How to brand and spice up your company’s Zoom meetings with custom backgrounds

Your business hasn’t stopped. Clients and customers still need your products and services – perhaps now more than ever! Face-to-face relationship-building has evolved in the age of COVID, and Zoom has popped up as the most-used platform for client engagement on computer screens across the country.

So how do you bring your client experience into the digital age? Take some tips from the business signs and graphics experts at Pinnacle Signs and Graphics.

Keep it Professional

Just because your team is working from home doesn’t mean your customers or clients have to feel like they’re in someone’s home. Set a professional tone for the meeting and sales or service experience by outfitting your team with digital and physical tools for success. Keep your virtual meeting spaces professional by:

Establishing clear objectives and expectations. Establish clear procedures and expectations, then communicate to your team how they support your brand’s objectives.
Leading from the front. Stay on-brand, on-message, and in compliance with all of your internal Zoom calls and virtual meetings to set an example for your team.
Providing tools. Ensure consistency and avoid burdening your team members during a time of economic uncertainty by providing the tools they need to represent your brand in Zoom and virtual meetings.
Raving about success. When you notice that team members are really succeeding in creating exceptional virtual environments, celebrate their success and stoke a competitive drive to be the best.

Brand the Experience

Your business signs and graphics, your pamphlets and proposals, your team’s t-shirts or work apparel – they’re all branded! Your virtual work environments should be, too. Don’t leave it up to your team to find a way to work your business’s values and identity into their home offices. Bring your brand to them with custom business signs and graphics that build your customer’s or client’s experience.

Incorporate your logo and color palette into the webcam shot – even if it doesn’t match the eggshell taupe of a spare bedroom wall. The best way to brand your company’s Zoom meetings is to create a custom background or backdrop for your team to use in internal and external calls. Your backgrounds should be:

Establishing clear objectives and expectations. Establish clear procedures and expectations, then communicate to your team how they support your brand’s objectives.
Bright: Use brighter colors to catch rather than absorb light. Your team might need guidance or extra tools to make sure their virtual meeting space is properly lit for optimal visibility.
Flexible: Not only will these backgrounds need to be easily stored, they need to be flexible enough in design to be useful during a meeting.
Bold, Not Busy: You want your backgrounds to stand out and add value, but you don’t want them to distract from the meeting itself.

Spice It Up!

A clean, uniform background will help your team present a professional appearance and keep the rest of their home out of the shot. But physical backgrounds don’t have to be static or boring. Get creative with a traveling “Employee of the Week” custom background, create a birthday backdrop to celebrate with your team, or get their ideas on how to incorporate icebreakers and conversation-starters into your backgrounds!

Virtual vs. Physical Backgrounds

We know, we know: you can click the little arrow and pop up a virtual background that puts you at the beach or in space or in the middle of any picture you care to upload. But without greenscreens and really good lighting, those virtual backgrounds flicker or create a floating-body phenomenon that’s distracting and…well, weird. (Also, we know your office doesn’t look like Ron Burgundy’s, Jeff.)

Good design, clear messaging, and a branded look on a retractable background banner take the weird out of your Zoom calls. A physical background for your Zoom workspace separates your call from the rest of your house and presents a natural, reliable, professional appearance. Bonus: You won’t blow the first impression by fumbling with settings or overburdening your internet connection.

Get Help from the Pros

Need help figuring out what your custom background needs to look like? Contact the business sign and graphics professionals at Pinnacle Signs and Graphics.