Branding YOU Better! Making My Clients Look Great!

Posted on May 15, 2010 by itees

In my last post I wrote about attending the all day event of Rock The World, given by Savor The Success. Listening to the speakers and meeting other women entrepreneurs, I have learned so much.

Michael Gerber of Origination asked us to write this down: “What do I want?”

For about a week I walked around saying different things to myself and it finally came to me.

I want to make whatever I come across better, whether it’s by creation, design or spreading environmental awareness.

I started thinking about how that is reflected in my company, SNDI.

Before when visitors came to my site there was a splash page and I had you select a link to go inside, but unless you dug deeper, visited my profile page or company page, you didn’t see me, the site was all about design and the portfolio.

I realized that what separates me from other design firms is ME! It’s my visions and conceptuality. What I come up with to brand a client or their product, is what makes me unique. It’s also what helps me retain clients year after year, they trust me, respect my expertise and know that whatever I create is solely for them, to help them shine.

New Branding YOU Better! Logo

So, I have started revising my site by branding the new phrase geared toward clients, “Branding YOU Better!” I removed the splash page and put my photo and a quick animation of a few client projects showing the branding I created for them. This is more direct and immediately separates me from other design studios. Next, my plan is get new headshots, create more graphics that show the continuity and style from print to web for many of my clients, and to add photos and video of my clients with their testimonials and perhaps new shots of them surrounded by the materials I created for them.

I also registered the new domain for Branding YOU Better! and will build a new site there, that is simple and direct. It will have just enough branding samples to make the point, and will use the latest javascript animation or programing techniques so I’m showing by example that I can create whatever a client wants or needs.

I also learned that when you have a design and logo that you’re using, you must make sure that you’re using it throughout your social media as well. I had been using my logos of course but forgot about the backgrounds. So I took that splash page and dropped it into Twitter (@sndinc), and did the same for our Frog Blog, you’ll see that the background on Twitter (@greeninnature) is now the same as Frogs Are Green. All banner ads I create are also using the same appropriate graphics.

This all helps to support my brand and creates trust for clients who know me and for new clients who have just discovered me.

Knowing When Your Website Needs A Complete Redesign

Posted on December 10, 2009 by itees

A few years ago, I started another website, so I’d have a vehicle for self-expression. Ideas that just come to me and a place to show them. I already had a portfolio website with a body of work, and as I complete projects, I add more and more to it, but this new site would be different.

This would be for logos, and t-shirt ideas, about conservation, being a “green” person and designer, and assorted other ideas. So I created the site, put the images up there, and waited. Well, 2 years later, it got minimal traffic and after much thought about why, I realized it wasn’t because the imagery wasn’t any good, it was because the site wasn’t content rich, and no one could find it.

This taught me a valuable lesson in not just naming pages or posts, which I’d already known about, since earlier this year, when I took a series of online webinars in SEO content and tagging, but how the pages need to be content rich, and have the right keywords or tags, and categories. The web is a big filing system and it not only files your content by the title of the page, and the tags it has, but the date it was published. So, when your searching for something, it’s going to show you the most current as well as closest match to your query. This is why blogs are usually more effective than regular websites. Most websites are built, but rarely maintained, and just sit there, getting older and more out of date, unless you’re an artist, of course, and updating your work often.

So, I dumped the old site, created a new custom designed, (of course) WordPress blog in it’s place, and started posting articles, galleries, and made sure everything was linked and tagged. I’ve posted almost 50 times already and have all sorts of galleries from gardens I visit while riding my bicycle, to going to the Yankee Parade in NYC.

I’m also quite good at publicity, so I’ve been pushing the blog’s address, articles and galleries through social media.

Well, I’m now going to report that the new blog, has surpassed what I imagined and now gets comments, has followers, and the traffic has improved by 1,000% or more.

When you put information out there that someone might find useful, it’ll always draw more more traffic than just showing off work. If they find the resource interesting, it may send them to your portfolio site as well. So, when you want to start a new website, consider carefully what the usage is, who’s coming to it and why, and maybe it should be a blog.

Cakes, Bakeries and the Power of TV, Branding and Publicity

Posted on November 23, 2009 by itees

Yesterday, I was in Hoboken at Trinity Restaurant, having a lovely brunch with a friend. Afterward, I decided to walk back home, getting some fresh air and exercise, since it was a sunny, beautiful Autumn day. As I strolled down Hudson Street and then around, making my way up the main drag, Washington Street, I was about to walk by Carlo’s Bakery (now famous due to the hit tv show, Cake Boss) and I stopped for a minute to watch. There was a line out of the store and down the block toward me.

Before I moved up the “the Heights” of Jersey City, I lived in Hoboken for about 15 years. I had visited Carlo’s on occasion, but there were so many bakeries in town, and some closer to where I lived. I always thought their baked goods were just fine, but I would say I’d never stand on line to get in, and that would be true of any store, I just hate lines. These days, up by me, I frequent an awesome bakery, Goehrig’s on Central Avenue and Congress Street, and his store is busy everyday, they’re not out the door, but the clients are steady, and many are repeat customers. Plus with the new website that we launched in the Fall of 2008 the orders come in around the world. My favorites include, italian pastries, carrot muffins, soft, yet crunchy almond cookies, chocolate fudge dot cookies and brownies, and the scones, yum!… be warned though, he doesn’t make all of his wonderful items everyday, but each day has a great assortment of fabulous things.

Meanwhile, it got me thinking about the power of tv, advertising and publicity, and just plain having a good idea and the difference between the amount of traffic and the quality of the product.

The success of the tv show, Cake Boss, has drawn attention to the store, more and more first-time customers, and what’s interesting is that for those first timers, it wouldn’t matter whether the cakes were great or just average. Now, of course in order to maintain the expanding business and keep them coming back, the cakes have to be good. The important thing though, is to get them to the store in the first place. It just shows how the concept of the tv show, plus great advertising, and publicity, increases the popularity. And, if you have a great product, you’ll keep them coming back. In Hoboken, in a few locations, they have posters up, and it’s a wonderful photograph of Buddy Valastro covered in cake flour, with the branding logo of Cake Boss, along with information about the tv series.

I feel so strongly about branding and publicity. It’s so important for any business, large or small. When anything regarding advertising the product is created, whether in print or a tv commercial, it’s so important to be consistent, continuity and style, using the same logo, types of graphics and photography, perhaps even the same color palette, so that when the people come across it, they recognize the company, or tv show, immediately.

Whether a bakery or a branding design business. The clients must find you first, (more about that to come) and then stay because of the quality and consistency.