Over the past 5 and a half years, we’ve built a community of ambitious rebels – people like you who are doing something interesting either building incredible companies, formulating ideas that will change the world or working as part of awesome teams with amazing products.
Along the way people have often exclaimed that our events & community are so diverse and they’re not sure how we’ve done it.
For example, more than once people have asked which stock image website we got the photo below from, due to how diverse a room it shows, when in reality it’s literally just one of our Rebel Meetups and a photo taken by long-time Yena member Aaron Llewellin of Admiral Photography.
It’s not a fluke, it’s somewhere between an art and a science but it’s certainly a set of specific, tangible things, that you can also focus on, to ensure you’re attracting a relevant demographic and building a brilliant community that inherently care about what you do.
So I wanted to share the aspects we use, to help you attract the right audience to your business too.
Core values
If you get your core values right then the rest can more easily follow. What do you believe in? What is your purpose as a company? What are your non-negotiables?
These things will define everything about your business and following from there, everything below should be more easy to figure out. It’ll also prove far easier for people to decide to align with you, if they can identify that they believe in the same things you do.
Imagery
Decide on the type of imagery you’ll use. Will it be people based? In situ? Product? CGI/animated? Illustration? Colourful? Greyscale?
All of these decisions will make up what people think of when they think of your brand. We’re visual creatures so building up a visual representation of what you do and how you do it will help people to understand and preach your work. Intercom is a great example of this. Their illustration style is so nice!
Tone of voice
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
These newsletters are a great example. Simple. Personal. Humorous (sometimes). At Yena even though our mission is of vital importance, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. It makes the job more fun, yes, but also gives our community an idea of the sort of people we are – an approachable, knowledgable and vibrant community.
Colours & styles
Have you ever noticed that a lot (and I mean a LOT) of online digital platforms use a shade of blue for their branding? Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook are all examples of this. But why? Well colours say a lot about your brand.
Is it vibrant? Traditional? Trustworthy? Energetic? Contemporary? When these words come to mind, certain colours and font styles do too. Choose wisely and this can pay dividends in attracting the right community, whereas completely incorrect decisions may push people away altogether (note: Please don’t use Comic Sans, even ironically)!
Actions
Actions speak louder than words (or images, or colours, etc).
What you do defines who you are. You can spend a month choosing the perfect imagery for your social enterprise or you can go out there and actually take a stand for what you believe in. It’s no surprise that the latter would rally more support than the right font ever would.
If you can manage to get all of these things right, then you will be well on your way to building a brilliant brand for the audience you’re hoping to serve. I guarantee they’ll be more likely to find you, buy from you, support you and stay with you when times are tough.
Get building your brand today – maybe even starting with a new website via our Get Online initiative powered by GO.
