I was delighted to speak with Kate Fox from Fox Graphics Design & Marketing today. Kate literally lives and breathes her brand and reaps the rewards – I’m so excited to share with you her branding tips so you too can reap the rewards! Stay tuned to find out how to build your business brand on social media.
Kate really is a fantastic advocate for branding. It’s no surprise that she was wearing a red jumper and was sat in a red chair – after all red, grey and black are her brand colours!
Before we look at her top tips on how to integrate branding into your social media, here’s some information about Kate.
Kate didn’t start out as a graphic designer – quite the opposite. She gained a plethora of business knowledge by working in the hospitality and recruitment sector both here in the UK and overseas. When she arrived in her mid to late thirties Kate’s life changed; she divorced, had a young child and underwent surgery with a 2 year recovery period ahead of her. Going back to the work she once knew no longer fitted in with her future plans.
Realising that whichever path she was to take, Kate needed to learn about computing. After one year in training and the completion of a psychometric test it became clear that she had a future in graphic design, but to get there meant gaining more qualifications. Kate was determined to make this happen and graduated from the Manchester Met University with a first class degree in graphic design.
Branding: Kate’s epiphany
Kate gets branding – she understands it so completely. It is her world, not just her business.
Kate launched Fox Graphics Design and Marketing back in 2008 and since then has been working with some amazing businesses who have seen great results from investing in their brand.
Branding: the origins
When you think of the words ‘to brand’, you might think about the branding of cows. And you’d be right! This is exactly where the word originates from.
Cows belonging to the same farmer are all stamped with the same branding, so they are instantly recognisable as belonging to a certain farm. The same goes for a business’ branding – it must be recognisable and distinct.
Consistency
Branding is more than a logo. It should make the customer feel a certain way, it must capture what you do, why you do it and how you do it. It consists of images, content, colours, language and a tone of voice.
To make branding work it MUST be consistent, and everyone associated with it must be on board with it. When branding is done right, the person seeing it will associate it with you and your business. It’s a bit like someone’s signature.
And if you ever wonder what does a good social media brand look like, check out Kate’s website and her social media. You will see consistency is king!
The killer sentence: your marketing message
This is Kate’s killer sentence, the one that is used across all of her social media platforms, her website and used by all of her team – it’s one of the key ingredients which makes Kate’s social media brand strategy so successful. This is how Fox Graphics Design and Marketing is to be seen and remembered.
Branding tips for social media
- Get yourself a killer sentence and use it across all of your social media platforms and have it at the front of your mind when you are working on your social media marketing – always use the same words. It should consist of three parts: the problem you are solving, how you rid your customers of this pain and what the outcome is for them.
If you don’t want to use a killer sentence, you can consider having an image that reflects all of this. The important thing is to have consistency in your key message.
Use it on your LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook profiles and display it visually on the background headers. And think about how it looks on a mobile phone when your profile picture may hide a part of it.
Branding and social media when managed to the max will get you ahead of the game! Remember that you represent your brand. Make sure that your profile picture reflects who you are perfectly and highlights your personality, it should be clear, have a neutral background, your eyes should be looking into the camera and you should be smiling. It’s worth investing in a good picture – this is something that shouldn’t be rushed – simply sticking up a picture you have on your phone isn’t going to be good enough.
You can do what Kate does and show up wearing your brand colours and decorate your office in them too to reinforce your brand, even when you are on a video call.Your company pages are a fantastic place to put your branding. Kate says that putting your branding in your company’s profile is a must, it’s the optimum place to put your logo, key message and to showcase your voice, ethics and the benefits of your products and/or service. The message is not about selling, it’s about telling your network why they will benefit from connecting or working with you.
A superb tip to try is ask some of your friends to describe your brand using only single words. These are the words you should look to include in your key message. And, if your friends don’t give you the words you are expecting to see, you are probably best reviewing what your current message is as it’s clearly not hitting the right notes.
Another great place to use your key message is on the featured posts on LinkedIn. These are the posts that sit with your profile, so when a potential customer goes to your profile to learn more about you, they will get an immediate sense of who you are and what you do.
When you use an image with your social media posts, place your logo and your website address on them. This provides consistency, and if you can have a template using your band colours, this can be used for testimonials too.
Videos and animation are great for social media and really worth investing in. Social media platforms are loving these at the moment and they really do get fantastic engagement results. Check out the animations Kate uses across all of her social media platforms and on her website: Follow The Fox. Kate is also in the process of producing a video too where she talks for 90 seconds about the who, why and how of her business. This will really pop out and influence the viewer to keep watching. The video will show Kate talking, the fox logo at the front of her studio, her killer sentence and have a strong call to action.
Think about your colour. Place this colour in the front of all of your customers and use it consistently.
If you’d like to see more of Kate’s work or to get in touch with her please head to her stunning website.
I do hope that you have enjoyed reading these branding tips for social media 2020. You may also be interested in Kate’s 2 day workshop which also includes a one hour 1-2-1 deep dive Marketing Strategy for your business. (The workshops last for 90 minutes over zoom). The cost of this investment is £300 plus VAT and more details can be viewed here Brand Strategy Workshop
If you have been inspired to apply your new skills and want to change the way your social media is done I have a blog that will help you get started Top Tips for Social Media Content 2020.
My workshops coming soon!
This month, I have spaces left on my Facebook Ads workshop which starts on Tuesday 17th November. The workshop will be delivered over four days for an hour each day via zoom. You’ll learn how to effectively advertise on this platform to generate more business. For more details and to buy tickets head over to Eventbrite.
Or, if Instagram is where your customers hang out, you’ll learn how to get the best out of this visual platform when you join me for a four day Instagram Workshop For Business starting on 8th December. We’ll spend an hour each day over zoom to get you ‘Instagram confident’! Be one of the first to grab a ticket as this workshop is always popular and I only have 10 spaces!
Bye for now,
Becs
Becs Bate, Social Media Executive
