Visual marketing – as the term probably suggests – is using visual content to help reinforce your brand identity and message, across your marketing efforts.

There are lots of ways to go about this, and lately I’ve noticed a huge rise in small business owners using Canva to create blog headers, and graphics for their social media platforms. It really is great way to add visual identity to your brand message.

However, the approach many small business owners are taking could actually be doing unintentional harm to their brand and message.

The Canva approach

Canva offers lots of pre-existing design elements for you to choose between. Many of them are free, the rest are really cheap. It’s a process that’s gives you design freedom without you needing to spend time learning how to use difficult (and expensive) software. It also handily circumvents that challengeing moment of staring at a blank page and wondering where on earth to begin.

In short: it’s easy and it’s fun.

The downside is that everyone else is using the same elements and the same approach. The result? Visual content that is not necessarily linked to your brand, but to the Canva brand.

Time and again, across various social media channels, I’ve seen business owners create visual content. The responses from their friends and followers often follow some variation of the below comments:

“Love your visual. You created it using Canva right?”

“Ah..I see you’ve discovered Canva! It’s great, isn’t it?”

“Awesome graphic. I love Canva too! It’s so easy to use.”

How is Canva diluting your brand?

To me, the immediate thought that springs to mind is that this just proves how visually literate you all are. Canva has an identifiable design aesthetic, and most people seem to be able to identify it.

The point of visual marketing is to create imagery that connects back to your brand. In the same way that you want your blog’s voice to be consistent and reflective of your brand, your visuals need to fulfil the same role. If you’re creating visual marketing that is readily identifiable as ‘Canva’ rather than you, you’re wasting that opportunity to connect visually with your readers and followers.

I’m not for one second advocating not using Canva, or creating your own materials. But make sure you’re adding value to your brand while doing so, not diluting your brand.

How to use Canva to promote YOUR brand (not theirs)

Brand identity is generally built using some basic foundational elements. Keep these consistent, and your visual marketing materials will be a much closer reflection of your brand and business.

1. Keep fonts consistent.

Fonts are really important.

It may seem like a little thing, but picking fonts is one of the key ingredients in your design and brand identity. Stick to the fonts already used on your marketing materials and website.

If you’re not sure what they are, go back and ask the designer which fonts they used. You may not have access to the same ones, but some research on Google fonts or Font Squirrel, and you’ll be able to find an equivalent that closely matches.

For example, if your website is using handwritten fonts, and has a crafty feel, then creating (popular and trendy) retro-themed marketing material isn’t going to match your brand or reinforce your identity.

2. Colours

Stick to your brand’s colour palette.

Use the colours in your logo and the colours on your website. You can create tints of those colours to increase your options. This tool can help you create some darker and lighter tints of your existing brand colours.

If you feel like you need more colours, spend some time one day using a colour palette mixer to create your own custom palette. Try to end up with a maximum of 6 colours, together with some tints.

Once you’ve decided on these colours, save them down somewhere and use them as your reference. And then stick to them!

Keep in mind, that fewer colours often work better in designs, so you might be best just sticking to the 2 or 3 colours in your logo and website.

3. Gather your own design materials

Canva is great and has a wide range of pre-existing elements for you to use, but you don’t have to be restricted by what is on offer. You can also upload your own design elements.

We’ve got a Pinterest board of Freebies that we’ve been collecting from various place on the internet, that is updated regularly. It’s a board of illustrations, icons and fonts. Follow ours, or start your own.

Start your own library of brand-relevant illustrations and photos. Be strategic in what you collect, keeping your brand, your industry and your audience in mind.

4. Keep your range narrow

It’s tempting, when faced with a smorgasboard of options such as offered on Canva, to want to try and use everything. My best advice is to resist that temptation.

Think about your brand, and its identity. Get your fonts decided, pick your colours and then set up some templates. Think about how you can keep them consistent, and then try to work within those guidelines and constrictions. It might feel less ‘creative’, but it will make your brand message much stronger.

Canva has created a really clever, easy-to-use tool, to help you take charge of your own visual marketing. Use it to your advantage, and reinforce your brand identity.

The post Is Canva diluting your brand? appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

And whining isn’t attractive in grown-ups.

With that in mind, I’ve started a routine for myself to carve out time and (more importantly perhaps) the energy, to help me to create regular content for this blog.

Short version: I’m allocating 1 hour a day to content marketing. I’m doing it in the morning, straight after some meditation, and I allocate about an hour of my day. More crucially, perhaps, I’m accepting no excuses from my employee (that would be me), that I’m too busy, too tired, or too uninspired to spend that time on content marketing.

If you prefer the long version, keep reading.

Meditation

Yes, I know. How very hippy.

I’m not doing a whole heap of meditating – I allocate 2 ten minute blocks a day (morning and afternoon), to create some quiet time in my brain. Sometimes all I manage to achieve is not falling asleep, other times I realise after 10 minutes that all I’ve done is listen my inner monologue. Occasionally, however, I do get a sense of relaxation and quiet space.

Whether I’m doing it right or not, and whether it’s technically meditation or not, it certainly refreshes me and gives me  some clear head space time for the hour or so afterwards. And that’s the time I’m putting aside for content creation. An hour an day, every day, using my meditated brain.

I meditate on my breath, because I once read a book about it, and that’s what works for me. Lots of people I know swear by meditation apps, and I have some friends who spend years doing (and loving) Transcendental Meditation.

It doesn’t really matter what approach you take, but it’s worth giving it try. At the very least, you’re allocating some guilt-free quiet time to yourself each day. Your business will thank you.

Mindfulness

Yup, getting more firmly on the hippy train.

I’m trying to practice  mindfulness in all aspects of my life – although I have to admit to days (and even weeks), when I forget that this is what I’m trying to do. Obviously, I’ve got some work to do, but the only way to get better is to keep practicing.

The huge positives with practicing mindfulness is that you feel present in your own life (even if only for short bursts). When it’s going well, I fully work in the time I allocate as work time, and I fully unwind in the time I allocate as down time.

In relation to my content marketing plan, I try to be fully present when I’m working on a blog post, or graphics for my business, and to be as efficient as I can. Once I’ve ticked off that task for the day, I can then move on in my head.

Routine

It’s taken me a decade or two to work this out, but it turns out I’m most productive first thing in the morning.

I try to sit down and do those things that I know I’d rather put off, first thing in the morning. I have lots more energy and enthusiasm in the hours before lunch, and so find it easier to ignore the little voices telling me to put it off till later.

Client work will always get done, and I never miss a deadline. And so I reserve the right to work late into the night on those projects, if that’s how my day pans out. By ticking off the ‘don’t wanna’ tasks first thing in the day, it also helps to quieten down the guilt-gremlin that loves to chatter away when I succeed in talking myself out of doing something I’d rather not be doing.

My suggestion would be to work out the time of day that you are most productive. It might be a few hours after you wake up, it might be the dark hours when everyone else is asleep. The point is, reserve some of that best time for your business.

Time allocation

I’ve flirted with using the Pomodoro technique, off and on for a while now. In essence, you allocated 25 minute slots to your tasks, with a 5 minute break after each slot.

There is more to it, but I’ve decided not to get too bogged down in slavishly following the technique itself, while still managing to embrace the spirit.

The trick, I’m finding, is to do something away from the computer during the 5 minute break (i.e. not checking Facebook). It gives my eyes a break, but more importantly perhaps, becomes a proper break. I usually do some stretching, make a cup of tea or – excitingly – do some laundry (I know, I know, it’s hard not to envy this lifestyle).

My content marketing plan uses up 2 of those slots a day, so basically about an hour.

Do you have a plan or routine in place to help you with your content marketing? More importantly – does it work?

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In my final year of high school, I used to swap weekly letters with one of my best friends. These letter were epic, they would run to about 10 A4 double-sided pages. I have no idea what on earth we had to say to each other that took up so much time, energy and English language (unfortunately, in the intervening years, I’ve lost all those letters). I also can’t remember the real motivation behind why we did it, but I suspect it was a simple as the fact that we both just liked writing.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and I find myself sitting in bar, genuinely and honestly telling other people about how much I don’t enjoy writing. That it’s not something I’m good at, or inclined to do.

This is the story that I’ve been telling myself for a couple of years now. It’s the story about how as a person involved in producing visual content, that stringing words together isn’t something I enjoy doing.

It’s a pretty unconvincing story to my own ears, and now I’m telling this story to other people?

Why is business blogging so damn hard?

Writing blog posts for my business is often the last thing I want to be doing, any time of any day. I’ve even created a fun anxiety response in myself whenever I think about having to sit down and write something.

The hilarious irony in all of this, is that writing is actually something that I’ve always done. I won’t embarrass myself by linking to any of them, but there are a number of blogs sprinkled around the internet which are filled with my writing. I’ve got piles of handwritten journals, diaries, attempted short stories, all sorts of stuff. I’m not claiming any of it is any good, or that I’m a great writer.

And yet, somewhere in the last few years, I started believing that I don’t like writing. And so I’ve stopped writing at all.

The problem, however, isn’t that I don’t like writing. What I don’t like doing is ‘content marketing’.

‘Content Marketing’ vs ‘Writing’

We are told that our job when writing our blogs is to be authoritative, and knowledgeable in our niche. To write for our audience while sharing information, showing our expertise, giving useful information and yet remaining personable and (ideally) a little bit funny. All while remaining authentic.

Couldn’t be easier, right?

Is it just me, or does the whole concept of content marketing feel contrived? There are so many boxes to be ticked, rules to be followed, gurus to emulate. We’re awash in endless blog posts talking about the same things, with similar themes being rehashed over and over.

It’s overwhelming and underwhelming all at the same time. The honest truth is that I have not been able to find a way to be authentic, not while obeying all these ‘rules’.

So I shut down, shut up, and just stopped.

Is it a choice between ‘writing’ and ‘content marketing’.  I’ve got no idea. Am I making a distinction that even exists?

I have been trying really hard to get on board the content marketing train, and while I manage to occasionally rustle something up, it’s nowhere near as consistent as it should be.

I sometimes wonder if it is worth doing, but the fact is that I do notice an upswing in enquiries and interaction when I do post something.

This is not a personal blog

I am aware of the difference between a business blog and personal blog, and so I know that this isn’t really the space to naval gaze and indulge myself too much.

I mean, this whole piece is breaking a fundamental rule, isn’t it? Look at all the pronouns about ‘me’ and ‘I’…there’s nothing in here for ‘you’.

I do think it’s worth exploring though. I know that I’m not alone in struggling with content marketing. We dress it up as not knowing how to write headlines, or struggling with what to write about, or focusing on the length of our sentences, breaking our paragraphs into digestible chunks, using great subtitles and getting the keyword density just right…(quick, take a  breath).

Isn’t the fundamental block possibly something else?

Is it the inability to find our voice? The story that we tell ourselves about how we’re no good at this, or that we don’t even enjoy this, hiding behind a million excuses instead of working out what our truth really is?

My truth is that I’m an introspective over-thinker who (paradoxically?) likes to waffle on. This post is by far the most ‘authentic’ piece I’ve written on this website, and it’s little more than a long-winded introspective piece of waffle. Content marketing? Not so much.

To show that I haven’t completed missed the point of the zillions of articles I’ve been reading over the past couple of years, I am going to do a follow up post to this one. I have been making some progress in this area, and so I thought it might be worth sharing some of the techniques I’ve been using.  Because this blog isn’t just about me, it’s about sharing what I know and what I learn, because I am keeping – you – my audience, in mind. Just like I’ve been told to.

I’d love to know what you think. Do you struggle with business blogging? Have you ever sat down to work out why? And if you’ve come up with any solutions, would you like to share?

The post Why is business blogging such a chore? appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

There is very little point in just putting a website up and then forgetting about it. Tempting as that may be, all you’re really doing is paying for an overpriced business card.

Websites are finicky creatures, and they thrive on flattery and attention. To work best for you, your website needs to be updated regularly, refreshed occasionally, and generally pandered to, nurtured and coddled. As the strongest marketing tool your business can have, it’s worth putting the time, effort and (occasional) tears into looking after it properly.

So, how do you know if you’re doing it wrong, and woefully neglecting your once-beautiful site?

1. You can’t update your website yourself

If you need to email your web developer for every single little change or update to your site, then it’s well past time for you to reassess your approach.

The majority of modern sites are built using a Content Management System (CMS), the most popular one being WordPress. The huge advantage to having your site built using a CMS, is that it gives you control over your own content and updates.

A good developer will tailor the CMS to your needs, and supply you with documentation on how to use it. Like all new skills, the initial learning curve may be a bit daunting, but it really is important that you keep your site active and evolving.

Of course, if you have deep pockets you can pay someone else to do this for you, but it needs to be a regular occurence and is likely to get expensive in the long-term.

2. Your site is not visible on Search Engines

You need new customers and clients to find you, right? Making your website SEO friendly isn’t necessarily rocket science, but it does require effort. Using a CMS (see above), will put you way ahead of the game –  a site that is regularly updated is given more priority with Google.

The easiest way to up your SEO game is to add regular content to your site, and one of the easiest ways to do this is through a blog. Depending on your business, you could also add new testimonials, update product listings, and tweak your website copy.

The key is to regularly do something, to keep your site fresh and ensure it gets noticed by the search engines.

3. Awful website design

If your site looks like it was put together by an old buddy of yours, back in the 90s…it may be time to reevaluate.

A contemporary site design gives confidence to your visitors that you are on top of your game, professional and profitable enough to invest in your brand.

Added bonus: current design trends will take into account useability and functionality from the perspective of your visitors. In other words, a design refresh should (if done properly) give you a site that is easy to navigate.

If you want your visitors to stick around, then you need to consider their needs.

4. Your website doesn’t represent your business correctly

Your website is part of your sales and marketing team, in fact it’s arguably the hardest working member of your entire organisation. If it doesn’t convey what you do, how you do it, your business philosophy and the image and message of your company, then it’s not doing its job properly.

Fortunately, if your website isn’t representing you properly, you don’t need to sack it. You may just need to advise it on how to present itself in a more flattering light.

A website design refresh is a lot less awkward then a one-on-one with the guy who comes to work with ketchup on his suit.

5. There’s no social media integration

You don’t need to be everywhere all the time on social media, but it is best if you’re around the place in some capacity. Make it easy for visitors to your site to connect with you where you’re hanging out and give them the opportunity to get to know you.

Don’t forget to use easy share and like buttons on your blog posts. If you use a CMS, there are easy plugins to add share buttons to your site (we use Flare, although there are plenty of other options available).

6. No calls to action on your site

Think about what you want visitors to your website to do. Do you want them to purchase your product? Enquire about your services? Sign up to your newsletter?

Now visit your own website as if you are your own ideal customer. Is it easy for them to find what you hope they are looking for?

If not, you need to reassess your Call to Actions. And if you don’t have any, then you very quickly need to work out how to incorporate some.

7. Slow site loading time

You can have ground-breaking design, awesome content, effective call to actions and brilliant web copy. None of this is going to do an iota to help your business, if your site takes forever to load.

Pictures, graphics, and other forms of content start really start to weigh your site down and make it chug along.

You can run a quick check to see how your site is performing - and don’t forget to run this check at a few different times of day as well as during the week. The internet has its own peak hours, and you want to make sure your site is working well even during the busy times.

If the results are bad, you will need to find the culprits and make some changes to optimise your graphics and content.

8. It’s hard to navigate on a phone or tablet

Mobile optimisation – your site has to be responsive for different devices. No arguing around this one.

Your prospects, clients, partners and customers are increasingly navigating the web through their mobile devices. Your site needs to be able to play well  with them, or you will be losing important opportunities.

While checking your site on different devices, make sure to check it on different browsers too. The internet keeps moving the goalposts, and your site that once looked lovely on Internet Explorer 5 years ago, may not be playing so well these days.

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The post Are you paying enough attention to your website’s needs? appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

Audience: ‘Good design’ isn’t a one size fits all approach. When you’re adding design touches to your website, or even designing your own fliers or brochures, as with all your marketing, you need to consider your target client.

If you’re a technical business, then a vintage, colourful approach will not impress your target market. They want to see a design that reflects your competence and professionalism.

The final product: A good example of this is designing a cover for your ebook. A particular design may look great at full size on your computer, and it may look alright shrunk down on a tablet or phone.

Have you considered how it also works as a thumbnail image?

If you’re going to be using that cover image primarily as a device to grab the attention of your website visitors, then it needs to jump off the screen, even if it’s only tiny.

Consistency: Don’t use loads of different fonts in your designs. Usually 1 or 2 fonts is plenty. You can mix and match their bold and italic forms to create contrast.

Keep your design consistent. Once you’ve picked your fonts, colours and general layout pattern, stick with it. The most common mistake people make is that they think ‘good’ design should be complicated. The opposite is true – good design generally is simple.

Don’t confuse simple with ‘easy’ – it’s not necessarily easy – but simple, uncluttered and consistent is what you’re aiming for.

The editing process: Just as it takes time to craft a good blog post, or put together the copy for your website, you can’t expect to just sit down and knock out a good design. The approach to take is very similar to writing, actually.

Put aside some time to do a first draft, and try not to let your editing side take over yet. Try a few different things, move images around, put text over the top, make your text box transparent. Create a couple of options and then leave it alone.

Come back a day or 2 later, and see what your reaction is when you look at it. I often find that I have a gut instinct that something is working or not working. My client may not always agree with me, but most of the times I do get it right.

Photographs: A really simple and effective design approach is pairing photographs with text. A strong image, with text overlaid can look really nice. Make sure you put the text over a clear space in the image so that it stands out.

If there isn’t really a good existing spot, you can draw a box or rectangle behind the text and then reduce the opacity of the box.

To ensure your imagery is unique, why not take your own photographs to use in this way?

Typography: A nice simple design technique is to just use text on a simple, coloured background.

Mix up your fonts (not too many, less is still more here), and experiment with having all the text centred, or all pushed into one corner.

Avoid tacky clip art. Seriously. It is not doing anything to help your cause. I’m talking specifically about the cheesy, overused visual metaphors that are sprinkled all over the internet.

There are so many resources out there where you can get great illustrations for little to no cost. There is absolutely no excuse for clipart. None.

Negative space: is the amount of space left around the elements of your design. (white space is another term you may come across, but don’t feel you need to take it literally).

The whole point of design is that you want to get a message across, and to be successful that message needs to be clear. Visual breathing room lets the viewer read your message more clearly.

A page or website that is cluttered with too much stuff, is going to leave the visitor bouncing around, their eyes falling on one thing, then another, then another. It’s chaotic, confusing and – for me at least – annoying.

Alignment: So easy to do, and it makes such a massive difference. Take the time to make sure the elements in each group of your design are aligned properly. Even in programmes like PowerPoint there are built-in tools to help you achieve this.

Elements that are all sitting on the same vertical and horizontal plane make visual sense and therefore add to your message. Elements that are higgledy-piggledy are confusing, annoying and generally unpleasant to look at.

In conclusion: These are really very simple techniques, and not hard to achieve by yourself.

Instead of having yet another generic stock image at the top of your post, put aside some time one day to come up with a template or idea that you can then use for all your posts. It will give your posts a visual consistency that ties back in with your brand, in the way that yet another picture of a kid in a cape wearing oversized glasses just doesn’t.

The post Simple ideas to help you take charge of your visual marketing appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

As a small business owner, you probably already do some of your own writing – blog posts, your website copy and marketing copy. You may not be a ‘professional’ writer, but the point is that you do write, and you also think like a writer.

Here’s a little secret. You can take all those tricks you already know about writing and use them to create your own visual content.

“But I’m terrible at visual stuff” I hear you cry.

You know what, you absolutely are not. You can create branded, visually literate imagery to spice up your content. You just need a bit of practice, some faith in yourself, and some commitment to your cause.

Don’t believe me? Let’s get started.

1. Train your brain

One piece of (really good) advice handed out to writers is that they need to read. Not just within their own genre, but across lots of different genres. Exposure to different types of writing gives the little writer homunculus in your brain plenty of fodder to work with when it comes time for him to get to work.

It’s no different with your visuals. Spend time really looking at design and images, and you’ll start developing a keen eye. The good news is that you’re doing this already – just think about the bombardment of imagery you’re subjected to every single day.

The only real change you need to make is to be more present and pay attention.

2. Start collecting

Build on your attention practice with collecting.

Online, there are endless examples of design that will grab your attention. If you love working socially, you’ve got Pinterest, and Instagram. Use folders and bookmarks on your devices if you’re more of a private collector type.

Don’t limit yourself to the virtual though. You know how everyone loves a vintage, textured background? That’s because they look and feel so nice in real life. Now, don’t you wish you had a nice collection of vintage stock postcards to flick through right now?

Start thinking of business cards as more than just a way of emailing someone you met at a networking event. Start collecting them with visual intent. Keep them handy as a reference tool, because chances are at some point you’ll want to look at one of them again to see what it is that made you remember it.

Take the same approach with postcards, magazines, posters, photographs. Start looking at this imagery with a critical visual eye. Think about how they work as marketing tools, and how they go about selling their product.

There you go! Now you’re starting to think like a designer.

3. Create an outline

OK, so you’ve been paying attention to the visual world around you, you’ve got your collections of fun stuff you like, and you’re ready to start getting all visual with your content marketing.

Where to start?

As with a piece of writing, think about it in terms of drafts and revisions.

How do you go about crafting a written piece? Personally, my approach is piecemeal. I tend to write over a few days, in different stages. Initially, I write down some headlines, subheadings, and jot down sentences that may or may not make complete sense. It’s just getting down the framework of what I’m going to come back and massage into shape.

Same deal with your visuals. Start putting colours together using online tools such as Adobe Kuler or Color Blender. Select some fonts that you might want to work with – Google Fonts are pretty extensive and free to use.

Hopefully you’ve already got the words that are going into your design. Professional designers often work to a brief without all the content, and then need to revise the design to fit it all in. It’s inefficient at best, and a total design wreck at worst.

Get all your content in first, and then you can see what you’ve got to work with.

4. Create your headline and subheadings

As with your written pieces, your design needs to have a logical progression that your reader will look at. Use ‘headings’ to draw your reader through the message of your design.

Graphic design is marketing, not art. You are asking your audience to ‘read’ your message, you guide them through the process. As with your written marketing, you need to include a Call to Action.

Colour, boxes, different font sizes, photographs and illustrations are all tools to draw your reader through your message.

Visuals can be more efficient than words though, and that’s why the right photograph, illustration, series of shapes, or even font, can really nail your message.

5. Create your first draft

As with writing projects, you are going to have to go through a few rounds of drafts before you get your final result.

Personally, I’ve always found the editing part of writing easier than the initial stage. No matter how horrible a first draft is, having something to work on is more motivating that staring at the dreaded blank page. Filling in the guts through the editing process is hard work, but somehow is an easier process.

Same with design. Get your first draft done, and then step away and leave it for a while. Next time you come back to it, you want to look at it with fresh eyes.

Don’t get too bogged down in the details at this stage. Look at the overall layout, place the call-to-action of your piece where you think it should go and add your initial colour and font choices.

All or some of this will probably change through your revisions, but it’s important to just get started.

6. Edit, edit and edit

As with writing, your final piece may bear no resemblance to your initial piece. If the colours you have chosen aren’t working, try some new ones, or just different shades. Keep moving the pieces of your design around, and trying different things. I can’t count the number of times the ‘a-ha’ moment of my design has come while trying something else.

It’s good to pre-visualise, but be open to happy accidents.

7. Don’t forget to proofread

This is the stage to just go over the whole piece, and check all the little details – the design equivalent of spelling and grammar (don’t forget to check your actual text for these errors too!)

Follow a simple checklist to make sure everything is neat and consistent.

• Are  all your elements are aligned correctly?
• Do all the boxes and tables have consistent margins?
• Is your heading text is a consistent size?
• Body text and subheadings – are they consistent too?
• Do all the colours match?

Really go over it with a fine-tooth comb to check the itty-bitty details.

8. Tools to use

Finding free and cheap tools to do your own designing has never been easier.

Photoshop Elements is watered down version of that design workhorse Photoshop. Elements is much cheaper (buy it outright for around $150), easier to use, and will do all the light design tasks you ask of it.

GIMP goes one step better, and is absolutely free. You can use it to work with your photos, add some text and shapes over the top. The interface is a little clunky, so you might not enjoy the learning curve that goes with using it. Picmonkey is generally pretty popular, and you can use some of the basic tools for free.

If you like mucking around with illustrations and drawing, Inkscape is a free vector program. You can draw and create to your heart’s content.

The new kid on the block – Canva – is on a mission to make graphic design simple and accessible. They’re still working out some bugs on their beta launch, but if you’re patient, you can create great things using their software.

And finally, you can create your own infographics using Visual.ly

9. Commitment and practice

I do truly believe that any business owner can take charge of their own visual marketing and output. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to do, though! It takes time, committment and practice to develop your eye and your skills.

As with most of your business decisions, whether you want to take on the challenge comes down to whether you want to spend time doing it yourself, or spend money to have it done by someone else.

Have you taken control of some or your own visual marketing? How have you found the process?

The post 9 tips to help writers with visual marketing appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

I figured another article about networking or content marketing or SEO & Google should probably not be the focus here.

I run a creative business, so I wanted to come up with some marketing ideas that have a bit more zing. Some of them I already do, and others I have decided to implement myself, as a result of my own research, cause they just sound so good!

A strategic partnership with a charity

Working with a charity provides more benefits than just building up good karma points. Using your skills or talents to help a charitable cause connects you with new people, and done properly, will provide mutual benefit for both businesses (because yes, charities are still businesses).

If you’re a fledging serviced-based entrepreneur, doing discounted or pro-bono work for charities can help you to develop your portfolio. However, giving away your newfound skills isn’t necessarily as easy as it sounds. A charity may run on a tight budget, but they still need to partner up with competent service providers. Treat it as you would any new opportunity and don’t promise anything that you can’t deliver.

If you’re more established, your business could have an annual allocation of charitable work – set number of project hours, or an allocation of your stock to give away. There may be benefits in partnering with just 1 charity, or you could spread your allocation across a number of smaller ones. Think strategically about which approach may work best for your type of business.

You could do seasonal or long-term campaigns, with a certain percentage of sales going to the charity of your choice. It’s in your interest, and the interest of the charity to spread the word about the campaign. They’ll effectively help run your marketing campaign. Your business gets more attention, in the process converting more sales, and as a result money is raised for the charity. Win-win, right there!

What about us? Well, yes, thanks for asking, we do have a cause we like to support! We currently work with DCH Animal Adoptions, and in 2012 created a coffee table book of rescue animals – we did all the photography, writing and design. This year, we are working on their calendar, and it’s not very far away from print.

Think outside the box with branded material

Over the years I’ve worked with a number of agencies, and they excel at creative branded marketing material – especially over the Christmas period. Companies I’ve worked for have received branded wrapping paper (subtle branding obviously, no-one wants to wrap their presents in paper covered in someone’s logo), scrabble letters spelling out my name, beautifully designed desk calendars.

My point is, that branded products can be a fabulous way to share your business. To make it memorable rather than tacky, you need to be a bit creative in your approach.

If part of your service is providing digital files to a client, why not deliver them on a branded USB stick. Chances are they’ll reuse it, or have it lying around in a visible place, serving as a reminder of your business. I’ve done this to deliver files to clients, and it always gets a great response.

When you go to networking events or other client meetings, along with your business card, you could give away a small gift. Be creative around this and come up with ideas that are relevant to your target industry. Giving someone you’ve just met a pen  is probably a bit of a naff idea. But what if you had something that was more of a conversation starter?  Branded teabags anyone?

Position yourself as an expert

Blogging, guest blogging, social media. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we are all well aware by now that engaging in these activities are pretty much the bare minimum in marketing for small business.

What about  other avenues that are a bit more ‘traditional’? How about finding ways to get your business featured in print media, or other journalistic contexts?

Source Bottle connects journalists with ‘Sources’ (that would be you!). Every day calls-outs appear on the website – and in your inbox if you sign up. If you’re a fitness trainer, for example, there may be a call-out from a journalist writing a story about your industry. It’s a golden opportunity for you to showcase your expertise and get some free publicity.

Another angle is investing in the services of a PR company. They will help you with drafting press releases, introduce you to media contacts, and sniff out media and publicity opportunities for your business. You may only want to explore this route if you’re not the shrinking violet type. PR people will try to get you not only in print, but also on radio and even on TV. That could be kind of awesome though, right?

Get your samples into goodie bags

If you’ve followed through on the idea to get some branded material created, or have some samples of the product you sell, how else can you get them out there? Apart from personally putting them in someone else’s hands.

Source bottle (again!)

You need to be logged in to see what’s on offer, but I did a quick check today and here are a few quick links:

• Cool items for gift bags
• Feature your product in the “Out & About” products guide seen by 50,000+ mums
• Reach 200 Melbourne Cup socialisers 30+ years of age

That’s just a really quick selection from their site, there are loads of opportunities there!

Goodie bags at networking events

Are you going to any networking events? Or do you have a regular group that meets. There’s nothing to say that you can’t be the one to organise a goodie bag for an event you’re attending. It might take a bit more work to organise, but you would reap some extra benefits too. By reaching out to other small businesses to contribute, you’ll be making and cementing your contacts. You’ll also see what others are providing – extra ideas for your own marketing fodder.

By including other businesses, you’ll have a bigger reach. Part of the deal can be that enough samples are provided to create a specific number of goodie bags, that you all then distribute through your own networks.

As with any marketing, make sure it’s relevant to your business and industry. There’s no point targeting the wrong market – it’ll just be a waste  of your precious marketing budget and resources.

The post 4 creative marketing ideas for small business appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

For many people, coming up with their new business idea is the easy bit. Finding the perfect business name can be a little more tricky.

Use some creative thinking, and apply some of these techniques, and you should end up with a nice big pool of names to pick and choose from. Domain name availability will probably have the biggest impact on your decision,  but at least by doing this exercise you should end up with a number of workable alternatives.

Brainstorm all of the words!

This exercise doesn’t need to take long, but just make sure it’s focused. Set aside some time, grab some paper and pens (or your laptop) and  clear some mental space.

Take that blank piece of paper, and write down the product or service you will be offering at the top of the page. Then, start writing down all the words and ideas you associate with your product or service. Don’t stop to think, or to edit, just keep getting those words down.

Working example:

I want to start up a business as a holistic nutrionist. On my piece of paper, I write the following words:

Nutrition, holistic, health, wellbeing, food, delicious food, healthy food, etc…..

When you run out of ideas, grab a thesaurus (or go online, let’s be realistic here) and keep adding to the list. Let your creative brain just dump out everything it can, later you’ll go back to sift through the rubble.

Continuing our example, after some time with the thesaurus, I added the following words to my list:

Diet, nourishment, rations, snack, victuals, sustenance, alternative, therapy, healthful, wellness, physical wellbeing, prime, robust,  clean bill, euphoria, vigor etc…

Write yourself a mission statement

Don’t start getting self conscious now! No-one ever has to see these words and sentences (unless you choose to share them).

So, next step: write a mission statement. Not too much thinking, just write down a few sentences about how you visualise your business and what you want to achieve.

Working example:

As a nutritionist, my mission would be to provide healthy diet and lifestyle alternatives for my clients. I want to clearly demonstrate the benefits of choosing the right food for a healthy and happier outlook on life. I want to be seen as knowledgeable, caring and competent.

Read over your mission statement, and add the relevant keywords that jump out onto your list. (That list must be getting pretty big by now!)

Go back to your thesaurus again, and keep adding to the new words. Remember, keep an eye out for words that are striking, maybe a bit different (but not so different that they obscure your message), or that hit you in the gut as having some sort of potential.

This stage of the exercise is all about giving free rein to your creative instincts, so if a word jumps out and grabs you, grab it back and chuck it in your list.

Creative word combinations to find the perfect business name

Time for a break. Take a breath. Chances are you’ve got a mini-mountain of business-related keywords staring back at you. What’s next?

Go make yourself a cup of tea or coffee. Let your brain do some percolating below the surface. However, if ideas do start jumping into your mind, jot them down – no use letting them go to waste!

Sitting back down with your long list of words, start looking to see if you can combine any of them together. Keep an eye out for common sayings, alliteration (words beginning with the same letter or sound), words that rhyme, or words that contradict each other.

Now’s a good time to let your logical brain back in on the action. Don’t get too carried away with the rhymes or the poetics if they don’t actually reflect back to your core business. Keep going back to your product or service written at the top of the page. Also refer back to the mission statement you wrote – it may be clunky, but it will probably be honest.

Some examples from my pretend session:

Happy, Healthful & Holistic,  Prime Wellness, Caring Nutrition, Clean Outlook

These aren’t necessarily the perfect name yet, but there are definitely some with potential. Remember, I only did the exercise as a theoretical one, your results will be even better!

What not to do when choosing a business name

Try not to make your business name difficult to spell or pronounce. Avoid using negative sounding words.

You don’t necessarily need to find a name that encompasses EVERYTHING you do or offer – your business is going to grow and evolve, so don’t get too bogged down in a name that’s too literal.

Try not to pick  a very generic name – inject your personality into the process.

When you come up with a winner (or 2, or 3!) don’t commit straight away. The first thing you really need to do is check if the domain is available. This step may see you returning back to the drawing board over and over.

Tips on choosing your domain name

If you are looking for a region specific domain (.com.au or .co.uk) and that is available but the .com version is not, you need to think about your position in your specific market. If you know that you are only going to be targeting your region, then there’s a good chance that you don’t need to worry about your ‘competitor’ in the US.

With our nutritionist example, the target market is going to be local to her, so a competitor in the US is not likely to impact too much on her marketing strategies. If your business is going to be run more online, then not owning all domain names could be a problem.

If the name you pick is good across all domain name regions, snap them all up! It’s easy enough to redirect the extras to your main site, and at least you can’t be held hostage in the future if someone buys the domain and you want it.

The post Brainstorm the Perfect Business Name appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

You do need to delve into the code behind the scenes, but the beauty of Weeby templates is that their editor shows you the update as soon as you make the change. So even if you don’t really understand CSS, with some trial and error you can quickly work it out.

Step 1: Find the CSS code to edit your Weebly website

We’re going to use one of the pre-defined Weebly templates as our example to work on. Click on the Design tab and then click on Edit HTML/CSS.

You will see a screen displaying all the HTML and CSS code that is driving your website template. Don’t worry if you don’t understand how it all looks, we will only be interested in changing a couple of small things to update your website background.

Step 2: Upload your new background image

Click on the Add new file button and browse to the image that you want to use as your background. For our example, we’ve named our image “new-background.jpg”

The editor will put your image into the existing list in alphabetical order. If you click on it, you will then get a preview of the image, as well as the option to rename or even delete it.

We’ve gone with some striking polka dots to make sure you can see the difference!

Step 3: Upate the code

This is the bit you may find scary, but don’t be. It’s really very easy!

Go back to the main-style.css section and scroll through the code until you find a body { } tag. The templates are all set up slightly differently, and so the code is not identical from one to the next. However, what you are looking for will look something like this:

body {

background-color: #301515

background: url(body-bg-red.png);

font-family: Lato, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

font-size: 13px;

color: #666666;

margin: 0;

padding: 0 0 50px;

}

The part that interests us is the background url element. Simply replace the name of your new image file and it will update the background of your entire website. So, for our example, we have changed the code to read:

 background: url(new-background.jpg);

And now our site has polkadots as the background!

Step 4: Image size

One last thing to bear in mind is the size of the image you upload. If you want 1 single image across the entire background of your site, make sure you size it correctly for the website.

The background image size should be a maximum of 481px by 320px. A smaller image size would also work, but you might have to experiment to get it just right.

If you do use a smaller image, and you want it to repeat across the background (which is what we have done with our polka dots up there), then you just need to add repeat or no-repeat to the code.

background: url(body-bg-red.png) repeat; – this will repeat your image as a pattern across the background.

background: url(body-bg-red.png) no-repeat; – this will show just 1 instance of your background image.

Step 5: Save and close to return to your website

The editor will have given you a preview of how your new background looks as soon as you update the code.

If you’re happy, hit the Save button in the right corner. If you think you’ve mucked it up, hit the Cancel button and none of your changes will have been actually applied to your website.

If you would like some help with your website design, we work with clients across many platforms including design for Weebly websites.

The post How to add a custom background to your Weebly website appeared first on Two10 Solutions.

As the client, you need to find someone who ‘gets’ you and your business. Industry design experience is where we learn our trade and skills, so it is definitely worth knowing a bit more about the background of your designer.

Here at Two10, we have a mix of corporate and agency backgrounds. It is part of the reason we teamed up in the first place, so we could offer our clients the benefit of our complementary backgrounds.

So, what is  the difference between corporate and agency design, and why should it matter to you?

Why you should hire a graphic designer with agency experience

Why you should hire a graphic designer with corporate experience

The post Secrets You Should Know About Your Graphic Designer’s Background appeared first on Two10 Solutions.