Is Your Brand Evocative?

I spend a disproportionate amount of my time thinking, dreaming, talking and designing branding.

Honestly, I could talk all day about the design aspects of branding: colours, typefaces, negative space, the golden ratio, but branding is about so much more. While many people think a brand is simply a logo and that's it, in marketing, branding goes so much deeper than graphic design.

I once read a quote that said, branding is what people say about you when you're not in the room. Branding is the essence of you as a business person, your business and the products and services you offer. It's about the holistic, cohesive experience of your customer when they interact with your brand.

The one thing I say to clients: branding isn't just about looks, it's about how your brand makes your customers feel and that goes way deeper than aesthetics.

Branding is, ultimately, about a feeling. Branding is about evoking an emotion for your target audience. And remember, it comes back to your target audience and their experience, not yours.

I've worked on countless branding projects over the years, and from a design point of view, some I love, some I never want to see again. It's interesting the feedback I've received on particular projects. In the creative field, opinions... Well, everyone has one!

I've met people who have outright said “oh I HATE that logo”, and I've said, “fair enough but the target audience for that project was primary school age children and you're a middle-aged man” (OK, so I might not have been that blunt but you get my meaning).

In every aspect of your branding you need to constantly bear your customer in mind. Leave your ego at the door - there is no you (or me) in branding. It is not about what you want, it's about what will attract and engage your ideal customer.

A brand is, in fact, very specific. It is, essentially a promise made to your customers about what you will deliver to them, how you will solve their problem and how it will make them feel, communicated through multiple channels including visual, verbal and perception.

A strong brand gives a customer confidence to move forward with a purchase decision. And when you're in business, everything comes down to the purchasing decision!

Have you ever sat down and undergone an intensive brand analysis?

Answer these questions, honestly:

Does your brand, your logo, your messaging, your website, your collateral, your social media represent the core of you, your business and your why?
Does it take your customers on a cohesive brand journey or is it a mish-mash of hastily posted Facebook posts, confused messaging and a logo designed by your cousin's son four years ago that you've never really loved but haven't had the heart to change?
Does your brand attract and engage your ideal customer?

What do your answers say about your business and what it means to you and your customers?

Every interaction you have with a customer is influenced in some way by how they perceive your brand and its position in the market, what has been communicated to them about your brand before they have made contact with you, walked into your shop or looked at your Facebook page or your website.

Your brand is the foundation upon which we lay every other element in a marketing strategy; a weak foundation means shaky messaging, cracks in your visuals and can, ultimately, mean failure for your marketing and your business.

Your brand needs to deliver a cohesive, consistent message in everything that you do.

Branding is the core of your business' marketing, it is the first impression, the messaging, the values, the purpose, the mission and the vision. At its heart, it is the essence of your business and why you do what you do and every element of your brand needs to communicate this.

If you want to talk more about your branding book a 15 minute clarity call.

Top 10 web design trends for 2016 (and whether I'll be using them on my own site)

I'm currently re-designing my website which, in the flurry of activity over the last few years including (but not limited to) having a baby, undertaking massive projects, starting another business, volunteering at community events, etc. has been pushed back as a project for “when I have time”.

Designing and developing my new website has now become more of a necessity than a “nice to have” and so I embark on this huge task this week.

As a web designer, I spend a disproportionate amount of time looking at other people’s websites and saying “oooh”, “aaaah” and "shiny", so now the time has come to decide which of the top ten 2016 web design trends I will/will not integrate into my new site (which is coming soon, I promise - I mean it this time!).

Responsive
I don’t think this one can be called a “trend” any more, it’s a necessity! With more than 25% of browsing conducted on a phone or other device your site must be responsive, end of story. This is a no-brainer: IN!

Single page sites
In some cases "single page sites" work amazingly; I know of some retail and product pages that work beautifully as single page, especially when the site takes you on a “journey” as you scroll. Don’t forget the “scroll to top” button! However if you require a lot of data from your Google Analytics, I'd avoid unless you have another tactic in place to capture data (there are some great plug-ins for us WordPress users). I’ll be including a lot of projects in my portfolio so a single page site simply won’t work for me. Here is a recent project that implements single page, and another.

Parallax
Parallax design is when you scroll but the image doesn't and it looks pretty cool. Although it’s been around for a while, it can be tricky to use unless you know how to minimise image size without sacrificing image quality. This is definitely an “in” on my new site where appropriate.

Video
Video backgrounds look absolutely sensational in some instances but have a tendency to make me motion sick in others…. Not “in” for me at this stage but go for it if you have relevant videos to use.

Full-screen backgrounds
Full screen “hero” image backgrounds look amazing if you have beautiful, crisp, clear images. I am currently working on creating some beautiful images of my own to use on my site. Full screen backgrounds are definitely in for my new website.

Minimal
You know when you visit a website and it just feels… “nice”? It’s probably a minimally designed site. It doesn't have to be white and austere, pops of colour with simple typography give a fresh, clean feel to a site. I'm hoping to strike a good balance of "minimally content-rich" on my new site.

Vertical menus
As users become more experienced with the web, it’s given designers more leeway to be a bit braver with our navigation. In the “olden” days of web design everything had to be very clear about navigation. The user always had to know what to do and it had to be OBVIOUS! Now users are used to using the internet over multiple devices, we can trick things up a bit. Although I LOVE vertical menus, especially when paired with a great full screen background, I'm not 100% I’ll be using one on my new site…. Here is a recent project I completed that utilises a vertical menu beautifully.

“Ghost” buttons
I don’t want to clutter my beautiful full screen images with big, opaque buttons. Minimal, transparent buttons can be utilised to assist navigation without interfering with beautiful imagery. Definitely in for me.

Sticky headers
Another design element that’s come along as a consequence of responsive design is sticky headers or menus. Basically the menu stays “stuck” to the top of the screen no matter how far the user scrolls which, for mobile/tablet users is essential. Another in for me.

Card layouts
I'm blaming Windows 8 for this one (am I the only person who actually enjoys the Windows 8 UI?)! In the world of web design we are always trying to simplify the user’s experience so that they know where to go and what they need to do there at all times. Grid layouts based on square “cards” are clean, clear and work especially well for sites with a lot of images or require a gallery or portfolio. Definitely an in for me!

The most important branding question

I love meeting new small business owners. They're wrapped up in the excitement of their new business idea. It's thrilling, I know, I've been there (and am quite often "there" actually with all the ideas buzzing around in my head).

New business owners have grand plans for their fledgling business; they've registered an ABN and their business name and they come to me full of beans to get going on their logo, business stationery and website. I'm excited, they're excited. We go through the usual questions about colours, websites and USPs.

Then comes the question: How do your Google results look?

It's a question I ask all of my new branding clients. Most have a simple answer: great, I checked! And we move on.

For others, however, it's more complicated.

Either through a lack of research, a change in the business' reach or simply poor luck, I know of more than one small business who has had to undergo a complete re-brand due to stiff competition for Google rankings from big business. Be it for their name, an acronym or a "did you mean" result.

It can be absolutely crushing to start up a business and then realise the potential of the Google-disaster.

It's all very well to say it doesn't matter; I have a great business model and a fantastic product but let's face facts: it's 2015, without Google your website isn't going anywhere. Which is fine if you plan to operate solely off-line but that's going to seriously limit your business.

I assisted a client to undergo a re-brand when her business name was automatically switched to a "did you mean" result by Google bringing up an overseas competitor's business!

The client had researched local businesses in her area when she started her business but through her success her brand had gone global and now she was competing on a world stage. Her local business research was rendered moot: she was playing with the big guns and by big guns we mean BIG guns.

So what to do? Erode the brand loyalty she had already gained through her successful business and start again? Not entirely but the original brand was sacrificed for the sake of the Google result - her business simply couldn't operate without website traffic derived from Google search. It was as simple as that.

At the time this client had established a side business in the same sector but with a slightly different target audience; by funnelling her current audience to the "new" business before her "old" business reached the point of no return we salvaged what we could and moved on with the new brand. Obviously not ideal but it was picked up early and minimal damage was done (and the business is still thriving today, phew!).

Imagine if your business name (or the way it's represented by your logo or branding suite) was abbreviated to "BHP"? Sorry but no matter how good your SEO, as a small business you don't have a hope of competing against guns that big!

Another mistake is choosing a word, term or acronym that is commonly used in the English language. People are lazy, especially when Google does a lot of auto-completing on our behalf.

So, when you're thinking of branding (or re-branding) your business, here are five steps you need to take to avoid Google-related injuries:

Do a simple Google search on your complete business name; i.e. Jane McKay Communications.
Do a Google search on any abbreviations of your business name, i.e. JMC.
Check Google auto-complete results for your business name by typing in the first few letters and seeing what is "suggested".
Check misspellings of your business name in Google and see if your business name comes up as a "did you mean" result.
Repeat steps 1 to 5 in Bing and Yahoo search.

Step 6? Do some keyword research while you're there!

If you're in the clear get excited! If not, don't despair, branding is meant to be fun! Start afresh. Enjoy the journey of building your new business.

Marketing 101

Do you have a marketing plan for your business? Is it a brief paragraph thrown into your overall business plan? Or is it a well-thought-out, strategic document informed by your business plan?

Marketing can make or break a business and a detailed marketing plan is crucial when approaching what can be a high expenditure item in your business' budget.

You hear people say "oh I don't do marketing". Really? Marketing covers everything and anything that promotes your business, be it a website, brochure, event, even your brand. All of these items fall under the marketing umbrella and if you're not marketing your business you're not doing business!

You need to market your business to gain more customers, communicate your products and/or services and, most importantly, grow your business which is what we're all about: building a high growth business, improving performance and increasing profits!

So, what are the elements of a great marketing plan?

Primarily it's, well, a plan! You need to work out where you are, where you want to be and how you're going to get there. However you measure your business growth: bums on seats, eyeballs on screens or dollars in the bank; define the measurable milestones (that relate to your mission and vision, if you have one) that you want to achieve over the next 12 months. These milestones are the foundation of your marketing plan (easy, hey?).

How are you going to get there? Strategy. It can sound complicated but strategy, in a nutshell, really is simply defining how you're going to achieve your aforementioned milestones.

Who are you talking to? Your strategy is based around your target audience (and don't say "everyone"). Your target audience should be clearly defined - who are your most frequent customers and who are your most profitable customers? Often there is a big difference. Your marketing plan is about attracting the right type of customer for your business.

What are you up against? You know who your competitors are! What do you do that's different to them? What makes your customers choose your product or service over theirs? What makes your business unique? Write your answer down, it's your Unique Selling Proposition, a key element of your marketing plan and the message you should be promoting in all your marketing collateral.

Where do your customers find you? Online? Print ads? Networking? Trade shows? PR? Work out your marketing mix to find the most profitable kind of customer for your business, invest percentages of your marketing budget into various channels. What's going to make it easy for your customers to find you?

How much are you willing to spend attracting the right type of customer to your business? Work out how you're going to spend it and where and you have a marketing plan. Don't forget to factor in the services of a consultant if you think you will need one and find the right fit for you and your business.

How will you know if it's working? Those milestones again. Work out when you'll achieve those milestones if your marketing plan is working for you. (And if you find your plan isn't working be prepared to change tack in an informed and strategic way.)

And if you need help, contact me!