Not Just Pretty | Building An Effective Small Business Brand

Is Your Brand Representative Of Who You Really Are?

 Does your brand show your clients an authentic picture of your business's personality? Does it shine with your style? Does it feel like it fits you perfectly?

If your answer to any of the above is "no", and your brand doesn't truly represent you, then you're setting your clients up with unrealistic expectations. Clients expect that your brand will be an accurate reflection of what you're all about. If they look at your brand and see an energetic, enthusiastic image, but then working with you is serious and hard, then you're creating a gap between their expectations and your delivery. And that's a path to an unhappy client relationship.

How can your brand wind up being off-base? Here are a few scenarios that show how this can happen:

• You let "what you're supposed to be" drive the branding process. You made your branding decisions based on what you think your clients might respond well to — instead of thinking first about creating a brand that shows your soul. 

• You were afraid to show the "real you" in your brand, because that may not look professional. You designed something that focused on looking professional instead of being exuberantly you. The result? A brand that falls flat or feels guarded — neither of which helps you to bond with your clients. 

• You rushed into the design process, trying to get something done on a deadline. You just sped through the process, making quick decisions, and giving hasty feedback. Now you're looking back at the brand you created, and wondering what you were thinking! 

• You didn't tell your designer the full vision behind your business. Perhaps you kept quiet because you thought that giving them less information would help them be more creative (which is not the case!) Or maybe you couldn't think of what to say, and your designer didn't ask a lot of questions. You wound up with something that's based on their assumptions about your business — and we all know that assumptions just aren't good.

How do you avoid designing a brand that just isn't you?

Create a brand that is an accurate representation of your business by taking a strong position in your business. You need to do some critical thinking, make some big decisions and fearlessly declare your strengths and attributes.

Get on the path towards taking a strong position by answering these questions:

• What is your ideal vision for your business? Your brand should make a statement about that vision — so you have to get really clear about the vision in order to create a brand that reflects that. 

• What experience do you want your clients to have? What should doing business with you feel like? What should they get out of it? How do you want to impact them? Create a brand that shows your clients what they will get out of working with you. 

• What do your clients say about you? If you get the same comments or compliments over and over again, then there's a good chance that you're getting an evaluation of how your business is showing up. Take note and use that in your branding. 

• How do your logo and materials "look and feel"? Designers say "look and feel" for a reason — your designs should evoke a feeling when people look at them. If they seem emotionless, then look at how you can infuse more meaning into them. And, if the feeling isn't right, or doesn't match up with the way you want them to feel, then take steps to align your materials with your business to create a unified front. 

• If you have a brand already, does it look the way that you want to be seen? Sometimes, determining if you already have a good thing going, or if you can find room for improvement can really help you to see the right direction.

Those questions should get you on the right track to figuring out who you really are in your business, so that you can show that in your brand. 

5 Brand Reexamination Triggers

Have you looked at your own brand lately? Really stopped and looked at it closely, to see whether it's still working for your business and making you look great?

Small businesses should check up on their brands at least once a year. It's like spring cleaning your closet — you want to go through your wardrobe and make sure that you get rid of anything that's worn out, doesn't fit, is inappropriate, isn't "you" anymore, or looks out of style. After you do that, you know that you have an entire closet full of clothes that make you look your best.

Your brand is your business's wardrobe. It has a huge impact on how your clients see your business. So it makes sense to reevaluate your brand every year to see if it still works for you. In addition to regularly reviewing your brand, here are 5 other triggers that mean it's time to examine your brand:

1. Your business has gone through fundamental changes. Your brand should be flexible enough to support your business through small changes — adding a new service that's similar to your existing packages, for example. But if you've made major changes — like deciding to work with a different type of ideal client, or discovering a new, major differentiator for your brand — then your brand should be re-evaluated to take those changes into account.

2. Your brand just needs to "grow up". Small businesses often go through "business adolescence" — a period of teenage growth and self-discovery, a few years into the business. Just like being a teenager, your business may get more difficult, suddenly start consuming more resources (you've seen a teenager empty the fridge, right?), or can start having challenges with clients. Often, companies will come out of this adolescent period with a new direction, personality, business structure, or even a new company mission and vision. If you feel like your company has been going through these growing pains, then you should probably examine your business and your brand.

3. You were never that comfortable with your brand to begin with. This is not to say that you have to love your brand — your brand should be designed to speak to your ideal clients, not to visually appeal to you personally. That said, you should certainly like your brand enough to not be embarrassed that it represents your business. You should never have to apologize for your brand, or be uneasy when a new client makes a comment about it. Also, if you don't feel that your brand represents your business correctly, it's time to re-evaluate.

4. Your brand doesn't "speak" to your ideal clients. Perhaps your idea of your ideal client has changed. Or, maybe your brand was designed incorrectly from the start, and never really worked for your ideal clients. In any case, you find yourself gazing, longingly, at the clients you'd love to work with — you can see them, and find them, but they don't seem to "get" that they should work with you. Meanwhile, the clients who are coming to you are great (and you love that you have clients!) but they're just not perfect. Go back to your brand and really look at it through your ideal clients' eyes. If you can't do this yourself, then go find a few of your ideal clients and ask them directly about your brand — and what is and isn't appealing to them.

5. The outside world has changed. If you've been in business for even a couple of years, then you're probably all-too-familiar with this reason. Between the economy changing, climate concerns, technology changes and all sorts of other current affairs, many small businesses have found that their worlds have changed. This can show up as industry-wide changes, customer-buying changes, or a reduction in the need for your services. Instead of fighting against the change and looking at it as an obstacle to your success, look at how you can change your business and your brand to fit the new world — and come out on top. 

If you've experienced any of these triggers, then it's time to go through your business's brand and to reevaluate whether it fits your business as well as possible. 

How Do You Evaluate Your Brand? The first step is to step back and create your Brand Definition and figure out what your business is currently about. You may be surprised about the thoroughness of the results, like Marie was: "I've made huge strides in my business with Erin's Define Your Difference Branding Workbook. It's a thorough process — this book caused me to fill in an amazing number of blanks in my brand — even some blanks I didn't know I had to fill in." —Marie Guthrie, The Legacy Track This workbook contains over 70 questions that help you get to the core of your brand definition. By asking many questions, in many different ways, it helps you break through your blocks and to see answers that you couldn't see before. Price: $59

Contact Information To Include On Your Business Card

The logo and graphic elements that you include on your business card are quite important, but having the right text and contact information on the card is equally important. Here are our tips about the elements to include:

Your name — Consider whether you want to include your middle name or initial, degrees or professional credentials that are unique to your field.

Title — Including a title on your card will help your potential clients to identify your position within your company. Including a title can also make your company seem larger. A reason to not include a title would be if you're a consultant, and want to market your solo nature as a benefit to your clients.

Address — Always include an address on your business card, even if you are operating a business out of your home. Including your address greatly increases your credibility and makes your business appear established. If you're concerned about privacy, a post office box is a great way to go. When signing up for a post office box, consider using a commercial mailbox vendor (such as the UPS Store) instead of a box at the United States Post Office. At a mailbox store, you are given a street address instead of the typical "P.O. Box". The store also accepts shipped packages from UPS, FedEx, and other carriers, so you won't need to give out your home address as a shipping address.

Phone number (and toll-free number) — Include your phone number and, if you do business long distance, consider including an 800 or toll-free number as well, as an amenity for your clients.

Cell phone number — This is an option to consider if you'd like to make your services available to your clients around the clock, or if your business often takes you on the road. If you'd like to keep your cell phone number private, you can do that tactfully by offering to make your cell phone number available to clients once they have signed up for your services—then your clients will feel special and know that you're taking good care of them.

Fax number — If you have a fax number you should include it on your card. If you rarely receive a fax, or if you don't know if faxes will be useful in your business, you can try using efax (www.efax.com). This is an online service that can provide you with a free fax number that will email all of your faxes to your email account. They also offer a paid service that is available as an upgrade if the number of faxed pages you receive per month exceeds their free offering. That enables you to upgrade if needed, without changing your fax number and reprinting your cards.

Email address — Your email address is an often-overlooked opportunity to brand your business. Instead of using a generic email address such as "yourname@aol.com" or "yourname@comcast.net", purchase your own branded domain name to use as your email—yourname@yourbusiness.com. It's inexpensive and easy to set up, especially if you use GoDaddy.com to register your name and set up the new email address to forward to your existing account. This makes your business look larger and more professional.

Website address — A website is a must in today's business world, even if it's a simple, one-page site that gives a few paragraphs of information about your business offerings and your contact information. A website offers potential clients an easy, no-pressure way to both learn more about your business, or to refer you to new clients. This is also another way to take advantage of the branded domain name that you set up to use for your email address—using it for your website URL will extend your business brand further.

Tagline — If you have a tagline, including it on your business card will contribute to your branding and memorability, and a graphic treatment of the tagline (font, color and any graphic effects used) can add visual interest to the card as well.

License Numbers — Include your license number if you are required to display them by your industry regulations (i.e., insurance or contractors), or if your being licensed is a benefit that you offer to your clients, or if it differentiates you from your competition. 

Your Blog URL – If your blog is separate from your website, then you'll want to include its' address on your card.

Social Media Links – If Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube are a major part of your brand and marketing strategies, then include links to your profiles on your business card. You may need to use shortened URLs (like bit.ly) or customized URLS (buy a new domain name and forward it to your profile) to make the links short enough to fit well. The back of the card is a great place to put these links.

A Link To Your Free Offer – If you have an amazing free report, free teleclass or CD offer, include a link on your card so that people will know where to access that information.

7 Ways To Define Your Small Business's Brand

Defining your small business's brand enables you to present the most important facts about your business in a compelling story that will help you connect with your target customers.

That's certainly easier said than done, though — defining a business's brand can be tough. Entrepreneurs often have a hard time creating a brand definition for their businesses. This can be because they are so because they're so intimately involved with the business — they work in it day in and day out, and lose track of the bigger picture. Others are so passionate and involved in their mission, that they forget to explain the business to others, assuming that everyone will "get" it intuitively. Whatever the reason, this difficulty can lead to a business that doesn't communicate clearly, that confuses customers or that just isn't compelling.

When the going gets tough, the tough get a process

In order create a brand definition that tells your business's story, you need to define 4 things: who you are (the personality and motivation for your business), what you do, what makes you different from your competition, and your target audience, or the people to whom you're telling that story.

How do you do that? Here are 7 ways to come up with an interesting, engaging and compelling brand story for your small business — and it won't be too tough.

1. Capture your thoughts about your business — in writing. If you were writing a novel, it would be important to start with an outline instead of trying to write the narrative straight from your imagination. The same is true for your business. Taking the thoughts and ideas that you have about your business and recording them can help you take the first step towards being both organized and thorough when creating your brand definition. If writing isn't your thing, try talking about your business into a voice recorder, and then having the recording transcribed; speaking about your business may be more natural than staring down a blank page.

2. Start with the easiest section. Is there one portion of your brand definition that seems easier to articulate than the others? Beginning with something easy and quick can give you the momentum to move through the rest of the process. For example, if you're really clear on what you do, it can help to get that down first and then to move forward from there.

3. Scrutinize your marketing materials. Read your own website, blog, and marketing materials with a curious and critical eye. What do you say in them that really reflects your thoughts on your business? And, what parts of your marketing materials appeal to your audience? Look to your materials to see what's working and what you should continue to use. Remove yourself from them as much as possible so that you don't overlook any subtle messages. And be sure to consider the things that you've said a thousand times before — those bits can be the most genuine. Go back over your past marketing materials as well — you can get a lot of valuable information out of your own history.

4. Review others' thoughts about your business. Go through your customer testimonials, emails, conversation or past feedback, review those to get gems of insight. What do people continually say about you? What comes to you as second-nature, yet still gains you compliments? How do others introduce or refer you? Listen to people who are talking about you — and see if what they're saying rings true. If you don't have testimonials yet, this might be a good time to go out and ask for some — they can help you in both your branding and marketing efforts.

5. Sift through questions you've received. Customer questions can be a gold mine filled with requests for the types of information that belongs in your brand definition. You're not looking so much for questions about the logistics of what you do — your delivery, process, contracts, or policies (though bits of these could contribute to your brand definition). More often, you'll be looking for questions about your beliefs, background and motivation, the answers to which could as a backbone to your story. Questions have the added benefit of coming from your target audience — so you already know what they want to know.

6. Compare yourself to the competition. Read your competitors' websites, blogs, newsletters, and any other marketing materials you can get your eyeballs on. Seeing what they're up to, what they talk about and what's important to them can help you to identify your brand — especially how you're different from them. Look for their brand stories, and use them as a template — fill your unique information into their overall format. Consider doing some hands-on research as well — purchasing their products or services so that you can experience them (if that's practical).

7. Ponder where you want your business to go. Your brand definition should be about both what you currently do and what you wish your business will become. You won't want to create a brand story that you'll then have to change in a years' time — or even within a couple of years. Think about the direction you'd like your business to take in the future. If you can't predict the future, then changing the story won't be the end of the world — but there's no harm in trying to create something that will last.

You can choose from and combine these 7 approaches in whatever ways you need to help you work out who you are, what you do, what makes you different and who you're talking to. That's not so tough, is it? 

Define Your Business Brand to Drive Business

 Small businesses who want to grow in a big way should create a brand definition, which is a focused story about who you are, what you do, what makes you different and who you can best help. This brand definition can then be used to inform and inspire your communications — your business writing, speaking, and brand designs. And, it can be translated into a business story that is memorable, compelling and engaging.

Having a well-defined business story helps business owners, customers and people working for your business (like employees, consultants and other businesses) to work together to drive your business forward.

For Business Owners:

• Organizes your thinking. If you're just starting your business or beginning the branding process, you may feel jumbled or disorganized in your thinking about your value, your mission, your differentiation, or even your offerings. You may not have a full picture of who your best clients are. If that's the case, creating a brand definition will help you to get really clear about what you're doing and why. This clarity can help you to communicate more clearly, to come up with better marketing plans and campaigns, and to direct your brand effectively.
  
  
• Allows you to build your brand strategically. Your brand definition helps you map out how you'd like to present your business, what you plan to provide to your clients, and who you'd like to work with. Then, you can measure your business's performance against this map and make sure that you're on course.
  
  
• Brings consistency. If you have no brand definition, you may wind up giving an inconsistent impression — because you're "making it up" on the spot. Speaking, writing and designing your marketing pieces consistently will bring repetition into your marketing efforts. Repetition is great for small businesses because it gives your prospects multiple, similar impressions of your business and this helps them learn about and remember you.
  
  
• Separates your business from you. Once you define your business brand, you have begun to build a business — not just a freelancing practice. Even if you are still a single person, working in a spare bedroom, in your pajamas, a brand definition lets your customers perceive you as a full-fledged business. This can help you ask for — and get — higher prices and more respect for your products and services.
  
  
• Gives you a central message. Instead of creating promotion-based marketing (basing your marketing on discounts or specials), you'll be able to base your marketing around your message and content. Selling your thinking can lead to higher credibility and higher prices.
  
  
• Helps your clients tell others about you. Have you ever tried to recommend someone's services and not been able to fully describe what they do? This is a common branding failure. It's easier — and more effective — for clients to pass along a brand story in a consistent, organized way. And, if your clients pass the word about you and give you referrals and increased word-of-mouth, then you win.

For Your Customers:

• Helps your customers understand you. When you clearly tell your customers who you are, what you do, and what makes you different, you‘re giving them the tools to understand what you're really all about. This instills goodwill and builds trust.
  
  
• Assures them that you're "for them". When you create a brand definition, you will define your best customers. When you write and design your marketing pieces, you can create them to speak directly to those customers, in their language. This can be very comforting for your best clients.
  
  
• Disqualifies clients who are a poor fit. For a small business, a bad client can be worse than no client at all. If a potential client who is not in your best client group runs across you, your brand story can help dissuade them from choosing you, and making your job more difficult. As a benefit to them, they can then move on to finding a provider who will be able to be of service to them.
  
  
• Makes it easier to justify purchasing from you. Customers want to know that they are making the right choice and to be reassured that they're spending their money with the right provider. By explaining your business thoroughly, you can remove some of their doubts about making a purchase, and you can also show them that they can really benefit from doing business with you.

For People That You Hire (Employees, Consultants and Supporting Businesses)

• Provides guidance. Your brand definition can help people that you hire to see the road that you are driving your business down. This can show them how they can best help you and how they can best help you reach your destination.
  
  
• Gets them moving in the same direction. If you have several people working with you on your business at once, but they're all pulling in different directions, you're likely to spend a lot of effort getting nowhere. But, if everyone you hire knows where they're supposed to be headed, then they will be able to combine their efforts, move together, and get better results.
  
  
• Reduces the possibility that they'll make it up themselves. Unless you're hiring someone to remodel your business, you probably don't want them to make up what your business is all about. After all, you got into business to make your vision a reality. Help your supporting staff to help you by telling them what you want to see.
  
  
• Helps you hire people who are a better fit. If you are up-front about your brand definition with people you may hire, then they will be in a better position to decide if they can support you in creating that. You can also use your brand definition to create interview questions and initial-conversation talking points that can help you see who can help you reach your goals.

If you take the time to create a brand definition, then you can develop a compelling brand story that can help all of the people involved with your business to drive it towards its goals.

2009 Article Roundup

Make sure that you didn't miss any of these great articles from 2009. All past articles are available at http://www.elf-design.com/articles.html.

Branding and Logo Design

A Small Business Brand's 7 Jobs
It's incredibly important for a small business's brand and marketing materials to do more than be "just pretty" — they need to be effective as well. In order to be effective, your small business's brand needs to work for your business, and its' job description includes these 7 functions.

Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
Starting out your business with your logo, stationery, and marketing materials all perfectly designed can certainly jumpstart your brand building process. But the key word here is "perfectly." If your business is in the very beginning phase, you may not have had enough practice running it to know what it is really all about, so you can't use that information to design the perfect brand.

How to Get the Logo You Want
If you're working with a designer and looking for "just the right" logo but getting sketches that cause nothing but faquaration, don't despair. Here are some tips to help you get your logo done right.

What Your Logo Designer Needs to Know About Your Business
A business's logo should tell your business's story. It should capture its flavor and essence. But, to do that, your designer must have information. The more information you give to a designer, the more likely it is that their designs will accurately reflect your business. Instead of a slice of information, give your designer the whole pie.

Stationery Set Design

Make Sure Your Business Card Stands Out
If it's time for a business card that makes a lasting impression instead of ending up as recycling, here are some tips to help make that happen.

Does Your Small Business Need A Digital Or A Printed Letterhead?
Many small businesses don't wind up sending out a lot of printed communications—instead, they'll send out an email with their document attached. And if they do need to print up a piece to mail, it will often just mean printing a few documents over the course of a year. Which brings us to the question of whether it's really worth the cost for your business to invest in a stack of printed letterhead.

How To Design A Digital Letterhead That Works
For a small business, a digital letterhead can be a powerful branding tool. Having one at the ready can make creating branded letters, speaking engagement handouts, invoices, contracts and all other paperwork very easy. And if you use your brand on all of the communications that you send out, it's more likely that your customers will see your business as established and credible.

Envelope versus Mailing Label: Fight!
In this corner, weighing in at 50 cents each, we have: custom-printed, #10 business envelopes. In the other corner, weighing in between 6 cents and 20 cents each (depending on size chosen), we have custom-designed mailing labels. How do these two opponents stack up on matters other than price?

How to Design Mailing Labels in Microsoft Word
Small businesses might find designing a set of mailing labels to be a cost-effective way to brand their business mail and packages.

Marketing

The Marketing Money Pit
You may be spending e-zine credits or money on postage sending promotions out into what seems like a big, empty, customer-less void. You may be paying a yearly hosting fee—without getting any leads from your website. Or you may be going to networking events, delivering your "elevator pitch," and getting blank stares in return. That's how it feels to have a brand that's a Money Pit.

Making A Great First Impression With Your Marketing Materials
It's said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. This is certainly true with your company's marketing materials. A new client often takes many pieces of information away from their first glimpse of a marketing piece or website. And this impression can make the difference between whether they choose to read the rest of your material or if they decide that your piece is a waste of time and (gasp!) recycle it.

Should You Print Your Own Marketing Materials?
Beyond the question of whether you can print your own marketing materials is whether you should. This often boils down to a simple question of whether printing materials yourself will present the right image for your company — whether the materials you produce will actually look good enough to represent your company well. And, of course, whether printing the materials yourself will actually save you money, or if it will be worth the time it will take.

Which Marketing Materials You Can — And Can't — Print Yourself
By making a few simple distinctions between producing different types of designed materials, you can print some of your own materials while creating a kit of materials to promote your business that looks as professional as possible. That way, you can save some money on your marketing — but you can save that money in all the right places.

6 Ways To Improve Your Marketing During The Summer (and land some clients during slow times)
What's a small business to do? Just because it's summer doesn't mean that you don't still need clients (unless you're distracted by kids out of school or lucky enough to be going on vacation as well!) Here are some ideas to help get some momentum going in your business when things slow down:

Website Design

How Your Small Business Can Benefit from Having a Website
With just a few pages, you can have a website that gives your business tangible benefits such as...

Seven Steps To A Beautiful, Functional Blog Design
In order to take advantage of all the benefits blogging can have for your business, you'll have to create a blog that looks attractive, matches your business's brand and also works well for your business. Here's how, in seven simple steps.

How To Sell Your Products and Services Online
A small business's website can have many jobs — and selling your products and services for you is probably the job that will affect your business the most. This job shows the most immediate results, and can take you out of the sales process (at least for some sales!) and allow you to focus on delivering your services and creating your products.

How To Set Up 1ShoppingCart So That You Can Sell Online
This article will cover the steps that need to be taken to set up your 1shoppingcart, so that if you choose to take this path with your online sales, you'll know what to expect.

Creating Videos That Boost Your Business
Here are some tips to visually improve the quality of your website video...

Newsletters

Moving Your Newsletter
If you've decided that it's time to pack up your mailing list and newsletter template and relocate. But, just like moving house, moving your mailing list is a big task, and you'll want to make sure that you go through all of the steps in this Newsletter Moving Checklist before you make the switch.

Getting Your Newsletter Into Peoples' Email Inboxes
If you're going to go to the trouble of publishing a newsletter to promote your business, then you need to get existing and potential customers and people who want to learn from you to sign up. After all, publishing a newsletter is an investment of both time (to put the newsletter together) and money (to cover the newsletter-sending service fees). It won't pay off to publish a newsletter that no one reads.

A Small Business Brand's 7 Jobs

By definition, a small business doesn't have a lot of employees or resources to help them reach their goals and fulfill their dreams (when compared to a large corporation). This means that it's incredibly important for a small business's brand and marketing materials to do more than be "just pretty" — they need to be effective as well. In order to be effective, your small business's brand needs to work for your business, and its' job description includes these 7 functions:

1. Building trust. You want your brand to inspire your customers to trust you and your company. You also want your clients to look at your brand designs and say, "That's a company that delivers on its promises." To do this, you want to make sure that the promises you're making visually with your brand designs are believable from your clients' perspective and possible for you to fulfill. In other words, don't over promise or under deliver.

2. Increasing credibility. This means that your designs should assure your clients that you are an expert in your field. Your brand can help show them that you have this experience by being clear and consistent, and by being thorough enough to make you look established.

3. Communicating. Your brand should tell your unique, compelling story. To define your business's story, ask yourself these questions: Why are you doing this? What are you helping people with? Finally, you'll need to determine how you are different from your competition — what makes you unique. This uniqueness can help your customers identify why they would want to work with you instead of with anyone else.

4. Raising confidence. Your brand can build your confidence in marketing your business, and can increase consumer confidence in buying your products and services. Having a brand that looks great can make you feel more enthusiastic about marketing. And, receiving those marketing materials that look great can help make a client feel more comfortable about spending money with you.

5. Making your business more memorable. 40% of people better remember things that they see — as opposed to things that they read or hear. Because of this, the visual part of your brand — like your logo, color palette, fonts that you use and even the backgrounds that appear in your marketing materials — can really help make you memorable.

After a potential client has seen your brand a few times — received your card at a networking event, been to your web site, read a few issues of your newsletter — they should remember having seen it. Then they will be more likely to spontaneously remember your business when they have a need for your products and services.

6. Helping your business grow — and to grow with you. Your brand should support your business as it grows, allowing you to create all the marketing pieces you need to follow through with your business plans and meet your goals. This may mean making sure that your logo translates into embroidery so that you can make uniforms. Or, it may mean that you have many flexible elements in your brand, so that you can create marketing pieces for different programs that can be instantly distinguished from one another. It may also mean that your brand needs to stay on the cutting edge of new media (animation, video, etc.) and social media.

7. Standing out from the competition. You want your brand to look more polished and professional than your competitors' brands. It should be unified and consistent, which both go a long way towards making a small business rise above the rest. Your brand will also stand out if it performs the other 6 functions listed here, with communicating and raising confidence being especially important to standing out.

Those are the 7 functions of a small business brand: building trust, increasing your credibility, communicating your brand story, raising confidence, making your business memorable, contributing to growth and helping your business stand out. These all contribute to creating a brand that will be effective to market with, and that will help you connect with your best customers. 

Seven Steps To A Beautiful, Functional Blog Design

A blog can do many jobs for your small business: help you communicate with customers, attract potential clients, publish your thinking, and get search engine attention. They can save you money because a basic blog can be inexpensive to design. Blogs are also easy to maintain yourself— the software is easy to learn, and you can post samples of your work, updates to your services and much more.

In order to take advantage of all the benefits blogging can have for your business, you'll have to create a blog that looks attractive, matches your business's brand and also works well for your business. Here's how, in seven simple steps.

1. Decide on your blog platform.

 This is not strictly a design question, but your choice of blog software will determine how the blog needs to be designed, so I have included it in this process. There are many platforms to choose from, but two of the biggest contenders are Wordpress and Typepad.

Wordpress is a free blog platform, but it also requires that you install the software to run it on your own web server. You also have to update your Wordpress installation regularly. Wordpress also requires more HTML coding to customize your design. On the other hand, Wordpress does offer a lot of code modules and plug-ins to make your blog more functional. I recommend Wordpress to tech-savvy clients who can install and maintain their own software or clients who have more budget to design, code and maintain their blogs.

Typepad is a managed blog solution— which means that the company that makes Typepad manages the updates and runs the backend software for you. Typepad does have a small monthly fee associated with it, but if you don't want to be responsible for your own blog software, it can be well worth the cost. Options for designing a Typepad blog are a bit more limited, but this too can be a good thing from a budget standpoint. Typepad also offers some code modules and plug-ins— enough for a basic to intermediate blogger.

2. Design your own blog or start from a template.

 Designing your own blog will result in a more unique look. And, if you've chosen to use Typepad as your blog provider, designing a customized blog is pretty simple, as long as you stick with the basic layouts that they offer.

If you use a template, some of the following steps may become unnecessary. If you like the color palette or font choices in your template (and if they match your brand design), you may just be "good to go". However, a template has its' downsides. It can look generic, or worse yet, your competition could decide to use the same template. This can confuse users and make your blog less effective.

3. Create your blog header.

 You could use a standard blog header, which consists of simple text on a colored background. But, designing a banner graphic is an easy way to make your blog stand out and can also make it more engaging and memorable. If you have other materials already designed for your brand, you'll want the header to match your other materials (such as your website, business card, brochure, etc.).

The header graphic should include your logo, blog title, and blog subhead. You can also include a photo or other graphics from your Visual Vocabulary in the header graphic to increase visual interest and to help distinguish your blog from others.

You'll need the final header file to have the same width as your blog— each template is different, so check your provider. You'll also need to optimize this file for the web, and save it as a GIF, JPG or PNG to upload to your blog.

A sample header image with logo, blog tagline, and additional branded graphics.

4. Determine your sidebar content.

 The sidebar area of your blog is a place where you can include promotional areas (for example, a box promoting a product you sell, or a sign up box for your newsletter) or link to the content in your blog in different ways (organized by categories, or archived according to the month they were written in, for example). The sidebar is also a perfect place to promote your other online presences— like your main website, or your Twitter feed. And, you can use the sidebar to offer visitors ways to subscribe to the blog as well.

There are other tools, called widgets, that can help your blog display a variety of information. Your blog provider will have a gallery of widgets that are available to install. Just make sure to choose widgets that contribute to your brand and the message of your blog, and not just ones that seem "cool".

In this example, the sidebar has:

1. A promotion for her latest book and a link to download a sample chapter

A sign-up box for her newsletter

A link to sign up for updates of the blog to be emailed to you

Links to her social media pages (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo and YouTube)

A contact form to allow people to contact her privately

Her latest Twitter posts

A list of the Categories on her blog

A link to her "About" page

5. Set the number of columns.

You'll need a main text column where you can publish your posts and articles. You can have either 1 or 2 sidebar columns for your links and widgets. How many you'll need for the sidebar will be determined by the content in those columns. Consider the design of the content and whether that design would look better in one wide column or two skinnier columns. And, consider the amount of sidebar content you have— you want to be sure that the sidebar doesn't scroll on too long.

6. Choose your font palette.

 You can customize the fonts for your body copy, headlines, sidebar items and all of the other fonts on your blog. You should limit your font style choices to 1 or 2 typefaces (whether you choose Arial, Verdana, Georgia, or some other style) for consistency. Then, specify the weights of the fonts in each case (bold or regular), and whether the font is regular or italic. You can also choose the colors for each font, which I'll talk about more in the next step.

7. Create your color palette.

 You want the overall color palette for your blog to echo the rest of your brand. The color palette should be similar to your website, business card, brochure, Twitter page, newsletter and other designed pieces. That way, the blog will reinforce the other pieces visually, and will help contribute to your business's memorability.

You can choose the color for the background of the blog, for the background of the sidebar, and for the background of the main post area.

You can also choose the colors for each font. For body copy, you want to choose a color that has the highest possible contrast with the background to promote legibility. For example, black text on a white background is the highest possible contrast. For headlines and subheads, pick a color that is dark enough to be legible and that matches your brand's color palette.

Dates can be in a color, black or grey— choose this based on the importance of the date to your blog. If it's important that your users notice the dates, choose black or a bright color. If the date is not a priority, choose a muted or light color, or grey.

Links should be in a contrasting, noticeable color— often a bright color. As a general rule, blue is a good choice for links because it's a standard color— since links were blue in the early days of the Internet, many people associate this color with "things you can click on". 

With these 7 steps, you'll design a blog that will help your business to reap the many benefits of blogging— easily and affordably! 

Moving Your Newsletter

Moving Your Newsletter

If you've had your email newsletter running for a while, you may find that it's time to change newsletter service providers. Perhaps the quality of your email newsletter service has declined since you originally signed up. Your needs may have changed as you've grown your mailing list and gotten more involved in email marketing. Or, you may have just realized that your newsletter service is not the best fit for your business's needs.

Whatever the reason, you've decided that it's time to pack up your mailing list and newsletter template and relocate. But, just like moving house, moving your mailing list is a big task, and you'll want to make sure that you go through all of the steps in this Newsletter Moving Checklist before you make the switch.

Newsletter Moving Checklist

1. Research Your New Provider. In other words, find your newsletter a new home. Things to consider in this stage include:

• Deliverability: This is the likelihood that your newsletter will get to your subscribers. You want to use a provider with good deliverability statistics, and who does not work with spammers. Make sure they are not blacklisted from any major email receiving services. You should check out your new service's rating on https://www.senderscore.org/.  
• Interface: Check out the user interface to see how easy it is to navigate and use, how complicated it will be to send out your newsletter, and whether the interface has all of the tools you need to easily manage your newsletter. See if your new provider has a free trial, or at least some videos or screen shots to review.
• Functionality: Make sure the service does all you need it to — and that it does everything that you can forsee needing in the next few years, so that you don't have to move again soon. 
• Cost: The pricing model for a newsletter service is usually based on the number of subscribers you have or on the number of emails you send out. Whatever the model, make sure the cost of the new solution is reasonable and sustainable for your business.  
• Subscriber Migration: Some services allow you to import your list directly into the service, and to start sending out emails immediately. Others allow you to import, but then require that the subscribers opt in to receive emails from the new service. It may seem like the direct import is the way to go, but you can often get better deliverability rates from services that require your subscribers to opt in again. The reason for this is that people are less likely to complain about your newsletter being spam if you have them reconfirm — which means that you'll be blacklisted on fewer email receiving services.

2. Sign Up and Set Up. Like buying a house or signing a lease before you move in, there are a few things you need to do to set up house with your new provider. Each newsletter service provider's set up requirements will be a bit different. To see what yours are, check for a Getting Started type of page on their website.

At the very least, you'll have to set up your mailing list, unsubscribe message, and the "Thank You For Subscribing" page that people are forwarded to when they sign up. If your newsletter requires double opt-in, you'll also have to set up the opt in message.

3. Notify Your Subscribers. This is like letting your friends and relatives know that you'll be moving. You don't want to alienate your subscribers by suddenly asking them to re-subscribe to your newsletter without any warning. And, you don't want to move them over to the new service yourself, only to have them notice that things are different, because then you can lose their trust.

Luckily, this step is easy to do. Just put a few lines about the upcoming move in the header of your next newsletter or two. Explain that you're moving, and what they can expect. This should make the transition smoother for everyone.

4. Pack Up. Pack your newsletter template and your newsletter subscriber list and go.

Download the latest version of your template — in HTML — from your current provider. If they don't make how to do this obvious, look up how to do it in the help files. Make sure you also take your recurring images, such as your header image and head shot, with you.

And, export your newsletter subscriber list. Make sure that you can open the file and view the emails, and that the file you've exported isn't corrupted. You may also want to burn the list at this time to CD or back it up in some other way.

5. Set Up Your Template and Your List. You'll want to first set up your newsletter template in the new service. To do this, find the HTML code view in your new service and paste the version that you downloaded into that. You may also have to upload your images to your new newsletter service, or to your website. This will make it necessary to change the links to your images in your newsletter template. Then, test the new newsletter by formatting it and sending it to yourself to make sure that it's imported correctly.

Next, follow your services' instructions to import your list (if your new service allows that). Before you do this, you'll want to make sure that your opt-in message is fully set up and working perfectly — because it is likely that upon import, your subscribers will get that message.

6. Make The Big Move. You may want to do this step right after you've sent out a newsletter using your old service, so that you have as much time as possible to get the new service working correctly, and to iron out any kinks, before you have to get the next issue out.

The main thing you have to do in this step is to create your newsletter sign-up box and place it on your website (and on any other websites or blogs it may appear on) so that new subscribers sign up with your new service instead of the old one. Be sure to thoroughly test this to make sure it's working properly.

Also, don't close your original account in this step. You'll need it in the next stage of the process.

7. Send Out Your Next Newsletter (or Two) On Both Services. This is like the equivalent of forwarding your mail. It helps you to make sure that you're getting the new issues out to the people who have moved over quickly, and that you're not losing the slower adopters because they missed an email or just haven't clicked on the confirmation yet.

In your old service, note that if people are receiving the newsletter twice, it's because you're sending it out just this once (or twice). And, also include a note that says if they're not getting it twice, that's because they haven't confirmed their subscription in the new service — and what to do about it.

If you follow these 7 steps from the checklist, moving your newsletter should be a breeze. And, you should be able to bring many of your subscribers along with you to your new location. 

Creating Videos That Boost Your Business

Videos are becoming more and more common on websites. And, video is not just for big companies – many small businesses and entrepreneurs use video on their websites. You can promote your business, form more of a connection with your website visitors, and videotape your speeches and broadcast them. You can even record and publish videos more quickly than publishing an HTML newsletter or writing an article in some cases.

One reason that videos are becoming more common is that there is now a very affordable video camera available called the Flip. The Flip costs under $200, and allows you to shoot up to 2 hours of HD quality video.

The danger with this is that it now puts the process of making videos in anyone’s hands – and if you don’t know what you’re doing with your video, you can make a pretty poor-quality video, even if you’ve got great equipment. There are many, many poor videos on the internet – everything from people who look like they’ve just woken up in the morning (bed head and all), to videos that are shaky, to videos where the speaker’s head is cut off, and more. These all make the business they’re promoting look amateurish and unprofessional, and can hurt the business’s brand instead of helping it.

Here are some tips to visually improve the quality of your website video:

1. Dress the part. If you know you're going to be making an on-camera appearance, get ready for it. You may consider wearing your company colors, or a version of those. Or, wear an outfit that looks good on you – and that looks professional. Solid colors tend to work better in front of the camera than stripes or busy patterns. And, be extra-neat with your hair and makeup - the camera shows, and sometimes amplifies, any mistakes. Even guys might want to consider a bit of undereye concealer to disguise those dark circles.

2. Stake out a spot for the camera. Arrive to your location early, and bring a friend to help you select the best angle from which to take the video. Think about not getting the camera in the audience's way while still getting your shot framed correctly. This may not always be possible – so strike the best balance you can in the space.

3. Think about framing. In most cases, you'll want either a waist-up shot or a head-and-shoulders shot. If you use your hands a lot while you speak, or if you are making a longer presentation, consider the waist-up shot. If you have a very short presentation, then a head and shoulders shot may make more sense.

4. Watch the background. Make sure there are no clocks acting as halos above your head, and that any artwork in the background doesn't distract from your message. Also, protect your background if you can - make sure no one can walk through during the presentation, or sneak up to give you "bunny ears."

5. Be stable. The "Blair Witch Project" can get away with shaky videos and dropping the camera, but your business video should be as steady as possible to make a pleasant viewing experience. To do this, use a tripod. It may help to have a miniature tripod (like this one: http://bit.ly/UVher) and also a taller tripod, so that you can see which one works best in the space.

6. Keep your place. This is a trick from drama class in high school. If you're going to be standing during the speech, or even moving around a bit, bring a piece of painter's tape (which won't wreck the floor) and when you compose your shot in step 2, mark your position on the floor. Occasionally, glance down to make sure you're on the mark, which will mean that you are framed in the best possible way in your video.

7. Get assistance. Even an amateur videographer can help your video look better. If you're going to be moving around, the camera will need to be moved to track you and keep you in the frame. For this, using a large tripod makes sense because many of them have a swiveling head, which will allow an assistant to track your movements smoothly.

8. No disembodied questions! If you're going to have a question-and-answer period during your talk, warn the videographer - so that they can be ready to film the audience as they ask questions. That way, you won't have disembodied questions being asked from behind the camera during your video - which looks a little strange. 

9. Inform the audience. Most people don't like to be surprised with a starring role (or even a supporting one) in your video. Let attendees know at the beginning of the event (or even when they sign up) that you will be filming.  And, let them know how they may appear in the final video. 

Don't forget to have anyone who's recognizable in the video sign a Model Release so that you can use their image legally. Some people who film videos during seminars pass out Model Releases at the front door, and collect them almost immediately after the seminar begins, to ensure that they have everyone’s permission. You can get a sample Model Release here: http://bit.ly/GLvps .

 

With these tips, your videos will look more professional. This will help them to contribute to your brand’s credibility and make you and your business look more like an expert than an amateur.