In today’s digitally obsessed world it comes as no surprise that more and more of our clients are requesting electronic templates as an important part of their livery collection. With email the preferred communication tool for many, traditionally printed livery items like letterheads and brochures are often left on the office shelf in favour of electronic versions.

With this comes a whole new set of issues when it comes to brand continuity.

Traditionally a business would get a stack of letterheads designed and printed to use for all written correspondence. Once a letter had been typed up and signed it would be placed in a branded envelope with any relevant promotional material and sent off in the mail. The business could guarantee that when it was received at the other end their client would be seeing the items exactly as they intended. Colours, fonts and formatting were all a given.

Then along came email.

Suddenly items that would normally be posted were being sent as attachments or within the email itself. While this is great in terms of the environment it can be disastrous when trying to maintain brand continuity. Colours look different on every screen, sometimes fonts don’t embed and formatting can go out the window in some instances. There is also printing to take into consideration. While some documents will only ever be viewed on screen there are others that will inevitably be printed and filed. Every printer will print slightly different colours and margins will vary, as will a users preferred settings. There is no way to guarantee the end outcome.

There is also the fact that most businesses are confined to software like the Microsoft Office Suite for creating any electronic livery items. These programs are limited in their design capabilities. This makes it very difficult to create documents from scratch that are stylish and functional and follow the branding style accurately. They can, however, be useful with a professionally designed template as a base.

The best way to ensure your electronic livery fits with your brand is to have it professionally designed. We can create Word, Publisher and PowerPoint templates that allow you to manage your own content and maintain brand continuity within the confines of Microsoft programs. We’ll even give you a few tips about the best ways to save these documents to ensure everyone sees them the same. For online brochures we can create autoplay CDs and instead of traditional printed newsletters, E-newsletters. The advantages of both of these have been discussed in previous blogs I’ve written.

Of course when you are using email as a major communication tool then it makes sense to have a professional email template or at the very least an email signature and dedicated font to ensure continuity with all of your communication. When this is your first point of contact with a client you want to make sure you leave a lasting impression.

If your electronic livery needs some work then don’t hesitate to contact us.