If you have a small business, are a startup or are thinking about starting a business in the future, here are a few design considerations:
1. Create a brand identity. A complete brand identity includes a logo, consistent fonts, a color palette and design elements that will be carried throughout all marketing materials. Anyone can can start up a business, but in order to be successful, you need customers and clients. Your customers and clients, as well as prospective customers and clients, will start to recognize and build loyalty with your brand – as long as they can recognize it.
2. Create brand awareness. Once you have a logo and your business cards, what’s next?
Now it’s time to utilize your consistent brand elements to develop out your marketing strategy by incorporating various elements within the marketing mix. Each business’ marketing mix will differ based on its target demographic, goals and budget. Awareness is developed through a variety of marketing tactics including advertisements, presentations and websites. Every time you use your brand identity you’re going to help the consumer recognize your business, which will in turn help build awareness.
3. Design a user friendly website that matches the rest of your branding. Every business can benefit from using a website as an informational sales and marketing tool, but the most important element of a website is its usability. Not only do you need to consider what information your consumer needs to know about your business, but you also need to consider how they are viewing your site – a desktop computer, a tablet or a smart phone.
As of December 2014, 57% of consumers were using multi-platforms to view retail sites, according to Danyl Bosomworth article “Mobile Marketing Statistics 2014” on Smart Insights.
For more information about beginning to market your business, check out this blog by our Marketing Manager about Market Research and the foundation to a good marketing plan.