Can you believe that summer’s almost over? Get that last bit of sun in while you can!

For many consultants, that means getting “back to business” with the busy fall season. As consultants get busier, they often neglect their own marketing—which can result in business dying down after the prime rush season is over. And it’s no fun to spend time rekindling your business after a slowdown (and not having positive cash flow in the meantime)! Read the rest of this entry »

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Wordpress blogs have many advantages for consultants and small business owners. Here are just a few of the benefits:

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There are dozens of options for creating additional branded materials. But, before you run off and pour thousands of dollars into designing everything you might need, consider this list of 4 of the most effective brand kit additions for consultants:

1. A mailing label. Make your mail look more professional with simple Avery labels. Design full pages of them in Microsoft Word and then print a page or two at a time, as needed. You won’t have to pay for envelopes, and changing your address won’t mean throwing a lot of labels out.
2. A presentation folder. If you make a lot of presentations, or mail out information or proposals, then a presentation folder can help make a solid impression. Custom-printing a whole folder can be costly, and the minimum orders are typically high (500 folders). Invest less by finding a colored presentation folder, with a heavy paper weight, at an office supply store or paper warehouse. You can also order them online at a retailer like http://www.blank-folders.com/
3. A thank-you card or general-purpose blank card. Correspond with your clients, thank referral sources and keep the conversation open by sending cards. People still open hand-addressed mail, and the extra effort of sending a real card will be appreciated.
4. A PowerPoint template. If you give talks, host webinars or present proposals in PowerPoint, custom-branding your template extends your brand and shows that you’re not like everyone else in your field.

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How do you design a marketing kit that will make you look professional in your meetings, but not break the bank?

Here are the basics you’ll need:

1. Design a logo. This should be a text logo at the very least – designed in an interesting font whose meaning is tied into your business’s personality. A logo with a graphic and text is best!
2. You’ll need a business card. This is an essential tool for client meetings, networking and marking other opportunities. Who knows when you’ll need to give away a card?
3. A Microsoft Word letterhead. You should design a document header with your logo and contact information. This element can also be imported into Quickbooks to brand your invoices. Keeping it digital cuts costs and allows you to email PDF attachments that are branded as well.
4. A blog or website. A Wordpress blog can be more affordable to design – especially if you base your design off of a template like Thesis. And, you’ll be able to add to it and maintain it yourself. You’ll have more control over the design of a standard website. Ask your designer which option will best fit your needs and budget.

That’s it for a perfect “basic” brand kit. Watch this blog for my next post, on a few additional options you can add to your arsenal.

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What Is A Gravatar? A Gravatar is “A Globally Recognized Avatar”. According to the Gravatar website, it’s “an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog.”

Why Get A Gravatar?
A Gravatar is a great tool for Brand Education (making it more likely that people will recognize your brand), Brand Consistency (making sure that the same image is associated with your brand in every post and application) and for building credibility online.

How Do You Get A Gravatar/ Best Practices:
1. Sign up for a Gravatar account at: http://en.gravatar.com/. You’ll want to use the email that you’d like to have associated with your blog comments when signing up.
2. Choose your username. It’s recommended that you use your real name to build trust and credibility.
3. Upload your icon. The best practice here is to use your headshot if at all possible – it builds more trust and credibility than using a logo as your Gravatar. Gravatar does have an online interface that will allow you to crop your icon to a square.

That’s it! Now, when you post on blogs or websites, use the email address associated with your Gravatar account and your image will be displayed.

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Want to build a Wordpress blog or website, and have it match your company’s brand, without all the effort of designing and coding your own Wordpress template from scratch? Consider finding a template that you can then apply your brand to. You can find great templates that will allow you to edit the look considerably. Some tips:

1. Look for a template that allows for a header graphic.

2. Change the colors of headlines, links, backgrounds, etc. in the style sheet.

3. Consider a pattern for the background. It can change the look instantly.

4. Look at the navigation options. Make sure the navigation is roughly what you want, and then customize the fonts and colors to match your brand. You may also be able to edit the navigation image shapes – from ovals to rectangles, for example – depending on your template.

5. Change out the fonts in the style sheet to match your company’s fonts.

6. Change the colors of the template’s graphics in Photoshop using the Image >Adjustments > Hue/Saturation > Colorize command.

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Do you use testimonials to market your small business? (You should – they’re great credibility-builders. But, I digress…)

The FTC changed the rules about what your testimonials can say back in October of 2009. Here’s how it boils down:

1. If your testimonial talks about outstanding results, and these results aren’t those seen by everyone who gets your product, you have to add a disclaimer stating “results not typical”.

2. You have to disclose if you gave payments or free products to the people giving your testimonials. Did you send out free copies of your ebook in exchange for early reviews? Allow people to sit in your teleclass free of charge for a glowing testimonial? Now you have to make that clear.

3. Celebrities have to disclose their relationships with advertisers.

If you already have testimonials, consider reviewing them and making sure that they’re “up to par”.

This information should help you add value to your consulting clients as well, if you’re involved in a role that involves testimonial gathering or marketing with testimonials.

More details via www.ftc.gov

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Brand design can extend into all realms of a business’s designs – even into the design of feedback or subscription forms on your website. Here’s an example of how you can customize a form to match your brand design.

This is the original output of a form-creation program:

It’s decent, certainly – but we can do better.

When you’re designing your form, keep your brand’s color palette, font style and other brand standards in mind. Here’s a designed version of the same form, followed by a discussion of the changes that were made.

1. Adding a headline can help to make the purpose of your form clear. Headlines also make the form design more eye-catching. Design the headline to match either the other headlines or sub-heads on your page, in terms of font face, alignment, color choice and size.

2. Include instructions on how to use the form, and set expectations about what will happen once the form is filled out. This helps to visually anchor the form and to also make the person filling it out feel more comfortable about doing so. Again, the font face, alignment, color choice and size of these instructions should be matched to your other materials – in this case, your body copy.

3. Style the form field labels. Change the font face, size and color palette on the form field labels (Name, Email, Company, etc.) to match your body copy.

4. Align the form field labels (usually left, unless your brand guidelines specify another choice). You may be able to do this by just styling the text, but you may have to change the table styling if your form was delivered in an HTML table.

5. Design or style the “Submit” button. Your choices here include:

1. Keeping the default style (shown here)
2. Changing the text that appears on the button. This can be done in the HTML code by changing the ‘value=”Submit”‘ text to read ‘value=”Your Text Here”‘.
3. Swapping out the default button style for a graphical button. The code for this is: <inputype=”image” src=”images/submit.jpg” value=”Submit” alt=”Submit”> where ’submit.jpg’ is your image file. If you choose this route, design the button to match your color palette and brand, but make sure that it is still easily identifiable as a submit button. You may do this through the words on the button, or by using an arrow graphic if space is limited.

6. Consider placing a border around your form. This can help to distinguish it from other elements on the page, and help it stand out from the rest of your content. Your border can be solid, dashed or dotted. Choose the option that aligns with your brand.

7. Add a background color. This is another way that you can make your form stand out and call attention to itself. Choose a background color that your headline and body copy colors contrast with, to ensure that they will be legible. And, make sure the background color coordinates with and compliments the rest of your brand. You may also choose to place a subtle pattern in the background if your brand calls for that.

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A consultant can handle their “Keep In Touch” Marketing (where you keep in touch with past clients, interested prospects and people who have requested that you email them) in a few different ways. These solutions include:

• An e-zine (email newsletter)
• Having people subscribe to get emails from your blog through a solution like Feedburner
• RSS streams

Should you have an ezine list or have people subscribe to your blog?

The answer to this depends on the amount of work you want to do in your marketing.

Newsletter

A traditional newsletter mailing list is more work – you have to write the newsletters and send them out. You can customize this option more – from look and feel, to the frequency that the newsletters are sent out with, to other offers or promotions that you send out with your information. But, this also means that you have to do the work of sending out an email newsletter:

• signing up for a newsletter service

• setting the account up

• designing your email newsletter template

• setting up your newsletter each time it has to go out

• testing and sending it

And, that is the process you have to go through each time the newsletter has to go out (and I’m not even talking about putting together your articles and offers for the newsletter).

Blog Subscription

If you just have people subscribe to your blog (through a service such as Feedblitz, which integrates easily with Typepad or Wordpress), then the work of sending out the newsletter is done for you. Your blog posts, if you have made any, get emailed to people who sign up once a day. You don’t have to do anything extra. If you don’t write a blog post, nothing gets sent out. And, if you want to communicate with your list, you just post on the blog – and take care of 2 marketing tasks at once, because your blog is refreshed and your customers have been updated.

Feedblitz also allows you to log in to your account on their site and view a list of your subscribers – to see exactly who’s subscribed. There are other features on their site that allow you to email your subscribers separately from your blog – for example, if you want to make a special discount offer to subscribers only.

RSS Feeds

The other option is to have people read your blog through RSS Streams, or RSS assistance programs like Feedburner. These are neat and easy for the client to do – they just grab your RSS address from your blog and then paste it into their email program or RSS aggregator. And, they increase the likelihood that people will keep up with your blog – instead of leaving it to them to remember to pull up your blog site every few days. But, the major disadvantage to you here is that they don’t have to give you their details in exchange. That means that you can only communicate with these contacts through the blog – which is better than nothing, but not ideal.

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Tips to visually improve the quality of a Flip video (or, really any video that you create for your website):

1. Dress the part. If you know you’re going to be making an on-camera appearance, get ready for it. You may consider wearing your company colors, or a version of those. Or, wear an outfit that’s particularly complimentary. Solid colors tend to work better in front of the camera than stripes or busy patterns. And, be extra-neat with your hair and makeup – the camera shows, and sometimes amplifies, any mistakes.

2. Stake out a spot for the camera. Arrive to your location early, and bring a friend to help you select the best angle from which to take the video. Think about not getting the camera too much in the audience’s way while still getting your shot framed correctly.

3. Think about framing. In most cases, you’ll want either a waist-up shot or a head-and-shoulders shot. If you use your hands a lot while you speak, or for a longer presentation, consider the waist-up shot. If you have a very short presentation, then a head and shoulders shot may make more sense.

4. Watch the background. Make sure there are no clocks acting as halos above your head, and that any artwork doesn’t distract from your message. Also, protect your background if you can – make sure no people will be walking through, or giving you “bunny ears.”

5. Be stable. The “Blair Witch Project” can get away with shaky videos and dropping the camera, but your business video should be as steady as possible to make a pleasant viewing experience. Use a tripod to keep things steady during the video. It may help to have a mini tripod (like this one: http://bit.ly/UVher) and also a taller tripod, so that you can see which one works best in the space.

6. Keep your place. This is an old trick that I remember from drama class in high school. If you’re going to be standing during the speech, or even moving around a bit, bring a piece of painter’s tape (which won’t wreck the floor) and mark your position on the floor. Occasionally, glance down to make sure you’re on the mark, which will mean that you are framed in the best possible way in your video.

7. Get assistance. If you’re going to be moving around, the camera will need to be moved to track you and keep you in the frame. For this, using a large tripod makes sense because many of them have a swiveling head, which will allow an assistant to track your movements smoothly.

8. No disembodied questions. If you’re going to have a question-and-answer period during your talk, warn the videographer – so that they can be on the ready to film the audience as they ask questions. That way, you won’t have disembodied questions being asked from behind the camera – which looks a little strange.

9. Inform the audience. Most people don’t like to be surprised and find themselves suddenly on camera. Let them know at the beginning of the event (or even when they sign up) that you will be filming.  And, let them know how they may appear in the final video. Don’t forget to have anyone who’s recognizable in the video sign a Model Release (some people who film videos during seminars pass out Model Releases at the front door, and collect them almost immediately after the seminar begins). You can get a sample Model Release here: http://bit.ly/GLvps .

With these tips, your videos  will look more professional, and they can become a beneficial part of your brand.

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