Consistency And Making Your Small Business Look More Professional
- 2. I am only small but I look really big right?
Over the last few weeks we have been
talking about platforms and strategies to
position your business online.
We have talked a little bit about WordPress
and why it is undoubtedly the best platform
to use for you small business website and
we have also touched on Facebook and the
development of custom Facebook business
fan pages.
In this post I would like to explore the bigger picture and to try and put forward a plan
to „big-it-up‟ (thanks to Ali G) to your small business online.
Consistency and the Frilled Neck Lizard
So what has a frilled neck lizard got to do with online marketing for small business or
marketing at all for that matter?
It‟s all about making your small business look bigger than it actually is and consistency
is the key to making that happen.
When making a purchasing decision we all like to get „personal service‟, however, we
also all like to feel that we are buying from a business of some substance and one that
is going to be around for a while should we need further assistance or perhaps to
purchase additional goods and services.
Many small businesses are great with the personal service aspect, however, may be
missing out on sales due to the fact that they are not so hot on presenting an image
that suggests they are a quality supplier that is at the top of their game, is up with
trends and initiatives in their respective industry sector and is in it for the long haul.
How Can I Achieve Consistency in the Way I Present My Small Business?
It all starts with your logo. It then progresses through your business cards, your
letterhead, your email signature etc and finally goes through all of your online
marketing as well.
If we are building a bespoke website for a company we will not start until we have a
copy of their logo.
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- 3. Your Logo Should Not Have Been Designed in the 1950′s Unless You Are
Selling Memorabilia from That Period
The logo decides the look and feel of the website and it determines the colour scheme
we will use and, on this item I am going to digress a little for a moment so please be
patient and bear with me….
Old style WA logo
Quite often we have people coming to us
asking for a bright new „Web 2.0″ site with
plastic looking buttons and modern text
then, when asked for their logo, they send
us something approaching the „hackneyed
WA logo‟ shown to the right.
The email delivering the logo will also
contain something akin to the following text… “our business has used this logo for the
last (insert number here) years and our customers identify our business via this logo so
there is no way we would consider changing it.”
Note to small business person – you are not Coca Cola! The world will not fall apart if
you modernise your logo. Customers will not desert you in droves. In fact, you might
find they are impressed with your efforts to modernise your business.
Can you imagine how the logo to the right would clash with a modern Web 2.0 site with
nice plastic looking buttons etc?
You are not a professional designer and neither is your brother, nephew,
niece, sister’s son’s daughter’s brother…
Need I say more? Get a professional designer to design you logo.
Give them a well researched, well thought out and well written brief.
As a start you might like to consider the following things;-
The style and design of your product or service
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- 4. Your target market – are they old or young? Do they come from a particular
demographic?
The image you want your company to portray – modern, conservative,
innovative, funky, trustworthy, solid, cool?
Your market segment
Other companies in your market (your competitors)
International companies and trends in your industry in general
Related industries and companies in those industries
Logo design is not an expensive exercise.
You can use one of our fantastic local designers.
You can even have it done online for a couple of hundred dollars.
Online suppliers will provide you with a range of samples from various bidders for your
logo design and you can ask your friends to view the short list and add comments or
vote on the design they like best.
Heaven forbid, you can even ask your web designer to vote or comment on the shortlist
of logo candidates.
So, I Have My Shiny New Logo, What Next?
Next week we will start putting the pieces together starting to focus on creating your
online „frilled neck lizard‟ to present your business (and you personally) as a modern
accomplished company and an individual who is at the top of his/her game and is
capable of delivering a quality product or service to match….
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