Every business wants to become the ‘go to’ brand to the people who make up their ideal target market (which around Heart Content HQ we call your tribe).

Brand awareness (and the highly coveted brand loyalty) are the key to achieving this goal.

And consistency is the key to brand awareness.

But what does being consistent with your brand and in your marketing actually mean?

It’s not just the days and times you post on social media. Brand consistency is about way more than that.

Consistency is getting your story straight.

Let’s explore why brand consistency is important, and how you can create more of it for your brand.

Why is Brand Consistency important?

When you’ve got so many things to do in marketing already, why should you concern yourself with brand consistency?

Here’s the three key reasons brand consistency is important for your business.

Brand consistency makes you memorable.

When your customer (or potential customer) gets the same experience of your brand across every interaction they have with it, this works to help them remember you.

In marketing, we talk about the rule of seven. On average, it takes seven instances of seeing or hearing your message before a customer will be inspired to take action.

Seven times.

And if they don’t know it’s you, it doesn’t count. So being consistent is critical to being memorable to your ideal client.

Brand consistency creates trust.

If your brand and marketing are inconsistent, then you’ll create confusion for your customer.

When you create confusion, you’ll create mistrust.

Your customer won’t even know why they don’t trust you. Something will simply feel “not quite right” and they won’t purchase from you.

When you’re consistent, you’re creating opportunities to build trust.

And when you build trust, you build brand loyalty.

Brand consistency makes your marketing work harder for you.

We spend a LOT of time and energy on marketing.

Don’t let that time and energy go to waste.

If you show up consistently in your brand, you’ll make your marketing work harder for you. Every single article, social media post and email will build the trust that you need to inspire people to buy from you.

You’re making the effort to show up. Make it count by being consistent.

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.
- Aristotle

Brand Consistency can be hard work. But it doesn’t have to be.

Being consistent is hard. I get it.

Add to this that marketing is an experiment that we’re working to perfect all the time, and consistency can seem impossible.

You’ll be reassured to know that I don’t get it right all the time either (and I’ve been doing this brand and marketing thing for more than 20 years).

What’s important is that we’re aware of the ways we can improve our consistency and commit to making incremental improvements.

Even the smallest of movements towards consistency will help you build a stronger brand.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can do this.

How can you make sure your brand shows up consistently?

When we’re talking about consistency, it’s easy to think that we’re only talking about the frequency with which you deliver your marketing message.

But it’s more than just showing up on Facebook or Instagram on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Or in your customer’s inbox every Thursday.

Brand consistency exists across three clear areas.

Brand Consistency in Communication

Consistency with Communication Frequency

Let’s get this one out of the way first.

Sure, having a consistent frequency on your chosen marketing channels is important.

Showing up on regular days at regular times will help your audience not just to enjoy your message, but to anticipate it. They’ll start to look for your message at the times you’ve trained them to.

This is of course dependant on you having something relevant and interesting to say (an important point that sometimes gets overlooked).
Consistency with Marketing Message

Being consistent in the message you’re communicating is even MORE important than showing up at a regular time and place.

If your message isn’t consistent, you’re going to create confusion. And we already know what happens when your audience is confused – they won’t trust you (see the point about trust above).
Consistency of Tone

When you’ve got a consistent tone of voice, your customer begins to feel like they really know who you are.

And when they know who you are, they can trust you (there it is again - that trust element).

Pro tip: Consistency in Communication starts with having a documented tone of voice, and a documented Content Strategy.

Brand Consistency in Visual Identity

Consistency of Branding

Branding is what we in the business call your visual identity (branding is not your brand, rather branding is part of your brand).

If you took your name off your marketing, would people still recognise it?

Are you using the same suite of brand colours? Do you have a style of photography you use that’s in line with your brand story?

It helps if you know what your brand personality is as you can apply this both to your tone of voice, and the visuals you choose to use in your marketing.

Pro Tip: Having a brand style guide or style sheet is the best way to make sure you’re being consistent with your branding. If you don’t have one of these, you should chat to a friendly graphic or brand designer.

Brand Consistency in Brand Actions

Consistency in Brand Values

How are your Brand Values showing up in the day-to-day of your business?

Being consistent in the business choices you make is just as important as being consistent in your marketing and visual identity.
Consistency of Customer Experience

Showing up consistently in your marketing is one thing. Being consistent in your customer experience is another.

Does your product or service delivery meet the expectation you’re creating through your marketing? Can you deliver what you say you can deliver?

What can you improve in your customer service processes that will help your brand feel more consistent to your customer and continue to grow their trust?

Pro Tip: Documenting your Brand Vision, Brand Mission and Brand Values will really help you ensure you’re delivering consistency.

Pro Tip: Creating systems and processes for service delivery will help you deliver a consistent brand experience when dealing with customer service in your business.

How can I improve my brand consistency?

Improving brand consistency starts with taking stock of what you’re doing now so you can identify what you should keep doing, what you should do more of, what you should stop doing and what could do with some improvement.

Do a mini audit of your marketing, products and processes. Is your brand showing up consistently?

Where are the gaps? How will you fill them?

Then it’s time to make a plan to incrementally improve your brand consistency.

Brand Story Strategy helps you to be more consistent.

The best way to start improving your brand consistency is to get your story straight.

Your Brand Story Strategy to be precise.

Brand Story Strategy is a choice to use brand story as the foundation for all business decisions, brand decisions and marketing decisions.

It will help you clearly articulate the why, who and how of your brand. And when you know this, you’ll be able to show up more consistently (and more authentically).