Spring Marketing tips – UX Foundations – Style Guide

Do you have a style guide? What is a style guide and how does it benifit you?

Style Guide

Issues content branding, how to comminicate, and sets the rules.

The making of a Style Guide and why it is made.

Style guides provide the benifit of content, tone and communication.
• Note this is content, not code!
• Brand, philosophy, and the target audience are highlighted within a guide.
This is a guide to the visual, written, and even spoken styles of a brand. It contains
prescriptive elements such as fonts, colors, the logo, etc.. It also contains descriptive
elements, like customer service standards. A style guide works as the starting point
for people inside the organization for marketing.

Guide Content Basics

The style guide should contain consistency in branding to establish tone and trust.
It should work as a learning source for new members of the business to explain and
demonstrate the “hows” and “whys” of a business’ appearance and conduct.
A proper guide will also set boundaries as to what is and what is not acceptable.
A consistent look and feel makes even small businesses seem bigger and
more professional. The guide doesn’t need to be big or bulky at first, or even
throughout the lifespan of a business; it will evolve and expand over time.

Who is this for?

A style guide is useful for agencies (for brand and tone), freelancers (for
understanding content for production), and content creators (as a reference for
branding, marketing, communications, sales, and product development).

Personality

Stlye guides establish consistent tones for brands, which in-turn instills trust and
clarity. This is important for social media both visually and textually.

Promoting and Enforcing

The guide needs to be simple and clear so people want to use it and reference it.
• Keeps organization on brand
• Ensures greater consistency in visual and written content
• An easy place to find the company’s resources
• Public document for proper use

Don’t have a style guide? Let us, at Sitka Creations®, help you to design one!