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Cultural District Branding, Marketing, and Merchandise

Author: Sean H.

The Bourbon District in Louisville, Kentucky, is a prime example of how integrated marketing and branding strategies can revitalize a walkable district, enhancing its appeal to both locals and tourists. With a rich history intertwined with the bourbon industry, the district offers an array of distilleries, bourbon-themed shopping, tours, and historical sites, making it a unique destination for bourbon enthusiasts worldwide. This case study highlights the comprehensive approach taken by our team to brand, market, and promote the Bourbon District, focusing on place-making initiatives, merchandise development, and digital marketing strategies to fuel economic development in the region.

Place-making for the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation of a Walkable Business District

Background

The Bourbon District is home to historic businesses like Vendome, a renowned maker of copper stills, and is a major tourism attraction in Louisville. Recognizing the potential for economic advancement through tourism, the local Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Corporation sought to enhance the district’s branding and marketing efforts to attract more visitors and encourage longer stays.

Project Overview

Our team was tasked with creating a cohesive branding and marketing strategy for the Bourbon District. The project aimed to increase visibility, improve wayfinding, and create memorable experiences for visitors, thereby supporting local businesses and promoting economic development.

Strategies and Implementations

1. Branding and Identity Development

  • Trademarked Domain and Recognizable Mark: We assisted in purchasing a trademarked domain name for the district and created a recognizable mark that symbolizes the Bourbon District’s unique identity. This mark was prominently displayed on banners throughout downtown Louisville, establishing a strong visual presence.

2. Digital Marketing

  • Dedicated Website: A dedicated website was developed to serve as a central marketing hub for all participating bourbon locations within the district. The website features comprehensive information about tours, shopping, dining, and historical attractions, making it easy for visitors to plan their visit.

3. Place-making and Wayfinding

  • Maps and Brochures: Custom maps of the district were designed for brochures, enhancing the visitor experience by providing a tangible guide to explore the area.
  • Wall Murals and Building Wrap: A full building wrap mural was created to encourage visitors to take selfies and share their experiences on social media, thereby organically promoting the district.
  • Historic Map Markers and Wayfinding Maps: Updated historic map markers and wayfinding maps were installed at every corner, improving navigation throughout the district. Ground stickers were also employed to guide visitors to key attractions.

4. Merchandise Development

  • A complete set of merchandise was developed to enhance the tourism experience, allowing visitors to take a piece of the Bourbon District home with them. This range included items that captured the essence of the district, further promoting the brand beyond its geographical boundaries.

Outcomes

The comprehensive branding, marketing, and merchandise strategy implemented for the Bourbon District has had a significant impact on its economic development. Key outcomes include:

  • Increased Visitor Engagement: The interactive and visually appealing marketing materials, such as the mural and wayfinding signs, have significantly increased visitor engagement and social media presence.
  • Enhanced Visitor Experience: The provision of detailed maps and a dedicated website has made it easier for tourists to navigate the district, resulting in longer stays and increased spending in local businesses.
  • Strengthened Brand Identity: The creation of a unique mark and the widespread use of branded merchandise have strengthened the Bourbon District’s identity, making it a recognizable destination for bourbon enthusiasts globally.

Conclusion

The Bourbon District’s branding, marketing, and merchandise project demonstrates the power of integrated place-making strategies in promoting economic development. By creating a cohesive brand identity, enhancing digital and physical wayfinding, and developing a range of merchandise, our team was able to significantly improve the visitor experience, thereby contributing to the district’s economic success. This case study serves as a model for other economic development corporations and chambers of commerce looking to revitalize and promote their districts.

Why Customization Matters Greatly to Your Business

Author: Eleanor Hecks

In the business world, there are several ways to get ahead of your competition. One way that’s proven to work is customization. That is where you take a product or service and make it unique to your company, focusing on your customer’s individual needs and preferences.

Here’s a closer look at why this type of marketing is so effective.

1. Helps You Gain a Competitive Edge

The marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive. Nowadays, every business has an online presence, and there are endless choices for products and services. On the other hand, customization gives you innovative ways to stand out from competitors.

For example, suppose your company uses advanced technology to customize customers’ products. This feature helps you differentiate your company from ones similar to yours.

People often notice these differences. And offering a custom product or service attracts more attention, demand and customer loyalty.

2. Increases the Value of the Product or Service

The best part of customizing a product or service is the ability to increase its value. When you customize your product or service, customers will see the value in the offering and be willing to pay more.

In turn, this leads to higher profits for your business and secures a better outcome for your company.

3. Optimizes Your Supply Chain

Customization implements a digital production flow within your business model. Because your supply chain connects to advanced software, it will automatically send orders to production. This feature optimizes the efficiency of your supply chain operation and shortens lead time.

Additionally, your digital workflow is more scalable. Your company can easily scale up or down with a customized digital production flow.

Another advantage of rethinking logistics and production is that customization enables lower costs. That’s because you’re not producing many different versions of a generic product, so your production costs go down — increasing manufacturing efficiency.

4. Provides More Choices for Your Customers

One of the main reasons custom products are important is because they give your customers more choices. For example, suppose you wanted to purchase new clothes. You could go to a physical store. However, in-store retailers typically offer a limited range of sizes and colors.

Online platforms solve this problem for customers. They offer a user experience for customers to design their products as they desire. For example, they can create aesthetic alterations, including color, shape and texture.

Additionally, it offers the possibility of loading a 3D image onto the platform — allowing customers to shape the product according to their biometric data.

5. Implements a Sustainable Production Process

Another way that customization supports businesses is through sustainable purchasing. When you offer made-to-order products, you implement a sustainable production process. This leads to less waste in production due to already-made purchases.

Consumers find this feature increasingly important when searching for a product or service. It gives you the advantage of thinking ahead when it comes to sustainability. Plus, customers will see more value in your brand and feel better about their purchases.

6. Increases Customer Loyalty

When you customize products according to your customer’s tastes, they get what they want. As a result, their satisfaction increases because they have a product that meets their needs.

Of course, customization requires you to adapt to your consumers at the highest level. However, it’s one of the best ways to increase their loyalty.

Once your customers feel they have your undivided attention, the chances of making a purchase and establishing a lasting relationship are higher. Then once you have that connection, your competitors will have an even harder time getting their attention.

7. No Need for Higher Inventory Costs

When considering implementing customization into your business model, you might think you have to throw out your existing one. Yet, that is not the case. With little ingenuity, you can customize your current stock by adding a special touch.

But that doesn’t mean you have to stockpile the same versions of your offering. Instead, you can customize one product each time the customer orders.

8. Improves Brand Image, Awareness and Recognition

Customization improves your brand image because customers are getting what they want. When you meet their needs, they’re likely to remember your brand because you offer a better experience for them.

As a result, you may build a better relationship with your customers and improve your reputation in the marketplace. Companies will also see you as a valuable business partner that provides high-quality products, creating more opportunities for your business.

In addition, customers will likely recommend your brand to others, whether you’re customizing their experience or the product. This is especially true when they receive personalized treatment from salespeople. It shows they care about understanding their needs before recommending and offering solutions.

9. Improved Customer Insight

Customer data, buying habits and consumer trends are invaluable information in any business arsenal. And by gaining further insight, you have a stronger competitive advantage.

Businesses without customization can only gather data on the items they have in stock. But if they allow their customers to customize products, they can learn about their customers in more ways than their competitors.

With tools like customer relationship management software and data analytics, you can save your information about each customer. You can also use it to offer personalized recommendations tailored to their preferences.

Good customization goes hand-in-hand with analytics and technology. It’s important to keep an eye out for new tools that feature artificial intelligence, as they can offer further information and allow you to anticipate the next trend.

Integrate Customization Into Your Business Model

Customization can be invaluable to your business. It does incredible things that allow your business to achieve amazing results. The only way from there is up because you’re increasing sales, customer loyalty and more.

Now that you know why customization is crucial to your business, you can start figuring out ways to implement it into your business model. You can do this in many ways — you just need to ensure you choose the right option by testing them out.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

How to Create Longevity Within Your Design Firm

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Design and marketing firms tend to have ups and downs. Freelance and contract work tends to ebb and flow since you serve small businesses that might struggle in a down economy or during major catastrophes such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finding the right balance to stay afloat even during lean times isn’t always easy.

Creating a design firm that sticks around for the long haul gives you the brand name recognition you need to land contracts with big players. You want your employees and customers to feel confident your doors will be open for decades.

How Do You Ensure Business Longevity?

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics shares that about 20% of small businesses fail during the first 24 months of operation. Another 45% fail by year five, and 65% by year 10. If you want to be in the 35% of companies still thriving after a decade, there are some things you can do to ensure longevity.

Design firms may be a little more complex since they rely on the health of the businesses they serve. One thing you can do is to seek out businesses that are essential and more likely to survive poor economic times.

1. Take a Customer-First Approach

Spend ten minutes on social media and you’ll see how many people complain about customer service. You’ll find notes on company pages, on personal walls and under ads about the terrible experiences people have at various establishments.

Watch TikTok for a beat and you’ll see videos of fast food managers throwing food at customers, cursing them out and showing poor service skills. While it’s understandable people get frustrated after being treated poorly, if you don’t put your customers first, you can’t expect to grow your brand or your reputation.

Set a policy that the customer comes first. Train employees to do everything in their power to keep the patron happy. If someone isn’t happy with a design, communicate better and rework it. While you can’t please everyone all the time, you can strive to.

2. Retain Top Employees

It costs a lot of money to recruit, interview and train new employees. Keeping the highly skilled designers and crew you have is always the best approach. However, recent statistics show between three and four million people quit their jobs every month in the United States.

Called the Great Rethink or the Great Resignation, people are no longer willing to work for lower pay or in situations they don’t like. Figure out what your employees want most and strive to offer it. Is a remote position something that would keep your highly trained marketing manager on board? Let them work from home most days.

Pay attention to the packages and benefits your competitors offer, give raises as you can afford them and never miss an opportunity to let your workers know you see their effort and are thankful.

3. Set a Five-Year Plan

Small business owners sometimes get so caught up in the here and now that they fail to look ahead a few years and plan for growth. Let’s say your business does well and suddenly a big box store wants you to design their website. Can you meet their request and take advantage of the growth opportunity?

If you have a five-year plan, you may have already brainstormed the logistics of fulfilling a large order requiring more people than you have on staff. A plan gives you goals to strive toward and makes it more likely you’ll find success.

4. Avoid Bad Losses

Running a business always involves some level of risk, but you shouldn’t get so bold that you lose everything. Be careful where you invest your money. Don’t buy equipment you don’t need yet and that your operation can’t financially support. Be careful hiring too many new people at once and letting your payroll get out of control.

Everyone makes mistakes running a company. Get a mentor who has gone before you so you can bounce ideas off them and find out what might not pan out.

5. Create an Emergency Fund

Every business goes through lean times or sees shifts in the economy. If you want to survive tough moments, you have to plan ahead. Keep an emergency fund to cover three to six months of business expenses in an emergency. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many small businesses couldn’t survive the shutdowns. Those with enough funds and creativity weathered the storm and came out on the other side.

Make your emergency fund work for you. If you have $2,500 or so, you can sock the cash into a money market account and earn some interest while still having easy access to your savings.

6. Set Up Checks and Balances

You might be the final say in almost everything about your business. However, you aren’t infallible, so it’s good sense to have other people to turn to for advice. Big purchases should require an okay by at least a mentor.

Hire third-parties to conduct regular financial audits of your company. Let employees review management to make sure leaders are helping with growth and not hindering it. Look for ways to ensure a single person never works in a vacuum. Without someone to give feedback and check them when they come up with a crazy idea, your business could fail miserably.

Focus on Branding

Think about some of the brands you’ve known your entire life, such as Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company and General Electric. When you create an image for your brand and make it come to life, people remember it and will turn to you when they need an expert in your industry.

Your marketing should push your brand recognition over product as frequently as possible. Think about the needs of your target audience and how you can best meet them and you’ll create a design firm that sticks around for the long haul.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

How the Right Display Greatly Impacts a Customer’s Experience

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Have you ever walked into a store and been instantly drawn into the overall feel and experience of being there? Various displays set the tone and create an experience. Perhaps the theme is a beach one or maybe it is futuristic. Whatever the case, you walk away feeling as though that’s your store and your style and you can’t wait to return and shop again.

How Can You Positively Impact the Customer’s Experience?

In the COVID-19: the CX Impact Report, researchers looked at the changes in consumer attitudes since the pandemic. Approximately 73% of respondents said a single negative experience would make them cut ties with a brand. That’s a lot of pressure for businesses to perform to user expectations.

When it comes to creating positive experiences, customer experience (CX) is everything. You have to ensure your customers have an excellent time from the minute they start engaging with you and even after the purchase.

An excellent display is just the start, but it’s important to ensure you get the first impression right. Here are some ways to ensure your display is top-notch.

1. Know Your Audience

Who is your typical buyer and what speaks to them? The only way you can figure this out is by digging deep into your customer databases and doing some analytical research. What is the average age of your buyer? What do you know about that demographic in general?

You also must survey your customers and find out what they want. Ask them what you’re doing well and what you can improve. Provide them with three options for displays and see which they like best.

2. Offer Ready-to-Go Gifts

People care about the presentation of the gifts they buy for others. Around 84% of people put a gift card into something else before giving it to a loved one or friend. Make this easy by adding a beautiful box or a book they can place the gift card in.

Create displays for their “gift giving needs” to make shopping as easy as picking up an item and signing your name.

3. Focus on Bright Colors

You want to draw people’s attention when they enter your store or are walking past in a shopping center or mall. Bright colors will grab them and bring them toward the display. If the item you’re displaying isn’t brightly colored, add other elements that are.

4. Improve Signage

The overall look of your signs can draw people in or cause them to overlook your store. There are four types of fonts you can use on your signs. Understanding what they are and the tone they set can improve your display signage.

Consider the distance people view the signs from. Go out in front of your store and see if the signs are viewable. Do they grab attention? Are they short and to the point? View the signage from various angles and distances to see how it appears. Keep in mind things such as contrast. Black letters on a white background will pop the most.

5. Create an Experience

Experiential marketing is a current buzzword in marketing. In a nutshell, you create an experience for your viewers that takes them into a new setting or lets them try an item. Look to new technologies for ways to ramp up your displays. Add sound so it transports them to the seaside.

Use an app and let them put themselves in the middle of a beach as they try on various pieces of clothing or otherwise interact virtually with your products. If you’re on a tight budget, you can add visuals to help create the feel of being in an actual setting.

Look at Things Through Your Customer’s Eyes

Take a step back from your display and picture it through the eyes of your average buyer. What are their needs and does your display show how the product might solve a pain point for them?

Not every display is going to hit the high notes every time. Do your best to try new things, see what your audience responds to and create the best CX possible.

Guide to All Different Types of Videos

Author: Torrey Tayenaka

Should all marketing videos need to be professional productions to convert consumers? Or does a sneak peek at a new product in a series of social media stories fit the bill? 

When it comes to video marketing, as long as your videos offer your target audience value, education, or entertainment, they’re all contributing to your marketing and conversion efforts. 

But what kind of videos are suitable for each section of the marketing funnel? 

The truth is some video types overlap different areas of the sales funnel. A branding video might lead directly to a sale if the customer is engaged enough. 

So what types of videos are suitable for different business goals? 

Brand Awareness And Promotion

At the top of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage is the first step towards guiding your prospect towards a sale. 

Any videos in this stage need to grab attention, hook potential customers in, and persuade them to find out more. 

Brand Videos 

Any new customer coming to your website wants to know if you align with their needs and values. Brand videos help highlight the culture and values of your business. 

Authenticity is high on the must-have list of consumers, so humanizing your brands has never been more important. 

You can show authenticity and humanize your brand with content like behind-the-scenes footage, employee highlights, or short spots about company culture. Short introductory videos on your home page, along with stories and short videos on social media, help customers get to know you and increase brand awareness. 

Pro tip: Don’t produce videos for the sake of it. Have an end goal in mind. Viewers will tell straight away if you aren’t being sincere. 

Explainer Videos

When a potential customer lands on your website, they have a specific problem and look to you to solve it. 

Explainer videos are great because website user attention spans are short. So by grabbing attention with a video that highlights the solution to their pain point, it keeps users on the page longer. 

Furthermore, research shows that brand videos convince 84% of people to buy after watching—excellent news for awareness, promotion, and conversion goals. 

Pro tip: Focus on one or two points to hold your audience’s attention and place the video on your home page for maximum visibility. 

Product Videos 

Educational and instructional videos improve the user experience of the consumer. Better still, they tell the viewer all the benefits of your product. 

Using product videos is a chance to show off and differentiate your product from others on the market. It’s a golden opportunity to catch buyers in the awareness stage and show them why your brand is the solution they’re seeking. 

Pro tip: Product videos shouldn’t be longer than 30 seconds to hold attention. 

Customer-Focused Videos To Increase Conversions 

Once you have your potential customers engaged, it’s time to shift them further along the sales funnel and aim to convert to a sale.

And the best way to do that? 

Use social proof. 

Customer Testimonials 

One of the best ways to get a conversion is through customer testimonials. 

Authentically sharing a customer’s opinions can increase trust in your brand. In fact, 88% of consumers say that video testimonials make them more likely to buy. 

However, a word of caution. 

Customer testimonials should never be fiction. Consumers can see through staged reviews (think the cheesy customer testimonials you see on TV adverts), which destroys credibility. So only use genuine customer views. 

Pro tip: When asking for a testimonial, provide the customer with a structure to guide them. By asking the right questions, you’ll get answers that highlight the benefits of your product. 

Case Studies 

Video is the perfect medium for case studies. It highlights the emotion of your customer and adds authenticity to the study. Sometimes the written copy isn’t enough to portray customer satisfaction in the effective way a video can. 

Pro tip: When creating video case studies, think about: 

  • What is the end goal for the case study? 
  • Who is your target audience, and does the case study target their wants and needs
  • Does the case study highlight the benefits of your product?
  • Have you structured the case study with carefully constructed questions? 

Faq Videos

Perfect for answering common customer concerns and questions, FAQ videos are quicker and easier than scrolling through written questions. It also shows your consumers that you care about their needs and want to help them.

Equally, having an FAQ page boosts your SEO and ranking as Google tends to prefer video content. 

Pro tip: Points to include in an FAQ video could consist of:

  • How to set up and how to use the product
  • Information about warranties
  • What to avoid when using the product
  • How to store the product 
  • Information about returns and exchanges

Use The Correct Type Of Video For Your Marketing Goals And Watch Your ROI Rise 

There are many other video types out there, including corporate expertise, recruitment, and webinar videos. Which video you choose to use depends on your customer research – match your video to where your target audience hangs out online, what content they want to see, and what video style best suits their needs.

Author Bio:

Torrey Tayenaka

Torrey Tayenaka is the co-founder and CEO at Sparkhouse, an Orange County based video marketing production agency. He is often asked to contribute expertise in publications like Entrepreneur, Single Grain and Forbes. Sparkhouse is known for transforming video marketing and advertising into real conversations.Rather than hitting the consumer over the head with blatant ads, Sparkhouse creates interesting, entertaining and useful videos that enrich the lives of his clients’ customers. In addition to Sparkhouse, Torrey has also founded the companies Eva Smart Shower, Litehouse & Forge54.

How to Grow Your Business with a Website

Author: David Anderson

Your website is your business’s online home. It can provide you with an incredible opportunity to grow your company, generate more revenue for the products and services you offer, and build a strong reputation with customers. But how do you make it happen?

Get a Good Domain Name

The first step to growing your business is getting a good domain name. This will be the address that visitors come in through and it should reflect what you do, but also put an emphasis on who you are as a brand. It’s important for this to not only look professional when potential customers visit it but also help with SEO so that search engines can easily recognize and rank your site higher than competitors. Once you have decided on which domain name best suits your company, go ahead and get started by registering or purchasing that URL before everybody else does! You don’t want to miss out on this key piece of your online presence.

Create a Detailed Plan for Your Website

Before you jump into developing or redesigning your website you should have some sort of plan in place that includes who the audience is, what they are looking for when visiting it, and how often they will be using it. To figure all this out, take time to conduct research with potential customers about their needs, problems, pain points, and questions so that when you create content for your site these can be answered immediately!

This also helps make sure everything is actually helpful and valuable which is crucial if you want visitors coming back again and again. Find ways to use web analytics tools like Google Analytics or Hubspot to see how people are using your site and to put together a plan for what changes need to be made in order for you to achieve the goals that have been set.

Display A Clear Description of Your Business on Your Site

There are a few different options for displaying information about what you do online. You can choose to have multiple pages that outline the products, services, and solutions you provide along with testimonials from previous customers who were happy with their results. Another option is creating one landing page where everything is laid out in an easy-to-read format that provides more details on each of these topics so visitors don’t have to go hunting around if they want specific answers or would rather not spend time scrolling through content looking for what interests them. Just make sure whatever path you take includes good quality images, enough text but isn’t overly wordy, and has links back to other areas within your too!

Don’t Forget to Make the Interface Simple and Easy to Navigate

Once you’ve created a comprehensive and informative site that tells visitors everything they need to know about your business it is important for them to be able to find what interests them quickly and easily. This means keeping the interface simple with easy-to-read menus, not too many advertisements getting in the way of content, and using menu bars within each section or page if there are multiple links available. You want people spending as much time on your website as possible so make sure its user friendly!

Create a Simple but Catchy Logo and Display it at the Top of Your Site

Since you’re going to be using your logo on all of your marketing materials it is important that it looks professional and communicates what you or your company does. Think about how the colors, fonts, and design overall will look on a business card, brochure, social media post, or even as an app icon for mobile users! The good news is, you don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands of bucks to create a good logo. You can use a free logo creator and achieve great results!

Offer Quality Content That Educates Visitors

Quality content can build trust with customers which leads them to become more familiar with who you are and why they should choose your products/services over someone else in the industry. It also helps answer any questions potential clients might have without having to actually pick up the phone and call. To make sure this information is valuable there are a few things to think about:

  • What are the biggest problems/issues in this industry? How can you help solve them and provide a better solution?
  • Who is your target audience? If everyone could benefit from what you have to offer then who needs it the most right now, or in six months time when they decide to look for a business like yours online.
  • What do people need that’s stopping them from doing their job well or making it more efficient? Make sure content on your site doesn’t just talk about how great things are but also gives examples of actual results customers have received when using your services. This way visitors know exactly why they should choose you over your competitors.

In conclusion, the only way to be successful online is by consistently growing your business. A website can help you achieve this goal and manage it all in one place, but make sure the website content is informative, easy-to-read, and includes links back to pages where visitors can learn more or get started! Use the tips above, and you will be on the path to growing your business exponentially.

Author Profile

David Anderson is a business graduate with a marketing major. He specializes in communication design and has helped many brands achieve their goals in marketing communication. Now he writes for freelance clients on topics related to brand design, visual communication, and marketing.

Big Branding Strategies to Utilize for Small Business Success

Author: David Dixon

As a small business owner, you likely have a million things on your to-do list. Revenue, employees, production, customer loyalty… amongst these critical elements, branding may not be top of mind for you. Perhaps you even think branding is best left to the big shots, who have the excess revenue to devote to marketing budgets. If you’re thinking along these lines, it’s time for a major strategic overhaul.

Businesses that go big on branding pack a punch and stand out. Grabbing customers’ attention (and keeping it) is the best way to plump up that bottom line. Want to learn about some easy branding best practices? Designweb Louisville breaks it down.

What Exactly Is Branding?

Let’s get one thing very clear. Branding is more than just slapping a logo onto your socials and calling it a day. Instead, it is indicative of your company as a brand and the values it stands for. Branding presents an overall image of your mission and customer services and gives customers insight into the products and services you offer.

Why is it important? Well, consumers want to shop at a cohesive and consistent brand that ups the quality of their buying experience. Most businesses today invest in branding, which means that you’ll need excellent graphics, text, and design to get a leg up on your competition and stand out.

How Can I Reach My Target Market Through Branding?

Well, the two are intrinsically linked. When brainstorming for your business, you likely honed in on a particular audience or demographic to cater your services to. This might be based on interest, age, occupation, income, or gender. Zenbusiness attests that you should think a little bit harder about your target audience and what they might be looking for in business branding. For example, a younger demographic might want to see consistent branding across socials, including TikTok integrations. A wine lover demographic might wish to see witty quotes and sassy visuals when shopping for their new favorite wine. By playing to these target use cases, you’ll be getting the most bang for your branding buck.

How Can I Get Started on Branding?

Start by deciding whether you want to go the DIY route or if you want to get the professionals in. When it comes to coding and web design, you’ll want to get pros in to do their magic. However, most small businesses don’t have the expendable budgets to get expert designers in to do the work – at least, not all of it. But there are many graphic elements that you can do yourself just as well (and shh… for much cheaper).

For example, creating an eye-catching banner for your socials or site is a great way to build brand awareness and can be achieved even by novice designers. Use an online banner maker to create a unique and personalized banner for your branding needs. All you need to do is find a banner that works with your more significant brand identity and then add in text, font, color, graphics, images, and even video. It really is that easy! Similarly, social media posts with your logo and consistent branding can be easily DIYed too. Getting smart about which elements to manage yourself will be critical for small businesses low on start-up funds.

In our increasingly digital world, consumers learn more about businesses online than through any other space. And according to this 2019 survey by Hubspot, 70% of reviewed shoppers said that graphics and cohesive design played a significant part in their buying decision. Thus, be sure to include branding in your next campaign strategy to take the business world by storm.

Designing and branding a website doesn’t need to be complicated. At least, that’s what we believe at Designweb Louisville. We offer competitively priced web design and development services to help you build your dream site with ease. Click here to check out our services, or contact us at hello@designweblouisville.com for more information today!

How to Effectively Increase Brand Visibility

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Brand visibility is imperative to success and relates to more prevalent customer recognition and awareness. It denotes the ability of customers to recognize a brand or business based on various factors.

It is commonly associated with visual representations of a brand such as the business logo, colors, and products, but it’s much more pervasive than that. For example, Apple and Google are synonymous with technology products, including computers, mobile devices, and so on. Every time those types of products are brought up, or the related topics are in focus, those two brands come to mind, among others. That is because they have effectively boosted brand visibility, in many different ways.

Of course, effectively increasing brand visibility for a small business or medium-sized operation, with limited resources, is quite a bit different than doing so for a corporate entity. What goes into brand visibility, and what are some ways to enhance and leverage the concept?

1. Optimize for Search

These days, there is no valid excuse for NOT optimizing a business or brand website for SEO, or search engine results. You can do this by focusing on relevant keywords, namely terms that your customers will be searching for. It’s not something you have to do alone either, as there are hundreds, if not thousands, of SEO experts willing to help. It’s also accessible to all businesses, big and small. 

Choose keywords, use a proper SEO tool, and begin adding those keywords to your site. Coming up with a clear content marketing campaign that hits all those relevant keywords and delivers enriching and engaging material is just as important. Moreover, the keywords can be embedded within the web copy on all pages, product descriptions, headers, and much more.

2. Use Smart Advertising

Advertising and marketing are critical for boosting visibility, across print ads, digital ads, and various other mediums. But one of the best ways to get your name out there is to use creative measures, doing something a little different than everyone else. Some examples include clever office branding, unique product packaging, local sponsorships, or even customer rewards and incentives.

Like all forms of advertising, the idea is to get your brand out there and in front of as many eyes as possible. Doing it in a witty or creative way ensures that both the medium and the content stand out, creating a memorable experience, and vastly boosting brand awareness.

3. Tap Into Influencer Marketing

The term “influencer” has taken on new meaning in the digital frontier. It doesn’t just include celebrities and public personas, but also YouTubers, social media users, content creators, and much more. Moxy Hotels launched a YouTube channel featuring Taryn Southern, a popular influencer that became so popular, it now has multiple seasons’ worth of content.

Just as you would with celebrities during the days of old, you can tap into an influencer’s audience and resources to build awareness about your brand. You can do it by offering products for review, paying for ad placements or mentions, sending out free swag, opening discussions with creators, and so on.

The trick is to choose the right influencers for your niche, products, and brand. Instead of just picking someone because they’re popular, try to find someone local. Alternatively, you can look for someone that works with the types of products or services you offer, such as tech, makeup, accessories, or whatever.

4. Enhance Offline Marketing

In the digital age, and with so much happening online, it’s easy to overlook the offline world. Every business should invest some time and resources enhancing offline marketing efforts. It includes product packaging, word-of-mouth advertising or referrals, radio advertisements, networking, public events, cold calls, and much more. Basically, the term encompasses anything that happens offline and away from the internet.

Wearing yourself thin trying to do it all is not the goal, nor is it a good strategy. But choosing one or two channels to focus on, and then becoming the best of the best is the way to go. If you choose to participate in local job fairs or networking events, then do it with a splash! Host a keynote discussion or panel. Give out free swag to all booth visitors. Make it memorable and get your brand out there.

5. Reward Your Customers

To build loyalty, entice customers to share their experiences, and naturally increase awareness, you need to be going above and beyond. Rewarding your customers is an excellent way to do that. The first thing that comes to mind is a customer loyalty program or cashback rewards, but while those are great solutions, they’re not the only strategies that exist. There are many ways to give back and reward your customers, not necessarily through monetary incentives.

Bundling small gifts with every purchase is one example. Honing customer service programs to near perfection to ensure customers are always taken care of, is another. Another still might be something as simple as offering free shipping for all online orders. You’ll need to review your competitors so you know what they’re doing and what they offer, and then you can up your game. Ensure that your customers continually have positive and memorable experiences, and that will create a cyclical system where those people are always willing to share and talk about your brand.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

Continue improving and innovating as much as possible, but also establish a way to measure brand visibility. Doing so is easier than you might think. You can look at website traffic, and how much it’s growing, review the search volume of your keywords, check in-store traffic, look at trending topics or messages about your brand, and much more.

Search optimization should always be on your plate, which means you should continue utilizing your chosen keywords and researching more. Smart advertising, offline marketing, and influencer support should also be persistent strategies. Don’t forget to reward your customers or your employees on the frontlines!

Once you put that vehicle in motion, don’t use the brakes, continue your momentum. Measure, iterate, improve, and then re-measure. It’s the best way to increase visibility, build strong and positive awareness, and cement your brand in the annals of history.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

4 Examples of Web Designs That Just Make Sense

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Have you landed on a website and just felt it perfectly embraced the purpose and personality of a brand? Finding just the right combination of emotional points and features isn’t easy. You must first figure out who you are as a brand. At the same time, learn who your audience is.

According to Internet Live Stats, there are approximately 3.5 billion Google searches every day. The number varies, but you’ll find ample opportunities to reach your target audience with your website.

Does Your Website Design Matter?

Once you get the traffic to your page, does your design resonate with users? You have just a few milliseconds to make a first impression, so making sure you hit every point is vital.

Many people begin their searches for a business, even a local one, via search engines. When they land on your page, do they fully understand the purpose? Is the design aesthetically pleasing? Does the layout guide the user to the next stage of the buyer’s journey?

One of the best ways to learn how to design a site that speaks volumes is studying what others have done. Here are four websites we think just make sense and match the purpose of the business or personality of the brand.

1. Use Brand Color Palette

Is your brand already well-established? If people are familiar with your logo or company colors, it’s smart to use the same look in your web design. While it might be tempting to throw in some unique looks to show you’re up on the latest trends, try to stay away from anything too trend.

It’s best to stick with what your audience recognizes. You can, of course, add in a pop of color for a CTA or slightly adjust the hues to better contrast on electronic screens.

Century 21 uses a large hero image of a modern room to grab interest. They use a semi-transparent bar to share facts such as how many homes, agents and offices are available in your area. Note how the shades are brown and gold with a bit of neutral mixed in.

The company is well known and their logo and color palette recognizable offline. Using similar shades taps into the comfort and familiarity most people already feel with this company. The design works perfectly to get across their message.

2. Highlight Your Tagline

What is your brand’s tagline? You may be able to utilize it in some of the imagery and design of your page. The more you can make all the elements work together to elicit emotion in the user, the more likely they’ll convert into a lead.

For example, if you’re known as a fun brand, you would use happy colors and images. Think about the emotions you’d like to evoke in your customers and center your design around them. Even the shades you choose tap into feelings. Understand buyer reactions to different colors, even if you have to survey them to find out.

MRCOOL uses the heading “Never Stop Dreaming” just above their name logo. To tap into this idea, they show a little girl in a superhero cape, looking across to the city skyline as though she’s ready to rescue the world.

The soft sunset colors make one think of dreaming and something a bit surreal. At the same time, if you click on the video, you get testimonials from those who love the product and want others to know how well it works. It’s the perfect mix of dream and reality to grab user attention in an unexpected way.

3. Have Fun

Don’t be afraid to show off your personality and what’s unique about your business. It might not be obvious to you at first what makes your brand unique. Spend time studying the competition so you can see what unique value proposition (UVP) each touts.

Once you understand the competition’s UVPs, come up with your own. You want something different than your competitors but also true. What do you thrive at? What makes you stand out? It’s okay to hone in on something others may not pay attention to as long as you stack up in other areas.

The Ugly Company sells dried fruit and healthy snacks. Their name is “ugly” and their goal is to reduce their carbon footprint while upcycling snacks. So, they choose colors that are a bit garish. When you first glance at the page, you note how ugly the yellow is there. It isn’t a color you see often in web design.

However, on second look it matches the overall tone and look of the brand. The fact that some of the elements fall into the category many consider unattractive coincides with the brand’s name and persona. The product packaging would also stand out on store shelves as these aren’t colors typically used on dried fruit bags.

4. Highlight Your Benefits

Leave room in your design to show off the benefits of doing business with your brand. Highlight what makes you special on your home page. Limit the number of options so users see clearly where to go next, whether to a shopping section, additional information or to a form that converts them into a lead.

Eliminate any clutter and focus only on what customers most want to know about your brand. You can ascertain the information they want by looking at questions they’ve asked your sales team or surveying them for input. You can also check heatmaps for your site to see where people head once landing there.

Case goes with a very simple layout to bring the products you most want to know about within a click or two after landing on their page. They start by showcasing one of their popular products in the image. They then share the benefits of choosing their furniture, such as great reviews, 14-day returns and delivery or pickup.

How to Meet User Expectations

Your number one goal for your website should be to meet user expectations. Why do people seek a site such as yours in the first place? Are they looking for information? Do they need to buy something? Make the overall process as easy and possible. Creating an excellent customer experience is the most significant thing you can do to keep your users happy and create a design that makes sense.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.