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Does your company have a style guide? A style guide is a document that outlines a set of standards and best practices for the content used to promote your company. One marketing agency describes it as the “visual DNA of your company’s branding.”

Think of it as manual that shows someone who is completely unfamiliar with your brand how to write content or create media that fits your image and message.

To help your company create a style guide of its own, we’ll provide answers to frequently asked questions on this very topic.

Why is a style guide necessary?

A style guide keeps your writing consistent, no matter who is creating content, explains Rachel Chapdelaine, a marketing communications specialist at Marketing Mojo.

“To make our website copy and blog articles consistent, we created a style guide to ensure that our many authors were in sync,” she explains. “It’s important to remain consistent to keep messages on-point, improve the user experience and create a process for content creation.”

What should a style guide include?

Every style guide is different, and should meet the needs of each individual company. You should include any information that you think is relevant, but here’s a list of the most common items inside a style guide:

  • A style manual

For starters, select a style manual. Associated Press or Chicago Manual of Style are the two most common choices. Essentially these manuals answer basic questions about grammar and punctuation.

“I highly recommend choosing a common style in your industry, such as AP Stylebook,” Chapdelaine says. “Point out specific rules that are important and provide excerpts or access to a digital version of the manual to your employees.”

  • Explanation of tone

Explain your brand’s tone. This is a tough one to define, but you need to explain to writers how your brand is perceived and how to talk to customers. Define your audience, provide an example of a typical customer, and explain the best way to communicate with them.

  • Word usage specific to your industry

Create a list of words that are specific to your industry and explain how each one should be used, Chapdelaine says.

“We wanted to make sure all employees write homepage, website and email as one word and capitalize Direct Sponsored Content, so we highlighted these within our style guide,” she explains. “This makes our content creation easier and faster across the company.”

  • Photo guidelines

Images are an important part of any content strategy, so be sure to explain how images should be used. Where can employees find images? How should the images be attributed? What size should the images be? Should they be justified to a certain side? Be as specific as possible with your guidelines here, it will save revisions later on.

  • Color and font scheme

Tell employees what colors and fonts should be used. If you want all of your blog posts written in Helvetica, specify that in your guide.

You should also specify color usage. Perhaps you want to limit any written communication, which includes marketing materials, to color schemes that coincide with your logo.

  • Formatting rules

Formatting can take serious time; so make sure every writer is aware of the formatting guidelines for your brand. Tell writers if you want things like subheads, or bulleted lists rather than numbered lists.

  • Link rules

Most digital communication will include links, so you’ll need to explain how you want them handled. Should they open in a new window? Should there be a certain number of links to external and internal sources? Which words should be hyperlinked to improve your brand’s SEO? Provide as much direction as possible.

What to do with a style guide after creating it?

Share it. Provide the guide to every employee or freelancer that creates content or media for your company. Since the style guide will change over time, it’s a good idea to provide access to a digital copy. That way you can update it through the years without printing and redistributing it.

Your guide will soon be forgotten if you don’t make it accessible and frequently remind employees about resources available to them,” Chapdelaine says.