Branding for Print | Ep 022

John: What's going on everyone? We are excited to be back. We are in our second episode of the branding series and this one is going to incorporate branding for print. So you don't wanna miss this because this is, goes so much into the awareness building process of your business. So follow a long, listen, a long share.

This one cuz it's gonna be good. Let's get into it. Let's go.

Kacie: The Business Project podcast business can be complicated. We break it down to regular people like us can understand and find success. I'm John Crespo, accountant and consultant. I'm Kacie Bryant, marketer and event planner. If you run a business or want to run a business, welcome to the show.

John: And we're back. . 

Kacie: We're waiting to say that . 

John: I love it. We gotta have fun with this. Yes, 

Kacie: yes. I'm just loving this series. You know, this is something that I'm super passionate about. Love y'all branding. I can't believe that we're doing like War Five episodes just on branding, but it is that important and I feel like there is that much content we're trying to, yeah.

The previous series that we've done, I feel like some of the episodes are like 45 minutes long and we're trying to kind of break it down into smaller chunks for you guys. Yeah. Keep it under 30 minutes is our goal. Yeah. And there's just a lot about branding that's so important. 

John: Some good nourish nuggets.

Mm-hmm. that you can literally incorporate to like build the brand of, and the awareness of your. Because if you're not doing that right now, especially in this market, you're gonna suffer. So you need to pay attention 

Kacie: to this one. And branding is something that impacts every single business, whether you're a service based business, whether you are providing something fun for the community to do, whether you're doing event planner or realtor or whatever you are, branding is so, so, so important.

For sure. 

John: For sure. It's like, it it, like you said in the last episode, which I thought. I love that analogy about the, the how the cowboys or the farmers, their cow, what cow you call the ranches brand their cows. Right? And everyone knows that that cow belongs to that, that ranch be belongs to that, that owner.

And you know, that's what you want people to think of when they hear the name of your business or see your logo or see something. They automatically want to wanna tag it. . 

Kacie: Yeah. You don't want them to have to guess. Yeah. And yeah, so the last episode that we went over was really good. We just kind of talked about general, why branding's important, how to do branding, and then we're gonna break down different elements of branding.

And today we're talking about specifically branding for print. Later we're gonna get into branding for online, and then we're gonna talk about. Branding as a, as a whole, and not just something that you see, but something that you feel the way that you make people feel when they see or hear about your business.

And so those will be future episodes that we'll be getting into. That's good 

John: cuz it'll bring everything together, all those pieces together. That's what we like to do, like these pieces of the puzzle at the end. , you have the picture. You have the whole 

Kacie: picture. 

John: Yes. So branding for print is, um, what, like we were talking a little bit earlier before the podcast started, is, you know, what is branding for print and what does it entail?

And you mentioned, you know, if you gotta do the. The, the stuff for the clothing, the, the, the business cards, any flyers, any signs, um, anything that your logo, your image, your, your, is gonna be displayed on. Anything you can touch, anything you can touch. There you go. 

Kacie: Tangible. Yep. Anything you can touch. So this is flyers, this is business cards.

This is hats, this is shirts, signs, brochures. Pretty much anything that you're gonna put your logo or your information on that you can touch. That's good. Yeah. And there's a lot that I think people don't consider when it comes into create, creating, branding, or doing print. And so we're gonna go over just a couple of bullet points today on things to make sure that you're being intentional about paying attention to as you're working on your branding for print.

And the first thing that we're gonna talk about is consistency. We talked about this a lot in the past episode. I feel like we talk about this. , this relates to so much in your business. Mm-hmm. is being consistent. It's just an 

John: umbrella theme that you should have in every, every aspect of your business is consistency, because that is what builds the right habits when you're consistent and you can do it all the time, and you do it over and over and over, and over and over again.

Yeah. Builds the 

Kacie: right habits. I, I personally have a really hard time with consistency because I get bored. and I wanna get creative. And I'm like, I've seen this font in these colors 500 times. I wanna see something new and fresh. Yeah. And, but that is not what you wanna do when it comes to branding for your business.

You wanna do that all at the very beginning. and create a branding guide, which we've talked about in previous episodes. And that is consistency with, you know, these are the fonts that we use, these are the colors that we use. Mm-hmm. even like, this is the type of imagery that you, we use. So for the business project, it's a lot of like, feel good, cozy.

We want you to like grab a cup of coffee and come have a conversation with us. It's not corporate or like, we are the masters and we make a bazillion dollars and blah, blah, blah. It's. Let's have a conversation. Business is complicated and let's, let's just have a conversation. Grab a coffee, get comfy, and let's break it down.

Make it simple. And so that is all part of our, our branding. And when we created our branding guide, we picked. Those types of imagery. Imagery, and we put them into our branding guide so that anytime somebody is working on something for us, we could be like, here, these are the fonts we use, these are the colors we use, these are the type of images that we use.

This is the overall look and feel of what we want our brand to be. We use a lot of borders, so like our logo or the business project as a border around it, we incorporate that border into a lot of our, our images, and that's just all part of brand recognition and um, so consistency. Mm-hmm. is the number one.

thing that is super duper important whenever you are creating branding for print. 

John: Think about it this way. Um, you create the foundation that then you can share with whoever's going to be, you know, make creating your stuff, right? And it just makes that transition that much easier. You're not gonna have to spend.

Hours and hours talking to whoever's doing your print or whoever's creating your, your, your swag or whatever it may be on how it should look because you created that package ahead of time so that you can focus on what's important, which is growing your business. Mm-hmm. , the goal is to take a lot of the legwork, um, away so that you can do the important thing.

Right. The 80 20 rule. Yep. Focus on the 20%. That's gonna give you 80% of your. And 

Kacie: you only do it once. Yep. It saves so much time, cuz you only do it once. And I think what happens a lot is when we're looking at doing something print, whether it be a brochure or business cards or whatever you're working on, we open up a template, we find a template, right?

And we open it up and we start working on it. And that template. Has different fonts that we don't normally use or different colors that we don't normally use. And so then we play around and like move things around and try to figure out, oh, I like this font and I like this font. And there you go. Five hours later and you're still working on this, the.

The business card and that business card will look nothing like the other template that you used for your brochure or your sign or you know, whatever. Ever What other ever, whatever other print materials you're using. . Say it real fast. Yeah. Whatever other, and now you're doing it on our chair, aren't you?

So, yeah, it just takes, it takes the work also out of having to recreate it every single time. It should be super simple. You already have made those, those, um, decisions and you just go in, you knock it out, get it done, move on. So 

John: what kind of print. , you know, can businesses, you know, I guess of course, it's depending on the business itself, right?

If you have a, um, a brick and mortar, or you're online or whatever it may be, what kind of print should businesses think about incorporating in their branding? . 

Kacie: Yeah. Like you said, I think it depends a lot on the type of business they are. A realtor obviously is gonna have way different, they're gonna need yard signs and lots of business cards and t-shirts for when they're doing open houses.

And um, probably a restaurant is gonna need more, you know, menu. Like a lot of restaurants don't think of a menu mm-hmm. As part of their print material and their branding. But it definitely is. I mean, how many people come into a restaurant and look at their menu? . Um, also like table tents at a restaurant or window posters or signage outside.

All of that needs to be very, very consistent. And, um, and so we'll talk a little bit in a couple bullet points. I guess we'll go ahead and go into it now because it kind of relates to that, but, When you are picking your print materials, the materials matter. Also. That's something that, um, people don't necessarily pay attention to as much, and that is part of your branding.

So if you are, like everything that you do, say you're an upscale, high quality restaurant, and I think this is a good way to just, it's really easy to picture that everybody can understand. Mm-hmm. , you're a big. Restaurant, fancy restaurant, you know, $50 a. and you come in there and you, you do, you print out your menus and they're like this floppy piece of paper.

Mm-hmm. printer, paper . Yeah. Printer paper. Right. That makes absolutely no sense. It completely disconnects your menu from your brand. And so if you go into a nice fancy restaurant, they have super thick, beautiful menus that probably cost, you know, uh, way more money than if you're going into a fast food restaurant.

And so just picking the type of materials that you're printing on has to fit your branding. Don't just go with the cheapest. Some people are like, oh, I'm just gonna go, what's the cheapest? Or, um, you know, how can I get away with just doing this? But you don't wanna just get away with it. You wanna make sure that you're very intentional about investing.

Mm-hmm. in, in materials that match your brand. Yeah, I 

John: think I, I like that you said that, because I think a lot of, you know, let's just say startup, Um, a lot of startups, we don't really plan for the initial investment of the brand, right? Because there is a cost associated with branding, right? You want to, and if you want it, if you want your business to be looked at as the top of business or the go-to business in that industry.

then you gotta put the right investment into your branding to make sure that meets what the, the what you want to portray. So I, I think a lot of startups, they don't really think about that. And then you skimp, skimp on the little things. Mm-hmm. like you were saying on the, um, on the print material or, um, you skimp on that and then it just takes away from the whole message.

Mm-hmm. . And then, you know, you have the disconnect and then you wonder why people don't view. As you want to be viewed. 

Kacie: Yeah, it can have a negative effect on your business for sure. If you're using the wrong materials in your print. If you're not staying consistent with your print, it can do the complete opposite of what you're paying money to do, right?

You're paying money for these menus, for these brochures, for these business cards, for these signs. A lot of times, a lot of money, and sometimes if you're doing the, if you're skimping, It's not representing your brand, it's doing the complete opposite, like you said, for sure. I'm, I'm gonna use your hat as a good example cuz that is a look at that, um, it, that is an amazing representation of you and your brand.

I feel like you are just a laid back, just like we do with this podcast. You're not one of those. Accountants or business coaches where you walk in and like your suit and tie and, you know, stuffy and not that there's anything wrong with that, that's just not your brand. Right. And so I feel like your hat, if you would've gotten, you know, a tie with CFD services on it, or like a jacket that, um, a nice, nice fancy jacket with CFD service, it would look weird on you.

Yeah. And, and so I think that you did a really good. with what you spent your money on, picking a good representation of your brand. 

John: Just wait till the blue ones come in. . Yeah. I'm excited 

Kacie: about those . We can't wait to see 'em. I'm sure you guys will see it in future podcasts. Yes. . Yes. So that is another example.

Not just like the quality of the paper, but also the things that you invest your money in when it comes to printing. Making sure that that matches your brand also. 

John: That is so true. Mm-hmm. , that is so true, and that's why, you know. If you're following along on our podcast and you are going through the steps of setting your business up properly, you're gonna put money aside for this.

You need to put money aside for this. And if you didn't, you wanna start, right? Because you want to, maybe you wanna revisit this, maybe you want to get with a professional that can help you get your branding right, get your image right, get your message right, because that will convert to. 100% it will convert to sales.

And if your goal is to grow your business and touch as many people as possible with your business, branding has to be a focus in that for sure. 

Kacie: Yeah, I really love that you said that, cuz that was something that I wanted to mention too, is a lot of our people that listen to our podcast are our existing businesses.

They've been around for a while and so you might think, Hey, I've already got my brand. What does this have to do with me? But it's actually never, uh, you can. Look at your branding. I feel like unless you've done these steps at the beginning and have created a very good high quality brand for your business, then it's never too late.

But it can be. You don't wanna wait. It's something that you wanna do as soon as possible because it is important and um, and, and, but it's something that you have to do whether you do it, oops. When you start your business or whether you do it when you're five years down the road. Yes, it's something you gotta.

John: you know, everybody goes through a, an a part of their life where they start self-reflecting, right? Whether it's personal or business, you're gonna self-reflect sometimes and say, where I am, where I, where am I in my journey? You know, do I want, am I where I wanna be? And if I'm not where I wanna be, did I do what I should have?

To get here. Right. Um, so it's okay if you've been in business for a while, self-reflect. Mm-hmm. self-reflect on like, take a step back that this is when you, when you stop getting, stop working in your business and you start looking at your business from a higher level and start saying that everything that we implement get us where we want it to go.

Is my branding the right branding? Is this sending the right message to get us where we want to go? And if it's not, . This is, that's when you make the change. Yeah. You fix it. 

Kacie: Yeah. You fix it. Yeah. And you think too, styles change. Um, br your brand can get outdated. Very, it can get outdated if you've been in business for 20 years.

It you, it's probably time to redo your branding. Yeah. A little bit and look at it because, um, I mean, you look at even bigger brands, Walmart, I think they don't have the same logo that they did when they originally started. True. Uh, they might have some of the same colors or some of the same imagery in their logo, but.

They have updated their branding and, and so even if you've been in business for 15 years, this is for you. You wanna take a look and see is there something that we can do to improve, just like with every other part of your business, to improve our business in this way? I 

John: love it. I love it. Um, 

Kacie: I have a couple other points.

Check checklists. I 

John: was gonna say, you've got 

Kacie: your checklist here. . Yeah. So, um, we already talked about fonts, making sure that the fonts and the colors are consistent, creating a template so that you're not, um, just having to come up with it fresh every single time you create something. And like I had mentioned also, not just the fonts and the colors, but also the, like, the types of, of, um, assets that you use, or accents, I should say accents that you.

So do you use a lot of boxes? Do you have a lot of round, do you use a lot of black and white or, um, what's that? Sepia the like, brownish, you know, like vintagey look. Yeah, sepia. . Sepia. That's my favorite. I love sepia. . That's the 

John: poop emoji. . 

Kacie: No, no. Um, so figuring out those types of things ahead of time is also super, I.

And then the last thing I'm gonna mention, the last bullet point I have here is keeping it simple. Mm-hmm. , when you're creating branding material and we talk about. So much about so many other topics. It's really hard to keep things simple. Yep. It's easy to get them complicated . Yeah. And when you're making business cards and when you're making brochures, when you're making a sign for the highway or for the front of your building, the simpler the better.

You wanna have the basic information on there. You don't want it to be too. Cluttered with stuff. I see so many small businesses making event flyers or grand opening flyers or brochures and it's like I look at it and I just give overwhelmed and I don't even wanna look further. Mm-hmm. , because it's just too much on one page.

Yes. So keep it as simple as possible. 

John: Sensory overload. Yeah. Uh, that keep it simple. The kiss, that whole KISS acronym is so important and I think if you look at. , big business book, right? If you read any major business book that goes into how to run your business and make a business successful, right? One of the key points, they, they always write in there is, you know, write it down so that somebody else can pick it up and run with it.

I mean, it's even, it's even in the Bible, you know? Yeah. Write it down so it can be picked up. and ran with if you're not there mm-hmm. , you know, somebody can understand what they're, what's expected by, by what you've written down. Somebody can understand it and keep it moving as if you're, you're the one doing it.

Mm-hmm. , you know, that's what you want. So that is very 

Kacie: important. Yeah. You don't wanna have to be there all the time for your business to continue to operate on struggle. 

John: That's right. You wanna become, wanna become a business owner. Yes. Yes. Business owners. When you're making money, while you're sleeping and you're, you don't have to be there for your business to make money.

Kacie: Exactly. . Yeah. So make sure that you, you keep it simple so that you can pass it down. The simpler the better. And with that too, when you're making your print materials, as you're keeping it simple, when you're completely done with it, Look at it, have other people look at it and say, Hey, what is the first thing that sticks out?

Mm-hmm. in this, because that is the gonna be the most important thing. So what is the most important thing that you want them to see? That needs to be the first thing that they see when they're looking at the print and it get some of their eyes on it to help you. And then what's the second most, second thing you see that should be the second most important and.

keep going from there 

John: and make sure it's aligned with your brand. Make sure it's aligned with your branding kit. So that's, that branding kit is also an accountability tool for the people that are creating that material for you. Mm-hmm. , right? You're, you're providing that information to them. So if you get something back that's not in line with the, the what you've provided, then you say, Hey, look, this is what I gave you.

This is how it's supposed to look. You know, fix it. So it's a, it's account, it's an accountability tool to make. Consistency is maintained. Yep, 

Kacie: for sure. So to summarize, consistency. Mm-hmm. was the first thing we covered. Let's do it. We went over fonts and templates. We went over print material, and then we went over keeping it simple.

And that's all about printing. If you follow those things that we just talked about, your print materials should be, 

John: Oh, I'm so excited to see which I got, share some of your material on the comments. Let's see what you got. You know, let's see the kind of flyers that you're creating. Let's share it. Let's share the information.

If there's any, um, questions you have around creating a branding guide, you know, yeah. Reach out to the business project because, That's where you're gonna get the answers. 

Kacie: We have all kinds of checklists on the business project. We actually have a checklist on branding, and these are the things that you need to do to make sure that your brand is represented well.

Check, check, check, check. It's a just cute little printable that you can use. We've got printables on accounting, we've got printables on finances and social media and all types of resources on there. 

John: So how cool is that to be able to go to the business project and. Just like, Hey, I need a checklist on this.

Okay, here it is. And then you can just make sure that you are accomplishing what needs to be accomplished to make that done. To have it done right. Yeah. It's so great. It's a resource, and it's a resource for you. Share it. away. . Yes, . 

Kacie: All right. That's it. Next week we're gonna be talking about printing online, not printing, branding.

Branding 

John: online. Oh, yeah, that's important. With this, um, um, environment that we're in, it's all about technology Now. H how do you 

Kacie: look online? And it's a lot of thi, it's something that a lot of people don't even think about. They just make a Facebook page and don't think twice or make an Instagram. A TikTok or a LinkedIn and they don't even, they don't even think about all the things that need to be considered when you're doing that and when you're representing your brand in that.

John: Yeah. I can point out so many Facebook pages that I've seen for businesses that are just like my, my, my kid did it. Yeah. . Nah, it's not 

Kacie: gonna work. You don't want that. It's, it's not gonna work. No. And you might be doing an awesome job with your social media and this might, or just online branding your website.

We'll talk about all that. Um, but you might still wanna listen cuz there might be something in here that. You'd be like, ah-huh. Oh, maybe I should do that. 

John: I got that. The light bulb. The light bulb 

Kacie: goes off. Yeah. Thing. We all have light bulb moments as businesses for sure. All right. That's it. That's all we got for you guys today.

John: We love you guys. Thank you for following along. And of course, like always like and share, get this information out to the metaverse. I guess they would they call it now . Yeah. So that everyone can hear it and become successful business 

Kacie: owners. What really, really helps us is if you go to wherever you listen to your podcast or watch your podcast and you download, you hit the download button on Spotify or Apple Podcast or iHeartRadio and.

Definitely, definitely helps us reach more people. So also write us a review. Yeah, we need some reviews. We're pretty new. We just relaunched, not like what, a month ago? Yeah. And And so reviews help so, so much. Please write us a review. Yeah, review us. 

John: If there's something you want to hear as well, let us know.

If we didn't hit a topic, let us know. Yeah, we'll talk about it. We 

Kacie: will. We're here for you guys. Take care. All right. Peace.