Today, we are going to walk through the brand package that we put together for our clients’ new employees. We’ll talk about delivering the package in a way that makes updates easy and how to answer questions from newbies without getting completely overwhelmed.

When you’re looking for new employees you might find yourself getting frustrated with the amount of time that the process takes you (might I recommend a recruiting agency, such as Spectra360 for logistics, or CMK Resources for technical talent?) So, when they start working for you, imagine how frustrated you’ll be with the onboarding process if you don’t already have it set up.

The Delivery Method

We love Trello. We use it as the project management system with all of our clients. Why do we love it? It’s free, it’s easy, and you can choose whether you want the board to be public or private. So, when we have projects to discuss with the CEO or CMO (usually our direct report), we can work through it on Trello and every member of my team can see where we stand at any given moment. In short, when the project manager on our team gets attacked by a pack of rabid beagles, we can keep moving smoothly.

We use a second board for delivering company-wide information. Logos, any brochures, or email templates are placed on this board which is open to the public (it’s all marketing materials that are available to the public anyway) so that any newbie can access it. It’s important to have a delivery method like this because we often need to make changes and updates and we don’t want to be sending large files all the time.

Could we use Google Drive or Dropbox? Yes, but you have to add every new person or send out new links every time you make updates. And I hate having to go back and forth when Google Drive won’t let someone in, which seems to happen a lot even when we set folders to “public”.

The Brand Package Contents

1. Logos

Make sure the company logo is placed in the package in several formats:
a) Standard sized jpg
b) Stanard-sized png
c) Standard-sized vector logo
d) Square options for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter
e) Signature-sized option*

2. Signature files

We love when clients use G Suite because you can set a standard signature up in G Suite pretty easily. Make sure to warn employees before you make changes (because it’ll show up on their emails almost immediately) and make the changes after hours for the same reason. If our client doesn’t use G Suite (heathens!), then they may use Outlook or something other. We’ve had pretty good luck using the Hubspot signature generator.

Whatever they use, make sure to include a card for signature instructions on your Trello board.

3. Social Media headers

When I go to a LinkedIn profile and I don’t see a background header, it drives me bonkers. It also makes me think the profile owner is probably looking for a job. Don’t let your brand new employees get scooped up by the competition this way! Make sure that they have headers for LinkedIn and any other social media profiles they use (our experience is that employees generally only use the LinkedIn headers, but every now and then we’ll run into someone with a Facebook work profile, especially in the recruiting world).

4. Social media and newsletter links

We are forever fighting for new followers on social media. The least we can ask from employees is to Like, Follow, and Share our work, right? But some things aren’t as obvious as they might seem to us. So, tell them to Like, Follow, and Share your posts. Provide them with direct links to each of your brand’s pages. Help them understand the benefits (to them, not you or the company) of doing this. They might be happy, you’re definitely happy, and the company will be happier with more followers!

5. Voicemail script

Recording voicemail messages suck. Especially when other people can hear you. Which they most likely can if you work in an office of more than one person. And even then, you’ll find yourself cringing. So, make it easy on your newbie. Give them a script. And include the instructions on updating voicemail.

6. Email templates

If you expect your employees to send out certain emails on a regular basis, why not make it easy on them, which means they’ll be more likely to send them, which means you’re happier and the company will continue to grow. We write templates for sending out LinkedIn introduction requests, templates asking for reviews, templates introducing the company’s services, templates asking for introductions to others (referrals), and so many more. This is one section we continue to add to and we’ve noticed it gets the most traffic from clients.

7. Brochures, flyers, slicks, etc.

This is the most obvious, right? But one word of warning: make sure that you label the versions that are for emailing and the versions that are for printing (that was more than one word). This is a common mistake that we see – over excited employees will try to print crappy-looking copies in the office. It’s frustrating, but keep in mind that using your materials is the goal, so maybe just remind the employee instead of going ballistic about appearances 🙂

How to handle questions about the brand package.

Maybe you’re managing the marketing for a client, or maybe you’re the business owner. Either way, answering every single question about the files can be overwhelming. So we set up an email address for this reason only (usually pr@companyname.com or mktg@companyname.com) with an automated response telling how long they should expect to wait for an answer. We also include a list of frequently asked questions on the Trello board. You should expect a lot of questions about printing brochures, which we usually reroute to the department managers because we don’t generally manage budgets or have a good handle on how many brochures are currently in stock at each office.

About Abask

Abask is a marketing agency dedicated to providing exquisite copywriting and content marketing for fast-growing companies. On our blog, we’ve been providing resources and training for other copywriters and content marketers. If you have a question that can help your business, feel free to leave us a comment.

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