CO Logo

Cynthia Oswald

Surface Design, Fine Art + Branding for Creatives

Marketing

Your site is up and running, now what?

5 Things To Do After Launching Your New Site

Congratulations! You’ve made it through the messy middle and launched your website. There is probably so much more you’d like to do. Can I tell you a secret? That is a good thing. Your website is a living, breathing business asset and it can and should grow and change over time—just as your business does. Features like email marketing, payment processing, calendars, social media, and much more can seamlessly integrate with your website. As you’re working on your marketing and communication platforms as a whole, keep in mind that you may be able to connect them directly to your website to help streamline your efforts and save time. There are endless possibilities, so let’s just start with my top five …

1. SEO Strategy

If you don’t have an SEO Strategy now is the time to get one started. What do you want to be known for? Write about it. What new and relevant content can you share about within your industry? Building and sharing relevant content will enhance your SEO naturally. You’ll want to group like-minded pages or content on your site by linking and categorizing appropriately. This helps to show that there is relevant content throughout your site and helps search engines rank it accordingly. Incorporate your mission, values, and core marketing messages to attract your ideal client. Your core marketing messages typically correlate with your SEO Strategy. Building on your keywords over time looks like building content that is relevant to your core messaging and adding it throughout your site—whether it’s updating the main pages or building on your blog pages. Within your strategy include how you anticipate sharing your content throughout all of your communication platforms—outside of your website (i.e. social media, email marketing) as well as within.

2. Google Analytics & Search Console

Reviewing your Google Analytics and Search Console week over week, month over month, year over year, will help to inform you on which marketing efforts are working. Make a note of the pages that users are staying on the longest, navigating to other pages, and generally visiting the most. How can you utilize those locations to obtain your goals? Are there pages that users are dropping off quickly or not navigating to other pages? How can you develop relevant content and an opt-in that will enable users to reengage? Pay attention to where users are coming from—both in location and referral. What keywords are you being found for? Are users clicking through to your site when it appears on a Google search? There is so much that you can dive into with Google Analytics and Search Console. I recommend reviewing reports either monthly or quarterly to optimize your content and be aware of how your site is working for you. Then make changes to the site accordingly based on your business goals.

3. Opt-ins, Automated Emails & Landing Pages

Sync your site with your email marketing provider and ensure that you have locations for the user to opt-in or sign up for your list. I recommend setting up an automated email sequence so that when a user signs up to receive news they’ll receive a few informative emails that include some of your most important content. This way they feel welcomed and you already begin to build trust. Explore utilizing the opt-ins in different locations on the site. Remove the ones that have been there a while and experiment to see what works both visually and verbally. Streamline your goals through creating landing pages. These would be simple pages, targeted specifically to one of your audiences. They can help to achieve a specific goal by engaging the users to take action—sign up for your list, contact you, purchase your offering, follow you on social media, etc. Users could arrive to the landing page via social media, an email blast, another webpage, a digital ad, etc. This is just another way you can build on your site and engage your audience.

4. Social Media

As you develop your website content share it on social media platforms in smaller, digestible chunks, that link back to your site. While you are working on your strategy consider the goal that each of your social media platforms aim to achieve. Be mindful of that goal when sharing socially. For example, let’s say your business Facebook page serves as a fun, informative way, to connect with your current and potential customers. While your LinkedIn account may be acting as a place for you to connect with like-minded businesses or potential partnerships. In this case you may share smaller, lighter imagery and posts that align with your mission and values on Facebook. On LinkedIn you may be writing articles that share more about your process and business development. This is only one example. Understanding the goal and your audience on the platform will help you to determine the types of content you should be sharing.

5. Perform Updates & Added Security

If you worked with me to design and develop your site then it is a WordPress or Shopify site. WordPress is an Open Source Platform that has many contributors from all over the world. There are updates to themes, plugins, and the WordPress platform often. Just as computers and phones perform updates your website should be updated to remain compatible and protected with technology as a whole. I recommend making these updates on a monthly or quarterly basis. Additionally, as time goes on you may decide to add another level of security to your site. This can be helpful if you notice there are frequent visitors from one location with an 100% bounce rate. In this instance you can assume they are trying to hack into your site. If you’re working with me I would have you set up with—SiteGround—which has an excellent security platform. Should you want to add another level I recommend Sucuri.net. This is not necessary from the start but it may be worth investing in as your site and audience grows.

If you don’t have the time or desire to invest in the above let’s connect. I’d love to chat with you about your business goals and see how we might be able to partner on a monthly or quarterly basis to achieve them! Schedule a connection call to get started.

Branding with purpose:
creating and collecting brand materials with your wish list in mind

Steven and I got engaged May 31 and chose September 9th as our wedding date. Yes, that was a little ambitious. In just over three months I would need to sell my house, move, and plan the wedding! I knew that every moment would count so I was intentional about creating elements for the wedding invitation that could be reused across all of the wedding day materials. I had no choice but to let the illustration ideas simmer as I prepped and sold my home. I’m sure glad I did. At first I was thinking about including bunnies and squirrels on the invitation. Yes, I’m a Beatrix Potter fan. However, this isn’t a children’s book—it was our wedding invitation. As the idea for the big day evolved so did the look of the invitation. I decided to take inspiration from the willow tree in our yard and combine it with my innate desire to create decorative, ornamental elements (hence my logo). I got out a fresh sheet of watercolor paper (pictured above) and used every square inch to create illustrative elements (pictured below). These would serve as the “branding” elements for the entire event.

With my wish list in mind I created illustrations that could be repurposed across an entire collection of event items. This is the same way I create for your brand materials. The idea is to establish a collection of secondary brand elements that match your brand style—creating a library of sorts. This library includes items like your logo variations, multiple fonts, images, and illustrations that portray your mission and values. Today I want to share with you some useful tips on how to collect these items with your wish list in mind.

1. What particular styles do you love?

You’ve had a week to think through descriptive words that resonate and start taking notice to your visual preferences (if not, start here). Now it’s time to name them. My favorite designer and business role model is Louise Fili. Her work makes my heart beat a little faster so I decided that she needed to represented. I purchased her “Love” stamp for all of my envelopes and bought a font that she just debuted, called Montecatini. The font was also named after a town in Italy—Montecatini Terme—which I happened to visit 13 years ago. What does this have to do with you? You’ve collected your inspirations and preferences, now it’s time to imbue more of what you love into your brand. Keep collecting those items and make sure to share them with your designer.

2. In what formats will your materials be created in?

Thinking through the entire event package prior to creating the illustration was crucial for saving time. This included my invitation, thank you cards, table numbers, place cards, signage, program, website, cups and more. Before you start finalizing one little part, picture how your brand will be represented as a whole. Is your logo only going to be visible on your stationery? Or will you be creating packaging that features your logo as the main branding element? Do you have a car or truck that needs to have your logo and brand elements prominently displayed? All of these details matter. Think big and then start small. It should be fun to think of the different ways your brand will be represented.

3. Price out the cost to produce prior to designing.

Did you know that postage costs more for square envelopes than rectangular envelopes? These tiny details add up when you are working on branding elements. Small choices make big impacts both in dollar amounts and on our environment so I suggest pricing out different ways to produce your marketing pieces. For me it was important that my invitations be printed on 100% recycled paper. I also wanted to reduce waste by allowing the RSVP to tear off and serve as a mailer. These choices cost a little more up front but resonate with my brand so I could plan accordingly.

Essentially when you are thinking through all of these little elements your brand is coming to life before you even began. This means that you are troubleshooting issues and saving money in the long run—which to me, is branding with purpose. That’s what I’m here to help you do! If you’d like to review your next branding project start by emailing me here. Next week I’m going to share the entire wedding package so you can see it come together. For now, I’m going to go make the BEST COOKIES EVER (recipe here). Happy Thanksgiving!

Branding with purpose: find your hidden gems


In 2017 I’ve worked on 5 large-scale branding projects for events. Of course the most strenuous of the 5 was my own wedding invitation package. Each of the events were completely unique in both formality and intention. Some were fundraisers and others were to bring loved ones together. All of them had purpose, meaning, and were imbued with a specific set of values. At the core there were always a few hidden gems of inspiration that we could pull from to create the perfect illustrative elements for the special occasion. Since this process doesn’t happen in an hour, a day, or even a week I’m going to share with you my process over a series of posts. Today we’re going to think about the hidden gems in your business. Specifically what inspires you—this is where the magic happens.

1. Start by gathering descriptive words

When it came to my own wedding day I wanted to utilize what I had available to me. I envisioned the day organically coming together based on my resources. The main inspiration was my backyard. Words like rustic, earthy, repurposed, creative, vintage, conscious, friendly, warm, fun, relaxed, welcomed, loved, and collaborative all resonated with me. Since the invitation was the first impression of the event I wanted to make sure it reflected those thoughts and feelings.

2. Next gather your visual preferences

Once I was able to identify the descriptive words I was able to start working on the visuals in my mind. Since the inspiration for my wedding came from my environment I was able to collect reference images—like the willow tree below—very easily. My guess is you are surrounding yourself with objects and places that visually inspire you. Over the next week begin observing what inspires you and your business. Start taking notice to objects, people, places, or anything in your world that resonates and record it by snapping a photo or taking some notes.

3. Let it simmer

Sounds easy, right? At this stage let the core inspiration simmer while you start thinking through all of the materials on your marketing wish list. These could be printed pieces such as brochures, catalogs, business cards, etc. or digital pieces like email campaigns, website content, or your social media presence. How could your materials reflect these descriptive words and images that resonate with your business?

It’s easy to rush through this process, but let’s not put the cart before the horse. When you spend adequate time thinking through the details you begin branding with purpose. When you are branding with purpose you’re investing wisely in materials that will continue to work for you long after completion. If you’re feeling stuck or you’d like to review your inspiration set up a call by emailing me here.

How do your values translate in print?


Recently a customer of mine expressed concern regarding the compliments they received on their brochures. “We don’t want our customers to think we spent a lot of money on our marketing materials.” I understand their concern to some extent. You do not need good marketing materials to do great business. In fact, your materials should compliment what you do and be derived from your work. I totally understand not wanting to manipulate your customers through lofty advertising, insincere copy and overpriced print.

However, there are a lot of benefits to investing in good marketing materials to compliment your work and help to inform your audience. This particular customer invested in creating materials that were the real deal. Every piece of content was crafted to draw their ideal customer to their business through sincerity. If you’re trying to attract a specific audience to your business it’s justifiable to invest in marketing materials that will position you in that light.

So what exactly can your printed marketing materials say to your ideal audience? Assuming you have excellent content and a beautifully designed piece that reflects your brand let’s begin thinking through your printing options:

GREEN
My personal favorite option is one that considers the environment while maintaining quality. When you print on 100% recycled paper with vegetable-based inks you will pay a little more. Consider it your contribution to the future. If you’re working with customers who care about the environment this will make a positive impression. They want to know that this is important to you. Visit with my favorite green printing option at greenerprinter.com.

HIGH-QUALITY
When your brand mission and values emulate quality you might invest in a beautiful paper with a 600+ line screen. Just like the materials that make up your product your marketing materials should reflect your brand image. If quality is important then it should come across in print. Often this means working with a local printer or visiting the printer of choice to see it run on press. Visit with my favorite high-quality printing option at brilliant-graphics.com.

AFFORDABLE
If you don’t have a large budget and you still would like quality materials there are many options available for you online. Don’t assume that the cheapest option is the best. Make sure you read the reviews. Paper quality and finish does come across when you’re handing out business cards, brochures, etc. Consider this before going with the cheapest option. Investing an extra $20 upfront could make an impact on who you’re attracting to your business. Visit with my favorite affordable printing option at psprint.com.

These are just a few of the options to consider when it comes to your printed marketing materials. If you have questions, you’d like to learn more, or you are considering working with me on an upcoming project contact me directly here.