When you build a consistent relationship with your employees, customers, partners, and other members of your company, this habit becomes a solid foundation for your company`s long-term success and growth. One of the biggest goals as creatives, as people who want to spread our work and share more creativity with the world, is to be more visible. According to a study by LucidPress, brands that are systematically presented enjoy 3 to 4 times more visibility. That said, when you`re trying to get your name out there, to share your work with the world, when you`re trying to reach a wider audience, consistency is really what you need to focus on. The more consistent you are, the more visible you will be, the more eyes you will have about your work, the more you will be able to expand your audience, the more you will be able to get people to buy your products, your prints, join your Patreon or subscribe on YouTube. Whatever you do, when you`re trying to become more visible, consistency is key. It`s also a matter of politeness: you don`t want your reader to have to work too hard. Make it easy for them by being perfectly consistent with anything that (i) is easy to deliver consistently, but (ii) does not pose a risk to the dynamism or vitality of your room. It looks better, it`s easier to read and it`s considerate. It`s the same concept as being a positive role model for your team: you need to set an example of your high standards. Why would a client choose your business if you don`t even use your services? The consistency of the brand shows them that you practice what you preach. While branding is like the recipe, instructions, and ingredients for baking a cake, and brand design is the actual baking of the cake, consistency is about building your reputation as the best cake baker. As I said on another blog, not the “stupid consequence” of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The hobgoblin of small minds, but a sensible and pragmatic consistency that avoids disturbing stickers and distracting non-stickers among your audience. Now that you know what consistency means, let`s move on to consistency in business. This also applies to hyphenation. In many cases, there`s not really a clear answer, even in official style guides like New Hart`s Rules. Technical and commercial language, even if it is not in the jargon, will always propose uses that escape standardization – for now. You may need to do the standardization yourself. Whatever you do, don`t be so busy doing good work for your clients that you neglect your own business. Taking the time to get your own house in order is the best thing you can do for your organization in the long run. Inconsistencies can also distract your readers when reading the document. When they see an irregularity, their brain automatically tries to decipher whether it means something else, important, or just bad writing practice.
One of the best ways to accomplish these things (and incorporate a consistent approach to style and formatting into all your professional texts) is to develop a custom style guide. Keep in mind that while maintaining a consistent branding and content strategy is a challenge for your business, it`s certainly worth adopting. And while money isn`t always the primary driver of everything we do as passionate and creative people driven by an innate need for creativity, finances matter. We need to generate revenue, that`s an important part of growing a successful business – making money and getting the finances we need to do more things, sell more products and reach more people. There is an average increase in sales of 23% associated with consistent brands. That`s a huge percentage increase in sales that comes with consistency. If you want to increase your sales by almost 25%, consistency is what you need to focus on, because it`s what keeps people coming back to you, staying loyal, trusting you, and recommending you to other people, so consistency is key. Consistency is one of the most important principles in business writing. For example, if you are a customer working with a company to make custom spice blends in Denver, Colorado, communication between you and your contacts in the company should be consistent and clear. If you`re as specific as possible, the company you work with can provide you with exactly what you need. Of course, no person or company is perfect.
While mistakes can be made, as a business owner, it`s important to do everything in your power to consistently provide your customers with positive experiences and excellent service. (It`s equally important to do whatever it takes to satisfy the needs of an unhappy customer.) Also add settings that support efficient use of white space: margins (left, right, top, bottom); alignment (center, left, right) and indentation; and, perhaps most importantly, line and paragraph spacing. How often do you see content that appears to have been assembled from a number of sources and accidentally kept the line spacing of the original source? Check this strictly in any format you use. Have a rule and stick to it. And, of course, write down your settings in your ISG for reference. A consistent capitalization structure in your corporate document helps keep the document organized. Important physical characteristics of content include its font and size, including those used in common headers, footers, titles, and subheadings. For more formal documents, write down what you usually include in your common headers and footers. Things like page numbers and some supporting information (e.g., date, author, version, status).
When it comes to branding, you`ve probably heard that consistency is key, and that`s 100% true. Once you understand why branding matters, have a clear branding strategy, and have creatively crafted your brand identity design, the most important thing you can do for your brand is to keep it consistent. I always challenge my students that if there`s one thing I can take away from my Writing for Business courses, it`s the recommendation to develop an ISG. Invest in them, feed them, love them, use them. Consistency is your best friend as a business journalist, and your individual style guide is the key to friendship. Style Maintaining formatting consistency is extremely important. It simplifies navigation in the document and gives the result a professional look. Nothing is more boring than reading something and noticing stylistic inconsistencies. (Or at least for me!) These simple mistakes distract from the point you are trying to make and, more importantly, make the reader wonder what you are saying. For example, look at Figure 2 and compare it to Figure 3. An ISG contains all your favorite approaches to business writing. The guide serves as a personal standard for word choice, style, grammar and more.
You may be doing a great job for your clients, but if you don`t do that work consistently for your own business, you`re not doing what you claim. We need to make sure that our efforts match what we are willing to offer others. If you`re not sure why consistency is essential in your business, here`s what you need to know. A good structure is one of the essential elements of a clear business letter. And that includes how a piece is physically designed and appears on screen or on paper, as well as its cognitive structure: titles, grammar, sentence structure, and logic. There are many factors that contribute to a brand`s success, but perhaps one of the most valuable is the consistency of content. From social media to blogging, responding to customer reviews and emails, your content needs to maintain a consistent voice, tone, and style. The main reason why consistency is important in your business is branding. Your brand is more than just marketing materials. It`s also about who you are and how you behave. Consistency is key to the integrity of your brand image.
Customers need to know what to expect from you, and they can`t trust your results if you give them mixed messages. Here are a few things to keep in mind when doing business, whether you`re a business owner or a consumer. Consistency is especially important because your main goals as a business writer are impact and engagement. If you are inconsistent, you can undermine both. Loyalty is the next step after trust. If someone has bought from you, the goal is to make them a loyal customer. As creatives, especially as little creatives, it is very important to create a loyal fan base. It also takes much more time, effort, energy, and revenue to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Building consistency helps you retain existing customers and keep them coming back again and again. It is extremely important for a company to consistently deliver positive results for customers.
This is especially true if you own a business and work in a customer service industry such as the food and restaurant industry. Indeed, you need to provide excellent and consistent results to your customers every day, ensuring you have loyal customers.