Slow the Scroll: How to Capture Readers with Visual Branding

Hello, Villagers! My marketing nerd heart is so full that I get to talk more about branding with you today. If you missed our first Seekerville post on the subject, you can click here to read more of the specifics on honing brand, audience, and strategy.

Today, we’re going to focus on visual branding, which includes the colors, imagery, typography, and other design aspects that help tell the story of what we write and what our audience can expect in our social media spaces.

To start, I’m going to lay a few easy ground rules. The possibilities for self-expression are as unique and numerous as fingerprints, but the most effective platforms:

• Keep it clear: Once they’ve determined the core vision and mission of their platform, successful brands make sure no part of their visual branding conflicts with it. If they’re going for entertainment, their colors might be whimsical and bright. If their subject matter is poignant and serious, then every image, font, and color they choose reflects that.

• Keep it simple: Less is always more when it comes to branding. That includes text, white space, and clean design. Marketing expert Donald Miller, of StoryBrand, advocates promotion that requires the least amount of thinking for the audience. Just as vague branding can deter a potential reader (or an existing one), visual elements that are too busy can have the same effect. In today’s digital world, the goal is to create content that will get readers to notice and stop their scrolling. 

• Keep it consistent: Effective brands choose a few fonts, colors, and layouts and then use them everywhere they like to play on the internet--website, social media, newsletter headings--a cohesive package wrapped in a shiny, on-brand bow. When readers know what to expect, this builds a trust that makes them more likely to engage.

So now that we have some basic ground rules, let’s look at ways we can make stylistic decisions that reflect our brand, even if we have no experience in design. (*Ahem* Like me!)

Colors

Pick a palate of complementary colors. Three or four will be enough. If you have no idea where to begin, mood boards are helpful with images that capture what you’re going for. Is there a common scheme? Tons of articles talk about color psychology in branding, but I don’t think it needs to be that complicated. Say you’re a historical romance author who captures all things vintage in your brand. You might find an inspiring photo and experiment with a cream for the aged lace in the shot, a warm brown from the antique suitcase you loved, a dusty pink that matches the pretty vintage ribbon. Voila!

If you do an online search, there are plenty of color palates and wheels. When you find the ones that work for you, be sure to keep the HEX code for each color handy, which starts with a pound sign followed by six symbols (i.e. #99FFFF is a lovely teal color). This is a magical internet-friendly code that will produce the exact color in most programs and applications.

Now, incorporate them into your logo, business cards, and one-sheets. Put them in your newsletter, your social media graphics, and website. Use one, a few, or all of them, and readers will know they’re yours.

Images

Images can help enhance the tone you’re trying to convey and show off your sparkling personality. But the number one thing to remember is that they must be your own, public domain/licensed under Creative Commons Zero, or used with permission and clearly attributed to the original source.

If you frequently post your own photos on social media, then using a distinct filter, lighting, or composition can also contribute to your visual branding. For example, if your content is poignant and introspective, then artsy, moody images with deeper saturation might complement it well. There are so many apps that can help make your photos unique (author Mary Weber, aka the Instagram Queen, has some wonderful tricks and techniques in her Instastories).

Typography

The language of sans and serif might as well be Mandarin to me, but typography definitely contributes to the tone and personality of brand. The fonts you pick for your website and graphics largely depend on the software you use and the choices available therein. One of my favorite resources for inexpensive, gorgeous typefaces is CreativeMarket.com, which has a demo area that shows what sample text looks like before you buy it.

When making your choice, it’s important to ensure fonts are clean and legible across multiple browsers (and small phone screens, too), particularly if they’re for a blog post or another large body of text. While I’m a huge fan of a strategically placed accent fonts, too many fancy scripts or ornate flourishes can be distracting and unpleasing to the eye. So keep it simple, friends!

Templates

There are loads of programs that can help even the novice graphic designer create a cohesive visual footprint on the web. Whatever program works best, you can make templates for blog and social media content and simply interchange text, images, and colors for new posts. Also keep in mind that different social media platforms have different optimal sizes. Minding these dimensions will ensure that all of a graphic is visible and that it doesn’t get resized or warped.

Say you want to do a Question of the Week post on your business Facebook page. You would find the correct size for Facebook (1200 x 630 pixels, according to SproutSocial.com), crop an on-brand, eye-catching image or solid-color background to that size, and overlay text and colors on it. Then the next time, all you’d have to do is open that saved template and change the question, adjusting the background and colors if you want to.

Deep breaths…

Does this sound like a foreign language to you? That’s okay. While I worked in PR for many years, I’m much more of a word-nerd copywriter whose hot mess graphic design offerings leave the real pros shaking their heads. So I encourage you to feel around in the dark until you get it, even if it means bumping your shins a couple of times.

Don’t be afraid to let that brilliant personality shine in your visual branding. And when in doubt, keep it clear, keep it simple, and keep it consistent. I have full faith in you!

What do you want your visual branding to say about you?
What authors are doing this well?

Laurie Tomlinson is the award-winning author of That’s When I Knew, With No Reservations, and The Long Game, currently featured in the Once Upon a Laugh collection. Her stories are fueled by faith, steaming mugs of tea, and her belief that life should be celebrated with cupcakes and extra sprinkles.


Find her on Facebook @AuthorLaurieTomlinson or her website, www.laurietomlinson.com.



More Visual Branding Resources:
● Gorgeous color palettes to inspire you
● Lots of colors (and their HEX codes) here
● Adobe’s fun tool to help you experiment with color palettes
● A list of resources for free stock photos + licensing guidelines
● Some helpful font combinations for inspiration
● A comprehensive list of optimal social media image sizes
● Simple photo and graphic editing programs to experiment with
● The best phone apps for photo editing and filters

A Branding Primer

This great post was pulled from the archives so y'all can brush up on branding! Our guest Laurie Tomlinson is providing a new giveaway today and working on a brand new post to share with us next month.

Thank you so much, Seekers, for inviting this self-professed marketing geek to talk about one of my favorite subjects. Let’s get to it, shall we?

What is Branding and Why Is It Important?

I love marketing guru Seth Godin’s definition:

 “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

Many people mistake a cohesive style for brand, and while it’s an important component, it’s only a small part of it.

Branding is the collective story you tell industry professionals and readers about you and your work. It’s what sets you apart from other authors, not in a dog-eat-dog kind of way, but in a way that represents the unique aspects that make you *you*. It’s how, when readers are scrolling through their social media, they can tell a post is from you even before they see your name.

Identifying the Vision and Mission of Your Brand

While an author tagline is great because it tells the audience what they can expect up front, knowing the vision and mission behind your work is most crucial. Everything we write, from the pages of our books, to our query letters, to the tone and content of our social media should tell that for us.

Vision answers the question: What do I write?
Mission answers the question: Why do I write?

So if, for example, you write authentic women’s fiction (what) to give readers hope through relatable characters (why), your blog posts will be hope-filled, your voice authentic, and your content primarily centered around women.

Many of us who are doing our heart’s work have huge heart-dreams and run into a snag when trying to be succinct in the themes/topics we cover, but inconsistency will only confuse readers and detract from our message. To create a more defined brand vision and mission, we should go with our strongest values and the characteristics we can see being most cohesive across our unique body of work.

Identifying Our Audience 

A huge key to brand is identifying our audience. This is the person who will benefit the most from our work. One thing I’ve always encouraged clients to do is to name the person they’re writing for. Mine is Meg. It may sound kind of weird—especially if you talk about this pretend person in a pitch appointment (cough, or so I’ve been told)—but we all create and talk to imaginary people, so let’s go with it.

Just as we research and profile characters before beginning a new project, it’s important to know and identify as much as possible about our ideal audience. Of course, our work will naturally appeal to a broader range of people, but if we write for anyone and everyone who will listen, our message as a whole will be watered down, and our potential for impact will suffer.

At the very least, identifying age, gender, and what makes this person click a link or pick up a book can be helpful. If you write for more than one genre, then look for the common denominators in your audience and refine from there.

But most importantly, research what your audience needs the most from you. Is it hope? Entertainment? Solidarity? Authenticity? Hopefully, this lines up with the why of your vision and what you uniquely have to offer.

Once you've determined your ideal audience, every branding decision should consider that person. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but you will soon develop an instinct for what (and where) you write, the tones you use, and the messages you send. And your intentionality with your brand will result in the reward of a more meaningful conversation between you and your audience.

A Case Study:

In my debut novel, With No Reservations, my heroine Sloane is a popular food blogger who knows a lot about branding and reaching her ideal audience. Her website is called Mise en Place, a French culinary term for assembling ingredients prior to cooking. The photos she uses have distinctive color contrast and always feature shots of the recipe ingredients neatly (and appetizingly!) arranged.

All of her design decisions and word choices reflect an approachable, organized, and beautiful cooking experience because that’s what her audience needs for recipe inspiration.

Sloane writes to give accessible, step-by-step recipes to home cooks who want to mix up their rotation. Her ideal reader, a busy 30-year-old housewife named Michelle who found her on Pinterest, is attracted to a recipe post because of its beautiful pictures, knows it’s from Sloane because of her unique style of photos, and comes back to the website because the step-by-step format of the recipes makes her feel like she can try anything.

While Sloane’s recipe posts naturally attract a broader audience—men who love to cook, 20-year-olds who are getting their first apartments, and other cooking enthusiasts—the style and content decisions she makes stay true to her vision and what’s accessible and appealing to Michelle. Sloane regularly gauges this, and may shift and adapt things according to the conversation and reader feedback her content generates.

So, to sum things up, it's simple. Once you’ve refined the vision and message for your author brand, the more you will know about your ideal audience. And the more you know about your person, the easier your decisions will be and the more your content will resonate.

What and who are you writing for? 

Is there an author you can think of with a distinctive brand?

Two childhood sweethearts. One failed summer romance. Twelve years later.

On most days, Chelsea Scott feels like her rapidly growing planner and stationery business should belong to someone else. Maybe if it did, it wouldn't be hovering near the red due to one costly decision. But the collaboration that will save her company awaits her pitch at the trade show she's keynoting. When her transportation falls through at the last minute, she accepts help from Nick Pearson, who’s unexpectedly come back into her life.

The last time Nick saw Chelsea, he told her he loved her, and she ran. Twelve years later, their lives are different, more complex than the summers they spent playing baseball and eating ice cream cones at their dock with their toes in the lake. But as they spend time together on the road, their feelings for each other become clear: all those years couldn’t take away how good they can be together.

When Chelsea's past decisions resurface at the convention, her newly rekindled relationship with Nick – and her business – are in jeopardy. Will their love be enough to keep them together or will another summer end with them apart?

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Laurie Tomlinson is a wife and mom from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who enjoys stories of grace in the beautiful mess. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and regular contributor to The Writers Alley Blog. Her work is represented by Rachel Kent of Books & Such Literary, has won two Genesis Awards, and was runner-up in the 2015 RWA Lone Star Contest.

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