Category: Tips

Potential customers often see a business’ marketing collateral, whether it be printed or digital, before they actually experience a product or service. No matter what the piece is, be sure to incorporate the following best practices to create a good impression with potential and returning customers.

1. Readability

For people to connect with a business or organization, it is important that marketing materials are easy to read. Potential customers need to be able to quickly understand what the business is, the problem it solves, how to buy and where to find more information (website, social media, store location, etc). Keep your messages concise and don’t use jargon. Lastly, make sure that all marketing collateral is free of any kind of errors. Nothing throws doubt on a company’s credibility like seeing grammar and spelling errors! And, to that point, ensure that the website works, social media platforms are updated, chat boxes are being monitored and phone lines are being answered.

2. Crystal Clear Call-to-Action

What do you want readers to do after reading your marketing piece? The call-to-action (CTA) needs to provide a very clear path to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale. It should be obvious but very specific and create an urgency that drives a consumer to make a purchase. A CTA should focus on making a transaction, including:

• Shop our sale now
• Visit us online to buy now
• Get free shipping when you spend $100

It can also focus on a personal engagement between the buyer and the seller. Examples include:

• Call / DM us for a free consultation
• Sign up for a free 30-day trial
• RSVP to attend our event

No matter what  the CTA is, the direction should be crystal clear, free of any ambiguities and impossible to miss.

3. On-point Visual Design

If you have a great message and a precise CTA, but your visual design is a mess, all that work will be for nothing because it will be lost in confusion. Having a properly designed marketing piece for a reader should do four things:

1. Catch a consumer’s attention
2. Direct the reader’s eyes
3. Answer who, what, when, why and where
4. Organize the information and graphics

A visual strategy for all your marketing collateral will provide order and present the most important information so it is easy to find and read, and subsequently make it easy for people to engage with the company.

4. Stay On Brand

Lastly, marketing collateral needs to be on brand, reflecting the proper logo, fonts, colors, key messages and design elements that are synonymous with the organization’s brand identity. Conduct a brand audit to make sure that old branding and messaging has been retired and isn’t lurking in the shadows. It is important to conduct a brand audit every 4-6 months to maintain continuity, identify gaps, and implement updates.

Creating an easily identifiable marketing mix with strong and well-built pieces goes a long way in building a trustworthy and credible business that will consistently retain customers and attract new ones.

Want to learn more? Email at bridget@creative-vortex.com to book a free 30-minute consultation!

Brand relevance is the ability to connect with people’s emotions and make a product or service relevant enough for them to invest in it.  Why is it important? Creating brand relevance is a strong indicator of long-term success by gaining engagement, loyalty, and trust from customers for years to come.

Creating true brand relevance takes time and patience, but when done correctly can grow a brand and business for the long-term. Below are 4 steps that can help you realign your brand for success.

Step #1: Conduct a Brand Audit

Do you know what your footprint is with your target audience? Are you even getting in front of the people that will buy your product or service? Now is the time to conduct a brand audit so you know the impact of your brand and its existing gaps. Use the steps below to conduct a brand audit.

• Identify what is being measured. What is your business’s mission, vision, unique selling proposition, market position and brand promise? Who is your target audience and where are they?
• Assess marketing materials. Gather all your marketing materials, including business logo, brochures, sales sheets, product packaging, letterhead, business cards, print advertisements, website(s), social media platforms, email campaigns, and newsletters. Do they have a consistent design, color, and tone? Do they speak to your target market?
• Review your business website. Using website analytics, assess where web traffic is coming from, what the bounce rate and conversion rate is and if it is attracting your target audience.
• Review your social media data. Use your social media analytics to examine who is following and engaging with your brand. Are they current or potential customers? Are they saying anything about your brand?

Evaluate competitive brands. Assess the competitions by reviewing their marketing and advertising materials, websites, and social media platforms. What are they doing well or not so well?

Step #2: Do Some Market Research

Who does your target audience think you are? To make sure that you are talking to the right target audience and using the right mix of marketing, leverage market research to fully understand how current and potential customers feel about your brand. Use a combination of customer focus groups, email surveys, social media polls, and online surveys to get customer feedback on the following:

• What brand experience have people had?
• What has their experience been with customer service?
• Does your service or product solve customers’ problems?
• How do customers describe your service or product?
• Have they ever recommended it to friends and family?
• What does the brand’s logo make people think of?

Be sure to survey people that aren’t customers yet. Also, create a unique survey for employees to make sure they understand the brand too. If they don’t have full knowledge of the brand it is harder for them to sell it.

Step #3: Review Impact of Design Collateral

• A design audit includes analyzing all the visual and graphic elements that represent your brand externally and internally. Consistency in design has an incredible influence on customer experience and engagement. The audit should include any visual, written, and verbal communication used as a touchpoint to get the attention of current and potential customers. When conducting a visual audit look at the following:
• Patterns: Put visual elements into buckets according to the patterns that represent the brand. Look for commonalities across all platforms and identify anything is erratic and out of place.
• Tone, Voice, & Message: Does what you are saying and writing match up with the visual representation of the brand? Does it support the message represented by the logo?


This step will help to answer the question of whether your visuals tell a cohesive story and accurately represent your brand.

Step #4: Develop A Plan

The only way to truly leverage the information gained from the brand audit, market research and graphic design audit to achieve your marketing objectives is to create a to-do list! This should be a detailed plan of action that highlights goals, deliverables, tactics, and a timeline that prioritizes work to get you in front of the right people to drive engagement and sales. Below are some key activities to building a marketing plan:

• Define Business Goals & Budget
• Conduct a SWOT Analysis
• Identify Target Audience / Customer
• Develop Marketing Goals
• Define Visuals and Communication Tone

Brand relevance can lead to a strong connection between a brand and consumer. When a consumer finds your product or service necessary for them, they will build a connection with your brand through engagement and referrals that will last for years to come.

The art of branding an organization can be a complicated process and mishaps happen!  When branding goes well sales rise and consumers get engaged, but when it goes bad the damage to an organization’s reputation can last for many years. Below are four common branding errors and some ideas to realign and get past them.

Mishap #1 – Inconsistent Use of Brand Across Digital Channels

The digital world is huge right now, and with the onset of the pandemic businesses need to be visible and easy to connect with online to thrive and grow.  A recent study by ClickZ Marketing Technology Transformation shows advantages of omnichannel marketing automation including 250% higher purchase frequency and 90% higher customer retention rates. Which means that having a strong and consistent presence on the top digital channels (see list below) is critical to success. Make it a point to review your channels on a weekly and monthly basis to ensure all graphics, visuals and content are sending the same message and speaking the same language. In fact, make it someone’s job to ensure brand usage is consistent!

Top Digital Channels:

1. Website
2. Email
3. Social Media
4. Mobile
5. Display Ads
6. Video

Mishap #2 – Disconnect Between Content Strategy and Brand Strategy

A brand strategy is the blueprint for building and growing a brand, basically the purpose of an organization … why it exists and what it does. Which is pretty much the foundation of a business. A content strategy is a tool to communicate what the organization is through content (i.e. print and digital channels). A misaligned content strategy dilutes a brand to the point it confuses and turns customers away creating little to no emotional connection to the brand. Look at your website … does it clearly articulate your mission and vision and how the product or service makes customers’ lives better?

Below are a few ideas on how to align content with branding.

1. Create brand stories that include a value proposition and support the core identity of the organization.
2. Implement brand guidelines for creating content that will be used on all marketing and communication channels.
3. Develop campaigns for core business initiatives that are anchored in the organization’s brand values, mission, vision and value proposition.

Mishap #3 – Cutting Corners on Your Logo

A logo is a symbol that provides powerful brand recognition for your organization to consumers, investors, and competitors. Many factors can influence the development of a logo and often people will focus on getting the simplest and cheapest logo available because the process is daunting to them … or they just don’t see the ROI on really investing in a great logo. There are many online logo development websites available but creating a logo tailored for a business with a professional graphic designer can be quick, easy, and cost efficient. It is built around a concept and strategy, includes different variations and will grow for the long-term with a business. A good logo creates synergy with business goals and is designed to last for generations.

Mishap #4 – Lack of Strategy

Not having a branding strategy is probably one of the biggest mistakes an organization can make. A strategy provides a clear idea of what your organization stands for and how it can help customers, as well as visually define how a brand is presented to target markets. Not having a strategy creates a lot of ambiguity internally for employees as they work to promote the product or service, which ultimately affects the external messages and visuals that customers see. And, if customers are seeing mixed messages and visuals that creates uncertainty and confusion, which impacts the bottom line. Take the time to sit down and create a brand strategy that translates into brand guidelines that are used to execute the brand internally and externally.

Creating a strong and timeless brand takes a lot of work and won’t necessarily happen overnight, but by being thoughtful and consistent in its application it will provide a return on investment that will position your business as a market leader for years to come.

Nonprofit marketing teams are constantly being asked to do more with less. Resources are tight and teams are small. People have good intentions but are wearing multiple hats. Branding and marketing often fall to those that don’t have the expertise and time to do it right. I have spent a significant amount of my career providing branding and marketing for nonprofits and have witnessed this very thing. A plush marketing budget is nice, but not necessary to create an effective branding footprint, especially when it comes to a digital presence. Oftentimes, this is where nonprofits tend to struggle the most because they don’t have a clear understanding when it comes to creating and maintaining it.

Let’s focus on leveraging email campaigns and social media to help nonprofits create a digital presence. Both of these platforms have the ability to reach target audiences, tell a visual story, and provide access points to the organization. The goal is to amplify a mission statement, raise donations/awareness, draw volunteers, and increase the reach of the organization.

Branding Footprint
The overarching goal of a branding footprint is for all of an organization’s collateral to match. This includes a logo, website, social media, business cards, messaging, packaging … literally everything that represents your organization internally and externally. This conveys trust and credibility that the organization is well run and organized, as well as that the employees serving as stewards of the funds raised, will follow through on the organizations brand promise of serving those in need.

Digital Presence
A digital presence needs to fall tightly in line with the rest of the marketing materials and include consistent visuals and messaging seen online. Email marketing and social media are two effective tools available to create an enhanced brand experience online.

Email Marketing
Creating email campaigns allows organizations to segment and target the different people in their audiences. For example, you can focus on volunteers, donors, corporate partners, consumers, or peers. The key to success is to have clear messaging (what do you want them to know or do? What is the CTA?) that utilizes the same language and design elements across all the marketing platforms. It is easy to integrate video and drive people to a similarly branded organization website. Email marketing tends to be more formal and precise.

Social Media
Social media is an amazing opportunity to engage with followers and connect with people new to the brand. It provides an incredible opportunity to tell and show stories about the organization. To truly be impactful, it’s important to create a visual flow that incorporates the same design elements and messaging but allows for the ability to create a unique spin through video, animated gifs, guest appearances, tagging and design templates.

Create a branding guide (i.e. rules for use of logo, colors, fonts) and editorials calendars and stick to it. Remember, you don’t need a big budget to create a plan. Consistency is your key to success with both tools!

The keystones to building a business that can stand the test of time is creating a brand that people love and have a great buying relationship with. The strength of a brand can be found in its ability to create truly great products and seamlessly connect and communicate with its audience. Brands can start to struggle when they fail to evolve with industry trends and customer needs, or they react too quickly and make hasty decisions individually. Addressing those gaps early on is important to ensure business continuity. Below are four red flags that might signify that your brand is struggling to be relevant.

1. Brand Essence is Confusing

If you can’t quickly and efficiently state what your brand stands for then you have a problem. For example, Amazon is focused on convenience, Walmart on affordable products, Whole Foods on organic food and Starbucks on exceptional coffee. If you don’t know what your brand essence is (i.e. single intangible attribute), or senior management can’t agree on it, then it’s next to impossible to communicate your competitive differentiator to potential customers.

2. Mixed Messages

Are all your marketing and brand platforms communicating the same thing? Do they have the same look and feel? If going to your organization’s website is a different experience than going to your Instagram account that is a clear sign that your brand needs to be realigned. Each platform is used for a different purpose, but they all need to communicate the same brand messages and support the same type of design and imagery.

3. Your Colors Don’t Represent Your Identity

I once had a client that wanted to use cotton candy pink as the main color for a law firm’s brand because it was her favorite color. There isn’t anything wrong with cotton candy pink, however, it is not a color that typically instills confidence in people looking for some legal help to settle some serious issues. Colors greatly affect people’s emotional reaction to a brand and its products or services. It’s been proven that color influences 60 to 80 percent of purchasing decisions. What does your brand color palette say about you?

4. You DIYed EVERYTHING

Let’s be real here. You are probably really good at creating the product or service that your brand was created to sell. But are you good at building a website, designing a logo, writing marketing content or coordinating print jobs? Probably not! Maybe you might save a few dollars by trying to do it all but in the end your brand is going to be more organized, clearer and targeted if you work with professionals that have the expertise and the time to do it right.

Brand misalignment happens to every business at some point. It isn’t a permanent state of being and can be corrected. The important thing is to be aware of it and take the proper steps to correct it.

Visual marketing focuses on using unique and relevant images and design elements, and uses them to pull consumers in. Visual marketing campaigns are more likely to be shared and get clicks than text ads would. As a business, investing in visual marketing is invaluable to your overall strategy. A visual design strategy creates a more consistent experience for your audiences and enhances their engagement with your products and services. According to Brain Rules, people only remember 10 percent of the information they hear, but if that same information is paired with a relevant image 65 percent of the information is retained.

What is a visual design strategy? More than just colors and design, it ties together all the moving pieces that make up your brand, including logo, photos and images, layout and font usage. Brands that put the effort into making sure a visual identity is aligned with key messages and resonates with their audience will more effectively create long-term brand loyalty.

Below are five tips to help create a cohesive visual design strategy, which is an exact reflection of a company. It is so important to put in the time and research into developing the strategy to ensure it accurately and positively represents its brand.

1.    Create the Right Logo

A logo should be unique and provide a snapshot of a brand. It needs to show off a company’s colors and unique attributes. Additionally, it needs to be easily used on many different platforms, including print, social media, digital communications and website. While a logo should be designed to be timeliness, make sure it is consistently updated. Additionally, a logo should have the flexibility to be used with or without a relevant tagline or bug. For those not familiar, a logo bug is a visual element used alongside the copy that can stand alone to represent the brand if necessary.

2.    Determine Your Color Palette

Consistent use of color is the hallmark of well-known brands (think of Coca Cola’s red, Nike’s orange, Google’s multi-colors and Ikea’s blue and yellow). Be sure to do some research into the theory of color to make sure your brand is being properly represented and to make an emotional connection with your audience. You can choose one color or a handful of colors, but make sure they are applied to all of your marketing and communication materials.

3.    Decide on a Font Family

A font needs to support the overall design and brand voice. A really good designer will understand the intricacies of choosing a font based on typography and typeface and can more fully guide you in the process. However, a good font needs to be legible, unique and memorable across a diversity of platforms in order to communicate brand personality. I could talk for days about fonts, typography and typeface … give me a call to learn more!

4.    Curate Specific Images & Photos

The most important thing to know about choosing images and photos is to make sure your target audience can identify with them. You need to create that perfect balance between using stock images and customized photos to illustrate your company. Oh, and don’t forget about mindful copyright laws!

5.    Stick to a Layout & Design

Last, but not least, be sure that your online presence and marketing materials incorporate a consistent layout and design (using your fonts and brand colors, of course) to make sure your brand is easily identifiable and creates brand recognition. How all of the visual elements discussed above flow together and present information about your company and its products/services certainly affects how impactful your marketing and sales efforts are. Layout and design needs to be clean, clear and concise to ensure readability and understanding.

As with all things marketing, make sure that all your different strategies are working together, including messaging, communications, marketing and visuals!