What do peaches, a giant peanut and The Walking Dead have in common? The great state of Georgia of course! Georgia is well known for its rich history, vibrant culture and bustling city life which makes it the perfect place to start a small business. But how can you make your business stand out among the many other startups in the state?

The answer is design. Using design as an effective tool can boost your marketing so that you stand out from the masses. Do you want to know why? We’ll tell you everything you need to know.

Design Makes You Recognizable

Your logo design is the first aspect of your company that people notice and it’s what they remember long after working with you. If your logo is effective, customers will recognize your brand whenever they see your merchandise. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that your logo makes an impact.

Businesses such as Apple, McDonald’s and Nike are renowned for their recognizable logos and even they were small businesses once. You want a logo that will be imprinted in potential clients’ memories so when they require your services, it’s your company name that comes up.

Why not appeal to a Georgian audience by including symbolic images in your logo such as the Cherokee rose or the honeybee? When customers recognize imagery that they’re fond of, they’re more likely to be attracted to your business.

Design Establishes Your Identity

Your small business’s success depends on the identity that you establish. One of the best ways to create your identity is through design. This process starts with your logo but is also reflected in all of your marketing tools from social media accounts to website design.

Identity design affects the success of your business because it attracts a certain target market. If the image you create doesn’t appeal to the right target market, you won’t be able to build up a large enough, relevant customer base.

Every aspect of design is important for attracting customers from the colors you use to the pictures on your advertising material. Bright, playful colors will be more appropriate for children while professional, sophisticated designs will appeal to technology gurus. In Georgia, your identity should reflect the state’s values such as promoting diversity or encouraging learning.

Design Gives Your Campaigns More Visibility

If a potential customer opens your email newsletter only to find black writing on a white background, it’s unlikely that they’ll read any further. The same goes for your webpage. Most readers will close an internet article after 15 seconds. Success depends on holding their attention longer than that.

By using design, you can make your marketing material dynamic so that it holds your customer’s attention. This will improve your bounce rate and will also convince customers to keep browsing to view your products. Incorporating vivid graphics and spreading your company colors throughout your marketing platforms can transform your advertising.

Outside of the internet, you can use design to give your business visibility by using your color theme and imagery in uniforms, shop décor, billboards and even advertisements. All of these examples add to the identity you’re trying to create.

Design Improves Your Conversion and ROI

If your design is effective enough you’ll increase your customer conversion rates as well as your ROI. This means that people viewing your online marketing are more likely to become paying customers. As a result, you’re more likely to earn a profit on money you’ve spent on advertising.

Georgia is known for its busy cities that are juxtaposed by open wilderness. Online sales are your most important means of income so you can have a larger audience to sell to; even those not close to business hubs. You do this by drawing in customers through effective website design through good user experience.

By using your brand colors consistently in CTAs on your website, clients will associate these colors with your business. The same goes for graphic design themes you’ve repeated in marketing brochures and flyers. If customers are constantly reminded of your business, they’ll eventually be tempted to see what you have to offer.

Conclusion

When it comes to marketing your business, design is your most effective tool. Small businesses are oversaturated in states as large as Georgia. If you want to stand out, you need to learn how to use design effectively to convince customers that they should pay money to your company.

It’s not as difficult as it seems as long as you learn all the tricks of the trade or employ a designer to manage your marketing for you. Aren’t you tempted to see how far design can take your business?

Author Bio

Olivia Harris is a freelance writer who loves coffee, cats and churros, not in any particular order. She travels to write, writes to travel. Connect with her for writing projects freelance work.

The post Why Design Is Important for Small Businesses in Georgia appeared first on CRLDesigns.

Users new to the WordPress platform probably do not need to worry about it as much as those of us who have been accustomed to using the platform for years.  Although, people using themes for WordPress might need this just as much, because many themes come bundled with page editors right out of the box.  And the new Gutenberg update/addon can override them.

The answer is a simple plugin, created by Jeff Starr and can be found here.  While I do not like to add too many plugins to my sites or projects, I feel this one will be necessary.  It’s quick, painless and best of all, free.  After the quick download, install, activation; I return to my pages and posts and I am gladly met by my normal page editor and resume working.

Now, do you need to disable Gutenberg?  That’s entirely up to you, your site and your circumstances.  Gutenberg has some powerful new features and will be a great asset to many site builders or owners, that do not know code, or simply don’t want to bother with it.  For my particular case, it made more sense to disable it.  I had quite a bit of custom code generated by a different page builder that would not be recognized by the new editor.  But for new sites, I would recommend leaving it active and see what it has to offer, you may end up liking it better.

Of course, as always, if you need help with anything website related or have questions; feel free to contact us.

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Web Design Loyalty has become a larger problem over the years.  Clients jumping ship to the next web designer or design firm that promises them huge results.  I blame the phenomenon on the amount of designers, freelance or otherwise, that have saturated the market.  I’m not throwing stones however, because I fit in that same category.  Let’s talk about the problem and potential solutions.

The Problem

Most of the problem when it comes to Web Design Loyalty starts with the client, and their lack of knowledge on the subject and just what it takes to get the job done.  That’s where it becomes crucial for the web designers to educate these potential clients on what exactly it takes to get the job completed and above all, be realistic about it.  Most of these clients aren’t going to know anything about the technical terms you will be throwing around (hosting, DNS, propagation, WHM, VPS, etc.); and that’s where some web designers might see an opportunity to take advantage of that lack of understanding.  But taking the time up front in the beginning might save you work or even earn you more work in the long run.

If a designer takes an extra step in the beginning of a project to go over some of the details and outline the steps that they plan to take to get this new project completed, the client will be more comfortable through-out the process.  Most of us, especially me, want to see results, something getting done, so we want to rush to setup a new hosting package, or new account on our server, install some website software and get things started.  This is normally the fun part for me, it’s when you can see the largest results, before you get into the “work” of content creation and fine tuning and client reviews.

But back to the problem at hand.  If you don’t take the time up front to explain to the client what you are capable of, or the steps you plan to take, or just all of the tools and knowledge you have at your disposal; you are leaving the door wide open for someone else to come in and take your client and work away from you.  For instance if you don’t make it known that you can provide a security solution, or a backup solution, email solution; then they may never know.  Some of these clients may be tasked with finding these solutions on their own, and where do they turn, Google.  The client won’t think to ask the web designer because it’s been months since they’ve talked to them and this couldn’t be related, could it???

The Situation

About four to five years ago I was hired to build a new website for a company.  They had a very basic HTML site that was fine fifteen years ago, but they needed something new and mobile friendly.  So I set to work building a new site, new features, mobile friendly; everything they asked for.  Got the site finished and live online in short order, they loved it, I got paid, case closed.  I typically try to check in with all of my clients regularly to see if they need anything; updates, new ideas, anything at all.  But I will be the first to admit this one didn’t get the attention it deserved and I paid for it.

About two years after the site was finished, I was sending a new potential client some reference site links of past work and was going to include this one as well.  I browsed to it and to my surprise it was nowhere near like I had left it.  Another company had come in behind me and had taken my design, pictures, etc. changed some things around and slapped their name right in the footer.  I tried to be the better person and not be upset about it, but it was difficult to do.  It’s like when a girlfriend breaks up with you with no explanation, and you’re left wondering what you did wrong.  Where was the web design loyalty then, what happened?  I thought I’d never know and figured it was petty to just call them or email and ask what happened?  So I left it alone and moved on to the next job.

Fast forward about four years later.  I get a call from a marketing company that has been called in to revamp the entire brand for this company that I originally did the site for.  They understood that I did the original design and wanted me back on board for the redesign as well.  The pieces were starting to fall into place.  I finally figured out that a different marketing company had come in behind me and promised the moon and stars and that they could drive more traffic to the site and do social media posts, etc. etc.  Without consulting with me to see if I could perform the same tasks the company jumped ship and went with the other website designer, again, no web design loyalty at all.  After a few nightmare years with this marketing company with no results, they decided to cut their losses.

After quite a bit of money spent and time wasted, we are back to where we started.  The company has another brand new website and is getting the results they were after.  I’ve teamed up with the new marketing company to make sure everything they need is accounted for.  Most if not all of these issues could have been avoided altogether by simply asking me if I offered those services or could handle it for them.  But I can’t completely pass the blame, it was just as much my fault for not educating them on what I could do for their business.

The Solution

In order to retain web design loyalty, web designers have to be diligent about educating potential or existing clients on their services and capabilities.  Most of us have some sort of website that outlines these services, but we can’t rely on clients to actually go there and read anything.  Perhaps it’s just a quick numbered list of services you provide that you email to them.  Or it’s a newsletter you send out to remind people what you can do to help their site and business grow.

The Moral

The moral of the story is that if you expect clients to give you web design loyalty you have to do something about it and be proactive.  You cannot afford to sit back and hope they return.

For a full list of services that we offer, click here.  If you don’t see something you need, feel free to contact us here.

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