Branding

How to Solve Your Customer's Problems and Make Money Doing It

Emma Ruehl — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 19:51:54 +0000

How to Solve Your Customer's Problems and Make Money Doing It

Emma Ruehl Mon, 07/31/2017 - 2:51pm

You’ve invested the time and effort to craft a solid sales message and marketing campaign. The offer is great, the price is right, and people should be flocking in your doors and email inboxes to purchase. You’ve even paid a company to help get your website to rank in the top five of Google’s search results page, and your site’s traffic has soared as a result. But somehow, the sales aren’t rolling in.

Turns out, ranking #1 in Google doesn’t directly get you sales. Helping people does.

Back to the Drawing Board

At the heart of every potential sale is a person with a problem. Is your business the right solution to the problem? Does your prospect feel understood, cared for, and compelled to partner with you to work towards a solution? Before you sell, it’s imperative that you understand the person and the problem. Otherwise, you’re marketing blindly. Here’s where to start.

1. Stop Trying to Think For Your Customer

Instead of developing products and messaging around inferences and feelings, ask the consumer directly. Start with a simple survey asking about their pain points (there are a ton of great chat bots and survey tools out there right now), interview people as they use your site to uncover frustrations, and read through your reviews and testimonials.

Photo via Olark.

Uncover why your prospect went looking for a solution and other approaches they’ve tried. Why have your customers chosen you? What almost stopped them from choosing you? Before you prescribe the solution, flush out the problem, and observe it from multiple angles. It’s your goal, as the Master of the Solution, to better understand the problem than your prospects and customers.

2. Build Content that Resonates with Solution-Seekers

Your prospects and customers don’t want content shoved down their throat. They want to encounter messaging that speaks to them and their problems. Have a conversation that brings them to the conclusion that you are the right fit and worth their dollars.

Screenshot via Hubspot

Much of the best content comes directly from the mouths of your customers, which is another reason why surveys and interviews are critical. There is no better way to help someone feel understood than to translate their very own thoughts and feelings into helpful messaging. Did a prospect express frustration around cost? Include messaging about value, or offer a free trial. Even better: when you know their pain points, include a list of features that directly addresses those pain points.

3. Rid Design of Disruption and Trend

So many brands are latched on the heels of the latest design trends. Heard of parallax? Ghost buttons? Hero rotator images? Perhaps you’re not familiar with the terminology, but no doubt you and your competitors have toyed with one or all of these design trends.

Look familiar? Screenshot via ABC.

It’s rare that businesses choose design elements based on actual research; typically, design is dictated by a template you purchased, or someone on your sales team saw an effect on a competitor’s site and thought it would be “cool” to implement on yours. If everyone else is doing it, you should be too, right?

The problem with trend is that it’s often broken from its original context and applied to a million different projects, despite relevance and suitability. When design dictates development and content, you end up with a pretty portfolio site that is irrelevant to your target audience. And all your money goes to making a piece of art that no one buys.

The best design adds to, and doesn’t detract from, user experience. It’s a supporting player that should be the last thing people notice. It should help logically guide users through your site architecture, keeping interest up and building trust in your brand.

Easy to digest and navigate site via Ted.

At the end of the day, your content is the star of the show. It is what resonates with your customers at their core, communicating that you can solve their problem and solidifying the connection that supports a lasting, mutually-beneficial relationship.

4. Invest In an SEO Strategy that Seeks to First Answer a Query

At the heart of SEO is simply being the best answer to a particular query; it’s inherently about solving problems. No doubt, you’ve searched yourself for product or service pricing, clicked on one of the top search results that you expected to contain pricing information, and much to your disappointment found no pricing but a barrage of CTA popups and contact forms.

Screenshot via Google

What happens when people don’t find what they’re looking for? They’ll exit your site. They’ll delete your email. They’ll go somewhere else because there will always be someone else who is actually solving their problem.

Be a smart marketer and lead your team to new thinking. If your business has been stuck in a rut of one-sided communication and has no idea what your customers and prospects actually want, be the voice for them. Seek to understand pain points and solve the problem; don’t add to a million other voices trying to tell consumers what they want. If you put in the effort to understand your prospects, they will reward you.

"P" is for Product, Above All

Mark Figart — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:13:18 +0000

"P" is for Product, Above All

Mark Figart Wed, 11/19/2014 - 9:13am

In classic marketing academia, the so-called "Four P's" comprising the "marketing mix" are product, price, place, and promotion. Since the dawn of the age of mass media, the marketer's job may have centered most around "promotion".

If you've had the pleasure of taking in an episode or two of the AMC series "Mad Men", I suspect that you would agree that brand promotion is the near-absolute focus of Don Draper and his creative team.

Thanks to the web, to social media, and probably mostly to Google, however, promotion seems much less important for a marketer's attention than the product itself. Despite a company's best attempts at promotion, the truth of the word on the street is likely to trump it.

Why, then, are marketers so often focused on advertising and other promotional activities, and so seldom concerned with making the product, the experience, itself better?

Given the continued rise of the service economy, the product is often heavy on "experience" and rather light on a tangible deliverable. In the case of commodity-type services—in which little differentiation exists between the end results of two or more competing firms—the experience may be the only differentiator. How can we improve the experience, if only just incrementally, step by tiny step? How can we build in a continuous and iterative means of ensuring that each successive customer enjoys a better service than the last? Smart marketers know that figuring this out will do more for the brand than any claims the brand itself can make.

Beautiful websites, compelling content, and effective calls-to-action are fantastic, but only to the extent that they represent products and services that are equally beautiful, compelling and effective (or substitute your own remarkable trait).

Submitted by Travis Parigi on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 8:46am

Great post. couldn't agree more. It's the Product!

Submitted by Amy Peveto on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 2:57pm

Thanks, Travis.

Perception vs Reality: What Do You Value?

Jennifer Edwards — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:40:23 +0000

Perception vs Reality: What Do You Value?

Jennifer Edwards Wed, 10/15/2014 - 12:40pm

The advertising world is full of tricks and ploys for adjusting consumers’ views on products and services, but what do these tricks actually do? In a TED Talk from 2009 Rory Sutherland presented the idea of how changing perceived value can be just as satisfying as changing the real value. His findings reveal some interesting things for both advertisers and consumers.

Perceived value vs real value

When it comes to evaluating the value of a product, there are two way to measure it.

Real value is related to the actual manufacturing cost and the price the product is sold at for profit. In layman's terms, the real (or actual) value is what the product is actually worth, without any outside expectations from the consumer or seller.

Perceived (or intangible) value is what consumers think the product is actually worth. As marketers, we create intangible value to make up for real value. According to Sutherland, perceived value can be used to “make new things familiar and familiar things new.”

Creating perceived value

In his presentation, Sutherland discusses how advertisers can build perceived value in multiple ways—from creating symbolic value to adding contextual information—thus increasing the overall value of the product to consumers. However, like Sutherland said, you should remember that all value is subjective. But how do we create perceived value?

Sutherland asked a compelling question: can we tinker with perception rather than trying to change reality? Well, we can. In fact, Frederick the Great of Prussia tested this idea back in 1774, when he rebranded the potato.

Frederick used a little reverse psychology when his subjects rejected the idea of growing potatoes to protect against famine. After the public rejected the potato, Frederick declared it a royal vegetable and had it planted in the royal garden with guards protecting it night and day. However, the guards had secret orders to not guard the potato very well.

As Sutherland put it, peasants tend to know if something is worth guarding, it’s worth stealing. Thus began a massive underground potato growing operation and the potato was rebranded.

Although no actual modifications were done to the potato itself, Frederick the Great was able to tinker with the public’s perception of the vegetable. When declaring the potato strictly a royal vegetable, it sparked the public’s interest into why it was off-limits. The king made a familiar thing new.

Putting it to work

Creating intangible value provides fundamental opportunities to change consumer behavior without having to adjust the real value of your product/service—Sutherland discusses multiple examples of companies building intangible value as a substitute for using up labor or limited resources.

Although the way the intangible value was created varied throughout the companies, they all did one thing: increased the value of a product without doing anything to the actual product.

Strategy is key

Adjusting your product or service’s intangible value within your marketing strategy can provide efficient and cost saving methods to increase the overall value.

Are you using an outdated or ineffective marketing strategy? Download our Digital Marketing Guide to Growth to get started developing your content marketing strategy and showing your true value.

[Image credit: Quinn Dombrowski - license]

3 Things Waitressing Can Teach Us About Marketing

Hannah Zhou — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 19:53:26 +0000

3 Things Waitressing Can Teach Us About Marketing

Hannah Zhou Fri, 09/19/2014 - 2:53pm

Waitresses are the face of your restaurant experience from the moment you take a seat. Simple mistakes (like onions on your burger) can ruin the atmosphere of an entire meal, while great service can uplift an evening.

I was a waitress once—albeit a horrible one—and while the job was sweaty and frantic, I learned a plethora of useful information. Here are a few marketing lessons waitressing can teach us...

The secret to great customer service

Marketing campaigns often include a side note: Customer service is key. In fact, customer satisfaction (whether online or in-person) has a huge impact on the success of your marketing strategy and business; on average, U.S. businesses lose $83 billion due to poor customer service.

So why might customer service be so important? The answer is simple: people enjoy it when they are taken care of. Waitressing is not only about delivering on the promise of service, but also showing the customer you care about them personally. That way, if something goes south in the kitchen (and inevitably it does), you have the leverage to smooth out those issues.

The same concept applies across all businesses. Truly caring about your customers means good service, which equals good feelings about the company; this allows more leeway during brand crises or even simple mistakes.

Small details can translate to big things

The other day I saw a waitress forget a man’s order at a restaurant. While she swiftly corrected the mistake, the man looked cross for the rest of the meal. Later, I re-checked the restaurant's reviews and found a history of similar mistakes—all ignored.

The takeaway from this: Address the small things now so they don’t become big problems later. As a business it may be easy to ignore minor problems in the grand marketing scheme, but bad news is amplified through the internet and the media. With social media, small problems can quickly be inflated into big issues.

Deliver what people want, but don’t lose yourself

Waitresses, product innovators, and brand managers all want to please their customers. Usually this attitude is good; if there is an angry customer, you should try your best to fix their problem. However, if a family walks up to your taco stand demanding pancakes and waffles, you must draw the line.

Many companies try to reposition or introduce products and services simply because a minority of their target segment wants them to—or because their competitors started doing it.

Don’t sacrifice your core competencies or brand identity just for the sake of customer approval.

A prime example of a company that stays true to itself is Southwest Airlines. This quirky airline has not changed its service model for 35+ years; they trade luxury air services—such as free continental breakfast and onboard electronic entertainment—for lower prices and efficient, seamless flights.

Southwest has been so successful partially because they refuse to trade their core values (customer service, efficiency, practical pricing) for services their competitors provide. They stick to their guns and do what they do best.

Having summer job flashbacks?

What other marketing lessons from your odd summer job experiences can you think of? Share your stories in the comments below!

[Image: Mass. Office of Travel & Tourism]

Why Lame Email Subject Lines Damage Your Marketing

Amy Peveto — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 14:37:47 +0000

Why Lame Email Subject Lines Damage Your Marketing

Amy Peveto Tue, 09/16/2014 - 9:37am

We hear a lot about how email open rates are a vanity metric that shouldn’t be trusted, but the truth is if you can’t get prospects to open your emails, your email marketing will fail. Here’s just a few reasons why not doing enough to create awesome email subject lines can spell email marketing doom.

Decrease deliverability

Email clients like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are cracking down even harder on spam; your email has to make it past these guys before it’s allowed into your prospect’s inbox, and systems’ filters are set to “finer than fleas’ whiskers.”

A poorly-written subject line is a signal to these systems that a particular email could be spam. Rather than risk their customers’ ire (who doesn’t hate getting spam?), the systems automatically shunt suspicious emails right into the spam or trash folder.

Your prospect never sees the mail, and as a bonus it gets reported to your email marketing platform as spam — and it takes surprisingly few complaints to result in a banned account.

Decrease open rates

Let’s assume your email makes it past the first round of defense and actually hits some inboxes.

Don’t start celebrating yet. Your email now has to make it past an even more discerning filter: your busy prospect.

Consumers hate getting emails with unclear, boring, irrelevant, and/or overly-long subject lines. If it doesn’t entice them immediately, your email will never get opened — or worse, the reader will mark it as spam.

Increase spam complaints

Spam complaints are bad for business. Not only do they mean that your prospects see your content as worthless, they can also result in your email marketing platform’s banning your account and preventing you from sending emails to anyone (even those who haven’t flagged your emails as spam).

Tips for writing awesome email subject lines

The bad news is that it’s easy to write spammy or otherwise crummy email subject lines; the good news is that’s it’s almost as easy to learn how to write awesome ones.

Writing an irresistible email subject line is an art that requires a great deal of practice, but here are a few evergreen tips to keep in mind:

Be specific - Make it clear what your email contains and who it’s from
Keep it pithy - Emails with shorter subject lines have higher open rates
Avoid spammy words - Words like “free,” “help,” and “reminder”
Go easy with punctuation - Nothing screams spam like four exclamation points
Test - A/B test to see which subject lines get the best results

Warning: don’t stop at subject lines

Awesome subject lines are just the tip of the email marketing iceberg, and should never be considered the entirety of your email marketing strategy.

The best way to keep open rates (and click-throughs and conversions) high over time is to keep your email opt-ins above-board, build a list of qualified leads, and routinely send your prospects and customers content they love and find valuable.

Need help with your email marketing?

[photo credit: e_lisewin via photopin cc]

The Best Way to Earn Loyal Customers

Amy Peveto — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 14:28:11 +0000

The Best Way to Earn Loyal Customers

Amy Peveto Tue, 07/08/2014 - 9:28am

Loyal customers are hard to come by and harder to keep. Dropping a disliked product or service for a better one is easier than ever, and the onus is on companies to make their customers’ experiences as consistently positive as possible. What’s the best way to do this? The answer may be simpler than you think.

Make people feel good

I saw a great example of this recently when I read about NY restaurant Eleven Madison’s unique customer service.

It all feels a little over the top (even for New York), but I love that the staff’s main goal is making guests feel welcome and comfortable.

The entire article is interesting, but my favorite quote happens right at the end:

“The answer is obvious: [make] customers feel good. Really good. So good that they [want] to experience the exact same kind of care again and again.”

Lessons for businesses

Whether you own a restaurant, retail store, or do business solely from your laptop, the best way to keep customers happy is to give them a great customer experience.

You don’t have to say yes to everything or kowtow to everyone’s demands — it’s really just about being human in every interaction, big or small.

Remember the niceties in email communication
Send a handwritten note every now and then
Have bottled water and coffee available for visitors
Go the extra mile to solve a customer service challenge
Treat customers to occasional free products or services

It might sound a little unnecessary, but over time these positive micro-interactions become a part of your customers’ overall impression of your business.

Be worthy of your customers’ loyalty by building relationships. Make people feel good, even when you have to tell them no. Make them loyal by being loyal to them.

Start small — a handwritten note today, taking a bit more time with email communication tomorrow — and see what happens. I bet you’ll be surprised.

Customer interaction matters. Make every one count.

[Image: Daniel Zedda, cropped/resized]

Graphic Design is Everywhere. And Businesses Need It.

Michelle Burk — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:05:06 +0000

Graphic Design is Everywhere. And Businesses Need It.

Michelle Burk Wed, 06/18/2014 - 10:05am

The other week I was browsing around Tumblr, a habit I often times find myself doing. I randomly stumbled upon a post with a screenshot from a segment of the Today Show featuring the “Top 5 Most Useless College Majors.” Slated on that list at number four was "Communication Arts & Graphic Design."

Useless? Really? I was taken aback by this. In our consumer-based society, we are exposed to countless works by graphic designers every day.

Design + your life

Let's think about this scenario:

You wake up at 6:30 for work and head into the kitchen for some breakfast. You glance through your pantry and grab a box of your favorite cereal. You might not put much thought into it, but that box was designed by a graphic designer so that you can recognize the specific brand amongst the numerous choices of cereal at the grocery store.

While you eat your breakfast, you read the morning news. You pull up your choice of news app on your tablet, featuring a recognizable logo designed by a graphic designer. This brings you to the home screen, featuring a user interface designed by a graphic designer so you can navigate through the news and find the stories you want to read.

On your way to work, you decide to grab a cup of coffee. You pull into the drive-thru line of Starbucks and browse the menu — designed by a graphic designer — to find the coffee that seems most enticing.

When you place your order, you pull up to the window and are handed a cup of coffee, with the Starbucks logo, designed by a graphic designer.

Before you even get to work, you are already exposed to a variety of works by a graphic designer. That number only increases throughout the day: websites, mobile apps, products at the supermarket, movie posters at the theater; all of these things are designed by someone with a supposedly useless degree.

Design + your business

I cannot stress enough the role good design plays in the success of your business. The design and branding of your business is what gives your potential customers the first impression of who you are and what your company is about.

In the case of the Internet, your company's website says a lot about your business. I can say from personal experience that if a company has a poorly designed website that causes frustration as I navigate through the website (technical term: cognitive friction!), it leaves me with a poor impression of your company.

I’m not alone in this. According to Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, almost half of the consumers evaluated stated that design was the number one criteria when evaluating a website's credibility.

When creating a website, nitpick the details. Create a well-designed website that intrigues users and makes them want to dig through and find out more about your company.

When creating an advertisement, imagine a consumer flipping through a magazine and pausing at the page of your ad to admire the awesome design and take in the information. Hardly anyone would stop to admire a poorly designed ad (unless it's that bad; in which case, you still failed).

Successful business design

Okay, so you have your business, and you want some attention-grabbing designs. Keep these two tips in mind — even if you're designing on a small budget — if you want to achieve a successful design.

Consistency is key

Once you have you established your brand (color scheme, logo and fonts), stick with it. It's okay to mix things up a little, but make sure the designs for your business are consistent and align with the overall look and feel of your company.

Keep things simple

One of my art history professors said that simplicity is the hardest form of writing and I believe that applies to design, too! It's easy to overload with information and images on a certain design or website because it doesn't feel "finished."

Refrain from putting too much stuff on your website. Don't overwhelm the viewer with all sorts of images and text — it distracts them from the goal or message of your company. Strip away unnecessary content and allow the user to take in information easily.

Keep your designs interesting. While you want them to be simple, make them interesting, too! Finding the perfect balance between "fresh" and "simple" is what makes something well-designed.

While creating designs can be a bit of challenge, once you have established your brand, the visual aspects of your business should be able to come together smoothly.

More on branding and design

[Image: Matt MacGillivray, cropped/resized]

How AMC Made Me Care About The Walking Dead

Amy Peveto — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 15:43:14 +0000

How AMC Made Me Care About The Walking Dead

Amy Peveto Tue, 03/04/2014 - 9:43am

I have zero interest in following the plot of AMC’s The Walking Dead, but got more than a little obsessed with following their season four marketing. It’s Guerrilla marketing at its grossest and finest, and I can’t stop talking about it — which is, of course, the point.

Gabie wrote a great article on Guerrilla marketing ins 2013 in which she perfectly stated its purpose:

“Guerilla Marketing should surprise consumers, create a memorable impression and create a large amount of social buzz.”

Checking the scoreboard:

The season four premier was viewed by over 16 million people, 10.4 million of whom were adults in the coveted 18-49 demographic.
Millions of tweets and photos promoting season premiers.
A fan-run podcast (The Talking Dead) has thousands of subscribers and followers.
Over 42 million people list the show as one of their Facebook “Likes”.

Not only is Guerrilla marketing helping The Walking Dead succeed, it’s also contributing to the “coolification” of AMC — they’re trying to appeal to a wider, younger audience, and what’s cooler right now than zombies and over-the-top marketing tactics?

So awesome it’s scary

AMC has developed a reputation for utilizing Guerrilla marketing to promote their most popular show, and they make use of an impressive range of media types.

First up, the mobile (and eye-catching) ad:

Followed by the “creepy countdown” display in Toronto’s Union Station (bonus points for creating a Twitter contest in which people tweeted a photo of themselves with the hashtag #TWDFeb10 for a chance to win one of the severed fingers).

Then they hijacked a movie theater and filmed the results.

And lastly, they scared the pants off unsuspecting New Yorkers.

These stunts are surprising, memorable, and — thanks to complementary online contests — contribute to a huge social media buzz.

How this helps you

It doesn’t specifically (unless you own AMC stock), but like any other great marketing scheme it provides great takeaways.

It takes a lot to catch and hold people’s attention; don’t be afraid to get creative and try something new.

Caveat: it won’t work if you suck

AMC’s Guerrilla marketing is successful because The Walking Dead lives up to the hype.

If the show was terrible, its viewers would turn that #TWDFeb10 into a vehicle for mockery, its ratings plummet, and it would be cancelled.

Guerrilla marketing is your brand, your promise that your product or service is as awesome as your marketing. If you lure consumers in with a great message and then disappoint them, you will never gain a loyal customer base.

More great marketing ideas

[Image: AMC]

Submitted by Is your produ… on Fri, 05/23/2014 - 2:44am

[...] Il successo mediatico della campagna comincia nel 2011, quando in un cinema di Johannesburg, i presenti sono seduti a guardare uno dei trailer che precedono la visione del film. Tutti sono più o meno impegnati a seguire le vicissitudini amorose presentate nel corto, quando improvvisamente in sala entra uno zombie pronto a scatenare il panico. Vi state chiedendo come va a finire? Non vi rovinerò la sorpresa, ecco il video [...]

Building A Portfolio The "Right" Way

Gabrielle Kinderknecht — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 17:24:46 +0000

Building A Portfolio The "Right" Way

Gabrielle Kind… Wed, 02/12/2014 - 11:24am

In my last blog, I mentioned the steps in creating a personal identity. Branding yourself is an important step in building a portfolio. Your portfolio will be branded with your personal identity and help leave a memorable impression on the employer who you may be showing your portfolio to. Here are some subtle points that are often mentioned when building a portfolio but are not right or wrong.

What size should a portfolio be?

There are various sizes that designers may use in showing their portfolio. Whether it is landscape or portrait it does not matter, although you should be conscious when choosing a format because the sole purpose is to display your work. Most portfolios are landscape only to allow an image of your work and a paragraph to explain your thought process, goals, etc…

Even though there are several sizes the most common is no smaller than 11x17in. — some designers have pursued a smaller format and regretted their decision since their work was not large enough to justify the design. The main goal is to display your work in a way that gives credit to all the hard work you put into your pieces.

Number of pieces and order

It is a good idea to include 10 to 12 of your best portfolio pieces. Some interviewers may disagree and say they would rather have you show seven strong projects then to include pieces that do not add any quality to your portfolio. So how do you walk a client through your portfolio? The order you choose to display your work.

Placement is a huge part of keeping the employer interested long enough to keep turning the page. With that in mind, you should definitely show your best piece in the front. Most of the time people are viewing your portfolio it will not be in person. Most employers will have hundreds of portfolios in hand and will start to skim through, you want your best piece to be showcased so that they will be interested in what else you can design.

In showcasing at least 10 pieces you should show variety of work. If you are applying for print then you should display a variety such as brochures, menu design, packaging, branding/identity and other collateral pieces. If you are wanting to apply for a job in web then you should display a variety of websites in HTML/CSS, Wordpress and even showcase your Responsive Web Design skills. Again, it is a good idea to add or take out pieces based on the job you are applying for so that it adheres to what their company does.

Style

Here are a few examples of how a portfolio can be displayed uniquely:

A case with screw-post book: Using a suitcase portfolio can be a nice customization to your brand.

A Box with loose samples: A box portfolio may suit a photographer better, that helps allow them to change the order or images wanted when showing a client.

A Screw-post Book: Using a screwpost book will allow you to make quick changes and help save you money on having to reprint the entire book.

In choosing a style it is wise to consider all of these things before purchasing a portfolio case.

Copywriting

Writing skills in your portfolio is important because it allows people to see your eye for detail and how you can handle a lot or a little bit of text. Copywriting can help guide the interviewer stay absorbed by adding in a introduction, climax, and conclusion similar to how books are written. Some portfolios are formal and some casual. It is always interesting to keep your audience intrigued by the way you word things. Formal or casual, different designers will have different opinions, neither is wrong.

Show your portfolio

Gaining feedback from several designers or companies will help you improve your portfolio overall. Do not get me wrong many will love certain things and absolutely hate other pieces. It is wise to hear back from many different designers with different preferences. Then you can decide whether to leave a piece or take it out.

One designer may hate your best piece, or say “I would have ordered it like this,” again you will always hear different opinions. If you show your portfolio to several designers and they all agree that “this is not your best piece,” than it is a good choice to take it out or rearrange the order.

Sometimes you will get discouraged when getting feedback but it will help you have a strong portfolio and hear what real-world designers are looking for and what they are not. Less worrying, more designing.

Steps to Designing a Personal Logo & Portfolio

Gabrielle Kinderknecht — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:18:42 +0000

Steps to Designing a Personal Logo & Portfolio

Gabrielle Kind… Wed, 01/22/2014 - 9:18am

In my last semester at University of the Incarnate Word I will be creating a personal identity for my Senior Seminar class. I am excited to create an identity but I know it will not be easy to create something that will be memorable to designers who view my portfolio.

Sketch, sketch, sketch

I put a lot of emphasis on sketching because this is where initial concepts start. My professor mentioned to start drawing and throw away the first five concepts because the first ideas are the easiest and probably have already been done. Sketching several concepts will help you come up with the best solution possible.

In my seminar class, we are to complete 50 different concepts. The next phase will be to choose at least five strong concepts to move forward with.

If you are struggling with ideas the best thing to do is start a word list, here are some from my word list:

Gabrielle Kinderknecht
Gabie Rose
Graphic Designer
Illustrations
Typography
Rose
Kinderconnect

Having this list helps you focus on what you want to communicate in your personal logo. Now to start sketching based on a word list, it is good to try variations like typographic approaches of your signature or initials — for example, Andrea Van Der Ree’s personal logo. Other approaches include illustrative solutions, type as image, etc.

After you decide on a logo the next step is to create an identity. The design in your marketing kit need to have the same graphic vocabulary as the logo, so that all pieces are unified.

Marketing kit

A marketing kit includes a business system (letterhead, envelope, business card, and website) and a leave-behind. When looking for a job it is always great to leave behind something other than your business card so that the potential employer has a small piece of your portfolio at hand to go back to.

For example, a leave-behind can be a small case study corresponding to an existing piece in your portfolio. A case study shows the process and phases of a project like sketches and progressions that assisted in achieving the final solution. More examples are brochures, self-promotional flyers, creative packages or printed images with key portfolio elements.

Building your own website or having your portfolio online on Behance can help you market yourself to potential clients or firms. Online portfolios are very important since most employers search for you online before considering an interview.

Early stages of a portfolio

When building a personal identity it is necessary to start making revisions to 10 to 12 existing projects that you are considering putting into your portfolio.

There are several types of portfolio layouts you can use. For my class our portfolio is required to be “bounded book style” so it is easier to change the order of projects or replace damaged pages when they are worn out. Flaunt is a great book that shows examples of portfolio styles and interview recommendations, etc.

After your personal identity is complete, you will need a portfolio case in which to store your work. You can order high-quality cases from KLO Portfolio, Pina Zangaro, or Fast Portfolio.

More information on portfolios

In my next blog, I will talk more about layout, size, and general answers to how a portfolio should look like and be to attract employers and clients. So stay tuned for next month to learn more about to how build a successful portfolio.

Branding

How to Solve Your Customer's Problems and Make Money Doing It

Back to the Drawing Board

1. Stop Trying to Think For Your Customer

2. Build Content that Resonates with Solution-Seekers

3. Rid Design of Disruption and Trend

4. Invest In an SEO Strategy that Seeks to First Answer a Query

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"P" is for Product, Above All

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Perception vs Reality: What Do You Value?

Perceived value vs real value

Creating perceived value

Putting it to work

Strategy is key

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3 Things Waitressing Can Teach Us About Marketing

The secret to great customer service

Small details can translate to big things

Deliver what people want, but don’t lose yourself

Having summer job flashbacks?

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Why Lame Email Subject Lines Damage Your Marketing

Decrease deliverability

Decrease open rates

Increase spam complaints

Tips for writing awesome email subject lines

Warning: don’t stop at subject lines

Need help with your email marketing?

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The Best Way to Earn Loyal Customers

Make people feel good

Lessons for businesses

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Graphic Design is Everywhere. And Businesses Need It.

Design + your life

Design + your business

Successful business design

Consistency is key

Keep things simple

More on branding and design

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How AMC Made Me Care About The Walking Dead

So awesome it’s scary

How this helps you

Caveat: it won’t work if you suck

More great marketing ideas

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Building A Portfolio The "Right" Way

What size should a portfolio be?

Number of pieces and order

Style

Copywriting

Show your portfolio

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Steps to Designing a Personal Logo & Portfolio

Sketch, sketch, sketch

Marketing kit

Early stages of a portfolio

More information on portfolios

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