If your business lacks clarity and cohesiveness, it’s not time to give up. You simply need to know how to make a brand vision board that will help deliver your goals and ensure you know exactly which direction you’re heading in.
Vision boards are used by teenage girls all over the world, filled with pictures of Range Rovers and the latest TV heartthrob. But, did you know you could utilize this tool for your business?
Swap the images of luxury cars with those that sum up your brand and the shirtless hunks for a well-laid-out set of goals and voila, you’ve got yourself a center of inspiration that can grow with you as your company expands.
In this blog post, we’ll be exploring what a brand vision board is, whether they work, and of course, how to make a brand vision board.
What Is A Brand Vision Board?
A brand vision board is a physical way of articulating your company’s mission and concept to ensure that everyone on your team is on the same page when it comes to how you wish to portray your label.
Some brands create a physical board, much like an action board, on which you’ll find images and words that describe their ethos and what they bring to the table.
However, it is more common for entrepreneurs to create an online brand vision board that they can then distribute among their employees to showcase their unique selling point and enables their team to market the brand in the most appropriate and successful way.
If you’re just starting out as a business owner, you may find yourself thinking you have no need for a brand vision board as your ideas are clear in your mind.
However, there is great value in creating one of these boards, no matter whether you’re on day 1 or day 1,000, as it helps to bring everything together in a clear and collected way.
These boards also invoke inspiration and will help you to feel a sense of coherence that you didn’t know you needed.
Do Brand Vision Boards Work?
Before we get on to how to make a brand vision board, I hear you asking the most important question…”do they actually work?” And, the answer is that it depends.
Yes, brand vision boards bring clarity to businesses, but the type of person you are really defines whether you’ll find them to be a helpful tool or not.
In order to find a brand vision board to be a key driver in your quest for success, you must ensure that the one you create encapsulates your business perfectly. You’ll also need to look at and revise it often.
It’s no good checking it out once and then sending it to that place of your laptop that you can never reach again, or pinning it to a part of your office that you never pass. These boards are designed to be looked at regularly and their power will be determined by the attention you give them.
Another way to maximize the effectiveness of brand vision boards is to update yours as your company evolves.
So many brands keep the same vision board as they grow and develop, which is a mistake as exploring new avenues is essential to finding success and your inspiration board should mimic that.
How To Make A Brand Vision Board
When it comes to how to make your brand vision board, there are a few different things that must include in order for it to define your business coherently.
Before we get on to what you should be including on your brand vision board, it’s important to point out that you must be particular when you create your inspiration board.
Specificity is key in achieving a brand that is easily recognized and successful in their industry.
Don’t be afraid to use images to portray your brand message, as well as text, and make sure you include these five essential points when creating your board.
Color Palette
The first thing you should do when creating a brand vision board is to select your color palette.
Each brand should have somewhere between three and eight colors to represent itself and the combination of these will help build a label that customers will recognize straight away.
Of this handful of colors, use just two or three as dominant tones and the others as secondary colors.
Define Who You Are
Once you’ve decided on your color palette and have the design element of your board down, you can move on to defining your brand. Who are you? What exactly do you offer? The more you can niche down with this, the better.
An example of this is if you own a cake shop. You may be tempted to write something along these lines.
I provide celebration cakes in Dallas.
This is a very broad statement and in business terms, the more specific you can get, the more you’ll attract your perfect customer. Spend some time thinking about exactly how you want to serve your dream clientele.
Here’s a better way to define the above example.
I specialize in creating character drip cakes for children’s birthdays in the West Dallas area.
It can feel counterintuitive to niche down like this, as many brand owners worry that in doing so, they won’t attract as many customers. However, the opposite is true.
While you won’t cater to everyone, you can become the one-stop shop for everyone looking for the exact service you offer.
Find Your Gap In The Market
You may be starting a brand purely based on passion alone and if this is the case, you must do substantial market research before launching to ensure there is space for you in the field.
From there, you can add the hole that you want to fill onto your brand vision board.
Alternatively, you may be launching your company because you happened upon an untapped market while seeking out a product or service for yourself.
If this is the case, you’ve already found your gap in the market and you can also add this to your brand vision board.
Define Your Ideal Clients
While it may be tempting to say “everyone can benefit from my product/service,” this is another one of those times where niching down will benefit you.
In making a brand vision board, specificity is key and so you should begin to consider exactly who you’ll be serving. Here’s an example to get clear on your target audience.
My ideal clients are children and adults who love cake.
Dig a little deeper and try to expand on your ideal client. Here’s a more in-depth explanation of a dream customer.
My ideal clients are parents of children between the ages of 2 and 7 on the west side of Dallas who love exploring new flavor combinations and are looking for luxury-themed birthday cakes.
Get Clear On Your Vision
This is the point in making your brand’s vision board where you can daydream. Imagine where you’d like your brand to be in the future, including your 1,3, and 5-year goals.
Considering these points will help you to focus on what you can work toward during tough times in your business and will allow you to trust in the process when you invariably hit obstacles and challenges along the way.
A study conducted by a professor at the Dominican University in California found that you’re 42% more likely to achieve your goals simply by writing them down.
So, ensure to have your long-term vision included on your brand’s vision board.
Final Thoughts On Brand Vision Boards
Knowing how to make a brand vision board will help you to define your business plan, not only for other people and prospective customers but also for yourself.
It can help you to take the jumble of ideas in your head and form them into a cohesive and detailed plan that will assist you in starting an impactful business that goes from strength to strength.
Want to learn more about vision boards? Check out the following blog posts:
