Branding doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. Often it comes down to the details, such as a consistent logo, color, and imagery. When companies apply these elements regularly, it increases brand recognition and strengthens the user experience. Branding wins require only a few clicks in the built-in features across Salesforce. Overall, it’s a little effort that goes a long way.
Discover why branding matters and how organizations of every size can reap the benefits.
What we’ll cover:
- What is branding?
- What are the benefits of branding?
- How do you express your brand design on Salesforce?
- Three no-code ways to brand your Salesforce org
- What if you don’t have a designer?
- Branding brings it all together
What is branding?
Branding is the way a company defines and expresses its unique identity. Tactically, it’s done by promoting and giving meaning to a company’s distinguishing marks. This might include a logo, signature color, messaging, and defining imagery.
The Salesforce logo in “Cloud Blue” conveys our optimism and lets users know they’re using a tool from the #1 AI CRM.
Your organization has its own elements tied to emotions, experiences, and product features. When you apply these elements across channels, there are big benefits.
What are the benefits of branding?
Branding strengthens the relationship between an organization and its users in many ways.
Some of the benefits of branding include:
- Increase brand recognition
- Support the user experience
- Instill user confidence
- Reduce cognitive load
- Build trust between the user and the company
- Achieve higher revenue than inconsistent brands
With so many reasons to invest in this approach, it’s become a best practice for successful companies. We can speak from experience. In the last 25 years, our audience has become more familiar with our friendly blue color, the soft rounded edges of our cloud iconography, and our brand name. Being consistent matters. As recently as 2022, our aided awareness — or brand recognition – ranked at 92%.
Brand consistency also helps meet user expectations.
When users log in, they expect to see the company logo. It signals that they’re in the right place. They can confidently do what they need to do, without the extra cognitive load of figuring out if they’ve navigated correctly. By meeting user expectations, a brand also builds trust with its users.
According to Forbes, consistent branding can even lead to higher revenue than inconsistent organizations. You can make sure your brand takes advantage of these many benefits.
Let’s explore the built-in features across Salesforce.
Design on Salesforce
How do you express your brand design on Salesforce?
Any company can add key brand elements to Salesforce with its range of options — from declarative, or no-code customizations, to custom designs.
In a matter of clicks, you can customize a Salesforce app, a marketing email, a website, or an org. These tools exist across products. Maybe you’ve used Brand Builder in Marketing Cloud, Branding Sets in Experience Cloud, or many others.
Today, we want to go deeper on how to brand your org.
Three no-code ways to brand your Salesforce org
Many customers make the look and feel of their Salesforce org fit their brand identity. It’s easy to create in the Salesforce Setup Menu.
The “Themes and Branding” page allows you to customize the following:
- Logo
- Color
- Image
Each element is a communication tool. Together, a logo, a color, and an image convey a unique brand personality.
Think of Slack’s brand elements. Its hashtag logo, aubergine brand color, and illustrated product images tell a story. Every company has a different design personality. Are you getting the most out of yours?
To start, give users a good first impression by ensuring your company’s logo stands out on the page. A distinct logo instantly ties the user experience to the brand. All you need is a brand image that’s 600×120 pixels. This will replace the Salesforce logo in our Salesforce “Cloud Blue.”
Like Salesforce, your brand chose a color to represent it.
Colors are powerful. They can increase brand recognition by up to 80%. That’s why companies extend their color equity to the text and accents of a Salesforce org. To be precise, use the color picker or input the six-digit hexidecimal (hex) code.
A few examples
Here’s a look at a mock org named Northern Trail Outfitters (NTO). It leans on blues and greens inspired by the natural world.
Some companies also turn to the background as a canvas. Change it from white to your brand color or a branded page-background image. Northern Trail Outfitters could choose to complement their logo and brand colors with an image or illustration that represents where customers might use the gear they buy.
It’s a trifecta that makes a big splash instantly.
What if you don’t have a designer?
Not every company has a team of designers. From Admins and Developers to IT leaders and marketers, anyone can seize these opportunities.
Thankfully, there are many accessible tools that can help you create assets. Canva is a graphic design tool that offers all the ingredients and templates for making brand assets. Image generators such as OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 or Google’s Gemini offer creative solutions fast. It’s important to always consider the copyright context with any outputs.
Companies that aren’t ready to create assets can still create consistency in the experience. There are many prebuilt themes from Salesforce that might fit an org’s brand.
By default, your org will display the “Lightning Blue” theme. This is the signature look featuring Astro, your warm and welcoming guide to Salesforce. If you’re keeping the visual style minimal, try the “Lightning Lite” theme. Or if orange hues or a purple palette connects to your brand, select one of the many themes below. One even changes each season.
Choose the approach that’s right for your Salesforce org and help your users become familiar with your brand.
Branding brings it all together
Businesses of all types and sizes benefit from branding their Salesforce org. You can express your brand in simple ways to improve your user experience.
Leveraging your logo, color and brand imagery is a practical way to increase brand recognition and build trust. No dedicated design or marketing team required.
There are easy, no-code ways to define your unique identity. Get started today.
