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When you see these symbols, what comes to mind?

Did you get them right? Most likely you did, because the companies behind those symbols did an excellent job of branding using visual cues. Other visual cues include color combinations (like Windows) and font use (like T-Mobile).

When creating your brand, you’ll want to incorporate some visual cues that will help prospects and clients identify when something comes from you.

For example, Michele P.W. always uses the same background image on her websites — a green background with criss-crossing exclamation points. If you were to land on a sales page and not see her photo or name above the fold, you would still know the website was hers.

Visual cue decisions you can make include:

• What will your color palette be?
  What colors will all you websites, brochures, signs, etc. always use?

• What font or fonts will you always use?
  You don’t want to use more than two or three fonts, and ideally you’ll want one that is a serif font (with curls, like Times Roman) and one non-serif font (without curls, like Arial).

• What kinds of imagery will you use?
  Some brands always use a particular style of illustration — think the Charmin bears. Others always use a color tone to their images — think a corporate blue tone to all photos. Here on the Women’s Business Gallery, I always use a particular green frame around the image of women I interview.

Choose carefully and then stick to your decisions. Monitor the look and feel of all the things you do and keep the motif running through. A good example would be the products of Karen Cappello — all her packaging images look similar, despite using different colors and images. You’ll find the images to which I’m referring down the right side of this webpage.

When you do this, you start building consistency in your marketing. It may take you awhile to find just the right look and feel for you. Heck, I’m still working on this stuff for this website, as well! But every little bit you do, helps set you apart and make you stand out.