A great brand starts with a great brand bible.
Personal branding
(or company branding) is all about consistency, and consistency only gets harder to maintain as your business grows.
This is where having a branding bible comes into play.
In this blog, I’m going to break down the brand bible of your business, from what it is and why it’s important
to the elements involved and how to create your own. If you want to see what “done” looks like, you can also study
brand bible examples and then build a version that fits your market and your personality.
Let’s dive in…
What is branding?
Branding is the overall perception of your business in the marketplace. It includes your reputation, your visual identity,
the emotions you spark in your clients, and the way you communicate across every touchpoint. A strong branding strategy
helps you stand out in a crowded field, connect with your target audience, and build long term trust.
What is a brand bible?
A brand bible is the rulebook for the way you present your business to the world, which includes your logo, fonts,
brand voice, color palette, tone, and more. Anything and everything having to do with your message to the world and the
way you present it goes into the brand bible.
Think of it like a decision filter. When you’re about to post, design, email, film, or run an ad, you should be able to
open your branding bible and answer, “Is this us?” in about ten seconds.
What is the difference between a brand book and a brand bible?
Unlike a brand book, your brand bible isn’t just a reference guide to design choices; it’s a commitment to your
established mission, a blueprint for the way in which you engage with the world, and the full expression of your company’s vision.
The branding bible also covers aesthetics and can be passed along to any designers or advertising agencies you may hire,
but it goes much deeper beneath the surface.
By taking the time to create this, you’re planting the seeds of your long term success.
Whether you’re making a brand book or the brand bible, if you’re not great with design, it’s well worth the money
to hire a designer to help get this stuff exactly the way you like it. It’s your business, after all.
Now, let’s dive into the steps of building the brand bible.
The 9 Sections of Your Brand Bible
1) MVV Statement
This is your Mission, your Vision, and your Values. Keep these to just a few sentences each. Having these perfectly refined
and written down on paper is such an incredibly powerful tool. It also sets the tone for everything that follows in your brand bible.
- Mission: Why are you in real estate? Who do you serve and what can you do to help them?
- Vision: Your ideal vision of the future. How big do you want to grow? Ten years from now, how are you different and how have you helped your community?
- Values: What ethics are you committed to? What will you never compromise on? This list can be a little longer, but you must stick to it.
2) Your Brand Bible USP
Your Unique Selling Proposition. This may be the most important aspect of your
personal branding.
If you ever feel like your marketing is starting to sound like everyone else’s, your USP section is where you return and
recalibrate. That is why the brand bible is not a one time project, it’s a living document.
3) Client Avatar for Your Brand
Who is your target audience? Get specific. The clearer your branding identity, the easier it is to
create marketing that resonates.
A lot of brand bible examples include demographic notes, but the best ones also include behavior and motivation:
what they worry about, what they value, and what they need to believe before they choose an agent.
4) Tone / Personality
Define the brand voice you use in every email, social media post, and conversation. This is one of the most powerful parts
of your branding guidelines. When you write it down, you remove the daily guesswork. Your team should be able to read one
page and instantly understand the difference between “on brand” and “close, but not quite.”
5) What’s Your Brand Bible Color Palette?
Your color palette is a core element of your branding guide and instantly communicates tone and personality. Include primary colors,
secondary colors, and usage notes for backgrounds, buttons, and text. This prevents “creative interpretation” from slowly turning your
brand into seven slightly different brands.
6) Your Brand Logo
A strong logo is central to your branding identity. Choose between symbol, wordmark, or hybrid to represent your business clearly and memorably.
Add rules for spacing, minimum size, and what not to do. If you have ever cringed at a stretched logo on a flyer, this is why the brand bible matters.
7) Your Brand Font
Typography is a subtle but powerful piece of your branding strategy. Fonts should be consistent across your website, social media, and marketing materials.
In your branding bible, list your header font, body font, and any accent font. Include weights, sizes, and real use cases like email signatures,
Instagram graphics, and listing collateral.
8) Make a Brand Inspiration Board
This is where brand bible mockup pages and visual references come in. By creating inspiration boards and mockups, you make your branding guide more
actionable for anyone you bring on your team. If you want quick clarity, include examples of a social post, a listing flyer, a YouTube thumbnail, and a
homepage hero section that follow your rules. This is also where studying brand bible examples can help you see which sections you are missing.
9) Marketing Platforms and Tactics
Your digital branding must be clear in your brand bible. Include guidelines for social media, email campaigns, and video content so your branding stays
consistent everywhere online. This section is also a good place to list your “always” and “never” rules, so your messaging stays clean even when you are moving fast.
What is a brand bible template?
A brand bible template is a framework you can use to create your own branding guidelines. It usually includes placeholders for your mission, vision, values,
logo usage, fonts, color palette, voice, and digital branding rules. Templates make it easier to organize your branding strategy without starting from scratch.
If you want to speed up the process, start with a template and then build a simple brand bible mockup for your most common marketing assets.
What is a branding guide?
A branding guide is another way of describing your brand guidelines or brand bible. It is a tool to make sure your branding identity is consistent no
matter who is creating your marketing materials. This ensures your team and outside partners stay aligned with your branding.
Get Help Building Your Brand
As I mentioned earlier, building a successful brand is about making it about more than just yourself. You’re putting out a message that resonates with a wide range of people.
Having expert guidance is invaluable when building a brand and creating a clear strategy.
If you’re serious about creating a brand that lasts, you know where to find us for your free
real estate coaching consultation.
Brand Bible FAQ Recap
What should a brand bible include?
A strong brand bible usually includes mission, vision, and values, your USP, your client avatar, brand voice and tone,
logo rules, fonts, color palette, and platform guidelines. The goal is to make decisions faster and stay consistent as you grow.
Is a brand bible the same as brand guidelines?
Yes, in most cases a branding bible is another name for brand guidelines. Some businesses use “brand book” for design only,
and “brand bible” for a deeper document that includes messaging, values, and identity.
How do I create a brand bible for my business?
Start with your MVV statement, define your USP and audience, then lock in your voice, logo rules, fonts, and colors. Next, add
platform rules and create a brand bible mockup for common assets like social graphics and email headers so the guidelines are easy to follow.
Where can I find brand bible examples?
You can find brand bible examples by looking at public brand guideline PDFs from major companies, design agency portfolios,
and template libraries. Use them to compare structure, then build the version that fits your business and your market.
What is the difference between a brand book and a brand bible?
A brand book often focuses on visuals, like logo usage, fonts, and colors. A brand bible typically goes further and includes
positioning, voice, values, and how you communicate across platforms so the brand stays consistent in real life.
