As a startup or small business, it can be easy to overlook the importance of your app’s brand. Many people consider branding a game that they don’t want to play. This is a huge mistake!
However, without investing in effective branding efforts throughout all stages of development – from design to marketing – businesses risk limiting user growth and engagement.
To help ensure success for your mobile app launch, this beginner’s guide explains how developing an authentic brand identity will make a big difference. It can play a big part in helping you reach key users, increase downloads, and maintain customer loyalty.
Let’s get started!
Choose The Right Name
Choosing the right app name for your app is an essential part of app branding. It contributes immensely to how your app is perceived, and helps create a distinct presence in the app market.
Finding the perfect app name requires striking a balance between uniqueness and memorability; it should be appropriate, meaningful and easy to recognize.
This means that it should be uncomplicated and easy to spell.
Taking into account relevant policies and copyright or trademark laws may be worthwhile when finalizing a decision. Make sure you are not infringing on anyone else’s intellectual property.
If you are having trouble coming up with a name, you can use a word generator or work with a team. Ask outsiders to the project what they think as well. The more feedback you can get, the better.
A professional, yet approachable app name will help you gain user trust and wider app visibility — drawing topnotch attention when launching in the app marketplace.
Consider Your Logo
Creating a unique logo for app branding can be a challenge. It’s an opportunity to reflect your company’s personality, mission and values in a visually engaging way. But, how can you do that?
Every app has different needs and goals, so it’s important to find the right combination of design elements that will make a lasting impression on customers and inspire trust.
When designing your logo, consider how colors and symbols can set the tone for users’ experiences as you strive to convey the desired message.
If you want to explore some color theory basics, take a look at our blog post on the subject!
By carefully selecting colors, fonts, shapes, and other visuals for your app logo, you can ensure that its impact will be powerful and positive. In some cases, app logos can be even bigger than the apps themselves and take on a life of their own. A great example of this is the viral Duolingo owl.
As you can see, their logo has changed quite a bit over the years. This is normal and expected. Branding of all kinds is an ongoing process, rather than a one-and-done solution.
If you have no experience with design, working with a professional is highly recommended if you want to create an effective logo as a part of cohesive and dynamic app branding.
Have a Clear Value Proposition for Successful App Branding
Building an app brand is the ultimate way to ensure success in today’s digital world. Having a sound, recognizable value proposition behind your app can offer users an easier means of understanding its purpose.
What exactly is a value proposition? This is essentially what your app delivers to users that sets it apart. This value proposition should be reflected in your app as well as all of your marketing materials, from your website copy to your social media posts. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point.
A clear value proposition gives app users a reason to interact with and explore your app, reminding them why they should use it every time they open it.
It’s also helpful for potential app investors; a concise and effective app value proposition will not only showcase the app’s unique selling points, but it can also highlight competitive advantages over existing offerings and greater potential growth opportunities.
App branding can be tailored in such a way that users are able to quickly access relevant data while simultaneously feeling confident they are making the right decision by investing their time and energy in your app.
All of this is built on the foundation of your value proposition.
Use High-Quality and Cohesive Visuals
Incorporating high-quality, cohesive visuals into app branding is the key to making a memorable impression with customers.
Not only will app visuals make your app stand out from competitors, but also provide potential users with an insight into your products or services at a glance.
Additionally, having consistent visuals across all parts of app branding simultaneously reflects quality, unifies messaging and helps create a recognisable identity for customers.
When done correctly, these visuals act as powerful marketing tools that can help app owners stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace while building trust with users.
These visuals should be the same across all of the branded materials related to your app. For example, this should include your landing page or website or social media accounts used for marketing.
Clear and contextual visuals can truly help strengthen app brand recognition and establish loyalty to ultimately put your app on the map.
User-Friendly App Design and App Branding
User-friendly design is a cornerstone of app branding. It goes far beyond aesthetics and involves considering each step the user will take when interacting with the app.
Are all buttons clearly marked? Can users find what they need? If you create a utility app, it must actually solve a problem or make a task easier. If doing the original task without your app is easier for any reason, users will abandon it.
The app must be developed with a focus on usability, accuracy, and clarity. From button placement and font size to color contrast and content structure, every detail should work together for a pleasant app experience.
App developers must pay close attention to user-friendly design if they want to successfully build relationships with customers and provide an app that meets the needs of their users.
Is your app inclusive? Can users adjust the font size without rendering the app unusable, for example? You want an app that can appear seamlessly on a wide variety of devices too.
Keep It Simple and Consistent
An app’s branding can make or break its success — customers are much more likely to remember an app if its branding is clear, simple, and consistent.
With too many diverse elements, the app’s identity may get confused and fragmented. Therefore, in order to have a successful app, it is very important to keep the app’s design elements straightforward and unified.
This ensures that the app communicates consistently to users what it is all about and helps create a memorable impression which increases visibility and drives downloads.
A great example of this is the very successful meditation app Calm. They use simple easily-readable fonts, nature-based imagery, and a color scheme that is made principally of shades of muted blue and neutrals within the app itself and for their branded materials.
This is why working with experienced designers is so key. You want to create something that is not only visually appealing but practically useful.
On top of visuals, consistency is also key in the copy in and surrounding your app. For example, you don’t want any dialogue or written directions in your app to sound wildly different from the copy on your website or the social media presence of your app.
This will create a confusing experience for users, rather than cementing a unified brand in their minds.
Final Thoughts on Approaching App Branding Strategically
As a beginner, there’s much to consider when it comes to app branding – from design and imagery to font choice and tone of voice.
While the process may seem intimidating, by keeping core principles in mind can guide you. This includes:
- Perfecting visuals
- Focusing on user-friendly elements
- Creating a recognizable logo
- Exuding a consistent tone across channels
Ultimately, mastering the art of app branding is an ongoing journey that requires tweaking and refining along the way. But with time and effort, you can create a harmonious identity. This speaks to users authentically while helping you stand out among competitors.
As any successful small business owner knows, building a remarkable brand is instrumental in allowing you to build customer loyalty and trust over time.
What do you think? Comment below.
Since 2009, we have helped create 350+ next-generation apps for startups, Fortune 500s, growing businesses, and non-profits from around the globe. Think Partner, Not Agency.
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