Why All The Search Engine Secrecy?The search engines try to be good at keeping their methods of ranking websites top-secret. You never quite know exactly why such-and-so company wound up in the #1 slot and your company is way down on page 3. You wonder if it's because the search engines like it better. Or because it knows the secret handshake. So, you start doing research-and there's a lot of conflicting information out there:
Keep Your Logo SimpleThe job of your logo is to communicate what your business is all about in an instant. But if you try to say too much in that instant, it's more likely that your clients and prospects will either not get the message at all or that they'll get the wrong message-and wind up pulling the wrong information out of an overcomplicated logo.
The 5 Jobs of your Logo's Color PalettePicking colors for your logo can be difficult. Just how do you go about choosing appropriate colors? Everyone has favorite colors, and many people also have colors they hate. But, whether or not you personally like a color actually has little to do with its appropriateness for your business's brand. You should make your choices based on the colors that will best perform the color palette's jobs.
Getting Your Website Noticed by the Search EnginesYou've just launched your website, marking the end of a huge effort and the beginning of a whole new way of doing business. Now, all you have to do is sit back and wait for visitors to flood in, right? But, people have to know your site's there in order to visit. So you go over to Google and search on your field to find your business. You don't see anything on the first few pages.
The 6 Jobs of Your Logo's IconThis is a case of the icon's job description not being well written. In a perfect world, entrepreneurs love their logo icons-and personally identify with their meaning. But, that's the logo icon's last, and least important, job. First, it must do several more important jobs for your company.
Designing Temporary Materials to Get You Through A Branding EmergencyWhat if your urgent problem is that you have no marketing materials for your business? Having something to market your business with is better than nothing. In some cases, it might even help you get to the next step in your brand.
Branding Is Like A Fairy Tale...It may not seem like the story of Little Red Riding Hood has much of a parallel to your business's brand. But, a good brand can be a lot like a story. Instead of being a story of a little girl going on a journey, and overcoming different challenges, the brand is the story of how you take your customer from just learning about your business to becoming a customer.
How To Avoid Having Two Separate Businesses To Market Even If You Offer Two ServicesI get a lot of questions from small business owners who have two major problems they solve or two services they offer in one business. I'm not really sure why this is so prevalent-but I have a feeling that it might have to do with the reluctance that a lot of small business owners feel when it comes to paring down their services or target audiences.
The Three-Part Harmony in Your LogoJust as a harmonized song is made up of a set of three notes, every small business's logo should be made up of three pieces of art: the icon, the font, and the color palette. These three pieces all work together, singing the same basic song, to tell your business's story. In your logo, each of them gives you an opportunity to build in meaning and symbolism.
The Four Red Light Factors For Your Business BrandMaking decisions about the 4 following Brand Definition factors does make you stop and wait a bit but ensures that you proceed through the branding process safely and create a brand that will help your business to reach its goals safely and comfortably.
Where to put your contact info on a trifold brochureWhen you're designing a trifold brochure, you have to put your contact information someplace on the brochure. The only question is, where?
How A Strong Brand Identity Helps Overcome Customer ReluctanceMany small businesses, especially one-person businesses, don't see the point in investing the time, work and money in creating a brand identity. After all, they're very good at whatever it is that they do, and they should be able to make more than 'just a living' by simply putting up a website, being themselves, and delivering a high-quality service, right?
Rebranding Is an Excuse to Party in Your BusinessOnce the redesign is done, many small businesses launch it silently. They change their logos, business cards, and websites one day-sometimes without so much as an announcement or a 'By the way... ' to their customers. Not only are they potentially confusing and alienating them, but they're also missing out on a great excuse to party!
How To Stand Out At A Trade ShowIf you're setting up a display at a trade show, you have to do more than just pay for a booth space, put on a nice outfit that morning, and walk in the door for your company to get real results. You have to think about how you'll cut through all the 'noise' to get in touch with your target audience.
Why your Business Brand Shouldn't Be An Exact Mirror Image Of YouCustomers and prospects are more concerned about their needs, their businesses, and their situations than they are about how good you are. What they want to know is how you're going to help them. And if you're a one-person business, they're likely to be more concerned about the fact that you're the only one there rather than being thrilled about your experience.
How Your Business Should Act Like A SnowflakeJust like snowflakes, your business will have several different types of uniqueness. On the surface, you'll want your brand and marketing materials to look unique, so that when all of your materials go out, they can stand out from your competitions'.
Why You Won't Get Instant Gratification From the Search Engines and What to Do About ItSo, when it's time to get your website listed on the search engines, it's only natural for you to want to be up on Google right away. I can't tell you how many emails I've gotten from clients right after I've let them know that their site is launched, saying 'But, I Googled myself, and I'm not there! Why not?'
Why Starting A Relationship With The Search Engines Can Be Hard...Search Engines have a lot in common with singles. They've been hurt, and they aren't so quick to trust any more.
Your Small Business's Search Engine Ranking EmergencyNo one wants an emergency-but if you've got one on your hands, it's good to know the steps to take to 'stabilize the patient.' If your small business emergency is that your website isn't showing up on the search engines, there a couple of steps you can take right now. You just have to check 2 things to perform Search Engine CPR on your site:
The Search Engine TrinityLike Cajun food, getting a small business listed on the search engines also is based on a trinity of components. These components give your search engine efforts a base to be built off of, and ensure that you'll be successful. Those are: the ease of getting listed, the effectiveness of your listing, and then finally, the level of placement.
Time to 'Get Over' the Rainbow (in your logo, that is)Ah, rainbows. They're beautiful things, stretching across the sky, like Mother Nature apologizing for wet, nasty weather. It's no wonder that so many people love them. But, love can quickly turn to hate if you use a many-colored palette in your business brand.
Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company's BrandWhen you first start a small business, you create your brand based on your hopes and plans for the future of the company. Sometimes this is based on experience, but more often than not it's based on a guess. Then once you actually start doing business, you may find that your business isn't following the same path you set out on.
How to Make Sure Your Website Won't Need a Do-OverWhen you were young, do-overs were an easy way to resolve an argument, fix unfairness or quickly change history. Why wouldn't you want to be able to do this with your business website? Unlike the playground game, designing a website takes a lot of time, work and money - it's just not a task that you're going to want to start over from scratch again!
The Domino Effect of Changing Your LogoIt's a rainy afternoon and you've got a hot cup of tea and a box of dominoes. You set them up on end, one next to the other in a snaking line across your dining room table. Then you bump the first domino and watch as the rest fall down, one after the other.
The Building Blocks of Visual Vocabulary: FlexibilityJust like the sidekicks help out a superhero, your Visual Vocabulary together with your logo helps put the kapow into your brand identity. These Visual Vocabulary 'sidekicks' are the graphics, font styles, colors, and layouts you use in your materials, and even the type of paper you print your materials on. One of the best features of a Visual Vocabulary is its flexibility.
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