There are many aspects of a business brand, consisting of everything from how you interact with customers to your website and logo. As your business grows and develops, you'll find that the brand that you started out with may no longer fit the variety of clients you are dealing with today. In this article, we’ll walk you through some clues on when you need to give your business brand a makeover.
Since there are so many different variables in a brand, we’ll go over the most common changes business face throughout its lifetime. Updating a logo may seem like a fairly diminutive process, and for many companies this also includes updating uniforms, brochures, business cards etc to fit the new logo. If there is any inconsistency within your brand, it is important to update them to display the persistent message you are trying to portray to your customers. It is important to seek feedback from your customers to determine how successful your brand is, and which areas can use improvements or updates. Your logos, brochures, business cards, menus etc should reflect the culture of your company and its services in the most effective manner possible.
When it comes to any business, your company website is easily the most effective tool you can provide your potential and existing clients with. That is however, if your implementing and updating it properly. If you answer “No” to any of these questions, it’s likely time to update your brand and its’ online presence;
Signs that it’s time for an upgrade;
- What is the feedback you are receiving from your customers about your brand? Based off this feedback, is the material you are providing your customers with useful and informative?
- What new features or services have you added to your business, and can clients find information about them across your print and online material?
- Has your logo, print material or website changed or developed along with your target market? What are their expectations in the material and information you provide for them?
- Is your print material, uniforms, website etc consistently styled?
- Can your logo easily be identified from your competitors’ logos?
- Does your website fluidly fit on various screen sizes and on mobile devices?
- Does your website provide the most recent and accurate information about your business?
- Are your employees spending too much time resolving questions from clients in which answers could be provided on your website?
- Do you provide your customers with current information about your business through social media?
- Is the amount of clients you receive from online sources enough to cover the costs to maintain your website?
- When you look up your business on an online search engine, is your company website the first result?
The average business updates their entire brand (logo, uniforms, packaging, website, location, etc) every 10-20 years, however this factor genuinely depends on the relationship people have with your brand. When it comes to print material, companies tend to stay more current with this based off of new features or services they provide, price changes, and other consistent updates. Since your website should be the easiest to update using a Content Management System such as Caster CMS, businesses can change or update their website content themselves every day, or as often as required. Updates in location, blogs or newsletters, new services, general content, and images are the most common and frequent changes companies can easily make themselves on their website using this tool. If you’re considering an update within your companies’ branding and online material, click here to talk with our team about your branding and online needs.
Regardless of what industry you are in, it’s important to make sure that the images featured on your website are of high quality and relativity. Although compressing your images is a must when it comes to the web in order to minimalize loading time, there are many ways to ensure that your images maintain excellent quality. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons photography is so important to designing the users’ web experience is that it has a direct impact on their emotions. It is much easier to promote a feeling or experience visually through images than it is to try and allow the viewer to interpret these things through colour and shape used within the design. Images set the vibe for most websites, so make sure that the images you use are a perfect reflection of your company.
There are many ways to make your card memorable, but perhaps the most effective ways is through implementing the human senses. A client is more likely to remember ‘the thick round card that feels like water-colour paper’ than ‘the blue card with a guy’s face on it’ when searching for your information in a stack of other cards. Variables such as texture (also known as ‘tooth’), finish, embedding, shape, typography, and colour all play a roll in how people retain information from a physical card.
My favorite, and the most efficient way to ensure that a client holds onto your card, is implementing interactivity. Although this is a fairly unique method, as it typically adds plenty of additional costs, it’s really the full package when it comes to creating an incredible experience. Interactivity doesn’t necessarily require making your business card unfolding itself to reveal a tiny robot who tells the potential client all about your business, but involves the receiver of the card to get absorbed in transforming the card from it’s original form or message into something new. By making the card something useful and relevant to your business, the client is more likely to keep it and show to their friends in the future.
There are plenty of questions you have to ask yourself before going gun-ho on building a single page site. Possibly the most important element you should take into consideration is the amount of content you need to have on the site. If you have a ton of content, chances are you should stick with the good ol’ multiple page website layout. When users view a single page site on a mobile device or tablet, it’s not that much fun scrolling through tons of content that takes up the majority of the site. If you have plenty of content but have your heart set on a single page design, are you able to condense it and still keep the content keyword-rich for SEO? Having multiple pages with detailed information may be exactly what you need to communicate to the viewer about multiple services or products that you provide.