Remember What Logos Are

Often, when people are choosing a logo, they forget exactly what a logo should be. If you are just selecting the first logo for your company, you might not have much experience, and might not know what a logo is. You are not stupid because of this, and you should not feel uncertain because you do not know. There are many people in the design industry who do not fully know. Here are some things that describe a logo.

A logo is basically a design

A logo should allow people to recognize your brand at a glance, they should build trust with customers, they should make people like your brand, and they should help to build loyalty with your customers.

Logos are important, but they are just a part of your overall brand.

A logo should help to set a company apart from their competitors.

Now that you know what makes a logo, here are some things, which your logo should not be.

Photographs

You might have a certain photograph, which you use for your brand. For example, if you have a landscaping company, you might have a photograph of a nice landscape that you have created; you might use it as your logo. However, you have to remember that a logo should be easy to identify, and a photograph takes too long for people to recognize. Your goal with a logo is to make instant recognition, and it is best to use something that is simpler than photography. It is also very hard to scale a photograph up to a larger format.

Clip art as a logo

Your logo should not be made using clip art. When you open your logo in an image editor, and you zoom in, you should not see lots of tiny square pixels. If you make your logo larger or smaller, it should always be viewed in the same way. A good logo should be made as a vector, so that it can be easily rescaled without losing any information.

Logos and story telling

Your logo does not have to tell the story of your entire business. It simply has to be representative of your brand. For example, think about the McDonald’s logo. It does not explain that they have some of the cheapest burgers in the world, but everyone still knows that they do. Sure, your logo should be relevant to your company, but it does not have to describe what your company is all about. It simply has to be something that people can easily recognize and associate with your business. You have support material for your brand, which can give people all of the details, so you can afford to have a simple logo that just tells people, in general, what your company primarily does.

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When you are making a title, you basically want to try and summarize all of your content down into a simple phrase. It might be difficult to think of a great headline, but doing so can be just as important as writing the rest of your article, book or blog.

Why you need a great headline

If you think of yourself as a fisher man, and your desired audience as being the fish you are trying to catch, you can then consider your headline to be the bait that you use to entice them to get hooked. If you want your fish to take the bait, you had better ensure that it looks and smells very tasty. If you use just any old bait, you might not catch as many fish as you could by using the right sort of bait.

Most of the time, a good headline is important than the whole article. If you have ever received a newsletter through email, you will know that the subject has to be good if you are going to read it. If the headline sounds boring, or like something you would not be interested in reading, there is little chance that you will even open the email. There are a lot of advertisements on the market, so in order to get your message through; you have to really stand out from the crowd. These days, most people do not have very long attention spans. If you cannot grab their attention straight away, you are unlikely to be very successful.

Tips for making a great headline

Avoiding cliches

So many people are desensitized to advertisements, that they will not even respond to cliches, such as “the best,” “number one,” “high quality,” and “top of the line.” These days, it will take a lot more than a few time tested cliches to get people interested in your content.

Creative versus straightforward headlines

There are certain times when creative and straightforward headlines work, respectively. Sometimes, it is best to get right to the point and tell people what you are offering. Other times, it helps to use a creative headline that really grabs attention.

If you are trying to write a straightforward headline, make sure that you get down to business right away. You do not have to use fancy word play or creative language here. Simply, tell people what you have to offer. For example, if you are giving away free copies of the latest SIMX software, make a headline like “Latest SIMX software give away.” Tell people exactly what they will find when they take a closer look, and do not mess around with any frills.

A creative headline will try to draw attention with a less direct method. You should come up with something clever and creative, so that people will be attracted to your content. Using word play, rhymes and alliteration are good techniques for a creative headline.

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Below are a few tips to help you determine whether offering a discount for certain projects will work or not.

1.    Customer Appreciation versus Retaining Customers

The first thing that you need to think about when you are considering a discount plan is your reasoning behind it. Do you have customers leaving your business because they are finding your product or service cheaper somewhere else? Are your customers beginning to demand a lower price? Are you afraid of losing clients? These reasons are simply undervaluing what you are truly worth of.

A customer should never feel that they are owed a discount; these customers are overconfident, spoiled, and probably not ideal customers to begin with. You should avoid these types of customers because by demanding a discount they are stating that the work you do is not important enough for them to pay for it.

However, some of your long-term customers may ask for a discount simply because they have been loyal and prompt with their payments. There are many countries and cultures where it is common to give loyal customers a discount. If the customer is valuable and you can afford to offer them a discount, you should.

Generally speaking, discounts should be given to customers that are loyal as a way to show your appreciation to them.

2.    Be Picky When it Comes to Customers to Give Discounts to

A general discount plan can be extremely risky as it makes it extremely difficult to go back to your original prices once the time period has ceased. Another problem with this strategy is lower prices offered from a discount will give the impression that you can do the work for less. If your regular customers hear of this, it will be difficult to explain to them why they are still paying full price.

The best way to avoid this is to not offer a general discount, especially for new customers. This tactic should only be applied if you have a large base of customers and can risk losing a bit of income.

Here a few selected customers you can consider offering discounts for: loyalty, prompt payment, communication and collaboration, referrals they have given you and the number of projects you have completed for them.

3.    Discount Offers should Only be Made After a Foundation of Clients is Established

It is just not safe to implement any type of discount plan, until your business can fully support it. You want to make sure you have a set number of clients established before even attempting this type of marketing plan.

4.    Announcing Discounts

It is important to be very careful with the way you announce these discounts. You can choose a target clientele to make the offer to. If you are offering a discount as customer appreciation, make sure to state that you truly appreciate their business and downplay the discount.

5.    Combine Efforts

In order to offset the cost of the discounts, consider offering extra services to your client instead. This works well for those of you who do not want to offer your services at lower prices.

Some ideas that you can use to reward loyal customers include offering them a new banner, new call to action buttons, a newsletter, or a new image gallery.

The most important thing to remember is that you should never offer discounts if your business cannot fully sustain it. While offering discounts may seem like a good idea, it really only works if your business is truly ready for its impact.

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Small business owners must use websites appropriately if they are going to be able to compete with larger companies. You should not take the creation of your company’s websites lightly, because it can get you a lot of customers if done well. The look of your website is not the most important thing that you should be worried about. Sure, an attractive website is pleasing to the eye, and shows people that you have the money to spend hiring a great designer.

However, your website has to have a high level of usability as well as looking great, if your visitors are expected to use it. If you have a site which is hard to navigate, and your information difficult to sift through, people are likely to simply click away to a better made site.

You do not want to lose your customers to competitors just because you have a poorly made website, do you? This article will address some of the key areas that you should consider when you are either making your website, or having it built by a designer.

State your mission

When you are making a website for a small business, you should ask yourself these questions: Who is your company? Who will your customers be? How will you let your customers know who you are, and what you are about? Once you have addressed these questions you create a strategy for your website, which will help to make it much more successful.

Do not overlook these questions, because they can give you a key strategy when you are making marketing decisions, building customer loyalty, and creating a brand for yourself. Writing copy is one of the most important parts of your business website. You can have a great looking website, that is easy to navigate, but if the text on your site does not properly communicate with visitors, they are likely to go somewhere else for services and goods. You should never use too much jargon, or technical language, when you are writing copy for your website.

This will only serve to alienate your visitors. Rather, you should use conversational language and speak with the active voice, so that you can direct your customers appropriately. Act as though you are talking to a person face to face, and you will be able to create the copy that reaches out to readers. You should be able to read your marketing copy to a child who is in school, and they should understand what you are trying to convey. If you use rich language, with too many large words, you are probably going to turn your potential customers away. If you read your copy to someone, and they do not understand, you will probably have to explain things to them. What did you have to add so they understood? This should be added to your copy before you publish it.

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