Building Brand Identity With Professional Designers

Never underestimate the value of a professional designer. Graphic designers like myself, who have been doing custom logo projects for over a decade, carry an essential perspective that takes your brand identity to a new level. They’ll work with your preferences to find a logo design that you and your customers can fall in love with. With logo builders, you’re stuck with one of their unoriginal designs, which various businesses have undoubtedly used before you find it.

Designers offer excellent input that helps your new logo target and attract clients or customers on the first impression. After all, what good is a logo design that falls flat? I’ve worked with various businesses, from big brand names to owners/operators, trying to make a living as their own boss. While a custom design may cost more than whatever you find online, you’ll be glad you worked with a professional; especially when your logo design will follow you for years or decades.

Why Go With A Logo Package?

Professional designers often provide custom logo design as a package, which serves a few purposes, including:

One-On-One Collaborations

A major perk of working with real graphic designers is getting to ask questions, send examples of what you like, and voice preferences that could make or break the logo design. That’s what makes a truly custom logo design!

Design Revisions

With many of the logo builders out there, design revisions are not a thing. Others offer unlimited revisions but do that matter if all they give you is generic social media graphics and basic logos? A custom logo design package includes revisions that grasp your vision to effectively build a brand identity.

Personalized To Your Brand

Designers are trained to pick up on your preferences and apply them to your logo design. While you may need to fine-tune your logo design to perfection, this takes a lot of hassle out of the process.

Consistently High-Quality

Offering a logo package that includes everything for a successful build-out gives business owners a flat, affordable price while ensuring they are set up for success. Logo design packages include various logo designs for you to choose from, multiple rounds of revisions, and all the final files you’ll need to get started.

Room For Growth

Working with multiple designers, platforms, and programs can quickly become a headache. When building a full brand identity, staying consistent with your graphic designer is best. Many of my clients return for branding packages, which offer services like business cards, banners, and website design.

Creating an effective, engaging brand identity doesn’t have to struggle when you have a partner who can bring your vision to life. Schedule a call with me today, and let’s start your custom logo design.

Schedule A Call

How Can A Custom Logo Design Help Build Brand Identity

A custom design offers something your audience has never seen before, sparking interest and creating a lasting impression. In most cases, your logo design is the first impression your business will get, which makes it a pretty big deal. Logo designs are applied to business card designs, tradeshow booth designs, and other brand identity materials.

Can I Bundle Website Design With A Custom Logo Design?

I love working with small business owners to create an affordable, customized branding package. It can be difficult to complete the business startup process, but my package options make things easier. Let’s chat and discuss how we can build your brand identity.

Do You Help With Small Business Startups?

With over a decade as a graphic designer, I’ve picked up a lot about branding. From your custom logo design to physical ad materials, website design, and search engine optimization, I have you covered. Contact me today so we can throw some ideas around.

Do You Offer Unlimited Logo Design Concepts?

The short answer is no. Each logo design package comes with two rounds of revisions included. 99.9% of the time this is more than enough. Once you have filled out my logo design worksheet and completed the short activity that I will send you to do, this gives me enough information to give you three solid logo design concepts.

The post 5 Reasons To Look At Custom Logo Design Packages appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

Developing a comprehensive approach to business branding will make a business memorable and easily identifiable.  In a recent Zendesk survey, 87% of consumers said they thought branding was important and made businesses memorable.  Customers expect that the business is represented the same over email, website, customer service, and other ways businesses appear. If a business is being rebranded, they should change the logo, and styling everywhere to make sure the business is identified with the new brand every way customers reach the business.  

Businesses building their brand with messaging, web design, and print collateral can create a vision, meet customer expectations and connect with customers to build relationships.  Whether a business is just starting up or an existing business needs to refine or rebuild its image, it’s time to consider a complete branding package.   

Businesses should consider the following when branding their business brand:

Logo

A logo will be the image that identifies the brand and business.  Consider an image that catches attention, is memorable, and represents the identity or purpose of the business.

Messaging

This can include a tagline defining the business and a mission statement guiding the business path and decision-making. It can also be the tone of voice used in headlines, body copy, or call to action. Is your brand serious? Whimsical? Informative? The way you write should be a reflection of how your brand would “talk”.

Color Palette

The color palette should be consistent with all publication assets and advertising.  Generally speaking, there should be 3-5 primary colors and 3-5 secondary colors.  There should be a color strategy in place-meaning all headlines are one color, certain graphic elements or icons another color. This helps to establish the visual hierarchy.

Font Type

When used consistently, a specific font or group of identifiable fonts can further support branding to identify a business. Like colors, there should also be established font families. There will typically be 2-3 fonts that are consistently used. Your primary font for big statements and headlines. The secondary font will be a body copy and smaller statements. The third font could be more like an “accent”, used as pull quotes or to draw attention to something specific.

Graphic Elements

Graphic elements such as shapes, patterns, and images can be used to further build the image of a business. It is important that you are aware of the type of graphics that you are using. If you have an organic or handmade brand, it would be appropriate to use icons or illustrations that feel more hand drawn. However, if you have a more corporate brand, then simple, flat art may be more appropriate.

Brand Style Guide

A style guide is a document that describes all the elements of a business brand. A style guide will provide clear direction for consistency in all communications. Typical things you may see in a branding style guide may include: proper use of a logo, specific color palettes and their uses, photography style, approved font families or iconography.

Web Design

A website is a must-have for any business. The website is an extension of your brand. This may be the first point of contact for many of your customers. For this reason, it is important that you are following your branding guidelines when designing your new website. If someone sees a postcard and your website side by side-they should feel like they go together. 

Marketing versus Advertising

Building a branding package is a strategic part of a marketing plan to identify a business while advertising is tactical to promote the business.  A business should establish the objectives and brand promise or mission statement as part of the brand strategy.  

Although a company can advertise without creating a brand package, your customers may not realize that it is you if every time you put out a piece of communication it is different. The key to a successful campaign is recognition and the impact of your visuals and message. Marketing is a broad term and consists of various strategies and considerations to focus on larger audiences.  Inbound and outbound marketing are popular strategies that provide value to customers through pictures, videos, and/or blogs among other opportunities using the business brand strategy. 

There are two basic types of advertising: Digital and Traditional.  Digital advertising uses various apps, websites, social media, email, and other digital platforms to reach customers. Traditional advertising use printed assets such as mail, newspapers, or even billboards. 

Regardless of the type of advertising being used, the effort will be significantly more successful when the plan includes a complete and thoughtful brand package.

The post What is a Branding Package? appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

Start With A Sweep

The first step after deciding to update your website is a visual review. Whether you are a freelance website designer or trying to keep your business site fresh, doing a page-by-page skim should come before any technical work.

Plugin Review

Search engines are looking for functionality and user-frieldliness when they crawl websites, so a dysfunctional plugin could be affecting more than your clickthrough rate. Make sure that all visible features on your site are functional and easily accessible for best results with online viewers and search engines.

Remove Old Deals, Promotions, & Services

Nothing is more frustrating than calling a business to find out that a deal is no longer active or the service you were after has been discontinued. As a website owner, you must remove expired offerings in a timely manner and ensure that your information is correct at all times. Customers are looking for the most accurate information available and their source should always be your website.

Refreshing Content

Businesses evolve, and active businesses are bound to have events, new blogs, and other information to pass along. Publishing new content shows potential customers and search engine crawlers that your business is actively engaged with the community and acting as a resource in some manner. Extended periods of inactivity may result in decreased website performance, so stay on top of your content distribution.

If nothing else, add a new design element or a FAQ section to keep things interesting and show search engines that you are trying. Business owners typically just get busy and let their website coast, but Google may see it as stale content. For the best results with search engines, the site should be updated regularly with useful or relevant information. Some great ways to keep your site fresh are:

Posting new blogs

Blogs are a simple way to distribute new information to your online audience and build credibility in your field. Posting blog content regularly may attract new viewers and increase your search result rankings when they relate to your main topic or service.

Adding new web pages

Creating new web pages for your site is an excellent way to target new keywords, advertise a new service, or expand your service area. When making a new web page, just be sure to change content and edit visual elements enough to make it original.

Editing content and adding new elements to pages

If you don’t have time to create an entirely new web page or write a blog post, try revamping the content on existing pages. In the last year, Google algorithm changes have put a heavier emphasis on content. Now, page structure and content length are more important than ever, so making additions and adding new elements could get you further than ever.

Updating Plugins

WordPress is arguably the best platform for adding customization and functionality because of the countless plugins available. Their seamless integration enables you to install plugins for almost anything, but it’s your responsibility to keep these plugins up to date.

Why Update Plugins?

When your website is built, I will add all of the necessary plugins to fit your needs at that time, but those will require updates as well. It may me a minor inconvenience to login and perform maintenance but it’s the best way to keep your website healthy and running efficiently.

While your plugins may seem to be working fine, there’s probably a reason third-party developers have put the effort into releasing the update. Typically, it’s due to:

Security improvements
Updates to the coding
Additional plugin features

Before performing any updates to your website plugins, make sure that you review changes that have been made. In most cases, plugin developers will ensure that the update instillation won’t have a major effect on your site but there’s always a chance that it could negatively alter the website. For more information about updating WordPress plugins, check out this informational tutorial.

Deactivating Unused Plugins

The same software and programs that were top-of-the-line five years ago may not be your best option anymore. Maybe you have already found something better and left your old plugin installed “just in case”. Either way, it’s taking up real estate on your WordPress platform.

Competitor Analysis

Updating plugins and improving site features within your skill range are great ways to keep with the times, but a competitor review is always a good idea if you feel like your visibility isn’t budging. Obviously, the businesses on page-1 are doing something right, so why not do a check-in?

Reviewing the few businesses that have made it to the first page of search engine results can give you a better insight into what you could be doing better. Whether you need more content, additional images or maybe even a video, you should be able to spot similarities during your review.

Not Sure Where To Go Next?

If you’re not getting the desired result from your website, consider consulting with an expert in Phoenix web design to help you improve your conversion and searchability. I’m happy to jump on a call to figure out how we can take your site to the next level!

The post Keeping Your Website Up To Date appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

In today’s very fast-paced world people are no longer taking the time they were once used to when spending time on a website. Most web users today are visually skimming. They are just quickly looking at the website, looking at the pictures, reading the headlines, and maybe catching a few of the calls to action. For this reason, your website needs to look good. Design plays a bigger role than ever today in the success of a business, especially a website.

An aesthetic website leans very heavily on visual appeal. When people land on a website design page for the first time, they are more likely to stick around and explore the website if it captures their visual senses than if it is a website that looks outdated and old. A successful aesthetic web design combines a variety of things: fonts, color, images, and layout.

Font choices for aesthetic design

There is a large variety of fonts to choose from when you are considering your aesthetic website design. The easiest thing to do is to visit fonts.google.com. These are fonts that are readily available to load into your website without any extra effort or load time. The nice thing about the Google fonts website is that it allows you to filter your fonts by categories such as san serif, serif, or display fonts. It will also let you filter by how many font weights are available. So, this can make it easier when selecting a font for your website so that you do not have to go through thousands of options.

Color choices

when selecting the palette for your web design, it is wise to stick with the colors that already exist within your brand. After all, your website is an extension of your brand so it should convey the same visual appeal here as it does everywhere else. As a general rule, it’s why aesthetic websites stick with about three colors. You will have your main color, secondary color, and tertiary color. your main color will appear at the highest of the visual hierarchy in places such as H1 headlines or main graphic elements. Your secondary color supports the main color by being an accent in elements such as sub-headlines or graphic accents. The tertiary color will be used more minimally, potentially as highlighted text or possibly buttons.

Aesthetically pleasing image choices

The images that you select for your website design can help paint the picture of the brand or tell the story that you are trying to convey. As an example, a fitness website may highlight very high contrast black and white photos with very high detail on features such as sweat bubbles. Or a fitness website could show very soft images with pastel colors and soft lighting that would tell a very different story of a fitness brand. So, by these two examples, you can see that the images that you choose do make a difference in the visual impact of the branding for your website.

Design your logo, site, & branding material right here for the most visually-appealing package! To keep things fluent and affordable, I offer branding packages to my clients. Packaging your services together with Jen Chapman Creative is the most efficient way to create an aesthetically pleasing website, logo, and more!

The post What Makes An Aesthetic Web Design? appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

SEO is one of the most useful tools available for small businesses, but it’s also an expansive and confusing field. That leaves many business owners struggling to start the process, never really generating traffic or gaining the confidence to start a campaign. With shopping trends headed more and more into the online marketplace, now is the time to excel. If you can earn a spot on page-1 for your service, it can compound your sales!

While there have been highs and lows to virtually every kind of small business marketing over recent years, your potential customers have kept searching for the services/products they need. New customers have been far less likely to find you in person, but that has only driven the importance of SEO for small businesses and big brands alike.

The problem most small business owners have with starting a digital marketing campaign is the cost, but one of the essential benefits of SEO is that it’s cost-effective, and SEO for small businesses lasts for years after your campaign ends. Whether you choose to complete a six-month campaign or stay forever, you will continue to yield new customers long after the SEO effort stops.

Alternative strategies like paid ads may pay off for a short time, but organic search will always be the best way to gain compounded growth. The best part is, calls don’t stop when you cease paying for the campaign.

So, Why Is SEO Important For Local Businesses?

Being number one in the search engine result pages is everyone’s dream, or it should be. What would the number one position cost you if you were competing for the paid advertisement space?

Digging into the psychological benefits of SEO, more customers trust organic results than ads. Do you want to work with the ones who paid for their spot, or the business that is naturally the most relevant to Google?

Search Engines Power Over Your Small Business

Like it or not, your position in search engine result pages has a direct impact on whether or not you are seen by potential customers. Local SEO gives your small business website the ability to rank for relevant keywords, but it does much more than that. Let’s break down what SEO for small businesses can do:

• Help your business build trust with Google & other search engines
• Enhance your appearance in search engine results
• Increase organic traffic from potential customers
• Build a positive user experience
• Improve conversion rates
• Helps build brand awareness in your community
• Provides high-quality content

On-Site SEO Components

Whether you are doing your own SEO or choose to hire a professional, website optimizations are the most important factor in your rankings. Good SEO will include an initial site audit, an analysis of your current website traffic, keyword research, on-page optimizations, and backlink building to start. These components each have their own process and play a valuable role in your SEO efforts.

While the overall goal is to boost your search engine rankings and increase your online presence, search engine optimization has far more to it than that. To understand local SEO and digital marketing, it’s helpful to break down the individual pieces of an SEO strategy. Here are the building blocks that will help you accumulate relevant traffic and build your brand:

Website Audits

Technical website audits give you an overview of all site errors that need to be fixed before your site can perform, convert, and rank at an optimized level. After the site audit is run, changes will be implemented to various elements accordingly to enhance your website speed and searchability. This process points out a multitude of factors that affect your site, including:

Meta Title & Description

Your meta title and description are what represent your web pages in the search results. Each title and description should contain keyword-relevant information, the ideal amount of characters (determined by pixel length), and an enticing message to draw in customers. The audit will tell you which meta titles and descriptions are too long, too short, or have been duplicated between pages.

Image Size

The size of images on your website can affect your site speed if they are outside of the ideal parameters.  Use your website audit to point out any images that are too large or maybe slowing down your site performance.

Page Content

The content on each page of your website matters, and short (thin) content or duplicated content may lower your overall searchability. There are other aspects of your webpage content to examine in an audit, but the most important attributes in regards to your audit are the length, uniqueness, and structure.

Headings

Heading tags give your website structure, letting search engines identify which content is the most relevant and which sections contain supporting content. A proper page structure with correct heading usage is a fundamental part of ranking your website.

Web Traffic Analysis

Your organic traffic won’t mean anything if potential customers aren’t finding you under the right search intent. Quality SEO strategies will analyze your current website traffic, along with what people are searching to get to you for a better overall picture of where your website is at. While any traffic may take your brand awareness somewhere, you need to be topping the search engine results pages for inquiries that will generate real value. After you have accomplished that, you will need to ensure that you have a user-friendly website that gives local customers exactly what they need to trust your business.

Keyword Research

To find more relevant traffic, you need to find where the search traffic is at. Accurate research of relevant keywords lets your small business appeal to search engines and appear for the most popular searches in your area. Targeting your content with the right keywords lets you aim your efforts at a specific organic search.

On-Page Optimizations

It doesn’t matter if you own a multi-billion dollar company or a small business in a local community, high-quality content is imperative to your success. It’s been that way for centuries, the most attractive content gets the business, but on-page SEO efforts have to go well beyond that to stay relevant in search engines. To stay relevant in an online business world, your pages should have:

High-Value Content

New customers who are actively searching for your small business services want relevant content that supports your site and shows why you are the best at what you do. Your content should contain impeccable grammar and fluid keyword use to appeal to search engines and potential customers alike. small businesses have achieved high levels of brand awareness improvements with simple content enhancements.

Trust factors

Google searches love to see trust factors and so do search engine users. By adding elements like Google reviews, testimonials, linked websites that you work with, certificates, and badges that distinguish your small business, small businesses can earn some extra trust from local clients and Google at the same time.

Visually Appealing Elements

The elements of your site can dramatically affect the rest of your SEO work. For effective SEO, small businesses need user-friendly websites that are visually appealing to potential clients. You don’t need to spend tens of thousands to build a site that is pleasing to visit. More traffic will not come to an amateurish site, so ensure that your business website is clean, easy to understand, and has a bit of flair to attract new customers.

Proper Structure

As we previously discussed, one of the primary benefits of SEO is that your pages will be structured with the proper title tags and relevant information, but SEO brings more than that to your page structure. Website page elements that Google loves to see are:

• Google Reviews
• Linked Guest Blogging
• Call To Actions
• Proper Heading Structure
• Interlinking Between Pages
• Outlinking To Informational Pages
• Linking To Map Locations

“A good SEO company will know how to properly implement these elements to help small businesses earn preference from Google and other search engines to earn first-page status”

 Local Listings & Off-Site SEO

One of the first things small businesses should do is sign up for local listings and get their off-site SEO started. While many off-site SEO efforts are more complicated, a Google my Business listing is the ideal place to start your digital marketing, whether you are an SEO company or a business owner.

With proper optimizations, your off-site listings can take off:

Google My Business Listings

Small businesses that do not have a Google my Business listing set up are wrong, end of the story. If you want more targeted visits, increased call rates, and a much easier time trying to build brand awareness,  set up your business listing. Not only will this support your website and add validity to your business, but it also helps more customers see your business in a setting that’s not your site.

Of course, nothing is more cost-effective than free, so there is no reason why small businesses should leave such a valuable resource on the table. Google my Business listings can:

Give Customers A Quick Profile

Accessibility is crucial, especially when your customers are using mobile and tablet devices, where they are typically trying to do a quick search and find the ideal business without entering a website. Your GMB gives your business a quick first impression, with the ability to add images, products, services, a business description, unique attributes, and more.

Let You Appear In Map Searches

Google Maps is full of customers who are waiting to discover your business, but they can’t do that if you haven’t added it. Maps help you find the right traffic from local searches from customers who are looking for a product or service, you just have to make your business relevant and rank.

Consolidate Your Contact Information

Listings give small business owners the perfect spot to condense their contact information for easy viewing and even lets potential customers save your business for later.

Spread Awareness Of What You Offer

Because GMBs let you easily display products and services, search engines can relate the information to your business,  making your site and listing more relevant for search terms. Customers see the same information and are more likely to click on informational profiles.

Top 3 Reasons Businesses Start SEO Campaigns

There are numerous situations that would encourage business owners to hire an SEO agency, due to the versatility and longevity of results. The three most common reasons to work with an SEO specialist are:

Taking Your Sales Online

In 2021, shops, retailers, and businesses that offer a product should sell it online. It may be an extra hassle, but with so many people shifting exclusively to online shopping, many stores have chosen to bring their products to the web. Setting up your business online is not an easy process, and the best way to get started is by working with an SEO agency. Of course, you will need some website adjustments, if you have one, and your search engine optimization expert can help you set the site up to be user-friendly, fast, and converting. After you have successfully shifted your sales strategy, SEO can help drive sales by increasing your Google search position for keywords that trigger action.

Solidifying Your Branding

Every mention of your business across the web should contain consistent information. Moving physical locations, changing your number, altering the name of the business, or a number of other things can cause inconsistencies that should be addressed. Off-page SEO efforts will refine your business information and build your trust with search engines. These campaigns typically only last between three and six months, but they can be continued to keep building search engines’ trust and start ranking for new keywords. The trust you build with search engines will go a long way, increasing your local position and sending signals that indicate your site is relevant for the niche you’re in.

Increasing Sales

At the end of the day, every marketing strategy intends to improve sales, and SEO is a highly effective way to generate long-term sales success. While PPC will go away after you’re done, the authority, relevancy, and much of your keyword rankings will remain after your campaign ends. SEO strategies can rank you for a variety of keywords that will lead to converting traffic, and the more you put in, the more you will receive. Many businesses permanently use SEO as their main source of sales generation due to the affordability and effectiveness of SEO services. Nothing Beats local SEO for steadily boosting sales.

Summary

If you’re still questioning whether or not SEO is important to small and medium-sized business success, I recommend scheduling a call to discuss! Major search engines can revolutionize your business.

The post SEO For Small Businesses: It’s Important! appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

To reach customers effectively in 2022, you need a business website! With the world evolving each day, almost every business is going digital. Generating website visitors will directly impact your revenue, so, creating a website for your business is crucial. However, you need to choose the right option for website development that suits both your pocket and requirements.

Typical Website Development Costs

The range of website development costs in 2022 is extremely broad, as it depends on the size of your business, the complexity of the website, and the maintenance cost. The typical cost of a small business website is between $100 (if you want to attempt building your own website) and $5,000. When it comes to elaborate, large-scale websites, your final website cost could be in the tens of thousands.

Now, what are your options for building a business website? Let’s check them out.

Options for Creating a Website

Different website development options will have a dramatically different cost to build; and a very different outcome. Let’s see how the costs vary with the options.

Using A Website Builder

If you own a small business and don’t want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on your site, using a website builder could work. Doing it yourself will take a day (or two, or three, or ten) out of your busy schedule, but at least you will save web development.

There are a bunch of platforms like WordPress.com and Squarespace that allow you to create your website with a website builder program. Most website builders offer free hosting with your annual subscription and there is no website development skill required, so it’s a seemingly great option.

When you take a deeper look at website builders though, you’ll see that your options are pretty limited, and search engines will pay less attention. The code behind website builders is much bulkier and you are limited to the plugins offered by that program.

Build an In-House Team

Building an in-house team is costly, and you should go for this option only if you have a highly complex website to develop that is going to take a lot of time. A lot of time refers to a few years.

This option will skyrocket your website development and design costs, so it’s really only feasible if you have several sites or run an eCommerce website that requires constant maintenance.

Hire a Website Development Agency

You might already have guessed that this option is going to be pretty expensive. When you work with a big website development agency, you’re another number, and they want that number to be high enough to be worth their time. So, for a complex website, your website development cost could be significant.

You may be wondering why you should pay $500 extra to an agency rather than hiring a freelancer directly? The reason is the low-risk factor. A reputable agency is usually a more refined option, but freelance web designers like Jen Chapman offer a lower website development cost, more personal experience, and a business website that will impress!

Hire a Freelancer

This option is not as expensive as having a website development team and you receive the same capabilities. Whether you are looking for a basic business website or a full eCommerce website project, it will cost a lot less than hiring an agency or team. So, it’s just the perfect option for you if your website is not too complex to be dealt with by a freelance developer. Check out Jen’s freelance web development and design packages!

Things to Consider

To choose the right option for developing your website, you need to consider the following things.

Budget

If you are low on budget, you can attempt using a DIY website builder, but keep in mind that you may be limiting your potential. If you have no budget constraints, it’s recommended to hire a freelancer unless you are eager to hike up your website development costs.

Customization

If you want to build just a normal website, you should stick to DIY because it doesn’t require too much expertise. But, if you want to build a highly customized website, you should hire a professional website builder. After all, your website has the potential to change your business, so spending on development costs now could have a dramatic difference. Custom website development is more dynamic and can take you from a simple site to something amazing!

Functionality

While you try to trim down your development costs, remember that a basic website is going to have minimal features available. Custom website development costs may be higher but your website’s functionality is nothing to skimp on. If you plan to maintain an interactive, custom website, steer clear of the website builder.

What’s Your Best Option?

Nobody likes dealing with website development but it’s a necessary evil if you want to evolve your business in 2022. Building a custom website makes it easier for search engines to recognize your business and unlocks endless options.

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Benefits of using a responsive website design service

With today’s easy access to responsive website design tools, there’s really no reason why you should not have a responsive website. This should be an included element on all website design builds and projects. The list of benefits is really endless, but here are just a few of the top reasons why responsive website design is the way to go.

Google prefers responsive websites

If there is one thing that everybody knows when it comes to websites, It’s that you want to do everything in your power to make your website attractive to Google so that you will be ranked organically in search results. Google has made no secret about the fact that they prefer to rank a responsive website versus one that is not because it is much easier for the user and creates a better experience when browsing online. Google will always rank websites that give a better experience and have great information to back up the keyword that it’s being ranked for. Google also has lots of documentation on the topic here is an example.

You only have to manage one website

when responsive design was originally released, you had to build out different versions of the website for each one of the resolutions you wanted to optimize for. So, for example, you would build a desktop version, a mobile version, and a tablet version. This was a very cumbersome and laborious way to create websites. Now with more modern technology at our fingertips, we can simply build 1 version of the website and it is coded to look good on all devices by default. This does alleviate a lot of pitfalls from the past, where it was common to have spelling errors or large differentiations in layout due to having to make that same change three or four times

Reduces your load time

as we all know, it is extremely important that your website loads fast. Not only for the user but also to get on the good side of Google. There are many factors that go into making sure that your website is Google-friendly, but beyond having a responsive website you also want to make sure you have a fast-loading website. Only having one version of your website in a responsively built website ensures that you will have a faster load time.

We’re ready to talk about your website design project? Please give me a call at 623-476-7394 or book a call with me anytime here: calendly.com/jenrchapman

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What is Branding?

Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business. 

– Steve Forbes

There are many ways that people define branding, however what makes up a brand is the combination of many parts and pieces that speak the same language in terms of visuals in messaging.

There is a lot of stock that is put into a logo, sometimes too much responsibility and weight is put on the logo. What many people fail to see right away is that a logo is just one part of a very big puzzle. Any piece of collateral or marketing whether that be through print or digital is considered part of branding. It is essential that if you were to lay all of these items flat on a desk that they would all have a cohesive look and feel like they all belong in the same family.

What Does a Small Business Branding Package Offer?

A small business branding package can offer a business the opportunity to get off to the right start with a beautifully designed collection of materials. This could include logo design, business card design, brochure design and website design. 

Having your small business brand designed by an experienced designer can be one of the first steps and helps you to build a successful brand awareness. Brand awareness is one of the key factors in building trust with potential customers. The goal in branding is to effectively communicate what your business stands for in what you offer.

A complete branding package also ensures that you are attracting the right customers. Some of your initial meetings with the designer that you choose should include discussing who your audience is and who you are trying to attract. Being in tune with your demographics can ensure that you are designing your logo or writing your messaging around what is appealing to that client base.

The Branding Style Guide

This is an essential part of your branding story that you should be sure not to skip. You may be a small business now but you may be a large business later. As your business grows and evolves and you begin to add employees, you may be passing the baton of creating marketing materials to other employees within your business. One of the most common mistakes that I see is that these tasks are given to people that have no idea about how to keep a brand consistent and ends up snowballing into a bunch of marketing materials and digital communications that have no relation to each other visually and are a far cry from the original visual brand identity. In short, your branding style guide clearly defines your color palette, your typography, correct usage of the logo, and defines other branding elements such as patterns, photography style, or icons.

Looking for help with your small business branding package? Take a look at some of my branding packages here or book a call with me today to learn how I can be of help: calendly.com/jenrchapman

The post Benefits of a Branding Package for Small Businesses appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

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Where do you look for logo design online?

A quick search on Google and you will probably get quite a few search results for the free online logo makers or crowdsourced logo online designs.

If you have a business or brand that you want to take seriously, I would highly recommend that you do not get your logo design for free online. Here are just a few reasons why you should stay away.

• Lack of original design: these online free logo makers recycle the same stock photography images over and over again. You are essentially sharing your logo design with hundreds of other companies and you do run the risk of that potentially being in your same market!
• Lack of creative typography: the business logo design online makers also Lack a decent library of fonts to choose from. One of with most overlooked yet important components of logo design is appropriate font style. These online solutions may only offer you 30 to 50 fonts to choose from. While that may seem like a lot, it’s a speck in the world of font selection. There are hundreds of thousands of fonts to choose from and you need to have them all at your fingertips. To give you an idea, my font library has over 4000 fonts to choose from
• No support from a designer: You may think you know what you want, but have you designed a logo before? Are you a logo designer?  Having a phoenix logo designer in your corner can really make the difference between success and failure. You need that person that has years of experience in design credentials to help you achieve what you are looking for
• Inability to trademark: you have absolutely zero chance of being able to trademark or register your logo at any time. The reason for this directly relates to the bullets above. The logo is not unique or original art therefore it cannot be trademarked. 

If you are looking for original logo design, work with a local designer or branding agency that you can collaborate with. Having a personal relationship with your designer can be a key factor in the success of your logo design. You don’t want to be limited to a certain toolbox of colors, images, or fonts. Logo design is a blank slate, the world is your oyster! Be inspired by design that is around you and create a business logo design online that you love! Check out my logo design packages here!

Ready to talk? Book a call with me today. Calendly.com/jenrchapman

The post Business Logo Design Online appeared first on Jen Chapman Creative.

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Endless Web Designers

There seems to be no end when it comes to website design companies in Phoenix. Everyone is a website designer now! All the options and popup companies make picking the right freelancer or design agency more difficult if you don’t know what attributes to look for in a web design company.

After all, your website design will likely be the first touchpoint that a prospective customer will have with your business. Your website has to do the speaking for you. Have the right personality, voice, and creativity to intrigue them enough to pick up the phone or send you an email.

That is why this decision is so critical. You must select a website design company that will help you reach your perfect customer, convert clicks into leads, and help your business grow to meet your goals. Your website needs to do the work for you, so you are not left cold calling or sending out direct mail campaigns that get thrown into the trash.

Beware Of Traps

It’s a jungle out there. I am sure by now you have gotten emails that say something to the effect of “Best website design for $30 an hour!” or “Website design for $300, guaranteed to be the first page of Google!”. This is a trap. Do not take the bait! You will be sorely disappointed to get a website that looked like a third-grader designed it, and a back end that’s filled with code, sometimes malicious! A great way to save while still getting the highest-quality web design is to go for package pricing. 

Take Your Time And Find The Best

Choosing the ideal web design company in Phoenix will not be an easy task, but you can find the best designer for the job with some research and reviewal. If you don’t have that, Google can be your friend. Although most people don’t scroll past Page 1, you may find some outstanding companies on pages two, three, or four. Take your time to look. Also, take some time to interview a few of your favorite companies. See how many companies return your phone call or even pick up the phone. You must work with a company that is easy to get ahold of and communicates fluidly. Too many companies today rely solely on email or texting. Work with the company that will pick up the phone with an actual human on the other end to speak to you.

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Page size

This may seem like a very basic question to answer however it is an important one because the size of your menu can greatly impact the style of your design. If you have a smaller, more simple menu, you may be able to do a simple 8.5×11 double-sided menu design. Choosing a standard page size can save you on printing costs rather than going with a custom size that requires trimming. This solution works well for restaurants that frequently change their selection of menu items. It also allows restaurants to print menus in-house which can save on cost. However, if you have a larger menu with multiple categories, and a wide variety of food selections, you may consider a booklet format. This can allow you to add more design elements to your menus such as photography or graphic elements now that you have the extra space. When you were designing a booklet it is important to remember that the page count must be divisible by 4 so that it can be bound evenly. So, for example, you will want to have 4, 8, or 12 pages, respectively. Creating a menu that is in a booklet format will be more expensive from a printing perspective and not as easily changed.

Design style

The design style of your menu design should reflect your brand. It is very trendy to have a simple menu with a white background and black font that simply and cleanly lists your menu items. This type of design style is commonly found in a high-end, white-tablecloth restaurant. 

Your low to mid-priced restaurants have a bit more leeway when it comes to design flare. If you have an organic, western, or rustic type restaurant your menu design should reflect that through the design elements, backgrounds, or typography. An organic restaurant, for example, may have a parchment paper background, ripped edges, handwritten font, or decorative leaf elements to help support that organic theme. To contrast to this, a western menu design may have elements such as western fonts, leather embellishment accents, or a rustic wood background.

Menu design organization

The way that you present your menu items is also a consideration when designing your menu. A high-end, white-tablecloth restaurant may present their menu with no prices, minimal descriptions, and also list their menu items a-la-carte.  To contrast, you can also design your menus with detailed descriptions and icons to indicate if that menu item is vegan, gluten-free, low carb, or organic. Some of these extra indicators make it easier for restaurant patrons to make decisions about what to order without having to bog down their server with questions that can be answered with a menu.

Select your menu designer

Looking for somebody to design your menu in? Check out my menu design portfolio here or http://calendly.com/jenrchapman. You can also reach me at 623-476–7394.

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