As a financial advisor, it is absolutely vital that your clients put their implicit trust in you. After all, you’re helping them deal with their money, and more than that—their future.
That means that you essentially have to make them a promise: “If you listen to my advice, I will do everything I can to prove worthy of your confidence and get you the results you want.”
Of course, that’s a little too wordy for a tagline. How can you condense that promise into a visual that will hit home with every customer, every time?
The answer, quite literally, is simple.
Much like any other picture, a simple, effective logo design is worth a thousand words. The right logo lays the groundwork for the growth of confidence, as well as ensuring memorability.
But why stick to a simple logo?
Let’s take a look at six reasons why creating a financial company logo that sticks with simplicity is a great choice for financial advisors.
Simple Is On Trend For The Market
If you take the time to do your research and look at logos and graphics from other financial companies out there—which you definitely should—you’ll find that there is a definite trend towards simplicity.
Many logos opt for only one to three main elements, frequently with no more than three main colors.
In fact, simplicity is a trend in many other market areas as well. But the fact that it’s particularly common in the financial world means two things:
● Simple logos are definitely worthy of consideration for your own company
● There are obvious benefits to simple logos
Simple Logos Make A Lasting Impression
As a whole, we are an extremely visual species. As a matter of fact, we retain visual information such as graphics and photographs for a lot longer than we do information conveyed in the medium of print or type.
So your logo already has a leg up as far as memorability goes just by the simple fact that it is a graphic.
But there is more behind the science of visual graphics and logos than that. We can form a first impression of something we see in well under ten seconds, but statistics indicate that it takes five to seven repetitions of that visual in order to truly make a memory for the viewer.
It’s also easier to remember things that have fewer components to them. If you look at a grocery list with three things on it, you will likely be more able to remember those items than if the list had ten things on it.
What does that boil down to for a financial advisor?
Simple logos are more memorable, which means that your potential clients are more likely to retain the visual they’ve seen.
Simple Logos Promote A Clear Message
A vital part of the financial advice world, as we mentioned at the outset, is building and growing trust on the part of your client. This is done not only by consistently providing good service, but also by sending a clear message of trustworthiness right from the outset.
A simple logo allows you to focus on the main point of your message: reliability.
This is also an important consideration when it comes to the color choice for your logo. It may be tempting to just use your favorite color, or to even choose a wide range of colors to make the logo “pop.”
But the psychology of colors suggests that certain colors elicit certain emotions. Blue, for example, is commonly viewed as a soothing, trustworthy color. As a result, it’s a common choice for logo designs for financial institutions such as banks.
To make sure that your entire logo harmonizes with your message, all elements need to fall in line: color, font, and graphic choice. The simpler the elements, the easier they are to line up and keep on-message.
Simple Logos Are More Recognizable
As discussed in the section on making a lasting impression, it takes anywhere from five to seven views of an image or graphic to make it stick in the minds of the audience. The fewer the elements involved in a logo, the more memorable it is, and the easier it becomes to continue to recognize it.
To put it bluntly, if you want your clients to be able to pick your logo out of a crowd, simple is the way to go.
The rule of thumb is that your clients should be able to draw your logo, or at least a likeness of it, from memory. If you try this test yourself and find that you’re not able to recall all the different elements of your logo, it’s probably a good idea to strip it down even further.
There’s another consideration to this as well: the simpler your logo, the more likely it is that it will be a “stand-alone,” or that it won’t be mistaken for other financial companies out there.
There’s often a certain element of overlap among logos and design within a given market. Cutting the elements of your logo down as strictly as you can and maintaining the unique properties of your logo will guard against copycats.
Simplicity Offers Versatility
There are practical considerations to a simple logo design for a financial advisor as well.
Logos need to be:
● Versatile
● Scaleable
● Able to retain recognizability in different color schemes
Since simple logos are pieces that have been stripped down to the basics, this style actually lends itself very well to these requirements. The fewer the elements involved, the easier it is to ensure that each one is in the proper size, color, and space.
Your logo will be displayed on a variety of surfaces, like marketing materials, websites and social media platforms, print venues, billboards, promotional pens, and so on. So a versatile, scalable, true-to-form simple logo is the best choice.
Simple Logos Fit Brand Personality
For financial advisors to find and retain customers, they need to demonstrate their practicality by offering services that are reliable. But building your company requires more than that: branding is of ever-increasing importance, and a good brand includes imbuing your company with personality and identity.
What type of personality should a financial company have?
● Practical
● Helpful
● Respectful
● Dignified
A simple logo is able to communicate all of those personality traits, and more. Basic logos have a natural elegance and dignity, and the lack of extraneous elements promotes the idea of a company that is focused on the customer.
Best Types Of Simple Logos For Financial Advisors
The wide, wide world of logo design offers a lot of scope for creativity. But if you’ve decided to opt for a simple logo, there are a few particular types of logos that are recommended options:
● Lettermark: Lettermark logos are exactly what they sound like: a type-based logo that uses the first letter of a company or individual’s name as the logo.
● Monogram: A monogram logo is a lettermark that uses the initials of the company or the individual.
● Wordmark: Wordmark logos use the entire name of the company as the logo. Provided you don’t have an unmanageably long name, this is a great option for recognition and memorability.
● Iconic: A simple icon graphic, such as a globe or a dollar sign, is another good option for a logo that doesn’t rely so heavily on typeface. There’s a lot of room for customizability within this logo type as well.
Whichever type of logo you choose for your financial company, remember that the message is key. Opt for a logo that promotes reliability and trustworthiness, and one that associates the reputation of your company with a valuable image.
And remember to keep it simple!