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Is your logo a great logo?

There are logos and great logos! We’ve compiled a list of what makes a great logo. Apply these characteristics to your company logo to make sure it measures up. If you can’t answer yes to these nine traits, it’s time to call the team at XDesigns and grab a logo overhaul.

1 Is your logo simple? 

Make sure it is straight-forward and easy to read. It doesn’t have to be a convoluted design interlaced with vector images and clip art. 

2 Is you logo memorable? 

Can you look at the logo for two seconds, close your eyes and then recall every detail of it?

3 Is your logo appropriate?

Do the fonts suit the company it stands for? For example, if you have a day centre for children does the font suggest playfulness and fun? The same font you use for a day care centre wouldn’t be appropriate for a law firm or financial institute.

4 Is your logo adaptable?

Does it translate well when you resize it to be used for office signage or a car wrap or is it only suitable for business cards and office stationary?

5 Does your logo reflect the vision you have behind the brand?

Take Nike for instance. The name comes from a Greek Goddess and means goddess of victory. The icon used in the logo is used to depict the wings of the Goddess but is also resembles a tick, which enforces positivity. 

6 Is your logo more than just a plain font on a coloured background?

It’s important that your logo reflects the service or product you provide. For example, the Woolworths logo incorporates a green apple into the design.

7 Does your logo stand out from the crowd?

It’s important when creating your own brand that your logo doesn’t mimic other businesses. You need the logo to remind people of your business, not think “Hey, that logo looks just like Coca Cola”.

8 Does your logo make good use of space?

Your logo should be easy to read. The letters should be well-spaced, not jumbled altogether. It should incorporate icons into the design and not have them added as an afterthought.

9 Do you know what makes a great logo?

If you’re still confused even after reading this blog, it won’t hurt you to send your logo to XDesigns Advertising for a logo health check.

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The Marketing Checklist for Every Business

Dedicated professional staff members

Great product or service

Business logo and matching stationary

Professional designed websiteFacebook page

Advertising in the local paper

Advertising in the yellow pages

Have you forgotten anything? (long pause as you rack your brain). Most business owners believe once they have a presence on the internet – website, Facebook, Twitter and Linked In, plus  a few ads in the local paper, it’s a matter of sitting back and waiting for the business to roll in. It’s time to change your way of thinking.

The two most important items to ensure your business is a success is branding and marketing; two concepts which are often neglected due to having a shoestring budget and lack of know-how and time. It’s vital to the future of your business to make the time to find out how to market your business properly. Do you really want to be one of those company owners who constantly worry about where you’re going to find the money to pay your staff, or the rent for your commercial premises? Reading this blog is a baby step to growing your business.

So what is marketing? To put it simply – it’s about finding out what people want and giving it to them. Often business owners get so caught up in the day to day running of the business, they simply forget about how important marketing is.

You can begin by answering the following questions

  1. What can you offer that no one else does? Essentially, people are egocentric. They’re selfish. They don’t care about your business. They just want to know what’s in it for them. Once you understand this marketing concept, you’re already strides ahead of your competitors.
  2. Have you built up a brand? Think of a brand like a tattoo. Almost everyone has the same body parts and essentially they look the same and have the same purpose. When you get a tattoo, it’s a permanent mark it makes you stand out from a crowd. That’s exactly what building a brand does for your company. It makes you stand out from the crowd.
  3. Does your brand have a personality?  Tim Reid, the founder of Small Business, Big Marketing suggests to think of your brand as if it was a person. What character does it have? Is it smart and sassy? Fun, loud and gregarious? Who are its best mates (ie, target audience?)
  4. What are your business principles? For example;  Sanitarium’s core principle is better health through better nutrition.
  5. Is your brand consistent? Think of all the ways people come into contact with your business. (Business cards, advertising, company cars, uniforms, office stationary).

It seems a lot to take on board, but the most vital thing to remember it needs to be done well. If you think it’s expensive to engage a proven professional, think about how much it will cost you if you use an amateur.

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XDA Blog generic image

What are QR codes? Do I need one?

Ever seen the ads in newspapers and magazines with the black and white pixelated looking dots in a box and wondered what is that? It’s called a QR code. QR Code stands for Quick Response Code and is the symbol for a type of matrix barcode which was initially designed for the automotive industry.

In recent months the use of these QR codes has evolved and become the cool, tech savvy way to share information. Consisting of small black square arranged in a square on a white background, these funky codes are a quick way of transmitting information from paper to your smart phone.  Of course you’ll need to download a QR code scanner app to your phone, but with the way technology is increasing, it won’t be long before smart phones come with QR code scanners already inbuilt. No need to go on the hunt for a pen, or painfully punching the details into your iPod or smartphone with one finger, all you need to do is open the QR code scanner and presto, the information contained in the code is now on your phone.

So how do you get a QR code? The details contained within a vCard or MeCard can be used in conjunction with a QR code generator.  You can link it straight to your website; provide special offers or messages to your smart phone customers. A restaurant might use one to highlight their special 2 for 1 meal deals or a hotel or motel might use it to offer special rates.  Keep the information to the bare necessities. The more complicated the QR code graphic, the more you increase the chances of it scanning incorrectly. QR codes don’t appeal to everyone, it an evolving format which is slowly gaining popularity, but seems to appeal to male smart phone, iPad or iPod users aged from 18-35. Before you go crazy adding QR codes to all your advertising, get to know your target audience.

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Social Media Marketing

The five sins of Social Media

Are your Facebook followers leaving your pages in droves? Are you struggling to gain new followers? Perhaps you have thousands of fans, but your posts are barely getting a handful of likes?

What are you doing wrong? Check these common mistakes to ensure you aren’t committing social media sins and compromising your marketing potential.

Paying to grow your likes

Patience is a virtue and one some social media managers do not possess. There are no sure and fast shortcuts. Social media companies that promise to boost your likes are renowned for using underhand tactics and fake profiles. Aim for quality, not quantity. Adding a huge influx of followers to your page won’t help improve your level of interaction on your page and it will skew you potential for making a post go viral. Fake profiles won’t be contributing anything of value to your channel.

Listen to your followers

Your followers on your pages can tell you a lot about the content you post without even saying a word. The like, share and retweet buttons say it all. A non-profit who gives a shout-out to another business for their help may be the polite thing to do as a way of acknowledgment, but if it’s being met with little to no response by the people following you – stop doing it. What is being shared, liked and commented on is a good way to judge what kind of content your fans want to see. Don’t be afraid to experiment a little, because what works for one company, may not work for you.

Know the difference between controversial and offensive

A good controversial post is the key to getting good engagement on your page. If your followers are passionate about the topic, they will have an opinion. However there can be a fine line between being controversial and being offensive. Offensive posts may come back to bite your brand and land you in hot water. If you are unsure whether or not a post is offensive run it by a few colleagues before posting it.

Choose hashtags carefully

If you are savvy enough to know what a hashtag and pride yourself on your ability to sum up a post with a witty or clever hashtag in a jiffy, you need to be careful what you #. People are turned off by using an onslaught of hashtags at the end of posts – #annoying #Mostannoyingthings #lookatme #icanhashtag. However while they can be a great way to cash in on viral social media marketing, they could also be detrimental to your brand. Qantas used a seemingly innocent hashtag #qantasluxury which resulted in hundreds of people sharing photos of their airline nightmares. Or what about therapist who used the simple hashtag #therapist? It caused a social media storm.

Absence makes the heart wander

If you rarely post on social media, you may lose followers from simply being absent. The old adage absence makes the heart grow fonder is not true in the context of social media. You can schedule posts in advance if your lack of sharing is a time-management issue or diarise social media as part of your daily work tasks. You should be appearing at least twice a day on Facebook, even more on Twitter.

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How should my brand interact on social media?

 

Did you realise that the most successful brands on Facebook ooze authenticity and have a way of communicating with their audience which is consistent. For example a graphic design company whose followers are business professionals wouldn’t go from posting informative marketing blogs and using professional language to funny pictures of cats and using colloquial terms like ‘Wassup dude?’

 

Style of voice
The voice you choose to reflect must take into consideration company’s principles, standards and objectives. We’re not saying you can’t have fun interacting with your audience, providing you don’t concede on what’s important to your brand’s uniqueness and character.
Type of audience
Your style of voice should also be contingent on the audience you are targeting. To appeal to a wider clientele you’ll need to keep it basic and avoid industry jargon. If your intent is to be more informative, perhaps a systematic approach is called for and explain some of the more technical terminology. If your target audience is under 25, then make sure you’re up-to-date with all the latest slang terms like sick meaning really, really cool and wicked meaning the same. Your approach to your brand voice will need to be reassessed as you begin to network and interact with the likers on your Facebook page. 
Social media goals
Encouraging interaction is one of the major social media goals for businesses. The more people who comment on your posts, the more the post will be seen by their friends. It’s vital to read your audience posts and respond to them. It makes your followers feel like your brand understands them and acknowledges their opinions. Not responding to posts is like having a one-sided conversation on the telephone. If you don’t get anything back from the person on the end of the line, it’s likely you’ll get bored and hang up. 
What’s next?
If you’re not sure how to start with adopting your own brand voice, looking at what your competitors are doing and explore what works for them and what doesn’t.
And if you are still completely baffled about what kind of voice to give your brand, or you’re not even sure your brand is working for you, call the team at XDesigns for a brand overhaul that works.

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The Essential Elements to a Quality Logo

Copying and pasting clipart with your company name does not make a notable logo. There are several components necessary when creating a unique symbol to represent your company and what it stands for. Having a logo which is easily recognisable, simple, ageless and adaptable are characteristics which should not be compromised on.

Unforgettable is not just a song recorded by Nat King Cole in 1951. It is an indispensable element that should be applied to all graphic design work. Think about the logos you can recall at a moment’s notice; McDonalds Golden Arches, Google, Coca Cola, the Target bull’s eye. What do these logos all have in common? You only have to see them and immediately you associate them with a brand.

The key to having a memorable logo is to ensure you apply the KISS technique (Keep It Simple Stupid). Quality logos are unique and without the design being too ostentatious. For example: Apple and the Nike tick are prime examples.

A logo must also be adaptable, practical and able to be used across an assortment of avenues and uses. To be practical it is advisable to have the logo created in a vector format, this will allow it to be enlarged or decreased in size without losing resolution. Keep in mind, the use of colour – the more multi-coloured, the more expensive it is to print. Knowledge about the commercial colour production and being aware of the differences between RGB, Pantone and CYMK colours will avoid your logo looking different in print than it does on the computer monitor.

A logo needs to pass the test of time. There is no point creating an identity for your company which in a decade from now will appear old-fashioned. A good example of a logo which is timeless is Apple. It hasn’t really changed from the original concept, only the colours and embossing have been used to modernise it.

If you have limited graphic design experience, rather than wasting your time creating a sub-standard logo which is one of your company’s most important marketing tools, consult a professional graphic studio. They can take your ideas and apply the essential elements with ease.

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The changes coming to Linkedin you need to know now!

Changes to the LinkedIn algorithm is designed to serve up more personalised and relevant content to users and while that sounds great in theory, what does it mean for you?

LinkedIn is cracking down on post that bait people for engagement and that includes the previously popular polls. This spells big changes coming to LinkedIn.

This is what LinkedIn announced in a blog post about the changes.

  1. They are reducing content consider as low quality. “We’ve seen a number of posts that expressly ask or encourage the community to engage with content via likes or reactions – posted with the exclusive intent of boosting reach on the platform.” LinkedIn have listened to their users who find these sort of social media posts to be misleading and frustrating, so going forward they will not be promoting engagement bait content and are encouraging everyone in the Linkedin community to focus on delivering reliable, credible and authentic content. This means if you’ve been creating clickbait (sensationalised headlines for clicks), engagement bait (asking for likes or reactions), your social media strategy needs to change.
  2. Less Polls. Scrolling LinkedIn as part of your morning routine, it’s not unsual to see lots of polls in your feed and most of them are on topics you really don’t even care about and people you don’t know from a bar of soap. For example: Dell sent out a poll asking what percentage of people are working remotely from home. You might get random marketing managers asking what your biggest struggle at work is and at the end of the day, who cares right? So using filtering LinkedIn is promising to show only relevant polls that are helpful from people in your network. If relying on polls is a main staple of your LinkedIn strategy, it’s time to reevaluate.
  3. Options to filter content. LinkedIn provides you with options to reduce how often you see content from your community. Options to tell LinkedIn are attached to all individual posts with users able to filter content by topics and authors.If multiple people are telling LinkedIn they’re not enjoying your content, the algorithm is going to decrease your reach. It’s now more important than ever, to ensure you’re only posting high-quality, thought-provoking content.

How does the LinkedIn algorithm work and what do the changes mean for your content?

The new algorithm changes have been introduced to fuel value-added content. It’s time to step up the way you post to LinkedIn and put in more thought if you wish your posts to continue to get exposure. Going forward all posted content will go through a series of filters. Each piece of content gets divided into one of three categories:

1. Spam

2. Low Quality

3. High Quality

What happens next is that your content gets rolled out to a small group of followers. If it passes the spam filter, then it is rolled out on line to discover how your content is received by LinkedIn audiences. If it gets comments and likes and shares, then LinkedIn enables it to be ranked higher and will then be seen by more pairs of eyes.

Get your personalised LinkedIn Strategy from Xdesigns Advertising.

It’s time to make sure your LinkedIn personal and business profile is up to date and instigate a solid strategy for posting. If you need a social media strategy to that navigates the LinkedIn changes, please reach out to our team at XDesigns Advertising.

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