brandUP Your Business Podcast
Hey, I’m Matt Jackson, and I’ve been through the highs and lows of building brands that make an impact. On the BrandUP Your Business Podcast, I take you along on my journey and sit down with other entrepreneurs to share the secret sauce of branding, marketing, and sales that actually works.
In each episode, you’ll hear real stories, fun conversations, and actionable tips to take your business from zero to hero. If you’re ready to level up your brand and learn from the best, this is the place for you!
Let’s turn your business into something unforgettable. Tune in and join the fun!
🌟 Connect with us: brandupyourbusiness.com
Want to learn all about branding? Check Out Our Book on Amazon brandUP Your Business: Elevate Your Business With Branding
brandUP Your Business Podcast
Episode 13: 7 Day Brand Breakthrough Stand Out: Designing Your Brand's Visual Identity
Your brand has just three seconds to make an impression. In those fleeting moments, what message is your visual identity sending?
Day 4 of our brand-building journey takes us into the exciting realm of visual design - where your brand truly comes to life through logos, colors, and typography. This isn't just about aesthetics; it's about strategic choices that trigger specific emotional responses and set the perfect tone for attracting your ideal customers.
We'll explore the psychology behind color choices (why banks use blue while restaurants favor red), how font selections dramatically affect perception, and why maintaining visual consistency builds the trust that converts prospects into customers. Through a revealing case study, you'll discover how upgrading from a generic $50 logo transformed a pressure washing business, attracting premium clients who recognized the professionalism behind the investment.
For entrepreneurs concerned about design costs, we share practical DIY solutions using tools like Canva and coolors.co, along with affordable outsourcing options that deliver professional results without breaking your budget. The emphasis remains on simplicity - creating clean, recognizable visuals that work across all platforms from social media to vehicle wraps.
This session builds on our previous work defining your brand clarity, ideal customer, and messaging strategy. By adding these visual elements, we're effectively "turning up the volume" on your brand's presence, making it more visible, attractive, and memorable in your marketplace.
Ready to transform your business's first impression from forgettable to magnetic? This is where your brand truly starts standing out from the competition. Listen now, and prepare for tomorrow's session on building an engaging social media presence that leverages your new visual identity!
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The first three days are behind us and I hope so far you have learned how to get clarity in your brand, figure out the ideal customers you're going after, create that magnetic brand message and today we're going to be designing a standout brand. So this is where the logo, the colors, the fun comes in. We just laid the groundwork and the framework the last three days. So what we're going to be doing now is starting to increase the intensity, increase that volume. Like we were saying, if the brand is the radio station, what is that set to? We're adding these elements here to turn up the volume, increase the volume, make it more visible, make it more loud, make it more attractive to people. So we're turning up the energy and that message that we're relating to other people. So let's get this thing started. Message that we're relating to other people. So let's get this thing started.
Speaker 1:Your brand's looks matter. Your first impressions count. Think about it. When you see a well-done logo, it catches your eye. What emotion does it convey? Is it professionalism, is it minimalism? Is it clean? Is it fun? Is it familiar? What does that invoke emotionally? Like we said in every other of the days, emotions are where we're going, for we want to connect to emotions and we want to make that deep connection and communication with their emotions and then pull them in. So people judge your business in seconds based upon visuals. That three seconds, remember. I say that first three seconds. What are we doing to capture your attention? Your logo, your colors, that is all going to play a massive role in captivating that right emotion. So today we will make your brand look professional and trustworthy. Whether you are a generic company with no branding, you're a brand new company you hadn't even started yet, or you're looking to refine an older logo and do a rebrand, today is the day where you will learn how to maximize, find the right emotion and create that awesome brand visual.
Speaker 1:So why your visual identity is more than just a logo. Branding isn't just a logo. We've mentioned that before. It's the entire customer experience. Now, with that customer experience, the first thing they're going to see is going to be your logo, your color scheme, your fonts, stuff like that. We're trying to connect right off the bat and stimulate their visual identity with how they relate to your company and your brand.
Speaker 1:If you're in a busy city full of cars going down the interstate and somebody has a wrap vehicle and that wrap vehicle stands out because of cool branding and cool logos and cool design. You're going to notice him over the other guy who may just have letters on his truck or may not even have a wrap on his truck. So we're going to figure out your colors, your fonts and design to create that instant trust or doubt. Remember that for every positive there is a negative connotation. When we're setting our brand up, we are actively choosing to attract or we're actually choosing to push people away. So our objective here is creating that magnetic brand where we are attracting.
Speaker 1:Here's an example. Why do luxury brands have a distinct look? They're not blending in with everybody else. It's not generic, it's very distinguished and distinct and that's what people go for. So here are the three key elements of a strong brand identity. Number one the logo simple, memorable and scalable. We want something that is simple, recognizable, that we can put on everything and people recognize it universally. Number two the colors.
Speaker 1:Colors evoke emotion and brand recognition. You got purples, whites, whites, blues. People recognize based upon the color. Think about, like the Coca-Cola, that red is very distinguishable to Coca-Cola. You see that color. You're like that's the Coke red. Pepsi, they got the blue and the different color of shade of red. People recognize that as well. So the brand is more than the logo. The colors play a huge role in that too. And then fonts. Fonts can make your brand look very professional or very amateur. So we're going to go over all of this stuff here in the next slide, choosing the right colors for your brand. If you guys aren't art people and art students, don't worry, we're going to go into some like high level psychology of colors and what they mean emotionally, as well as the energy that they convey to your audience. So colors influence your perception. It's important to pick wisely. That way they represent the brand that you want to convey that emotion. You want to convey the emotion that we are wrapping and pulling people in with so red. Red is an excitement. Think about it. Coca-cola, bold Red In your face, fun. That's the image and what they're invoking Exciting, fun, happiness Red. Then you have that urgency with that red too Ambulances, fire trucks in your face, loud.
Speaker 1:Blue is often associated with trust and professionalism. So you have a blue logo. Think of it like insurance companies. Think of it something professional. Think of it as like there's Walmart. It's the big blue. Blue is everywhere in Walmart. So it's very kind of professional. You know what it is. It's a big store. So example why banks use blue and restaurants use red and yellow. You think about a lot of banks. A lot of these banks use blue because it's professional and it's clean. They're not using a purple or they're not using a yellow or they're not using something that's loud and bold. That's really going to invoke a different emotion than the professionalism of a essentially a boring bank.
Speaker 1:Fonts matter, the psychology behind topography. Fonts set the tone playful, professional or bold. Share fonts such as times new, roman are classic and trustworthy. And then there's sans share fonts such as ariel, more rounded. So they're modern and they're clean and they're friendly.
Speaker 1:Behind me you can see two logos that I have. I have my brand up, one right here which is a rounder, softer, more of like the aerial we're seeing there. It's modern, it's clean. I have the colors white and purple in there. They both invoke kind of a professionalism, a coolness to it. And then on the opposite side here I have my Matt the driveway guy. It is a fun squiggly. Again it's invoking kind of a more friendly vibe and that's going to be the objective of that, that font. It's not bold and times new roman and it doesn't look overly professional, overly banker. The emotions we're invoking here are friendly and artsy and stuff like that, more into that modern, clean vibe.
Speaker 1:So here's some common branding mistakes that make you look unprofessional. You have too many colors, it's confusing and untrustworthy. So we want to keep our branding similar and we want to keep like three to five colors within that mix. We do not want to have too many colors because it's distracting and then it confuses the emotions with what we're trying to portray. We also don't want to use free stock images, free stock logos. We don't want that generic, we don't want forgettable. So if you're using a logo that somebody else uses or a generic logo, know that you may save money by having that logo, but it's gonna cost you far more in the long run from not having that custom logo than just grabbing a generic thing. That emotion is going to carry weight of your entire brand and it won't be worth any cost savings, you may think.
Speaker 1:And then inconsistent fonts and styles. We don't want that. We want everything to look like it's designed to be this way. We want your fonts to be the same. We want the styles to be the same. We don't want uppercase, lowercase, different fonts, we don't want wingdings, we don't want these italics bowls. We want everything to be consistent and professional and looks like it's meant to be in a specific way.
Speaker 1:So I got an exercise for you guys Get out that pen and paper. You want to create a simple brand style guide and what we want to do? We want to choose your brand's colors, whether they be the primary and secondary colors. So what are the main colors in your brand? You can see on our math the driveway guy behind us. We have the blues are strong and then we have lighter, more secondary, supplementary blues and greens. That kind of tie into it as well. The primary colors are going to be the blues and the whites and what really pops and same with the brand up in the background, we have the purples and the purples are a little secondary colors but we have that strong white and strong light purple. Those are going to be the primaries and the secondaries are going to accentuate that. So pick your primary and secondary colors and then pick two fonts. That and then number two you're going to pick two fonts that reflect your brand personality. Are you more modern, like the brand up one? Are you more squiggly and kind of friendly family vibe of my math the driveway guy, or are you very harsh times new Roman, like bold, crisp font? Pick what style you're going with and that will invoke the right emotion to what you're trying to and that will invoke the right emotion to what you're trying to do with your brand. And then, once you figure that out your colors and your type make sure you keep it uniform and keep it consistent everywhere you post.
Speaker 1:So why a cheap or DIY logo can hurt your business, and I get it. When you're in the beginning of a business, you think, oh well, I'm just testing the waters here, I'm not investing in something cool, I have a generic logo, I have this, I have that and then once I get money, I will improve it and upgrade it. Well, the problem there is you're putting the brand message already in a pickle. You're already putting it behind because you're not setting your best foot forward with a really nice logo, with the correct branding from the start. So your logo is the first thing customers see. It's really, really important that it's cool, catches the eye and sets the right tone for the rest of your brand Because, like we're talking about before, our messaging is important.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the ideal customers we're going after. Are those premier customers that we're going after with our premier messaging? Are they wanting to see a brand that looks like it was a free logo, or are they wanting something that looks like you invested into it, you spent time, it's crafted to create an emotion to attract them? Again, if we are fishing, this is all the bait we're putting out there and the first thing somebody is going to see, the first thing they're going to judge you on, is going to be your logo. So remember this a bad logo often to people symbolizes you're not a legitimate business and the number one thing we want to do is make ourselves seem like we are a bigger, more legit business than we currently are. So invest in quality. Even a simple, clean design is better than a messy one. If you don't have all the money and you can't go super detailed in creating a, say, a caricature logo like our Matt the driveway guy, keep something clean, minimalist and simple, like the brand up one we have behind us.
Speaker 1:So here's a case study with Matt the driveway guy on how a branding makeover changed my business. Before I had a simple pressure washing, generic over-the-counter. It was like a $50 design off of Fiverr. It had a house and it just said pressure washing on it. No emotion, no professionalism, no branding. It didn't invoke the true emotion that we were going for with Matt the driveway guy.
Speaker 1:After a little while, I invested in having a logo done and I invested in this caricature model as the one you can see here, where it is an emoji character, and it really sparked a lot of interest in customers on social media, where they see that and they recognize it. And then it became associated with the pressure washing business, where now people will see that and they automatically know what it is and they see it all over town because we put these on our trucks and our vehicles. We put them all over. So it's a very recognizable, bold and cool, catchy, catchy, like almost a magnetic logo. So after we got everything done, we started attracting high paying clients because they say, wow, if this guy is investing in a nice logo, he's definitely investing in his business the right way and he's going to deliver excellent results too.
Speaker 1:So the power of perception is massive. If you have a great logo, you invest in the optics behind your business, you invest in all these visual aspects of your business. It's going to go a long way and that perception is reality. So there's a high power of perception. Whether you are cheap or whether you are high value. It can be as simple as having the right logo. So make sure, when you're going about designing your logo, figuring out what area you want to go into, figuring out who you want to have design it, figuring out what you're going to spend on it, figuring out what is the emotion behind it that you choose to invest in in your logo. That way, you're putting your best self forward on their first point of contact.
Speaker 1:So how do you apply your branding across all platforms? We want our websites, our social media, our business cards, our ads. Everything should match. Once we dial in the font, the, the logo, we're going to tie that all into everything and almost having a branding style guide. So think about this the consistency we have creates trust and recognition. If we're different in every platform, people aren't going to recognize us and there's going to be a lack of trust. They're going to say this guy does a really good job on Facebook, but his Instagram is terrible, or this guy posts something completely different on LinkedIn or YouTube. You're not only going to be unrecognizable. People are going to say this guy's kind of halfway in, halfway out. I don't know if I want somebody so lukewarm to perform a service on my house, or I don't know if that's the right fit for me if he's not laser focused and laser tight in all areas of his brand.
Speaker 1:So think about this why is McDonald's branding? Look the same everywhere you go to one McDonald's. You've been to them all and they do that on purpose, because that familiarity creates that attraction with that magnetic branding. So people are trusting and they're comfortable and they feel safe and they're willing to spend money and go there because they know, hey, I can be on a different side of the world and I know that McDonald's experience is gonna be the exact same there as it was in America. And that's the objective of creating that uniformity between all areas of your digital marketing, your print marketing. And it's very, very important to do everything consistently so people see that and you're building up that congruency everywhere.
Speaker 1:So now, if you don't have the means for a professional designer, there's many DIY branding tools that you can use. You don't even have to be very designer savvy. You don't have to go to art school. You don't have to be a creative per se. You can get a lot of influences and you can do a lot of cool things. So one website I highly recommend and I use it for a lot of things is called Canva. You can create pro level designs very easily on Canva. And another thing is coolersco. It's a way where you can find color combinations. If you're like me and you don't know what colors go together, go to this website, coolersco. It's a perfect place to find combinations of colors that invoke that emotion that we're looking for. And then, lastly, if you want to hire somebody, there's a website called Fiverr. Fiverr is going to be an affordable design place for, like a polished logo, you can get different caliber of ranges based upon pricing. And there's another website called 99 designs. So nowadays you can outsource design to people for a pretty affordable rate. So that may be one area to think about if you can't DIY something in Canva and you want something that looks a little bit nicer than what you could come up with yourself.
Speaker 1:So here's some quick fixes to improve your branding instantly. Number one simplify your logo. Remember less is more. I have Matt the driveway guy back here. It is an emoji of myself with the word Matt, it instantly shows Matt pressure washing Brand up. That's a very simple, modern, sleek look. It is brand and then it uses white and purple, so people are attracted to the brand, and then the up has the arrow. So brand up is symbolizing the emotion of raising up and raising forward.
Speaker 1:So once we figure out the look and simplification of our logos, we want to make sure that it's not confusing. Like we say in every other episode we've been talking about, we're not going for confusing because that confusion creates distrust and that distrust we lose people. So the less is more, philosophy is very massive in this. We have a simplified logo that draws the emotion that we want and then we're going to put that across our website. We're going to put it all across everything clean fonts and clean colors. We want it to be easily understood, easily read. We don't want people to. We don't want people to be confused with things. So we want to make sure all of our video and our visuals are cohesive together. So here's your brand identity checklist we're going for a clear, professional logo, defined color palettes and font, a consistent look across all platforms. Remember, a brand that builds trust stands out.
Speaker 1:So what are we going to talk about tomorrow. We hope today it was a simple lesson got you steered in the right directions. Whether you're going to DIY your logo, use Canva, or you're going to use a Fiverr or a 99designs and have somebody else do it, we want you to consider simplicity of it. Figure out the emotions you're trying to deliver. Figure out the typography you want, the font, the image. Make sure it's very simple and concise so it's easily readable and you're not confusing people. Remember it's simple Pick the colors you like, pick the emotion you're going for and then post it everywhere and keep it congruent. So tomorrow we're going to pull all this in together and for day five can you believe it's already coming up?
Speaker 1:On day five, we're going to talk about how to build an engaging social media presence. Now, social media has allowed us to grow to over a million dollars in revenue from our social media presence, as well as attract people from different parts of the country who have followed our page just from seeing the virality of our posting and all that stuff. So we're going to break everything down. We figured out our branding. We figured out everything down. We figured out our branding. We figured out the clarity. We figured out our ideal customer.
Speaker 1:We're going for that magnetic brand message we're working on and we just finished talking about the colors, the logos, the importance of the visual identity of things. So we're gonna tie all of that together and we're gonna figure out how we can start posting on social media and building these social media platforms, because by doing so you're going to get that organic traction that you really want. So we're going to combine all of these together tomorrow and we're going to be putting it into our social media and then we're going to start going. We'll cover how to attract customers using social media. It may sound complicated, but it is a great way to put yourself out there and really spread the word. So get ready to create a powerful online presence and we'll see you tomorrow.
