TOP 10 SERVICES INCLUDED IN A BRANDING PACKAGE. WHO NEEDS THEM?

by with 3 Comments graphic_designmarketing101

#1 LOGO DESIGN

Logo and brand design are tightly intertwined since any logo is an inherent part of visual brand identity. Besides, a complete branding package almost always offers logo creation as one of its primary services.

Logo design is a perfect way to make your company noticeable among its competitors and lay the foundation for your future marketing success. Since its first days, a logo will build a strong association with your company and services. Hence, make sure to invest in its quality and design. Also, note that there are different types of logos to choose from.

You’ll have to design the most suitable option for your case. Regardless of whether you order a complete branding package or a separate item, a logo is a must. Ideally, the logo design should be created before both large or small business is launched.logo design for SF catering company01logo design for SF catering company

#2 COLOR PALETTE

If you are just launching a company or still haven’t selected your brand colors, ask to add this option to your branding kit. A color palette has a significant influence on your brand image and perception.

Moreover, this branding package service is necessary for any company interested in long-term development and high-quality marketing. Note that color selection is a crucial visual branding step, so make sure to entrust it to professionals.Color Palette02Color Palette

#3 EMAIL TEMPLATES

Nowadays, a huge number of business operations happen online. Hence, it’s almost impossible to keep the leading market position if you don’t use emails as one of your marketing channels.

This is especially true for those engaged in e-commerce. A branding kit of every online store would be incomplete without branded email templates.

They turn your newsletters into a more powerful promotional tool and encourage recipients to take action. Therefore, don’t hesitate to use this branding package option if you send a lot of B2C or B2B emails and need to brand them.A branding kit of every online store would be incomplete without branded email templates03A branding kit of every online store would be incomplete without branded email templates

#4 WEBSITE

We know that websites aren’t the first thing associated with business branding packages. However, if you’re lucky to find a professional design agency, it may offer you website design as a branding kit option.

Moreover, it’s nice to have some branding elements on your official web page to promote your brand online. Even the most popular offline leaders need to work on their online presence to expand their target audience and promote their products. Thus, a stylish, convenient, and informative website is something any company cannot live without.

Check out a food provider’s website designed by The Coder to see how it combines several branding elements and promotes the services.Concept of website design04Concept of website design

#5 TYPOGRAPHY

Let’s be honest, typography isn’t the most popular branding element, and many companies choose to ignore it. In most cases, they believe that font selection is easy and doesn’t require careful reasoning.

Only professionals know the power of typography and its impact on the overall perception of branding. Therefore, a full branding package includes typography as its key element supplementing others.

Unlike a large enterprise, a small business can do without customized fonts. Especially, if it doesn’t use a lot of titles or text content. Yet for seamless multifaceted branding experience, it’s better to design customized fonts.Typography one of the most branding element05Typography one of the most branding element

#6 LETTERHEAD

If you send a lot of email attachments or use direct mail marketing, make sure to design a customized letterhead. This package branding element will make your message more memorable and increase response rates.

It usually includes the name and address of a company placed on its brand colors at the top of the page. Creating a letterhead, it’s important to stick to your brand style and use the right proportions of the heading and blank space.Letterhead design for SF catering company06Letterhead design for SF catering company

#7 BROCHURES

Brochures aren’t included in all branding packages for an obvious reason. Therefore, if you want to start a direct mail campaign or distribute printed marketing materials through any other channels, discuss this directly with your design agency.

Most brochures contain the logo, slogan, services, advantages, and contact information of a company. This is a perfect mix that covers the informational needs of an average target audience. Professional designers will help you create a brochure that catches attention and presents your brand in the most appealing way. Also, this method is usually favored by a medium or small business that operates locally and bets on offline marketing.Mask Group 18807Mask Group 188

#8 BUSINESS CARDS

Most corporate identity packages offer business cards. Easy to design and cheap to print they play an important role in your visual brand identity. If you hire many people and need a similar business card design, the agency will provide you with a customizable template.

Your company size and type of services have absolutely no impact on the necessity to use business cards. Everyone should be able to easily share their contact information. So it’s better to order business card design along with other branding items.Business cards design for SF catering company08Business cards design for SF catering company

#9 PACKAGE DESIGN

In some cases, a branding package heavily depends on a product package (Sounds pretty complicated, right?) Let’s clarify what we mean here. Package design is the look of all products that end consumers see in a shop or an online store. Want an example? The Coder has created branding that includes package design, for Concierge Catering. Click here to check out the final result.

Packages have a strong influence on the decision-making process. Furthermore, people often buy something only because they like its look. Thus, if you are a company that produces any mass-market product, you’d better entrust your product package to professionals. This will be a wise investment in the development of your company and a great way to stand among your competitors.Packaging design for SF catering company09Packaging design for SF catering company

#10 STYLE GUIDES

A style guide is a comprehensive rulebook with all specifications related to your brand. In particular, it will include your mission, vision, core values, company voice, logo, typography, and principles.

Style guides will come in handy to marketers, graphic designers, web developers, sales team, and anyone who needs to present a unified vision of your brand to your target audience.

This type of branding package is most suitable for large market players willing to build a far-reaching marketing strategy.

The listed items aren’t neither canonical nor exclusive. Besides, they don’t necessarily have to be included in every branding package. This is a basis you can rely on to understand what visual branding can boost your marketing campaign. In some cases, it’s even better to refuse from a branding package in favor of separate branded items.

If you hire a design agency that is flexible and open for communication, there should be no problems with that. You will be able to select the required branding elements and find the optimum solution for your project.

The Coder covers all these branding package elements and even more. Contact us to discuss branding package prices for your business.A style quide is a comprehensive rulebook with all specifications related to your brand10A style guide is a comprehensive rulebook with all specifications related to your brand

Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone

by with No Comment marketing101

26 Steps to 15k a Day – A Modern Guide to Content Marketing

In another post Google as a Black Box  Giacomo proposed that we talk too much theory and not enough application of it. So, lets skip the theory and get to what I know works from time proven methods on Google. I know the following system works 100% of the time with Google to attain rankings across a wide range of keywords. This is what I do with clients to build a successful site and has worked every time. The level of success will depend largely on the subject matter, it’s potential audience, and it’s level of competition on the net.

The following will build a successful site in 1 years time via Google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter.

A) Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That’s just for openers. That’s 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos…etc eg: fluff pages.

B) Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains are out – branding and name recognition are in – big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se’s. Learn the lesson of “goto.com” becomes “Overture.com” and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole ‘nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

C) Site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them – there is little reason to have them that I can see – they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long term results across many engines).
Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of Google itself – simple is retro cool – simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you’ll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

D) Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can – I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya – that bites – it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

E) Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

F) Density, position, yada…
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it 😉 Spell checking is becoming important as se’s are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

G) Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

H) Insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links WITHIN the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with Google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an “all star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with Google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

I) Put it Online.
Don’t go with virtual hosting – go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don’t hold your breath).

J) Submit
Submit the root to: Google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part – forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right – submit and forget.

K) Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don’t use a lame graphic counter – you need the real deal). If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24x7x365 in real time.

L) Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from se’s. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it’s way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other se’s are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

M) Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

N) Links
Look around your keyword sector in Googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing – or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don’t freak if you can’t get people to swap links – move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link with you – they will – eventually they will.

O) Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much “bloggin” type personal stuff and look more for “article” topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks – short sentences – lots of dashes – something that reads quickly.

Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do.

Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

P) Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any “fades of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Q) Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

R) Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from “affiliate fades” that insert content on to your site.

S) Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content”, they are coming to your site looking for “their content“. Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows…yes, I know).

T) Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

U) Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.
If your site is about “oranges”, but your referrals are all about “orange citrus fruit”, then you can get busy building articles around “citrus” and “fruit” instead of the generic “oranges”.
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed – listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

V) Timely Topics
Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site “Z” is coming out with product “A” at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in Google right now – those are sites that were on the ball last summer. Like [vrcast.com…]

W) Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here’s the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction – not by just reading.
Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you “in the loop” of your keyword sector.

X) Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Y) Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Z) Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it’s own two feet.

Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to “do something” with.

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Eight Marketing Strategies Every Startup Or Small Business Can Afford

by with No Comment marketing101

As the founder of a marketing company that helps startups and small businesses, people often ask me, “How can we effectively market and scale with a tight budget?” It can be challenging to decide where to invest your time and limited resources in marketing. Should you invest in the top of the funnel or the bottom? 

In my experience, a full-funnel approach is usually the most sustainable over time. That said, certain strategies are just out of reach and do not make sense for smaller companies — like, for example, TV advertising. Here are eight tried-and-tested marketing strategies I recommend every startup or small business consider:

1. Earned Media/PR

The value of a credible third party touting your praises cannot be underestimated. Not only do press articles and earned media gain you trust, but you can also benefit from a wider distribution by leveraging their existing audiences. Influencers and bloggers can fall into this category and can share your company with their followers, which gains you an endorsement with potentially exponential reach. Stunts can also be a creative (and low-cost, if done right) way to garner media attention or that of your target market. 

2. Content Marketing

Creating content that’s relevant and interesting to your target audience can help you generate new leads by capturing their interest and building trust. It can also help increase your close ratio by building your brand, answering customer questions and providing reasons why prospects should choose you. From articles to infographics to eBooks and even videos, you should showcase your expertise, differentiation and brand values to attract potential customers and help those who are already considering you to make that purchase decision. Great content also often gets featured and backlinked, so you can increase your domain authority by placing it on your website. 

3. Partner Marketing

Partnering with another company or organization that has a similar target customer can help you both increase your reach and marketing abilities if you pool your resources together to build your brands. Complimentary products and services can be a great place to start. By sharing email lists, exchanging blogs, bundling offerings or even co-branding programs, ads or sponsorships, you can create win-win situations for both partners. 

4. Social Media

Having your own social channels not only allows you to control your message and share updates freely, but also allows you to build a community around your brand, company and product. As a free channel to activate, social media can be a great place to build user-generated content, get feedback or even address customer service concerns. Many customers also look to social channels to see if they can trust the brand or company or to check out their reviews, so maintaining a presence can actually help conversion rates. 

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Most people search for information online, and organic search can account for the majority of a website’s traffic. This makes optimizing your website for SEO extremely important. Through strategic SEO, you can introduce yourself to leads with a high need state or purchase intent, which can make this kind of business easier to close. Furthermore, if a customer searches for help with a problem and your website comes up, this helps position you as a credible, trustworthy source to help them. 

6. Email Marketing

If you’ve built your email list right, you’ve gathered a group of people who have expressed some interest in your company or product. By segmenting this group based on different characteristics and then emailing them with the right content and offers at the right time in their customer journey, you can influence a purchase decision successfully with no added impact to your marketing budget. 

7. Affiliate Programs

Affiliates are a cost-effective way to build sales without adding large fixed marketing costs like advertising. Because they have skin in the game, affiliates are properly incentivized to promote your products or services and are only rewarded if they are successful. These affiliates can take the form of influencers, content publishers and review or coupon sites, and you can structure the partnerships to pay out based on clicks, leads or sales. 

8. Referral Marketing

Tapping into the goodwill of happy, existing customers is one of the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective ways to grow. Mobilize your customers to spread the word about your products or services by reminding them to share their experiences and incentivizing them to bring new business to you. You’ll likely get highly qualified leads at a lower overall cost of acquisition than if you had to find them on your own. 

Even with a modest budget, there are many options available to you to create a solid marketing plan as a startup or small business. By employing a number of different affordable strategies that address the entire marketing funnel, from awareness through conversion and advocacy, you can strategically, creatively and tactfully garner customers and build revenues to eventually reinvest in your marketing efforts and speed up your growth. 

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The 9 Types of Logos & How to Use Them

by with No Comment graphic_designmarketing101

Your business is all but ready to take off – now you just need to find the perfect logo to represent your brand.

If it’s doing its job correctly, your logo will create positive associations between your company and target audience, in the form of a visual cue. The question is, what type of logo will get the job done?

While a million decisions go into finding the right logo for your business (font, layout, images, color palette, etc.) we’ve compiled a list of the main types of logos to help make the logo-selection process painless – and fun!

There are 3 main logo categories: Images, words, and combinations. Below, you’ll read about 9 types of logos that fit into these groups.

#1. Brand Mark

Brand marks – or pictorial marks – are logos that are made up of a graphic symbol or icon, one that (usually) represents a real-world object. We’re talking something simple and straightforward, like the outline of a tree or a coffee mug. This object could tell the story of what your company does – think Youtube’s play button – or maybe play with your company name.

Advantages:

Brand marks are clean-cut and easy to remember. If you offer a specific service, an image representing that will send a quick, clear message to your audience.

Also, the simplicity of the design will translate well when resizing your logo across branding materials like business cards or letterheads.

What to consider:

Tread cautiously if you’re a new business or don’t yet have many followers. While a brand mark is often the hallmark of companies that could be considered iconic, you need to first be established enough to be recognized. Otherwise, your logo may not communicate enough about you to your audience, and they’ll lose interest in your brand.

Also, bear in mind that if you’re planning on expanding your product line to a few diverse objects, your logo may misrepresent what you do.

Inspiration: The Rolling Stones, Apple, Twitter.

#2. Abstract Logo Marks

Abstract logos are your conceptual, think-about-the-big-picture logos.

Like a brand mark logo, an abstract logo consists of just a symbol – but one that is tailor-made for you. This type of image doesn’t necessarily mimic an object that exists in real life; rather, it’s a unique logo that’s designed to express something specific about your brand.

Advantages:

There’s room to play with these, because you can design a logo that really communicates your values or something about your brand that you’d like to emphasize.

Because an abstract logo isn’t restricted to a real-world object or image, there’s a lot of wiggle room to say what you want about your company. Particularly if you’re a company that does several distinct things, a well-thought out abstract mark may be the perfect logo for you!

What to consider:

You’ll want to make sure that you refine the logo design until you’re sure you’re conveying the intended message to the world. Attention to detail is crucial with abstract logo marks, and you don’t want your message to be misconstrued with a logo design that’s too vague or hard to understand.  

Also, a logo with excessive detail in the design may not look the way you want when printed at different resolutions; therefore, consult with a logo designer that understands how fonts, colors and shapes interact.

Inspiration: Airbnb, Pepsi, Microsoft (Windows)

abstract logos

#3. Mascots

Arguably the most family-friendly type of logo, mascots are images of a character or person that act as a visual representation of your business. Think of them as your brand’s “spokesperson” – much of your advertising will be centered around them.

Advantages:

Mascots give their audience that warm-and-fuzzy feeling, which leads to creating a distinctly memorable brand. Also, nothing appeals to kids more than a physical, tangible character that they can relate to.

And, while you may empathize with the guy standing outside a seafood restaurant waving the arms of a 6’2 lobster costume as he sweats desperately in the August heat, your kids are likely to go crazy over him and beg you to eat there.

Just some food for thought. (See what I did there?)

What to consider:

Realize that Mascots may not send the right message if your company’s focus is global innovation or disrupting the pencil industry – or, of course, marketing a product that isn’t child-friendly.

Case in point – Camel cigarettes ran a ten-year advertising campaign based on their mascot, Joe Camel (also known as Old Joe). However, they had to pull the campaign in 1997 while facing an impending lawsuit that accused the company of using Old Joe to target children – evidenced by a $470 million increase in cigarette sales to teenagers since the campaign started.

Moral of the story: If you’re a company selling cigarettes – don’t try to promote to kids. Just don’t.

Companies like Pillsbury, on the other hand, are perfectly represented by their wholesome, doughy – I mean, well-rounded – mascots (pictured below).

Inspiration: The food industry – KFC, Pillsbury, Kellogg’s.

mascot logos

#4. Wordmark Logos (Logotypes)

These types of logos consist of text only – company names, monograms or initials.

Essentially, logotypes are just a company name set in some kind of particular typeface.

Advantages:

No one has to do any guessing when they see a wordmark – it’s quite clear what company the logo represents. Because the design is all in the lettering, logotypes are one of the most versatile logo options that are easily transferable onto any marketing material.

Also, if your company name is catchy, this is the perfect way to highlight that and use it to your branding advantage.

What to consider:

Does your company name say anything about what you do? If you’re not well-known, or if your business is named after a person rather than a concept, it may be difficult to create the kind of brand recognition you’d want a logo to help foster.

Inspiration: Subway, Uber, Camelback

examples of wordmark logos

#5. Lettermarks (Monograms)

Think abbreviations. Lettermarks, or monogram logos, are typography-based logos that take the abbreviated initials of a company and spruce up their design a bit. Boom! You have a no-fuss, no-frills logo.

Advantages:

Likely more than ever before, the world loves abbreviations (maybe we have the current technological era to thank for that?). From our interpersonal communication style (LOL, BTW, OMG – to name a few) to our luxury car companies (BMW), acronyms are throwing themselves all over the modern era.

Also, they’re to the point: Lettermarks turn your lengthy business name into an identifiable brand identity.

It’s relatively easy to get this logo up and running, so monograms could be a great option if you’re a new/small business who needs to get their name out there.

What to consider:

Know your fonts. The simplicity of the logo should work to your advantage, but make sure you’re not stuck with a boring, forgettable logo design; the appeal lies in the details.

Also, you may want to consider embossing your business’s full name under your logo on branding materials (like business cards or a landing page) so that people can build an association between your monogram logo and your company name.  

Inspiration: IKEA, CNN, FedEx

examples of lettermark logos

#6. Letterforms

Letterforms are the minimalist cousins of monograms – they’re just one-letter logos. Of course, these logos should be bold and beautiful (read: designed well), since it is difficult for a letter alone to convey a clear message. Think Favicons (“shortcut” or website icons).   

Advantages:

Letterforms are easily scalable – when your logo is just one letter, you can stick it anywhere and have it look equally as good.And, a successfully-designed letterform will subconsciously invoke the full name of your brand in people’s minds.   

What to consider:

Because these logos are just one letter, the design is crucial; if the logo isn’t memorable, it’s pointless. This could mean it has a funky font, dramatic backdrop or interesting color scheme- anything that makes the letter pop off the page and resonate.

Note: Make sure the font you use is legible – if your logo is just one letter, you want people to be able to read it.

Inspiration: McDonalds, WordPress, Yahoo

examples of letterform logos

#7. Combination Marks

The name is pretty self-explanatory, but combination logos incorporate – combine – both images and words into their design.

Combination marks logos are comprised of any combination of images and words that you choose; you can pair a letterform with a mascot, a monogram with an abstract image – whichever combination speaks to you the most.

Advantages:

One word: Versatility.

With both symbols and letters at your disposal, you can use your logo to craft a clear brand message that sticks.

The combination also allows for easy rebranding – your company name, for example, combined with an image (abstract or otherwise) will be associated as one, so that eventually your customers will only see the symbol and still immediately think of your brand.

(Nike did just that with their infamous “swoosh”; while their traditional logo is their name combined with the swoosh image, their clothing is often branded with just the swoosh – and is instantly recognized.)

What to consider:

Versatile doesn’t = excessive. Conceptualize how you want your name and symbol to work together, and keep your logo design clean and on-message.

Inspiration: Taco Bell, CVS, Toblerone.

examples of combination mark logos

#8. Emblem Logo

Even the name has that impressive, traditional feel. Emblems have stood the test of time, from family crests to the royal stamps of powerful monarchs. These logos consist of typeface that sits within a border – usually a seal or a crest. Think universities and government organizations.

Advantages:

Emblems are memorable, and they lend an air of professionalism, traditionalism and importance to your brand. They also give the impression that your company has been around forever, and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

What to consider:

Once again, think about scalability as you design your emblem, since these logos tend to have more detailed designs that may not look as nice when resized.

Also, emblems don’t afford you the same flexibility as standard combination marks do, so be absolutely sure about your design before sending your logo into the world.

Inspiration: Starbucks, Stella Artois, Superman

#9. Dynamic Marks

You could say dynamic marks are the new-age logo. Unlike other logos, this type of logo adapts itself to the context in which it’s used. This means that rather than having one standard font-color-text combination in your logo, these elements can change – whether on the internet or on different branding materials.  

Advantages:

You can be as creative as you want! Because there are so many mediums through which to build your brand (think responsive web pages or mobile sites, blogs, digital media, merchandise, ads – the list doesn’t end) you can modify your logo to fit any scenario or make a slew of impressions on potential customers.

Also, dynamic logos keep things interesting – your audience will be waiting on the edge of their digital seats to see what you come up with next.

What to consider:

You don’t want to lose the associative power of your logo; some of your followers may connect your brand with your colors, others may remember the shape of your icon – if these details are constantly changing, your logo may not cause the same effect as a stagnant logo would. Be mindful of the changes you make, and once again, make sure to keep your logo on message.  

Inspiration: Nickelodeon, AOL

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know about the types of logos that are out there, it’s time to craft your own! Don’t worry – Tailor Brands logo designers tools have you covered.

Swag Notes

by with 4 Comments graphic_designmarketing101

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Benefits of doing business online

by with No Comment marketing101

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You don’t have to run your entire business over the internet to benefit from online business opportunities. Small businesses might only need an email address to communicate with their clients, customers and suppliers electronically. Other businesses might use their website to conduct their entire business online.

The many benefits of online business include:

  • global access, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  • improved client service through greater flexibility
  • cost savings
  • faster delivery of products
  • increased professionalism
  • less paper waste
  • opportunities to manage your business from anywhere in the world.

Customers may prefer to visit your website to find out about your products and services, instead of visiting you in person. They will also expect to see your website address and your email on business cards and other promotional materials.

 

Online business opportunities

How you manage your business online will depend on the products or services you offer. You may be able to use the internet to:

  • run an online shop
  • manage your suppliers
  • communicate with your customers, and get their feedback on your business
  • offer services online
  • allow customers to make reservations or appointments online
  • manage your finances, such as online banking, tax and employee pay
  • research competitors.

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Keep in mind that your business, as well as the variety of online tools available, is constantly changing and evolving. While you might not plan to have a website immediately when you start operating, it’s still a good idea to think about whether you will need one at a later date and what you will use it for.

When you are planning the online aspects of your business, you should:

  • research your competitors and other businesses that use online tools
  • decide what aspects of online business will benefit your business
  • review your budget to work out what you can afford
  • familiarise yourself with any laws and regulations that will apply to your online business activities
  • consider your requirements, including what software you need and what types of computer equipment you need to run it
  • plan for risks, such as computer viruses, scams, data theft and loss of or damage to hardware
  • think about what training you or your staff might need
  • be realistic about the time and budget you will need to manage the online aspects of your business.

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The Importance of Color in Graphic Design

by with No Comment graphic_designmarketing101

Every color choice can make a difference in your design

happy beans design color wheel

Colors have an impact on our daily life. Everywhere you look, you see colors! Have you ever thought that colors mean something? Sure, we learned our colors in school, what they are, how to mix them, but we never really knew what meanings they have behind them. Strange right? Let’s learn about the importance of color in graphic design.

Graphic design is essentially throwing color combinations together to make a color pallet. Then to make this color swatch work in harmony with the layout. There is a whole psychology of colors and the theories of how they interact with humans.

In order to understand how color is important in graphic design, it is good to understand colors in general. The color wheel is the easiest thing to look at when you are learning about your colors and hues. I know we aren’t in kindergarten anymore; however, it is still important to know what types of colors there are and their relationships with each other.

Primary Colors

The color wheel has 12 basic colors. Let’s start with our primary colors first. These are red, blue, and yellow. Our primary colors make a triangle on the wheel. These are primary colors because you can not mix any other color to get these colors. You can think of red, blue, and yellow as the original colors.

happy beans design primary colors
Primary colors

The cool thing is that you can mix these colors and to make color combinations! Mixing colors is pretty sweet because if you were painting and needed a different color, but you only had red, blue, and yellow, you can make whatever hue you need.

In the graphic design world, you are going to have a color scheme with your project. You will most likely have a strong primary color that your brand is associated with. This primary brand color will allow for your brand to create a color combination that should be visible on your website. It doesn’t have to be red, blue, or yellow, but there is going to be one color that truly stands out, through contrast, as the primary color with your brand or in your design. Use this primary color sparingly as an accent color. We rarely recommend using this color as a background color.

Secondary Colors

Now, this is where we get into secondary colors! We can mix red and blue to get purple, blue and yellow creates green, and yellow and red creates orange. The colors that are mixed between the primary colors are the secondary colors. Secondary colors also make a triangle within the color wheel.

happy beans design secondary colors
Secondary colors

You can also use secondary colors in your design. Let’s say we the color blue as our primary color in our design, and I want to use yellow to highlight key terms or event information. The yellow would be my secondary color because I am not overpowering the design with yellow, I am just using it for accents. I can even use orange as my secondary color in my design, and this might look better than the yellow since blue and orange are complementary colors.

However you decide to use a secondary color, it doesn’t have to only be “secondary colors” like purple, green, or orange. Mix and match to see what colors work best for your overall design! As long as it is appealing to the eye, it is good to experiment to see what colors are best. It may take a couple of tries, but you will make it work.

Tertiary Colors

happy beans designs tertiary colors
Tertiary colors

To get secondary colors, we had to mix two side-by-side primary colors to get the mix that is in between the two. To get tertiary colors, you pretty much do the same thing but with one primary color and one secondary color (as long as they are side by side). This will then result in 6 tertiary colors, bringing our total of colors to 12!

You can mix red and purple will make a magenta color, mixing purple and blue will get a blue-purple color, and mixing blue and green will get a teal color. If you mix green and yellow, you will get a yellow-green color. Mixing yellow and orange will get you a yellow-orange color, and mixing orange and red will create a red-orange color.

Shades, Tints, Tones of Colors

If the natural state of the color is mixed with another natural color, then it is considered a pure color. We also have the option to include black and white to our pure colors! If you add any amount of black to a color, this is considered a shade (like being in the shade of a tree). If you were to add any amount of white to a pure color, it is called a tint. If you add black and white together into the pure color (same as adding gray), this is a tone.

The Importance of Color Relationships

Now that we know our colors and how you can make other colors, we can get into how they are related to each color. Using a single color with varying tints or shades is a monochromatic color scheme. An analogous color scheme is using a primary, secondary, and tertiary (for a total of 3 colors) that are all side-by-side with each other. Complementary colors are directly across the color wheel from each other, like red and green, blue and orange, or yellow and purple. A triad color scheme makes a triangle where the colors are equally spaced across the wheel. The primary and secondary colors each make a triangle with each other, so these would be within a triad color relationship.

Adobe Color has a really neat color wheel that you can create your own color schemes, including analogous, monochromatic, even custom schemes if you want to customize the colors. They also have a cool explore tab which includes pre-made color schemes.

A sample from Adobe Color

Color Means Something Different to Everyone

When thinking about a particular color, you might associate a meaning to the color. For instance, if you were to look at a bright yellow color, you might think that it is joyful and happy.

Red is generally associated with strong emotions like love and anger. This also includes excitement and strength since it is a bold color.

Orange shows a sense of optimism, creativity, and fun. Some people can interpret orange as encouraging since it is a combination of yellow and red.

Yellow is very optimistic! It is fresh, sunny, and youthful. People tend to associate it with success or confidence. Since it is generally light and bright, the eye tends to see that color first.

Green is associated with nature. It shows growth and renewal, as well as reliability and safety. It is peaceful and can also be very refreshing. A combination of yellow and blue makes it light and also reliable. Green means go and also means success.

Blue is a very trustworthy color. It is strong and portrays honesty and loyalty. It is associated with the sea and sky, which brings a sense of calmness. Blue also reduces the stress of the viewer.

Purple is thought of as royal and spiritual. People tend to believe that it has a characteristic of luxury or quality. Since purple is a combination of red and blue, there is energy from the red and calmness from the blue.

Graphic Design

Art with a purpose is graphic design. By using visuals and colors, the designer can portray a message to the viewer. The designer is trying to achieve a goal with their design by using these different elements. A design can use only images, and it can include simple typography, abstract shapes, basically anything as long as it can portray the message effectively.

The average person is looking at designs every day. Whether it be social media ads, flyers for events in the office, billboards, or food packaging, graphic design is very present in today’s society. Each person has their own graphic style that they like as well. Some people like the cartoon graphics, some like clean and precise designs, some like hand-drawn graphics.

If you want to learn more about the value of graphic design, a Happy Bean team member wrote an article all about the values which you can check out.

Also, another one of our Happy Bean team members wrote an article about how to prepare a poster digitally, which also includes some cool facts about graphic design and color theory.

Color Theory in Graphic Design

For designers, it is super important to know how colors are being portrayed and how the user or viewer is interpreting the color. Google’s bright and colorful logo would not be the same if it were all black.

If a color isn’t appealing, the viewer is going to become uninterested. They have already made their decision about the brand even if they don’t know what the product or company is. This generally takes 90 seconds or less for the viewer to determine their opinion of the brand. It comes down to the color and imagery to determine if it is successful.

The color of a brand is the personality of the brand. Color also creates a brand identity that someone can associate with. For instance, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter all use blue in their logo. But they use a different type of blue. Looking at what the color means, it is trustworthy, calm, honest, and loyal.

If the color of Facebook was a bright and bold red, would you still use it? Would you get the same feeling if the color was changed? The personality of the brand would be different if it weren’t the cool, professional blue that we all know and love.

Some examples of why color is important to graphic design

Let’s use an example of a bathing suit company. What colors do you think of? Bright and warm like the sun? Something that uses oranges and yellows, most likely.

What about a company that sells camping supplies? It probably has some browns and greens in their brand since those are the most common colors found in nature. The company might not be using purple or magenta in their brand personality because it doesn’t scream “nature.”

For example, if we want to make an event flyer for a restaurant opening, think about what colors would work best in this situation. A majority of chain restaurants have the color red associated with them. This color is bold, easy to see, and evokes a feeling of hunger from the viewer. When making an event flyer, maybe use some colors of red in the design to bring a sense of urgency and hunger to whoever is looking at it.

These little things can make all the difference in your design. If you didn’t know the importance of color in graphic design, then you might be making the wrong color choice when creating your project.

Color in Your Designs – It’s All a Choice

Using colors in your design is pretty much up to you! Before starting any design, think about the message you are trying to get across and how the colors might affect the viewer. Know the meanings of the colors you are using and make sure that you are portraying the design’s personality in the right way.

The Importance of a Website for Your Business Success

by with No Comment marketing101
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Most consumers are looking online for information that will help them make smarter purchasing decisions. In fact, according to the eCommerce Foundation, 88% of consumers will research product information before they make a purchase online or in the store. This buying behavior trend emphasizes the importance of a website for today’s businesses.

If you want your company to be successful in the modern marketplace, you’ve got to have a professional website. Your website is the backbone of your business, supporting all of your digital marketing efforts. Below, we’ll discuss the importance of a website for your business success and what you need to know about getting started with a professional website for your business.

Importance of a Website for Marketing

The importance of a website for marketing extends to every aspect of your digital marketing strategy. As the backbone of your online presence, every type of communication, piece of content, or advertisement that you put online will drive the consumer back to your website. As such, it’s important that your website gives consumers a clear idea of what your brand is about and what types of products or services you offer.

Let’s start with your social media marketing. Though you use third-party social media sites to reach and engage with consumers, you have to have a place to send consumers to when they want to learn more about your business. Similar to our social media post below. We tell consumers we are an SEO company, but if they don’t know what SEO is, then they can learn more by following the link to a blog post about SEO.

Your website serves as that “home base” where you can send customers when they want to make a purchase or learn more about a particular product or service you offer.

The importance of a website for content marketing is also significant. Your content needs a place to live. Whether it’s blog posts or product descriptions, you need a place to display that information so that prospective customers can find it. Your website is the perfect place to house all of the great content your business creates to inform and engage your target audience – just like the blog post you’re reading right now that’s providing you with more information.

Your website also plays an important role in your email marketing. If you are using email marketing to reach and engage your customers, then you need somewhere to send them to convert. Your website is the perfect place to guide your email subscribers to when you want them to learn more about a product or even make a purchase. You could do this in your weekly newsletter like we do.

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Importance of branding

by with No Comment graphic_designmarketing101

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What Should a Brand Do?

Branding is not just about getting your target market to select you over the competition. It’s also about getting your prospects to see you as the sole provider of a solution to their problem or need. In its essence, branding is a problem-solver. A good brand will:  

  • Clearly deliver a message
  • Confirm the brand’s credibility in the marketplace
  • Emotionally connect target prospects with a product or service
  • Motivate the buyer to make a purchase
  • Create user loyalty

Branding and Understanding Your Customer

To succeed in branding, you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You can achieve this by integrating your brand strategies throughout your company at every point of public contact.

Think of branding as though your company or organization were a living, breathing person. Imagine this person explaining who they are, why they’re valuable, and what they specifically have to offer.

As consumers begin to identify with you, your brand will live in the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects, and they’ll connect on an emotional level.  

The Importance of Branding and the Three Key Questions

Your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. If you’re billing yourself as the manufacturer of the longest-lasting light bulb, your brand has to live up to that.

It’s important to spend time researching, defining, and building your brand.

In developing a strategic marketing plan, your brand serves as a guide to understanding the purpose of your key business objectives and enables you to align the plan with those objectives. Branding doesn’t just count during the time before the purchase—the brand experience has to last to create customer loyalty. You can create that by answering these three questions:

  1. Did the product or service perform as expected?
  2. Was the quality as good as promised or better?
  3. Was the entire customer experience positive?

If you can get positive answers to these three questions, you’ve created a loyal customer.

Beyond Loyal Customers

Branding not only creates loyal customers, but it also creates loyal employees. A quality brand gives people something to believe in and something to stand behind. It helps employees understand the purpose of the organization they work for. They feel like they’re a part of something significant and not just a cog in a wheel.  

A Basic Checklist to Evaluate Your Brand

How do you know if your brand is strong enough to give you the internal and external value that you need? Start by asking yourself the following:

  • Does the brand relate to my target audience? Will they instantly “get it” without too much thought? 
  • Does the brand share the uniqueness of what I am offering and why it’s important?  
  • Does the brand reflect the promise made to my target audience and hold value for my internal audience?  
  • Does the brand reflect the values that I want to represent to my customers?  

Let these questions serve as a guideline in the development of your brand. If you’re not sure about the answers then you may want to revamp your branding efforts.

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SEO 101

by with No Comment marketing101
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What is SEO?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It’s the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as exposure to your brand, through non-paid (also known as “organic”) search engine results.

Despite the acronym, SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines themselves. It’s about understanding what people are searching for online, the answers they are seeking, the words they’re using, and the type of content they wish to consume. Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to connect to the people who are searching online for the solutions you offer.

If knowing your audience’s intent is one side of the SEO coin, delivering it in a way search engine crawlers can find and understand is the other. In this guide, expect to learn how to do both.

What’s that word mean?

If you’re having trouble with any of the definitions in this chapter, be sure to open up our SEO glossary for reference!Check out the SEO glossary 

Search engine basics

Search engines are answer machines. They scour billions of pieces of content and evaluate thousands of factors to determine which content is most likely to answer your query.

Search engines do all of this by discovering and cataloguing all available content on the Internet (web pages, PDFs, images, videos, etc.) via a process known as “crawling and indexing,” and then ordering it by how well it matches the query in a process we refer to as “ranking.” We’ll cover crawling, indexing, and ranking in more detail in Chapter 2.

Which search results are “organic”?

As we said earlier, organic search results are the ones that are earned through effective SEO, not paid for (i.e. not advertising). These used to be easy to spot – the ads were clearly labeled as such and the remaining results typically took the form of “10 blue links” listed below them. But with the way search has changed, how can we spot organic results today?

Today, search engine results pages — often referred to as “SERPs” — are filled with both more advertising and more dynamic organic results formats (called “SERP features”) than we’ve ever seen before. Some examples of SERP features are featured snippets (or answer boxes), People Also Ask boxes, image carousels, etc. New SERP features continue to emerge, driven largely by what people are seeking.

For example, if you search for “Denver weather,” you’ll see a weather forecast for the city of Denver directly in the SERP instead of a link to a site that might have that forecast. And, if you search for “pizza Denver,” you’ll see a “local pack” result made up of Denver pizza places. Convenient, right?

It’s important to remember that search engines make money from advertising. Their goal is to better solve searcher’s queries (within SERPs), to keep searchers coming back, and to keep them on the SERPs longer.

Some SERP features on Google are organic and can be influenced by SEO. These include featured snippets (a promoted organic result that displays an answer inside a box) and related questions (a.k.a. “People Also Ask” boxes).

It’s worth noting that there are many other search features that, even though they aren’t paid advertising, can’t typically be influenced by SEO. These features often have data acquired from proprietary data sources, such as Wikipedia, WebMD, and IMDb.

Why SEO is important

While paid advertising, social media, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, the majority of online traffic is driven by search engines.

Organic search results cover more digital real estate, appear more credible to savvy searchers, and receive way more clicks than paid advertisements. For example, of all US searches, only ~2.8% of people click on paid advertisements.

In a nutshell: SEO has ~20X more traffic opportunity than PPC on both mobile and desktop.

SEO is also one of the only online marketing channels that, when set up correctly, can continue to pay dividends over time. If you provide a solid piece of content that deserves to rank for the right keywords, your traffic can snowball over time, whereas advertising needs continuous funding to send traffic to your site.

Search engines are getting smarter, but they still need our help.

Optimizing your site will help deliver better information to search engines so that your content can be properly indexed and displayed within search results.

Should I hire an SEO professional, consultant, or agency?

Depending on your bandwidth, willingness to learn, and the complexity of your website(s), you could perform some basic SEO yourself. Or, you might discover that you would prefer the help of an expert. Either way is okay!

If you end up looking for expert help, it’s important to know that many agencies and consultants “provide SEO services,” but can vary widely in quality. Knowing how to choose a good SEO company can save you a lot of time and money, as the wrong SEO techniques can actually harm your site more than they will help.

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