​The average consumer sees around 300 ads per day. How do you make yours stand out from the crowd? Here are a few things to remember!
What’s your story?
When it comes to branding, a picture really is worth 1,000 words. Potential customers are likely to see your logo before they read anything about you so it needs convey your story. A good graphic designer will understand this and work with you to create design elements that present an image in line with what you want to achieve for your brand.
 
Be prepared for that conversation by having your brand story ready to present. Once that foundation is in place, you will be better equipped to provide feedback on how well the designer is achieving it. This goes for redesigns, too—a new design should continue to tell your brand’s story as well as the previous one did. Otherwise, the consequences can be brutal.
 
Inspiration is everywhere
One advantage to seeing so many marketing messages each day is that there’s no shortage of inspiration out there. A good brand is always evolving and adapting to new trends, rather than staying with the same-old, same-olds.
 
Seek out design ideas you like by cutting clips from magazines or adding links to a board in Pinterest. Choose examples of things you like and things you don’t so your designer will have a complete picture when it’s time to create design elements.
 
If at first you don’t succeed…
Because design elements are so critical to a brand’s public perception, it’s crucial that you are satisfied with the finished product before it’s added to your website or print collateral. Again, a good graphic designer will understand this and work with you until you are satisfied.
 
If you have a solid understanding of you brand story, examples of what you want to achieve, and the perseverance to stick with it until you get what you want, you may be rewarded with a strong design and brand visibility! It may help your brand rise to the top of the marketing fray that your consumers are bombarded with each day.

The answer? Very. You only have one chance to make a first impression on new clients or customers, and the quality of your logo and other design elements says more than even the snappiest written copy can. Here are ways that graphic design can make or break your business!
 
Professionalism
Well-designed logos signal to the public that your business is organized and professional. If your brochure or website design looks like it was put together by an amateur, why should a prospective client or customer take you seriously? There’s a ton of competition in any industry, and consumers are more demanding than ever.
 
Internal unity
Your design affects your employees just as much as it does your customers. Your employees are walking ambassadors for your brand, and they should feel confident about how that brand is represented on their polo shirts, business cards, and other collateral. If your employees are not confident in how the brand is represented, they won’t be as confident when interacting on your company’s behalf.
 
Message clarity
Good design should work in conjunction with written messages, not against them. A strong logo can communicate ideas or feelings that words just can’t describe. The last thing you want is for a customer to look at your product and see conflicting messages between what the logo says and what the corresponding words say.
 
For example, think about how much is said just by looking at iconic symbols like the Nike Swoosh or the Apple on every iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. The clean design elements compliment the clear and compelling copy that consumers have come to expect from these brands.
 
Long-term rewards
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. That can be especially true with graphic design. While you may need to pay a little more upfront for a quality and professional-looking logo or other graphics, you will reap the benefits of increased sales and visibility in the long run. A good designer should be able to quickly and efficiently turn your ideas into reality and work with you until you are satisfied with the results. Anything short of that will result in spending more of your hard-earned money on starting over with someone else.

​Below are a few tips for keeping your business-associated New Year’s resolutions:
 
Visualize resolutions
Locate a nice, peaceful place to sit, shut your eyes, and picture the objectives you wish to achieve. Mentally walk through them, imagining that you are going through the motions, which eventually will bring you higher levels of success. You are essentially training your brain to take the necessary steps to attain your goals.
 
Say resolutions each morning
To meet your resolutions and goals, you must keep them inside the forefront of your mind. By repeating them to yourself each morning, you are reminding yourself they exist. It’ll help set you up to take the necessary steps within the course of your day to turn those goals into reality.
 
Share goals with others
Telling other people about your resolutions helps you accomplish them at a higher rate because it’ll cement your commitment. By saying them out loud to another person, you aren’t offering yourself an out. You could also take this step up a notch and share your goals on social media, and announce to a bigger audience what you’d want to accomplish.
 
Create a strategy to accomplish them
Whatever business objectives you have set for 2017, make an actual strategy to attain them. It’ll require sitting down and planning specific actions you must take.
 
Pay close attention to any progress
When there’s a hefty business goal, it’s easy to get distracted by how much work is right in front of you. But rather than concentrating so intently on how far you need to go, pay close attention to how far you’ve come. By recognizing all of your efforts and how they have paid off thus far, you will be more than likely to want to continually move forward.

A crucial tip in business building is to stay in touch with loyal customers not only on social media, but in their inbox. Here are some ways to boost your next business newsletter!
 
Be informative
A newsletter should be full of valuable content—something that makes the reader feel special for receiving the information in their inbox. Below are a few examples of informative content to include in the newsletter:
 
          •         Fan photos
          •         Recipes
          •         Testimonials
          •         Videos and/or webinars
          •         Infographics
          •         Company news (volunteer projects, awards, etc)
          •         Resources
          •         Contests
          •         Photos
          •         Reviews
          •         Interesting facts
          •         Holidays, dates to remember, events
          •         Third party news/industry news
          •         How-tos, tutorials, tactics, tips
 
Lose (sales) hype
People who signed up for your newsletter enjoy being informed of sales, yet selling should not be your primary focus of the email newsletter. Send the offers within promo-specific e-mails.
 
Keep it short
The point of the newsletter is not necessarily to make a sale, but to build up a relationship with the audience, to educate and inform, and to snag a few clicks to your website. Visits to your site may lead to sales or more readers for your blogs and event updates.
 
Have compelling opening line
In the “From” label, clearly state whom your email newsletter comes from. Usually, using the company name is recommended. While crafting your newsletter subject line up, do not use generic lines such as: August Newsletter, This Week’s Newsletter, Your Monthly Newsletter, The Insider, etc. Also, be certain that you take advantage of the pre-header, which can act like your secondary subject line.
 
Allow an easy opt-out
An individual unsubscribing from a newsletter is a fact of life, and it isn’t anything to take personally. If the “unsubscribe” button is hard to locate, it may be easy for readers to mark your e-mails as spam. Allow your readers to go easily if they want, and make the unsubscribe link simple to locate. Otherwise, sitting inside a spam box only will cause the delivery, open, and click-through rates to decrease.