Branding and Business Card Design for the Small Business
Business branding is often something that small businesses don't bother with. After all when only one or two people run a small business you yourselves are the brand. Branding as a formal exercise is often perceived as something for big corporates to worry about. However in the fast-paced days of social media and online presence, every business, however small, should give thought to their brand.
If business branding is new to you, a good place to start is with your business card design. Business Card Design Price Essentially your business cards should represent your brand in miniature, so see every design decision that you make for your cards as a step towards defining your brand.
Your brand is more than just your logo and the colours you use on your website and stationery. It extends to the way you write, the style of language you use, the way you deal with your customers and how they perceive you. As a small business you probably already have already established the basis of your brand, albeit in an informal way:
are you known for being hip and cutting edge, for being traditional and reliable, for your fast service, or for your warm and personal manner? Ask your best customers for words that they would use to describe your business.
Having a clear idea of the image you want to convey is the best starting point both for your branding and for your business card design. Say for example you come up with the phrases 'crisp efficiency' and 'fast service' to define your business: you would want your business cards and your brand to reflect this at every stage.
So the paper you choose for your card would give a neat crisp impression; the fonts and design would be clear cut and unfussy, without any flowery curlicues; your logo would tie in with that efficient and speedy ethic and so would the tagline that you develop.
Whatever the brand personality you come up with, it helps to narrow it down to two or three key phrases. From there you can work with your designer to come up with a business card that really does represent your business and your newly established brand.
After you have designed your new business cards, it is a question of extending your branding to all your business interfaces – to your website of course, but also to your Facebook page, your Twitter account, your Pinterest page and anywhere else that your interact with your customers.
Don't forget to apply your branding to your physical space too, if your customers visit your office. It's no use establishing an efficient and clean-cut brand image in all your communications if your clients see a cluttered office space that doesn't look in the least efficient.
Remember that building a brand isn't a once-off process. A brand is built brick by brick over time, with your every communication. Your logo and business card design may be the foundations, but you will build on those with consistent branding over time.
Deep Design is a top brand design agency, digital and print studio based in Cape Town. Contact them for business cards in Cape Town and for any other print and design needs.