5 Branding Tips for Entrepreneurs Working from Home (WFH)
A recent study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) concluded that 44% of South Africans prefer to work fully remotely. Which is almost twice as much as the global average of 24%. As much as South African entrepreneurs are embracing the work from home economy, it comes with new opportunities and challenges. One of those being branding.
Here is five branding tips entrepreneurs working from home should consider:
1. Get a professional email signature
Email has become the primary method of communicating with clients. An email signature tells the client who you are and what you do, whilst displaying your corporate identity.
A professional email signature should include: your name and surname, your position in the company, the company name, your phone number, your email address and the company logo. It may also be a good idea to include an email disclaimer to protect you from any confidentiality breaches.
Other than the functional purposes of an email signature, it is a great way of cementing your brand to the recipients of your emails.
2. Take professional business pictures
Personal appearance plays an important role in the expectations people will have of you and your business. WFH means you won’t always be able to physically meet new clients, so the first impression they have of you will come from digital pictures.
Having a professional picture shows people that you take yourself seriously and that creates trust with potential clients. Your clothing in the picture doesn’t necessarily have to be formal. A high res image of you dressed appropriately for the job you are doing will work. The image should also be shot in portrait focusing on your face and not the background. The safest option would be to do a studio photo-shoot where you can get the exact background or setting you’d like.
Some of the places you can use the pictures are: your website, email signatures, business cards and all your social media profile pictures.
3. Brand your letterheads and other business documents
Branding your documents is more important now than it was before. When people don’t see you they look at all the other material you send as a representation of you. It should be standard to have your logo on all your documents.
Letterheads are the first place to start. They don’t only look good, they are informative enough to make contacting you easy but simple enough to not distract from the actual letter. Other documents where your branding should appear are: Quotations, Invoices, Reports, Proposals, Applications and PowerPoint Presentations.
4. Keep your business cards with you at all times
WFH comes with some freedom. Being able to pop out for a coffee or get some groceries in your lunch break is a welcome change. It may be hard to realize it, but the people we casually meet are no different to the ones we meet around work. Having a business card ready when someone asks “So what do you do?” makes sure it’s not just a topic that passes by in the conversation but something they can revisit if they ever need your services.
Photo by Boxed Water Is Better on Unsplash
5. Maintain brand consistency
Having a consistent look and feel across all business platforms is very important now. When someone sees three different logos on your social media, website and email signature. They most likely will think you’re a fly-by-night and start looking elsewhere.
A great way of maintaining brand consistency is developing a style sheet which serves as a guideline for how and where all the components of your brand should be used. Some of these components include: your logo, imagery and fonts.
That concludes my 5 Branding Tips for Entrepreneurs Working from Home. If you are looking for a professionally designed email signature, professional business pictures, a letterhead design, a business card design or a detailed style sheet. Contact us today!