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8 reasons your company needs a style guide
How to “dress” your publications for success
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by Stacey Boyett
A style guide is a set of writing and design standards that should be applied across an organization to create cohesiveness among all written communications for a particular company, brand or industry.
If your company or organization — no matter how large or small — has one or more of the below issues, a style guide could be just what the doctor ordered to fix these irksome but easily treatable conditions once and for all:
(1) Fonts-gone-wild: Font styles vary widely across the organization with emails, official documents, web content, presentations and font size is all across the board (e.g., the finance industry is not particularly well-suited for 24-pt. Comic Sans, and yet, there is no document or “authority” in place preventing this).
(2) Logos-gone-wild: Are different logo versions being misused or taken out of context from their intended uses (e.g., the square black and white version of your logo should be used in different instances than the color, horizontal version)?
(3) Colors-gone-wild: Inconsistent colors are used in email correspondence versus sales materials or attachments, font colors, etc. Since the majority of communication occurs digitally now, it is possible to match the exact Pantone colors that comprise your company’s logo, which should be incorporated with any other design work.
(4) Sloppy or inconsistent digital letterhead, email signatures and other personal identifiers: Do you wish to specify a different letterhead version for each division of your company? Is there a specific way email signatures should appear?
(5) Inconsistent references to your company name: Is there a specific way your company name should be formatted at all times — capital versus lowercase for certain words, hyphens, accents or other special characters?
(6) Communications are a hot mess when referencing industry-specific trade words or phrases that should be referred to consistently.
(7) Blind leading the blind: Your company hasn’t designated which, if any, of the nationally recognized style guides it will follow. The two most commonly used, depending on your industry, are probably Associated Press or Chicago Manual of Style.
(8) Afraid to make your own rules: It’s okay to determine style preferences within your company that may differ from those national style guides (e.g., your chief marketing officer may adopt AP style as a general rule but refuses to let go of the Oxford or serial comma).
These are the matters that keep style purists and creative directors employed and content editors up at night.
The dollars and “sense” of style guides
Having a style guide is not just about aesthetics. If your company’s publications or marketing materials suffer from an inconsistent look, feel or use of language, it could also be costing you time and money:
— Style guides can be particularly helpful from a human resources perspective for new hires, or for directing agencies or other creative partners that need to quickly absorb a brand’s identity.
— Style guides can bump your company’s content quality to the next level, save time and money with fewer rounds of editing and establish an “authority” on matters that might typically contribute to bottlenecks with emails and approval chains. In short, a style can settle pesky disagreements between coworkers and remove the subjectivity about the issue.
— You only have one chance to make that proverbial “first impression” with your brand. If sales prospects notice errors or variance with how your company presents itself, this impression unfortunately can diminish confidence in your goods or services as well.
Utilizing a style guide to maximize your marketing budget while bolstering your brand identity is just good sense.
A seat at the style guide table
To make your style guide an impactful tool, make sure your company designates a “brand tzar” who ensures the guide is actively used across all levels of the company, and who is responsible for routinely updating the guide’s content to reflect the times.
You can run wild aligning your company with your brand, going so far as to provide color-coded calendar entries utilizing your brand’s colors, or you could even design or license your own custom font!
Have fun brainstorming, get inspired and take a peek at style guides for some major brands here.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”white”][vc_column_text]
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