Many business owners believe that a company’s brand identity is nothing more than that company’s name and logo.

A brand is much more than the name and logo of a business.

Your company’s brand is the sum total of the experience your customers and prospects have with your company.

A good brand communicates what your company does and how it does it. A good brand also establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers.

Brand identity is important.

But a brand isn’t forever.

Companies evolve and often, must evolve their brand and branding.

This happens for many different reasons.

You might no longer love your logo or your brand aesthetic no longer speaks to your company’s values and products. You might be expanding the scope of your business and the name of your business is too limiting.  Or you might have realized that your brand simply isn’t doing a good enough job to differentiate you in the marketplace.

The truth is that many companies, including some of the most successful, rebrand.

We’ve seen this recently with rebrands by Dunkin’ Donuts, Weight Watchers, Uber, Unilever, and many more companies.

Let’s look more closely at rebranding and examine what it is, why companies rebrand, and what you should know to successfully rebrand your business.

What is rebranding?

Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a business develops a new name, symbol, logo design, or combination of those elements, in order to create a new brand identity in the minds of consumers, prospects, competitors, employees, and others.

As we mentioned earlier, a brand is much more than a company’s name and logo. But the name and business logo are key ambassadors for any brand, so it’s important that both are strong.

Rebranding can work wonders for any business that is struggling to modernize, differentiate themselves from their competition, or even escape a lackluster reputation, as was the case in Uber’s recent rebrand.

When should a company consider rebranding?

Companies should rebrand to better differentiate from the competition.

Young businesses often don’t understand the importance of branding and turn to generic templates or non-custom designs to build their initial brand.

A generic logo will hurt your business.

Generic branding is a problem because it leaves businesses competing against many others with similar sounding names and nearly identical logo designs.

Rebranding can provide your business an opportunity to stand out from your competition by showcasing the things that make your company different and better.

For example, did you know that Google started with the name Backrub? Amoco started out with the name Standard. Accenture started out as Andersen Consulting.

It’s not unusual for a company to quickly outgrow their name and look for a fresh, unique business name that can help grow its business.

For more on business names, read Why and How to Rename Your Business.

Companies should rebrand to give new life to outdated branding.

Maybe your business has been around for a long time. (Congratulations!)

It’s possible that your Comic Sans font, flash-based website, or 90s color palette are dragging your brand down and making your business look outdated.

It can be tough to evolve your branding materials to keep up with rapidly shifting design and technology trends.

However, to compete in the modern business climate, one thing is clear: Businesses must adapt, or get left behind.

Even the most successful businesses rebrand, as you can see from the various iterations of the Airbnb logo.

Smart companies rebrand because they know that good design can make or break your business.

In fact, failing to evolve your business brand is a critical branding mistake that can hurt your business.

For example, as we wrote when we looked at this year’s web design trends:

A dated or poor looking website design can make even the best businesses appear non-professional and unreliable.

If you want your business to thrive, you have to stand out, and one good way to do so is to take advantage of hot website design trends to give your website or landing page a sharp, contemporary feel.

Companies should rebrand when they outgrow their original mission.

Maybe your business started off selling personalized t-shirts, but now you want to add customized coffee mugs. If your branding revolves around t-shirts, customers probably won’t know that they can look to you for mugs, too.

This is a common problem and we always advise clients to make sure their business name is not too narrow or literal. That way, you avoid limiting yourself for future growth opportunities.

Companies should rebrand to outgrow their poor reputation.

We recently wrote about Uber’s successful rebranding efforts. Uber faced widespread backlash about their toxic company culture and the way they treated their drivers.

Uber’s complete brand overhaul was necessary to break ties with its bad reputation and visibly demonstrate a commitment to a new, improved culture.

If your business is struggling to overcome a negative reputation, a rebrand can help consumers see you in a fresh new light.

Companies should rebrand when their business evolves.

Sometimes, a business is presented with an opportunity to expand or target a new market.

When that happens, it’s important that your new customers and prospects can connect with your brand.

That’s what happened with Pabst Blue Ribbon.

In the US, Pabst Blue Ribbon brings to mind a couple of things: frat guys and hipsters.

It’s not exactly a sophisticated association.

Did you know that China’s version of PBR – the stately sounding Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844 – sells for $44 a bottle?

Pabst saw a chance to re-market itself to the Chinese craft beer market – a market unaware of its budget reputation in the US.

By doing their homework, Pabst expanded into a new demographic and significantly grew their business.

What your company needs to know to rebrand successfully.

1. Start by understanding your mission and values.

Before you rebrand, it’s crucial that you clearly understand your company’s mission and values.

Consider and assess what makes your company special. Why does your company exist, and what values are essential?

These form the foundation that gives you a solid base to build your new brand.

No rebrand can be successful without this foundation.

For more on this, read 5 Successful Rebrands and the Strategies That Worked For Them.

2. Have a complete strategy that works with your existing branding.

While things are more straightforward if you’re tossing everything out and starting from scratch, many companies don’t have the luxury of starting from a clean slate.

If you’re doing a partial rebrand, make sure to take the existing brand assets into account. You want a rebrand that lives holistically with what already exists.

Be sure any new updates to your branding are consistent with the brand elements you’re keeping.

For example, if you have an existing product package design or package graphics, be sure you update those to reflect your new brand.

BrandExtract, a branding firm with over a century of experience, explains the importance of maintaining consistent branding:

A consistent brand helps increase the overall value of your company by reinforcing your position in the marketplace, attracting better quality customers with higher retention rates and raising the perceived value of your products or services….In contrast, erratic, inconsistent behavior quickly leads to confusion and mistrust.

3. Consider the market and your competition.

Before you rebrand, do your due diligence.

Research what your competition does. Determine how you stand apart from your competitors, and what your true value proposition is.

Examine what’s hot (and what’s not) in brand fads. Be aware of what’s trendy, and make sure if you adopt a trend that makes sense for your company.

It’s vital that your new brand be fresh and relevant, but not so of-the-moment that it ends up looking dated too quickly.

It’s too easy to make a mistake. Even smart companies run into rebranding failures. For more on this, read 5 Major Rebranding Failures and What You Can Learn From Them.

4. Collaborate with your team.

Your brand may be one of your most important company assets, but just as valuable are the people that help grow your business every day.

Include voices from across your company: some of the best ideas and most valuable feedback are found in departments you might not expect.

It’s easier to rally your company behind a rebrand that was a true “team effort.” Give your employees a say. They will be the faces and voices that represent your brand to your customers.

5. Manage the rebrand carefully.

A rebrand is often a complex and lengthy endeavor. Without a careful plan of attack and a well-managed process, the rebrand can quickly go off the rails.

Set deadlines and mitigate going down those pesky rabbit holes with a well thought out project plan.

6. Launch your rebrand and tell the world.

Even the most incredible rebrand is wasted if you never actually launch it. Make sure you plan your rebrand launch and be prepared to explain why you rebranded.

Minimize the risk of customer confusion through a carefully planned launch that showcases the story behind the rebrand.

Give your customers a narrative they can follow to understand why you rebranded. This brings your customers along for the ride and strengthens brand recall and loyalty.

A rebrand is a declaration of your company’s commitment to upward growth. It gives you a chance to revamp and refresh the primary touchpoint between you and your customers.

Change is never easy, but sometimes, as the song goes, a change will do you good.

The post How to Successfully Rebrand: Everything Your Small Business Needs To Know appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

If your small business brand isn’t healthy, neither is your business.

That’s because the health of your brand impacts both consumer awareness of your business and your bottom line.

A strong brand is not a luxury to be enjoyed only by companies like Nike or Coca-Cola. It is a key factor in the success and prosperity of all businesses and nonprofits, regardless of their revenues. Your brand health is guaranteed to have a significant impact on the consumer awareness of your brand AND your bottom line. It directly affects your ability to sell, to fundraise, to hire the best employees, and to grow. A healthy brand is the hallmark of a company or nonprofit that is prepared to prosper.

What is brand health?

Brand health is a measure of how well your brand supports your business, how consistent your brand is, and how well your brand connects with your audience.

Brand health can be measured in numerous ways, including brand reputation, brand awareness, brand equity, brand positioning, and brand delivery.

This isn’t an issue you can afford to ignore. You need to know if your brand is thriving or ailing – before it’s too late.

So, here are 6 important questions you should ask to make sure your business brand is on the right track.

1. Does your brand support your business strategy?

Every healthy business should have an overall, forward-looking strategy.

For your brand to be healthy, it must align with and support that strategy.

If your strategy is to sell commonly expensive services at discounted rates, your brand should reflect a focus on price. It would not be in your best interest to cultivate a brand that appears affluent or expensive.

If your business strategy is grounded in creativity and custom work, a brand emphasizing traditional corporate culture would not work well.

A misaligned brand will create cognitive dissonance for your customers and undermine your efforts to succeed.

A brand that undermines your business strategy is not a healthy brand.

Get Your Brand in Shape: Cultivate a brand that supports your business strategy. If you don’t know your business strategy, start there. Know what you want and determine how you plan to get there. Now, make sure the public face your business shares aligns with your goals.

2. Is your brand consistent?

A brand identity starts with the name of the business and the business logo. But a brand is more than the name and logo. It encompasses your brand’s overall visual identity, messaging and execution.

An inconsistent brand is a confusing and unreliable brand. These are traits that drive customers away, not attract them.

Inconsistency is a sign of ill-health in any brand.

If your brand constantly changes, it’s hard for customers or clients to wrap their minds around what it’s about. And, it’s even harder to gain trust, confidence and customer loyalty.

Here are some additional questions to help you evaluate your brand for consistency…

3. Is your brand visually consistent?

Image courtesy of Blaze Pizza.

Your brand should look the same on every platform.

The colors, visual styles, and fonts on your website should look like your business cards, which should look like your social media accounts, which should look like your business logo, which should look like your… you get the idea.

Visual consistency helps build recognition of your brand.

When Nike debuted their famous “Swoosh” logo, it wasn’t famous – yet. But, they placed it on every ad campaign, every shoe, and every piece of Nike-branded merchandise. Today that logo is shorthand for Nike, “Just do it.” and athleticism in general.

Consistent branding delivered the ultimate prize – instant brand recognition.

A visually consistent brand also allows customers to identify that they’ve found what they’re looking for – your business.

The internet is full of websites; some reputable, some not. Creating a consistent visual brand that clients and customers can easily recognize and using that visual brand everywhere reassures them that they’ve found you.

Whether I walk past a Blaze Pizza, open an email from Blaze Pizza, or visit Blaze Pizza’s website, I immediately know it’s them. Their orange and tan color scheme, unique font and logo are easy to recognize in all of their decor, marketing, and store collateral.

They’ve created a distinctive and consistent visual brand.

Get Your Brand in Shape: Use your logo consistently on all of your branded material. Define a brand style guide that guides how your brand will visually appear on all platforms to create a consistent visual brand identity.

4. Is your brand message consistent?

Your brand needs a cohesive message. And, ideally, that message should come from your business’s core values and strategies.

If your brand tries to be too many things at once, the message becomes scattered and the brand grows diluted.

It’s hard to be known for something (which is really the goal of branding) when you fail to present a consistent message about what your business should be known for.

Or worse, if your brand messaging contradicts itself, you will lose consumer trust and, ultimately, their business.

People don’t like to be lied to. And, consumers are naturally suspicious of businesses as a general rule. After all, businesses want their money.

Contradicting messages serve as proof that your business is not to be trusted.

Inconsistent messaging is a sign of an unhealthy brand.

Get Your Brand in Shape: Develop cohesive brand messages that align with your business’s core brand identity. Make sure that all communication, marketing, and sales endeavors support these messages.

5. Does your brand behave consistently?

Image courtesy of Chipotle.

Your brand promises must be consistent with the reality of your customers’ brand experience.

If you feature speedy delivery as a central brand message but fail to make good on that promise, people will notice. And, your brand will suffer.

As we explained:

A fabulous logo, expertly deployed and a consistent style guide mean nothing if your business does not follow through on its brand promises in the real world. Remember that your brand should always be true to the reality of your business. Walking the walk is just as important, if not more so, than talking the talk.

Mexican fast-food giant Chipotle has made serving non-GMO foods a key element of their brand promise. However, they’ve repeatedly been spotted serving GMO foods.

Execute a quick Google search for “chipotle admits to using GMOs” and you’ll find a list of critical articles and lawsuits levied against the fast-food mega-chain. They’ve hit on a compelling branding position, but they’re failing to deliver it reliably.

Failure to deliver on a brand promise is a sign of an unhealthy brand.

Get Your Brand in Shape: Create a brand promise that you can truly live by. Use your business’s existing core strategy and values as your guide. When consumers see your business delivering on your claims, you will earn their confidence, their trust, and their business.

6. Does your brand resonate with your intended audience?

A brand is both the public face and the core identity of your business.

No matter how well your brand supports your business strategies, or how consistent it is, if it fails to connect with your audience, then your brand is not doing its job.

But, measuring your brand’s public reception is a bit trickier than examining it for consistency or internal strategy alignment. You’re going to need some brand health metrics to track.

Marketing intelligence experts at Datorama recommend tracking your branded impressions, internet search volume, and the performance of branded keywords.

You may also want to consider measuring social media engagement and keeping an eye on your online reviews. Your customer service team may also be able to offer some useful insight.

Get Your Brand in Shape: Assess how well your brand is resonating with your audience. Track the metrics mentioned above. Hold some focus groups to get direct feedback. Then tweak your brand as necessary to create the connection you need with your customers.

The post Brand Health: 6 Important Questions You Should Ask About Your Small Business Brand appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

If you run an e-commerce business or depend on leads to generate revenue from your website, the forms on your site will make or break your business.

A SalesForce study concluded that “companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50 percent more sales-ready leads.”

If your lead generation forms are poorly designed, they become a roadblock and quickly turn customers away from your site. If you design your lead generation forms well, you can watch your conversion rates quickly skyrocket.

This isn’t something you should leave to chance.

Your inbound marketing and content marketing efforts will be wasted and you’ll waste time and money if your landing pages aren’t ready to convert the people you’re sending to your website.

Let’s take a look at how your small business or startup can optimize lead generations forms to significantly improve conversions and increase sales.

What is a conversion form?

A conversion form, or lead generation form, is a set of text fields and labels that a company uses to gather information from its customers and prospective customers.

Forms can be as complicated as a multipage survey with dozens of fields and options, or as simple as a single email address field.

An effective lead generation form gets what it needs from the user and nothing more.

If your lead generation form isn’t working well, it will impact all of your marketing campaigns.

For example, many marketers and business owners are actively considering or experimenting with chatbot marketing.  Some chatbots are designed to send high quality leads to your landing pages. But if your landing page lead generation forms are poorly designed, you’ll waste those valuable inbound leads.

Every business and every form is different, but industry averages can help you understand how your site compares to others. Larry Kim writes in the WordStream Blog:

Across industries, the average landing page conversion rate was 2.35%, yet the top 25% are converting at 5.31% or higher. Ideally, you want to break into the top 10% — these are the landing pages with conversion rates of 11.45% or higher.

How do you increase your website’s lead conversion rate?

There are nine key, proven strategies to design a great lead conversion form:

1. Use the above-the-fold space thoughtfully
2. Make the value proposition clear
3. Ask for only what you need
4. Use a single column
5. Eliminate distractions
6. Offer a clear call-to-action
7. Use inline form validation
8. Use social proof
9. Explain what happens next

Let’s look in detail at each of the nine strategies.

1. Use the above-the-fold space thoughtfully

Smart business owners know that placing a conversion form above-the-fold brings about the most impressive results.

Anything placed “above-the-fold” is considered the prime real estate of your website. That’s where engagement with your brand is the highest and longest lasting.

Engaged time usually peaks above-the-fold. That means you’ll want to put the most important elements of your landing page – like your conversion form – as high up on your page as possible. And be sure that your business name and business logo are featured prominently in that above-the-fold space.

It’s also helpful to place your form as close to your CTA (call-to-action) as possible. For example, KISSmetrics places its CTAs and conversion forms above-the-fold on their landing pages for the most impactful conversion rate optimization.

If you want to learn more about optimizing website conversions, read 13 Proven Ways To Optimize Small Business Website Conversions and How to Create a High Converting Landing Page.

2. Make the value proposition clear

If you’re going to make your customers fill out a form, make sure it’s obvious what they will get out of it.

Whether your customers need a product, a service, or information, it’s vitally important that you offer a value proposition that meets that need.

Your value proposition makes the benefit of completing the form clear.

Square uses a clear value proposition to let potential customers know exactly what they’re signing up for.

Don’t leave any room for uncertainty. Forms are a pain to complete, and if the customer isn’t sure what they’ll get out if it, they may balk.

Some value propositions examples to get you started:

• Contact form – Get in touch with us / We’re here to help!
• Order form – Buy now / Free shipping and returns
• Survey form – Your feedback matters / Help us improve our service
• Event registration – Register now for this event
• Contest form – Win a prize! / Enter our free giveaway!
• Donation form – Every dollar counts / Help us find a cure

3. Ask for only what you need

One rule many poorly designed forms break is they ask for too much information.

Think about what your goals are for the form and ask for the bare minimum from your customers.

For example, if you want customers to sign up for your email newsletter, don’t ask for their name or phone number. It might be great to have your customer’s name and email address in your mailing list, but there’s little benefit for them.

Research shows that removing unnecessary form fields boosts completion.

The company performed a comparison of an 11-field Contact Us form with a 4-field Contact Us form. They found contact form conversions increased 120% when the number of fields was reduced from 11 to 4 (a 64% decrease). Furthermore, the fields removed had no impact on the quality of the conversions.

You don’t want to give your customer any reasons to change their mind.

Get only what you need to complete the transaction and avoid that possibility.

4. Use a single column

There are many ways to organize and lay out your form, but if you’re optimizing for completion (and asking for more than a single item of information), a single column is your best bet.

Western customers read from left to right. This means you should keep your form labels (the text that describes what you’re asking for) and the form fields (where your customers type their response) aligned left.

This makes it easy for customers to scan the form. It also helps increase completion rates and decreases the number of errors.

5. Eliminate distractions

If your goal is to increase conversions, give your customers a clear path. Avoid any distracting images or links that could pull attention away from the form itself. Amazon uses this best practice to significant effect on its checkout pages.

A typical Amazon page has dozens of links to related products. This makes sense, as Amazon wants to give customers as many options as possible.

But as soon as you enter the checkout process, all of the distracting links are stripped away, leaving just the checkout form itself.

For forms that require one or two bits of information (like newsletter sign up forms) removing distractions isn’t as necessary, as you don’t need the customer’s attention for very long.

For longer, more complex forms, consider a more sparse, distraction-free design to make sure customers don’t click away.

6. Offer a clear call-to-action

We have covered CTAs, or calls-to-action, before. As we wrote:

A “call to action” (or CTA) is the single reason and driving force behind your landing page. Every landing page must have one single goal. This could be to subscribe to your newsletter, download your free e-book, sign up for your service, or purchase your product.

But, you only get one. If you place more than one demand on your viewers they will feel conflicted and leave.

The call to action is the moment when the proverbial rubber hits the road. It’s the simple act of requesting a prospect to act. And it provides the motivation prospects need to convert.

Give your customers a clear indication of what value they are signing up for when they press that form submit button.

This includes offering an incentive in the call to action as well. Treehouse’s subscription form’s CTA reminds customers that trials are free.

If you communicate your offer’s value well and provide an interface that easily completes the call to action, you can bet that your conversion rates will soar.

7. Use inline form validation

A completed form may be useless if the information in it isn’t accurate. Customers may give up if they complete and submit the form only to find that they have to go back and fix a mistake they made.

Check information as it’s entered, so customers immediately know if they’ve made a mistake. This not only reduces the amount of invalid information in your system – it also lowers customer frustration.

8. Use social proof

Reassure customers that what you’re offering is worth their time with testimonials and other social proof.

As we wrote in our look at 6 word-of-mouth marketing strategies:

Posting testimonials or reviews can be a great way of pulling word-of-mouth recommendations onto your site or social feed. Look on websites related to your business for reviews or testimonials. Bring them over to your site or social feed, and make sure to link back to the original review and/or identify the reviewer to help improve the post’s credibility.

In addition to showing thousands of crowdspring reviews from our customers, crowdspring also adds real testimonials to forms, from people who have completed design projects with some of our talented creatives.

FriendBuy found that adding some testimonial text right beside their signup form’s submit button boosted completion by 15%.

9. Explain what happens next

One area many companies forget to pay attention to is what happens after the customer has completed the form.

Take advantage of your “form sent” success page.

Tell customers what happens next, whether that’s “we’ll be in touch soon” or “we received your order!”

Another great use for this page is to give customers their next step as well. Many e-commerce order submission pages display “customers that bought this also bought” recommendations.

Customers may not jump at the chance to fill in a form, but there are many different ways to make the experience more painless.

Lead generation forms can significantly increase the quantity and quality of your incoming leads.

By following the strategies we outlined above, you can get better leads and improve your bottom line.

The post 9 Proven Strategies Your Small Business Can Use to Increase Engagement and Conversion Rates appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

It can be tough to feel like you have power over money. Between salary, rent, and every other relatively fixed factor in our financial lives, feeling in control over our finances can feel impossible.

The good news is, it’s not.

So how can we find our sense of power over money?

Financial therapist Amanda Clayman poses an important question: “Because we can’t control the world, what we need to focus on is: What is it in our behavior, and our financial behavior specifically, that we have the power to change?”

Read this piece on Medium for simple steps toward making a major impact on your attitude toward money – and consequently, to your bank account.

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles that we shared with you over the past week on our crowdspring Twitter account (and on Ross’s Twitter account). We regularly share our favorite posts on entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, logo design, web design, startups, leadership, social media, marketing, economics and other interesting stuff! Enjoy!

4 Ways to Know When It's Time to Rebrand Your Business | by @crowdspring https://t.co/19NUdOiYGi

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) October 31, 2018

These 10 Small Business Growth Tips Will Take You from Novice to Expert | @smallbiztrends – https://t.co/YriBNDeAnb pic.twitter.com/KxH0nznX2O

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 21, 2018

How to Successfully Rebrand: Everything Your Small Business Needs To Know | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/vdgzONLxtJ #SMBs #SmallBusiness #branding pic.twitter.com/RJGoobq9Ca

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 25, 2018

If you run an e-commerce business, your site forms will make or break your business. Here are 9 Proven Strategies Your Small Business Can Use to Increase Engagement & Conversion Rates | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/gDVT8ABqpQ #SMBs #MarketingStrategy pic.twitter.com/NNNd6kpdPF

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 1, 2018

6 Questions You Should Ask About Your SMB Brand | @advertisingweek – https://t.co/jiVKVuGUyq #SMBs #SmallBusiness #branding pic.twitter.com/Nxvq75770a

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 1, 2018

Some terrific ideas … Drift’s Hiring Philosophy and How to Make It Work for Your Startup – Drift https://t.co/AwL8BgYU6J pic.twitter.com/7ShU5qLKT2

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 26, 2018

Nothing is forever. Great read. Sears Is Not a Failure https://t.co/ZeSZjvICiD pic.twitter.com/iopgChsMFA

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 26, 2018

How Netflix drives culture, in one chart. @fromedome: https://t.co/ELN8mFXqtq pic.twitter.com/jhNNnbCctQ

— Recode (@Recode) October 16, 2018

Tips and Tricks for Maintaining Productivity on the Road https://t.co/ZVNDxJrs1y pic.twitter.com/WjI3z6UqzK

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 21, 2018

Useful data and analysis from @randfish … 2018 Search Market Share: Myths vs. Realities of Google, Bing, Amazon, Facebook, DuckDuckGo, & More | @SparkToro – https://t.co/PpB0AJ2ba7 pic.twitter.com/E0wqGHaLf4

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 17, 2018

Hard to evaluate credibility (anonymous interview), but interesting read … Bitfinex’ed tells (almost) all about Tether: The Modern Consensus interview | Modern Consensus – https://t.co/uDNzSi4MF5 pic.twitter.com/fcsb7XW3c2

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 18, 2018

Good read … Did I Make a Mistake Selling My Social-Media Darling to Yahoo? https://t.co/qBJ89XT8VY pic.twitter.com/D3Dp5BR2Mn

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 22, 2018

Good insights … 10 lessons from Marketo’s growth to a multi-billion-dollar exit – https://t.co/jzeV8zs8ek pic.twitter.com/VJm98IEXUY

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 26, 2018

10 proven loss aversion marketing tactics that can help amplify your marketing efforts. | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/hxbnl2olhJ #SMB #SmallBusinesses #MarketingStrategy #marketingtips pic.twitter.com/zrnPBTGBn7

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 19, 2018

Any ranking list is ultimately manipulated … Chartbreakers: How spammers are gaming the podcast charts https://t.co/FD7okIPMsT pic.twitter.com/fsEwjfGyRS

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 19, 2018

What makes emotional marketing so powerful and how can you use emotional marketing to connect with more prospective customers, create more loyal customers, and increase sales? https://t.co/uB7EaZtBdf Our guest post for @advertisingweek #SMBs #Marketing

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 24, 2018

To use hashtags effectively, you must do more than just plug them into your tweets on Twitter or posts on Instagram, Facebook or another social network.

Here’s How Hashtags Can Supercharge Small Business Content Marketing | @Rieva – https://t.co/FxPyzYQ2SZ pic.twitter.com/CGTyEvA6J9

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 29, 2018

Facebook Messenger Chatbot Marketing: The Definitive Guide (2018) – crowdspring Blog https://t.co/5WpuExSrwM @crowdspring @larrykim

— Ramon Ray (@ramonray) October 20, 2018

Lots of great design insights … How to Build Category Pages that Rank + Convert 10x Higher | Zyppy – https://t.co/cX2gaxXj3F

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 26, 2018

4 Ways to Know When It's Time to Rebrand Your Business | by @crowdspring https://t.co/19NUdOiYGi

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) October 31, 2018

How A Strong Logo and Brand Can Help Your Etsy Store Thrive https://t.co/HacMQWDIkB pic.twitter.com/POYATxOn63

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 20, 2018

How to Successfully Rebrand: Everything Your Small Business Needs To Know | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/vdgzONLxtJ #SMBs #SmallBusiness #branding pic.twitter.com/RJGoobq9Ca

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) October 25, 2018

How Netflix drives culture, in one chart. @fromedome: https://t.co/ELN8mFXqtq pic.twitter.com/jhNNnbCctQ

— Recode (@Recode) October 16, 2018

Outstanding presentation by @dhh on why air quality matters, how you can measure it, and how to measure and improve the quality in your home (or office) https://t.co/OcDCNcN1zK

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 1, 2018

Nothing is forever. Great read. Sears Is Not a Failure https://t.co/ZeSZjvICiD pic.twitter.com/iopgChsMFA

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) October 26, 2018

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The post Twitter Link Roundup #350 – Terrific Reads for Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Marketers, and Designers! appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

It’s that time of year again!

It’s just-past-Halloween and stores are filled with cinnamon-scented pinecones, turkey decor, and Christmas ornaments.

The holidays are here.

And, if you don’t have your holiday marketing strategy ironed out, you’re already behind. Way behind.

While consumers are thinking about how they plan to celebrate and what gifts they plan to buy, businesses across the nation are focused on how they can capitalize on the epic holiday spending that is about to commence.

The holidays are a major source of revenue for many businesses.

Retailers can make up to 30% of their annual income during the holidays. And, some sources argue that holiday shopping is integral to the health of the economy itself.

There’s no question that the holiday season poses a great financial opportunity for any business that plans appropriately.

As a small business, you probably don’t have the budget or resources to create a national holiday television ad or a digital interactive extravaganza like Google’s annual Santa Tracker website. But, don’t let that get you down. There’s plenty that you can do.

So, jump-start your small business’s holiday marketing strategy with these holiday marketing suggestions for 2018.

2018 Holiday Marketing Ideas

Deliver a package worth unboxing

Like it or not, gift-giving is an inescapable focus of the holidays.

And, whether you prefer giving or receiving, beautifully-packaged presents have become a visual shorthand for the holiday season. So, conjure the spirit of the holidays and make your customers feel special with a fabulous unboxing experience.

As we recommended previously:

…it’s time to start thinking about how you can make your unboxing process special. What does the outside of the box look like? What do you see as soon as the box is opened? How is the product wrapped? Is there a message or gift inside?

Treat each step of the unboxing process as a new opportunity to impress, surprise or delight the recipient.

Heading into this holiday season, let your clients or customers unwrap a wonderful experience (and some cleverly placed marketing materials) along with their most recent purchase.

Timing will be important for this tactic, as you want to make sure your intended audience receives this package early enough for them to act on any marketing call to action you include in the packaging.

And, if you want to reach out to new leads as well as existing clients and customers, consider sending a small free gift instead of relying on the packaging for an item they’ve already purchased. This will also trigger the psychological principle of reciprocity, encouraging the recipients to make a purchase.

If you need help with your product packaging design (the design of the product packaging) or package graphics (the design of the graphics on the packaging), consider reaching out for professional help.

And, for goodness’ sake, make sure to offer free shipping. In this day and age, consumers expect it. Failure to meet that expectation could sour their experience and undermine your efforts.

Target your current customers

Every year millions of people travel home for the holidays to be with their families. The holiday season is positively steeped in images and stories emphasizing the importance of our families and loved ones.

And during this time, people’s sense of loyalty and desire to connect is heightened. This makes it an ideal time to reconnect with past and current customers.

Research shows that it is 5-25 times less expensive to maintain relationships with current customers than it is to acquire new ones. So, it is definitely worth the effort to strengthen your connection with current and past customers at the holidays.

Consider sending special offers designed to re-engage with clients or customers you haven’t heard from in a while. Remember that emotional appeals are more effective than logical ones. (In fact, this might be a perfect opportunity to put that holiday unboxing tactic to work!) For a more in-depth look at how to successfully re-engage with past customers, check out this article.

And, don’t forget to consider what comes next. It’s all well and good to reach out at the holidays, but if you don’t have a strategy in place to follow up and cultivate these relationships then you’re going to lose any gains that you’ve made.

Optimize your content for the holidays

#LetItSnow

The holidays are important to your business’s bottom line. And it’s worth pulling some new tricks out of your marketing hat to get the most from the opportunity the holidays present.

But, don’t forget what you already know.

Search engine optimization and social media should still play an important role in your holiday marketing strategy.

Incorporate seasonal keywords into your marketing copy and your written content when appropriate. And, share holiday content on social media with appropriate images and hashtags.

Publishing search-engine-optimized web copy, blog content, and apt seasonal social media content should be tactics that you’re already employing regularly. Don’t forget to take advantage of this low-hanging fruit by tweaking it for the holidays.

Using generic holiday hashtags and keywords may draw in audience members who wouldn’t ordinarily find your content. For more targeted results, research industry-specific holiday keywords and hashtags to include with your content and social media posts.

For some terrific examples of effective holiday marketing campaigns, take a look at this post from Hubspot.

Show how your product or service is relevant this holiday season

What holiday-related challenge can your business solve?

This is the big question you should be asking as you prepare your business for the coming holiday season.

The holidays are coming. The money will be spent – it’s inevitable. And, every business is trying to figure out how to get their slice of that pumpkin pie.

You could just throw a big sale. Consumers love (and frankly expect) a good discount. Whether you’re a Black Friday or a Cyber Monday sorta business, discounts and sales should be a part of your holiday marketing strategy.

But, that’s not going to set your business apart from the competition. Not when everyone is throwing sales and offering discounts.

If you want to stand out from the crowd (and reap a larger percentage of the profits) you need to show your audience that you’re not just saving them money – you’re also solving a problem.

Does your e-commerce business offer unique and exotic gifts for those impossible-to-shop-for men in your family? Maybe your catering business can offer Thanksgiving meal planning services for families with food allergy sufferers. Or your spa can offer packages to help moms escape from the holiday bustle or recover after New Years.

Whatever your business, find a way to show how you can make your client or customers’ holiday experience a bit less stressful and a lot more jolly.

Stay True to Your Brand

Not every brand embodies the spirit of Norman Rockwell. But, that doesn’t stop many businesses from leaning into that Rockwellian interpretation of idyllic holiday coziness.

I can’t emphasize this enough – don’t toe the standard holiday line if it doesn’t suit your brand.

Your holiday marketing choices must reflect your brand. If they don’t, they’ll come across as insincere and disjointed from your brand identity.

Celebrate the holidays, but do it in your way.

Is your brand cheeky and snarky? Then your holiday marketing should be, too. If your brand is casual and geeky,  formal and conservative, or chic and cozy then lean into that.  Don’t let your brand voice or message be pulled off course by the desire to fit in with what a holiday message “should” look like.

Outdoor gear and apparel retailer REI does a great job of celebrating the holidays in their own, on-brand, way.

Marketer, project manager, and podcast host Justine Timoteo explains:

The entire product line of REI is centered around outdoor clothing and gear. Instead of just marketing their products for people to purchase this holiday season, they crafted a new, outside-of-the-box message — one that even went against the commercialization of the season, but stayed true to their brand…

REI broke with traditional messaging and encouraged people to get outside and enjoy the outdoors rather than spending Black Friday inside shopping.

Follow REI’s lead. As you plan your holiday marketing strategy, be true to your brand. Your authenticity will inspire consumers and clients to trust and engage with your business.

Here are more holiday marketing ideas that can help your small business improve its bottom line in 2018:

1. Partner with another business and run a cross-promotion campaign with them.
2. Partner with a local charity and donate a portion of your holiday sales to that charity.
3. If you sell products, offer special holiday gift-wrapping.
4. Give away free samples of your products or offer a free gift if people buy something.
5. Update your branding for the holidays with a cheerful, holiday-themed logo design to show your holiday spirit.
6. Offer gift cards (and gift card bonuses). These are very popular, especially during the holidays.
7. Have a holiday photo contest for your customers.
8. Create a holiday-themed website landing page to showcase your special promotions.
9. Send special holiday-themed emails and newsletters.
10. If you have a physical location, dress it up with lights and a fun holiday display.

There are many more ways to get in the holiday spirit and help your customers celebrate. Let your imagination guide you to build trust and engagement with your customers and prospects.

After all, trust and engagement lead to purchases consumers can feel good about – and happy holidays for everyone.

The post 15 Tips To Successfully Market Your Small Business This Holiday Season appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

With recreational cannabis use legal in nine states (and soon a 10th, Michigan), the District of Columbia, and in Canada, the cannabis industry is steadily growing.

But to grow even more quickly, cannabis firms will need to push their branding and advertising to reach beyond the core demographic of stoners and hippies.

There’s a huge opportunity for cannabis firms to more effectively market to women. Here’s what you should know.

Why are women important cannabis consumers?

The rapid rise of female cannabis users leaves a huge opportunity for cannabis business owners to connect with a brand new target market.

Women are responsible for 70-80% of consumer spending in the US. They also influence a huge number of purchases.

In fact, a report on cannabis use found that 59% of the respondents were women versus 41% male. Women are one of the fastest growing segments of cannabis users.

Chart courtesy of the Cannabis Consumers Coalition.

Despite these numbers, most existing branding, including logos for cannabis businesses, is still geared toward men.

With strain names like Durban Poison and Green Crack, cannabis firms will fight an uphill battle to attract women customers.

But this is starting to change.

Smart firms are beginning to understand that cannabis products are targeted to two different markets: medicinal users and recreational users.

John Kagia explains how products are branded and marketed to each group:

Two contrasting examples – Incredibles, one of the largest edibles manufacturers, uses bold, playful colors on their packaging which may be more resonant with recreational consumers, whereas Slactavis Medicated Syrup looks more like a pharmaceutical product in its packaging and branding, with strong emphasis on the pain relief afforded by the product.

Your brand identity, including your company name,  your logo design, and the design of your cannabis product packaging, affects your ability to attract customers for your products.

Branding and marketing for medicinal cannabis users

Medical marijuana can play an especially powerful role in catering to women interested in the health and wellness niche.

Anna Duckworth, the co-founder of the women-centered magazine Miss Grass, talked about women’s drive to investigate alternative means for self-care:

Women are looking for alternative non-toxic, plant-based, holistic remedies for health and cannabis falls into all of those categories.

Activist and entrepreneur Jamie Lewis told High Times that women seek out cannabis to treat a substantial number of female health issues, including menopause, menstrual cramps, anorexia, breast cancer, and PMS.

Similarly, a BDS Analytics report found that “menstruation, menopause, and sex are listed as the top reasons for female cannabis self-care.”

If you are selling to women medicinal users, communicate how cannabis helps with health issues by using clear, verified information.

Branding and marketing for recreational cannabis users

As the stigma fades, more women are starting to use cannabis for recreational purposes.

Businesses have noticed, and they offer products specifically tailored for women.

Cannabis businesses are taking inspiration from the wine and spirits industry.  Bridget Hoffer, the co-founder of Marigold Marketing and Public Relations, explains:

Now there are products emerging that women are saying ‘this is more tailored to me .’ It’s not unlike in wine and spirits where you see some retailers creating wine that’s marketed toward women specifically as well.

By offering information on the specific plant strain, intensity, taste, smell, and benefits, businesses can easily target individual users seeking out a more specific experience or benefit.

From sprays, creams, bath salts, tinctures, teas, all the way down to chocolates, there truly is something for everyone.

What does the average female cannabis user want?

Most women prefer sweeter tasting cannabis strains.

Maybe that’s because women have a better sense of taste than men, and have a high percentage of “super tasters” (people who experience a profoundly intense sense of taste).

Whatever the reason, female cannabis users tend to seek out cannabis that tastes sweet. Many of the strains women prefer are noted for their fruity, sweet flavors.

Additionally, women are looking to treat specific conditions.

For example, women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety than men. It’s no wonder that CBD options are popular with women.

Cannabis that offers women a euphoric, happy, or uplifting experience are also more widely used.

If you want to be sure that women will feel comfortable and eager to try your cannabis brand, make sure that your business clearly labels whether a cannabis varietal has any of these female-friendly qualities.

First impressions count

Branding can help you catch the eye and attention of women consumers.

With cannabis sales targeted to hit $40 billion in 2021, the competition is increasing and consumers are able to choose from many different products.

Cannabis firms should learn important lessons on reaching women buyers by looking at the beauty industry. As we previously discussed when we looked at branding and marketing strategies for beauty businesses:

48% of consumers report that their first purchase or experience is the most critical one in deciding if they will develop loyalty to that particular brand.

With thousands of beauty products available online and on store shelves, having an eye-catching, professionally designed logo and packaging design is a key way to make a good first impression.

In the past, branding for cannabis products was merely an afterthought. But with increasing competition and the desire to reach women consumers, cannabis firms cannot ignore strong branding. John Kagia from New Frontier Data agrees:

Branding has gone from being an afterthought to becoming a central aspect of the competitive strategy among cannabis companies.

To learn more about branding your cannabis business and products, we recommend you study what color says about your business, branding lessons you can learn from the world’s best brands, and the 20 important branding statistics every entrepreneur and marketer should know.

But you won’t attract women consumers solely through good branding.

Image courtesy of the Direct Cannabis Network.

Why product packaging design is important for female cannabis consumers

Product packaging design is a crucial element of any product’s success.

Your product packaging should be a crucial part of your branding strategy as you market your cannabis product to women.

Pay attention to these three key areas when you design your cannabis packaging for women:

Color

Contrary to gender stereotypes, studies show that pink is low on the scale of colors. Consider blue, green, red, and purple instead.

Shape

Studies have found that women tend to prefer packages with curved or smooth shapes that are easy to handle and store.

More importantly is how the packaging works: is it easy to get the product out?

If the packaging is a dispenser, is it easy to control and does it dispense the right amount? The last consideration is even more crucial with cannabis packaging as you want to ensure the doses are delivered accurately.

Text

You should aim to keep the text on your packaging simple and to the point. There are many regulatory requirements you need to consider as well, and these will inevitably take up space on the package. Above all, keep the other text to a minimum and let your marketing and other sales collateral do the talking.

For more on effective product packaging, read Biggest Product Packaging Design Trends in 2018, Telling Your Brand Story Through Packaging Design: These 3 Businesses Are Doing It Right, and 4 Psychology-Based Design Tips For Eye-Catching Packaging Design.

As women discover the health and wellness benefits of cannabis, their influence on sales is set to grow exponentially.

Are your cannabis branding and marketing strategies designed to reach these important women consumers?

The post How to Cultivate a Female-Friendly Cannabis Brand appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Many people want to start a clothing brand or clothing line. After all, how difficult could it be?

The truth is that successful clothing brands become successful in part because they’re created by people who are passionate about clothing.

But, a clothing brand needs more than just exquisite apparel design to create a lasting business. It needs all the trappings of a successful business as well. Apparel retailers need to master marketing, manufacturing, and retailing, among other things.

Shira Sue Carmi, the founder of Launch Collective, reminds us that the business of launching a clothing brand is as important as the artistry:

Fashion is amazing in the way it balances art and commerce, but it’s a business. Don’t start a business because you want to design. Start a business because you want to start a business.

So, are you a fashion designer or an apparel entrepreneur? If you are ready to start a fashion business (whether part-time or full-time), let’s get down to it. Here is a step-by-step comprehensive guide with our top 5 business tips for starting a successful clothing brand or clothing line.

• Develop your brand.
• Fill in the business blanks.
• Prepare for manufacturing.
• Create a sales plan.
• Spread the word.

1. Develop Your Clothing Brand

Step one of starting a new clothing line or clothing brand? Develop your brand identity.

As we’ve previously discussed,

…your brand is your company’s public identity. Ideally, your brand should embody the best (and most essential) attributes of your company.

The importance of your brand identity cannot be understated – especially in the world of fashion. Clothing is very personal because our clothing choices are one of the ways that we define our identity – to both ourselves and to the world. As a result, the brands we choose to wear become an extension of who we are and how we see ourselves.

In particular, the millennial generation has been shown to desire an authentic connection with their clothing brands. Fabrizio Moreira writes in “Building a Startup Clothing Brand in a Fast Fashion Economy“:

They want a brand “experience,” they want authenticity. It follows, then, that having a message that resonates with these consumers, and staying authentic to that message, is one of the few ways to break into the cutthroat fashion industry as a small brand…

So, before you sketch your first rendering, ask yourself these important questions:

• What identity do I want my clothing brand to project?
• Who will want to wear my clothes?
• What can customers get from my clothing brand that they can’t get anywhere else?
• What makes my clothing unique? Is it high-end?
• What is the most important part of my customer’s experience?

Your answers to these questions (and others like them) will build the core of your brand. All of your future branding decisions should expand on these ideas. Your business name, your logo, your website design should all grow from the concepts you laid out here.

Moreira cites Bad AF Fashion (a fashion startup) as a how-to example. Here’s what Moreira thinks they’re doing right:

Arguably, the key to their success has been having a clear brand identity that resonates with their target customers, staying authentic to that identity, and knowing how to communicate it to the desired audience.

So, take the time to think – really think – about your brand from the start. Fashion is an exciting, fast-moving industry. You might have many business ideas, but it’s important for you to focus on one. You can learn more about the nuts and bolts of establishing and maintaining a consistent brand in Grow Your Small Business with Consistent Branding.

2. Fill in the Business Blanks

Once you define your brand, you can begin to think about the vitally important details of actually starting and running a clothing company. From choosing a fashion business structure to pricing, licensing and permits to business plan…

There’s a lot to think about.

First, you will need to choose the legal structure for your new apparel business. Sole proprietorship or LLC? Incorporate or register a partnership?

We discussed these options previously in our article 15 Tips for Turning Your Craft Hobby Into a Successful Business:

A sole proprietorship is the “most basic type of business to establish” according to the SBA (Small Business Administration). You are the sole owner of the business; and, as such, are solely responsible for the assets and liabilities accrued by the business. This may be just the ticket for your brand new, baby crafting business as it is also the easiest to set up.

If you’re interested in a little more protection, an LLC (or Limited Liability Company) may be a better fit. The LLC business structure provides the limited liability features you would find in a corporation. The Small Business Administration has all of the details about these common small business structures and others.

To learn more about corporations, partnerships and other legal mistakes people commonly make when setting up a small business, take a look at our post and video: 10 Legal Mistakes That Can Destroy Your Small Business And How To Avoid Them.

After you determine your business’s legal structure, you’ll need to file the necessary paperwork.

The U.S. Small Business Administration tells us that some form of license or permit is necessary for virtually every type of business. Their website has all of the info you need to find out what sort of license or permit you’ll need to start a business in your state.

Legal details squared away? Then it’s time to think about the specifics of your business. Entrepreneur contributor Toby Nwazor advocates for creating a business plan:

Any experienced entrepreneur knows a company without a business plan is like a fish without water. The plan does not need to be lengthy at first. Rather, it should be one or two pages, identifying the key elements of the clothing line’s business strategy.

Your plan should include (at minimum) a statement about your clothing brand, a general description of your products and a strategy for how you plan to sell them.

For more information about how to create a business plan, the Small Business Administration has you covered again. Click here to see their complete guide to writing a business plan.

In a detailed business plan, you may want to include your anticipated pricing structure. But, whether you include pricing info in your business plan or not, it’s an issue you must consider.

You may dream of owning your own brick and mortar shop – or maybe you fantasize about seeing your labels on the rack at Nordstroms. Either way, in order for an apparel business to scale and grow, it must have price points for both retail and wholesale. And, those prices should take into consideration the expenses of designing and creating your garments.

Nwazor recommends that you aim for prices 30% – 50% higher than your expenses in order to ensure a profit. Profit is, after all, essential to your business’s success.

Plan ahead for all of the necessary legal and logistical business considerations and you’ll create a strong foundation for your clothing brand’s successful future.

3. Plan for Manufacturing

Unless you personally plan to sew every garment you sell (a business model that would be impossible to scale) you’ll need to consider how your collection will be manufactured.

A manufacturer is not just the means to an end – it’s the partner that will help you make your ideas a physical reality. So, making the right choice of clothing manufacturer is critical.

This is especially true if you’re already running a clothing brand and want to start a new clothing line. Your existing manufacturer might not be a good fit for the new clothing line. This often happens, for example, if you started with t-shirts and are now moving to more sophisticated clothing.

You should plan to interview a number of different factory locations to find the one that is a right fit for your business.

There’s a terrific book about this from the founder of Nike, Phil Knight – Shoe Dog. In the book, Knight writes about how he found the perfect partners for manufacturing Nike shoes – and the struggles with partners who were less than perfect.

Before you reach out to potential manufacturing partners you’ll need to get your own business in order. Anna Livermore, founder of fashion business consulting company V. Mora, recommends completing the following “To-Do” list before reaching out to manufacturers.

• Determine a realistic, honest budget. Don’t overcommit funds you don’t have. 
• Learn about the manufacturing timeline so you can plan accordingly.
• Prepare your design resources (fabric swatches, sewn samples, and tech pack or renderings).

When you reach out to a manufacturer for the first time they will have questions for you – questions that you should be equipped to answer. If you take the time to establish your budget, understand the production timeline and know your designs inside and out then you’ll be ready for them.

When you do finally start meeting with potential manufacturers put your most professional foot forward. Jennifer Philbrook co-founder at Stitch Method suggests:

Look at this meeting as a partner meeting and walk in with a smile! Not only are you looking to see if this factory is a good fit for your brand, but they are looking to see if your brand is a good fit for them! You don’t want to assume they automatically want to work on your project.

Of course, walking into that meeting prepared will go a long way toward convincing a manufacturer that you are a worthwhile prospect. Having worked on both the design and production side of the clothing industry I can tell you that manufacturers love a designer who really knows their business.

On the same token, nothing is more irksome than a designer with lots of ideas and no understanding of the manufacturing process by which those ideas are made real.

Before you commit to a full-scale run, order a few samples from several manufacturers to evaluate the quality and speed of their work.

4. Create a Sales Plan

Where do you plan to sell your clothing line? In an online shop or online clothing store? In a brick and mortar clothing store of your own? Or maybe you want to sell in local boutiques that feature many different clothing items?

There is no one right answer. And, it’s a good idea to consider the pros and cons of each option before making a decision that feels right for you.

This is where market research can help you. Not every selling option will be cost-effective or practical.

Selling a clothing line in an online store is cheaper and less labor-intensive than setting up your own physical store. There’s no monthly rent, mortgage or property taxes to pay, and no fixtures to buy. It’s also relatively easy to create an e-commerce presence nowadays without a lot of technical knowledge.

Most template-based web design services offer some form of e-commerce functionality. And some, like Shopify, are built specifically for e-commerce. But, think carefully before you decide to use a template-based service like Shopify.

Remember how important your unique branding is? The templates on those e-commerce sites are available for every other new fashion brand to use, as well. As I mentioned in a previous article,

It’s not enough to have a website… You also want to be sure that your site’s design is unique and that it showcases your products and you.

Just like your logo, your web design should start with your personal brand. A well-designed website will expand upon and support the values and personality traits that you’ve identified as being core to your business. If web design is not among your many DIY skills, know that there’s help available.

There are self-hosted open-source e-commerce services available that allow you to use your own uniquely branded website with their e-commerce functionality.

Check out services like WooCommerce, Magento, and Open Cart. Not only can you use your own original web design, they also scale easily alongside your business as it grows.

Alternately, if you dream of selling in a physical store, it’s a safer financial bet to start by selling in boutiques that already exist before taking the plunge and opening your own shop.

When deciding which boutiques you would like to carry your clothing line, double back to our first point – your well-developed brand.

Choose boutiques that are in line with your brand identity and your target market. If you design biker leathers for motorcycle enthusiasts, you can probably bypass the boutique down the street that specializes in yoga pants and maxi skirts.

However, if you make wise location choices, there’s a good chance your target audience already shops for clothes there.

Once you’ve targeted which boutiques you’d like to partner with, the next step is to start thinking like a retailer. Stitch Method’s Philbrook shared this advice in her article 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Started My Clothing Line:

If you plan on selling wholesale to boutiques it is important that you have merchandise ready to sell during the correct buying season… You need to figure out when you need to have production ready to ship to stores or customers and then work backwards from there through the development stages (leave enough time!) to make sure that you are working on the correct season.

Luckily, you’re already planning to learn about the manufacturing production timeline (remember Tip #3?) so you should be golden.

Pro Tip: Always schedule your meetings with boutiques in advance. In retail, the customer always comes first, so cold calls and drop-ins are a bad idea.

5. Spread the Word

If you’ve made it this far, you know your brand inside and out, all of your legal business details and business plan are in place, you have a manufacturing partner producing your garments, and a plan for selling them.

Now it’s time to focus on getting the word out about your fabulous new clothing business, a new line of clothes, and to find potential customers!

A great way to get started is to compile a list of local fashion editors and media outlets (radio, television and online blogs). When you are ready to launch your clothing brand or your clothing line, you can notify these resources via press release.

Take it one step further by creating an entire press kit. Check out this article from PR Couture to learn how.

Another important (and easy to overlook!) marketing tool for your clothing line are the pictures of your garments.

If you’re just starting out, you might be tempted take these yourself. But, blurry or poorly lit photos can actually work against you. So, if you can afford it, hire a professional photographer to ensure great results.

These images will be used on your website, social media marketing, and advertisements. So, keep your brand and target customer in mind and style them accordingly.

But most importantly, make sure your styles are the stars of the photos – simplicity is key keep accessories and background elements to a minimum.

As a new, up-and-coming business owner, you’ll also want to take full advantage of the inexpensive and easy exposure that social media marketing offers you. As we previously explained,

Social media gives you the ability to easily keep customers up-to-date on new products, store policies or sales. It also enables you to build a social rapport with current customers, while building low-pressure relationships with future buyers.

Maintaining (at a minimum) a Twitter and Facebook presence will help you build an audience of devotees. And consider micro-influencers, who can help you in the early days.

Make it easy for visitors to see what your clothing brand all about by featuring those fabulous photos of your line in a Facebook album.

Social media is also the perfect platform to help future customers get to know you as well as your clothes.

One major reason why customers buy from a start-up business instead of a major retailer is that they feel a connection to that business’s story. So, use your Facebook and Twitter to share that story – for free!

Finally, consider throwing a launch party to create exposure and excitement for your line. In an article for Inc. Magazine, Francis Arden (Aston Models partner) shares some great advice to ensure that your launch party is the well-attended extravaganza you dream it will be.

Build your list.  Remember those local fashion editors and media outlets? They should be on your list. So should local boutique owners, fashion buyers and anyone else who is relevant in your field.

Don’t compete for guests.  Schedule your party on an evening with no other major events – especially not other major events in the fashion industry. You don’t want to force your attendees to choose between your launch and another event.

Hold your event at an interesting location.  A special, unique venue can really make an event feel like… well… an event! But, don’t choose randomly, pick a location that jives with your brand presence. Try to find a venue where your target audience would feel right at home – if ‘home’ was super fun and exciting.

Offer something for free.  People love free swag. If you can afford it, offering a thoughtful and relevant free gift will make a great impression on your guests. A branded t-shirt might be the right gift. Or you can offer a one-off specially designed garment in a raffle. If your budget is tighter, Arden suggests offering an open bar for a limited part of the evening. Everyone loves an open bar; and, you can schedule the timing to coincide with when you’d like the bulk of your guests to arrive.

For more useful tips like these, check out the rest of Arden’s tips here.

And there you have it… Five tips to help get your new clothing line off to a great start. We’ve covered a lot, so let’s briefly review.

1. Develop your brand.  

Develop an authentic brand that honestly embodies your unique artistic point of view and speaks to your target audience. Plan your business name, logo, and web design to embody your brand.

2. Fill in the business blanks.  

File the permits or licenses that allow you to do business legally. Create a business plan and pricing strategy.

3. Plan for manufacturing.  

Determine your budget, learn the manufacturing process and timeline, and prepare your designs for sharing with tech packs, samples, and fabric swatches.

4. Create a sales plan.  

Choose your strategy – online or off? If online – create a custom website with your unique branding and e-commerce capability. If offline – form partnerships with boutiques that your target audience would frequent.

5. Spread the Word.  

Send press releases or press kits to relevant media outlets. Show your line off to its best advantage with professional photos. Use social media to share your story and your fashions. Hold a launch party to create excitement for your line.

There’s a lot to think about when you’re starting your own clothing line – not the least of which are the clothing designs themselves. But, following these 5 recommendations will help set your business off on the right Jimmy Choo clad foot.

Your company’s brand deserves a first-class logo. Let crowdspring’s team of  210,000+ designers help you find it. It’s easy, fast and your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed – just click below to get started for as little as $299. 

The post 5 Tips for Starting a Successful Clothing Brand: The Definitive Guide (2018) appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Logo design with bright colors, creative typography, and signage mock-up by zeste/crowdspring.

Small businesses and startups have to compete in an increasingly noisy world, often against large, dominant businesses.

Customers who are just discovering your brand need something to remember you by, and your logo serves as a symbol of your business.

A great logo will help boost your marketing. A poor logo will tarnish your brand.

That’s why many businesses, including some of the most successful, periodically rebrand.

The truth is that not all logos are created alike. New logo trends and fads in logo design appear every year.

Stripes, letter stacking, fades and geometric shapes were popular logo types in logo design last year. Additionally, monoline designs, negative space, and retro designs were all the rage.

But, which of these modern design trends and logo styles are worth following and which logo design styles can serve as inspiration for your own custom logo?

And, which new year “trends” are really passing fads that will date your new logo in just a few years?

After all, you want your modern logo to feel fresh and relevant for a long period of time, and not dated a year from now.

Not all modern logo design trends are equal. And, even if a trend does offer some inherent aesthetic value, if it doesn’t support and reflect your brand, it’s a poor choice for your logo.

When it comes to branding and innovative logo design, a good modern logo design must reflect your brand, and be memorable, unique, and timeless.

You should avoid trendy logos that get in the way of accomplishing those design goals.

As we wrote in The Small Business Guide to Creating a Perfect Logo:

At its most basic, a logo is a small, symbolic piece of artwork that represents a business. But, we’ve dug a bit deeper than that. When you set aside all the design trends and fancy fonts, at its core, a logo must:

1- Embody your brand.

2- Be instantly recognizable.

3- Be versatile.

4- Be timeless.

Everything else is optional.

In fact, I’ll go one step further. Every design choice in your logo should exist only to serve and strengthen the four items listed above. And, if you meet these four requirements, many other commonly cited logo must-haves, like simplicity and memorability, naturally follow.

Here are 6 contemporary logo design trends that are hot in 2018 (plus 2 trends that you should avoid).

Top Logo Design Trends and Styles in 2018

1. Creative typography

Logo design with hand-effect typography courtesy of mateuzord/crowdspring.

The visual mark of a logo is often supported by the text.

Some logos (including crowdspring’s logo) are made up entirely of text – these are called lettermarks, logotypes, or wordmarks.

It’s especially important that you get from your designer vector files for logos that use creative typography since these will be unique files you will not be able to replicate with common fonts. This is one reason why crowdspring requires designers to provide vector files to clients in all custom logo design projects on crowdspring.

But not any old text will do. You can’t just plop your business name under your logo mark in a serif or sans serif font like Helvetica, Times New Roman or Comic Sans (shudder) and call it a day.

Your typography and lettering should be as tuned in to your branding as the rest of your logo. Just look at the high-profile and high-quality logos of Coca-Cola, FedEx, Microsoft, Wikipedia, and others as great examples.

And, creative typography continues to grow in 2018. Here are just a few examples…

Split Typography

These fonts feature unexpected negative space (or splits) in the letters while maintaining the text’s readability. That allows you to treat parts of your company name differently.

There are endless variations to play with here between the choice of the base typeface and placement of the splits.

Logo design with split typography by annasmoke/crowdspring.

Chaotic Typography

This dynamic typography effect features a chaotic, non-linear placement of the letters.

If you have a playful or casually dynamic brand, this may be a good choice for you. But be careful because abstract logos can be difficult to read.

Logo design with chaotic typography by connexis/crowdspring.

Hand-effect Typography

Rather than the perfectly smooth, polished, and fancy looping scripts of yesteryear, hand-effect typographic styles look like it’s been written by hand.

These can range from cursive scripts that look hand-drawn to crisp prints to typefaces that use playful block letters.

Often, this style is matched with a graphic, icon or symbol to create a combination mark. Irregularity is the key to this effect and designers will often implement different kerning techniques to better position the letters in such designs.

These letterform typographic styles are on-trend now, even if some of them make your modern logo design look old-fashioned. But, they’re only a fraction of the options available. So, don’t stop looking here.

Encourage your logo designer to play with typography to find the right fit for your brand.

2. Bright Colors

Logo design with bright colors by ElenaGabriela/crowdspring.

The internet has changed the way that we interact with the world. It’s vital that businesses design their visual brand with this medium in mind. And it’s important that your graphic design understand this.

After all, if you’re selling anything online, you’re competing with millions of other e-commerce businesses.

And this is true even if your organization is a non-profit – you’re still competing for attention against millions of other non-profits.

Modern logo design differs from logo design several decades ago. One of the strengths computers and mobile devices bring as a visual medium is their ability to display color. A computer or mobile screen provides a perfect canvas to show off bright, saturated colors. This is probably why we’re seeing such a big surge in brightly colored logo designs.

Logo design with gradient colors by AlexChiriac9/crowdspring

Intense colors that fade from a saturated hue to a lighter one, or gradients that segue from one shade to another continue to be popular in logo design.

When you combine your company’s name and an image (called a combination mark), you can try playing with different colors for both as you see in the accompanying examples here. And try variations where the name and image are side-by-side versus one above the other.

So, don’t be afraid to ask your logo designer to play with different options and to create an illustration that can accompany your logotype (the name of your company).

Just keep it simple enough that it won’t cost you a fortune when you actually have to print your logo.

And, don’t forget that there’s a psychology to graphic design. Specifically, colors tug on our grey matter to produce different emotional results. For more about using psychology to influence customers, check out our previous related article How 21 Brands Use Color to Influence Customers to learn which colors will send the right message from your brand.

It’s a foregone conclusion that your customers will interact with your brand online. Make the most of this opportunity by capitalizing on the visual medium with eye-catching, vibrant colors that will set your logo apart from the competition.

3. Geometric Line Art logos

Image courtesy of Davide Bassu/Design Bundles.

Geometric shapes eternally float in and out of favor in the worlds of architectural, fashion and graphic design. Simple, geometric line logos are popular and continue on an uptrend in 2018.

Geometric designs are loved for their clean, elegant lines and timelessness. Geometric design done well can be a thing of beauty and create minimalist, innovative abstract logos.

However, a simple geometric line design as a logo element is not the one-size-fits-all answer that some people seem to believe it is.

Logos must be distinct. This is what allows us to visually identify a specific brand from the vast array of logos in the marketplace.

But, at times, simplification can actually undermine your efforts to make a brand identity distinct. This is a problem because your modern logo must also reflect your brand. This is where blindly following this geometric logo trend and designing a logo based on a shape can fall short for your business.

There are only a handful of basic geometric shapes – squares, circles, triangles, diamonds… Even once you branch out into octagons, hectagons, parallelograms and the like, there still just aren’t that many. So, designers get creative and begin to layer the shapes together, play with curves, introduce negative space…

But, the results often look like “just another geometric shape logo design” – indistinct, unremarkable, and communicating nothing about your brand.

If you choose to go with a geometric line logo, make sure your symbol supports and reflects your brand identity and stick with a flat logo design (rather than a multi-dimensional design).

4. Social Media Optimized logo design

Logo design with social media optimized icon by PurposeMade/crowdspring.

Social media continues to offer a valuable marketing platform for businesses big and small, all around the world. So, it should come as no surprise that social media-friendly logos are “in” for 2018. But what exactly does this mean and should you ask your graphic design to create a social-media-friendly company logo for you?

Most social media platforms offer a square field to display a profile picture. So, your logo should fit nicely into that square field.

But, please don’t think that we’re advocating for everyone to have a square logo – far from it! What we are suggesting is that your logo should be sufficiently self-contained and visually balanced to fit into a square.

For a naturally social media-optimized logo, avoid overtly long horizontal or vertical designs. Those are complex and take away from the simplicity you need in a social media logo.

Choose a logo with a nice visual balance between its horizontal and vertical axis. These will display well on Twitter, Facebook, and even Instagram’s circular profile field.

This trend is a must-follow! It only slightly restricts your creative options and optimizes your business to put its best face forward on social media.

This is important because you want your brand to be consistent across channels, as we wrote in Grow Your Small Business With Consistent Branding:

Customers recognize unique logos easily in a sea of generic logo design. Versatile logos translate well across all mediums – from large business signage to a tiny business card. And appropriate logos create logical associations in your customer’s mind, helping them to link the logo to your product or service.

5. Simplistic Letterplay

Image courtesy of LetterLogos.

Monogram and single letter logos (sometimes called emblem logos) are classics. And, as we head into 2018, their endless popularity continues unabated. They can also serve as your brandmark or emblem (an image, like the Nike swoosh, that’s connected to your brand identity).

Unfortunately, although they can be simple logos, letter and monogram logos can be incredibly hard to make unique even if you have a talented graphic designer.

A monogram is defined as:

a design consisting of two or more alphabetic letters combined or interlaced, commonly one’s initials

Business owners love to make logos from their business’s initials. This makes sense if consumers will associate those initials with your brand and creates a useful, branded symbol. But, unless your brand has already had time to get established, that’s unlikely. And a monogram – unless it’s really well executed – doesn’t tell consumers much of anything about your brand.

To the contrary, monogram or single letter logos are often just a lazy retreat for designers who aren’t creative enough to think of something else. Not to mention that there are only so many ways to combine a sequence of letters. It’s almost inevitable that there’s another logo out there for a business with your initials that looks similar, if not the same, as yours.

Be wary of overly simplistic letter or monogram logos. If you must go the monogram route, make sure it is unique and brand-conscious.

6. Real-World Presentation

Logo design business card mock-up by saska-puff/crowdspring.

We’ve noticed a logo design trend that we’re really excited to see gaining momentum. That’s the practice of presenting a logo design in a real-world context to help clients envision the logo in actual practice.

(I know, I know… This trend is about how to present the logo, not logo design itself.  But, it’s a really valuable practice!)

Logo design signage mock-up by princereymar/crowdspring.

Many graphic designers are now providing mocked-up visuals of their logo designs on a t-shirt, business card, stationery, web design, infographic, or wall signage in addition to their beautifully rendered design. These supplemental materials not only help clients see what the logo might look like in practice, but they can also be used to help influence a brand identity.

Choose a style that looks appropriate to the brand for your mock-up to help the client to better understand how to visually communicate their brand beyond their logo. This may also influence their perception of what their brand might look like once fully realized. Mockups can be a great inspiration.

A strong designer will always do their best to enable their client to see the complete design picture. Not to mention that mocking up business cards or letterhead may inspire the client to invest in those items as well. A practice that serves the client and the designer is always a trend we want to support!

7. Swooshy People (avoid!)

Image courtesy of RocketArt/Creative Market.

Let’s face it, most businesses interact with people in some way. So, people are a pretty common theme in logo design.

Over the past decade, a trend for abstract, curvy line people has developed and continues to grow.

We call these design elements “swooshy people.”

They’re everywhere, especially from online logo makers or logo generators. Those sites offer generic templates used by thousands of other businesses.

And, now that we’ve pointed them out, they’ll probably start haunting you at every turn just like they haunt us.

The curved lines of the figures suggest dynamism and movement. They’re colorful. They’re playful.

And they’re also completely overdone and overused, as we demonstrated in an earlier article, Why You Should Avoid Making This Stupid Branding Mistake With Your Logo.

There are so many swooshy people logos flooding the market that it’s impossible to design one that doesn’t already exist somewhere. Often, this is because designers use stock art or templates to design swooshy people logos and you should avoid stock art at all costs in logo design.

We feel strongly about this. Crowdspring has always had a rule that no stock art, templates, or generic art can be used in custom logo design projects on crowdspring.

Don’t be lured in by the swooshy person’s bright colors or faceless relatability. They should not serve as design inspiration. Swooshy people are enemies of unique logo design. They don’t distinguish your brand and are not memorable enough to help your prospective customers remember you.

You want a unique and innovative logo. Actually, you NEED a unique and innovative logo if you want to stand out in the marketplace. Skip generic logos and invest in a custom logo design that will help your business stand out from the crowd.

Steer clear of the swooshy person trap, lest your logo be confused with every other swooshy person logo out there.

8. Pixellated Designs (avoid!)

Image courtesy of Dusan Sevarika/Dribbble.

Technology defines our contemporary culture; so much so that the technology of days past inspires fond nostalgia today. Think floppy disks, CD-ROMs, and 16-bit graphics. “Oh, look how cute we were back then! We thought that technology was advanced!”

One of the results of this nostalgia is the pixellated logo trend.

Some versions feature logos rendered entirely in the 8 or 16-bit pixel style. Others transition from a more natural image into pixels.

However the style is executed, it is sure to date your logo.

Pixel art is tied to the specific date range of the 80’s and 90’s.  And, our current perception of pixellated art as fun and quirky will fade. The zeitgeist will continue to change – it always does.

Incorporating this pixellated style will leave you with a logo that inspires folks to ask, “Remember when we thought pixel art was cool?” instead of inspiring them to trust your brand as modern and relevant.

You can do better. Take a pass on the pixels.

Before you go…

Trends are always difficult to navigate. Human beings are compelled to conform and try to fit in. It’s in our basic makeup. But following the crowd isn’t always the best choice. Sometimes we should leave that shiny new trend alone.

The bottom line is to always let your brand guide you. It’s more important to create an authentic brand identity than it is to be “on fleek.”

So when you’re researching logo design trends or logo design styles this year for your next business or looking to redesign an existing logo … make sure to ask yourself if that trend really represents your brand. We’re happy to help – let us know if you’d like a free design consultation with our team.

The crowdspring community (over 210,000 graphic, web and product designers) has helped many entrepreneurs, small businesses, and agencies design unique and memorable brand-centric logos, for a fraction of the cost those companies and agencies would otherwise pay.

Ready to take the next step? Engage with crowdspring’s community of over 210,000 designers who can work with you to move your company’s brand and design to the next level by creating an awesome logo design for as little as $299.

The post 2018 Logo Design Trends: Your Guide to Navigate Hot Trends and Avoid Fads appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. startup ecosystem for many decades.

Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of VC funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. Best startup city rankings have reflected this truth for a long time.

But this is becoming less true today, as more and more entrepreneurs find their way across the U.S.

There are now many metro areas with growing infrastructure and increasingly skilled workforces that can support tech startups. 

Increasingly, these metro areas are regularly appearing in rankings of the best cities in the United States for startups and entrepreneurs.

The good news is that these new metro centers are significantly less expensive than Silicon Valley or the East Coast. 

Let’s take a look at some of the best U.S. cities (outside of Silicon Valley and the East Coast), to build your startup.

Austin, TX

The Texas capital recently was named the #1 place in America to start a business by CNBC.

According to the 2016 Kauffman Growth Entrepreneurship Index, Austin grew its startups faster than every city except Washington, D.C., with their startups growing by 81.2 percent. That’s exceptional startup growth that other cities will find tough to match.

In large part due to the University of Texas at Austin and other universities’ influence, Austin is known for having an educated workforce.

Austin has become quite a hotspot. Employers and people interested in growth industries are drawn to the youthful, smart energy that flourishes there.

William Hurley, the co-founder of Honest Dollar, an Austin-based provider of retirement plans to small businesses, says creative talent is abundant:

It’s got the music, the university scene, the hippies and the rule-breakers…. It’s very easy to hire people who want to push the limits. It’s an incredibly innovative city.

Austin also stands out for its affordability. Many small-business owners, who often pay taxes at the individual level, appreciate the fact the state has no personal income tax. The state also has a corporate tax rate of zero. Combined, these factors point to available money for business owners to invest in their ventures.

The overall culture in Austin is renowned for its supportiveness of the small business community. The celebration for its unique culture and flourishing business community is very appealing, and many new startups are flocking to the city to embrace it as their own.

Boulder, CO

Boulder may be known for its eccentric, diverse population, but that reputation belies its true nature as an entrepreneurial powerhouse.

In 2015 Nerdwallet.com chose it as one of the best places to start a business, as well as the #1 city for female entrepreneurs, and for good reason: It’s an affluent urban center and was ranked as one of the top 20 most productive metro areas in terms of GDP. It’s no wonder so many entrepreneurs launch their startup in Boulder.

A number of high profile companies call Boulder home, including herbal tea leader Celestial Seasoning, Ball Aerospace, and respected startup accelerator TechStars.

Boulder’s entrepreneurial system is bolstered by a number of local venture capital firms, including Foundry Group.

With its concentrated mix of start-ups, established businesses, and venture capital, Boulder has all of the elements to fuel sustainable economic growth. Foundry Group’s founder Brad Feld noted:

Entrepreneurs here use a ‘give before you get’ mentality. We are willing to help anyone without an expectation of what we are going to get back in the short term. This creates a powerful long-term dynamic.

Boulder is an entrepreneurial force of nature. In 2010, the city had six times more high-tech startups per capita than the nation’s average. Its dynamic culture encourages Boulder’s prosperous economy, draws people in (especially millennials), and provides them with excellent motivation to stay.

Miami, FL

Don’t let the sand, sun, and tourism of the South Beach distract you from Miami’s reputation as a great place for new businesses. The Kauffman Index recently named Miami the second most entrepreneurial city in the U.S., with the country’s highest startup density, 247.6 startups per 100,000 people.

The city isn’t just the home of new businesses. Large companies like Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple have offices there, as well as 139 companies on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies.

Miami’s close ties with Latin America has bolstered its appeal. Laura González-Estéfani, Director of Partnerships & Mobile LatAm for Facebook, says:

There is talent, there is support from the institutions and private initiatives that are focused on boosting innovation, and there is an incremental interest from VCs and business angels for innovative projects.

Brian Brackeen, CEO of Miami-based Kairos also found Miami hard to resist:

We were searching things like AngelList, GitHub, different state web sites, then we took all that data and Miami was at the very top of the list in every important category…Cheapest for our employees, and the best tax situation for the company and our workers.

A diverse, skilled population, robust entrepreneurial environment, and an invaluable bridge to Latin America: The “Magic City” may be just that for entrepreneurs seeking a thriving, business-friendly place to set up shop.

Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles is known for sun, stars, and surf, and now you can add startups to the list.

The city is renowned as a center for tech entrepreneurship. In addition to being the third largest startup hub in the U.S. (behind Silicon Valley and New York), the city of flowers and sunshine boasts one of the largest concentrations of engineering graduates in the country.

LA has also increasingly attracted more and more venture capital investment and investors.

All of these things aside, one of its biggest attractions may be what is not: Silicon Valley.

This was one of the reasons entrepreneur Justin Yoshimura (founder of the start-up 500friends) found his way there:

Compared to San Francisco in particular, it’s very cheap. Santa Monica is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in L.A. and I have a yard with a pool and a beautiful home for less than what I would pay for an equivalent-sized condo in San Francisco.

The city isn’t lacking for high-profile companies, either, with Snapchat, SpaceX, VR trailblazer Oculus, and League of Legends creator Riot Games calling Los Angeles home. Whether they’re here because of the diversity, the mild weather, and the relaxed atmosphere, the city’s energy fuels and sustains a community of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneur Adam Pokornicky found the city’s community inspiring:

I’m seeing a consistent pattern of optimism, curiosity, and community, That kind of energy and like-mindedness is a breath of fresh air and super motivating.

Psyop founder Todd Mueller agreed, drawing attention to the city’s mix and diversity of talent:

Venice itself represents this sort of oddball collection of people representing different backgrounds and worldviews, but they share an openness and a curiosity that, when you harness it for a common cause like building a startup, is very powerful.

San Francisco, CA

The days of San Francisco being famous for trolley cars, Rice-A-Roni, and serving as a refuge for artists and bohemians are long over.

For better or worse, the city and the Bay Area are now synonymous with entrepreneurship and innovative high-tech thought leadership.

The concentration of startups, especially tech startups in the city by the bay is dizzying. You can find Twitter next to Square and Uber, and Dropbox, Pinterest, and Zynga within blocks of each other.

The whole city feels like a self-perpetuating machine, where venture capital draws in startups, which pulls in more venture capital, and so on. If the tourist tours of start-ups are any indication, the area’s nickname as the “Hollywood of Technology” is wholly appropriate.

It makes a lot of sense for companies and entrepreneurs to want to be here. In addition to the availability of funding and startup resources, the huge numbers of skilled workers and prestigious schools that help to educate them are unparalleled.

Musician Paul Kantner once said that San Francisco was “49 square miles surrounded by reality.” That may be true when it comes to the opportunities for startups and entrepreneurs, but the reality of big money and big business’ strain on the city itself is everywhere. Housing and rent prices are at unbelievable levels, and the difficulties of such a high cost of living are real and growing, issues.

All of these things said, the benefits to entrepreneurs found in the city and Silicon Valley are many, and for some, the intensity of energy and innovation found here may be irresistible.

Provo, UT

Utah’s entrepreneur-friendly culture is well known, but even with that considered there is still something noteworthy going on in the Beehive State, especially in Provo. The amount raised in 2014 by companies based out of the Provo-Orem metropolitan area was staggering: around an average of 51.3 million dollars.

This, along with over 800 million dollars raised by Utah-based companies that year ranked Utah as the seventh highest in the country, an impressive achievement for a state with just three million people.

There are a lot of big companies based in Provo, too, which helps attract and retain people with desirable skills and experience. Novell has its corporate headquarters in the city, as do Qualtrics, BlueHost, and Jive Communications. Brigham Young University has renowned entrepreneurship programs and produces many graduates who start businesses of their own.

Provo also stands out as a great city for entrepreneurs and startups because it’s affordable. The cost of living in the city is a big attraction, with the median price of homes hovering around $220,000. Compared to the median price of homes in San Francisco (which as of June 2017 was over 1.5 million), the cost of living combined with the access to venture capital, and a skilled, motivated workforce makes Provo a compelling option.

Las Vegas, NV

Startup activity in Las Vegas is booming.

A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation found Las Vegas bounding onto the startup scene, countering the public perception that Vegas is entirely centered around gambling and resorts.

After the economy crashed in 2008, Las Vegas was pushed to reinvent itself in order to survive. With businesses clearing out of California because of its oppressive taxation, Las Vegas welcomed many of those entrepreneurs with open arms and appealing tax relief.

The city is now the host to many of the largest industry trade shows for tech and other industries. It also boasts plenty of investors with co-working spaces, as well as funding and mentoring programs to stimulate a business environment.

Tony Hsieh of Zappos appreciates the “endless possibilities” he has discovered in Nevada. Hsieh put $350 million into revitalizing Las Vegas to contribute toward it becoming “the co-learning and co-working capital of the world.” He began a venture fund in 2012, VTF Capital, which invests in other businesses interested in joining the Nevada scene.

Living in Nevada is significantly more cost-effective than most other places in the country. Las Vegas sets itself apart from startup cities like Boston and San Francisco by offering a much lower cost of living in a major city. This is extremely attractive for younger professionals interested in city living – and lets them afford to experience more than a closet-sized apartment filled with Cup-O-Noodles.

Denver, CO

Maybe there’s something about the majestic mountains in Denver, a symbolic challenge perpetually imagined in its rising peaks. According to the Kauffman report on entrepreneurship, Denver is ranked fifth for a US city with the most start-up activity.

As Denver continues to explode with startups and small business ventures, an increasing number of millennials are heading to the beautiful city.  Denver is also one of the most educated cities in the US. 53 percent of the population holds a bachelor’s degree, and Colorado is ranked first as a relocation city for skilled workers ages 25 to 44.

Investment in transportation is another major player in Denver’s appeal. It has a new, multi-billion dollar rail system called FastTracks, which is continuing to expand. There is of course also the Denver International Airport, which is now the largest American airport by landmass – and it’s only half completed.

Gusto, the San Francisco based payroll startup, just opened its second office in Denver this month. Rachel Kim, a communications employee with the company, cites Denver’s close proximity and easy transport to the Bay Area as major reasons for Gusto branching out there. She also cites the spirited small business community is being a significant part of the city’s appeal.

Eric Remer, the founder of Denver-based startup PaySimple, said:

We have a really supportive startup environment, partially because we’re a relatively smaller community. The companies out here, they’re rooting for each other.

Between the striking beauty of the landscape, the easy access to major transportation, and the vibrant and educated community, Denver would make a great choice for anyone ready to set out on their startup journey.

Seattle, WA

Seattle is home to Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, and other well-known companies, but it has recently grown into a welcoming place for startups, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, too.

Seattle has been among the fastest-growing cities in the United States since 2010, and its population is expected to increase by an additional 200,000 over the next 20 years. A young, vibrant population, a booming tech industry and a run of interesting restaurants, unique shops and coffeehouses are among the reasons for the increase in start-up traffic in Seattle.

“Seattle historically is a place that attracts pioneers to come and do their own thing,” says Maud Daudon, CEO of the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce. Those pioneers are attracted to the eclectic, entrepreneurial spirit that the city breathes.

Seattle doesn’t offer major tax incentives for entrepreneurs, but it does have plenty of venture capital firms and economic development ventures to help foster the development of small businesses and start-up companies. Just as enticing as these are the incubators and business programs at the University of Washington and community colleges, where aspiring entrepreneurs can get their start.

Chicago, IL

As always, we’re excited about listing Chicago on our list of top cities for startups and entrepreneurs. And this status is well deserved. Chicago stands alone, not just in the Midwest but in the United States, among the “biggest and baddest of startup cities” when it comes to profitability, according to PitchBook. That’s only one reason venture capitalists love Chicago.

Chicago’s tech proficiency is becoming increasingly more recognized in the start-up scene. KPMG’s survey of more than 800 tech leaders found Chicago in the top 10 of tech innovation hubs worldwide. KPMG Chicago’s Mike Gervasio further cited the capital market and “an innovative culture” as partially responsible in Chicago’s impressive climb up the global ladder. That culture helped garner upwards of $1.7 billion in funding last year, and Chicago is host to a multitude of promising start-ups.

Startups in Chicago make good bets for those who invest in them. In Chicago, 45 percent of investments produced 10 times a return on investment. Chicago’s numbers are routinely superior, with 81 percent of its startups producing between three and 10 percent a yield on an initial investment. Now wonder VC’s love Chicago.

And as we have previously noted:

While startup resources in Chicago were scarce a decade ago, things have changed quite a bit. Chicago’s 1871, created in 2012 to support Chicago’s startup community, ranks 1st in the U.S. among North American Business Incubators and 4th in the world. 1871 is home to hundreds of early stage, high growth digital startups and offers tremendous resources and programming to entrepreneurs at all stages of their startup journey.

Sound good? We think so. Crowdspring couldn’t imagine home being anywhere else.

Here are some additional U.S. cities that you should keep in mind as some of the best cities for startups and entrepreneurs:

• St. Louis, MO
• Minneapolis, MN
• San Jose, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Columbus, OH
• Nashville, TN
• Portland, OR
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Atlanta, GA
• Indianapolis, IN
• Houston, TX

Are you ready to launch your startup or take your existing one to the next level? Enlist crowdspring’s help! Our team of over 210,000 creatives is ready and waiting to handle your business’s package graphics, logo design, web design, and more – everything you need to build a great brand. And, our outstanding customer service team is available to guide you through the whole process. Get started now and request a free, no obligation design consultation with one of our design experts today.

The post 10 Best Cities in the United States for Startups and Entrepreneurs (2018) appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

We all have days when we want a delicious dinner delivered right to our door.

Luckily, many restaurants and meal delivery kit services are ready and waiting to fulfill that dream.

But, poor packaging design decisions can ruin the experience.

Let’s take a closer look at why food packaging is important and how you can improve your own packaging to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Why food packaging is important

Whether your hot soup arrives cold, your cold sushi arrives warm, or the packaging is just an unattractive mess, the wrong packaging makes a meal less appetizing.

Food packaging serves a number of important purposes. It protects food from outside contamination. It ensures that the meal arrives at the right temperature. And, it serves as a tactile brand ambassador your customers can see and touch.

Packaging for food items has the ability to create fantastic associations between your audience and your business. Your food packaging contains delicious food! So, that’s half the battle right there.

Packaging is important in selling any product, and especially food products. As we pointed out previously:

…attractive packaging design motivates people to make impulsive choices, bypasses reflective thought and leaves the purchaser with a feeling of having been rewarded. That’s a powerful impact.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to deliver a quality customer experience and help to strengthen your brand’s positive bond with its audience.

Here’s how…

Choose the right packaging material

Using the right material is the first step to product packaging design success.

Food package containers come in a variety of materials – cardboards, corrugated boxes, boxboard, paperboard cartons, plastics, paper bags, and styrofoams are most common. And, each of these materials has strengths and weaknesses. For example:

• Styrofoam is great at insulating hot and cold foods so that they maintain their temperature. But, it’s non-biodegradable and bad for our environment.
• Plastic is sturdy and prevents leakage when designed properly. However, many plastics are non-biodegradable. And, some plastics can leach toxic materials into your food.
• Cardboard is biodegradable and easy to print on. But, wet foods can turn it to mush. And, it’s not very good at insulating to maintain temperature.

There is also a growing variety of biodegradable and sustainable food packaging containers to choose from – more about those later.

For an in-depth look at all of the factors you should consider when choosing packaging for food items, take a look at this article from the Dairy Technologist.

So, what are your business’s food delivery needs? Think about the distance your food needs to travel, how long it will remain in its packaging, temperature requirements, as well as what type of foods you will need to transport.

Then work with your packaging designer to create custom packaging that will best suit those needs.

Keep the packaging compostable

Most food packaging is disposable.

And, consumers are growing increasingly aware of the growing impact that disposable packaging has on our shared global environment.

Restauranteurs and meal delivery kit services need to be mindful of this as well – lest your environmentally un-friendly ways alienate customers.

And, prioritizing recyclable, reusable and biodegradable packaging materials is a great step toward running an ethical, environmentally-conscious business.

Some food delivery businesses have gotten this message loud and clear.  Meryl Pritchard of Kore Kitchen, a meal delivery service in Los Angeles, explains:

There is an unbelievable amount of waste that goes into delivery service, and once I was aware of the effect that this waste had on our planet, I knew I couldn’t let my business contribute to it.

Kore Kitchen uses compostable containers made from corn and sugarcane, along with recyclable glass bottles and reusable ice packs and bags.

Your business would do well to follow  Kore Kitchen’s example. So, look for ways that you can use re-usable packaging as well as biodegradable food packaging containers.

Products like “Nanowood” – a new, biodegradable styrofoam substitute, disposable bamboo, and tree-free recyclable containers are all worth considering.

Brand your packaging to raise awareness

Image courtesy of PopSop.

Once you’ve determined what types of packaging materials are the best fit for your needs, and hopefully prioritized environmentally-friendly disposable and re-useable containers, you can start to think in earnest about packaging branding.

Your packaging will interact with hundreds of people. It’s a huge missed opportunity if that packaging is not branded and properly designed.

London-based food photographer Stephen Conroy explains:

The packaging is the physical representation of a brand’s personality and one of their key identity tools. It helps to draw the consumer’s attention to a specific product in a crowded retail space, and differentiate a product from its competitors.

Your custom package graphics design presents the opportunity to create a bond between your brand and every customer who purchases from you. People like to get presents. People like ease-of-use. Food delivery provides both.

And, in addition to contributing to the happy feeling that accompanies the arrival of a food delivery, over time and repeated interactions, seeing a branded food package can elicit a Pavlovian hunger response.

That response can impact the customer who bought the food… as well as anyone else who sees the food in transit.

Ever seen a McDonald’s bag and been unable to shake your subsequent craving for McDonald’s?

Yeah. Me, too.

So, put your branding on your food packaging and make it visible and crisp. Make sure your business name is readable and your company logo is prominent.

Use your package design to communicate

Image courtesy of 123RoyaltyFree.

Packaging can do more than tell people where the food came from.

Packaging can also be used to communicate a message to your audience. You just need to decide what that message is.

Remember that your packaging should be an extension of your brand. So, the message you share should be on track with your brand identity and promise.

Then let that message guide you toward creating a unique food packaging design. And, don’t be afraid to seek out professional packaging design help for this important task.

Unique food packaging provides a novel experience and sets your brand apart from the competition – two valuable missions. So, let’s take a look at what this might look like in practice.

Buffalo Wild Wings is a sports bar and restaurant specializing in – you guessed it – wings. And they have mastered sharing their branding message on their food packaging.

Image courtesy of Larsen

All BWW packaging is emblazoned with their bold, yellow, black, and white color scheme. The container your wings arrive in features their logo as well as confident messages relating to their product like “It’s All About the Wing.”

No opportunity is missed. Even their napkins and wet naps are designed to communicate brand identity.

So, take a page from B-dub’s playbook and use every opportunity to spread your restaurant’s brand identity and message.

Meal delivery kit services should use their packaging to communicate, too. But, instead of branded napkins and food containers, create an amazing unboxing experience.

Part of the fun of a meal kit is the anticipation of the meals the customer is about to enjoy. Heighten that experience with a well-organized delivery package and beautifully-designed printed recipes and marketing materials.

Brand the box your kit arrives in and everything inside it.

For more on effective packaging design, read 6 Proven Tips for Successful Food Packaging.

The Last Course

The food you serve should always be the star.

But your food packaging should never be an afterthought.

Make packaging choices that will serve their function well. Select packaging containers that will ensure that your food arrives looking and tasting as amazing as it should. And, make design choices that will enhance your customer’s meal and be a visual ambassador for your brand.

The post Food Packaging Design Tips and Why Product Packaging Is Important appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Online shopping grows in popularity every year.

Between 2014 and 2017, the number of online shoppers increased from 1.32 billion people to 1.66 billion people – an increase of roughly 26%. And, the number of digital shoppers is projected to increase to 2.14 million by 2021.

This means that more packages are arriving in homes every day – packages that should be ambassadors for your brand.

Product packaging was developed to protect products during the shipping process.

But modern product packaging has played an increasingly important role in creating strong product brands.

Just look at the growth of the unboxing video craze.

What’s the deal with unboxing videos?

Unboxing videos feature frequently faceless narrators opening packages for new products. These videos often offer initial impressions on the packaging as well as reviews of the products themselves.

Some unboxing videos are carefully and professionally produced.

As mundane as that sounds, unboxing videos can rack up hundreds of thousands and even millions of views. Here’s an example for the Apple iPhone XS and XS Max.

Why are unboxing videos popular?

There are many theories about this. But, my own personal belief is that the process of unboxing is analogous to opening a present. And, people love opening presents. We love the novelty of new things. We like the appeal of a new surprise.

Admit it – as soon as a package arrives in the mail, you want to tear into it and find out what’s inside. Unboxing videos play into all of these instincts.

What is a branded packaging experience?

A branded packaging experience is the deliberate selection of shipping and packaging materials, combined with smart package graphics design, that leaves a positive and memorable first impression for your product when the product is initially unboxed.

When creating a memorable packaging experience, be sure to understand packaging design trends because such trends strongly influence how people react to your products and your product packaging.

Why a memorable branded packaging experience matters

Whether your product is likely to ever be featured in an unboxing video is irrelevant.

You can’t anticipate whether it will or it won’t – so it’s best if your product and packaging are camera-ready.

But, more importantly, the unboxing phenomenon as a whole has raised the public’s expectation of what the unwrapping experience should be.

They’ve seen better and they want it for themselves. And, now that the bar has been raised, your product packaging needs to live up to these new standards.

So, it’s in your business’s best interest to create the best unboxing experience possible.

As we recommended previously:

…it’s time to start thinking about how you can make your unboxing process special. What does the outside of the box look like? What do you see as soon as the box is opened? How is the product wrapped? Is there a message or gift inside?

Treat each step of the unboxing process as a new opportunity to impress, surprise or delight the recipient.

So, let’s take a real look into how you can create a fantastic unboxing experience for your customers.

Creating a custom product packaging experience

A properly designed, memorable custom packaging experience combines a number of different elements.

Here are five important factors to consider that will guide you to create memorable product packaging design and a fantastic unboxing experience.

1. Everything in product packaging should have a function

An awesome unboxing experience starts with strong functional design.

Your packaging must serve its primary purpose – to protect the items inside during transport. If the item arrives damaged, then you’ve failed before the unboxing can even begin.

But, beyond that basic rule, there’s an important guideline you should follow:

Eliminate superfluous packaging material.

French writer and poet Antoine de Saint Exupery famously said,

It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove.

There is beauty in simplicity not just because it offers a relaxing visual, but, also because of simplicity of design demands that the design embrace function and aesthetics as a cohesive whole.

Think about Apple’s celebrated white minimalist packaging – perhaps the holy grail of unboxing videos.

Every element of your packaging should serve a function, whether it’s organizational, protective or aesthetic.

Opening a clean, streamlined, and intentionally-designed package is a pleasure.

And, eliminating unnecessary packaging also helps in other ways.

• Lighter packaging is cheaper to ship.
• Eliminating waste saves money on packaging materials.
• Banishing wasteful packaging practices is good for the environment.

How many times have you opened a large box only to find a tiny product inside? If you’re like me, when that happens you turn to the nearest human and point out how absurdly wasteful it is.

That’s not the unboxing experience you want to create for your customers. And, that’s not the impression you should want your brand to create.

So, design with intent and get rid of the stuff you don’t need.

To Do:

• Design custom product packaging to fit your product and brand.
• Design your packaging to serve double-duty. Padding should be both protective and attractive, with eye-catching package graphics design. Organizational barriers should protect product components and contribute to creating a dramatic visual reveal.
• Invest in the most effective packaging materials to accomplish more with less.

2. Make the product packaging personal

One way to create a memorable unboxing experience is to make it personal.

We all like to feel special.

But, we live in an age of form letters, spam email, and one-size-fits-all (fits-almost-no-one) clothing.

Customization is rare. And, it stands out like a warm ray of sunshine amidst all the impersonal, grey uniformity we face every day.

Design an unboxing experience that is all about the recipient and you will make your customers feel special.

Customize your packaging design to your customer whenever possible. Use the customer’s name. Send recommendations based on their previous shopping preferences. Include a personal note thanking the customer for their business.

And, say thank you.

Make it clear that you know there is a person receiving this package.

You can also create a more personal unboxing experience by sharing something about you and your business in your packaging. You may consider including a flyer with a photograph of the person who packaged the product, or a note explaining the story behind this product.

To Do:

• Use your customer’s name whenever possible.
• Customize the contents of the box to meet your customer’s interests.
• Include hand-written thank you notes.
• Share genuine information about your business and the people behind the purchase.

3. Create an exciting packaging reveal

When people open a new package, their curiosity is piqued. They’re subconsciously prepared for a surprise.

Not the “will-spring-snakes-explode-out-of-this-package?” sort of surprise; but, the curious “will-what’s-inside-meet-my-expectations?” kind of surprise.

You can capitalize on this curiosity and delight your customers by including a bit of drama in the unboxing process.

You could just plunk your product into some padding and stuff it in a box, but there’s no fun in that.

Instead, think of your unboxing design as a classy and tasteful PG-rated burlesque performance – you don’t want to give everything away all at once. Reveal one element at a time and take your customers on an exciting journey as you build to the final reveal of your product.

To Do:

• Plan out what your customer will see from the time they open the box until they uncover the product itself.
• Control what the customer can see as they remove each item from the box.
• Consider ways to use functional elements like padding or organization to contribute to a step-by-step reveal.

4. Aim for an attractive package design

Science has shown that attractive packaging helps sell products. As we wrote previously:

…attractive packaging design motivates people to make impulsive choices, bypasses reflective thought and leaves the purchaser with a feeling of having been rewarded. That’s a powerful impact.

That’s because attractive packaging design triggers activity in the parts of our brain associated with impulsive behavior and the feeling of having been rewarded.

You can make these psychological influences work in your favor and create an enjoyable experience for your customers by prioritizing an attractive packaging design.

Think about color, font, shape, and texture.

To Do:

• Hire a professional packaging designer to guide you with your packaging aesthetics and graphics.
• Design with your target audience’s visual preferences in mind.
• Research and bear in mind the psychology behind packaging design.
• Consider the function of your packaging when designing the aesthetics. For example, food packaging design and packaging design for cannabis products require special considerations.

5. Keep your brand identity front and center on the packaging

Image courtesy of Digiwrap

Strong unboxing design should act as a brand ambassador for your business.

Your packaging design and other elements of the unboxing experience should all reflect your brand identity.

Customers are reassured by brand consistency – especially when shopping online where they can’t speak to someone in person or handle the product before purchasing.

While branding that doesn’t match the customers’ expectations can create a sense of unease and possibly even dissatisfaction with the product itself.

So, your unboxing design should prioritize creating a consistent brand experience for your customer. And, beyond the reassurance factor, other benefits include:

• Creating a touchpoint to reinforce your customer’s relationship with your brand and
• Serving as an advertisement for your product to anyone else who might see it.

As you plan your unboxing design, make sure to consider how your visual brand can play a role.

To Do:

• Include your company logo on your product packaging and make sure that your company name is prominent too.
• Feature your brand colors to create an instant subconscious association with your brand.
• Embrace your brand’s typography and voice in all written copy. Tell your brand story through your packaging design.

Jake Rheude, of eCommerce conversion experts The Good Group, explains:

Properly packaging your product is like giving someone a birthday present every time they order from you.

You should approach your packaging design with the intent of creating the best possible impression on the recipient.

A cool unboxing experience is a fantastic way to create a positive bond with your customers. So design an unboxing process that will surprise, delight, and connect with your audience.

The post 5 Rules for Designing an Unforgettable Unboxing Experience for Your Brand appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Social media is an easy form of entertainment.

Mindlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed is easy and soothing, and Facebook is a well-known outlet for all sorts of entertaining time wasters.

Social media has become, too, an oft-touted tool to build your business’ brand presence, launch entrepreneurial careers, and pursue creative side gigs.

However, social media – entertaining and helpful as it can be – is often nothing more than a distraction from achieving greater success both personally and professionally.

Read more about how to grow your success, and what to focus on instead of social media, in this Medium article.

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles that we shared with you over the past week on our crowdspring Twitter account (and on Ross’s Twitter account). We regularly share our favorite posts on entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, logo design, web design, startups, leadership, social media, marketing, economics, and other interesting stuff! Enjoy!

If you sell products, is your product packaging creating a great first impression?
Here are 5 Rules for Designing an Unforgettable Unboxing Experience for Your Brand | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/9kr3MsxhSG pic.twitter.com/NBObhRtZDX

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 15, 2018

10 Best Cities in the United States for Startups and Entrepreneurs (2018) https://t.co/llTw8NbpgS

— smb resource (@smbresourcenews) November 9, 2018

7 Counterintuitive Rules for Growing Your Business Super-Fast – https://t.co/rLDoGlWo2S

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 7, 2018

9 Proven Strategies Your Small Business Can Use to Increase Engagement and Conversion Rates https://t.co/UgHIMWYM7i

— Dwight E Miller (@DwightMiller) November 2, 2018

4 Ways to Know When It's Time to Rebrand Your Business https://t.co/QtmeUO1Cle by @crowdspring#Rebrand #BusinessGrowth #Marketing #Time

— Inbound Marketing (@manobyte) November 14, 2018

10 Time Management Tips to Help You Get More Done Each Day | @smallbiztrends – https://t.co/YLIkCKtR41 pic.twitter.com/IwQLfMyEcs

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 4, 2018

Do you have your holiday marketing strategy in place? 15 Tips To Successfully Market Your Small Business This Holiday Season | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/DvYYtseTkI #SMBs #SmallBusiness #marketingtips #MarketingStrategy pic.twitter.com/fedH8FaSAL

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 5, 2018

How to Cultivate a Female-Friendly Cannabis Brand – crowdspring Blog https://t.co/NqUin7WlpW #cannabis

— Cannabis Biz News (@CannabisBizNews) November 8, 2018

6 questions you should ask about your small business brand | @AZBigMedia – https://t.co/5giu44O8h9 pic.twitter.com/cgy1Pwfkqr

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 5, 2018

“Although there are some glaring exceptions, most great leaders succeed because they have a high degree of emotional intelligence.” Those who don't, are usually not as great as they may first appear. https://t.co/S20jd66edt pic.twitter.com/ZrxvskmSQV

— Dr. Sam Alibrando (@DrSamAlibrando) November 15, 2018

Terrific short video for entrepreneurs on the timing for fundraising. https://t.co/8ryGKsxriM

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 8, 2018

Startup Marketing: The 4 Building Blocks of Brand Identity You Can’t Ignore https://t.co/QPBgGjCaXF pic.twitter.com/UdfaaZNgEh

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 8, 2018

7 Counterintuitive Rules for Growing Your Business Super-Fast – https://t.co/rLDoGlWo2S

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 7, 2018

Smart Widen+Kennedy campaign for RXBar … This is an article about Wieden+Kennedy’s clever ad campaign – No B.S https://t.co/9Hv6oS0jM7 pic.twitter.com/bfllOQ0ymS

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 12, 2018

There’s a huge opportunity for cannabis firms to more effectively market to women. Here’s what you should know: How to Cultivate a Female-Friendly Cannabis Brand | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/losQHWSddu #cannabiz #branding pic.twitter.com/idgGswQw0T

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 7, 2018

Congrats to @Ocasio2018 on her terrific win! Strong political branding helped her immensely. Here’s how and why strong branding is important for political campaigns… https://t.co/YIFxHiRy6H

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 7, 2018

15 Tips to Market Your SMB This Holiday Season | our guest post in @advertisingweek – https://t.co/XNHtZ7dinv pic.twitter.com/9cYKamQ566

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 6, 2018

Thoughts and Prayers: Social Media, Tragedy, and the Brand https://t.co/Ng9thApGZm pic.twitter.com/ZZKlCTRI9H

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 8, 2018

4 Ways to Know When It's Time to Rebrand Your Business https://t.co/QtmeUO1Cle by @crowdspring#Rebrand #BusinessGrowth #Marketing #Time

— Inbound Marketing (@manobyte) November 14, 2018

If you sell products, is your product packaging creating a great first impression?
Here are 5 Rules for Designing an Unforgettable Unboxing Experience for Your Brand | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/9kr3MsxhSG pic.twitter.com/NBObhRtZDX

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 15, 2018

Poor packaging design decisions, especially for food, can ruin the experience.
Food Packaging Design Tips and Why Product Packaging Is Important | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/S6TvVQ8Q8J #Packaging #marketingtips #SMBs #SMB pic.twitter.com/KUcQM9drh0

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 13, 2018

It’s a terrific book. Reading this book (and adjusting your sleep) might be the best thing you do this *decade* to improve your health. https://t.co/ZwnrWuou0q

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 13, 2018

China continues to amaze. Think about this. One company, $30.8 billion in sales in 24 hrs. Wow! https://t.co/trBLOLiRWO Meanwhile back in the USA, it took 4,500 US retail websites four days (Black Friday weekend & Cyber Monday) to generate $14.05 billion. China is coming, hard.

— Rick Myers (@RickM) November 12, 2018

Interesting … Machine-learning algorithm beats 20 lawyers in NDA legal analysis – https://t.co/CLKzk7J7b1 pic.twitter.com/QQYU573Ojf

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 6, 2018

Outreach Best Practices

(author unknown) pic.twitter.com/3YYooDgBvr

— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) November 14, 2018

The post Twitter Link Roundup #351 – Terrific Reads for Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Marketers, and Designers! appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Smart businesses know that people, especially millennials and Gen Z, are increasingly concerned about the environment.

In fact, a 2017 peer-reviewed study in the Lancet revealed that pollution continues to be a major global health concern.

In response to this global trend, businesses are adopting environmentally-friendly strategies when they design products, product packaging, and when marketing their business.

Environmentally-friendly strategies not only help the environment but can also help the bottom line.

A 2017 study revealed that 92% of consumers have a more positive image of a company when the company supports an environmental cause.

Your small business or startup can incorporate sustainable practices to save money and to help save the planet. Here’s how…

What is sustainable design?

Sustainable business, or a green business, is a business that strives to create the smallest amount of impact on the environment as possible.

Sustainable design is a similar concept. It refers to any design concept that has a minimal negative impact on its environment, community, and economy.

German industrial designer Dieter Rams’ renowned design principles emphasize that good design should be “environmentally friendly”:

Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

There are three areas where your business can significantly impact sustainability: product packaging design, brand identity, and web design.

These areas are responsible for some of the highest outputs of waste and an increased carbon footprint.

Method’s clean packaging echoes the commitment to eco-friendly cleaning solutions.

Make your product packaging eco-friendly

Product packaging design has a powerful impact on consumers.

As we recently wrote:

There is impressive evidence in support of the power of packaging design:

Attractive packaging triggered more intense activity in areas of the brain associated with impulsivity than neutral packaging.

Unattractive and attractive packaging lead to less activity in areas of the brain responsible for reflective thought than neutral packaging.

Attractive packaging triggered reward responses in the brain whereas unattractive packaging triggered areas associated with negative emotion.

Making your packaging environmentally friendly is an excellent way to make a positive impression on your customers.

For many people, sustainable packaging is also a major influence in purchasing decisions.

According to a recent Nielsen study, 3 out of 4 Millennials and 72 percent of Gen Z polled would pay more for a product with sustainable packaging.

There are many strategies available to update your existing packaging with more environmentally-friendly options.

Choose green materials

Apple is widely regarded as an industry leader in beautiful, forward-thinking design.

One of the significant announcements from Apple’s recent product announcements, however, wasn’t a new fancy phone or laptop. It was that both of the new machines they announced – the MacBook Air and Mac Mini – are made with 100% recycled aluminum. Apple said:

Using this custom aluminum alloy helps reduce MacBook Air’s carbon footprint by nearly 50 percent, making it the greenest Mac ever.

Packages that use green materials like recycled aluminum save energy and reduce landfill waste. This is compelling for environmentally concerned consumers.

Make it biodegradable or recyclable

Using recycled materials is a great start to creating a sustainable product. You can also consider using biodegradable materials.

Here are some commonly-used materials that are biodegradable or recyclable:

• Paper and cardboard. These readily available options have the triple benefit of being reusable, recyclable, and biodegradable.
• Corn starch. Packaging made from corn starch is biodegradable and commonly used to hold food and other limited use items. Packaging “peanuts” made from corn starch are also available, so if you’re looking for green packing material, it may fit the bill.
• Bubble wrap. Everyone’s favorite stress reliever is generally made from plastic, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for the environment. If you need to use bubble wrap, use some that are biodegradable.
• Biodegradable plastic. This may sound like an oxymoron, but some plastics can biodegrade. They may not be 100% as eco-friendly as other options like cardboard, but if you need plastic in your packaging, a biodegradable version might do the trick.

Repurpose your packaging

Adopting packaging that can be repurposed later is an excellent strategy for increasing your green factor.

We talked about an example of an innovative packaging design when we recently looked at packaging trends:

One Indonesian company has found a way to create packaging that you can eat. Evoware is food packaging made from seaweed that is nutritious if you eat it, and biodegrades if you opt to throw it out.

Puma spent months finding a way to repurpose their shoeboxes. They wound up eliminating the box altogether and created the “clever little bag” in its place.

Their shoes now come in a bag that can be reused many times after its life as a shoe container is over.

The company says they save 8500 tons of paper, 20 million megajoules of electricity, and 1 million liters of water with this change.

That’s thinking outside the box at its best.

Need some more inspiration?

Pinterest is a great resource for innovative packaging design ideas.

And if you’re interested in a good guide on sustainable product design, we recommend you read Product Design Strategies for a Sustainable Future.

Invest in eco-friendly business cards and brochures

You can also adopt eco-friendly practices in building your brand identity.

Your brand identity explains who you are, what value you bring to your customers, and what sets you apart from everybody else.

The design choices you make help to create a brand identity for your company. Your business cards, product packaging (discussed in the next section), brochures, and more, all help establish how customers and prospects perceive your brand.

Let’s start with business card design. As we wrote previously:

There are few statements as widespread in business as “Here’s my card.” Business cards have been a part of any entrepreneur’s self-promotion toolkit for a long time. How long? The Chinese handed out calling cards in the 15th century to let people know they planned to visit. The French in the 17th century swapped cards as a way of introduction, and this spread to the British and eventually America soon after.

Similarly, brochures are versatile marketing products that can help promote your business, highlight important products and services, and help customers and prospects remember your business.

You can still make a great impression with your brochure design by ensuring that your brochures have a minimal environmental impact.

If you need business cards or brochures for your business, consider environmentally-friendly options. For example:

• Numerous companies offer recycled and eco-friendly business cards and brochures. Some companies, for example, use paper from trees harvested under the Sustainable Forest Initiative. Such paper is processed without environmentally harmful bleach and chlorine agents.
• Some companies use waterless printing that doesn’t use toxic chemicals and doesn’t consume tens of thousands of gallons of water as part of the printing process.
• You can find creative business card solutions that include plantable seed business cards.
• If you have a choice of paper or material options, consider cotton or other eco-friendly materials.

Sustainable web design

One place you might not expect to find energy savings?

Your website.

Serving web pages requires computers to run 24/7, and all of that power usage and computing requires large amounts of energy.

It also creates tremendous heat. Web hosting companies also need extensive (and expensive) cooling systems to keep their computers from overheating.

How can you make your website more eco-friendly? By investing in good website design practices.

Make things easier to find

Making information easy to find not only reduces customer frustration but also reduces your energy output.

Find ways to lower the number of “clicks” needed to get to the desired result and reduce the number of pages a customer needs to load.

Using fewer pages reduces the necessary bandwidth and computing power necessary to run your webpage.

Make sure you have a high functioning search feature on your website so customers don’t have to dig for what they’re looking for.

Anything you can do to make information on your website easier to find reduces a computer’s energy output.

Choose a green web host

Web hosting uses a lot of energy.

According to a Greenpeace study, if the Internet was a country, it would rank sixth for energy usage.

Another study concluded that the Internet is responsible for almost 1 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions.

A number of web hosting companies are trying to reduce the impact websites have on the planet. Some of these companies purchase carbon offsets to make up for the energy they use, while others tap into renewable energy sources to power their servers.

Consider hosting your site with a provider that works to be more sustainable and eco-friendly.

Lighten your page content

Did you know that readers start abandoning your website after only seconds of load time?

Between seconds 4 and 5 of your website’s load time, 20% of viewers have already left your site. The number only increases from there.

The size of web pages is becoming an increasingly huge problem for businesses.

Make lighter page design a priority for your business.

Lighter pages have many benefits:

• they require less computing power and energy,
• they load faster,
• they use less bandwidth, and
• because there’s less on them, they’re easier to scan.

Take the time to give your website a thorough audit and try to slim them down.

Remove excessive images and videos, or if you have to have them, run them through optimizers like Kraken.io or ImageOptim to shrink their size.

When it comes to creating a sustainable business, every action matters.

Using green packaging design, sustainable business cards, and brochures, and incorporating smarter web design strategies are great ways to improve your carbon footprint and gain a loyal customer following.

The planet (and the billions of us living on the planet) will appreciate your efforts.

The post Sustainable Design Can Help Your Small Business and Improve the Environment appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

The eCommerce industry is growing rapidly every year.

But, that doesn’t mean that all eCommerce businesses are growing at the speed they’d like.

Whether your sales are actively lagging or just okay, most businesses want to grow their revenue faster.

Good design is one of the most effective growth tools for an eCommerce business.

Every aspect of your eCommerce business, from your company’s logo design to your web site’s appearance to your marketing brochures to the user experience must be smartly designed.

Poor design will undermine your business.

Here are six strategies for growing your eCommerce business with strong, smart design.

1. Optimize your website load speeds with smart design.

Your eCommerce business is only as strong as your website.

If visitors are met with inept design and slow load speeds, they’re going to leave before you have a chance to make a sale.

Research from Stanford reveals that 75% of internet users will make judgments about a business’s credibility based solely on how their website looks. And, as we mentioned previously:

…a Kissmetrics Infographic shows that by the time your website hits 4 seconds of loading time, you’ve already lost 25% of your potential viewers.

If your eCommerce website is laden with data-intensive graphics and photos, it will take far longer to load than a sleek, cleanly designed website with minimal graphics.

Now, the takeaway here is not that you should eliminate photos and graphic elements from your eCommerce website design entirely.

The lesson is to use design elements smartly for maximum impact and quick load speeds.

Many eCommerce stores are photo-heavy. Make sure that you minimize your photo file sizes as much as possible while still maintaining good photo quality.

Artful and intentional use of color, white space and text can go a long way. Throw in a few minimal brand-specific graphic elements and you can create a website that is a pleasure to navigate.

When working with your website designer, be sure to communicate that quick load speeds are a high priority.

2. Target existing customers with remarketing ads and email campaigns.

It’s more cost-effective to sell to existing customers than it is to acquire new ones.

If you want to grow your eCommerce business quickly, focus some of your marketing efforts on gaining repeat sales from your current customers.

Two great strategies for engaging with existing customers are remarketing ads and email campaigns.

Google’s remarketing ads target users who have already visited your website. This means that the people receiving these ads are the people who are likely to be the most receptive to your message  – because they’ve already sought out your business on their own.

An eye-catching ad design steeped in your visual brand will help to keep your business on your customer’s minds. Pair that compelling design with a valuable offer and customers will flock to your site to take advantage.

You may also want to consider reaching out to past customers with an email campaign. Email is still a highly effective tool for contacting customers – especially web-savvy, smartphone-toting customers who are comfortable shopping online.

So, stow your pride and make it clear that you miss them and you’d like to see them back. Share your message in a well-designed email template and you’ll attract even more interest.

For more techniques for re-engaging with past customers and clients, check out 8 Effective Ways Your Small Business Can Wow and Win Back Lost Customers.

3. Optimize your eCommerce business for mobile access.

The way people access the internet has changed.

Over the years, the number of users accessing the internet from computers has declined, while more and more people access the internet from their mobile devices.

As of November 2016, mobile devices became the most popular way to access the internet.

When you build an eCommerce site, it must be optimized for mobile users. Otherwise, it’s behind the times and losing business. After all, there are few things more frustrating than trying to navigate a traditional, desktop website from your smartphone.

Your eCommerce website design should be responsive. This means that it is designed to visually adjust to the size/shape screen on which it appears.

And, the best responsive websites not only adjust to the new screen size, but they’re also intuitive and easy-to-navigate as well. So, make sure you hire a talented professional designer to help your eCommerce business execute its responsive website design.

For more on optimizing small business websites, read 13 Proven Ways to Optimize Small Business Website Conversions.

Online shoppers have also come to expect mobile apps designed specifically for use on mobile devices.

People want an easy way to interact with your eCommerce store. If you want to see your business grow quickly, it’s important that you meet these expectations.

Remember that ease of use is of paramount importance for mobile apps. So, seek out designers who are experienced in creating user-friendly mobile app interfaces.

4. Harness the power of the landing page.

If your eCommerce business is serious about achieving rapid growth, then you need to embrace the landing page.

A landing page is a web page specifically devoted to a single product or offer. And unlike your traditional website homepage, every element is laser-focused on a single call to action and intentionally designed to convert.

So, feature each marketing offer and product with a unique landing page on your website.

You may even want to consider creating landing pages for specific target audiences. This way, people who search for your product online will be taken to a webpage that caters to their needs and perspectives.

When designing landing pages for your eCommerce website, remember to eliminate distractions, provide a clear call to action, and make it easy for the customer to complete that call to action.

To learn more about landing page design best practices, read about creating high-converting landing pages.

5. Recover abandoned shopping carts to boost sales.

For every eCommerce store, the shopping cart is the final barrier between a prospective customer and a sale.

And, shopping cart abandonment is an issue that all eCommerce businesses face. Customers load up their carts with items and then promptly disappear.

There are many reasons for cart abandonment – shipping price shock, a confusing check-out process, and using the cart for storage with the intent of purchasing later, are just a few.

But, great design can help you nudge those almost-sales into actual sales. Start by reviewing your shopping cart design for the following flaws:

• Is it confusing?
• Does it take too many steps to complete?
• Is it slow to load?
• Is the process buggy?

Track the issues you find as you review your check-out process – no matter how small.  Even the most minor inconveniences can drive some customers away. And, these inconveniences are your guideposts for improvement.

Then redesign your shopping cart interface to eliminate the friction points you’ve discovered. Remember that simple is better than complex.  And, transparency is better than mystery.

The less your customers have to do, the happier they’ll be. They’ll also appreciate knowing where they are in the check-out process and how much remains left to do.

Smart design improvements for the user experience can help tip those “almost-there” shoppers into loyal customers. And, that’s going to grow your eCommerce business fast.

6. Provide social proof to build customer confidence.

People are social creatures.

We all want to belong.  And, seeing other people to whom we can relate sharing a certain opinion encourages us to share that opinion, too.

When designing your eCommerce website, be sure to leave room for customer testimonials and reviews.

Testimonials and reviews show that others have gone before and were happy that they did. This will give new customers the confidence to take the plunge, too.

Take a look at how we showcase crowdspring reviews on our own site, as an example.

Here are a few design considerations to remember when including reviews on your site:

• Place testimonials in prominent spots. They should not overshadow your call to action, but they should be easy to find.
• Include a picture of the quoted customer whenever possible (but get their permission first!). Seeing a face with the quote helps others to relate to that person and see them as real. This builds trust.
• Make sure to choose a testimonial font that is easy to read. Fancy is great – but legible is better.

Another great way of showing social proof is to include a “best-sellers” section.

Digital marketing expert Neil Patel points out:

Not everyone browsing your site will know exactly what they’re looking for. If your company sells a wide range of different products, it can be overwhelming, especially for a new customer. When someone stumbles upon your site, they may get drawn to products that are popular.

In order to pull this strategy off effectively, this best-sellers section must be easy to find and navigate – as well as visually integrated with your overall web design.

So don’t slouch on the design side. Work with your web designer and graphic designer to find the best way to execute this strategy for your business.

The post How Good Design Can Help Your eCommerce Business Grow Faster Than Ever appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Crowdspring’s Naming Creative, mt1895

It’s not easy to name a new company or product.

During the brainstorming process, you may think you’ve found the perfect name only to learn that name already belongs to someone else.

Perhaps you’ve considered turning to a naming consultant, only to learn it costs tens of thousands of dollars – a fee most businesses can’t afford.

All businesses should have access to affordable, high-quality company naming services. (For more on naming, read Why and How to Rename Your Business and 10 Tips for Naming Your Startup or Small Business).

We recently spoke with Mike Taylor, (who goes by the username mt1895 on crowdspring), a competitive professional product and business namer, about his experiences working with crowdspring.

Mike is one of over 220,000 crowdspring creatives who help entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, agencies, and non-profits in the U.S. and in 100+ countries with professional custom logo design, web design, print design, product design, packaging design and naming companies and products.

We talked with Mike about his experience, how he became interested in naming companies and products, his advice for naming, and his secret to success (trust us, it’s more than drinking lots of coffee).

The images in this interview are the winning names from some of the projects Mike won on crowdspring.

1. Please tell us about yourself.

I am a retired Data Processing System Analyst (I’m not even sure if the phrase “Data Processing” is still used.)

2. How did you become interested in naming?

My wife admires my skill as a (self-proclaimed) wordsmith. She discovered a website that paid for naming products and such. She suggested that as long as I was naming for family, friends & church, I might as well name for a company that was paying for the service.

3. What led you to start using crowdspring?

After being successful at another naming service website, I started to Google others like it, and I found Crowdspring. There were a total of four naming websites beside Crowdspring that I was working with, and it is worth noting that I have since severed my relationship with them all. I now devote my time to Crowdspring alone.

I quickly realized that the Crowdspring process from beginning to end is an easy one, and the projects that enter the platform are ones that I could easily relate to and are fun to work on.

4. What inspires you?

Underdog success stories are a great inspiration.

Now, I am not saying the projects that land on my workstation are underdogs. However, when I win a project and later pull up the previously non-existent website and see the beautiful transformation, it is a very satisfying feeling and it generates a great sense of accomplishment.

5. How would you describe your style?

I don’t have one particular style. I simply read the brief intently, and create what I feel compliments the project or what fits precisely.

I will use ancient words, words in different languages, alliterations, compound words and more; it depends on what style the client prefers.

6. What is the naming process like for you? How do you start?

That, my friend, is my secret sauce – and why I am profiled here. All I will offer is that as a coffee lover, I will drink a cup of coffee as I am intently reading the brief.

7. What do you do with your free time?

My wife and I are avid recreational golfers and students of the Word of God. So, when I am not creating, I am probably on a golf course somewhere in the United States. We haven’t traveled abroad yet, but plan to soon.

If I am not on the golf course, I am probably working in some capacity at the church I fellowship with.

8. What is your most memorable project on crowdspring?

Asabasa Spice Company was a renaming project where the owner was faced with a directive to change their existing name, which had some copyright issues. That project name centered around a great cup of coffee I enjoyed at the time I was reading the project brief.

Just imagine reading a brief where one of the requirements was to find a name that begins with the letter “A.” There you are, taking your first sip of a deeply roasted cup of coffee, thinking about “Asabasa.”

You can’t say “ASABSA” without first saying “Ahhhh,” a word I say to relax or when I am enjoying coffee. Read the ASABASA case study if you want to learn more.

9. What is your favorite part about working on crowdspring?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE receiving the email that says “You have been picked for an award!” and I have plenty of those.

That, my friend, is my favorite part of working on Crowdspring.

I also like that the award listed for a project is the award given 100%, with no part of it given back to Crowdspring as a fee. Other sites don’t pay 100% of the award to the creative.

I also love the quick responses and replies from the staff. They really make you feel like you are indeed a part of the crowdspring family.

Want to work with Mike?

The post An Interview with crowdspring Naming Creative, Mike Taylor appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Crowdspring’s Naming Creative, shaunda

It’s not easy to name a new company or product.

During the brainstorming process, you may think you’ve found the perfect name only to learn that name already belongs to someone else.

Perhaps you’ve considered turning to a naming consultant, only to learn it costs tens of thousands of dollars – a fee most businesses can’t afford.

All businesses should have access to affordable, high-quality company naming services. (For more on naming, read Why and How to Rename Your Business and 10 Tips for Naming Your Startup or Small Business).

We recently spoke with Shaunda Lindsay, (who goes by the username shaunda on crowdspring), a competitive product and business namer, about her experiences working with crowdspring.

Shaunda is one of over 220,000 crowdspring creatives who help entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses, agencies, and non-profits in the U.S. and in 100+ countries with professional custom logo design, web design, print design, product design, packaging design and naming companies and products.

Shaunda is a six-year naming veteran on crowdspring, and boasts over 1,400 naming projects under her belt. We learned how she approaches the naming process for heart pump products or for sandwich shops (and just about everything in-between).

The images in this interview are the winning names from some of the projects Shaunda won on crowdspring.

1. Please tell us about yourself.

Hi, My name is Shaunda Lindsay. I grew up in Southern California and Oregon. I’m a down to earth person who loves nature.

I’m also a people person – I work for a small real estate agency and I help name businesses in my extra time.

I’m a mother of four and a grandmother of six.

2. How did you become interested in naming?

I became interested in naming because I love words. I wrote poetry and short stories as a child, and even won an award in creative writing for one of my stories in high school. I’ve always put great thought into naming things. My kids, pets, cars.

Names are very important and deserve a lot of deep thinking. They have to really mean something.

3. What led you to start using crowdspring?

In 2012, my husband was looking online to find opportunities to make a little extra cash when he happened onto crowdspring.

My husband said to me, “Shaunda, you like to talk a lot and you’re really good with words. Why don’t you give the naming contests a try?” I’ve been hooked on it ever since!

My names were not great at first. In fact, they really sucked, because I didn’t understand there was a whole process behind naming someone’s business or product. I think I did names for about 4 months before anyone ever picked one of my names for an award.

If it wasn’t for the people who took the time to give feedback to me after entering a name, I would not still be here doing this. It was through their advising me and telling me when I was doing right, or what I wasn’t, that I was able to understand what they really wanted. Success was found through a collective effort between both the client and myself.

Truthfully, without good client feedback, we namers might as well be swimming upstream. A big thanks to all the great client feedback I’ve received.

4. What inspires you?

Nature inspires me… This beautiful world and all the incredibly unique people who live on it.

5. How would you describe your style?

My naming style is eclectic. I love using Latin… Mythological inspiration… Evocative words… and two words mixed into one.

6. What is the naming process like for you? How do you start?

The first thing I have to do is read the brief, over and over. Then, I have to write the main points down because I’m a bit of an airhead… I need to remind myself over and over what it is they are looking for.

I start putting together some word lists that I think may work and I write those down. I try to find out where they are located. I look up different customs and cultural things that pertain to what country they’re from. I use a lot of word association.

Once I put that all together, I work out at least three different styles of names to enter. One thing I’ve learned is, many times, what the client wants will change over the course of the naming contest. After seeing so many great names from so many great namers, they start to see names that may have a better fit than what they first thought.

So I enter different styles of names and hopefully, they will score my name proposals and I’ll start to understand which direction to go in because of the higher scores.

7. What do you do with your free time?

You’ll find me walking around in the summer in a pair of flip-flops, warring with yard insects, getting my hands in the earth, growing my beautiful plants, trees, and vegetables.

I do a lot of camping, 4 wheeling, and hanging out with friends, playing music around fires in the yard.

This small town I live in has an abundance of Metalheads, and we’re always getting together to get things ready for the 4 Yearly Music Festivals all the bands put on.

8. What is your most memorable project on crowdspring?

My most memorable project was a heart pump project, in which my name was chosen for the award. I mean, who gets to help name a heart pump in their lifetime?

I decided to look to nature and find things in nature that act as pumps. I can’t tell you how happy and honored I was to be involved in the process of naming a heart pump.

Only on crowdspring!

I won’t give the name because I signed a confidentiality agreement.

9. What is your favorite part about working on crowdspring?

My very favorite thing about crowdspring is the customer support. These guys and gals work their butts off.

Any time I ask a question they send me a response within a couple of hours. Never fails – they always reply so quick. You can tell they really care about what happens to the creatives. And I’m not messing about, it’s the plain truth.

Another thing I love about Crowdspring is their credibility.

I never worry if they’ll treat me right, or if I’ll be paid or any of the normal things a person worries about when they work online.

In 6 years of doing this, I’ve worked on several other naming sites, and Crowdspring is the only one I’ve stuck with.

Want to work with Shaunda?

The post An Interview with crowdspring Naming Creative, Shaunda Lindsay appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Geniuses are not like the rest of us.

Composer Igor Stravinsky was known to stand on his head for fifteen minutes every morning because he felt it would help to “clear his brain.”

Nikola Tesla, a famous inventor, liked to curl his toes one hundred times on each foot. Apparently, it was an effective way of stimulating his brain.

Einstein declined to wear socks.

Is it possible that geniuses are naturally a little more offbeat, or do these unusual practices inspire further genius?

Can we train our own brains to think differently… and create our own works of genius in the process?

Medium author Eric Spitznagel explores the idea, and you can read along, here.

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles that we shared with you over the past week on our crowdspring Twitter account (and on Ross’s Twitter account). We regularly share our favorite posts on entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, logo design, web design, startups, leadership, social media, marketing, economics, and other interesting stuff! Enjoy!

30 Business Owners on What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur – https://t.co/nespSgPkWW

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 29, 2018

15 Tips to Successfully Market Your Small Business This Holiday Season | @ExecuNet – https://t.co/XKHFDOl2Is pic.twitter.com/fNhyEFstoQ

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 26, 2018

Lots of good insights … App mistakes: the 10 lessons we learned launching (& killing) our $200K mobile app https://t.co/pysMJTp8Ot pic.twitter.com/hjeQv97Tp9

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 26, 2018

How Clutter Affects Your Productivity, And What You Can Do About It https://t.co/kSuZbJ2wyy pic.twitter.com/kL0e29qg3C

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 30, 2018

10 Loss Aversion Marketing Tactics to Help Your Small Business Retain Customers and Win Sales https://t.co/HbkPzg3fdV pic.twitter.com/jfpGfUqLh0

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 25, 2018

7 Proven Ways to Increase Customer Engagement on Social Media https://t.co/GcjkVLA0vZ pic.twitter.com/sC8mU4y07l

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 18, 2018

11 UK Small Business Experts Share Their Most Important Advice About Starting And Growing A Business https://t.co/ULkO3r5ox2 pic.twitter.com/zfhFf0Hy8B

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 29, 2018

Sustainable Design Can Help Your Small Business and Improve the Environment | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/5zrbapRLFd #SMB #SmallBusiness #Sustainability

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 19, 2018

These Online Programs Will Make You Rethink How You Can Improve Your Business Skills https://t.co/gOrBQKOLi0 pic.twitter.com/7pKuSfBBuk

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 23, 2018

8 of the Most Effective Ways to Use Content Marketing for Startups – https://t.co/W7TZs2N4b6 pic.twitter.com/0vZer6rr5w

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 30, 2018

The extreme human temptation to compromise on hiring (and to fail to confront mistakes) is one of the main entropic forces conspiring to ensure that great companies rarely stay that way.https://t.co/xcPhJnQhgB

— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) November 29, 2018

Lots of terrific insights … How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit – https://t.co/d5iRsd7aZS pic.twitter.com/YnEbDIpbmK

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 18, 2018

11 UK Small Business Experts Share Their Most Important Advice About Starting And Growing A Business https://t.co/ULkO3r5ox2 pic.twitter.com/zfhFf0Hy8B

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 29, 2018

20 Statistics About Branding Every Entrepreneur and Marketer Should Know https://t.co/tqZTosQsx0 pic.twitter.com/ePtDcdn2fC

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 18, 2018

Lots of good insights … App mistakes: the 10 lessons we learned launching (& killing) our $200K mobile app https://t.co/pysMJTp8Ot pic.twitter.com/hjeQv97Tp9

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 26, 2018

Five Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Invest in Design Early https://t.co/WzWqszeK4R pic.twitter.com/2WHxyrgAHh

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 23, 2018

How to Successfully Rebrand: Everything Your Small Business Needs To Know https://t.co/A4HPMgMq5R pic.twitter.com/LHUjkm4ViI

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 21, 2018

Outreach Best Practices

(author unknown) pic.twitter.com/3YYooDgBvr

— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) November 14, 2018

Great storytelling in this video ad… https://t.co/fyWGUH4Wpj

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 16, 2018

12 Awesome Visual Marketing Tools That Will Help Grow Your Small Business https://t.co/7FVxqGOHRn pic.twitter.com/5ZrmKSNREm

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 18, 2018

Unlocking Marketing Trends: How to Leverage Micro-Influencers https://t.co/4OoP3ySZGY pic.twitter.com/FnpTquvNez

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 26, 2018

13 Ways Your Brand Can Get in the Holiday Spirit https://t.co/mJtWhCjiD3 pic.twitter.com/2Tq7GpVCs1

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 20, 2018

Five Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Invest in Design Early https://t.co/WzWqszeK4R pic.twitter.com/2WHxyrgAHh

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 23, 2018

Smart Widen+Kennedy campaign for RXBar … This is an article about Wieden+Kennedy’s clever ad campaign – No B.S https://t.co/9Hv6oS0jM7 pic.twitter.com/bfllOQ0ymS

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 12, 2018

Every aspect of your eCommerce business, from your company’s logo to your website to your marketing brochures must be smartly designed. How Good Design Can Help Your eCommerce Business Grow Faster Than Ever | @crowdspring Blog – https://t.co/7TyLx01Uyj pic.twitter.com/5gjnM92CDZ

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 26, 2018

Exploring the Social Impact of Graphic Design https://t.co/E0XSNt66wC pic.twitter.com/Hc2UrBELTD

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) November 27, 2018

Good for China. Disappointing for the U.S. https://t.co/eQoc1WUboQ

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 20, 2018

This is cool. https://t.co/IqocPRG7RE

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 29, 2018

Silicon Valley is one of the cheapest places in the world to live if you exclude expenses like housing and food. https://t.co/CIyvXvrUVt

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) November 29, 2018

China continues to amaze. Think about this. One company, $30.8 billion in sales in 24 hrs. Wow! https://t.co/trBLOLiRWO Meanwhile back in the USA, it took 4,500 US retail websites four days (Black Friday weekend & Cyber Monday) to generate $14.05 billion. China is coming, hard.

— Rick Myers (@RickM) November 12, 2018

The post Twitter Link Roundup #352 – Terrific Reads for Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Marketers, and Designers! appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

A logo is the visual centerpiece of a company’s brand identity.

As we explained in The Small Business Guide to Creating a Perfect Logo:

At its most basic, a logo is a small, symbolic piece of artwork that represents a business. But, we’ve dug a bit deeper than that. When you set aside all the design trends and fancy fonts, at its core, a logo must:

1- Embody your brand.

2- Be instantly recognizable.

3- Be versatile.

4- Be timeless.

Everything else is optional.

In fact, I’ll go one step further. Every design choice in your logo should exist only to serve and strengthen the four items listed above. And, if you meet these four requirements, many other commonly cited logo must-haves, like simplicity and memorability, naturally follow.

You should avoid trendy logos that get in the way of accomplishing those design goals.

The truth is that not all modern logos are created alike.

A well-designed logo will help boost awareness and can improve your marketing and bottom line.

A poorly designed logo, or one that has outgrown your brand, can tarnish your brand.

That’s why companies like Uber, Weight Watchers, Unilever, and Dunkin’ Donuts periodically rebrand.

Social media optimized logos, simplistic letter play, swooshy people, pixellated designs, and bright colors were popular logo design trends in 2018.

What will be trendy and hot in 2019?

Whether you’re looking for a logo design for a new business or considering a rebrand, your contemporary logo design should feel fresh and relevant for a long time, and not dated a year from now.

17 modern logo design trends and styles in 2019

1. Responsive design logos
2. Perspective-play logos
3. Bright colors
4. Negative space
5. Simple typography
6. Illustration replacing letters
7. Playful designs
8. Detailed vintage
9. Monochrome hipster
10. Cut typography
11. Gradients
12. 80’s and 90’s influence
13. Minimalist text
14. Geometric shapes
15. Bubble letters
16. Hand drawn logos
17. Metallic designs

1. Responsive design logos

It’s important to have a versatile logo.

Whether you print your logo on marketing brochures, outdoor billboards, product packaging, on your website, on a business card, or as an icon on a smartphone, you want your logo to be flexible and usable in different situations.

This is called responsive design.

Watch the short video below to see how responsive design works when logos are resized, and be sure to ask your designer to consider responsive design when creating your logo.

2. Perspective-play logos

Playing with perspective is a great way to challenge the norms of traditional logo design.

Businesses looking to create a splash should consider logos that play visual games.

Distortion, fragmentation, warping, and visual breaks are all interesting ways to break the mold in an engaging way.

Logo design by noi_bgt

Logo design by galanggumilar

You can even alter the kerning or overemphasize certain elements to highlight specific qualities of your logo in an unexpected way.

Clever, tricky, and surprising, logos that play with perspective will provide a definite change of pace in 2019.

One way to be sure this style works for you is to ask your graphic designer to show you some mock-ups with your logo on items.

Many graphic designers are now providing mocked-up visuals of their logo designs on a t-shirt, business cards, stationery, web design, infographic, or wall signage in addition to their beautifully rendered design.

Mockups can be a great inspiration. These supplemental materials not only help clients see what the logo might look like in practice, but they can also be used to help influence a brand identity.

3. Bright colors

Color has a deep impact on how we see the world.

Because it is psychologically powerful, color is often used to persuade or influence people:

According to a study examining the effect of color on sales, 92.6% of people surveyed by the CCI: Institute for Color Research said that color was the most important factor when purchasing products.

Another study showed that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or thing within 90 seconds. That judgment was influenced, in 62%-90% of examples, by color alone.

Colors – especially bright colors – continue to take center stage when it comes to modern logo trends and we expect this will continue throughout 2019.

Logo design by sobur85

Logo design by glamaz0n

Bright red conjures up feelings of power and risk-taking, and electric yellow highlights adventure, enthusiasm, and youthful energy.

Bright colors are easily used by any number of businesses.

Make sure you choose the right shade and don’t be afraid to amp up the vibrance in 2019.

Want to learn more about the importance of color in logo design? We recommend you read:

• How 21 Brands Use Color to Influence Customers
• How Color Influences What People Buy
• Small Business Branding: What Color Says About Your Business

4. Negative space

What’s simple, but complex at the same time?

Logos that use negative space in creative ways are an interesting way to explore simplicity.

This trend continues strong into 2019, and for good reason.

Logos that use negative space have been around for a long time, and some of the most famous ones have become iconic.

The FedEx logo is perhaps the most celebrated negative space logo. The arrow between the “E” and “x” is clever and underscores that FedEx is about moving objects from one place to another.

Using negative space to hide a shape, image, or text in a logo can add an element of surprise and sophistication.

Logo design by Jet

Logo design by marhizza21

The added layer of complexity can elevate a simple design into something memorable and striking.

It’s a powerful technique that rewards the viewer and can help create word-of-mouth buzz as people share their discovery with others.

If your brand needs something to be simple and complex at the same time, try using negative space in a new or novel way.

It’s one place when we can have our cake and eat it, too.

5. Simple typography

Simple design is hardly a new trend.

With clean lines and memorable presentation, it’s easy to understand the draw of simple logo design.

Established brands with more complicated logos are taking stock of their brand identity and re-evaluating how they can bring a fresh perspective to their aesthetic.

Simplifying an existing logo is an easy way for businesses to build on their foundations – ironically, by stripping them down to their visual cores.

Some logos (including the crowdspring logo) are made up entirely of text – these are called lettermarks, logotypes, or wordmarks.

Simple typography can be very effective and memorable.

But not any font will do. You can’t just plop your business name under your logo mark in a serif or sans serif font like Helvetica, Times New Roman or Comic Sans (please don’t!) and call it a day. Often, you must get creative with the type treatments to personalize the design.

We’ve seen brands like Uber undergo redesigns recently, whether to strip down overly ornamental logos or to move away from tarnished reputations.

Whatever the reason, simple typography can give your existing logo a contemporary, modern facelift or create a contemporary new brand.

6. Illustration replacing letters

In a world where emoji are increasingly replacing text-based conversation, it’s no surprise that logos are adopting a similar concept into their designs.

In 2019, we’ll see more logo designs incorporate illustration as part of the design.

A company that adopts this strategy should be careful that the illustration doesn’t make the name unreadable. After all, it’s impossible to create awareness and build loyalty if people don’t understand your logo.

And be sure that this style works with your brand. A traditional, staid institution would look out of place with an affable llama in place of an “h”.

A forward-thinking, tech-based business should incorporate imagery that feels modern and cutting edge.

Logo design by VGBDESIGN

Logo design by sodik20

Logo design by kps

In 2019, logos that are designed with illustrations substituting letters are likely to be founding increasing numbers. They are appealing to a variety of businesses for their versatility and memorability.

7. Playful designs

Comic Sans walks into a bar.

The bartender says, “We don’t serve your type here!”

Playfulness in design, much like a good joke, is engaging, fun, and unquestionably memorable.

Businesses are rightly focused on getting a logo that has long-term staying power. However, lasting design doesn’t have to mean boring design.

Having playful visuals that offer unexpected, clever designs can have a major impact on customers.

Logo design by kayagraphics

Logo design by surip

Logo design by newziner

In 2019, you can expect to see designers playing with metaphors, puns, and innovative concepts in their logo designs. These logos make everyone take a second look at a product, and add a fun element into a business’ persona.

8. Detailed vintage

Sleek, minimal designs have had a strong grip on trending logo designs in recent years.

It might seem surprising, then, that 2019 brings exceptionally detailed, beautifully crafted logo designs.

Brands that want to create an aura of vintage sophistication and authenticity are looking toward intricate, detailed illustrations to represent their artisan, handcrafted, top-shelf products.

Having a detailed looking logo conveys the craftwork evident in a marketplace focused on offering similarly detailed products.

Logo design by Seaside

Logo design by miamiman

The food and beverage industries are especially drawn to the lux, detailed design work trend, and for good reason.

Wine, spirits, and other artisan treats all naturally fit this logo trend.

Any natural, organic, house-made products and businesses can benefit greatly from a super detailed, vintage influenced logo.

These works of art are sure to be appearing on our screens and lining wine racks in 2019.

9. Monochrome hipster

How many hipsters does it take to design a logo?

It’s a really obscure number. You’ve probably never heard of it.

Crossing arrows, handwritten typefaces, and richly detailed design work all define the visual makeup of a hipster logo.

These logos are largely monochrome, choosing to focus on lines and typefaces rather than bold color choices to make an impact.

The vibe-heavy logos lean in on individuality, culture, diverse backgrounds, and any element that contributes to a carefully constructed impression of authenticity.

Logo design by estefano1

Logo design by third

Logo design by Ana_Osijek

The hipsters still hold heavy influence on logo trends, and in 2019, you can expect to see this continue.

10. Cut typography

Typography plays a huge role in logo design.

The font you choose has a powerful impact on how your brand (and your company) is perceived, as we’ve discussed before:

Typography is an effective way to convey more than just the words involved in written communication. It showcases personality by visually representing the tenor and tone of what it is you’re talking about. You may find that your purpose is best met by using a font with a vibrant personality throughout your website or using an amalgamation of sans and serif typefaces.

In 2018 we saw companies invest time and money to create custom fonts for their brands: Netflix debuted Netflix Sans, Uber got their Move on, and Airbnb poured themselves a bowl full of Cereal.

We’ll continue to see this trend grown in 2019 as companies reject available serif or sans serif fonts and create their own.

For companies that didn’t have the budget (or interest) in creating their own custom typeface, another type-based trend is gaining popularity.

Called “Cut”, this trend sees brands taking type and literally cutting part of it away, leaving behind something new.

Logo design by subur

Logo design by Bingo

The venerable news site Slate used this to great effect with their major rebrand.

It’s a simple but effective technique that reshapes how type is used in logo and brand design.

If you want a look that’s straightforward but with flair, think about what you can cut.

You might find that less really is more.

Be sure your graphic designer understands this.

11. Gradients

Gradient design has become a top modern logo design trend in the last few years. Even Firefox is getting on board with their latest logo update.

“This year has seen a growing trend towards the use of gradients within logo design,” says brand identity designer Helen Baker.

Instagram kicked off the gradient frenzy when they updated their logo two years ago and adopted the simple, but striking, trend.

While initially derided, Instagram’s update wound up prompting an onslaught of gradient-using designs – from web design, to print design, and in 2019, logo design.

Logo design by artStudioDesign

Colorful, attractive, and striking, gradient logos use color in a way that appeals to, well, everyone.

You know you love them, too.

But be sure that you select complementary colors that can bleed into each other seamlessly. Don’t choose colors randomly.

12. 80s and 90s

“What’s old is new again” is a trend we see every year (except for bug puffy hair from the 1980’s, thankfully).

Which decade gets the spotlight changes based on what’s hot in other areas of pop culture, and for 2019, it’s a mix.

In 2018, the 80s were on-trend, and this continues into 2019 with one change: This time, the 90s are along for the ride.

The pastel shades of the 80s are joined this year by bolder colors that defined the decade of Lisa Frank, the Spice Girls, and Mary-Kate and Ashley.

Logo designers mine the past for colors, typefaces, and styles and then add a unique twist, bringing a modern feel to something brimming with nostalgia.

If you want to anchor your logo design in something wistful, take a look at brands inspired by the 80s and 90s. They’re like, totally rad.

13. Minimalist text

Minimalism still holds center court in 2019.

The need to use logos on a variety of platforms and interfaces makes this trend an appealing one, and it’s easy to understand the staying power minimalism has had in recent years.

Text-based logos with minimal typography and the occasional supporting graphic allow businesses a great deal of flexibility. Whether geometric, colorful, monochrome or subtly illustrated, minimalist, text-based logos are easy on the eyes and easy to adapt.

Logo design by vovking

Logo design by Hennyca

By using only the brand’s name in a design, these logos translate smoothly on business cards, websites, apparel, and anywhere else our minimalist hearts can dream up.

14. Geometric shapes

Logos are, at their cores, symbols.

A great logo acts as a visual representation of a brand’s personality, values, and purpose.

Every element of a strong logo must communicate these things clearly and memorably.

Geometric shapes can work as powerful, memorable symbols. As we wrote,

Geometric shapes of all kinds look man-made. Mathematically precise squares, perfect circles, and isosceles triangles don’t tend to appear in nature. So, using these shapes communicates a sense of order and power.

Logo design by subur

Logo design by IM3D

Logo design by AlexandraKovacs

With bright color choices and invitingly arranged shapes, the geometry trend is both minimalist and friendly.

But a simple geometric line design is a logo element that doesn’t work for everyone.

Logos must be distinct.

Zendesk uses geometry in very unique ways, branding its various products with complementary geometric branded symbols.

The balance of the engaging color palettes with strong geometric shapes creates a pleasing mix of trendy and timeless logo designs.

In the age of the nerd, it really is hip to be square.

Just keep in mind that simplification can sometimes undermine your efforts to make a brand identity distinct.

This is a problem because your modern logo must also reflect your brand. This is where blindly following this geometric logo trend and designing a logo based on a shape can fall short for your business.

15. Bubble Letters

If your brand needs a bit of fun and energy, this trend might just pop your bubble.

Blown up typography was a common trend in the early 90s, especially in advertising and on TV (thanks, Full House!).

Like many other trends from the past, designers have started to incorporate bubble type in their designs, often mixed with modern elements.

This technique is an easy way to turn an otherwise static font into something bursting with personality.

Bubble type is often paired with bright colors and other vibrant elements to help reinforce the logo’s playfulness and energy.

But be sure your company’s name is readable. Not all bubble fonts or font treatments are easy to read.

Logo design by Ikhsanabrori

If your brand is all about spirited fun and good-natured joie de vivre, playing with bubbles might just balloon into something big.

16. Hand drawn logos

Custom, hand-drawn artwork will see a comeback in 2019.

The abundance of readily available, free to use stock art has heavily dominated the logo scene during the past decade.

Having access to cheap and accessible stock art catalogs or templates to design made finding logos easy for businesses of all kinds.

However, with ubiquity comes, well, ubiquity.

There are logos containing generic stock art on every street corner – seriously, we dare you to take a look. Notice any swooshy people hanging around? How about those omnipresent rooflines in real estate logos?

It’s hard to stand out from your competition when you share the same logo.

A generic logo will hurt your business.

Generic stock art and templates should not serve as design inspiration and you should never use elements from those designs in your custom logo design.

We feel strongly about this. Crowdspring has always had a rule that no stock art, templates, or generic art can be used in custom logo design projects on crowdspring.

The increased demand for custom logos has lead to an interest in hand-drawn artwork for logos.

Having real illustrations provides brands with a personality that generic stock simply can’t offer, and smart businesses are taking notice.

Logo design by nuliser

Logo design by lenty

We’re excited to see hand drawn logos become a major player in logo design in 2019.

17. Metallics

Metallics are worth their weight in gold for logos in 2019.

Whether a brilliant platinum, a shiny gold, or a romantic rose gold, you can expect to see these luxe designs in increasing numbers in the coming years.

It’s easy to think that metallics should be reserved for jewelers, but the broader use in recent years has made metallics accessible to businesses of all kinds – so long as your branding suits high-class luxury, or a truly classic look.

Logo design by wings63

The prestige and elegance associated with metallics are surprisingly versatile, and the powerful impact they make on consumers?

That impact is worth its weight in… gold.

Are you ready to embrace logo design trends and styles in 2019?

Logo design trends and logo design styles can offer a great way to breathe fresh life into your brand.

However, as with anything, it’s important to exercise caution.

You don’t want to carelessly update your brand for the sake of trendiness and wind up with a logo that doesn’t resonate with your business or market.

When you’re looking through 2019’s logo design trends, make sure that trend represents your brand thoughtfully, and can be integrated into the rest of your existing branding.

We’re happy to help – let us know if you’d like a free design consultation with our team.

The post Logo Design Trends 2019: Your Ultimate Guide to Navigate The Biggest and Hottest Trends appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

Courtesy of Pantone Color Institute

Pantone has announced its annual Color of the Year: Living Coral.

The famed color institute released their choice on Wednesday, explaining:

Representing the fusion of modern life, PANTONE Living Coral is a nurturing color that appears in our natural surroundings and at the same time, displays a lively presence within social media.

The color of the year has a widespread impact on nearly every industry, influencing design decisions ranging from product packaging all the way to the color of your great Aunt Susan’s new throw pillows.

To read more about Pantone’s choice for 2019, check out their official release here.

Now, we hope you enjoy another great set of links and articles that we shared with you over the past week on our crowdspring Twitter account (and on Ross’s Twitter account). We regularly share our favorite posts on entrepreneurship, small business, marketing, logo design, web design, startups, leadership, social media, marketing, economics and other interesting stuff! Enjoy!

How 'Good Design' Will Help Your Ecommerce Business Grow Faster Than Ever | by @crowdspring https://t.co/5NyagYpHcW

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) December 6, 2018

A terrific strategy (if you can pull it off) … The “Get Rich Slow” Exit Strategy | Hacker Noon – https://t.co/IdNOfSfJtN pic.twitter.com/rc6H16Lw15

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 3, 2018

An Interview with crowdspring Naming Creative, Shaunda Lindsay https://t.co/T6nqm8C2Uv pic.twitter.com/4st6zVUlBP

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 7, 2018

Terrific insights from @wilreynolds with great, actionable advice … What to do before and after your biggest client leaves? – https://t.co/iKTU7B9vZG pic.twitter.com/6b0bPfVaQb

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 4, 2018

7 Epic Product Fails and the Valuable Lessons They Can Teach Your Small Business https://t.co/CTR0RepEVX

— Holland Webb (@WebbHollandLyle) December 3, 2018

Tons of smart growth insights … 9 Strategies MeUndies Used to Grow 1,583% in 3 Years (Case Study) – https://t.co/D3aTYNc9cF

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 2, 2018

Tips and Tricks for Maintaining Productivity on the Road https://t.co/ZVNDxJrs1y pic.twitter.com/NaoUdrv1hK

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 2, 2018

Terrific insights from @wilreynolds with great, actionable advice … What to do before and after your biggest client leaves? – https://t.co/iKTU7B9vZG pic.twitter.com/6b0bPfVaQb

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 4, 2018

These 12 Apps Will Help Boost Your Productivity https://t.co/vz7cigWdkD pic.twitter.com/1Q9xeGOgMg

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 3, 2018

A terrific strategy (if you can pull it off) … The “Get Rich Slow” Exit Strategy | Hacker Noon – https://t.co/IdNOfSfJtN pic.twitter.com/rc6H16Lw15

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 3, 2018

How 5 Successful Entrepreneurs Stay Creative While Running a Business https://t.co/EJvtb2Imbe pic.twitter.com/ijfHpuZIqv

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 4, 2018

Terrific read … Tesla will live and die by the Gigafactory – https://t.co/WVNLqHT8fO pic.twitter.com/54t5WY8dfw

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 4, 2018

If you wanted to watch the very excellent #techseoboost Livestream last week, you can now stream any/all of the presentations 100% free

Includes 12+ Technical SEO talks from @hamletbatista, @fighto and—of course—@BritneyMuller on Machine Learning for SEOhttps://t.co/EvZ9n1FE5L pic.twitter.com/lI8a6Cp2Jd

— Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) December 3, 2018

Some interesting SEO insights … Here's what happened when I followed Googlebot for 3 months | Search Engine Land – https://t.co/4kwWTgleUt pic.twitter.com/8JmSlPbApX

— Ross Kimbarovsky (@rosskimbarovsky) December 2, 2018

How 'Good Design' Will Help Your Ecommerce Business Grow Faster Than Ever | by @crowdspring https://t.co/5NyagYpHcW

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) December 6, 2018

How 'Good Design' Will Help Your Ecommerce Business Grow Faster Than Ever | by @crowdspring https://t.co/5NyagYpHcW

— Entrepreneur (@Entrepreneur) December 6, 2018

Psychographics: The Key to Effective UX Design https://t.co/Bj87AnSdq2 pic.twitter.com/AOW4RyenlP

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 2, 2018

How Good Design Can Help Your eCommerce Business Grow | @Rieva @SmBizDaily – https://t.co/RGGKJ64xNC pic.twitter.com/HghxeAKB2n

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 3, 2018

An important read for marketers, designers, and small business owners. What Your Small Business Should Know About Logo Design Trends in 2019 | @advertisingweek – https://t.co/vUHTGxdBce pic.twitter.com/2dRghhItPk

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 6, 2018

The Small Business Guide to Creating a Perfect Logo https://t.co/H2OKheGkm2 pic.twitter.com/situJOVsF7

— crowdspring (@crowdspring) December 3, 2018

Rescued Leopard Loves Head Scritches pic.twitter.com/7cVcIMUNLM

— Nature is Amazing (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 1, 2018

The post Twitter Link Roundup #353 – Terrific Reads for Small Business, Entrepreneurs, Marketers, and Designers! appeared first on crowdspring Blog.

75% of consumers judge the credibility and trustworthiness of your business from your website’s design.

Today’s web visitors are sharper and more judgmental than ever. And, they’re only growing more so, as the generations who have grown up with internet access take on a larger and larger percentage of the population.

Don’t take our word for this. A recent study shows that 97% of consumers research their purchases online before they buy something.

Strong, modern web design is vital to your brand’s reputation, your bottom line, and your future.

Over the past decade, the 210,000 designers on crowdspring have helped entrepreneurs, businesses, agencies and non-profits from 100+ countries with custom web design, among other services (custom logo design, print design, product design, packaging design, and even unique company names). We’ve seen many trends and fads come and go during that time.

In this article, we highlight web design trends that are clearly trending as we enter 2019 – but that also offer value to as wide a range of businesses as possible.

With that said, as you explore the trends for 2019, ask yourself which trends will support your business.

Will adopting a specific trend further your online business strategy?

Does a particular trend match your brand identity?

Now, without further ado, here are our 7 modern website design trends you should know about in 2019.

7 modern web designs trends in 2019

1. Strong User Interface/User Experience design
2. Plenty of white space
3. Custom graphics and illustrations
4. Bright, bold colors and gradients
5. Mobile design integration
6. Integrated video
7. Dynamic scrolling design

1. Strong User Interface/User Experience design

People are web-savvier than ever before.

Today’s web users expect a flawless online experience from start to finish.

And failure to meet that expectation can spell serious trouble for your business.

Imagine you visit a website and try to make a purchase. But, you have a hard time finding the item you’re looking for. And, the check-out process is confusing.

Would you stick through to the end? Or would you bail out because you’re frustrated and you don’t want to give your money to that business anymore?

If you’re honest, you’d probably bail.

And you’re not alone.

A recent study from Forrester Research reveals that competent UI design could increase your web conversions by up to 200%. According to the study, a strong user experience can increase conversion rates up to 400%.

This means that poor UI/UX is turning away a lot of potential sales.

And, if that confusing, frustrating website is yours… you may not even realize how many solid leads are leaving as a result of poor UI.

Chances are good that if a consumer couldn’t be bothered to finish the purchase they intended to make, that they’re not reaching out to tell you why.

That’s why user interface and user experience design are going to trump pretty design for its own sake in 2019.

To learn more about UI/UX, read 6 Ways User Interface and User Experience Design Can Help Your Business.

2. Plenty of white space

Design by crowdspring creative nzweblogo.

Clean design is in and visual clutter is out.

The reason is simple: designs with plenty of white space are easier to read and navigate.

Leaving lots of white space also makes it easier to direct focus to the most important elements on the page.

White space is the portion of a page that is left empty.

Technically, it doesn’t even have to be white – it just needs to be devoid of copy, graphics or photos.

This trend of embracing white space is not new. But, with the continued push to create a better user experience and stronger conversions, white space will become even more important in 2019.

Imagine walking into a house. Each room is overflowing with high-end furniture, expensive nick-knacks, and racks of couture fashion.

Can you enjoy those beautiful, high-end items amidst the chaos?

Now, imagine walking into a home with wide open spaces, and warm, inviting light – a home with several tasteful pieces of furniture, and a few hand-selected knick-knacks on display. More inviting, yes?

The days of over-crowded websites have passed.

Packing too many graphic elements or too much information into one small space (no matter how much value they offer) dates your website and makes it less functional.

As we head into 2019, we anticipate a continued trend toward designs that feature lots of white space.

3. Custom graphic design and illustrations

Illustration by crowdspring creative lamosca04.

If you want to stand out in a crowded marketplace, you must visually distinguish your website from the competition.

You can’t do this if you use generic website templates.

Web templates have improved over the years – they’re now more customizable than ever before.

But, they are still templates. And that means that thousands of other websites will use that very same design.

Your business can’t risk being lost in the crowd or confused for a competitor.

In 2019, the trend for customized web design will intensify as businesses look to differentiate from the competition.

This year, more businesses will embrace a unique, cohesively branded web presence. And, custom design and illustrations are great tools for achieving that goal.

Image courtesy of Basecamp.

Some businesses, like Basecamp, embrace unique custom illustrations to define their brand and differentiate their website.

Illustrations offer space for creativity.

Each artist’s style is a unique statement.

Matching that style with your brand personality and illustrating the right concepts can create a strong impression on your website.

Hand-drawn style illustrations also feel charmingly retro in the midst of all the slick digital design we’ve grown accustomed to. This just helps it to stand out even more.

You can expect to see this trend really take off in the coming year.

4. Bright, bold colors and gradients

Design by crowdspring creative Newdesignideas.

Bright colors are naturally at home on the web.

Computer screens can deliver vibrant, saturated color more easily than printed media ever could.

And, color is one of the most powerful visual communication tools available.

As we pointed out in a previous article:

The right color can improve readership by 40% by making messaging easier to read and more visually appealing. Color is one of the first things our brains perceive from a brand, so it’s often the first thing that pulls us in.

In fact, a study from the University of Winnipeg reveals:

People make up their minds within 90 seconds of their initial interactions with either people or products. About 62‐90 percent of the assessment is based on colors alone. So, prudent use of colors can contribute not only to differentiating products from competitors, but also to influencing moods and feelings…

Choosing the right colors for a website can make the difference between engaged viewers (and conversions!) or nasty high bounce rates.

Not to mention that brands are fighting to differentiate themselves from the competition – bold color choices help them to do that.

For all these reasons, and more, you can expect to see web designers embracing bright colors throughout 2019.

Gradients

We would be remiss if we failed to mention gradients. Gradients seem to go hand-in-hand with the bright colors we see on the web.

In fact, the web design world has been calling gradients a trend for so long, that they’re more of a standard than a trend.

Modern screen technology is masterful at executing the color blending that is necessary to make gradients look fantastic. But, that’s not why gradients are so popular in design.

Gradients provide subtle visual interest without being too busy. That’s what makes them so great for lending an air of dynamism to a design without overwhelming the important stuff.

Gradients don’t compete with text.

And, as long as you make wise color choices, they won’t compete with other graphics, either.

When used skillfully, gradients can help draw viewer’s focus to the most important information or calls to action on your website.

You’ll see bright colors and gradients going strong in 2019.

5. Stronger mobile integration with responsive design and apps

Starting in 2016, more users access the internet from their mobile devices than from their laptops or PCs.

Mobile devices are the most popular way to access the internet and your web design needs to support mobile users.

According to research by comscore, mobile users spend more than double the minutes online than desktop users.

Need another reason to go responsive?

Consider how people search for something.

According to Google, over 48% of all users started their search for something on a mobile device.

This fact is in itself not a reason to be alarmed until you take into consideration Google penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly in its search results. As the company stated:

…we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high-quality search results that are optimized for their devices.

Every business needs to optimize their website for mobile devices.

Failure to provide a strong mobile user experience will turn prospective customers away.

This is why responsive design and mobile apps are going to continue trending throughout 2019.

Responsive Design

Responsive web design adapts to the size and shape of the device screen used to view your site.

Well-executed responsive design provides a great user experience for everyone who visits your website.

In fact, responsive design has become so pervasive that smart businesses are even designing responsive logos to accommodate different screen sizes!

If your website is not currently responsive, then 2019 should be the year that changes that.

Mobile Apps

Design by crowdspring creative malenovadesigns.

Mobile apps (short for “applications”) are programs designed specifically to be used on mobile devices.

They started as stand-alone applications for mobile devices. But, today, businesses are working hard to integrate the user experience on their mobile apps with their primary websites. Customers have come to expect this sort of seamless integration.

Some businesses rely on their website as their primary service. These web applications aren’t just a hub for information or even just an online store. They are complex websites with layers of user interface.

Websites this complex may be difficult to translate effectively for mobile devices with only responsive design. That’s where a dedicated mobile app can save the day.

You can also expect to see more and more businesses launching apps that allow users to move easily from app to website and back while maintaining the user’s account information and (of course) consistent visual brand design.

6. Integrated video

Have you ever found yourself watching a random video on the internet just because it started auto-playing?

Come on. You know you have.

You probably spent a good minute or two watching the shoe swap out on the clip from Nike’s homepage above. (No judgment.)

People love video.

Video can capture our attention like no other form of media.

But not only that, video can help to boost your SEO ratings.

Google measures how much time viewers spend on your web page to help determine its value. The more time spent, the better the rating.

Videos encourage people to stick around and spend more time on your website.

And, that’s why video has become a strategic web design element.

Initially, web designers inserted welcome videos above the fold to encourage viewers to engage.

Today, designers use carefully curated short videos or animations as integrated design elements. These include video headers at the top of websites and animated characters demonstrating the product as part of the “how-to” page.

These little, unexpected video elements surprise, delight and engage viewers, creating an enjoyable user experience for them and higher SEO results for your business.

We expect to see more businesses embracing clever ways of using video in web design throughout 2019.

7. Dynamic scrolling

Design by crowdspring creative SAC.

First scrolling was in.

Websites were laid out with fewer, longer, text-dense pages.

Then scrolling was out.

Websites were designed to keep pages short with the most important information “above the fold.”

In 2019, scrolling is coming back strong.

It turns out that users are willing to scroll if a webpage is well-designed and engaging.

The newest iteration of scrolling design is intentional, draws focus where it is needed, and engages the viewer.

Dynamic scrolling design is a new-ish kid in town. And, we expect to see this trend really come into its own in 2019.

In practice, dynamic scrolling involves designing your website in a way that makes it obvious that there is more for the viewer to see below the edge of the screen.

This can include diagonal graphics that draw the eye downward, visually cutting off a familiar shape so that you feel compelled to scroll down to see the completed shape or, even revealing hidden visual elements and copy behind moving scrolling graphics.

The result is that there is always a graphic element tantalizingly just out of view – propelling users to scroll down and explore.

In 2019, we expect to see graphic designers moving viewers through their designs with unexpected and dimensional scrolling design.

A final word

Keeping up with trends can be a great way to keep your finger on the pulse of where businesses are heading.

Your website is a critical component of your brand, and as your brand and marketing strategy evolves, your site should as well.

After all, your website and your brand should work in tandem. A misalignment can damage not only your brand but also your customer’s trust.

But, the decision to incorporate a trend into your website design should always be determined by whether that trend makes sense for your brand.

Specific trends like bright colors or integrated video might be totally wrong for your brand and your audience. Or they could be the perfect way to connect with your customers.

Whatever you choose, remember that there are many millions of websites online. The only way to stand out is to create a website that’s unique and different.

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