Questions to ask yourself about the visual branding of your impact-driven business
Let’s talk about visual branding for impact-driven businesses!
Aka, what you show on your website, social media, and marketing materials that has clients and prospective clients clear that your services are unique and valuable AND that your business is running as consciously impact-driven.
Here are 3 ways impact-driven businesses can build trust, transparency and relatability across web, social media and marketing through the visuals they share.
Visual idea 1: Show yourselves!
Whether you’re a one-person business or part of a team, the business runs as a result of the people, and I don't know about you, but when I'm doing research about a brand I love to learn who exactly is behind it to get related. Each person plays an important part in the team whether they are in the same city or spread out across different countries. Showcasing your team via headshots or more creative portraits is a great way to foster transparency, create relatability and also provide a platform for the team to proudly showcase themselves.
Visual idea 2: Define your values through visuals
Having visual aids go alongside your values is a great one and helps the viewer grasp the concept of the value in a deeper way. Let’s say that one of your values is transparency. You can share about this in a whole bunch of different ways depending on what transparency looks like for your business:
Team transparency: around business finances; transparency about business growth, goals and team reviews; physical transparency if your workspace is open plan.
Customer/client transparency: customers and clients receive reports or updates from the business about how it is doing; both the wins and the learnings are shared outside of immediate team members; clients/customers get a say in the development of the business.
New Market Funds, based here in Vancouver and Toronto. Their values include transparency and collaborative which is shown in this image. (image credit: Maxine Bulloch)
New Market Funds. The values that speak here are collaboration and happy teamwork (image credit: Maxine Bulloch)
Visual idea 3: Show how each area of your business is thoughtful, strategic and impact-driven
Hiring / working with others
How can you show through images that your hiring process is a mindful and proactive one?
Maggie Miland, Community Administrator at Realize Strategies, a Vancouver B Corporation, shared at a recent screening of ‘The Social Shift’ documentary, “Impact-driven companies should really start by hiring diversely, and the way to do that is to actually define what your values are, figure out which community you want to hire from, and find leadership within that by being proactive rather than reactive within your hiring process.”
Purchasing items and services for your business
Do you use other services in your business? Eg couriers, suppliers, products?
Every purchase has an economic, environmental and social impact. As outlined by Buy Social Canada in their Guide to Social Procurement, social procurement is about capturing those impacts and seeking to make intentional positive contributions to both the local economy and the overall vibrancy of the community. What this could look like for you in everyday business:
Source your coffee from a Fairtrade company
Take your coffee meetings in a local independent cafe rather than larger international coffee shops
If you’re catering for an event, work with a local catering company
Use promotional products that are sustainable in some way
Showing that you take actions like this visually really helps tell the story of how your business operates from a base level of impact.
Pique Ventures showed support to local catering by using Vancouver based Railtown Catering at their investor event (image credit: Maxine Bulloch)
Maxine is a photographer based in Vancouver, Canada, and works with small heart-centered businesses to create joyful, honest images so they can show up on-brand, and aligned with their values.