branding basics

2 Butler Web and Design: BRANDING BASICS

www.butlerwebanddesign.com

Don’t be fooled. Branding and online marketing isn’t as confusing or expensive as

some companies would like you to believe it is. Butler Web & Design is your one-stop-

shop for all of your design or web development needs.

“We Make It Simple!”

That’s our motto. We believe that brandi ng and online marketing for your busi-

ness should be easy. When looking for a company to help you brand or market your

business online, you’ll fi nd that many companies give a long, confusing, and complicat-

ed explanation as to all the work they’ll do for you.

They do this for two reasons:

1) to make it seem like no one can do it except for them, and

2) to justify their outrageous cost!

aBout Butler



Butler Web and Design Specializes in 3 main areas:



Sean taMBagaHan

aBout tHe autHor

Sean lives in Clovis, CA with his beautiful wife, Candace,

and 2 boys, Jet and Chase.

He is the Operations Manager for Butler Web and

Design, which includes several hats to be worn: sales, support,

design, vision, strategy, implementation, management…You

could say he’s a little busy from 9-5, but not too busy to help

educate small-medium sized businesses and entrepreneurs

regarding branding.

He has a heart for small businesses, and is always trying

to fi nd or create helpful resources for them regarding branding

and online marketing.



introDuction: Butler’S noteS

Section one: colorS anD logo /10

Section tWo: BuSineSS carDS anD BrocHureS /14

Section tHree: a SucceSSful WeBSite /18

Section four: SearcH engine oPtiMiZation /22

Section fiVe: Social MeDia PreSence /26

Section Six: PreSenting YourSelf aS a ProfeSSional / 31

taBle of contentS



introDuction

So you’ve started your business – congratulations! Now what? Just like

building a house, before starting the structure of your business you want to lay a

good foundation or you could be in jeopardy of it collapsing. According to the

Small Business Administration (SBA), “About half of all new establishments survive

fi ve years or more and about one-third survive 10 years or more.” Or to put it

negatively, most small businesses don’t make it past 10 years.

Now don’t get discouraged, you don’t have to

be a statistic. There are always reasons why businesses

fail, just as there are reasons businesses succeed.

Knowing how to distinguish the failures from the

successes could be the determining factor of whether

or not your business will thrive during its startup period.

Now What?



What is Branding?

According to The American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name,

term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods

and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of

other sellers.” In other words, your brand is the image of your business. It’s how people

remember you. It’s what comes to mind when people hear your company name.

According to an article by Patricia Schaefer from Business Know-How, one

of the pitfalls of business failure is lack of planning. She observed that “Many small

businesses fail because of fundamental shortcomings in their business planning”.

Some of the missing components she noted that business failures neglect includ-

ed a lack of marketing, advertising, and promotional activities, and having no

website. Before you put the cart before the carriage, you want to make sure you

take care of some preliminary tasks.

One of the most overlooked pieces of the business planning puzzle is

branding.

The American Marketing AssociationThe American Marketing Association (AMA), a brand is a “name,



Branding Infl uencers

The cool part is that you are in control of it. You set the image of what people

think about your company – whether you intend to or not. The companies with the

best brands are intentional about it. Having a good brand doesn’t just happen – and

it’s not just about being good at what you do. Building your brand includes basically

everything you do in your company, such as:

• The design of your logo, brochures, business cards, and other marketing

materials

• The design and layout of your website

• The dress code (or lack thereof) in your business

• The consistency of your customer’s experience when doing business with you

• Quality of products or services offered.



All of these things are infl uencers that affect your company’s brand.

Infl uencers that affect your brand are constantly changing. For example, 20 years

ago having a website had pretty much no effect on your company’s brand. Today,

however, not having a professional, well-laid-out website is often the difference of

getting or losing new customers. Newer infl uencers that affect your brand include

things like Search Engine Optimization, social media presence, sharable

web-content and educational resources.

The bottom line is that you have to stay up to date with the latest infl uencers

that affect your brand, and capitalize on them early on. In this e-book, we’ll cover

six infl uencers you should think about regarding your company’s brand.



Section one: colorS anD

logo



Section one: colorS anD logo

“Does this color or logo bring familiarity to my industry?”

“Does my logo fi t the atmosphere I want to create?” (If you want to portray a fun atmosphere, you may want to include round,

bubbly shapes with cursive or stylized fonts. If you want to portray a more professional/

business-type atmosphere then you may want neutral colors with serif-type font.)

“Do these colors resonate with the targeted demographic I’m trying to reach?”

Look at different logos in your industry and point out elements you like, and

elements you dislike.

When selecting the colors and logo of your company, it’s not about just picking

what you like - even though that’s important because you want your business to be an

extension of you (to some extent). However, when thinking about the colors and logo for

your business, ask questions like:

Grungy

Sharp edges with bold curves and tattered texture.

Fun

Off centered text with curvy shapes and fonts.

Professional

Simple shapes with serif-type font.

Trendy

Curved shapes mixed with straight, sans serif-type font.

Retail

Mixed serif with sans serif-type fonts with round-ed shapes and gradients.



Section one: colorS anD logo

trustworthy,dependable,

responsible, secure

aggressive, energetic,

provocative, passion, danger

optimism, positivity,

light, warmth

responsible, secureprovocative, passion, danger

energy,youthfulness, fun,

excitement

mystery,sophistication,

spirituality, royalty

gregarious,sociable,childlike

dirty,grungy

simplicity,cleanliness,

purity

serious, bold, powerful,

classic

health, freshness, serenity

John Williams from Entrepreneur.com wrote a helpful article explaining our

perception of different colors. Below is a synopsis of his explanation of what we tend to

think when we see different colors.

For more on choosing the right colors for your business, read an article on Inc.

com from Eric Markowitz titled “How to Choose the Right Colors for Your Brand”.



Section one: colorS anD logo Every color, however, has different shades and tones which often times adjust

our perception. For example, though green typically signifi es health, freshness, and

serenity, deeper greens are associated with wealth or prestige while light greens are

calming.

The point is to not whimsically pick your business colors and logo. Put thought into it, as this will be the basis of your brand. Everything else you create for your business follows

your logo and colors.

tHe BaSic color WHeeltHe BaSic

color WHeelcolor WHeel



Section tWo: BuSineSS carDS anD BrocHureS



Imagine, for a moment, that you are in a conversation with someone and

you end up talking about your business. Your listener is fascinated with your

knowledge of your industry, and they ask you for your card, or a brochure. You

typically have three responses to choose from at this point:

I. Stammer around until you fi nd a blank piece of paper and a pen to write

your name, number and email address

II. Hand them something that looks like you created in Microsoft Word late

one night

III. Hand them a professional looking business card or brochure that

resembles your brand (incorporating the logo and colors that you have

carefully predetermined would represent your business)

Which response do you think would leave your listener with the impression

that you are serious about what you do? Obviously the third response would set

you apart as a professional. It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do if

you don’t present yourself as a professional, because people who don’t know you

personally will not give you the opportunity to prove it to them.





How should your marketing materials look? It depends on your logo and colors, and

how you want to present your brand. For an upscale, professional look, less is more. Blank

space leaves the impression of professionalism. For a more fun look, incorporate

different elements and shapes, with off-centered or tilted affects to your logo and/or

different graphics. Visit our design portfolio and our printing page for examples of

different types of cards and brochures.

Visit our website at www.butlerwebanddesign.com for examples in our design portfolio.

Professional Business Cards Fun looking Business Cards




What about your brochures? Keep in mind that the purpose of a brochure is not to

inform people about everything you think they should know about your industry, products

or services. A brochure is to give people a taste of your brand, and tune them into the

radio station they listen to – WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).

The design of your brochure should

follow the branding you

predetermined (based on your logo and

colors) and have enough information to

leave its viewers wanting more.

A brochure isn’t meant to sell

products and services; it’s meant to sell

your brand. Don’t give away all the

goodies in your brochure; make sure your

prospects have a reason to

contact you.



Section tHree: a SucceSSfulWeBSite



We have written on the subject, “What is a Successful Website”, in length in

the past. In short, a successful website is one that accomplishes a specifi c purpose.

What purpose? That’s for you to decide. Do you want to sell products online? Do

you want people to leave their information (lead generation)? Do you want to

provide information to your current customers? The purpose of your website can

only be determined by you, and it must be determined before even thinking about

how it should be designed, because the design of your website should be based

on the purpose you want it to fulfi ll.

Section tHree: a SucceSSful WeBSite

Here’s a simple step-by-step process that you can follow when shopping for a website:

I. Defi ne your purpose (what you want your website to do for you)

II. Look at your competition and write down what you like, and what you dislike

III. Create a site map (how many pages you know you need at the bare minimum,

and what you expect visitors to do on those pages).

IV. Research web development companies to see what industry standard rates

are for your specifi c needs (for great tips on how to fi nd the right web developer,

read the article here)

V. Choose a web developer that you feel comfortable with



How should your website look? Obviously, just like everything else you do, it should

follow your brand. Aside from that, you want to make sure that your website is

developed around visitors. Collis, from psd.tutsplus.com wrote a helpful article where he

laid out 9 essential principles for good web design. Read his article for a full explanation,

but here is a synopsis of his points, which we would agree with:

I. Precedence (guiding the eye) – You need to control your visitors eyes and guide

them where you want to on your site. Things that help guide our eyes include:

position, color, contrast, size, special design elements (arrows, circled items, etc.).

II. Spacing – it’s important to not have everything crammed together where your

eyes are overwhelmed, and it’s also important to not have things too spaced apart

where your eyes get lost.

III. Navigation – it’s not only your job to guide your visitors eyes on each page, it’s

also your job to guide your visitors to each page they should visit. Your visitors should

not be confused as to where they need to go on your site to fi nd what they want.

They should also not be confused as to where they currently are on your site, and

how to navigate back to other pages.

IV. Design to Build – just because something looks cool, it doesn’t mean it’s going

to be functional or practical as a website. It’s important to know if your design can

actually be done, and if it will be able to achieve the purpose you want it to.




V. Typography – typography is the art and technique of arranging type (or text).

It includes the font style and size, font color, line spacing, etc.

VI. Usability – A website is only as good as the user’s experience. You want to

make sure that your website is user-friendly, and adheres to standard practices.

Even though you want your site to be unique, there are certain things people ex-

pect from every website, and you don’t want to confuse them. For example, hav-

ing a menu bar is one of the most basic elements of navigation design, and most

people orientate themselves on websites based on the menu bar. As another

example, if text has an underline, you typically expect it to be a link – having

underlined text without linking somewhere isn’t good usability practice.

VII. Alignment – this simply means consistency with the way things are aligned on

each page of your site. This doesn’t mean that your website content has to be in a

straight line.

VIII. Clarity – keeping your design looking sharp.

IX. Consistency – this means that everything needs to match on your website.

Your menu bar and footer, your headers, your paragraph structure, your link

design… it all needs to be consistent so that your visitors are not confused from

one page to the next.




Section four: SearcH engineoPtiMiZation (Seo)



Section four: SearcH engine oPtiMiZation

It’s important to be found when someone does a search for things relevant to your

business. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a service that many web developers offer

their clients in order to give them better rankings on search engines like Google, Yahoo,

and Bing. There is much to be said about SEO, and much has been written about what it is

and how it works. Two must-read articles that give short, to-the-point explanations of SEO

best practices can be found on Butler Web and Design’s Resource Page. Here are links to

the articles:

The SEO Myth

The Magic SEO Button Fallacy




In short, search engines are built for searchers, not websites. Imagine if you went to

Google to do a search for “go green products in Clovis California” and you got a bunch

of results of Go-Green companies who weren’t located in Clovis California, and they

didn’t have good content that you were looking for, but they were able to manipulate

their site to get the top position. Now imagine if this were to happen every time you did

a search on Google. It wouldn’t be very long before you realized that Google wasn’t a

trusted source to give you relevant content, and you would start using a different search

engine.

Google doesn’t want that to happen. That’s why it’s in their best interest to make

sure that you, as a searcher, are fi nding the content that you want to see, when you

want to see it. They are good at what they do, and they’re always changing to make

sure that searchers are happy with their search results. That’s why it’s important to design

your website for the searchers – not the search engines.




The most important part of SEO is creating lots of good, relevant content,

and hiring a good web developer that can give you a unique design, with a good

layout for your content.

In an article I wrote titled “SEO Checklist”, which can be found on the Butler

Resource Center, I laid out a simple 6-step process to get started with SEO. The

steps included:

I. Getting a website

II. Indexing it in search engines

III. Creating content for your site

IV. Listing it in Google Places

V. Promoting it to friends, family and current customers

VI. Getting active in Social Media

Many of these points are discussed in this e-book, but for more info read the

SEO Checklist article.



Section fiVe: Social MeDiaPreSence



Section fiVe: Social MeDia PreSence

Having a social media presence for your business is important for branding for two

reasons:

I. It allows you the opportunity to shape the perception of your brand to a wider

audience online, without the need for people to see your establishment or physical

marketing materials.

II. It gives your brand greater reach to potential customers by increasing your

search engine rankings. Social media is the number one activity with the most time

spent online; therefore Search Engines have incorporated social media presence

into their algorithm.

Before creating social media sites for your business, ask yourself if you are prepared

to commit to keeping them active. Sometimes it can be counterproductive to have a

blog that you never use. Therefore it may be better to not have a blog, or a Facebook

page, or Twitter account, if you don’t plan on being consistent in using them.




Why have multiple Social Media Accounts? Every social media site offers a

different user experience, and therefore creates a different type of social media

culture and may attract different types of users. Some of the different types of social

media categories include:

• Social Networks: this is a very casual form of social media typically used for

connecting with friends, peers, or people with similar interests and backgrounds.

Facebook and LinkedIn are examples of Social Networks.

• Media Sharing: this type of social media is used for sharing different forms of

media, and talking about them. Youtube and Flickr are examples of Media

Sharing.




Pinterest is another form of media sharing, even though it stands alone as a very

different type of social media – almost in a class of its own. Here’s a simple rule for mar-

keting your business with Pinterest: do not use it as a tool for self-promotion; rather, use

Pinterest to showcase the lifestyle that your brand promotes.

• Forums and Blogs: this allows members to hold conversations about relevant

topics regarding specifi c subjects. As a business, you may want to consider joining

in on the discussions happening on forums and blogs to share your thoughts, ideas

and insights. This gives you the platform to share your expertise with people who

are interested in the things your business deals with.

• Microblogging: this is designed to share quick thoughts and insights in short-form,

and push them out to people or groups who subscribe to receive your updates.

Twitter is an example of microblogging.




The most basic and fundamental social media site to have for your business is

Facebook.

When creating a Facebook page, it’s important to know the difference

between a page and a profi le. A Profi le is for personal use to connect, chat, and

share things with people you know. A Page is for business use to engage with your

customers, clients, followers, and prospects, promote your brand, and present

information regarding your industry.

There are also different types of pages depending on what type of business you

have. Visit the Facebook “Create a Page” wizard for help.



Section Six: PreSenting YourSelfaS a ProfeSSional



Section Six: PreSenting YourSelf aS a ProfeSSional

The Sleazy Salesman Approach

People are more and more opposed to the typical sleazy salesman approach.

This approach incorporates a lot of smoke screens, double talk, and unethical sales

tactics. The sleazy salesman approach also incorporates a lot of pitching, and “look at

how great my company is” ads. Sleazy salesmen always want to take, and don’t really

care about giving. It’s obvious that you are working with a sleazy salesman when all

they care about is making a sale, and not about making sure you make an educated

purchase. When you incorporate sleazy salesman tactics in your business, even if it’s

just a single salesman doing it and not you, it gives a negative impression on your brand.

People will start to perceive your company as one they can’t really trust in your industry.




The Professional Approach

On the contrary, when people do business with a professional company, they leave

feeling satisfi ed – like they could do business with you again; and they wouldn’t mind en-

couraging their friends and family to do the same.

A professional is someone who cares

about people more than they care about

money. A professional understands that if

you take care of people, then they take

care of you. A professional makes sure

that before a person makes the deci-

sion to do business with them, they know

exactly what they are committing to and

they are not left with more questions than

when they started.




How do you present yourself as a professional?

Aside from honesty and ethical business practices, a huge part of professionalism

includes offering resources and educational information about your industry, products,

or services. Write articles and blogs. Answer 10 or 20 of the most frequently asked

questions about your industry (this could become your FAQ’s page on your website) and

post them to your social media sites. Create content and resources that educate

people about your industry, not just about what you do. Make a resource page on your

site and offer them for free as educational materials to anyone who visits.

When you create your resources, it’s important to make sure people know that

you can help them with whatever issues you discuss, but don’t inundate your

materials with ads and promotions – people will get the idea that all you want to do is

make money off of them, rather than help them.


As you can see, building your company is really about building your brand. Use

these best practices to develop your brand into one that people know and trust. For

more resources, tips and educational materials visit the resource center at Butler Web

and Design: http://butlerwebanddesign.com/resources.html.

About the Author:

Sean Tambagahan is the Operations Manager for Butler Web and Design.

See his bio here.

It’s crucial to your company’s brand to leave people with the understanding that

you are in the people business. People don’t really care how much you know, until they

know how much you care. When they see your company as a trusted source in your

industry, your brand will be the first that comes to their mind when they need your

services.

Butler Web & DesignP. (559) 797-3414

F. (559) 323-9151

1505 Tollhouse Rd. STE. A

Clovis, CA 93611


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