Why is visual consistency important to my design?

Why is visual consistency important to my brand? Branding expert Marty Neumeier explains in his book that a brand is not what you say it is, but that it is what your customer says it is. This means it is incredibly important that you are transmitting the values you want your customers to associate with your company. Once your customers start understanding what your company is really all about, it is important to continue to maintain that impression. This is where consistency comes in.

It is important to unify the entire customer experience so that it aligns with the company's values and mission. Your should do this not only for your visual design, but also at every customer touchpoint from the design of your retail or office space, all the way to how you treat your customers. President Obama's 2008 campaign branding is a great example of this consistency in action. Obama had a unique platform based on bringing change to our nation. To visually illustrate this concept, his marketing team worked to create a logo and overall visual look that was a radically departure from what most presidential campaign logos look like. To take it even further, President Obama's team demonstrated his mission in dozens of other ways, including the candid interactivity of his online presence, which attracted youthful, change-hungry supporters who rallied for him.Obama's marketing team took the core of his campaign and consistently reinforced it through every single touchpoint. Because of this, his mission occupied a distinct place in citizens' minds and drew like-minded supporters to him like a moth to a flame. No matter how small your organization is, you can achieve similar effects with your clientele by consistently reinforcing your brand through every opportunity you have—including every piece of visual design. This consistency helps develop brand recognition and fosters your customer's trust in your company. Over time, they come to know exactly what they'll get when they choose to work with you, and this reliable experience is what builds the loyalty that keeps them coming back over and over again.

Why aren't unlimited revisions included in your estimates?

I recently received an estimate for some design work, which included a set number of revisions. Why aren't unlimited revisions included in your estimates?

As a business in search of design help, it is completely understandable that you want to go into a new design project feeling confident that you'll end up with a finished product that achieves your goals. The thought of limitations can make you afraid that you won't be able to get the project finished the way you hope for. Rest assured that it is incredibly important to us that you are thrilled with the final result of your project. That being said, there are essentially two reasons we limit revisions on a project estimate: 1) to promote mutual trust and 2) to keep our business profitable. Let me delve into those two items a bit further.

Promoting trust

Typically, our clients come to us because we have expertise in creating something that they don’t have as much experience at. In order to have a healthy business relationship, our clients need to trust that we’re listening to them and working in their best interest to translate their vision into something that works for their users and for the medium they are using. Ultimately, a project needs to be about the end user (rather than any one individual’s personal opinions), and if we have our clients’ trust and understanding that we are working together to make something that communicates well to their user, there should be fewer revisions needed.

Staying profitable

All of our estimates are based on a certain number of hours that it typically takes us to create a specific deliverable. The unknown factor in a project is always how many changes are requested. Since our estimates are based on how much time we are investing, we can’t really include unlimited revisions because we need to make sure we don’t invest more time than we are being paid for. To attempt to meet out clients half way, I almost always include at least one round of revisions (because it is almost inevitable that there will be a least a few items that need tweaking). Additionally, we can always do as many revisions as needed for our clients. We’re not looking to rule our clients’ projects with an iron fist. However, it will cost more once we get past the quoted amount of revisions because, at that point, the project is taking more time than we’d estimated for. To sustain our business, we simply need to charge for that additional time.As a final note, we always want to try to get on the same page as our clients before beginning their projects. We truly want to understand your vision and work with you to translate it in the way that will engage your audience. We are always more than happy meet up with you before beginning a project to get to know each other in person and get on the same page about what you are looking for.

Why is branding important?

I keep hearing a lot of talk among other business owners about branding. Why is branding important for my business?

Branding is definitely an important element of building a business. If you're like me, the term "branding" probably brings up images in your mind of ranchers jabbing cattle with searing hot metal stamps. Well, that image actually isn't that far off—only we're looking to sear impressions of your company in the minds of your consumers.

Let me tell you a little story that illustrates brand loyalty at its finest.

I have a younger brother who insists that Hunt’s Ketchup is better than Heinz. He would whine and whine when he was forced to eat Heinz Ketchup on his hot dog or hamburger, so several years ago, my mom and I decided to test out whether he actually knew the difference between the two brands.One night at the dinner table, we performed a little taste test. I squeezed out a dollop of Heinz and a dollop of Hunt’s Ketchup onto a paper plate, and wrote their respective names on the underside of the plate. We had him give both brands a try. I’m sure you know what is coming next—he chose the wrong one. That’s right, he thought the Heinz tasted better than the Hunt’s brand. He insisted we cheated, and we insisted he never knew what he was talking about.The fact is the kid had an unshakable partiality to the Hunt’s brand. Such a partiality that he couldn’t even fess up to actually liking the other brand better.This is how consumers minds work. They acquire a strong affinity (or possibly, a disgust) toward a specific brand of product or service. And once that opinion is formed, it is pretty tough to change their minds no matter how many facts or features you offer them.This is why it is important for your brand to come out of the gates strong and work hard to maintain its consistently. Even the smallest companies can do this. It starts with solidly defining what you stand for and sticking to it. From there, you build the look and feel of the brand (designers will call this your “brand identity”) so that it reinforces your mission.As my brother’s story demonstrates, an impression of your company may never be able to be reversed. This is why it’s absolutely vital to make the investment to make sure your company makes a positive, professional impact from the start.

How can I write better copy for my business?

As a small business, my website budget is tight and I won't be able to hire a copywriter right away. How can I get started writing copy for my business?

Most people really struggle to write about their business. Because you know all the little facets of your business, it can get really hard to narrow down what you want to say and how to say it.

Writing for yourself is also a challenge because you so rarely have the time to write when the motivation strikes—you're too busy working to serve your clients! Once you manage to schedule the time to do your own writing, you might not be filled with that motivation to write that you had a month ago when you were too busy working to write.

Over the years I have formed a system that helps me to write passionately about my business. The system can be a little chaotic, but it has always enabled me to capture my creative copy ideas when I might not have the time to sit down and write.

The super-simple system

The system is simple—every time I have a copy idea, I write it down. You may wish to work in an analog fashion, tracking ideas on slips of paper, post-it notes, or in a notebook and filing them away in a file folder, or you may wish to work digitally in an Evernote note or a Word document.

Whatever method you choose to use, the most important thing is that you are able to keep it readily available. This is important because our brains are usually the most creative when they are relaxed, which means ideas can (and will) strike at completely random times. I can't even begin to tell you how much of my website copy was conceived in the moments right before drifting off to sleep.

Bringing it all together

I usually start collecting ideas a few months before I begin my website redesign. This way, there is some time for my ideas to simmer and for inspiration to strike, and inspired copy is always much more engaging than copy that feels forced.

When I start getting close to working on my website copy, I make some time to go through all of my notes and compile them into a single digital document. Make sure to include all of your ideas to start with—it doesn't necessarily have to make sense yet.

Once I have all of the ideas compiled, I go back through the ideas and start grouping like items together. At this point, I usually have a good idea of what kinds of copy I need to create (i.e. home page copy, bio copy, etc.). If you don’t know what kind of copy you need, you might want to stop and write a list before grouping your copy ideas. That way you know what you are looking for.

After I've grouped related ideas together, I string thoughts together to form cohesive copy. Of course, you will need to add some filler copy in addition to these copy lines, but these initial ideas are likely to hold a lot of passionate thoughts. You will probably only need to add a small amount of additional copy to link them together. Don’t feel you must include everything—it is natural that you will have ideas that don’t fit in or bits that speak with an unfitting voice.

That’s all there is to it!

This process has helped turn website copywriting into a much less painful process by collecting your best ideas slowly and consistently, and I hope it will help make it easier for you too!

What is Twitter all about?

I keep hearing people talking about how they are using Twitter for their business. What is Twitter all about?

Twitter has been all the rage for the past few years. However, a lot of people have had a hard time understanding what the “point” of all this twittering is.

What is Twitter?

In a nutshell, Twitter is sharing short messages in 140-character posts. Some people call it microblogging, or lifecasting. Twitter often gets a bad rap, as its participants are accused of broadcasting the mundane details of their lives. Although there is some truth to this, Twitter has the potential to be so much more. Twitter is really all about interaction and building relationships. In fact, a lot of self-employed people use it just to feel like they are connected to a world outside of their home office. Twitter is about getting involved in conversations with people you follow, sharing information, ideas, and often a laugh.

Twitter terminology

If you choose to get started on Twitter, you'll begin to notice there is a whole set of terms associated with it. Lets go over a few of the most popular ones:

Follower: When you decide you want to be able to see what someone is saying on Twitter, you follow them. This is similar to "friending" someone on Facebook. You don’t have to know someone to follow them, and in most cases they don’t have to “approve” you following them. Likewise, people can follow you as well. They can be people you actually know or complete strangers.

Tweet: A tweet is a post. It consists of a 140-character message of your choosing.

Retweet: This is when you re-post something someone else said. The benefit of this is that you are passing on a message from someone you follow to the people who follow you. Great content spreads quickly like this.

At-reply: When you want to specify someone that a message is directed toward, you include their Twitter handle, which includes the “@ sign” followed by their username. When you do this, the user will be notified that you tweeted them.

Direct Message: A direct message is essentially like a 140-character email message within the Twitter platform. This form of communicating is private.

Things you should know

Everything you post is public to the world.

You don’t need to get overly freaked about this, but it's something to keep in mind. You don’t want to give too much information about yourself or say something that could be used against you at a later date. It is possible to protect your account so that it can only be viewed with your permission, but honestly, this goes against everything that Twitter is about. If you don't feel comfortable sharing openly, Twitter might not be for you.

Be authentic.

Since Twitter is all about relationship building, it makes no sense to try to build relationships on anything but the truth. Businesses sometime have a hard time embracing this about Twitter, but it just doesn’t work when it is burdened with too many rules. Twitter is all about being Ed the Software Developer who works at ABC Labs, not ABC Labs, a cold, impersonal company. Twitter was made for people. Mix up your tweets: talk a little business, talk a little about you, comment on other people’s conversations, and share knowledge that your followers would appreciate.

Twitter is not nearly as good without a desktop app.

It’s really inconvenient to have to log on to the Twitter website to post or check your account. For the most part it doesn’t really notify you that you have been referenced in a tweet or if people are retweeting your messages. You will ideally want to use the Twitter app on your desktop or smartphone.

Getting started

Once you get on Twitter you will need to complete your 160-character bio and upload some sort of avatar. If you are using Twitter for personal use, make sure your avatar is an accurate reflection of your personal brand. If you are using it for business, make sure to have a clean, professional avatar that reinforces your company's branding. If you're using your Twitter for any type of professional purpose, make sure to note your profession in some way, but feel free to pepper your profile with some personal tidbits as well.

Before you really get going with Twitter, you may wish to join and follow a few interesting people and just observe how other people are using Twitter. As the creators of Twitter have said: There is no wrong way to use Twitter. Each person uses it a little differently as they see fit. For more information about getting started, you can read the Twitter 101 section on the website.

Finding people to follow

One of the easiest ways is to just use the “Find People” feature on twitter.com. You can search by name or by keyword, although this feature can be just a bit buggy. There are also some other websites that allow you to search for users in certain areas or with specific keywords in their bios.

When using Twitter effectively, you can really connect with people you never would have. Because of Twitter, I know dozens more creatives than I ever would have before, have become much more involved in the design community, and have learned about tons of new websites, resources, and technologies. If you are thinking that Twitter is just another time-suck, you are probably right. But if you manage your participation well, it can have great benefits.

If you log on and try it out, make sure you follow @strongdesign or follow me directly at @melissabalkon. Happy Tweeting!