Must-have Online Tools for Building a Brand-new Brand

A brand is a business’s identity; it is how a company explains itself to its target audience and how it distinguishes itself from its competitors. It should go without saying, but every business needs a unique, engaging and effective brand.

However, building a brand is easier said than done. For inexperienced business leaders, branding is indeed a daunting task — but fortunately, there are more than a few online tools to make the process of creating a brand a bit easier.

Best Online Logo Maker: Canva

Canva got its start as a yearbook design business, but with a focus on intuitive app design, the graphic design tool quickly became a must-have for brands everywhere. Companies can use this tool through browsers at Canva.com or through a remarkable mobile app. There is a free version of Canva that is surprisingly robust, especially for bare-budget startups, but paid plans start at only $12.99 per month and include advanced graphics tools that can help produce more unique and interesting logos.

Even better, business leaders can use Canva to design other components of their brand, like social media posts and whitepages, so every visual element of the brand is cohesive with their company logo.

Best Online Slogan Generator: Shopify

Slogans might seem like an old-fashioned brand component, but studies show that brands that use slogans are more memorable and thus more likely to survive and thrive. However, drafting a slogan that hits a brand’s messaging just right is more difficult than it seems. Ecommerce platform Shopify.com offers a free slogan maker that can generate thousands of slogans using only one word of input.

Though the tool isn’t perfect — it doesn’t seem to understand the meaning behind query words, so many of its slogans can become meaningless in certain contexts — it is a good starting point for brands looking to develop their first slogan.

Best Online Style Guide Manager: Frontify

A style guide is a set of rules that govern the look and feel of branded materials to ensure that a brand remains cohesive. A style guide usually includes details like color schemes, fonts, logo variations, text formatting, tone and more. Keeping track of all of these elements of a business’s brand can be difficult, but businesses can make it simpler with a brand management platform like Frontify.com.

Keeping the brand style guide online is wise because it ensures that team members can always access the most up-to-date brand guidelines, regardless of where they are. Then, business leaders do not need to waste time checking and rechecking new branded materials.

Best Online Blog Post Maker: Writer

There is no substitute for an experienced and knowledgeable human writer. People are always going to be more creative than generative AI, so hiring a person to craft a company’s written content is always going to be superior option to robot-produced content.

If a professional writer is not in the budget, a business should consider assigning blog posts to different members of the team, who will understand their products, their audients and their industry well enough to create quality content. However, as a method of last resort, brands can use a tool like Writer.com to produce some blog content that could positively affect SEO.

Best Online Trademark Registration: Trademark Panda

A brand is all but useless if a target audiences continue to confuse it with other brands in the same market. As soon as a business develops a brand, they need to trademark as many aspects of that brand as possible to prevent competition. A tool like Trademarkpanda.com makes it easier to research existing trademarks and register one’s own, protecting it against unfair use by other companies in the same industry. Because applying for trademarks can be a complex process, a tool like Trademark Panda is a must for busy business leaders about to launch their new brand.

No two brands are exactly alike — by design. The tools listed above are important, but they might not be all a business needs to create the brand of their dreams. Business leaders should think seriously about the unique aspects of their brand and look for high-quality online tools that allow them to generate the brand they need to succeed.