Blog | Fat Atom Marketing

How to Master Local Results for Small Businesses

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Kevin Muffley

Yes, the little guy is finally beginning to have a shot at showing up for big time keywords on Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages). Google’s number one goal is to provide its users the most relevant search results for their search query. It just so happens that 90% of the time the most relevant search results are the local ones. Small businesses need to take advantage of the benefits SEO can bring to their company.

I noted back in my February blog post the four factors that are beginning to shape the new world of SEO. Those factors were: big content, content distribution, local search and author rank. Every business, no matter the size, should now be pushing their “search engine marketing” efforts. Search engine marketing is a great alternative for small businesses who do not have an advertising or marketing budget or for those who are in such a competitive niche that advertising methods like Adwords are too expensive for them.

Google is pushing local now more than ever. For example, if you go to Google and type in “advertising,” you’re more than likely going to see a local agency near you. When I’m at our office in downtown Carmel and I search for “advertising,” the first result I get is the Current in Carmel website. If I’m at my home in Westfield typing in the same keyword, I get a few more authoritative websites, like Wikipedia and entrepreneur.com, but the fifth ranking site is a marketing company that’s a few minutes away in Noblesville.

This is why SEO is very important for small businesses... because now there is a chance for them to show up for very competitive keywords without paying a penny. Search engine marketing for small businesses is not rocket science. Check out the list below to see how you can begin to see improvements in your rankings for keywords. While it may be time consuming, these tasks can be done by just about anyone, so hire yourself an intern if you have to... whatever you have to do to get the below tasks completed.

First, you need to add a couple of plugins to your website (if it’s a WordPress website). RankReporter and WordPress SEO by Yoast are great plugins for identifying what pages need worked on (in terms of onsite SEO) and what keywords your webpages are showing up for.
The next step is working on your on-site SEO. This form of SEO consists of optimizing your website for search engines, whether it’s how you’re structuring your web pages or the content that you’re putting out on your website. SEOmoz wrote a great article about on-site SEO which can be found here.
Content. Content. Content. The problem most small business owners have is that they lack the will to commit an hour (or two) a week to writing one quality blog post about a topic within their industry. Pushing out content to your website, while following the guidelines laid out for you in the SEOmoz article, is a great way to improve your rankings in the search results. Not only should you be publishing content, but you need to make sure that you have a Google+ page and that you are the author of your blog. You can do that by following the steps laid out in this article.
Maps and Directories. Set yourself up on Google and Bing maps, which is very straightforward and only takes about 20 minutes. Once you’ve done this, check out the top 50 local directories laid out by Hubspot’s Eric Vreeland.

Once you’ve done the above tasks it all circles back to content and rich media, like videos and infographics. Creating unique, quality content goes hand in hand with Google’s top priority of providing its users the most relevant search results. Google rewards people who create unique content that is useful for its audience. Don’t slack off. Push yourself to write a blog at least once a week.

In my experience with small business owners, most believe they do not have the time to work on their Search Engine Marketing campaigns or they are afraid of working on something outside of their comfort zone. But if you are one of those small business owners that put an effort into increasing your website’s rankings, you are really going to have a chance to see a return on your time.

Why You Should Turn Your Clients into Japanese Robots ( …And How to Do it )

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Matt Vincent

Disclaimer: As with any kind of advice, take it with a grain of salt before going full speed ahead.

So, you need to create memorable characters in order to enhance the branding of the client you’re working for. What do you do or where do you start? It would be really easy to either incorporate too much of your client into the character and convolute the idea or image. On the other hand, put too little detail and the audience won’t identify your client in the character and be confused.

Recently I had the opportunity to create cartoon characters of Chris Hoyt and Todd Muffley, President and CEO (respectively) of Fat Atom Marketing. I was asked to come up with wallpapers for the Fat Atom website to offer for free that highlighted my artistic style. (Check them out here) I took the opportunity to design them as one of my favorite things to draw: Japanese Robots! I wanted the characters to simultaneously resemble iconic Japanese robots and Chris and Todd and their looks and personalities.

Here’s Chris:

Visually, he’s a husky guy with some wild hair, glasses and a goatee. He’s kind of old-school with the shirt and tie combo, as well as always carries a tooled leather satchel and wallet. He’s passionate and can get a bit fiery if provoked.

Here’s Gigantor, one of the first Japanese animated robots:

He’s a husky robot with old-school rivets and a suit-of-armor look to him: a perfect complement to Chris and his personality. So when I combined the two, this is what I came up with:

So with this design I was able to combine the retro Japanese robot look with visual cues that also identified the design with Chris’s look and personality.

Next, here’s Todd:

Visually, Todd has a clean-shaven head, distinct eyes, a goatee and a lean look. Personality-wise, he is cool, calm and collected. He dresses current and is well-kept and hip.

Here’s Ultraman, a humanoid Japanese robot that’s been around a LONG time:

With his clean, modern look and distinct eyes, as well as a smooth, round head, I thought he would be a good fit for Todd. So here’s what I came up with:

So with this design I was able to combine the clean, modern look of Ultraman with visual cues that also identified the design with Todd’s look and personality.

Another important element I included was the choice of color for the two: warm reds and oranges to complement Chris’s (sometimes) fiery and passionate temperament, and cool blues and white for Todd’s clean look and cool and collected personality.

So, to sum up, I recommend finding a handful of important elements of your client or their company, and an iconic character archetype that complements them. Merge the two in such a way that the audience can easily recognize two or three visual cues from the client/company and the character archetype. Here’s a visual recap:

Categories: Branding Fat Atom Neat Little Tricks Leave a comment

6 Steps to a Better Presentation

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Rob Chinn

One day, not too long ago, I attended a local business conference where I had hoped to pick up some insight and knowledge on advertising, marketing and sales. Instead of being overwhelmed with excitement about the new things learned, I was quickly disappointed by the quality of the presentations.... slides full of tiny text, video that wouldn’t play, slides with the name of the file and the date they were saved displayed and so many other PowerPoint failure examples.

I walked away with the resounding belief that there are just way too many bad PowerPoint presentations out there in the world. There need to be fewer horrendous presentations, so with that in mind, this is my attempt to come to the aid of terrible presentations and to ultimately help make you a better presenter. Read below:

Less Is More

This slide from Fat Atom President Chris Hoyt's presentation, Less Is More, is included to make the same point - use less words. It's amazing to see everyone start reading the slide as soon as it comes on screen.

If you are using bullet points on your slides, then you have too much text. If there is more than a handful of words on a slide, people will stop paying attention to you and read the slide for themselves. Studies have been done that show a photo with text, whether it shows the entire word or just a letter, no matter how small or large, or difficult or easy to see, a person’s eye will be drawn to it and they will try to figure out what the word is. While their brains are working on that, you’re locked out. Presentation slides are no different. Your slides should contain images that reinforce your point in a dramatic, creative or entertaining way, with a minimal amount of text.

You shouldn’t be reading your slides either. If you’re reading the slides on the screen, you have to turn your back on the audience to do it. Do this, and you will lose the audience quickly. Keep eye contact with them so they feel like you are addressing them personally and they will be drawn in. If you’re reading the slides word for word on the computer screen, it will come across as you are reading word for word... boring.

Let’s combine these into one real world example.... at the conference I attended one presenter declared “I know this is too small to read, so I will read it to you.” FAIL!! On so many levels.

Clip Art Is Not Art

I'm pretty sure you can tell the difference between the clip art and the photo. I'm shocked at how many people use clip art in their presentations. Yuck!

Make sure you are using high quality images on your slides. Doing a Google search and using the first piece of clip art that comes up is not acceptable. Show that you care about the quality of work you put forth for others to see. There are lots of stock photography sites online, but even those have some pretty low quality images. If you’re not sure, ask a photographer friend to help you pick one, or better yet, hire them to take photos for you. Photographs made just for you, taken to accentuate the point you are trying to get across, will make your presentation unique.

Themes = Good, Templates = Bad

All of your presentation slides should be designed with the same general look. Don’t use every color in the rainbow, every font and every transition. One font for your text is enough 99% of the time. Be sure to use one that is easy to read, has bold and italic variations and displays well as large sizes (remember, with only a handful of words on a slide, your text should be fairly large). With transitions, you’re better off not using one at all than choosing a distracting one. Just because they are there doesn’t mean you have to use them.

If you use one of the built in templates, chances are your audience will have used them or seen them too. Set yourself apart by using a background or style that complements you as a speaker and fits with the story you’re telling.

Story Time

Everyone loves a good story. Integrate your topic into a story or multiple short stories, and you have suddenly made your presentation a lot more interesting. It may take some creative thinking, but real life examples and situations can be turned into a story with a beginning, middle and end. Include some conflict for your hero to struggle with and ultimately conquer. Bam! You have a story. Think about what it is that you’re trying to say with your presentation, and tackle it from all angles to come up with story ideas. Still stuck? Do you have kids, especially grade school aged? Ask them to help you. Their imaginations will come up with ideas you never dreamed of.

Here's a link to six TED talks on how to tell a story. You don't have to watch them all, but you'll want to once you start.

Be Passionate

You believe in your story, or you wouldn’t be doing a presentation on it, more than likely. What you want is for others to believe in it. People are much more likely to follow a leader that is passionate about what they are doing, selling, making. You can’t fake passion. You can try, but people will see through it. Make sure the story you are telling is a personal one. This will help draw your audience to you, to believe you and to follow you. Done right and they will be as enthusiastic about your story as you are.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Your slides are looking great and you have a great story to tell on paper. Now it’s time to turn it into a presentation. Don’t just read through it the night before you’re slated to give it. You need to practice it multiple times. Over and over. Not just certain parts - the whole thing, just as you will be giving it for real. It must flow easily, and the more you practice it, the better it will flow.

Part of practicing also means making sure the technical part of your presentation works. If your presentation includes video or audio, make sure those play back on your presentation computer in the software smoothly. Know when you should click to advance the slides and practice with your remote if you have one. Ask some friends, family or co-workers to sit through a dry run and give them a chance to offer feedback. Set up a video camera and record one of your practice sessions. Very few people like watching or hearing themselves, but you’ll notice things you don’t realize you’re doing, such as some nervous tick or excessive um’s and uh’s.

Real world examples: One presentation from a video “professional” included a slide that was supposed to show a video. Except all we saw was a black square, followed by the person trying to figure out why it wasn’t playing while audience members shouted suggestions. Mercifully it ended a few minutes later with a “Well, I’m not sure why the video isn’t playing, so we’ll move ahead.”

Join the Scouts - Be Prepared

Make sure you have everything you need for your presentation packed ahead of time: computer, remote, hand-outs, power adapters, etc. Scrambling at the last minute to throw something in a bag is the surest way to end up leaving it behind. You should at least have an adapter, or even better the cable too, for VGA, DVI and HDMI video connections - you never know what kind of projector or system you’ll be plugging into, and it may not end up being what they said it would.

No matter how much you prepare, things may still go wrong. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a funny story or a good joke or two to fall back on while other people are trying to fix the problem for you. Keeping the audience entertained during this period can be the difference in them walking away with a positive or negative feeling. If they walk away with a positive feeling after a situation like this, I guarantee they will be back to see you speak again in the future.

Whether you’re a CEO or student, a teacher, a preacher, sales person or marketing professional, being able to give an effective presentation professionally can be the difference in getting a job, a client or making a difference for the organization you’re speaking for.

Final thought: Check out the Presentation Zen website for more great advice.

Categories: Communication Neat Little Tricks Leave a comment

Marketing is never done

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Jen Fox

What do companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Nike have in common? Stellar marketing ideas? Not always. The best products in their industries? That’s debatable. The common denominator between the three is a willingness to evolve marketing strategies and tactics over time to appeal to a changing world and changing markets. These companies understand that marketing is never done.

With the word “coke” being synonymous with pop and soda, you might wonder why Coca-Cola even bothers with marketing. Aren’t they done? Everyone knows them. Their products are everywhere. They make lots of money. Why does Coca-Cola still need marketing? The same could be asked of McDonald’s or Nike. They’ve surely saturated the market. Can’t they just coast now while the checks roll in?

Despite their past success, each of these companies continues to evolve and deploy marketing across the globe via web, print, video and social media. Here are some of the reasons why and what you can learn from them:

1. Competitors are Ready to Strike

Coke’s arch-nemesis, Pepsi, would love to see Coca-Cola stop marketing. It ain’t gonna happen. Coca-Cola is smart enough to know not to rest on their laurels. If they want to keep their number one spot, they must continue to fight for it, and they fight for every inch of grocery store shelf space with their marketing.

Regardless of your industry, and regardless of whether you’re a B to C or a B to B company, as soon as you let your guard down, your competitors will be ready to strike. Don’t give them the opportunity.

2. Customers Change

McDonald’s is everywhere, but evolving customer values have challenged the fast food giant in recent years. As obesity became a bigger concern, McDonald’s developed new menu items and adapted their marketing strategies. As Happy Meal customers of the 1980s and 90s grew up, restaurant designs were revamped in an effort to compete with trendier cafes. McDonald’s understands that what worked before, will not work now, and they’re willing to make changes. Whether they are able to figure out what will work for them now remains to be seen, but if they do, marketing will play a key role in their return to dominance.

Each generation has their own expectations and values, and those expectations and values can evolve over time. The messaging, services or products that translated to sales ten, five or even two years ago may not work this year. Know who your customer is today and what is important to them now.

3. Status and Reputation Matter

People like to use a product that makes them feel good about themselves. Nike understands this and wants their customers to feel like their products bring out their best abilities. Nike sponsors athletic teams around the world and organizations like the NFL, giving customers a sense of camaraderie with the sports idols who inspire them. Challenges that Nike faces include being seen as too mainstream to be cool, as well as concerns over working conditions in their factories. Nike must continue to use marketing strategies and tactics to drive customer perceptions.

If you don’t manage your company’s reputation, someone else will. And you might not like what they have to say. Give your customers a reason to be proud of choosing your brand, whether it’s your community involvement, sincere customer service or the best product on the market. When you make a customer feel smart, empowered, or connected to the greater good, chances are higher they’ll sing your praises to their peers.

You don’t have to have the resources to match the marketing efforts of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s or Nike, if you understand that your marketing is never done. Determine your goals, develop plans and review your market and customers quarterly. (Overwhelmed? Fat Atom can help.)

Categories: Branding Business Marketing 2 Comments

This year’s mantra at Fat Atom is to say more with less

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Sally Bauer

This has always been a challenge for me. Years ago I used to get directly to the point in my conversations with others, but I was often called too direct or blunt. And since I certainly don’t want to be perceived as an unkind person, I now lean towards being the complete opposite. I am much more wordy in my conversations and in my writing. It’s a challenge to fit my story within the margins and only use one page no matter what it is I am talking about. I let boundaries and margins loosen, because then I can say and do a few more things. And this translates over to my life. I loosen up my boundaries and meet up with a few more friends, volunteer on a few more committees, babysit a few more children….and before I know it my life looks like I talk or write, constantly exceeding the margins. I am always using too many words to get my point across. What a crazy parallel writing is to life. I don’t believe it’s a bad thing when I am busy doing good and mostly spending my time helping others, but having margins makes papers easier to read. Having boundaries helps life make more sense. A page in a book looks much better in a uniformed text with a thought out message. Thus I have been learning this year that getting your point across with less words and staying within the margins will force people like me to make choices. I indeed need to learn to say more with less.

How can I say the same thing with less? By cutting out what doesn’t quickly get my point across to strengthen my argument. I need to cut out the fluff in my conversations with potential clients who want the answers to their questions, not all of the details. I need to cut out the extra activities in my life that aren’t helping me grow as a person.

The Fat Atom “say more with less” has got me thinking about my life and how I want my life story to speak of something bigger. I want my story to cry for justice, to create world peace, to be always mindful of the Love and Grace given to me by my Savior.

My homework is figuring out what pieces of my life will strengthen my argument/story and what stuff I need to cut out.

Who knew that this Fat Atom Mantra would be so powerful… as useful in life as it is in business.

Categories: Fat Atom We Like To Grow At Fat Atom Leave a comment

3D Transforms in CSS

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Daniel Waltz

What can be done, what can be fun

Working at Fat Atom I've had plenty of opportunity to work with the latest technologies on the web and to pioneer to push the web forward. One such feature is 3D transformations in CSS. While the practicality of using 3D transforms is little more than adding flourish to a website, the pleasing and fun visual can impress potential clients.

Rather than explain the technicalities and code behind it (others have explained far better than I already), I'll just showcase what can be achieved with this technology with a little patience and time. At the time of writing, these demos will only display properly in the latest production versions of Firefox 19*, Internet Explorer 10*, Chrome 25, and Safari 6. Continue reading →

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When to Change Your Brand

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Chris Hoyt

Should you change your brand? Is it time to change your logo, your tagline or even your company name? This question is often presented to business owners when they begin to take their marketing seriously. Marketing agencies and designers love making new brands, it’s like getting a brand new car. Because of this, they are more likely to suggest starting over than building from what they see as “old.” So let’s talk about when you should consider changing your branding and when you should temper your overzealous marketers.

Does your brand conflict with your goals?

Does your company name actually conflict with your current direction, market or goals? This is more important than just being “old” or “uncool.” Do you fix cars but your name says “handymen?” Do you clean entire houses but your name says “carpets?” Those are clear “need to change” conditions.

Is your brand virtually unknown?

Has your business grown pretty much on word of mouth alone, and people fall into the two categories of “customer” and “haven’t heard of you?" Then a rebrand, while maybe not a necessity, probably won’t hurt you much either. It might even excite your current customers to talk about you more if you do it right.

Is your brand infamous?

Is your brand well-known, but in a bad way? Nothing says “under new management” like a rebrand. Of course, you had better be committed to making major changes in your business and actively recognize and acknowledge customer ills. If you rebrand to fix a bad reputation, but still suck as a business, you won’t get a third chance. You will be forever putting new lipstick on a pig in the minds of your market.

Alternatives to rebranding

If your brand has a good reputation and is known at all, there are good alternatives to a complete rebrand. Giving your brand an “update” instead of a change is still very impactful. Polishing up your look and logo, but maintaining visual familiarity, says “we like ourselves” and “we are growing.” Also, maybe your logo is “so out it’s in.” If your business is really, really old, tout up your experience and embrace a “retro” feel.

Great examples of embracing “old” brands are Coca-Cola, Quaker Oats and Campbell's Soup. These companies have done a great job of keeping the same “brand” for decades while still feeling relevant and responsive. Being “cool” and “fashionable” are not as important as being consistent and reliable (unless you’re selling to pre-teens). Also, sometimes people still prefer to buy from “Awkwardly Named Mom and Pop” than “Corporate Jargon Inc.”

Your brand is more than a look

Your brand is ultimately about your reputation, not your look. Your look affects your reputation some because it helps people form their initial impression of you. In the long run, however, it is your behavior, which forms your reputation more than anything. Don’t think you can change the way people think about you without actually changing.

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7 Adwords Settings that are costing YOU money!

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Tyler Cook

Let’s face it, not all of us can be a super sexy marketing analyst (shameless self promotion), spending days learning the best ways to optimize an Adwords campaign. That’s perfectly all right though; to be honest you don’t need to. Adwords, believe it or not, is set up with a ton of settings to make your Adwords campaign as targeted as you want it. Unfortunately all of those awesome settings can make it easy to get lost in the woods and end up costing you unnecessary money.

All Networks All Devices:

Quick question, do you have a mobile friendly landing page or a landing page with responsive design? If your answer is “No” or “uhhhh” it might be a good time to check the settings of your Adwords account. You see by default Google Adwords tries to get your ad EVERYWHERE, and the problem is everywhere is not always the best. The reason for this is that all traffic is not the same and should not be treated equally. Mobile traffic, for instance, requires specialized landing pages that are optimized for mobile phones and tablets. Without a specialized landing page the mobile devices could struggle in a myriad of ways, such as slow loading times, improper page format or nonfunctioning page elements. This in turn would cause the visitor to leave, which is bad news bears for you. Another instance of all traffic not being equal is display traffic. Google doesn’t just deal with search, they have a variety of networks including Search Partners, Display Network and Search. The problem with this is that it tends to drive your impressions up and CTR way, way down. Low CTR directly corresponds to low Quality Score.

How do I fix it?

This is one of the easiest settings to fix Under Campaign > Settings > Your Campaign Name click edit by Desktops & Laptops, Mobile Devices & Tablets. Once you’ve edited this change it to reflect the options you want.

As far as changing networks, while still in the Under Campaign > Settings > Your Campaign Name section change your campaign type to what best matches the type of campaign you want to run:

Keyword Match Types:

When making a new campaign you are always asked for keywords. Many accounts I’ve visited have been set up with keywords like “buy used cars,” “buy used Honda,” etc. Both of these examples however didn’t use quotes. Why is that a problem? It’s a problem because of something called Keyword Match Types, and though this is rudimentary for any Google Adwords managers, it’s not for anyone else. Google expects the local florist, mason and car dealer to use the keywords they want to be bidding on, with no idea of match types. These clicks make Google money. Sure there is documentation detailing which match types are better than others, but most business owners don’t have time for that. Strictly speaking, if you are using the wrong match types you are throwing money hand over fist at Google, lowering your quality score and decimating your CTR.

How do I fix it?

This fix is easier said than done as it takes a deep knowledge of what you want to target and an understanding of both positive and negative match types to get an effective keyword strategy. I recommend you read up on them.

Exclusions Display Network:

So you’ve got your keyword match types down, and you are running campaigns that are unique to the display network. Great for you! Now here’s a setting that costs many campaign managers good money everyday. Exclusions on the display network are a tricky thing. On one hand you want to display your ads to only the most relevant users, on the other you want your ads to not show up on sites that your users might find offensive.

How do I fix it?

There are a couple of quick settings you can set to ensure your ads are being seen on quality pages, and that they are being seen. Under Display Network > Placements > Exclusions >Category

Click Add Exclusions and select the following options: In-Game, Below the Fold, and Non-Adplanner 1000.

What these settings do is prevent your ads from showing in any Google Game, preventing your ads from showing below the fold (your ads will only show on the top of the page) and prevent your ads from showing on anything but the top 1000 most trafficked sites in Google’s network.

Rotate Evenly

Perhaps one of the most common default settings on accounts is in regards to the rotation of ads. In any campaign you should have at least two ads that you are testing out, but if your ad rotation settings aren’t set to display ads evenly there’s no way you’ll be able to determine the winner of your A/B test.

How do I fix it?

For one of the easiest fixes in all of adwords simply head over to Settings > Ad: Delivery

And select rotate evenly over 90 days.

Location, Location, Location

Do you sell products to every state in the United States, every country in the world or every city in your state? If you have a very specific product location, head over to location settings to make sure that you are hitting the right audience and not wasting money.

How do I fix it?

Just as above in Settings > Location Settings: Select the location or locations that are right for you!

Google Adwords Location Settings

Impressions Cap

What’s the difference between the FBI van, I mean suspicious florist, following you around the city and the creepy guy from the bar following you home? Subtlety! Adwords is very similar. If you are using retargeting to follow users around the internet, you shouldn’t be everywhere all the time! You need to be subtle, and make them think that you and them just happened to cross paths on this super large website everyone goes to, and not that you’re secretly saving locks of their hair.

How do I fix it?

I really don’t have an answer for the hair thing; you should probably seek professional help for that. For the retargeting settings I’ve got you covered. Under Settings > Frequency Capping

The default is 5 per day, but I recommend at most 3 per day and some of my campaigns have it set to 5 per week. Tweak and test this until you’ve got the best results for your campaign

Adwords Express

Adwords Express is a way of paying Google to run your campaign for you. The problem is that this is like asking a politician if you should vote for them; the answer is most certainly going to be in their favor. If Google is running your account, prepare for it to be heavily biased in their favor. Google exists the way it does and makes a very large amount of money based on their ads.

How do I fix it?

Ditch Google Adwords and find yourself an Adwords manager. Fat Atom is always looking for new ways of making you money, so you could definitely start here!

Categories: Advertising Fat Atom Neat Little Tricks Leave a comment

Standing Out from the Crowd

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Whitney Watt

As a creative director, I am given the task of doing of many jobs, but most importantly I feel my job is to make sure the client is reaching their target audience by communicating visually. I translate ideas into visual designs while making sure not to ignore the little details that make up the client's personality and voice. Every decision must be justified - fonts, placement, size, color and image choice and so on. Some projects can take a lot of time and energy to get things right, some are always in progress, but in the end you have a product that meets all the requirements.

Getting noticed isn't easy, and there's always the fear of attracting unwanted attention (no one wants that), so here are a couple of tips on creating designs that stand out:

Establish guidelines. Knowing the look and feel will help guide your process down the road, as opposed to having more options that can cloud up the theme or get you off track. We always start with creating various tools such as moodboards to help set the tone.
Less is more. Consider the medium you are designing for. Is it something people need to read quickly, such as an advertisement (billboard, floor graphic…)? If so, people will only have a short amount of time to read it, so you don't need to bother with including a ton of text that will get overlooked. Highlight the areas that will need to be the key takeaway information by playing with placement, size and color. Also know that most people don't want to read a lot of text anyway, so a goal with most designs will be to shorten and simplify text and highlight what is important. Simplicity doesn't have to be boring.
Your options are limitless. Don't underestimate the power of text. There are plenty of unique fonts out there to use, and when designing for web you have the option of places like Google Web Fonts to pick and choose from a vast catalog of useful fonts.

My biggest piece of advice is to listen to your inner designer voice! If something speaks to you or tells you that something is a little off, then do something about it. Don't be afraid to take criticism and make changes. If you ever get stuck, sometimes it's even better to take a break from a design and come back to it another day. Getting that great design takes time.

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Do You Hear What People Really Say?

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Steven Musngi

Do You Hear What People Really Say?

Ever have a conversation with someone and thought they were not listening to you? Doesn't feel very good does it? Or were you ever accused of not listening to someone? I'm sure every man on earth has been accused by some woman of this. Communication is the most important skill in life. Listening is probably one of the most crucial and often ignored communication skills. How well we listen can impact the quality of our relationships and effectiveness at our job. As my role as Marketing Director, my primary job responsibilities are to understand a company's brand so that I can properly communicate key messages to their target audience. A big part of trying to understand requires listening. Listening to our clients. Listening to their audience. Not just listening. Active listening.

If you're like most people, you probably seek first to get your point across, and in doing so you may miss the meaning of what the other person is saying entirely.

Active listening requires you to make a conscious effort to not only hear what someone is saying, but to understand the message they're trying to send you.

Here are a some tips on becoming a better active listener:

Attention please. Give the person you're speaking to your full attention. Look at them directly and put aside any distracting thoughts. Try to avoid being distracted by your environment.
Acknowledge that you're listening. Body language speaks loudly. Nod your head occasionally. Smile and use facial expressions. Use small verbal acknowledgments like yes to show you're listening.
Give feedback. Ask the right questions if you don't understand something. Also, active listening means repeating back in your own words what the other person is saying. Try to summarize what they've just said.
Don't be so judgmental. Many times people interrupt right away without letting the other finish their point. They quickly seek to counter someone's point without fully understanding their full message. Let them finish, then ask questions if you need clarification. Quickly being judgmental and interrupting only causes the person speaking to you to become frustrated and they will probably tune you out when you begin to speak.

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