A logo is the first pillar of any brand building campaign. It helps your potential clients and customers to remember your brand. But, only if it has a certain few qualities, otherwise it is just a pretty picture that no one bothers to do anything with.
Uniqueness, attractiveness and effectiveness are the most important qualities of a logo design. It has to be unique as it is your brand / business identity. It should be something good to look at, and it should have some smart idea behind it that would make people curious about it. It should communicate the message which the designer intended to deliver as effectively as possible.
What happens if a logo design doesn’t do all that? Well then it is a bad logo design. If you are a well established financially strong business you can probably undo the damage by spending more on further re-branding and redesigning a perfect logo. However, if you are a startup then there are some serious consequences of a bad logo design that you must watch for.
1. Brand Distortion
A bad logo design distorts the image of your business or brand by misrepresenting it. Viewers unable to understand it would assume whatever they wanted with your logo design. Hence your brand image in their minds is distorted and you can’t help fix it.
2. Negative Impact
There is nothing worse than a logo design that communicates a wrong message, something negative or evil, like racism for example, or promoting hatred or something. Of course you didn’t want to do that on purpose, but it happened and your brand image is not only distorted and disliked, sometimes people can be brutal and they might even start hating you just because you had a bad logo design.
3. Silent Damage
Sometimes businesses and organizations do not even realize that they have a bad logo design which is not helping them at all. They keep using it meanwhile worrying why their promotional efforts are not paying off. This damage continues to grow until the cause is identified, but surprisingly not many businesses pay attention to their own logo and how it might be causing them the cold response.
4. Redesign Costs
As a start-up, a new business, or an established small business you might have limited budget to spend on branding and marketing. Getting your logo redesigned is just an unwanted experience which would increase your promotional budget and since you had a bad experience with a cheap logo designer this time you might consider hiring someone a little more fancy, which will cost you even more.
5. Rebranding Costs
As soon as you got your logo you may have gotten it printed on your business cards, your brochures or banners, posters, mugs or whatever approach you use to promote your brand. Redoing your logo design would not only cost you designer fee, it would also cost you a lot more when you start using new and improved logo on your promotional stuff. The added cost would become too high if you had already spent too much on marketing with your previous but horrible logo.
As a start-up you can avoid all this trouble by making smart choices right from the beginning. Spend some time on researching topics like design, business logo, and branding. An intelligent logo can boost your start-up’s brand image, get one in the beginning and then build your business empire on it.
Author:Ben Johnson is the Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a custom logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.
The following are five ways in which you can improve your work-from-home (WFH) experience to make things a heck of a lot sweeter!
Know Your Company’s Policies- Working from home is one thing, but actually getting the work done is another. Obviously, if your boss trusts you enough to work from home, then he or she trusts you enough to know that you are reliable and will follow the usual business ethics to make sure that your work is done in a timely manner and in the way in which it was originally specified to you to be done. The last thing that you want to do is ruin that balance of trust with your employer, so always make sure that you go above and beyond to do your best.
Maintain Some Semblance of a Schedule- Just because you have the luxury of working from the comfort of your own home doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep up a regular work schedule. I’m not saying that you have to work a strict 9-5 schedule; but at the same time, you don’t really want to be working in a few hours here, a couple of minutes there and then the rest of your hours in the middle of the night. Keeping a rough schedule helps to keep you organized, and it also keeps your body trained to get work done during a certain time frame. Plus- it allows you to better set your schedule for doing other things such as, I don’t know, having a social life for starters!
Cut Out the Distractions- For me, this boils down to one of two things: my cell phone or Facebook. Whatever it is for you, get rid of it (at least while you are working). For instance, when I am hard at work, my cell phone is usually turned off or is turned to silent and placed in another room. As for the social networking sites, I usually have a schedule in front of me on one screen and my tasked work on another, which leaves very little wiggle room for social networking sites. In between work breaks, I will try to check my cell phone or relieve some of the work monotony by checking out the latest social media stuff.
Take Breaks and Get Out- I have a tendency to work for long blocks of time, which is not good for several reasons; the main one being that when I eventually peel myself out of my chair, my back is killing me and I suddenly realize that I’m starving. Some of the tendency for those of us who work from home is to shut ourselves indoor all day until we finish every last drop of work. You don’t have to do this! Breaking up your work day is a great way to stay fresh and on point so that work doesn’t begin to drag you down. Get out and go for a walk or head to the gym or meet up with a friend for lunch and then come back to your work. Schedule breaks for yourself!
Protect Your Computer- If you work from home, then you will no doubt want to invest in a secured internet connection to protect your wireless network. Also, make sure that you back up whatever files you are working on just in case the power goes out or there is inclement weather.
If you have ever authored a blog or owned a website, then chances are that you’ve received some sort of commentary via the contact form on your site. Typically, the form will require the person’s name and email address…but have you ever wished that you could receive more information from your contact forms- information that would actually tell you a little more about how people are finding you?
Best Contact Form May Quite Possibly be “the best”
Best Contact Form was developed in order to better analyze converting traffic versus simply analyzing all traffic. For those of you out there who own a business and have an active website, this is great news because Best Contact Form helps you by gathering valuable marketing data based on people submitting contact forms on your website. Now, you can know exactly where your target audience is coming from, the time of day that they seem most likely to visit your website as well as a plethora of other information!
What Can Best Contact Form Tell You?
Some of the neat things that you can find out from these forms include (but are not limited to):
Which keywords visitors used to find your web site
Which search engine they used
Whether the link used was organic or PPC based
The landing page on tour web site
The full referrer (without truncation)
The geographic location, plotted on a map
The person’s web browser information
The person’s operating system
The person’s screen resolution
Which keywords are converting into sales
The date and time each form was submitted
In addition, all submissions are automatically archived and can be exported to CSV; and all of the contact forms also have the option for built-in SPAM protection as well. What’s not to like about that? Visit the Best Contact Form website to read up on more of the features and benefits that it has to offer; or, for those who want something more visual, you can watch the video to see how it all works.
What does a crappy website look like, and how can you tell? For starters, if you can’t figure out what the website is about within 2-3 seconds of being on the landing page, that alone should start sending up red flags.
We are all analysists
Believe it or not, we are all analysts in our own right. Every time we use a search engine to look up a web page where we are searching for a specific piece of information, we are constantly looking and evaluating the quality of what is present before us. According to Consumer Reports WebWatch Investigations,
…2,684 people evaluated the credibility of two live Web sites randomly assigned from one of 10 content categories (e-commerce, entertainment, finance, health, news, nonprofit, opinion or review, search engines, sports, and travel.) A total of 100 sites were assessed.
What the study found was that most people failed to pay attention to the credibility of the sources of information on websites. Rather, as the 2002 study indicated:
The data showed that the average consumer paid far more attention to the superficial aspects of a site, such as visual cues, than to its content. For example, nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes.[source]
So, should we be alarmed by this information? You bet. While reading through a person’s website may be interesting, to say the least, we really need to evaluate what we’re looking at. It’s one thing to sift through a site for aesthetic reasons, but when you’re actually referencing information from a particular website, wouldn’t you like to know where they got their information from?
Have you ever wanted to customize your search results on Google so that you don’t have to sift through results that you know aren’t going to be useful to you? For instance, I love to run. That being said, one day I might be interested in finding out what parks are nearby to where I live, so I’ll type in my keywords and wait for the list of results to pop up like they normally do on Google. As I go down the page of results, I might come across links to sites that I know will be useful. Using the Google SearchWiki, I can move the results up so that they appear at the top of the page. I can also customize the results even further by adding notes, which will always appear with that particular web link each time it comes up in a search.
You can also use Google SearchWiki to see how other people have customized their own searches. Keep in mind that the changes you make only affect your own searches and not the searches of others. However, Google SearchWiki is a great way to share your own insights with other people who might be searching for the same topic as you. There is also a spot located near the bottom of the page where you can click to “See all notes for this SearchWiki” which will allow you to see any notes or comments that you may have made about various sites. It’s a really neat feature, as you can see by watching the video below.
What is a Wiki?
A wikiis a website that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.” [source]
Based on yesterday’s post regarding touchpoint analysis, the following is a compilation of 22 questions that Dave Evans proposes throughout the chapter, which you can utilize in order to improve your marketing:
How are these promises related to the needs of your customers?
How are these promises supported?
What is the actual delivery mechanism that validates each promise?
What are the actual customer experiences that demonstrate successful delivery?
What channel has been used to convey each particular aspect of your promise or brand?
How important to your customer are each of the promises and points and delivery?
Does your marketing claim “leadership” as a provider of whatever it is that you do? If so, ask yourself how you measured this.
Is your message getting picked up, and is it being reflected on the Social Web? How effective is it as a conversational element?
Are you meeting, exceeding or falling short on the expectations you’ve set? What is your performance versus expectation?
How important is this specific touchpoint and its outcome (satisfaction versus disappointment) from the perspective of your customer or prospect?
What is its relative contribution in regards to talk value? Rate this on a 10-point scale. For example, is your message getting picked up? Is it reflected on the Social Web? If this is a dominant message, its talk value is toward the “10″ end of the scale.
Rank your performance or similar selected measure, again on a 10-point scale. For example, are you meeting, exceeding, or falling short on the expectations set?
What are your lowest talk-generating touchpoints?
What are your highest talk-generating touchpoints?
Which of your high-talk touchpoints are low-performing from your customer’s viewpoint? Make note of these.
Which of your high-talk touchpoints are high-performing from your customer’s viewpoint? Identify and save these.
What is the issue? Is this the wrong audience or a poor customer experience?
Did you set the right expectation? Did you over-promise or under-deliver?
Who else is involved? Who are your primary internal constituents when it comes to moving this touchpoint up and to the right or down and to the left on your touchpoint map?
Which of the required actions are directly within your control?
Social media is all about being an active participant in a conversation on the web. By increasing the amount in which you participate in an online discussion whether it be in Twitter or some other forum, you are actually helping to create your very own social reputation. To take it a step further, when the context involves marketing, your social reputation becomes an expression of the brand you’re trying to sell. For example, if several people on Twitter become involved in a conversation about how the iced mochas at Starbucks have tasted really bad over the past few weeks and suddenly Starbucks responds with an explanation, then they become a part of that conversation with the consumer.
Because they are measurable, online communities foster participation. According to Evans, these communities maintain the collective reputation of a brand, based on which an individual may develop or attest personal loyalty. Increasing numbers of marketers (and rightly so) are getting involved with the Social Web, with particular interest centering on the collective. You see, by influencing the collective, you can then reach the individual!
Evans points out that traditional forms of media take a “push and tell” approach to marketing whereby the marketer is in control of the message and dictates that message to the consumer (who is in a subservient role). Social media throws this balance off, making the consumer and the marketer equal partners- both with the opportunity to voice their opinions.
Consumer Generated Media
Over time, the Internet has grown to have a significant impact on how people view their own ability to hunt and gather information on a wide range of products and services. Consumer generated media is all over the Internet in the form of photos, blogs, videos, comments, ratings and reviews, and guess what? It is CONTROLLED BY THE CONSUMER. You may have wanted to buy that brand name blender, but after having spoken to a few other people online prior to your purchase, you realized that it was a piece of junk with a label. One of the biggest things that marketers can take away from all of this online chatter is that consumers talk about the things that interest them the most. As Evans stated,
Consumer-generated media is a reflection of the generational norms: as Millenials move into the center of the marketing power brand, their online behaviors become increasingly significant.
So, what does this mean for modern day marketing gurus? Marketers need to identify what it is they want to look at when it comes to studying consumer behavior. After that, create a list of the things that you’re doing (or have already done) to generate some sort of awareness about your product and/or service. Join social networking groups such as Twitter, and find out what people are talking about, and then start talking back. And don’t downplay the little things such as blog commenting because every little bit counts when it comes to solidifying your online reputation as someone your consumers can trust!
The Main Points According to Dave:
Social media plays a significant role in marketing: The conversations that take place on the Social Web determine how easy-or difficult- your task in driving conversion will be.
The social feedback cycle is built on the post-purchase feedback and conversational loop that augments your traditional purchase funnel activities.
Consumer-generated media, and in particular photos, audio, and video that supplement text (blogs), are in mainstream use now, even if concentrated in the Millenial and Gen X segments.
The determined detractor is an individual who plays an important role in the evolution of markets but nonetheless will not (normally) be “won over” and therefore is generally best viewed as a participant with whom you will “respectfully agree to disagree.” Your best response is to simply ensure that your story is also being told.
Your social feedback cycle, developed and maintained over time, is a key planning tool as you develop your social media plan.
Lately, it seems like the world can’t get enough of “social media”. Every time I turn the television on, the news anchors are closing out their day by telling viewers to send them a message on Twitter. Why, just recently, Ashton Kutcher made headlines when he became the first person to surpass 1 million followers on Twitter beating out rival CNN!
Social Media versus Regular Media
Social media has a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from traditional media sources such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The main difference is that the audience (you) can participate; it’s interactive. If you don’t like what someone has written in a blog post, you can comment on it. If you have something you would like to share with other people in your niche, you can create your own blog to discuss the issue or discuss it on Facebook or in a LinkedIn question.
Social Media and Accuracy
As more businesses are catching on to the social media storm, many wonder whether or not social media is accurate. For instance, when you go to a restaurant, chances are that you look up its ratings on the Internet first. Did other people comment on the service? How accurate are those comments, and how do you know that the comments weren’t all written by one person?
As it turns out, according to Evans, social media use the collective, the wisdom of the crowd. And in more cases than not, it is actually more accurate and therefore constitutes a measurable, trackable feedback point with regard to the acceptance and performance of your product or service. Additionally, social media is used not through command and control; but rather, through participation and influence by the consumer. After all, who best to rate a restaurant or a product than someone who has gone to that restaurant or used a certain product?
Social media, like any other form of expression that takes its roots in word of mouth, cuts both ways. It can boost viewership and purchase by reinforcing the underlying marketing message just as easily as it weakens intent and the likelihhood of successful conversion. -Dave Evans
As marketers, the tools for consumers/everyday people to use social networking and collaborative site building are out there. It seems like everyone has a blog, and everyone has an opinion about something. The job of marketers now is to stay on top of the latest trends and actually pay attention to what the consumers are blogging, tweeting and Digging so that they can find new ways to improve the marketability of their products.
According to Evans:
Social media is defined as: Participatory online media where news, photos, videos, and podcasts are made public typically accompanied with a voting process to signal items considered “popular”.
Social media is an effective guidepost. Social media can be used to gather valuable information about how your product, service, and brand are perceived in the marketplace.
The basic application of social media is as a consideration phase tool that connects post-purchase experiences with potential customers progressing from awareness to purchase.
Social media is an activity that is based on the notion of influence.
Planning and implementing channels associated with social media fits well with the concepts of integrated marketing.
Part 4 of 4: Time and TrackingAnother common question from web networkers is “How do I know where I or my business are showing up on the web, and when something good or bad is being said about us?” The no-cost answer is to install the simple feature of Google Alerts.For more comprehensive reports there are paid services like Andy Beal’s reputation monitor called Trackur.
If you’re reading this and calculating the amount of time it might take to manage a number of on-line networking profiles, blogs and groups, consider the power and value of three little letters that you may have overlooked on many web pages– RSS– which stands for Real Simple Syndication. RSS has origins in the concept of big news agencies “syndicating” their information so others could pull it and use it. RSS gives all users the power of producing news or changing information that others can pull in, just like they would a national on-line newspaper.When you see RSS on the screen, it means that with something called a blog reader or a news aggregator you get to select the information that you want to keep up with, such as national news or news from your local social media site, and business networking sites like Linkedin, all in one location. With this method you are able at a quick glance to keep up with current news, new blog postings, or new connections your business allies are making on Linkedin at a quick glance. Then, if you want more details, you can “pull” more information as needed from your blog reader. Instead of being buried in email updates from sites, mixed in with news letters that you no longer follow, you can choose what you track and the degree you wish to follow it by only getting what’s new or changed.
You may think, how can I afford the time to use Social Media? If you realize that for many businesses this is where your current and future customers are, you can not afford to not spend time with it. Pick something and start small. You may choose to begin with Linkedin, on of the Inside Area Code sites (like inSide919.com), Facebook, or Twitter. Set aside a little time each day or week to “relate on-line”.
The new social media gives businesses the opportunity to be closer to their customers than ever before.Business networking brings us the ability to build alliances both locally and globally. The key is to not forget the value of the in-person connections which complement and enhance on-line relationships. Quality relationships still take time to develop—on and off the web.
I had been spending some time on Twitter recently when it struck me how many “Internet marketing experts” there were out there. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Since when did Internet marketing become the new college major?” With so many people all vying for each other’s attention and business, it is often difficult to tell one marketer from another. To further prove my thinking, I spent some time going around and visiting some Internet marketing blogs. The messages all seemed to be the same:
Brand yourself
Network with others via Social Media
Study SEO and know your keywords to get better ratings in Google
What Sets Internet Marketers Apart?
Sometimes Internet marketing can feel like being pushed into a crowded room in which everyone is talking about the same thing in only very slightly different ways. At the end of the day, everyone’s trying to make a few bucks based on what they know and are able to successfully convey to whoever will buy it. So, what sets the great marketers apart from the rest of the crowd? I’ve been able to make a few observations on this subject:
Quality; Not Quantity: There are some people that you will see on every single social networking site available. They’ll tend to have a fairly decent following, but at the end of the day what does their site look like? Is the quality of what they have to say really worth it?
Quality Time: How often do you set aside time to actually read (not skim) other people’s blogs? What about the few readers or people that you have on your own blog who leave comments? Do you write back to them or respond on their blogs?
Quality Site: You should think of your website or blog as you would your home. Would you want to invite people over if it was a mess? Keeping that in mind, the layout of your site should be friendly, clean and highly navigable. A lot of people will go crazy with banner ads, etc. and while that may be a source of revenue- you need to keep your readers in mind and know that that might turn some of them off to what you have to say.
What do you think? In your opinion, what sets Internet marketers apart?
1. Brand Distortion
If you have ever authored a blog or owned a website, then chances are that you’ve received some sort of commentary via the contact form on your site. Typically, the form will require the person’s name and email address…but have you ever wished that you could receive more information from your contact forms- information that would actually tell you a little more about how people are finding you?
Who 
Lately, it seems like the world can’t get enough of “social media”. Every time I turn the television on, the news anchors are closing out their day by telling viewers to send them a message on 
