The Ocean Agency

I was just having a conversation with a friend about one of his favorite Chicago restaurants, and it turned out that the place was right around the corner from my new apartment. (Incidentally, the conversation started because I saw him raving about Twin Anchors leftovers in his GChat status message– so there’s another example of online word of mouth for you.) This highly-regarded Chicago tavern is full of history; it’s been around since 1932 and claims to be a favorite of Frank Sinatra. But in the vast culinary landscape of Chicago, which is constantly expanding with new restaurants and bars, how does a traditional tavern and BBQ joint stand out? How does it parlay a crowd of loyal regulars into a new and growing customer base?

Hayley pointed me to this video today, a song by rapper Charles Hamilton. He is best known for his song, “Brooklyn Girls” a catchy tribute to the female inhabitants of a certain burrough.

So, exploring his other music, Hayley came across this gem:

Friday’s here and so are our links. This Memorial Day weekend, we’ll be thinking about online business development, branding and business cards.

Mayhem Studios gives recommendations on how to better brand your Twitter presence with a customized background– check out the do’s and don’ts.

Web Designer Depot talks branding, too, and shows us 50 great circular logos. Check ‘em out. We do love NASA and Wordpress!

Smashing Mag talks cool (but maybe impractical) business cards. It’s good to have a stand-out card, but don’t get this attitude.

Finally, advice on pleasing clients is always good. Vandelay Designs gives some good tips on understanding your client from the get-go.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend!

Designing your logo is a defining moment for any business. Giving a graphic representation to the ideals of your business can effect your company for years to come. When you think of a company, you usually relate your experience with it directly to its logo– and for online businesses, this is even more true. The first thing a user comes into contact with– especially in the incredibly graphic-based experience of the web– is your logo. Here are some tips for getting it right the first time and not having to go through countless redesigns and companies to perfect your online brand.

This article from the New York Times gives some great insight into logo creation– we’re going to tweak it for company owners working with an online business development firm.

1- Sketch. As an online business owner, you might not have the skills to create exactly what you want. But walking into a meeting with a design with a blueprint is always good. Print things you like, iconography you relate to your business, or sketch as best you can what you envision representing you.

2- Check out your competition. You want to distinguish yourself, but you want your customers to indentify your company with your  market. You don’t want to get so far away from norms that your customers can’t relate to or trust you within your niche.

3- Timeless over trendy. Especially–especially– in web design, this is so important. A trendy logo of a new company will often look dated a few years down the road. Make sure yours will hold up.

4- Less is more. Web users always prefer simplicity. Clean, sleek and clear are words we hear our designers using all the time, and for good reason. Logos that are busy or messy are as bad as websites that hide their function in clutter.

5- Easy on the colors. Especially for a corporate presence online, you want to stay on the “friendly” side of the color spectrum. You never want to alienate users with lurid colors that are trendy or you think stand out.

6- One size does not fit all. The article pretty  much nails it- Have your consultants “test your logo across different reproduction sizes to make sure it is scalable. Web logos may look different in print than online, different when faxed than when printed on a business card or mug. Consider all the possibilities, including aspect ratio.”

7- Go beyond photoshop. DIY may work for a small business, but if you’ve got bigger goals, “then hire a qualified professional with proven experience. The difference between a poorly constructed logo and a well-designed one is self-evident.”

8- Graphic vs. text logos. Although some of the most memorbale logos, like the Nike swoosh, are simply graphics, if you’re a new company, you may need a little more brand explanation. Make sure your logo meets the needs of your online business development– you may need to explain what your business does before you start branding it.

9- Get feedback. Ask your office, ask your consultant. But never stray too far from your vision to accommodate the opinions of everyone you know. Don’t let your designer lose the “you” in your design.

10-  Simplicity, again. Yep… simplicity is so important, the article recommended it twice.

The logo is often a first step of business development, and it’s important to get it right. A web design firm should understand the principles above and help you achieve your vision.

According to The Blog Herald, one of the biggest trends in blogging currently and in the coming year will be authors blogging to sell their book. We’ve noticed this on sites like KyleBeachy.com, where Chicago-based writer Kyle Beachy blogs and compiles his social media presence (he’s good– Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads, Last.fm and Flickr to boot). 

While it may seem like published authors might look down on the unedited, unregulated form that is blogging, they are overwhelmingly taking to it for business reasons. For the promotion of their published materials, writers are tapping into their market through social media and a developed web presence. British writer Kate Hardy explains, “Blogging means that readers get a glimpse into the ideas behind my work — whether it’s an awards do, a research trip or random musing. It also updates my website frequently to bring readers back; I use it to interact with my readers and my publishers can use it on their website as a publicity tool.”

Similarly, although it may not seem like most intuitive venue to promote your business, blogging may be a valuable resource for your company. Almost every industry has a niche audience on the web. You can enhance your customer service and relationships with your users, while also tapping into new markets that have eluded you until now. Blogging is a key element to online business development– well written, long form content proves your authority and builds confidence in your readers.

Building a community has become key to online business development, online marketing and customer service in this age of social media competition. Beyond your social media presence, your company’s own website must be designed and presented in a way that encourages participation, in forums, comment sections or customer response forms. Additionally, content must drive the customer to join the community– it must be relevant, but also intriguiging and  engaging. A constant stream of good content is worthless if it just sits there. Your users have to want to respond to what you’re providing!

A List Apart gives great advice on how to cultivate a community. A community starts with a website that is current and usable, but the communicativeness of your copy and content also directly affects whether a user feels welcome or not. In addition to your creative web design, users need to relate to your community to want to join it; the engaging copy you provide must make a user identify with your brand and community. Information about your company needs to be accessible and interesting. 

Encouraging participation through design is, of course, important as well. If your main community-building source is your blog area, the main place users will participate is the comment form. You must spur a user to comment with engaging content– then make them feel confident to respond with a well designed comment form. Blog Design Blog shows us a ton of ways to make your comment section look. The main consideration is, will your users provide feedback through that form?

Building a community can create new customers and keep the old ones, through allowing your users and customers to relate to each other and your brand. They can better your business if you can ascertain what they’re feeling and how they’re responding to your website and company. By writing creative copy to engage your users, and designing your site to best encourage them to participate, you can start building your community immediately.

Small businesses should be driving new customers towards their business in any way they can, these days. So why are so many small business foregoing the best way to market themselves on the local level? Creative web design and a reserved online marketing campaign expose potential customers to your website in a way that no other medium can rival. This article explains why small business owners might be missing the opportunity.

The wildest part about it all is that small business owners themselves use search engines (or at least 82% of them, according to this blog).  So why do they relegate themselves to the virutally unused yellow pages for advertising to potential clients? If you want to be found by people looking for your services, having a well optimized website that represents your small business is the first step.

Seach engines allow users to isolate exactly what they need and find who provides it, especially on a local scale, and local, highly-targeted traffic is exactly what small business websites need. If your small business doesn’t have a lot of money to spend of advertising, consider an advertising method that is more than just a business expense. Online business development isn’t an ad you just put out into the world; it’s a living and growing expansion of your business. A developed web presence elevates the quality of your interaction with customers, which eventually betters the quality of your business. 

If your small business is part of the 91% of companies that are unsatisfied with their online marketing efforts, make sure you hire a online business development company than can expand you horizons and not limit your online growth with predictable strategies.