Style Sheets: Small Documents with a Big Impact
Not everyone is familiar with style sheets, but if you come from a communications or small-business background, you may have used a branding guide. Businesses use branding guides to keep track of information regarding the logo, color palette, font styles, spacing, and document formats. Since the information is in one document, it’s easier for marketing and design teams to be consistent when working across different platforms. Without a guide, a brand can become distorted over time, which potentially damages the brand value and reputation. If conflicting font styles and colors can damage your brand, image how much more damaging it is to treat your content inconsistently. That’s where style sheets come in.
A Quick Reference Guide
While branding guides focus on your company’s look, style sheets concentrate on the choices that affect your writing. Think of a style sheet as a quick guide for your employees. It’s a list of preferred references, important names or dates, key terms, and spellings. The style sheet is also a good place to note any exceptions to grammar and punctuation guidelines. As your business grows, your team will expand. It’s important for the people who generate your marketing content to be on the same page. After all, more than one dictionary exists. Not everyone uses the serial comma. Many names are pronounced the same way but spelled differently. There are dozens of ways for mistakes to creep into advertising copy. And if those mistakes make it into the final product, that costs your business both time and money. Make it harder for costly mistakes to show up in your marketing campaigns by developing a style sheet for your business.
Once you’ve downloaded a FREE style sheet template, customize it to suit your company’s needs. Include it as part of your company’s onboarding process for new hires. New team members may not be as familiar with your brand’s history or writing style. Save your HR team and managers time during the training process by providing your employees with a style sheet customized for your company.
Takeaway
A style sheet is just as important as a branding guide for your business. Even though the document itself may be small, it has a big impact on your company. Style sheets help protect your brand by keeping the treatment of your content consistent and allowing your company to be more efficient, which saves you time and money.
When I begin working with a new client, one of the first steps we take is to develop a style sheet specific to their company or project. As I edit their project, I’ll make notes about potential items to add to the style sheet. We review the notes once the project is complete and update the style sheet so it’s ready for the next step in the editing process or the next project. If you’re ready to partner with someone to develop a style sheet, contact me! Together, we can make your writing bulletproof.