Work Better, Not Harder

Now, this is a colour I can get behind - Classic Blue. This shade of blue is great when "any shade of blue will do", which happens more often than you might think. Did you know blue is overwhelmingly the world's favourite colour? "We associate blue largely with the sky and water (as well as more mundane, but neutral-to-positive, items such as ballpoint pens and blue jeans), raising the average preference for blue higher than the remainder of the rainbow." -  Why Blue Is the World’s Favorite Color PANTONE 19-4052 TCX Classic Blue  colour values: RGB 15 76 129 HEX/HTML 0F4C81 CMYK 100 76 25 0 Will you be using more blue in your marketing in 2020? Click to Tweet this Article

What if you woke up this morning to discover your domain name has... disappeared? Likely you would make this discovery because your website is down, or perhaps your email isn't working. Or what if you are contracting for a new website and have no idea how to wrangle your domain name for your new website designer? Recently a client I haven't worked with for several years wrote to ask if I knew the whereabouts of their domain. I get it, not everyone is a control freak like me. But every small business owner needs to have control of their unique business domain name. If you aren't sure where your domain is registered, or under whose name, you can find that out here:  whois.icann.org/en  (or if it's a .ca domain, cira.ca/ca-domains/whois ). If your domain has private registration, you may not be able to view the name of the registered owner. But at least you can find out the domain registrar and can contact them through their support channels. Click to Tweet...

If you were holding a dinner where each plate sold for $150, would you buy the invitations at the dollar store? No? So don't promote anything important for your business with a free overused 5-year-old Pixabay image. There are options - lots of options - rather than intimating your business is a bargain brand. If you don't spend a bunch of time searching Pixabay or other free sites, you may not know what's been overused and common - here's an app for that . And you can also check the upload date, although that doesn't mean the photo was taken then. If you're going to use free photos, pick more recent releases. Unique and eye-catching is your goal. But you don't want to pay $20 for a stock photo for each new blog post or newsletter article. What are other wallet-friendly options? #1. Snap your own photos. This ensures uniqueness and the price is the best you'll get. Of course, the eye-catching part will be up to you. #2. Engage a friend or ...

Purple is my favourite colour so I couldn't be happier about Pantone's latest announcement . Pantone says, "Inventive and imaginative, Ultra Violet lights the way to what is yet to come." Purple is an emotional colour and has always been considered a little tricky for marketing, tending toward the sentimental and feminine. I'm looking forward to finding ways to use it in my own marketing. How about you? Will you use more purple in 2018? Click to Tweet this Article

Have you ever fallen into the trap of making a change because of one single piece of feedback? It's happened to me and I've seen it happen to others. Don't change your brand's font (or anything else) because one person doesn't like it. One person's preferences will never represent a significant sample of your target market. We want feedback, we ask for feedback, and when we get it, we feel we have to act on it. Not so. Instead, we need to think about it, give it careful consideration, and get more feedback from our target market - because it's their opinion that matters when it comes to our marketing. originally published in Work Better, Not Harder newsletter November 30, 2017 Click to Tweet this Article

(guest post by Alison Knott) Nailing it down with a pin! Now that you’ve spent some time getting up close and personal with other brands in Part 1 , it’s time to find those patterns on Pinterest! You know 30 ways to look for ‘healthy snack recipes’ (who am I kidding, I’m married to Frito-Lay), so I know you’ll be set to start searching on Pinterest. But don’t stop at the obvious keywords like ‘bespoke logo’ or ‘life coach brand’. Branch out to of all kinds of brand application. Parrot Party: our new venture For this exercise, let's pretend you're starting an online store and forum called Parrot Party - a site for all the things parrot owners want and need. Most parrot-owner related websites are just breeders with old websites, and you want something that's going to appeal to parrot owners. Fresh, vibrant and speaks to owners ready to spend big bucks and share their knowledge on owning these birds. They choose to live with loud, colourful pets that live for 30+...

(guest post by Alison Knott) So you’re starting the process of making a brand or logo for your new business. Or, you’re about to hire someone to do it for you. Congratulations! It’s now time for the daunting task of articulating whatever the hell is in your head into something concrete. Eep! I’m here to help you help yourself. It can seem difficult to put into words how you do (and do not) want to represent your brand that doesn’t exist yet. So… how do the pros do it? We do research and create moodboards, which are a visual collection of images, colours and graphics to illustrate a certain mood . Now, as a brand designer I use Adobe InDesign and Illustrator to put final mood boards together for my clients. But you want to know what has saved me and my clients so much time? Having clients send along their own little Pinterest brand modeboard collection to help me get inside their head. Yes! That thing you’ve been using to save 783 pictures of living room renos you’re nev...

excerpt from Pantone's NY Fashion Week Spring 2018 We're just getting back to serious work after summer vacations and the design world is already thinking about spring. I like what I see but then I'm a sucker for bright colours. You'll find these used online next year, too , not just in clothing stores. Pantone says: The Spring 2018 palette encourages a sense of fun and playful release. With an air of complexity and distinctiveness, we find ourselves in a sanctuary of color that is ideal for some more unique and dramatic color mixing. Click here to see all 12 colours in the Spring 2018 Collection on Pantone's website. Click to Tweet this Article

Imagine you're planning a big party at your place... today . What will you do first: clean and cook, or invite people? Spending time and money to promote your business online is a bit like sending invitations to a party on your website. You want your place to be ready when the doorbell rings. Before you make the pretty pictures or the clever articles, make sure to vacuum under the couch. People will judge you. photo by jackfrench / Flickr Click to Tweet this Article

When I start to work with new clients, it's imperative that I understand their brand. I can't do a good job for them if I don't understand what they do, who they do it for, and why it's so important. With some clients I'm even helping to define their brand. Click here to download a workbook that will give structure to your brand (.pdf). Once you have this completed, it will be a valuable document to share with consultants and others who help with your marketing. I also suggest revisiting it at least annually to capture changes as your business evolves.

When was the last time you audited your brand? If it's been more than a year, it's time. Your brand is more than your logo - a lot more. It's also more than all the pieces you can touch or look at. But all of those pieces need to be just right to pull their weight as part of your marketing strategy. Click here to download a checklist (.pdf) you can use to keep track of your progress. Too busy, you say? This is a great job to delegate because a different set of eyes may catch things you won't. A great option is to find another business owner you can partner with. You audit their brand and they audit yours. Take a moment now to add a branding audit to your to-do list or calendar.

I recently had the pleasure once again of hearing Toni Newman speak about innovation and being different. If you haven't attended an event featuring Toni, you won't hear the energy and conviction behind her message, but an important message it is. Below is my attempt to share it with you – quotes are from Toni. Each of us has a default set of expectations around just about everything we do, even things we haven’t done. My default will be different than yours, but we both have one. Toni’s example was about tipping in a restaurant and a delightful experience with a waiter named Stefan. My default might be to give a 15% tip before taxes; yours might be different. For me to tip more or less, the experience has to break my expectations, either better or worse. “The unexpected moves people beyond their default mindset.” Toni says that in order to be better, we also have to be different, because being different is what breaks those default mindsets. And ‘different’ doesn...

I get into some interesting discussions with clients and friends about colours . The fact is that we can do a lot to make sure the colours in our branding are consistent wherever used online. And we can do the same for our print materials. Consistency is the key because none of us see colours quite the same as anyone else. First there's the way they appear to us because of the way our eyes work . "Colour (color) blindness (colour vision deficiency, or CVD) affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women in the world." (source: colourblindawareness.org ). About 4.5% of the population is affected by some form of colour blindness, most of them men. And it's not all black and white and grey - there are different types of colour blindness. Then there's our perceptions about certain colours, and even shades of those colours. For example, baby pink and soft mauve aren't typically associated with business, unless you own a baby boutique. Red is ass...

If you want to make a personal connection with your readers, and be remembered, you'll want to include a photo of yourself in your newsletter. Here are some of the things to keep in mind, especially if you are planning to have new photos taken. Your headshot should look like you now , not 5 years ago. Wear similar clothes to what your ideal customer would wear. The direction you're facing in the photo generally dictates where the sidebar will go in your newsletter. You don't want to be looking off the page. For newsletters, a right sidebar is more desirable, so a left-facing or front-facing photo is preferable. Of course, this is the opposite of how you want to be facing for LinkedIn and Facebook avatars. Wide banner-like panorama photos are popular now across the top of website pages. An example might be someone standing on a beach with their head in the foreground and a slightly blurred background of the water and beach behind them. These panorama photos are ...

Nine years ago in June, I was taking the first steps to start my own business. One of those steps was to come up with a company name. If you know me, you also know this is something I took great pains about. In the book, Getting Business to Come to You , was a suggestion to use your own name and a play on words if you were fortunate to have such a name. I was lucky to have recently married a fellow with the last name Daley (for more reasons than his name, of course). So, I thought ‘daily’ and searched that word on Google. The overwhelming response was ‘Daily Progress’, with links to a multitude of newspapers in North America and Europe. At the time I was not doing newsletters, but I felt that ‘progress’ was certainly the result my clients were wanting, so ‘Daley Progress’ it was. Interestingly, now that my company name actually aligns more fully with what I do, the loose association to the declining newspaper industry may be lost before too many more years go by. Click to Twee...

Wondering why you might need a content strategy ? To stay current, sharp, and develop opinions To build your reputation by demonstrating your expertise To inform about your products and services To get found when people are looking for the services and products you provide To have consistent messaging everywhere that people may run into your brand and where they expect to find your brand To provide direction to your team, such as your social media manager or email marketing campaign manager To have a reason to connect with potential clients Click to Tweet this Article

In the normal course of my day, I am constantly looking businesses up online. If I am going to talk to you, meet with you, consider buying your product or using your services, I've looked you up online. Increasingly, I am finding content that I am certain you do not want representing you. Maybe you think you do not need an online presence. Maybe you have an old website that you think is working to the extent you need it to. And maybe you are wrong. Think of all the reasons you Google a business: looking for a product or service looking for a location looking for directions or a map looking for a policy preparing for a meeting If you are using an online search to find what you are looking for, it stands to reason that others are as well. Many, many others. What do you want them to find when they look? We've said it before and it is worth repeating. Google your business at least quarterly. Set your website as your browser's default home page so you are seei...

When people meet your brand online, they are judging you . We all do it and, based on those judgments, we make assumptions about: what it’s like to work with you the quality of your products and services your prices your commitment, integrity and trustworthiness if you care about your online reputation Below are 5 ways to make sure your online presence is polished so people will make the right judgments and assumptions about you and your brand. #1. Monitor Conduct quarterly audits on your website and social profiles. This means reading all the text, clicking all the links, and making corrections and improvements. This is a great task to outsource to a virtual assistant because an impartial eye will see things you won't. #2. Be found Make sure you can be found where people expect to find you. Often it's easier to find someone on LinkedIn than to find their website. There are a multitude of social media sites where having a profile makes sense even if you aren...

I meet someone new, hear about a new local company, or get a new email subscriber – these things usually send me in search of their website. Let’s be honest, I’m there to judge them. You do it, too, whenever you check out someone’s website. But your frame of reference and perceptions will be different than mine. Here’s what I tend to notice: First impression: It’s that split second judgment that sets the stage for the rest of my critique. Formatting: Is there white space or is it crowded and busy? Does it have a consistent, cohesive look? How many different fonts are used? Colours and images: Are they appealing to me? Grammar and spelling: I’m immediately turned off if I see obvious mistakes. Social media accounts: Hmm, haven’t made it to Twitter yet? Completeness of information:  Is there an email address and a phone number? Oh no, not one of those ‘contact us’ forms! Outdated information: Not a good sign when the first thing I see is an event that happened las...

The simple answer is that content is everything you put out into the world. Your content represents you, your business and your brand to everyone that encounters it , both current and potential customers. Your content determines your online presence. It includes all the text and images on your website, your social media accounts and every email you send. So, why do you need a content strategy? to keep your message consistent across all platforms to ensure the clarity of your message to provide the most value you can offer to current clients to attract new clients to save you time! Yes, a content strategy can accomplish all of these things. It is well worth the time to develop your strategy, commit the time, and follow through. Originally published in  Work Better, Not Harder on January 22, 2014 Click to Tweet this Article