JFG - JFG Visual Communications

Three Benefits of Partnering With a Graphic Designer

All professional graphic designers understand the basics of design: layout, grids, color theory, typography, but the very best also have a deep understanding of strategy and how it applies to marketing and branding. The best designers understand how the value of exceptional design, created with a purpose, adds to a business and brand growth. Strategic understanding is crucial. We see how all of the pieces fit together and understand the role visual elements play in bringing your brand story to life.

There are several benefits to hiring a graphic designer for specific projects. A good graphic designer will save you time and money, ask smart questions, and provide plenty of value without needing to be micromanaged. We are a dependable and resourceful lot: finding creative solutions to business problems is what we do.

But the benefits are so much more significant, and our work together is truly transformational when we establish a partnership. Graphic design is a critical business asset that has the potential to transform your business. But you can’t get a transformational result from a transactional relationship

Why to partner not just hire. Three benefits of partnering with a graphic designer.

Whether you are a business owner, founder of an entrepreneurial startup, marketing consultant, or chief marketing officer, you owe it to yourself to partner with a talented branding and visual communications expert. Here are a few you can benefit from partnering with a graphic designer:

1. Find creative solutions to business challenges.

The best graphic designers have a deep understanding of branding and marketing strategy and can help you create and implement a plan to grow your business. It all starts with establishing a strong brand that resonates with your audience. Your brand is your business’s personality, and every graphic element has to evoke the right emotion. It might be adventurous or cautious, energetic or calm, traditional or innovative. A strong brand has a strong personality. It captures how you want your audience to feel when they first encounter your business.

Your marketing strategy is built on your brand strategy and messaging. Whether your goal is to launch a new business or a new product, expand your reach, or spread the word about an upcoming event, your marketing strategy will outline the tactics and touchpoints to make it happen. And from that marketing strategy, you can create a list of marketing collateral to develop — from brochures, direct mail pieces, and conference swag to digital ads, infographics, and social media posts.

The sooner you partner with a graphic designer, the more you will benefit from their insights and in-depth understanding of branding and marketing. By partnering with a graphic designer, you’ll be able to build a strong brand and convey a clear and compelling message.

2. Make a great first impression.

You only have one chance to make a great first impression. In many cases, that first impression is informed by the quality of your website and other marketing collateral. Good design gives your business credibility. It builds trust with your audience and positions your company as the best solution to the problems that keep your clients up at night.

But if the design is unprofessional, how can your clients trust that your company can provide the solution they need?

A clear, unique, and memorable marketing message must be accompanied by an equally compelling visual system that represents your brand. A good designer gives shape to your brand while adding ideas to develop a strong visual identity that speaks to your audience.

3. Be consistently seen and heard by your audience.

You can’t earn your audience’s business without first gaining their trust. And you can’t gain your audience’s trust without showing up consistently with a clear and compelling message. Great design amplifies your message, helps you earn your audience’s trust, and builds brand recognition.

In today’s business world, your online presence — your website, social media, email newsletter, and digital advertising — is the most effective tool to make sure you are seen and heard by your audience. A user-friendly website that is responsive and accessible is a powerful communication tool and at the heart of any online communications effort. Social media, email marketing, and digital advertising expand those efforts, converting your prospects into clients. Print materials subsidize your online presence, deepening the relationship with your audience.

Are you ready to partner with a graphic designer?

In an increasingly competitive market, being average isn’t good enough. Your marketing needs to be exceptional to cut through the noise and be noticed by your target market. By partnering with a graphic designer who will put in the time to research your company and your competition, understand your audience, identify your business challenge, and create marketing collateral that responds to the needs of the people you serve, you will stand out from the crowd.

Your time is too valuable to spend doing anything other than what is within your zone of genius. Instead of trying to do it all yourself, build a team of trusted experts who can help you reach your goals. As Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy wrote in Who Not How, successful growth depends on changing your mindset from asking how you will accomplish your goal to asking who will help you accomplish your goal.

Are you looking for a creative partner for your business — a who to take on the how of branding and visual communications? If so, give me a call.

by JFG

Defining Your Marketing Strategy: Content Marketing

Your marketing strategy outlines the tactics you use to communicate with your ideal clients. It is derived from your brand strategy and is one of the three key strategies every successful business needs. According to Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor, an integrated marketing strategy consists of targeted outreach, strategic networking, and content marketing.

This post is the final in a three-part series that reviews each of these elements to focus your marketing efforts. The first post focused on targeted outreach. The second post gave a few tips on how to engage in strategic networking virtually as well as in person. This month, I am focusing on content marketing, emphasizing how design can help you differentiate your content marketing efforts.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing uses content to speak to your audience, including your ideal clients and referral sources, so they will remember you when they need you most. Good content allows your audience to learn about your expertise; it shows them that you understand their problems and have a solution.

Content marketing ties your marketing strategy together. As you get to know your audience, you will better understand the challenges they face. The more you understand their challenges, the better positioned you will be to create content that addresses those needs. You can then use the content you create to nurture the prospects you identified as part of your targeted outreach efforts. To stand out, you want to create content that is in keeping with your brand. That’s where good design can help.

How can design increase the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts?

While blogs and email newsletters are the most common type of content, effective content marketing uses a mixture of written, visual, interactive, and video content. Each type of content presents information differently, which ensures that you are reaching and engaging your audience. In some cases, it may make sense to combine several formats into one piece. For example, you might incorporate an infographic into a blog post, like this example I created for Datacolor, appealing to visual learners versus those who process information through the written word.

Visual language is an integral part of your content marketing effort. By applying uniquely created design elements to your content, the applied designs support your underlying message and enhance understanding. It is also critical to successfully repurposing content, which reinforces your original message, increases reach (the number of people who see your message) and frequency (the number of times a person sees your message), and drives traffic to the original piece of content.

Design considerations for five of the most effective content formats:

1. Blog posts are the most common type of content.

In most cases, the blog post incorporates a hero image. Because many companies use stock photography, this is an excellent opportunity to stand out from the crowd and reinforce your brand with a custom graphic. Not only will it be specific to your topic, it will also reinforce the identity of your brand. Blog posts can also incorporate other graphic elements, such as an infographic, customized quotes, and collage. In addition, you can promote through social media, utilizing the created graphics to support the post content.

2. Infographics are the most popular and widely shared type of content.

Infographics are visual representations of complex ideas. They tell a compelling story that many audiences find incredibly engaging. They are often embedded in a blog post and shared through social media. The most effective infographics have very few words: they rely on the power of visual language to convey their message. Not sure where to start? Maybe create a timeline of your business from where you started and show the growth to where you are today. You can break infographics into several pieces of content to share on social media.

3. Webinars and presentations build authority.

The most effective webinars and presentations support the speaker’s story. They have very few words but are rich in graphics, which is essential to keeping your audience engaged. Images, graphics, and typography work together to reinforce the message. Elements from a webinar or presentation can also be used on social media or repurposed into a blog post or ebook.

4. Ebooks are powerful lead magnets.

Ebooks demonstrate your expertise and help your audience understand your approach. Good design helps make the information presented more digestible, making ebooks excellent candidates to repurpose into infographics. If you intend to use an ebook as a lead magnet, you may also want to develop a landing page making sure the branded graphics are carried all the way through.

5. Distribute content through email newsletters and social media.

For every piece of content you create, you will want to make sure it is distributed to your audience and promoted through online platforms to reach an even broader audience. Your email newsletter is an excellent distribution channel, and social media serves both to distribute and promote your content. It should go without saying that your brand elements will drive the look and feel of the content message.

Are you ready to be strategic about your content marketing?

Have you thought about how design can increase the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts? Do you know how to repurpose your content to improve reach and frequency? From designing landing pages, ebooks, webinars, infographics, email newsletters, and social media posts to determining the best graphics to accompany your blog post or figuring out how to repurpose existing content, I can help you stand out and get your audience’s attention.

If you would like to take your content marketing to the next level, let’s talk.

by JFG

Defining Your Marketing Strategy: Strategic Networking

This post is the second of a three-part series that reviews each of these elements to help you focus your marketing efforts. Last month, I focused on targeted outreach. This month, I am focusing on strategic networking, which has looked a little different this year due to the pandemic.

What is Strategic Networking?

Strategic networking is the skill of building relationships. Relationship-building should be the most natural thing you do, but often it is one of the hardest. While you never know who might be able to introduce you to your next perfect client, networking takes significant time, energy, and effort. It is finding the ideal client, the advocate, or community who will benefit the most from your product or service. Consistent nurturing of these relationships helps in being remembered when you are needed most. Without these relationships, your business cannot thrive, much less survive.

How Do You Engage in Strategic Networking During a Global Pandemic?

In March 2020, all in-person gatherings came to a halt, and we all became used to video conference calls and working from home. Although there have always been a core group of networking events hosted online, there are even more today than there were just a few short months ago. You can find several virtual networking events on sites like Eventbrite, Meetup, LinkedIn, LunchClub, and Blitzr. Most associations are also hosting their events online.

One of the benefits of virtual networking events is that you typically get more time to connect with individuals one-on-one than at a traditional networking event. There are also fewer distractions, so conversations tend to be more focused. In some cases, the host sets the tone for the conversation and presents a clear discussion topic. In other cases, the event starts with a speaker. In either case, it pays to be prepared. It’s also important to capture the names and contact information of people you want to connect with after the event. An easy way to get started is to send a connection request on LinkedIn that reminds your contact where you met. Once you’re connected, you can set up a one-to-one phone call to continue the conversation.

Five Steps to Focus Your Virtual Networking Efforts

1. Focus on Building Relationships.

To communicate your expertise effectively to your potential ideal client, you must nurture the relationship allowing them to get to know you. As this crazy year has unfolded, we have had to adjust and create new relationship-building techniques. I’m sure you have heard of creating personas by identifying your ideal clients’ characteristics. However, have you heard of relationship-marketing personas? These personas focus on loyalty and long-term engagement. The goal of relationship marketing is to create strong, even emotional, client connections that can lead to ongoing business, free word-of-mouth promotion, and information from your ideal client that can generate leads.

From your research conducted for your targeted outreach, consult your list, and begin searching for events that might lead to introductions to personas who fit the bill to start your relationship-building process. According to Fast Company, networking isn’t about just meeting people; it is also setting up the method of sustaining these relationships. It’s not the small conversations that will make a friend and colleague for life. It’s a mixture of many things that will connect you to your ideal client.

Get started: Create relationship-marketing persona profiles of your ideal client, advocate, and community. Be descriptive of their likes, dislikes, where they hang out, what associations they are active in, what social channels they use, etc.

2. Go Where Your Ideal Clients Gather.

Not all networking events are created equal. Find the ones that work for you and your ideal clients. What industry trade associations do your clients belong to? What conferences do they attend? What resources do they rely upon to do their jobs? Are they active on LinkedIn? What groups or online communities do they belong to? What are the topics being offered via Blitzr or Eventbrite? It’s essential to network with colleagues in your industry, but make sure you also network with your prospective clients.

Next steps: Join a relevant industry trade association and plan to attend a virtual conference or event of interest to your clients.

3. Understand Your Ideal Clients’ Needs.

Do your research so you understand your ideal clients’ challenges and frustrations. Go to the event to be helpful, and ask open-ended questions to encourage conversation. Connect authentically, and listen to understand. Although you may not be able to solve their problem, you might be able to make an introduction or refer them to someone who can. Be generous with your time, connections, and expertise.

Be prepared: What are the challenges your clients face regularly? Whom do you know who can help them? Understand your clients’ needs so you can demonstrate your value from the very first conversation.

4. Make the Most of the Event.

To make the most of any networking event, it helps to do a little research in advance. If possible, get a list of the people planning to attend and learn as much as you can about them. You probably won’t talk to everyone, so have a shortlist of two or three people you want to connect with. Have some questions prepared in advance. Instead of asking what they do, try asking them to tell you about a project they’re working on that they are excited about. By breaking the pattern, you gain their attention and open the door to real connection. And when you connect with someone, make sure you get their LinkedIn URL so you can follow up! Finally, if you have a hard time starting conversations with people you don’t know, ask the event organizers how you can help. By serving on a committee or volunteering at an event, other people are more likely to seek you out and initiate the conversation.

Continue the conversation: At virtual events, take notes about your fellow attendees so you can connect with them on LinkedIn. Refer back to the event, so your new contact remembers how you met, and start a dialogue. One good place to start is asking for their opinion about the main topic discussed at the event you both attended. Online conferences generally have a chat function alongside the presentation in which to converse. Conference hosts also use Slack, designating a separate channel for each of the topics, talks, and sponsors. Slack is a great place to connect and share your contact information with the other conference attendees.

5. Nurture the Relationship.

Building a relationship takes time. It’s essential to follow-up consistently and with intention. A new connection rarely results in a new client immediately. It often takes several months before your connection is ready to be a client. But by sending articles of interest, commenting on their LinkedIn posts, introducing them to other people who might be valuable connections, and chatting with them about the things going on in their lives, not just about business, you can build that relationship over time. And even if they never become a client, you now have someone in your network who might serve as a sounding board, mentor, referral source, or cheerleader.

Follow up: Stay in touch. Whether you send a handwritten note, share resources, or make a valuable introduction, continue to nurture the relationship.

Are You Ready to be Strategic About Your Networking?

How have your networking efforts changed during this time? Have you had experiences with the virtual arena that has changed how you find your ideal clients? Have you experienced the nurturing of relationships to be a bit easier? I would love to learn about what virtual event opportunities have come your way and how you are navigating these crazy waters!

Let’s talk.

by JFG

Defining Your Marketing Strategy: Targeted Outreach

What is Targeted Outreach?

Targeted outreach is a focused, time-bound effort to connect with a list of specific individuals who fit your ideal client profile. Your primary goal is to start a conversation with your prospective clients so you can establish trust and build a relationship. One way to connect is through an outreach campaign. Your campaign should be comprised of a series of steps and a combination of tactics designed within a scheduled timeframe. Each touchpoint should be uniquely created to achieve a specific, measurable goal. Whether you decide to send a series of emails, a printed piece, or both, ask yourself, what is the best way to reach out to your ideal prospects? Below are five steps to help you develop and effective target outreach campaign:

1. Define Your Audience

Whom are you trying to reach? To run an effective targeted outreach campaign, you need to know the name, title, and contact information of the 25, 50, or 100 individuals with whom you want to build a relationship. Make sure you have the right contact person at each company and refine your list until it includes only the most qualified prospects. As you define your audience, you’ll start to learn about the conferences they attend, the associations they belong to, and the resources they rely upon to do their jobs. You may also see how active they are on social media or how involved they may be with specific organizations. This information will help you decide on the best way to approach them.

If you need a place to start: Make a list of 50 companies with whom you’d like to do business. To compile this list, start with your LinkedIn connections or other members on an industry-focused Slack channel. But don’t stop there. Review the membership lists of relevant associations or use a searchable database like AtoZDatabases.

2. Do Your Research

Now that you have your list in hand, it’s time to understand what each person on the list is struggling with that you could solve. The more you understand their challenges and what they’ve done to solve the problem, the more effectively you can tailor your message. Think about why the people on this list should work with you instead of another service provider. What’s in it for them? Research their company websites and social media channels. Define why they are your ideal client and how you can help them. Try to discover areas or topics that you are both passionate about and see if you can find common ground or a shared connection.

If you need a place to start: One of the easiest ways to understand your prospective client’s challenges is to speak to them directly, but cold calling isn’t always successful or comfortable. So instead, start by reviewing their LinkedIn profile. Do you have any company affiliations in common? Did you attend the same college or university? Do you have a shared connection? Perhaps both of you are members of the same group on LinkedIn? Did you attend the same event? Find things that connect you and them, and incorporate those commonalities into your outreach message.

3. Craft Your Message

Okay, so you have your list, and you’ve done your research. Now it’s time to choose the words that best speak to your prospective client’s challenges and pain points. Your message has to answer one question: what’s in it for them? It isn’t a pitch. It’s a conversation starter, and your goal is to elicit a response. Your outreach campaign should talk to them not as a service provider to a prospective client, but as a friendly colleague looking to build a long-term relationship. Show that you understand the challenges and their pain points. Speak to their needs and aspirations, and acknowledge their accomplishments. Be authentic and creative, and show them how you are uniquely qualified to solve their problem. Each time you follow-up, or provide information that they can use, you add more value to the conversation. (This is where the overlap with content marketing comes into play.) As you develop these messages, think about how each message naturally leads to the next, leading your prospect to respond.

If you need a place to start: Decide how you want to reach out to the people on your list. Do you want to use LinkedIn? A personal email? A direct mail piece? In each version, what are you asking? What is the overarching message that addresses their challenges and pain points? How are you showing that you know about their business and can help? Can you come up with a creative concept that would grab their attending and speak to their challenges, needs, or business aspirations?

4. Define Your Campaign

So with steps 1-3 complete, how will you best reach out? It can take up to 10 touches to convert a lead into a customer, so you’ll need to craft a robust follow-up sequence that encourages the recipient to engage with you. Review your research, findings, and customized messaging and clearly define the purpose and timeframe of your campaign. I find that a combination of direct mail and email marketing is an effective method. These efforts can be supported by reaching out on social media as well. Be creative and think outside of the norm. For your direct mail campaign, go beyond the postcard. Consider creating a customized package to serve as the cornerstone of your campaign. Create a series of follow-up email messages that carry the campaign theme forward and deepen the relationship.

If you need a place to start: Conduct a three-month, targeted outreach campaign to secure 25 clients next quarter. In month one, reach out with a direct mail piece, follow-up with an email asking if they received it, and send a connection request on Linked In. In month two, let them know you’ll be attending a conference where their CEO is speaking and try to set up a time to meet. In month three, attend the conference and, afterward, call your prospect to share notes about the experience and determine if there is any interest in a further conversation. Set your goals and make sure they are SMART — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

5. Build the Relationship

With all your efforts, your ideal clients are bound to take notice. Timing is everything; even though they may not need you at the time of the campaign’s last touchpoint, it doesn’t mean that they won’t remember you when the need arises a few months later. Persistence and consistency are vital. Even after your campaign’s engagement ends, keep building the relationship through the connections you established.

You’re connected. Now what? Continue to send valuable resources and nurture that relationship. Introduce them to someone else who works in the same industry, if you think that relationship will add value to both parties.

Are You Ready to Launch a Targeted Outreach Campaign?

A targeted outreach campaign is one of three legs of your marketing strategy. It works in concert with strategic networking, which may help you identify prospects for your targeted outreach, and content marketing, which provides at least some of the valuable content you share in your outreach campaign. By creating and implementing a comprehensive marketing strategy, you will attract more of the right-fit clients.

Are you ready to focus on your marketing strategy and need assistance in launching a targeted outreach campaign? Let’s talk.

by JFG

Three Strategies Every Successful Business Needs

Having a solid strategic foundation created with intention, followed with persistence and consistency, will pave the way to success and impact your business’s growth. How? By having a strategy for your brand, your marketing, and your content, this foundation trifecta will drive all the elements needed to thrive. Let’s start with some definitions. Yes, many articles on this very topic overlap, are layered with confusion and opinions, but I hope to simplify it all to prove a point. So here it goes:

1. Brand Strategy

A brand strategy clearly defines your company’s purpose, vision, position, value, and client. It’s your definition of your position in the market and the value you give your client. It helps you make clear, unified, and focused decisions and becomes your roadmap guiding through your marketing initiatives. Your brand strategy only changes if your destination does. This strategy sector also includes creating a blend of visuals and voice, so what you look like and how you say it is consistent. These are the tools that your client will get used to seeing and, if you are persistent, over time, they will get to know you.

Debbie Millman, a highly regarded brand expert, describes branding as deliberate differentiation based on Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter’s definition, “Strategy, which is one of two things: It’s either to choose to perform activities differently or to perform distinctly different activities than your competitors.” To think of branding as deliberate differentiation will help you set your company apart. Aim to create a brand that is unique to you and what you offer. Add authenticity and transparency as a constant reminder of how you shape and form the brand you represent.

If you need a place to start: Complete a discovery phase with a brand strategist to help answer all the questions and create guidelines that drive the content and graphics that need to support these findings. Have the brand strategy in writing, and refer to it consistently to help you stay on track. Modify if something isn’t working and update as the market or your ideal client’s needs change.

2. Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy is derived from your brand strategy. It outlines the tactics you will use to communicate your key messages to your ideal clients. It includes your content strategy, digital marketing, campaign development, social strategy, advertising, public relations, etc. and supports all your marketing initiatives as part of your overarching business plan.

Marketing coach Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor developed an effective methodology that combines targeted outreach, strategic networking, and content marketing.

Targeted outreach is directly reaching out to your ideal client. Once you have done your research and identified those individual prospects, specific individuals at specific companies, you can reach out to them and build a fruitful relationship.

Strategic networking is a broader approach than targeted outreach. It is the skill of building relationships. Whether or not someone is your direct target, you never know who might be a valuable referral source or a keen connector.

Content marketing ties your marketing strategy together. Using your content to speak to your audience will keep your content and intention in front of your ideal client and referral sources to remember you when they need you most. With consistency and persistence, the right person will see the content at the right time and will reach out to work with you.

If you need a place to start: Know your audience. Choose the tactics that will address their pain points through initiatives that will reach them. Don’t waste your time doing things that you think you should – do your research and be in the places where your audience is spending time. Once you have found the tactics that work best for you, be persistent and consistent with your outreach and message. Start the conversations that will interest your audience in participating.

3. Content Strategy

Content strategy refers to the planning, development, and management of content, bridging your expertise to the pain points of your ideal client. It also includes the distribution of such content to make sure you connect with the right people at the right time and in the right place.

According to entrepreneur, content marketing strategy, at its core, is your “why.” Why are you creating content? Whom are you helping? How do you connect with your ideal client in a way no one else can? As a business, strategically using content marketing builds your audience, builds trust, and shows how your services can address their challenges. Knowing what tactics speak to your ideal client is valuable, and the ability to adapt when needed can help with dealing with problems. And remember – your tactics need to apply to both print and digital mediums.

If you need a place to start: Email marketing. Even though we all get too many emails, it’s a fact that it is the strongest method for outreach marketing. Email outreach will not only remind your ideal clients that you understand them by addressing their pain points, but by having this content also on your website, it too helps with search engine optimization (SEO).

In Conclusion

By creating a strategy to govern every facet of your business, you can identify what steps to take to help your business grow and thrive. By implementing your strategy with intention, persistence, and consistency, you’ll have more conversations with your ideal clients. Do you need help developing and implementing a branding, marketing, and content strategy for your business? Let’s talk.

by JFG

Digital Marketing Grows Relationships

When you’re trying to grow a business, your job is to build and nurture relationships with your ideal clients until they are ready. Ready to buy, ready for support, ready to work with you—whatever it is.

But how do you build these relationships? How do you find the ideal clients that are inspired to work with you? How do you nurture these relationships that encourage loyalty to you?

With a solid strategy and digital marketing, of course. To attract your ideal client through digital marketing alone, you must consistently produce an extraordinary amount of high-quality content. Such an endeavor is not sustainable for most growing businesses if there isn’t a strong strategy in place. Without a plan, not knowing which touchpoints will work best, and where to find your ideal client, your efforts will not be effective.

Inconsistency is a passive approach to building new relationships in business development, and it will not get you the results you seek. To consistently and predictably develop your digital marketing efforts, you must actively build relationships with the type of digital marketing tools that work best for you and your budget.

So what is digital marketing?

According to Hubspot “Digital marketing is defined by the use of numerous digital tactics and channels to connect with your ideal client where they spend much of their time: online. The best digital marketers have a clear picture of how each digital marketing tactic supports their client’s overarching goals.”

Your unique digital marketing strategy might include one or many of the following:

Email Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Content Marketing
Inbound Marketing
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Social Media Marketing
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Affiliate Marketing
Native Advertising
Marketing Automation
Online Public Relations
Sponsored Content – influencer marketing, paid blog post, etc.

Which tactics are best for you?

Start with an optimized website. If you have a great website describing your product and service, encourage visitors to sign up for your email newsletter, provide links to all your social media channels, and offer valuable content on your blog that they will want to return for.

In an ideal world, when visitors go to your website for the first time, something clicks, and they’re ready to take the next step, make a purchase, or work with you right away.

But in reality, it will take four or five touches to create a deeper connection to build trust. Your digital marketing efforts, whatever tools you choose, must be consistent to make sure all those touchpoints represent the message you are sending. Your ideal client is not always listening, looking for, or seeing everything you are putting out there! For this very reason, it is why consistency is essential.

Your website is the central location to cultivate ongoing relationships. When you are consistently sending out an email newsletter with targeted messages, providing content of value and solutions to pain points, through the many digital touchpoints, you will drive traffic back to your website.

Do this and you won’t be disappointed

Please, don’t just send out one or two emails and hope they’ll work. Or post on social media once in a while and hope it works. You will end up disappointed.

Instead, stick to the created strategy, craft your content, address the pain points, show you understand, and have your ideal client’s best interest in mind. Show you’re authentic and helpful and precisely what they need! Remind people that you are ready to talk, that you are active and prepared to be engaged. Be strategic and make it work for you.

My business coach, Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor, suggests starting with a monthly email newsletter (which is also posted on your website), supported by spreading the word on all your social media channels. I’ve found my newsletter to be very effective – that’s how I know it works.

Are you ready to reach your ideal clients by developing and nurturing relationships with a digital marketing strategy that works for your business?

I am here to help.

by JFG

Is Your Website Strategic or Stagnant?

A great, strategic website is almost like the difference between seeing a picture of the Grand Canyon—and actually being at the Grand Canyon.

On the one hand, the image is flat. Lifeless. Yes, you see something pretty, but that is all it is. Yet, being at the Grand Canyon is an entirely different experience. You are breathing the air, looking over the edge, looking at the amazement of how vast and abundant everything is. You are walking around and have an immersive sensory encounter.

Unfortunately, so many businesses are underestimating the potential of their websites in this very way! There are plenty of efficient sites that serve as a great introduction to a company, but is it useful? A website, done well, will serve as a valuable tool—not just an online brochure. It is not helpful to put up a lifeless “pretty” site and think it’s going to attract new or returning clients. For your website to work effectively, you must apply a strategy for your website to do its job! Otherwise, it’s not worth spending money on.

With a smart, strategic website, you can:

Speak directly to the needs and pain points of your ideal customers
Share how your process and method can provide solutions to solve their problems
Truly connect with your prospects in an informative and resourceful way
Show what it’s like to work with you by displaying recent client testimonials and successful results
Clearly show what it is that sets you apart from your competition
Provide useful information and resources that connect you to your ideal customer
Provide effective calls to action that entice your customer to do something
Convert visitors into customers, directing them to take the next step in buying your product or service

Here are a few things to consider when thinking about your website:

Is your website a pretty introduction or an immersive marketing tool?

Think of your website as more than just an online brochure. Use it as a tool in your marketing…one that can generate a response! When a person is looking for something you offer, the first they’ll do is visit your website to get more information. This is an amazing opportunity and should be treated as such! You want to ensure your site is professional, modern, and reflective of you as a company. It should be specific and helpful—a good representation of who you are, what you offer, to whom, how, and why! It should show that you SOLVE their problem and describe in detail your process to do so.

What do you need your website to do?

Do you want a website that simply serves as a place where somebody can contact you? Do you want to provide education or resources that people will come back to? Is your site a lead generation website that can take the burden off your networking efforts? Is your site an e-commerce website, highlighting your product or services that your customer can instantly buy? It is vital that you customize your website to be unique and speak to your audiences goals and needs while also providing ongoing, engaging content to entice return visits.

Are you offering something of value?

Without value, you’re just showing a picture of someplace they’ll never go. Do you have an offer? Are you providing a useful download? Do you have call-to-actions and next steps? Are you keeping your content up-to-date and relevant to encourage return visits to learn more? By providing something your customer needs, you will foster a connection that has a lot of potential. Your audience will return for the content to help them and their business if you are consistent in adding new and relevant resources.

Why authenticity matters

With everyone making decisions online, how can a prospect determine who’s the real deal and who’s not? You have to turn the online personal. You want to show your ideal customers that you understand them, and you want to help them understand you. Your website can be the beginning of a beautiful, ongoing, lasting relationship—if you let it. If you put the effort and intention into it, it will repay you.

What’s in your toolbox?

When creating a website, it’s essential to know what other kinds of marketing you’re doing so that everything can support, and tie into, everything else. Does your social media direct traffic to your site? Are you sending out your email newsletter consistently? Do you have a resource section providing case studies, white papers, or handy downloads of tricks and tips? Are you timely with your blog content to draw your customers back to your site for more valuable information? Are you adding new products or highlighting products that may be on sale? How do all the things in your marketing plan work together?

Finally, is your current website giving you what you need?

These days, when people are making decisions online more than ever before, it’s so important to have a website that authentically represents your business and helps you. When creating strategic websites that work for your organization and connect with your human audience, I use design thinking. Maybe this process will work for you and your business as well?

Do you need help creating a website that works for your business? Or maybe just a comprehensive analysis of how you might improve how your website works for you? Give me a call. Together, let’s figure out how best to utilize your website as an essential tool for your ongoing marketing initiatives! I am here to help.

by JFG

Apply Human Centered Web Design with Design Thinking

Designing a website that’s relevant and effective for your business is a challenge. To be successful, you have to ask questions, gather feedback, and analyze the answers before you can create.

Human-centered web design is a form of design which focuses on the experience of the user. Human-centered web design asks why a website exists, what is its purpose, and what are the goals. Therefore, the object is to design the site in such a way that the target is met, and human-use is satisfied. This slightly different approach where as user-centered design, the main objective is to design a website that is functional. Human-centered design becomes functional, yet is accomplished by taking care of all needs to fulfill the website’s purpose to serve its users. But how is this done and how do you apply it to entice return visitors?

By applying design thinking, you can help answer these questions. Design thinking succeeds by identifying and solving problems by using an iterative approach to the design process: defining problems, finding solutions, testing and evaluating those solutions, and going back to the drawing board to come up with more ideas and make more improvements. I spoke of this topic last year in my blog post, “adapt and recover, not fail”

With design thinking, the focus is on the visitors to the site and their particular needs. By empathizing with the visitors, i.e., your clients, you can better understand their needs and effectively fulfill them. Design thinking consists of five essential components: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Let’s take a look at these five steps and apply them to how you might create or rebrand a human-centered website.

1. Let’s Start with Empathy

When you have empathy, you understand and share the feelings of others. How can you truly know and understand these feelings unless you directly ask them the questions? You can’t assume or think you know what is best, because assumptions tend to produce bad results.

At the start of the project, it’s essential to ask all the questions, cover all the bases, and learn as much as possible about your ideal client, i.e., their business, their pain points, and the solutions in which they are looking. Yes, you do have to think about possible scenarios for bringing eyes to the site and keeping them there, but first, you must know who your ideal client is, and figure out what they like and need.

Creating personas is a way to do this. Create the qualities of a person who’s your ideal customer. Then interview actual people that match these qualities. It is vital to gather real data. Take in their feedback and use it to improve upon or highlight the qualities or services that your ideal client is looking for and that you can offer.

2. Define All the Challenges

Now that you have gathered feedback from your users, define the problem. In this case, let’s say that you want to convince visitors to return to your site for a second or third look. What strategies can you use? Yes, you asked them to sign up for the newsletter, but what else can you implement to bring them back? Depending on your client’s need or pain points, it might be educational content, go-to videos, or participating in an upcoming event or webinar.

Whatever problem you decide to tackle, make sure it is well-defined and achievable. If necessary, separate the more substantial issues into smaller ones and tackle them one at a time.

3. Ideate the Possibilities

Now that you have completed the research on your ideal visitor and defined their problems, it’s time to create a strategy for action. Using empathy you gained through your research, approach the problem from different angles. Remember that you’re designing the best solution for your visitors, not for you. Thinking this way will help you discover creative solutions that are more effective as well. This is the time to be as creative as you can be, don’t hold back and go beyond the box.

What are the ideas that come to mind? Come up with as many as you can think of, the sky’s the limit. Go beyond the obvious, is there an idea that you think that would fit best?

4. Prototype the Journey

Now, take your list of ideas and try them out. Build out smaller versions of each potential solution. This allows you to test several ideas instead of committing all of your time and energy into something that is untested and might not work. If needed, go back to the ideation phase to come up with new ideas based on what you learn from your prototypes. Through your evalutation of your prototypes, valid solutions unfold.

5. Select the Best and Test

Once you’ve realized a possible solution, use the tools available to you to evaluate its effectiveness. You could do this easily by using analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. After you’ve tested and evaluated your results, if the problem needs some more work or a different solution, return to the ideation or prototyping phase. If you consider the problem solved, return to the define phase and begin work on a new issue.

The Best Experience for the User

Using Human-centered web design with a design thinking approach helps you tailor the website experience to your user, presenting them with a smooth, helpful, and pleasant experience. Remember, this is an ongoing process that you must repeat consistently. It isn’t a one-time fix and done. As with anything, you have to keep trying and growing and trying again to see long-term results, but if you create the journey and continue to improve upon it, you will foster engagement with your content and convert website visitors into loyal clients.

Are you looking to apply human centered design to your website? I am here to help.

by JFG

It's Time to Come Together

In this cautious time of working remotely, temporary shutdowns, and social distancing, it’s important to remember to be calm, creative, and to think of ways to still connect.

Everyone, especially small businesses, is facing lots of challenges right now. A goal as a business owner is to guide your company through this period in the best way possible. It’s time to think about your business in a new and unique way and take this time to prepare for what may come next. How every market reacts within this global crisis for the next few weeks will determine how quickly we all can resume normal operations and be as successful as before. How can you impact your actions going forward? Just remember, you don’t have to act right now. There will come a time when the public is ready for it. Here are a few steps you can take today.

Step 1. Adapt Your Business If You Can

It is understood that not every small business can adapt in a short timeframe. Simply focus on the adjustments you can make. This is a time when your outreach and connection matters. Offer to help in different ways if sales become a challenge. Most of all, even a small change can make a difference, so don’t be afraid to be creative. Adapt your services to the needs of your client. I am noticing that a lot of the local gyms are now offering online workouts as well as using daily emails to send out exercises you can do at home. Restaurants are offering delivery or curbside pick-up. Now is not the time to make a great sales pitch to buy, buy, buy, but it’s a time to find simple ways to keep your business going and come from a place of giving and gratitude.

Step 2. Deepen Existing Relationships

Now that we are all forced to take it a bit easy, it’s the time to reach out and connect with those that you haven’t spoken to in a while. Take care of those you are close with and remind them that we are all in this together. Even with the ability to text and email, picking up the phone just to hear someone else’s voice to see how their experience is going may add a bit of joy to their day, and yours. Email newsletters or blog posts, like this one, will help to communicate what may be happening while working from home. The use of tools as Zoom, Skype, or Google Hangouts are making meetings happen. If you’re planning to continue to use social media, use it to communicate about your daily operations, about the precautions you and your team are taking to assure public safety. Let’s just keep it positive and be good to one another.

Step 3. Prepare Your Online Presence / Website

Now might be an excellent time to take care of the things you have not had time for in the last few years. If your website is more than five years old and you have been considering an update, this would be the time to do it. When the fears pass, you will be ready to enter the market with a valuable asset. If you were considering adding new services, processes, or functionality, this might be the time. What about creating an editorial calendar for your social media or setting up an automated digital campaign, do it now. You will not be able to utilize it immediately and create new prospects within hours, but it’s a long-term investment that can change and improve your business in the future.

Step 4. Pause, Reflect, and Focus on You

Think about ways you can make your business better for the future. Take the online class you have been interested in but never seem to have the time. Read those books or articles that you have bookmarked. Improve a skill you have been dying to improve upon. Think about the strategy for your future email campaigns. Improve your client tracking. Find the practical task that will keep you focused, positive, and looking forward. Don’t let any fear into your business. Stay positive for you, your employees, and your clients.

Step 5. Focus on The Future

A small number of businesses and brands will handle this situation the right way. Become that business. People will remember how you handled your marketing at this time. So instead of pushing your message today, focus on how it looks in the future. When things calm down, make sure you have a good marketing strategy in place. This means planning your kick-off to your email campaign, maybe sending out promotional postcards, and updating your website. If you plan for it right now, you will be ready, and your transition will be a lot easier. Most of all, stay strong and know, we will all get through. And of course, I am here to help if you need it.

by JFG

Design: A commodity or a critical asset?

Should you go to a freelance crowdsourcing marketplace when looking for a designer?

When you don’t really care, yes, but if you do care, you are taking a risk.

Recently, I was listening to Ilise Benun of Marketing Mentor’s podcast, “What is your value to your dream client.” where she quoted Steven Gates, Head Design Evangelist of InVision. “Design is disrespected and underfunded, it is treated like a commodity rather than a critical asset.”

In the podcast, Ilise encouraged designers to rethink how we see ourselves and how our prospects may see us. I was captivated by the quote and set out to see what others thought. At a recent networking event, I had the perfect opportunity:

I was speaking with a printer that I met at the event. When I told him, “I’m a graphic designer who works with startups and entrepreneurs, providing brand strategy and creatives services,” he expressed that he usually works with crowdsourcing marketplaces for his graphic design needs. Crowdsourcing, according to Merriam-Webster, is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially from an online community rather than from a traditional service provider, i.e., a designer.

I was curious about this printer’s reasons for choosing to crowdsource rather than to partner with an experienced designer. This gentleman stated that his customers want a few options to select from, without spending a lot of money, usually within a tight timeframe—and that with crowdsourcing, he has had great success. It was as if “artwork for a project” was all that was needed in most cases. A simple transaction. He didn’t seem to consider the possible benefits or value of strategic design, but then again, maybe his clients didn’t require the benefits or value either.

Was this printer an ideal client for me? Not necessarily. But his take on design—and its value (or lack thereof)—got me thinking: Are there times when sourcing to a freelance crowdsourcing marketplace is okay? Are there times when it’s never okay? And most of all—how can businesses in need of design find the designer that will best suit their needs?

Is Crowdsourcing Ever Okay—and When?

This may come as a surprise, but I know there will always be a need for those quick, down-and-dirty, cheap projects, where the goal is to have something for that one-time event, like a t-shirt design that will be used for your brother-in-law’s guys fishing day out. In my opinion, crowdsourcing is okay for a project like that, for it is likely, that the very same design will be repurposed for others with a similar request. Since nothing is being branded for mass appeal, bought or sold, or being used to establish a companies graphic standards, there’s no need to build value or loyalty around this “brand”—and that is okay.

However, when it comes to a growing business, it is vital to consider the value, strategy, and overall goals that this project must achieve. In this case, crowdsourcing the design is not a great option, and there are many reasons why.

The Downsides of Crowdsourcing

When taking a chance with crowdsourcing, you may encounter the following:

Design or artwork that really doesn’t hit the mark of what you may have envisioned or expected
Artwork that was not correctly created in file formats that will work for all mediums and sizes
Receiving artwork that was repurposed, or used over and over by others
The final cost being beyond what was initially expected or quoted
The time to complete the project is longer than expected
There is much hand-holding in the execution of the design—you are telling the designer exactly what to do, and there is no collaboration or development for improvement
Communication mishaps due to email-only exchanges, long response times between rounds, no local access to meet in person, working within different time zones, or simply just not knowing the person you are working with

Price of Crowdsourcing—Deal or No Deal?

Sure, you may get a low price if you crowdsource, but what does your business lose? Several essential questions immediately came to mind about the effectiveness of such a cheap and possibly unreliable resource. I was curious:

What value is being placed on this project?
What is the strategy, and how does this project drive success for the company?
Was there research conducted into the competitors or the target audience?
What was the process of giving and receiving feedback? Was the process collaborative and responsive?
How was the feedback incorporated to develop and improve the development of the project?
How did they know if the item created was unique to them and worked within their overall marketing plan?
Would the design stand the test of time?
Did the designer care about your timeframe, budget, or business goals?

It is hard to say if these factors were considered but when you are starting or running a company, these factors need to be top of mind.

I say let’s not forget the adage: You get what you pay for.

The Evolution: When You Need More Than Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing might get your company to a certain point. Still, when a crowdsourcing dependent company realizes they need strategy and partnership in order to grow or have just had a horrible experience working with a crowdsourcing designer, they may approach a design partner with skills, talent, and relevant expertise. Which is great!

Unfortunately, since this company has gotten used to crowdsourcing, and treating design as a commodity for the lowest price, they often don’t understand the value of good design or realize what it costs. Value can be hard to understand until you actually experience it.

Often times, these companies come to a crossroads or a breaking point—where crowdsourcing isn’t worth it anymore, and it’s time to move forward. This is where reaching out a design partner to provide all encompassing solutions, is a great idea!

What Qualities Should You Look for in a Professional Design Partner?

If you take your business seriously and want to grow and thrive in the long term, you will benefit from finding a design partner that has the following qualities.

A strong work ethic—follows or establishes a timeframe and shows initiative to complete the task at hand
Is responsive and reachable—even if they are in a different time zone, there is a conversation and timeline set up to have those questions answered and those problems solved
A strong portfolio—showing creative examples of the types of projects you are looking to complete
Provides recent references—a reliable reference helps solidify the working relationship as well as review the process you will experience
The focus is on your project and goals—not about their ego
The designer is easy to work with—shows genuine interest in building the relationship and helping your company grow
Is honest about what they can and cannot do—a true partner is a designer who is open about their expertise on a particular project type, and if they don’t feel able to do a fantastic job, will refer work to someone better suited
Displays flexibility and adaptability—knows how to handle and take care of unexpected things that may come up
Can take the ball and run with it—is collaborative with you as well as other members of your team
Is respectful of your time—we are all busy, but deadlines are created for a reason!
Is respectful of the budget—the right design partner communicates openly about the budget and lets you know if any adjustments may arise
Saves you time—because you are building a relationship, projects/questions/and expectations are discussed and can be handed over so you can do your job and the designer will take care of the rest
No learning curve—a design partner that you consistently work with will know what to do and take care of it for you
Anticipates Needs—a design partner will be able to see the overall picture and make recommendations to enhance your project, or will know a direction to take that will get you started

Final Thoughts

Whether you crowdsource your project or partner with an experienced designer, you ultimately decide what is best for you. Still, I can tell you, when you find a great designer to partner with, you will see that they become a part of your team and aid the growth of your company. Trust, comprehension, and value, in addition to expertise, creative skills, and willingness to get the job done, will help your business grow and expand.

Are you ready to find your ideal design partner to help your company grow? I can help you with that. Contact me to get started. You will be glad you did!

by JFG