May 26, 2015
So, you’re ready to have a website created for your small business? That’s great! A professionally designed website can greatly increase the exposure of your product or service, provide potential customers with the information they are looking for to make an educated decision and become a beneficial sales tool that you can continually monitor and improve. A website is truly an investment that has the potential to grow your business exponentially.
But before we can put our heads together to create a design that beautifully showcases your brand, you will need to answer a few questions:
- Why do you want to create a website for your small business?
- What are you hoping the website will accomplish?
- What are your marketing goals?
Once you have your general website goals established, we will want to dive into more marketing-related questions:
- How do you define your products and services?
- What makes your product or service different from your competitors?
- Who is your target audience?
All of these questions help us learn more about you and your business which then helps us create a website that properly displays your company and achieves the goals you are looking for.
The most common question that is asked of us before the design process is, “How much is it going to cost?” Unfortunately, the answer is one that nobody likes to hear, “It depends.”
Every project is different. Some websites need four simple pages, other websites are more complex and require lots of time to code while others need a full branding strategy in additional to a company website. That being said, it is impossible to give a quote without first learning all of your online needs.
Making the decision to have a website created for your small business is an exciting one, but requires a little homework before the design process can begin. Once you have clearly defined your marketing goals and objectives, the website design process can kickoff.
May 26, 2015
You may have heard the term, ‘search engine optimization,’ but do you know what it means?
We’ll start to answer this question with an example. When you are looking for a new business, your search likely starts online. You go to your favorite search engine and type in exactly what you are looking for. When you hit “Enter,” you are given a list of results that match your query.
Those results did not show up on the first page by accident. There’s a good chance that there is someone behind the scenes (web designer, SEO specialist, marketer or small business owner) making sure their website shows up in the search rankings when their product or services matches what the user is looking for.
Now here’s the official definition from the search engine giant, Google:
Search engine optimization (n.): the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular site by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.
Why would someone want their site to show up on the first page or be #1 of the search results? Simply because your website has the best chance of being clicked on by a potential customer when your company is in the #1 slot.
SEO involves two halves: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.
On-page optimization is the part of the strategy that you can control with elements found on your website. This process involves a mix of both art and science. The foundation of on-page SEO is keyword research or finding what search terms customers use to find your area of business. There are tools available online which track certain key terms.
Once you have found the right keywords, your next step is use them in applicable areas of your website including title tags, meta descriptions, image descriptions, headlines and copy. The key is to keep it natural. You are not trying to trick anyone (including the search engines ) you are trying to help those who are looking for the product and service that you offer.
The other half of SEO is called off-page optimization. Search engine algorithms, a significant influence on your page rankings includes the number of websites that point back to your website. These websites could be directories, blogs, social media sites or more. Each site that directs to your site acts as a vote. They say to the search engines, “This is a quality authoritative website.”
This doesn’t sound difficult, but it certainly can be. The biggest challenge is managing the sites that point back to yours. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality. Unfortunately, there are a lot of non-quality, spammy websites on the internet. If a low-quality website points back to your site, it can count as a vote against you.
The process of off-page optimization involves creating a strategy that promotes good votes back to your website and limits the number of counts against your website.
Search engine optimization can be a tough strategy to master if you are new to the industry and don’t have a lot of time to learn the skill. However, when you hire an experienced professional to build a strategy for your small business, you can trust that the traffic back to your website will keep on coming.
To learn more about SEO and find out if it the expense is worth the investment, watch for the next blog post, “What is SEO and can it help your small business? (Part Two).”
March 8, 2014
Let’s play a game of Memory. Could you describe the logo of the following brands: McDonald’s, Nike and Apple? Of course you could. We all know the golden arches, the Nike swoosh and the silver apple with the one missing bite. These brands all have a memorable logo. We don’t need to see the name of the brand to know who they are.
A logo is the face of your brand. It is the one element that will symbolize your brand more than anything else. You’ll put it on your signs, business cards, letterhead and invoices. You’ll put your logo everywhere so it’s important to get it right the first time. In order to create and select the perfect logo design, you’ll want to follow these steps:
1. Select a budget
Prices can range anywhere from $300 to hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are many factors in determining the price including the project requirements, the size of your business, the media where it will be used and the experience of the designer.
2. Find a designer and request a quote
See “Small Business Tips for Choosing a Resource to Create Your Corporate Identity”
There are hundreds of designers in the state of Wisconsin. Make this process a little easier on yourself by asking other small business owners or searching for reviews and testimonials online. Once you have selected a few, contact them and engage them in a discussion and general discovery session, so the designer can learn more about your business and get a better feel for the project scope and your company’s persona. If you have an idea in mind let them know and also let them know if you’re looking for a complex illustrative solution (they take more time). Ask them for a quote for three initial designs and for three rounds of refinement for design of choice.
3. Select your designer
After talking with the designers, choose the designer that best fits your needs; this involves more than just price.
• They should have a proven track record for producing good logo designs.
• They should have a good understanding of how businesses operate and ideally ones that are
typical in your market.
• They should be willing to take the time to learn about your company and its products and
services, and check out your competition’s brand.
• They should be a good fit for the size of your company and budget.
• They should show a genuine interest in your company by asking questions and making
suggestions.
• They should have a clear understanding of the basic of sales and marketing, and what branding
is all about.
Another factor that may get overlooked, but is so important, is compatibility. Did you feel the designer listened to your needs and was easy to work with?
4. Talk with your designer about your project
Before meeting with your designer, you’ll want to ask yourself the following questions:
• What don’t you like about your current logo? (If you have one.)
• What kind of feelings do you want your logo to encourage?
• What kind of qualities do you want your logo to display?
• Would you like a tagline included in your design?
• Do you like the idea of a symbolic logo, a typographical logo or a mixture of the two?
Your designer will then likely ask questions to learn more about you and your small business such as:
• Who is your target audience?
• Who are you competing with?
• How are you different from your competitors?
5. Select a logo concept
After a given amount of time, your designer will come back to you with a couple of different design mock-ups. Pay special attention to the one that catches your attention. Ask yourself:
• Does it properly represent my business?
• Is it distinctive, simple and clean?
• Is it functional for all my mediums?
• Does it speak my message?
Be sure not to rush this selection process, take some to consider all of the choices.
6. Give good feedback
Each designer knows that he or she will not get the concept exactly right the first time so don’t be afraid of hurting any feelings. Explain what you do or don’t like about the designs. Try and communicate your needs as effectively as possible. Be specific.
With good feedback, your designer should be able to create your ideal business logo.
Creating a logo for your business is not a simple task, but is so important for your company image. Your logo can showcase your small business qualities and communicate your message. When you create the perfect logo the first time, it will last as long as your business.
