Last month one of the projects I designed was a logo for hollajane photography. Hollie, the owner, requested a fun, bright and swirly logo. Her target market includes families, babies, engaged couples and pets. I really wanted to convey the personality of the owner – she is a very fun and happy woman, who loves color. Of the logo ideas that I presented, this one was the first one I sketched & designed. While I created other logo options, my eye kept coming back to this one – as it kept screaming “this is so Hollie!” I was very happy to find out that the client’s immediate first choice was this one as well.

Social media for small businesses can be confusing. After all, as a small business you are most likely in charge of many different areas and don’t have a lot of free time. You may be wary of Twitter and Facebook and view them as time wasters. So, how do you become involved with social media and not get sucked into the wasting time vortex?

Have an online marketing strategy

If you map out general topics that you are an expert on throughout the year, you’ll never have a moment of “what should I write about today?” To find out how to create your own, read “How to create an online marketing strategy.”

Use free social media software

Use free software, such as Tweetdeck or my favorite, Hootsuite. You can update Linkedin, Twitter, a Facebook profile and a Facebook fan page all at once. No more having to login to 3 different sites to send a message. Plus, Hootsuite tracks how many clicks your links receive, shrinks your long URL’s and can track keywords. Another feature that will save you time – you can also schedule when your message goes out. In another words, if you know your week is fully booked, you could potentially set up the entire weeks messaging in one hour a week.

Just remember if someone comments, retweets or sends you a direct message make sure you still make time to respond. Social media is all about building relationships and interacting is part of building that trust.

Need help with your online marketing strategy? Don’t hesitate to email me with your questions at becca@bauerhaus.com.

As a small business owner one of your most important web tools should be Google Analytics. It will help you stay up to date on your web visitor’s experience and the actions on your website. It will answer key questions such as, where do your visitors come from? What keywords are they typing in to find you in search engines? What page are the leaving on? Plus, it will allow you to track what steps a visitor took upon entering your site, all the way to making a sale.

An analytical tool such as Google Analytics can also help improve your website functionality. It will allow you to gain access, set goals and be notified when these goals are met.  Monetize your Pay-Per-Click Marketing efforts by focusing on the metrics that matter most to your business.  If you own an e-commerce website, you especially should monitor your Return On Investment (ROI) as well as monitor your sales volume.

The 5 metrics to track, measure and analyze

You want to ensure that your budget is well spent.  Some of the key elements that you should pay close attention to when gathering data from your website are listed below.

• Visitors – it’s important to know who is visiting your website and how they came across it.  The ‘Visitors’ metric provides valuable information such as Total Visits, Absolute Unique Visitors, Pageviews, Average Pageviews, Map Overlay, and Bounce Rate.  These particular dimensions can tell a lot about the visitor’s experience and relevance of the information they have come across.  This is a great way to answer questions such as: Where do my visitors live? Are they returning? New? What time of the day did they visit?
• Traffic Sources – a metric that provides in depth information about the user’s sessions and its origin.  The Direct Traffic category provides details about the users that have accessed your website directly by simply typing in your website’s domain address in the address bar of their browser.  The Referring Sites dimension can offer valuable information about the Referral Sources that are delivering visitors to your website.  In the Search Engines dimension you can explore your visitor activity that came from the various search engines available on the web today.  Here you can also segment your Paid and Non-Paid Traffic if you are using a Pay-Per-Click Marketing platform such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions, or Microsoft Advertising.
• Content – perhaps the most valuable of all metrics that Google Analytics provides.  In this particular section you can find out how valuable and engaging your content is on your website.  Break down sections of your website to individual pages and urls to analyze the value of it.  What page are visitors leaving on? Is it an email newsletter sign-up or checkout? If not, it may be time to re-evaluate your site to make the process easier.
• Goals – tracking and analyzing your conversions has never been easier.  This particular metric offers creation of conversion funnels and setup of individual goals.  An individual goal can be considered a contact form page on your website or a funnel that outlines a process that was taken toward the purchase of a product.  Proper goal creation for your website has a great deal of importance as it shows whether or not your customers are purchasing your products and services.
• Custom Reporting – a relative new feature to this analytical tool yet very valuable. The custom reporting option in the Google Analytics platform lets you create reports by selecting only the metrics and dimensions that are of your interest.  To save you time, these custom reports can also be e-mailed directly to your Inbox for a review without the need of interaction with the Google Analytics web interface.

Why Track, Measure, and Analyze Your Web Traffic?

Without an analytical tool such as Google Analytics your cannot not track your Return On Investment (ROI) nor are you capable of measuring your website success as a whole.  A beautiful website must all produce results. Stay on top of your visitor activity and ensure that your website is gathering the data that will excel your small business.

Does your company use Google Analytics? Or do you have a specific Google Analytic question? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Many small business owners wonder – do I need a brand? They may say “I’m not huge and don’t have that many clients, so I don’t need one.”  But every business should have a brand, even if you are a one person company. Why? In order for consumers to make a purchase, they need to feel an emotional trust in your product or service. Below you’ll learn how to create this perceived trust and loyalty from your customers.

Know your audience

Who is your target market? What do they do for a living? What do they read or watch? How old are they? What is their personality? These answers will help you figure out what your brand personality is and in turn how they like to be marketed to.

Know your competition

How do you differentiate from the competition? What makes your product or service better? Why should a customer choose you over your competitor? The answer to these question, should lead you in the correct direction of how you should promote yourself.

Provide Value & Vision

Create a company mission statement that describes your future goals and values. If you wrote a business plan, you can pull the mission statement from there. If you have not written one, now is the time.  A brand must provide a practical value in order to be trusted. Every piece of marketing collateral should follow it, as well as all employees.

Create credibility

Have client testimonials. Are you a start-up? Partner with a known company that has the same target market. This will help create trust from the customer. Look professional – have all of your collateral online and in print match. Be a guest writer on other blogs and publications to position yourself as the authority.

Be Consistent

Use the same logo, color palette, fonts and images in all online and print promotion. If you are flipping through your local business journal, does your ad match all of your other branding? If you hand your business card to someone at a networking event, does it match your other materials? Does your website match your business card? Consistency over time creates trust.

Logo & Name

While having a great logo & name is only one part of a brand, it will be the one item that repeats itself the most. Does it send out the message you want? Does it appeal to your target audience? Is the name easy to remember? Does it stand out from your competitor?

Have great customer service

Return every phone call, email and social media message. Make sure all of your employees are promoting you properly. One rude person can lead to many lost customers. Remember people are quick to tell friends about a bad customer service experience, so one lost customer can lead to many. Business is in its essence is about relationships and you always want to encourage building them no matter the form of communication.

Use social media

Where else can you interact with your current and potential customers daily? Social media is all about building trust online. Make sure your blogs and messages are directly related to your goals and keywords. To learn more about keywords, read 10 ways to increase your web traffic.

Monitor your brand

Set up keyword alerts to monitor what people are saying about your brand. How? Sign up with Google Alerts. It works like this – If someone writes your company name anywhere online, you will receive an email. You can also monitor what is being said on Twitter about your company through Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. Anytime some types “Your Company Name”, it will alert you. Pretty cool! Respond appropriately to each. If someone is having an issue, try to correct it immediately.

Following these steps you will be well on your way to creating your own small business brand. Remember, if customers trust your company they will buy your product or service. Do you have any questions about your own brand? Comment below or contact me at becca@bauerhaus.com

In the article 10 ways to increase your web traffic, I talked about the importance of an online marketing strategy. For any business right now, it is essential that an Online Marketing plan is built into your regular marketing plan. So what is an online marketing strategy (also called Internet Marketing by some) and how do you create one? Follow these steps.

Target market

Who is your target market? One way easy way to do this, is pull the info from your business plan. Don’t have a business plan? Think of your clients and pick your top three. How old are they? What do they do for a living? What do they do in their free time? Or are you starting from scratch? Install Google Analytics to your website and start a Facebook page. Both can deliver statistics on who your visitors and fans are. Every message you send out think of your target person.

What is your goal?

Is it to increase traffic? Brand awareness? Have people sign-up for your email newsletter? Buy a product? Have people attend an event? If you don’t pick a goal, you can not measure its success.

Keep your branding consistent

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. Can your customers or clients tell your business by a glance at a brochure and at your website? Do they match? The core elements need to be there: logo, color scheme, fonts, images and tone of voice.

Who is going to manage it?

Before you start your facebook page or sign up for Google ads, make sure you have a dedicated person to monitor and make updates. If you, as the small business owner, are taking on this task, plan to dedicating at least an hour per day to get everything set up. Once you get the hang of writing blogs, tweeting, checking stats and sending messages you can spend as little as 5-15  minutes per day.

What is your plan going to cover?

Types of online media to consider for your small business:

• User-friendly website

• Blog

• Facebook fan page

• Twitter

• Email newsletter

• Online Ads

What is the budget?

Decide ahead of time how much you are going to invest in the above. Remember the marketing rule is it takes 7 times for a person to see something before they buy. Which way makes the most sense to reach your ideal customer? Some costs to consider:

Website: Is your site user-friendly? Is it easy for a potential customer to find what they are looking for? Are your customers exiting on your goal page, such as a shopping cart purchase or email newsletter sign-up? Do you have links with all of the different ways people can contact or follow you, such as email newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, and blog RSS? If the answer isn’t yes to these questions, it may be time for a site re-design.

Blogs: To keep a consistent brand make sure your blog matches the look of the rest of your website. Need a custom design? I offer custom blog designs.

Facebook: Free to set up, but to stand out from the competition you can add a custom “Welcome” page or a special page for a specific promotion. For a “Welcome” page example, view my Bauerhaus Design Facebook fan page. To see a great example of a special promotion page that they changes monthly, look at the Gap’s Facebook fan page. You can set it up  so new visitors are automatically directed to your custom page.

Twitter: Free to set up. To keep branding consistent have a custom background with your look.

Emails: Don’t forget to research the cost of email marketing clients such as Constant Contact or MailChimp. This fee will depend on how many people you are mailing to & the frequency at which you send. Make your branding consistant with a custom email template that matches your website and print collateral. Make sure you only email people who have opted-in to your email list.

Ads: Are you going to invest in Google ads or Facebook ads? Or other sites? Set a daily budget on whichever you choose, so you don’t get any unwelcome surprise bills.

Frequency

How often are you going to post, blog or tweet? I recommend to my clients to start out slow with a message on each type of social media once a week, until they feel more comfortable doing more. Gradually increase it to 3 times a week than daily. For email marketing, again start slow with once a month. To keep track of when you are doing what, make a spreadsheet or add it to your calendar.

Content

Stumped for what to say? Research your competition. What do they write about on Facebook and Twitter? Is their tone of voice different in their emails? Once you have researched others, make a list of 3-5 topics you are an expert on. Now for each topic, list 5 questions that people ask you the most about. Talk about an upcoming event, a special promotion, or post a photo of a new product. And don’t forget to work in the keywords that I wrote about in 10 ways to increase your web traffic.

Need help with any of the above? Want a free estimate? Contact me at becca@bauerhaus.com

I am looking for guest bloggers for an upcoming series. I want to feature everything from how to create a marketing plan, how to create a promotion, SEO tips, web development tips, copywriting advice, social media insights to start-up strategy and media placement. Or if you have another idea for a topic that will help my clients, who come to me for logo, web and graphic design, grow, I am up for suggestions.

All bloggers will have a two to three sentence plug at the bottom of each blog they write.

If you are interested or have a question, leave a comment or email me at becca@bauerhaus.com. To read more about me and my mission read my About page.

As I was swimming this morning, I started thinking about what key elements make up a great logo. Here is a list of top 6 things I think of when creating logos:

1. Is it easy to read? There are a million fonts out there to choose from, but not all are legible. One easy check is to print it out the logo on a piece of paper and tape it to a wall. Now, step back and walk by it. Can you read it in a glance? If not, then it won’t be readable in an aisle, on a truck or on a storefront.

2. Is it a strong logo in black and white? You would think in this day and age of digital printing and emails that it isn’t necessary. But you would be amazed at how many requests I get to make their logo one color, so the client can get it printed on a T-shirt or a hat.

3. Is it different from your competitors? This is always my step one when it comes to starting a logo. What does the competition look like? You want to stay away from their look to save your customers from brand confusion.

4. Does it appeal to your target market? Is your target market pre-teens or 40 year old males? Women in their 30’s or retirees? These categories alone can produce drastically different results. Know your target market!

5. Do you as the owner/client like it? Many designers may feel that what they like is the only way, but the design industry is all about pleasing the customer. And if client hates it they aren’t going to want to look it day in and day out. There is a saying: you should love your logo and by the time you are sick of it, that is when people start to have brand recognition.

6. Keep it simple! People can get caught up in putting too much in a logo. What do I mean? They might think they want a person, a chicken and the kitchen sink in it, but simple is what people remember. Think Nike, Target, Fedex. Only the essential should be in the logo.

Are you a small business that needs a logo design or a logo re-design? Email me at becca@bauerhaus.com to set up a meeting to talk about specifics.

Many times when I am meeting with a small business or startup and we are talking about their business online, I’ll ask if they have a Facebook fan page. Most, do not. They find the process confusing and don’t know where to start. Plus, its just one more thing to do on top of their long to-do list.

Why do you, as a small business or start-up need one? Check out these stats from Facebook:

• Facebook has more than 350 million active users
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook

Think about this: your clients are not going to log onto your website everyday, but more than half of all users log on to Facebook in any given day. That is over 175 million people you could potentially reach with a daily status message. Plus, a Facebook fan page offers these advantages:

1. Fan pages are visible to even those without a Facebook profile account. If you send a Twitter message or email  with a link, anyone can view the page.

2. Fan pages are indexed outside of Facebook. Meaning, if someone does an online search of your company, this is one more link that will come up.

3. Not sure who your target market is? Facebook fan pages can help you figure that out. Each page keeps statistics of who your followers are and who is participating. It will tell you if they are male or female, their age range, where they are located and what language they speak.

4. With a regular Facebook profile you are limited to 5,000 friends. With a Facebook Fan Page the number of fans is unlimited. This might not be a huge thing if you are just starting out, but always plan for your growth.

5. You can further establish your brand. People do business with people they trust. Social media is all about building the trust over time and Facbook is a great way to do that.

Do you have a Facebook fan page? Has it helped your business?

Now that you have discovered why your small business or start-up should have a fan page, move onto my next article – How to create a Facebook Fan page.

Are you a small business or start-up that is stumped on how to get people to come to your site? Increase your web traffic by following these steps.

First, make sure Google Analytics is installed on your website. With this free program you’ll be able to watch your web traffic increase. If you don’t know how to do add Google Analytics code, contact the person who created the site and have them install it. This free program is great for not only tracking the amount of visitors, but also finding out the details of your visitors, such as: Where did they come from? What keywords did people type in to find you? What page did they exit on? How many people came to your site when you sent out an email newsletter?

Have an online marketing strategy

Before you tackle the below, figure out what is your goal. Is it to increase traffic? Brand awareness? Have people sign-up for your email newsletter? Buy a product? Make sure you keep this goal in mind while you do the following.

Keywords

Make sure your keywords are listed in the copy on your site. If you are a photographer in St. Louis and do not have the text that says “St. Louis photographer” your site will not show up in search engines when people search for “St. Louis Photographer”. If your entire site is in Flash, again, it will not show up in search engines. Why? Because Flash is all images, not readable text that search engines can scan. So, how do you find your top keywords? Look at Google Analytics. They list your top keywords that people entered in their search to find your site.

Have a blog

If you are new to blogging, make it a goal to post on your blog weekly. Then, once you become more familiar with blogging, post 3 times a week. The more keywords you mention in your blog that relate to what you are promoting, the higher your search engine ranking will be. Talk about what inspired you to make your product or tips for using your product.

Have a Facebook fan page

Think about this: your clients are not going to log onto your website everyday, but more than half of all users log on to Facebook in any given day. That is over 175 million people you could potentially reach with a daily status message talking about your product. For more reasons why you should have one, see my recent article: Why your business needs a Facebook Fan Page.

Use Twitter

Twitter is a great tool to find more customers. However, don’t just tweet about your blogs. Also, tweet about what interests you. Social media is all about building trust. People buy from people and businesses they like. To find people interested in what you sell, go to search.twitter.com and type in your keywords. Follow the people that are looking for what you provide or are in your target market.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

This plugs in your keywords, so search engines can find you. A client or customer doesn’t see these words, they are in the background source code. For example, a St. Louis photographer would have words such as “St. Louis photographer, photography for newborns, St. Louis, wedding photography, etc.” Pretty much any words you can think of that describe what you do. If you use Wordpress, a great tool to do this yourself is the All-in-One SEO plugin.

Advertise online

There are many options online. The most popular being Google Ads and Facebook Ads. The good news is that ads starts as low as $1 per day, so it is easy to try an ad for a month on both and see which works best.

Comment on Blogs

When you comment on blogs, this provides a link back to your site. The more links to your site, the higher your rating with Google will be. Make sure you leave genuine feedback.

Have an email newsletter

In your email newsletter, promote your website with links to a particular story, product or blog post on your site. Also include links to your Facebook fan page and twitter account, so people can pick which way they prefer to follow you.

Give away something for free

Hold a contest for subscribing to your email or Facebook fan page. Or give away a “white paper” – free tips from your industry. Promote with print advertising and online on your blog, Facebook page, and Twitter.

Did you enjoy these suggestions? Do you have any more? Feel free to leave them in the comment section.

Do you need help in setting up any of the above? Contact me at becca@bauerhaus.com.