Companies rebrand to keep up with current trends and modernize their business. Rebranding can be a great way to generate buzz for your company.. if it’s done the right way. A logo is essential for any business because it defines your brand and shows some personality. Your consumers recognize your brand and what you’re all about from your logo. If you’re thinking about rebranding and launching a new logo, there are steps to be taken to avoid customer confusion. We’re all used to seeing McDonald’s golden arches, Nike’s swoosh and Target’s red bullseye. Imagine how odd it would be if these widely known brands launched a new logo with no warning. Here are some pointers for rebranding (the right way).
Know Your Company’s Purpose
First, understanding your company from the core is essential. Become fully aware of your company’s tone and style. How do you want your brand to be displayed to consumers? Image Marketing Consultants’ brand is professional, bold and a little feminine. We’re an all-women agency, after all. Plan how you want your business to retain customers and attract new ones. Will you have a fun and playful tone, or be more serious? If you’re creating a new logo, you want this to imitate the brand’s visual tone and personality.
Who Is Your Audience?
It’s important to know your audience to find out how to appeal to them. Carefully come up with a list of your audience’s attributes. They should align with your company’s tone. If your brand appeals to a younger generation, having a bland and serious logo will lead this market to become disengaged. Try to find out what will engage your audience versus what will detract them from your brand.
Take it Slow
Hype up your customers before the relaunch! Launching your new look all at once will confuse customers. What we recommend is the trickle effect. Slowly introduce your company’s new vision. Drop subtle hints that your company is changing certain aspects. For example, slowly introduce your logo’s new color scheme into some of the content you’re sharing. Speak out about some logos you’re loving lately. Drop hints without overwhelming your audience; they’ve already become familiar with your current look.
Make a list of all the materials that need to be changed to correlate with the new brand image. Everything from your business cards to sign out front will need to be updated. Ensure all team members are on board with the rebranding process and keep the launch date a secret!
The best way to prepare for a relaunch is over social media. About 77% of the US population has a social media account, so it’s no doubt using a social platform generates hype. Posting photos on Facebook and Instagram will allow consumers to comment and think about your company’s image.
Launching
Get the media involved. More people will see how you have changed your image and won’t get confused in the process. Have a local writer do a piece to announce that you’re changing your look. You want to get your new logo as much press as possible for people to see and become familiar with. Maybe even throw in an Instagram story with a poll after the launch to see how consumers like your rebranding.
Contact
If you’re looking to rebrand, contact Image Marketing Consultants. Our graphic design team can work with you to create a new look that’s on par with what your company is all about. We’ll help with the rebranding process from start to finish– we’ll even alert the press! Connect with us today to learn more about our services for you to get the best experience out of your relaunch.
Now that the new year is here, you’re more inclined to see advertisements attributed to changing your diet and working out. While a good amount of people set these as their New Year’s resolutions, they often jump in too quickly and easily fall out within a couple of months. Starting off small can lead you to success in the New Year. This applies to your business as well. Here are a few attainable (and out of the box) New Year’s resolutions to help get you started:
Learn Something New
Instead of being unrealistic with workout resolutions, try exercising your brain power. Becoming trapped in the same tedious routine can make your work seem monotonous after time. Learning one new thing can prevent this repetitive cycle. Constant stimulation is even proven to be beneficial for brain growth! This resolution gives you the excuse to follow your dreams and pick up that one hobby or language you’ve been wanting to learn. Listening to Podcasts or taking an online course can help you start to expand your your knowledge and become an even more valuable team member.
Our Digital Marketing Coordinator, Amanda, has a goal to develop more skills around SEO as it continues to prove its value in the marketing industry. She wants to be able to use this additional knowledge to better assist our clients’ digital presence.
Be More Organized
Can’t find that number you wrote down a while back that you swore to yourself you would remember? It can be easy to fall out of organization, especially when there’s a million other tasks to be completed. Avoiding simple routines can start to become a routine in itself. Create a checklist every day to keep you on track and feel more productive. Carry around a journal to make this easier and write additional notes that you need to remember throughout the day. Follow a routine to keep you on track with your to-do list by making a general guideline for your day. This will allow you to automatically complete the tasks right away instead of procrastinating and waiting. Put that essential phone number you had to quickly jot down in a designated place right away. This will ensure that you will be able to locate it when you need it.
Take More Risks
Taking risks can often lead to a variety of successes. This may seem contradictory because the idea of risk can sometimes be related to the fear of failing. Failure is essential for growth- both personally and professionally. Uncertainty is always there, but overcoming your fear of failure will give you a confidence boost. With great risk comes great opportunities, which can help you to build your company or career into a bigger picture.
Image Marketing Consultants creates goals year-long to achieve greater growth within the company, with clients, and as professionals in the field. If you’re looking for your company to have a higher brand image and online presence, connect with us today!
Videos are quickly becoming one of the best ways to keep your followers interested and engaged in your content on Instagram. We’re here to tell you it’s simple to keep up with the growing trend when you use canva.com. If you’re not familiar with the term, GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. It’s essentially images that move. You might be wondering what’s the difference between a video and a gif? Well animated GIFs and videos are the same concept, but they differ in implementation. GIF started out as a normal image, and the animation was tacked on later. An animated GIF is a series of frames. Also, no sound. A video, on the other hand, can use a large variety of formats with sound. Some video formats show only the pixels that have changed from frame to frame.
GIF videos are fun, interactive, and allow you to say a bit more to your audience online with just one post. You can choose to make an illustration look animated or make your GIF more text based! It’s up to you to decide how customized your post will be. Get creative with it!
“Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, and TIME have seen almost 90 to 100 percent increases in their video output from May 2016 to May 2017. When Instagram first launched video, there was a 15 second time limit. Now, Instagram videos can be as long as 60 seconds, giving publishers more time to make an impact.”
If you have a Canva For Work account, you can choose to download your design as an animated GIF or movie.Keep reading to find out how you can make your first GIF for Instagram just like the pros.
Step 1: Select the social post format you’d prefer. In this case it’s Instagram!
Step 2: Upload the image you want to use for your background (it will be static in the back of your moving elements).There are some gorgeous free images on pexels.com or unsplash.com.
Step 3: Resize it to the size you’d prefer.
Step 4: A GIF is made up of multiple different layers. Click on the “elements” option – and then you can drag the corners of whatever shape you choose to resize it! You can also change the shapes color.
Step 5: Click on “text” next and play around with the various options. Remember to use the same font if you want your GIF to be consistent.
Step 6: When your graphic is done, click on download and make sure to select Animated GIF/Movie. This will convert your images from flat and static to an image that’s moving.
It’s important to preview your GIF to make sure it’s working to your liking. Download and get ready to convert your file for Instagram!
It’s simple with an app called GifLab. Click on GIF for Instagram once you’ve opened the app and select save and share on Instagram. It’s really that easy.
If you’re a small business with BIG goals, Small Business Saturday is a day you won’t want to miss. It’s a day founded by American Express to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities. You might have noticed it’s becoming an essential part of the holiday shopping season for entrepreneurs across the country. Keep reading to find out how you can get your store and even your whole neighborhood ready for a day of shopping small.
Now that over 1.5 million more places in the U.S. started accepting American Express® Cards in 2017, it’s never been easier to find nearby small businesses where you can use your Card, #ShopSmall, and support your community.(americanexpress.com)
Plan tohost a shop small event at your retail location to bring everyone together! Come up with a special deal for your customers – like 50 percent off if you show a receipt from another participating shop in the area. Collaborating with other stores will only increase your sales and allow you to make valuable connections, too.
Create a Facebook event and make sure to mention all that you’re offering customers.
Give out Shop Small swag. Tote bags, posters, balloons, and so much more are available for any small business to enjoy. Grab some shop small merchandise from your local “neighborhood champions.” These are essentially ambassadors in your community ready to spread the word about all things Small Business Saturday. You can find the champions in your area here.
Make sure to promote your business on social media leading up to the day! Let everyone know that they should #ShopSmall during their holiday shopping this year. Create your own marketing materials using the Shop Small Studio for free. It’s an amazing tool where you’ll be able to design custom graphics with Shop Small branding.
Work on freshening up your checkout area. It’s important for customers to feel that they have a clear path to where they need to go. It sounds simple, but can be absolutely essential for an influx of shoppers. Put out some type of greenery for an organic and inviting vibe. It also helps to light a large candle with the warm holiday scent of your choice. You won’t regret making this space comfortable for your new clients!
If you’re shopping on Saturday, you’ll want to use the American Express Shop Small Map to find all the participating businesses near you. Join organizations across the country in supporting your local small business! Where will you be shopping this year?
Interested in promoting your small business after Small Business Saturday? Contact Image Marketing Consultants to get the results you want this year and beyond.
There’s one platform that’s taking over the image organization game. If you’re constantly brainstorming ideas for your next big project, looking for the best DIY inspiration, or hoping to expand in your small business – Pinterest is your new best friend. You’ll be pinning and advertising your company in no time when you sign up. If you’re not already familiar with Pinterest (you’re seriously missing out), it’s essentially a virtual vision board where any user can compile images in separate boards they setup. Pinning to these boards takes little to no time and simply means that you’ve placed an image you LOVE into a group of similar items. Sound simple? Keep reading for 5 Pinterest tips you’ll need to implement into your marketing strategy before the new year.
Set up organized boards that relate directly to your business: If you’re promoting a pet company on pinterest, you’ll want to organize your boards to best fit your target audience. Think about what your customers do with their pets. Are they at the dog park on weekends? Do they often buy treats and accessories from your store? Start with the main products you offer, and expand from there! Try organizing an accessories board with your dog collars, toys, and clothing. Make sure your images are high quality, cohesive to the board you’re using, and eye catching.
Create and pin brand specific content to advertise your products/services: You can actually design your own pins using platforms like canva.com. Make sure to use fonts and colors that represent your business! Once you’ve made your pin, you’ll click “create pin” in your account and link your website, etsy shop, or shopify to the pin. If you’re unsure of what to post first, it’s fun to promote a promo code on your graphic for new customers to enjoy. Still hesitant? have the Image Marketing experts design content that you can use.
Use secret boards to your advantage: Secret boards are exactly what you’re probably thinking – it’s a tool for you to keep secret boards on your profile if you’re not ready to make them public quite yet. This can be helpful if you’re trying out new top secret products!
Join group boards: There are so many other small businesses out there that you can connect with on Pinterest. Group boards allow users to support each other whether you’re starting your own or requesting to join another group. It will allow you to share pins with other small businesses like yours! Pick groups that are related to your niche and you’ll find a community perfect for you.
Enable rich pins: Drive traffic to your account with rich pins! “Rich Pins are a type of organic Pin format that provide more context about an idea by showing extra information directly on the Pin.” (pinterest.com)
Check out these rockstar pinterest accounts for inspiration. Anthropologie: Notice how they feature boards like home “decor and design” or “travel guide” Their content is brand specific and relates to everything in their store.
Birchbox: This brand knows exactly how to reach their target audience with beauty tutorials, hair inspiration, and lifestyle tips.
Martha Stewart Living: This account features really high quality photography of food for recipes, DIY projects, and of course Martha Stewart!
Pinterest has an amazing help center if you’re trying any of these tips for the first time.
Happy pinning!!
Image Marketing Consultants specializes in creative content design and social media management for clients, regardless of industry or domain. If you are interested in learning more about how we can craft a branding, creative, or social media marketing strategy for your business, contact us!
