In today’s digital age, social media platforms play a crucial role in promoting and growing small businesses. Among the multitude of options available, Instagram stands out as a powerful tool for reaching a broader audience, increasing brand awareness, and driving sales. With its visually appealing interface and engaged user base, Instagram offers a unique opportunity for small businesses to connect with their target audience in a meaningful way. In this blog post, we will explore how you can effectively utilize Instagram for small business marketing and unlock its full potential.
1. Create a Compelling Business Profile
Your Instagram profile serves as the face of your business on the platform. It is essential to create a visually appealing and informative profile that accurately represents your brand. Use a high-quality logo or profile picture that aligns with your business’s identity. Craft a captivating bio that concisely describes what you offer and includes relevant keywords. Utilize the link in your bio strategically to drive traffic to your website or specific landing pages.
2. Develop a Consistent Brand Identity
Consistency is key when it comes to branding on Instagram. Establish a cohesive visual aesthetic by using consistent colors, filters, and themes in your posts. This helps create a recognizable brand identity and fosters a sense of familiarity among your audience. Remember to align your brand’s personality and values with the content you share to establish a genuine connection with your followers.
3. Engage and Interact with Your Audience
Building a loyal and engaged following on Instagram requires active participation. Take the time to interact with your audience by responding to comments, liking and sharing their posts, and following relevant accounts. Engage with user-generated content that features your products or services. Show your followers that you value their engagement and opinions, building strong relationships and fostering brand loyalty.
4. Tell Your Story through Captivating Visuals
Instagram is primarily a visual platform, and to effectively market your small business, you need to tell a compelling story through captivating visuals. Use high-quality images and videos that showcase your products, services, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business. Experiment with different content formats, such as carousel posts, stories, and live videos, to keep your audience engaged and interested.
5. Leverage Hashtags and Explore Pages
Hashtags are a powerful tool on Instagram for expanding your reach and connecting with a broader audience. Research relevant and popular hashtags in your industry and incorporate them strategically in your posts. Additionally, explore the Explore page to discover new accounts, engage with trending content, and gain insights into what resonates with your target audience.
6. Collaborate with Influencers and Micro-Influencers
Partnering with influencers and micro-influencers can significantly boost your small business’s visibility on Instagram. Find influencers whose values and audience align with your brand and collaborate on sponsored posts, giveaways, or product reviews. Influencers have a loyal following who trust their recommendations, making it an effective way to gain credibility and reach new potential customers.
7. Utilize Instagram Ads and Insights
Instagram offers a range of advertising options for small businesses to reach their target audience. Sponsored posts, stories, and carousel ads can help you increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website or landing pages. Additionally, make use of Instagram Insights to gain valuable data about your audience demographics, engagement rates, and reach. Analyzing these metrics can help you refine your marketing strategy and tailor your content to better resonate with your target audience.
In conclusion, Instagram is a valuable platform for small businesses to enhance their marketing efforts and connect with their target audience in a visually captivating way. By following these tips and utilizing the various features Instagram offers, you can unlock the full potential of the platform and drive meaningful growth for your small business. Embrace the power of Instagram today and watch your business thrive in the digital realm.
The typeface that a company uses for it’s stationery, brochures, websites, etc. is just as important as other elements that we’ve recently discussed. Picking the right font can make your company stand out, look bright, professional, and forward-thinking, and feel modern and stylish. Choosing the wrong font can make your company look old-fashioned, leave your brochure and website content illegible, and can present an unprofessional face to the business.
Typography
The study of fonts and font usage is known as Typography, and it is a vast and varied field of study. In this article, we’ll only scratch the surface of this topic, but we will include links to some useful resources and tools at the end. To start with, here are a few typographic terms that you should be familiar with before you start browsing and choosing fonts for use in your branding and design.
Serif Fonts
Serif fonts are those that have a small line and/or stroke at the end of their main stroke, such as Times New Roman, Garamond, or Georgia are examples of serif fonts. Serif fonts are perfect for the text in books and magazines since the nature of the serif design makes each letter more recognizable and therefore easier to read in large blocks.
Here are some examples:
San Serif Fonts
San Serif fonts are those that do not have lines and strokes at the end of their main strokes, such as Helvetica, Arial, and Futura. San Serif fonts are better sued for titling, headings, punchy, short text blocks, and sub text, rather than main text areas.
Script Fonts
Script fonts, also called Cursive or handwritten fonts, tend to be more ornate and elegant, and are based upon the natural flow of a handwritten letter. Script fonts are generally used for short titles, greetings cards, invitations, etc. Never use script fonts for body text or lengthy copy since they will become illegible quickly.
Font Families and Styles
Font families are groups of fonts that use the same design, but have different styles, such as regular, bold, italic, and bold italic. Font styles can help add character and flavor to your text, such as adding emphasis or description.
Font Sizes
For printed material, font sizes are typically measured in Points, 12-point being the most common. Point sizing is based upon an inch, and there are 72 points to an inch. Another font measurement is the Pica; there are 12 points to a pica, and 6 picas to an inch. Check out this Wikipedia page for some history on points and picas.
For online use, fonts can be measured in points, however, this is a static size and this sizing method won’t proportion properly on-screen, so it’s better to use pixels. Pixels or Ems (1 Em = 16 pixels) are responsive sizes, meaning that they will scale in relation to the size of the screen. 16 pixels is a good size for on-screen text.
The Right Font for the Right purpose
As we said at the beginning of the post, choosing the right font is an important part of your overall design and image, since it can make-or-break the impact and legibility of your website, brochure, or posters. Below, we’ll offer a few guidelines for selecting the right fonts for the job.
Conveying Emotion
Different fonts convey different emotions. They can be playful, casual, business-like, professional, high-tech, traditional, clean, messy, or elegant. In addition, San Serifs can be seen as being strong, modern and clean. Serifs tend to portray traditional and reliable values. Script fonts often lend a feminine, graceful, or romantic feel to the text.
Legibility
There are some situations where you need to be really careful with font choice. Here are some examples:
Using fine serif fonts on a dark background may make the text hard to read, especially online or at a small size.
Some intricate or highly-compacted fonts become easily illegible when used for text blocks. this type of ornate font is usually only used for short titles or emphasis.
Extended or compressed fonts of any style can become illegible if over extended or compressed
Body text composed of bold and/or capitalized fonts can be very difficult to read.
Use Contrasting Fonts
For your company font styles, try using just two font families – one for titling and the other for body text. but it’s important to use complimentary fonts in your combinations, so start by using one of the font combination tools listed below.
Don’t Use Similar Fonts
Finally, try not to use two font families that are too similar in style together. They will look slightly off – as if you’ve made an error – rather than work as a complimentary pair. Again, using one of the tools below will help to prevent this.
Need Font or Typography Help?
Thanks for reading this post. We appreciate that we only covered a few basics, but we hope we’ve given you enough knowledge for you to start thinking about your company font styles, and how typography can be used in your branding.
To get your started, try these useful online tools for help choosing the right fonts:
In this previous post, we discussed color theory, and some ways to choose the right colors for your brand. In this post we’ll talk about how you can convert these colors to standard color methodologies so that you can start using them in print and online.
Converting Color Schemes to Standard Color Systems
After you’ve selected the colors for your brand, you now need to convert them into a form where they can be used effectively. For print use, this means converting them into a Pantone color, a CMYK color, or a spot color. For online use, this means using RGB or web-safe colors. Let’s start with print colors.
Using Color in Print
Pantone Colors
Pantone colors are a standardized way of identifying, choosing, and using colors in the graphic design and print world. Each Pantone color is a spot color (see below) and has a specific code associated with it. This code also has references so that the color can be used and printed, such as CMYK Process information (the relative proportions of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black ink to use when the color is used in full-color commercial print processes).
To convert your color wheel colors into Pantone colors, you can use the Pantone reference chart on this page. Pick the closest color to your chosen colors from the color wheel, and make a note of the Pantone color codes. Pantone Yellow 012 C is an example.
CMYK Process Colors
Colors in the CMYK Process scheme are colors that can be printed using commercial printing techniques, such as lithographic offset printing. CMYK refers to Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black – the four colors used in the full color print process. Pantone colors can be converted to CMYK process, and CMYK process colors can be created independently of Pantone colors if you need a specific color. Pantone Yellow 012 C can be described as ‘0 2 100 0‘ in CMYK format.
The CMYK process attempts to replicate the solid Pantone and custom colors by using a series of tints of Cyan, magenta, Yellow, and Black. Because of this conversion process, it’s worth noting that because you’re converting a solid Pantone color into tints of CMYK colors, there is quite often a color shift as CMYK process may not be able to replicate the spot Pantone color exactly. This shift may be quite pronounced with complex colors.
To convert your Pantone colors to CMYK, click on the color in the Pantone color reference chart; there you will see a description of the color, with a CMYK reference.
Note: normally, your Pantone colors will be converted to CMYK process colors for you by your graphic designer or commercial printer, so you won’t normally need to do this step. Unless you’re curious of course!
Some colors cannot be made into CMYK process, such as metallics like gold, silver, and bronze, or some Pantones that are too complex to render as CMYK colors. For these colors, we need spot colors.
Spot Colors
Spot colors are colors that are printed using a single ink, unlike CMYK colors that use four inks. Due to their single-ink nature, spot colors allow for the printing of metallic colors, Pantone colors that cannot be created as CMYK colors, and other bespoke colors.
A Metallic or Pantone spot color is described simply by using it’s Pantone code.
A custom spot color can be described by giving CMYK values, or by giving a sample to your graphic designer or commercial print provider.
Now to online color usage.
Using Color Online
Colors used on websites and in social media cannot be described using Pantone, CMYK, or Spot colors, since these methods rely in printed inks. Instead, colors must be converted into RGB, which are the colors that are displayed on your monitor.
RGB
RGB colors are Red, Green, and Blue; the three colors of light that are used to make up all of the tones and shades that you see displayed on a computer monitor, mobile device, or TV screen. When a file is saved from, say Adobe Illustrator, into a file for online use, any colors within it are automatically converted to RGB colors. This means that you can use whatever colors you like in a document when it is designed, and any colors will be converted to RGB on export.
Colors in your HTML, however, will need to be described by their name (Yellow), RGB values (255,255,0) , by their hexadecimal code (#FFFF00), which can be found on this page.
Colors in the RGB color scheme are described using the relative proportions of each of the Red Green Blue colors, using a number ranging from 0 to 255. Thus, Pantone Yellow 012 C is described as ‘255 215 0‘ in RGB format.
However, there is normally a color shift during this conversion process because, like the Pantone to CMYK color shift, Pantones and other custom colors may not be able to be recreated exactly by RGB color conversions. There is an RGB color picker on this page if you want to pick your specific colors in RGB formats.
Note: normally, your colors will be converted to RGB for you by your graphic designer or web developer, so you won’t normally need to do this step. Again, unless you’re curious!
We haven’t covered all aspects of color use in this article as its a huge field, but we hope that it has been informative and of use. We will be covering additional aspects of color use in design, graphics, and online use in future posts, so keep watching out for more.
And please contact us if you need any help or advice with your branding or color schemes, or for any other information that you may need.
Following on from our previous ‘Brand Styling Overview‘ post, today we’ll be discussing colors, in particular, color wheels, a bit of color theory, and how to create a balanced pallet of complimentary colors for your brand.
Color is vital to your image. It underlies and involves everything that you do to present yourself. Its in your logo, your fonts, your graphic elements, brochures, websites, etc. Color can present cheerfulness and depression, movement and stillness, darkness and light, so its important to choose the right color pallet to help portray your company how you see it.
Color Terminology
To start with, here are a few technical terms that you may have come across:
Hue: the actual color of an object; red, green, blue, etc.
Chroma: this is the ‘purity’ of a color, i.e. a hue with low chroma contains large amounts of black, white, or grey, whereas a high-chroma hue has none.
Saturation: basically, the intensity of the color, so for instance, whether a particular red looks light or dark according to prevailing lighting conditions.
Value: a number that represents the lightness of a color in relation to others, so black has the lowest value of all colors and white has the highest.
Tones: you get a tone whenever you add grey to any hue, creating a soft, dull version of the pure hue.
Shades: a hue is turned into a shade whenever you add black to it, darkening the pure hue considerably and creating a neutral color.
Tints: you make a tint by adding white to a pure hue, create a light, feminine color, often called a pastel color.
Color Pallets
Now that we have some basics down, lets look at the color wheel. Below is a basic 12-spoke color wheel. This is a vital piece of your color puzzle as you can use it to create various types of color pallet:
Color pallets fall under a range of different categories as follows:
Analogous: this type of pallet is made up from three hues that are next to each other on the above color wheel. they can contain tints, tones, and shades from within each hue.
Monochromatic: these are made up of tints, tones, and shades of the same hue.
Complementary: made of from two hues that are directly opposite each other on the above color wheel. they can contain tints, tones, and shades.
Split Complementary: more complex that a standard complementary pallet, a split-complementary uses one base hue, then the two hues adjacent to the opposite hue.
Triadic: tricky to create but can be very successful when done properly, a triadic pallet uses three hues equally-spaced around the color wheel, and can contain tones, tints, and shades.
Tetradic: another type of pallet that is difficult to create, a tetradic scheme uses five colors from around the wheel to create a complex pallet of hues, tints, tones, and shades.
Custom: the hardest of all to successfully create, the custom pallet uses no rules except for those that you impose yourself. You need to be careful to balance all hues, tones, tints, and shades so as not to create a pallet that clashes.
Creating Your Color Pallet: things to keep in mind
You can use whichever type of color pallet that you like, but keep it simple to start with. You can begin by using a monochromatic pallet with a few tints and shades, then add in a couple of analogous colors or a complementary color to add interest and contrast.
One thing to bear in mind is your area of industry. As we mentioned previously, try and keep your color scheme relevant to your business sector. For instance, toy stores tend to go towards brighter, cheery primary colors to attract kids and parents: red, yellows, blues, whereas lawyer firms and funeral homes will have a tendency towards more professional, sombre colors: deep reds, browns, dark greens and greys.
If you have an existing logo, try using the main color in the logo as your primary color, then add additional colors, tones, tints, and shades to create a pallet keyed to your logo.
Don’t forget about your tints, tones, and shades to add diversity to your chosen hues; these can add depth, mood, and variety to your pallet, whilst keeping it balanced and consistent.
And make sure to add in some neutrals for additional flexibility. Blacks and greys add visual interest. Tans and browns can be a little trickier to work with but create warmth and add balance to your pallet.
Here are some examples to get you started, based upon the color wheel above:
A simple Analogous pallet.
A monochromatic pallet.
A Complementary pallet.
A Split-Complementary pallet.
A Triadic pallet.
A Tetradic pallet.
A Custom pallet with neutral browns
A Custom pallet with neutral blacks.
Next time, we’ll talk about how to convert these colors to web-standard colors for online use, and to Pantone or CMYK colors for print production.
Building your business into a recognized brand can be a long, daunting, and arduous process. Sometimes, you’ll need to deconstruct what you already have in order to redesign it better. There will be many areas of your corporate branding that do not conform to anything else that you have. Your company stationery may have your logo on, but may not use the same fonts as your brochure, which may not use the same colors as your advertising, which have completely different imagery to your website.
To create a great, consistent, and recognizable brand, all of these items need to be unified into a single style methodology, so that all of the elements that make up your corporate identity work together as a whole to present your company as confident, reliable, and professional.
Here are some of the elements that go towards creating a brand, and how to work with them. We’ve deliberately kept it simple so as to be easily digestible, and we’ll expand on each area in future posts:
Logos
Your company logo should be representative of who you are and what you do, yet should be simple and easily recognizable. Try keeping to just a few colors; ideally these colors will be at least some of the ones that you use for the rest of your corporate branding color schemes. Font choice is also important, since if you use a font that is too complex, has very fine serifs, or is difficult to read, it can make it hard to discern at small sizes, on computer screens, or on phone screens.
Brand Colors
As we mentioned above, your company colors should be derivative of your logo, or compliment your logo colors sufficiently enough to justify using a different color. Your color schemes can to a large degree vary with your field of expertise or industry. For instance, the hospitality, toys & games, or vacation sectors are safe to use bright, attractive, cheerful colors, which you probably wouldn’t want to do if you were a law firm or a funeral home.
Fonts
We mentioned fonts above, under logos. Te same is true for any font that you use. It should be clear, easy to read at any size, on any screen, and should be stylish enough to create a crisp, modern feel. You can have the best designed logo and color scheme in the world, but if your fonts don’t look contemporary to your design or are illegible, they’re not worth a thing.
And if you only ever use Arial, Times, Verdana, or Tahoma, then you are in a good place, especially online.
Images
Try and use your own imagery whenever possible. There is some good stock photography out there, but you sometimes have to pay through the nose for it, unless you want to look the same as anyone else.
Design Elements
Design elements is a very wide heading to describe design features other than your logo, colors, images, and fonts, such as secondary graphics, icons, illustrations, and so on, that have been put together specifically for your purposes. And as we said above, your design elements should maintain the color scheme that has been established by your logo and brand colors, and should use the same fonts too.
Brand Messaging
This is all about who you are, what you do, what you sell, and how you attract, service, and support your customers. Your messaging should be descriptive, yet concise. There’s no need for padding and overly-long descriptions; just describe who you are and what you do in a short and simple manner.
Of course, when it comes to marketing collateral and your website, you can then go deeper and expand upon your concepts, products, services etc., which is where people will be looking for that extra detail.
Advertising and Marketing
This leads on directly from Brand Messaging. Expand on your messaging in your ads and marketing campaigns by making the focus of the ad a particular promotion, service, product, event, or other detail relevant to your company. Make sure your contact details are clear, but not as prominent as the product being advertised, and that you have a clear ‘call to action’ for the reader to follow, such as ‘Find Out More’ or ‘Request More Info’, then add in your contact info after that.
Collateral
Comprising your brochures, flyers, leaflets, etc., your marketing collateral should also follow all of the guidelines laid down in the previous sections. Something else to consider with collateral design is to try and keep some consistency with the size, colors, and positions of your headers, footers, logos, and other graphics, so that all of your collateral material looks like it comes from the same family. And of course, it should display the same messaging principles as your adverting, marketing and other related pieces.
And remember to prominently include calls-to-action and your contact information.
In Conclusion
Going back to the first paragraph, building a brand is not a quick or simple process, but it is vital to your business. Your customers want to see a unified corporate identity. The visual queue that it portrays helps them feel safe, builds trust, and let’s them know that they’re dealing with the same, reliable company, and keeps them coming back.
Gleneden Ridge Design is happy to assist and advise anyone who needs help with the corporate image. If there’s a particular area that you may be struggling with, then get in touch and we’ll help you move forward, and build a better brand.
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