well. For example, if you stick with clean, minimalistic branding, you wouldn’t want an image that feels loud and boisterous. When building your website or any other type of branding materials, make sure you pick images that are compatible with your messaging while adding value and clarity to your content. 

Brand consistency is crucial—no matter if you are just starting out or are looking for ways to reinvent your brand. From your website to your marketing materials, consistent branding can help build trust in your audience and turn your audience into lifetime customers or clients. While it is easier said than done, we hope these tips will help you find the right strategy for your next website design to incorporate the branding behind the company. Ready to start designing a website that is truly reflective of your brand? Contact the Responsival team today to see how we can help.