Your brand sets you apart from the crowd…and you can’t build a brand without consistency. Whether you manage a Facebook group or have your own YouTube channel, you need to establish your brand from the very start of your selling journey with Teespring. Building your brand is easier than you think, an example of the elements you can use to create brand consistency are:
- Brand name: the business name or channel name you’ve created that will be featured on your store, listings and social accounts.
- Brand logo: the logo you’ve created that is also featured on your store and the places you interact with your audience (ex. Facebook page, Instagram profile, YouTube channel, etc.).
- Brand colors: the color(s) used to customize your store, social media profiles, product designs, etc.
- Brand tagline or slogan: a phrase people can associate with your brand to make it memorable.
Mike Chen, creator of Strictly Dumpling, is an example of a Teespring user who excels at brand consistency. He loves all things food and so does his audience! Mike’s brand logo features a dumpling and his brand color is yellow—he’s incorporated these elements everywhere so followers can easily identify him and his merch across sites. Let’s take at look at three ways you too can build your personal brand online.
1) Understand your audience
If you’ve already followed our tips on how to research designs for a new audience you’re one step ahead of the game. The same goes for users who already have an established online following or channel. If you know your audience (the people you want to buy your products) you’ll know the type of design elements, colors, and themes they’re attracted to.
Mike understands his audience and knows what they’re interested in. This is evident because everything he publishes online gets tons of engagement like comments, likes, and shares.
2) Create brand elements
Now that you understand what your audience likes, use this knowledge to create a brand name, logo, and colors that will appeal to them. You can work with a designer or create these elements yourself using design tools like Placeit.
In the image below you can see Mike uses his brand logo and colors across his social media accounts for brand consistency. He also incorporates similar fonts and caricature styles into his merch designs.
If you want to create a slogan or tagline, keep in mind the shorter it is the better. Slogans shouldn’t be too obvious—the more clever a slogan is, the more memorable it will be. Consider incorporating emotive words, puns, a play on words, metaphors, or making a rhyme to help your tagline or slogan stand out.
- Spotify ~ “Music for everyone” suggests Spotify offers a variety of music options that are accessible and appealing to all people.
- FedEx ~ “The world on time” indicates they can deliver worldwide and deliver on time.
- Disneyland ~ “The happiest place on earth” conveys the feeling you’ll have when you go to this place.
- BMW ~ “Designed for driving pleasure” tells us exactly how we’ll feel when we drive one of their cars.
- L’Oréal ~ “Because you’re worth it” inspires confidence and self worth for shoppers.
3) Maintain brand consistency
The final step to building your brand is to present it to the world in a consistent manner. There are several ways you can do this as you build your brand on Teespring.
- Online presence: Incorporate your brand elements onto your website, YouTube channel, Facebook page, and any other places you have an online presence associated with your brand. Your goal is to maintain brand consistency as you direct shoppers from these sites to your Teespring store. This can help increase the likelihood of them purchasing your products.
- Messaging: You should make brand elements visible when contacting newsletter subscribers or past customers via email. Keep in mind your account email is displayed when contacting customers using Teespring’s messages tool. This means you should also create an email account specifically associated with your brand. If you don’t have a dedicated website or domain you can simply create something like ‘[email protected]”. Once created, update the login credentials of your Teespring account so the email will be visible to buyers whenever you contact them moving forward.
- Samples: Featuring samples of your products in promotional content like videos and photos is a key step in establishing and representing your brand. By presenting your products in a specific way in photos and videos you can emulate the look or vibe your brand represents—and make it more attractive and legitimate to your target audience.
- Storefront + listings: Customize your storefront with your brand logo and colors. Incorporate your tagline into your store banner. Activate listing page branding within your store settings so your design elements carry over to your individual listing pages when someone clicks through on your products.
Notice how Mike has incorporated his brand logo and colors into his Teespring storefront as well as his listing pages. You can extend branding to your listing pages within your store’s settings instantly.
We can see Strictly Dumpling branding on the storefront above and listing below
