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Your storefront will say something about you. Make sure you control what that is. Do you want to look professional, adventurous, sophisticated, or friendly? Your sign’s style, materials, size, and colours will contribute to this impression, and help potential customers decide if you are for them. Being clear about your messaging will help to ensure that the right people are attracted to your sign.

Sure, anyone can buy your product or service, but who actually will? Can you lump your customers into broad categories? If you can, you could save a lot of time and money by focussing your marketing efforts on just these people, rather than trying to reach everyone. Spending a few minutes to develop “Buyer Personas” can help you understand your customers’ needs and behaviours so your messaging can be more targeted. Download my free worksheet to get started.

If you haven’t prepared a creative brief before, or are not used to working with a designer, you might not know where to start. Don’t be scared! A bit of background and a few simple tips to go along with my creative brief worksheet will save the day! Preparing the creative brief is usually a collaborative process, so don’t worry that you have to do it all on your own. But you can use my worksheet to think about the scope of your project and gather some of the information that you will need to complete the creative brief together with your designer.

No doubt, I have see some nice business card options available for self-serve online. Really beautiful designs too…flowers, colour options, and maybe an interesting layout. And the price? Wow, the price is really low! But what are you not getting with that price? While the stock business card templates show a variety of attractive styles, you are not getting what every new business really needs…a visual identity that is uniquely yours.

If you can try to look through your customer’s eyes, you will be on your way to making sure they choose to do business with you! Make sure your visual communication is fresh, professional, and eye catching. It’s a good idea to do an audit of your company’s visual communication regularly to ensure everything is in order, and is exactly the way you want your customers to see it. Some areas you will want to consider will include your online presence, advertising, promotional material, physical premises, and packaging.

Continuous learning is important for any professional. Clients and customers need to be confident that you are delivering a quality, up-to-date service or product. Last night’s WordPress meetup at the Whitby Public Library was a meeting of website design and developer professionals and enthusiasts. It was fabulous to be in the company of others who are curious about and committed to great website design and development. WordPress is used by 34% of the web and there are over 54,000 WordPress plugins to extend the functionality of your website to meet the needs of your unique business.