You’ve heard that old saying “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”. As much as I dislike overused clichés, in the area of brand development, it has never been more true.

Over my many years as a designer working at advertising and branding agencies, I have seen on countless occasions businesses try to launch their new brand, with almost no forward planning whatsoever. They simply throw it out there – get a reaction, then make urgent changes from there. That is the worst way to launch a brand. Being too reactive is a recipe for failure.

I would recommend planning at least 6 months in advance. Know exactly how and where you’re going to advertise and have a plan for the promotions you are going to run. The nature of business is that it will be up and down, but you’re only aiming for a long term upward trend. You will have bad weeks, you will have ads perform poorly on occasion – but panicking and making changes on the spot is going to do your brand more harm than good.

If you keep changing your image, it makes it very difficult for your customers to recall you when it comes time for them to require your services. Stay in their faces, stay consistent, hit them with well planned promotions, and only react if you are noticing a medium term downward trend in enquiries. Your marketing meetings should be about project management and implementing your plans – not urgent brainstorming as a result of your last press ad performing only half as well as the previous one.

If you have any questions or concerns about your brand’s performance – please contact me and I will be more than happy to discuss.

In recent years – particularly over the last 2 years – social media has become seen as 100% mandatory for any business who is serious about their brand.

In my opinion – the quality of the leads has taken a back seat to getting as much exposure as possible, in the shortest amount of time.

It may seem like free exposure but at the end of the day, how much time have you spent responding to contact that was never going to lead to a sale, or preparing a quote for a tyre-kicker who was just curious and had never seriously considered employing your services.

I have seen an increase in social media based competitions such as “become a fan to win $500″. If you are considering running one of these competitions – first have a think about the likelihood of an entrant actually resulting in a business transaction. You might find yourself with 1,000 facebook fans – hours of your time and $500 gone, and no actual business to show for it.

Concentrate on attracting qualified leads.

You can still employ those clever marketing strategies such as running a promotion – but make sure the prize is something related to your industry or something that will get someone half way through the door. For example if I was to run a promotion, it might be something to the effect of “Win 5 years free domain name registration and hosting”. That has a value of around $600 or more – just like an iPad does – but when someone takes an iPad from me they may have absolutely no need for my services any longer. If they have 5 years of free hosting, they will eventually consider having a website designed. Naturally, I would be their first port of call.

That old saying of “any exposure is good exposure” is completely untrue. Particularly in today’s digital world where negative feedback can spread like wildfire. You need to work hard to build and maintain your reputation. This is made much easier by attracting the right customers. The job is half done before it even starts.

So how can you ensure you don’t attract the wrong customers? As I mentioned earlier, avoid promotions that capture a wide audience which will result in you having to spend valuable time sorting through the trash. Another tip is to be very specific about your services. Don’t offer anything you do not specialise in, in the hope of attracting more business. You’ll end up regretting it when you get the business and struggle to deliver a high quality service.

Be careful with your pricing.

Thanks to the internet, pricing for products and services has become so unbelievably competitive. For example, as a web designer I can guarantee there will be someone based overseas who will design and develop websites for half the cost I can do it for. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest as you do get what you pay for. If i was to start competing on a price level with them – I would not be doing myself any favours. If a client’s first inquiry is regarding price matching, there’s a good chance the quality of my work is going to rate very low on their checklist – so perhaps I am not the right man for the job. You should stick to a price that you think is fair. If you offer a superior quality product or service, don’t let it bother you when you see your lower priced competitors flat out busy whilst you are searching for good leads. On the surface it may appear as they are more successful than you – but that is not necessarily the case. There’s a good chance they have promised so many bonuses and extras just to get the work – that they end up working for nothing.

Databases are worth their weight in gold.

Databases weigh literally nothing – by the way. Yes, I think it is highly overrated to collect as much data from the general public as possible (unless you’re planning on reselling it – a la Facebook). Again, it’s going to result in you wasting your time sorting through it. Try to avoid promotions that have the aim of collecting as many details as possible – unless the promotion is devised in a way that only qualified leads are collected. I refer to my previous iPad rant. I would fill out a form at a waxing salon to win a free iPad but there is no way they are coming anywhere near me in the future – and someone is going to spend their time learning that hard lesson (and having that awkward conversation). If you can concentrate on building a good quality database then it is most certainly a great asset. Repeat marketing to customers that are likely to utilise your services again is still one of the most effective marketing methods.

That’s all for now – I hope this has given you something to consider. If you have any more advice on techniques on generating high quality leads – let everyone know in the comments below.

The latest trend in web presence seems to be DIY websites. Anyone can create a website these days. It’s true. Even you – with no experience whatsoever.

However – please consider the potential damage you can cause to your brand. I am not only saying this because I am a web designer and I want your business. Yes, I do want your business, obviously – but I would be more than happy to see some of my competitors being able to do their jobs than watch unqualified, inexperienced, and quite frankly artistically challenged small business owners struggle to learn how to add a new page to their WordPress site.

You are limited by your knowledge of web design. That is a fact. The end result could potentially do more damage to your business than having no internet presence at all. Prospective customers will take a look at your website and within a few short seconds, make a judgement about the quality of your business. If it is quite obvious that you were unwilling to invest in employing professional services to develop your website, how can you expect the customers to invest in your business?

I have said it before, and I will say it again – the biggest brands in the world don’t just keep getting in your face because they have money to burn. They do it because their brand is so well developed and so consistent that it creates such a positive impression on the market. Good branding WORKS. Changing some colours on a website template and choosing a fancy font for your business name is not creating a brand, it’s sending a message that you’d rather spend your hard earned on something other than the quality of your business.

So it’s your call. I would never, ever recommend creating your own website unless you are experienced, up to date in current technology, and artistically skilled. You wouldn’t repair your own car or perform surgery on yourself unless you knew what you were doing - so why would you create your own website? Web design is a professional service. Most web designers, including myself, are trained and experienced in their field.

If you have any questions about this or any free or ultra-cheap web related services you are considering, please drop me an email and I will be more than happy to discuss in detail.

Signing out.

Feeling overwhelmed and utterly confused about what makes a good website? Technology is changing at such a rate that it is very difficult for a web designer to keep up with current trends and best practices – let alone someone who is not in the industry.

Here are some handy tips that will help your website to perform well, minimise viewer frustrations and ultimately boost your business.

1. Your website needs to have a clear message. The user should know what you do within seconds, and quickly be able to find your points of difference – whether it is price, quality, range – whatever. I have noticed that the more technology advances and makes creating websites “easier” – the more every website is starting to look the same. This is not good, my friend. Your website is quite often the only point of contact a potential customer will have – it needs to be clear, effective and memorable - with details and information easy to find.

2. Consider keywords when writing content for your website. Ranking highly in search engine results is a huge advantage and one of the easiest ways of boosting your ranking is to include all the keywords someone is likely to search for, within your content.

3. Don’t apply design elements and fancy widgets just because you like them. If they don’t serve a purpose, they don’t belong on your website. Too many times have I seen pointless animation, frilly fonts and cheesy stock photos when they serve no purpose at all and end up taking away from where the focus should be.

5. Get your navigation right. Put things in a logical place, not just strewn willy-nilly around your website. Make sure people have access to all major sections of your website from every page. Don’t have pages that you can only find by clicking around randomly. For example, if you have an online quote form, add it to your menu rather than just having it on the “products” page.

6. Don’t annoy your viewers. I am still seeing websites that resize browser windows, or even worse – they just don’t let you leave the site without clicking “yes, I really want to leave”. Why would you want your potential customers to leave annoyed at you? Also try to minimise the need to open new browser windows. Often popup blockers will cause issues anyway, but it is just not best practice.

7. Don’t make people sign up to your website (create an account) just to view content. They won’t do it. Recently a few online newspapers have stopped readers from reading articles unless they sign up for an account – and guess what – in most cases they lose over 70% of their readers.

8. Don’t collect people’s data and spam  them without them expecting it. For example, if they create an account to buy a product but have not clicked “sign me up for the newsletter” or something to that effect, sending them bulk mail will really rub them the wrong way.

9. Building an entire website in Flash causes issues for some people. Yes, some people are still using their computer they purchased in 2003 and believe it or not, do not have the latest Flash Player installed. Also, search engine rankings are much tougher when you build the entire interface in Flash. And then – some mobile devices do not display Flash content at all.

10. Don’t surprise people with sounds. Seriously – stop it. Nothing will make someone leave your site faster. Having a little person pop up and tell you their life story when all you wanted to know was the price of a pair of shoes is really quite irritating. If you absolutely must have audio on your website, don’t have it start automatically – make the user click “play”.

11. Intro pages are annoying. One extra click and waiting 30 seconds for a flash animation to load is just not helpful. Wow people with the quality of your content, not the fact you paid some guy $80 to make your logo spin around in 3 Dimensions.

15. Be cautious of your colour scheme. Do not be tempted to have large blocks of copy in a bright colour – use colour sparingly for text. Whatever you do, do not put coloured text onto a coloured background of a similar tone (eg. red text on a blue background). Migraine inducing websites generally perform poorly.

17. For heaven’s sake – do a spell check. Poor spelling or grandma grammar will make your business look like a complete joke. Yes, people notice. Also do not overuse exclamation points every time you feel the need to stress a particular point!!!!

18. If you have PDF files for download, give people a bit of warning before you potentially crash their browser. “Download PDF” is enough – just don’t make it appear as though they are loading a html page when it’s about to launch Acrobat.

19. Horizontal scrolling is evil. Never, ever make a reader do it. Vertical scrolling is fine.

Well that’s all for now – more tips coming soon. I hope these were at least a tiny bit helpful.

You are probably already aware that you’re supposed to have a logo designed once you decide on your business name. A logo is pretty much a given – but there are many other marketing materials you should consider to try to help your business establish its image.

Here are a few other marketing materials you should think about investing in.

A Website
You can’t avoid it. Your competitors have a website. People these days look to the internet first to find a product or service. If you do not have a web presence, you are really at a huge disadvantage.

There are websites and there are websites. You don’t need to spend $20k having a website designed and developed if you’re a small business. Websites range from basic “brochure style” informational sites right through to fully customised content management systems featuring databases, linked to your accounts software etc. Regardless of your budget, there is an option for you, and you need to take it. The alternative is spending thousands on press advertisements. It doesn’t work.

Brochures
It’s always helpful to have something tangible to mail to prospective customers or hand out in person. A good brochure will outline your services, has contact information and a bit of background information about your business. It should answer all the common questions a customer might have.

Business Stationery
Business cards, letterheads, with compliment slips and envelopes. These are absolute must-haves for any business who wants to be taken seriously. Having them professionally designed and printed makes all the difference. If it appears as though you have designed and printed your own stationery, it gives the message that you are not willing to invest anything in you own business – so why would your customers?

Signage
If you have a shopfront, you need signage. There’s no way around it. Not only to make it easier for your customers to find your store once they already know you exist, but also for recognition next time they need something that you sell. Once again, if you skimp on the signage, you will look unprofessional and may appear as though you’re going to shut up shop any day and leave town. A temporary feel is the worst possible result you want to achieve with your branding/marketing.

Direct Mail & Press Advertisements
Not as effective as a good web presence, but direct mail can still be a good investment if properly executed. It puts you in front of potential customers’ faces at the times of your choice. They don’t need to be searching for you first. Quite often direct mail or a good press ad is the best way to market a sale or special offer. A lot of people still love browsing through catalogues searching for a good deal. Direct mail also works well if you are targeting local businesses. Knowing that your business is only down the road can make a customer choose you over a competitor.

If you need any help with any of these materials – that’s what I do. I am a design and marketing specialist and I can give your business a huge advantage over your competitors, so contact me today.

Given the fact that you are visiting my website, you probably have some sort of belief that a logo design is a must have for a new business – or any business. However, if you don’t understand why it is so important that you have a logo professionally designed, here are a few points that you need to consider.

First of all, since people already understand that logo design and branding is an expense when starting a business, if you don’t bother to have a logo designed you may be giving your potential customers the idea that you aren’t taking things seriously, or you aren’t planning on being in the market long enough to invest in something like a logo. I mean, think about it, if you were planning on just starting up some Mickey Mouse company and seeing if you get any bites, you probably wouldn’t pay money to have a logo designed. Your priorities, and money, would be elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are attempting to set up a serious company with the intention of sticking around for a while, you would consider giving your company a unique image.  So this is an important point – if customers can see you invest in your own company, they will get a feeling of “quality” when they purchase your product or hire your services.

Next, if you are attempting to look professional on any level whatsoever, you will fail miserably if you don’t bother to have a logo designed. Or worse, if you design it yourself. There is a reason all the big companies have an effective logo design. It isn’t just because they can afford it (you can afford it too). Large companies still have to account for every dollar they invest. They won’t just throw money at a designer for the sake of it. They probably have a decent sized marketing team on hand who will tell them that they need a logo design because their company needs its own image. A face. Something that triggers a customer’s memory in a split second.

Once your reputation has been built, the logo you have been using will be seen as a stamp of quality. Just having your logo on something will give anything you do extra credibility – similar to using celebrities to endorse products. Your company’s own success uses your logo as it’s face – so your logo is your celebrity endorsement.

Finally – the importance of having a logo professionally designed is absolutely critical. Even if you choose another designer, the fact that you choose any qualified, experienced designer at all is a step in the right direction. Sometimes having no image at all will do your company less damage than having a poor logo representing the company that you care so much about.

So, a logo design is a true investment. It needs to be taken seriously. Aside from all these points, seeing your new logo design will give YOU a new feeling of ownership of your business.

Here are some tips to help you during the logo design process.

I would never advise designing your own logo unless you are a qualified and experienced graphic designer, but here are some tips to give you a better understanding of what makes a great logo, or a poor one.

First of all, and you’ve heard it all before – less is more. Let’s examine a few of the world’s most successful brands.

All three of the logos above are as simple as it gets. If you didn’t already know what the company did, you probably wouldn’t be able to work it out just from looking at the logo. There is nothing wrong with that. A very common mistake when designing a logo is trying to explain the entire company with one graphic. Rather than telling the whole story with a logo, it should be used in conjunction with headlines, photographs, graphical treatments and copy. A logo is a stamp. A badge. A seal (no, not the animal). Whacking on website addresses, phone numbers or even the company address will greatly take away from the impact of the logo – and it looks very, very unprofessional. There is a reason why none of the top 100 companies on the planet have their web address in their logo. Google don’t even do that, so why would you?

Try not to overdo it with the special effects. Too many special effects in the logo shows that the logo has no strength on its own. It should work just as well as a flat logo – as the logos above do. There is nothing wrong with having a “3D” version of your logo, for web use or as an email signature – but it should never be the main version of your logo. Adding shadows, embossing, reflections and lighting effects these days will also make your logo look very outdated. Web 2.0 is over. It’s dead. You need to move on. Even Apple (logo above) has started reverting back to a flat logo recently – and they were one of the first large companies to adopt the Web 2.0 style.

Be careful of that “corporate” look that people always refer to. Basically they mean a sans-serif typeface, no spacing between the words, words separated by different colours, and some kind of “arrow” or “swoosh” tacked on for no apparent reason. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being original. Having a typeface that suits your industry is far more important than giving it a corporate look. I am very pleased that serif typefaces seem to be making a comeback. I used to suggest them all the time and the standard response I would get is “please change it to font like arial and then we are good to go”.  I am unsure why nobody wants to stand out from the crowd these days. It’s like they are content trying to fit in with another successful company’s corporate identity. You need your own identity!

That’s all for now – I will expand on these tips later on. If you have any questions about logo design, corporate identity or anything else design related, please contact me and I will be glad to put in my 2 cents worth.