Branding isn’t all logo trends and color palettes. A strong brand identity starts with a true understanding of the business – its stakeholders, audience, industry, values, and more. To strategically end up with branding that represents your company, your branding agency needs to put in the work on the front end – a process we call here at Liquid Creative, discovery.

What Is Discovery?

Without a discovery period, a creative team won’t have the necessary insight to represent your brand. We might not have heard of your business before you became our client, so we take time to get up to speed before any creative work begins.

Liquid Creative has clients ranging from specialized athletic trainers to high-end property management companies. Learn how we gather the insight to create distinct brand identities that are a perfect match for our small business clients!

1. Meet with The Business Owner or Marketing Manager

The discovery process begins right as we’re first approached about taking on a new client. Our Account Management team meets with each new potential client to learn about their target audience, marketing and business objectives, and unique selling points. Once we know a little about your business and marketing goals, we’ll be able to let you know whether our branding services are a good match!

If you feel like your branding is going stale or you’ve outgrown your old logo, it may be time to rebrand your business. Check out these 3 signs it’s time to refresh your branding.

2. Conduct Secondary Market Research

After we’ve determined that a new brand identity aligns with your business and organizational goals, our research begins. We’ll dive deep into your industry, competitors, and target audience. Along the way, we’ll be noting your buying process, unique selling point, and value proposition to know what you bring to customers that no one else can.

3. Team Site Visit

At this stage, we want to see your business in action! Liquid Creative has toured construction sites, production facilities, and pizza parlors to get the best understanding of our clients. We’ll get a feel for your space, team, and daily operations to help keep your brand feeling seamless with how your business is run.

4. Personal Interviews with Stakeholders

After determining who your stakeholders are (customers, investors, employees, and more), we’ll create a list of questions to ask different stakeholder groups. We might request to contact your company leadership, customers, employees, or external partner organizations.

Our conversations with these stakeholders provide insights that can’t be found on a website or by talking to an internal marketer. Through these interviews, we are able to uncover what defines your business, as seen through someone else’s eyes. That’s a core piece of building a distinct new brand identity that aligns with your audience.

5. Discovery Download

Now that we’ve researched your market, seen your operation, and spoken to you and your stakeholders, it’s time to get out some ideas. Our team meets up to brainstorm and discuss what we’ve learned throughout our research.

Our discovery download is all about connecting pieces of our research together to get a full picture of your business. What did you identify as strengths that we didn’t see in your competitors? What do your employees love about their jobs that influences the customer experience? We’ll define what we believe it is your company is offering beyond a product or service. What experience does your business provide?

 

6. Creative Team, Go!

Now, we’ve determined an organic brand direction that makes strategic sense in your industry and local market. Your branding identity won’t just be a logo – we know just the deliverables you’ll need to maintain a cohesive new brand.

Our branding services include the following:

• Logo: a mark used to identify your organization or product
• Color Palette: the various colors and accents to be used in visual communications
• Typography: lists which fonts to use in various communication scenarios
• Graphic Collateral: graphic design elements consistently used to complement your logo
• Word Cloud: a list of words that best represent and differentiate your brand
• Brand Rationale: a document establishing the tone of written communications

7. Present the New Brand Identity

After a little bit of magic from our creative team, we’ll present you with your new brand identity. Our process starts by presenting 2 logo concepts, often that show two different directions we can take your brand. You’ll choose the one you believe in the most for us to further develop. With final revisions and some finishing touches, your new brand will be ready to launch!

Most of the time, we present two logo concepts, and the client selects one for us to further develop. After the final revisions are made, the new brand is ready to launch!

Rebrand Example

Check out the branding transformation on the 5 Points of Life marathon!

 

Before

Sketch Phase

Final Rebranded Logo

Distinct Branding that Embodies Your Organization

A brand shouldn’t be feel mandated—it should feel organic, and complementary to your offerings, employees, and customers. Through the discovery process, our team gathers the background, insight, and inspiration to become the creative force that propels your brand towards new opportunities.

Interested in establishing a distinct new brand for your organization? Learn more about our branding services!

 

 

Today, it’s generally accepted that when a customer is seeking information on a company their first inclination is to visit its website. Then why is it that in 2017, 35% of small business owners indicated they believed their business operations were too small to warrant a website? As they say, if you’re not growing you’re dying, and if your goal is growth then a website is one of the best tools to widen your brand’s reach.

If you’re considering building a website this year, or redesigning your current one, three of the most important things to keep in mind include usability, aesthetic appeal, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Usability

Your first step should be to consider the end user of your site. Who are you targeting, and what information is most relevant to them? From there, you can determine what content to include on your website, and how the information should be laid out.

Utilize the menu to group information so that users can find it intuitively, and home page buttons to direct them to pages on your site where you’d like to see increased traffic. Use a call to action when possible to encourage users to engage with links, such as “Sign up for our Newsletter” or “View Upcoming Events.”

Regardless of your industry, contact information such as your business phone number, hours of operation, address and email should be quickly accessible. An easy and inexpensive way to test the intuitivity of your site is to time friends or family members to see how long it takes them to find pertinent information.

And remember, users want to navigate your site as quickly as possible, so text should be used with purpose. Your mission statement should be short but powerful, as should your product or service descriptions.

Aesthetic Appeal

Design is critical to conveying your brand’s identity, enhancing the user experience, and creating emotional appeal. If you haven’t already, you should establish your brand standards before designing a website. This document will outline appropriate uses and variations of your logo, and the colors, fonts, and types of imagery that will most effectively convey your brand’s value. These standards will be used to inform the design of all your communications materials. In establishing specific parameters, you will enhance your brand’s value through consistency, and more easily draw inspiration for future marketing campaigns.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engines populate their results based on algorithms that determine which pages are most relevant to the user’s query. An SEO strategy aims to increase organic traffic based on knowledge of these algorithms. There are a lot of factors that contribute to a solid SEO strategy, three of the most critical include user engagement, content and keywords, and mobile optimization.

RankBrain was Google’s third most important ranking factor last year, and they indicate it will become an even larger asset in 2018. So, what is RankBrain?  It is essentially a machine learning system that collects data on how users engage with their search results, and ranks the websites accordingly. The top factors considered are dwell times, bounce back rates, and click-through rates.

Essentially, the more people that click on your site and spend some time there, the higher your ranking will be. To achieve a high click-through rate and reduce bouncebacks it’s important to reach the right audience, so you should develop your website’s content with SEO in mind.

It used to be enough to include just your keywords in your content and meta tags, but today Google also looks at the context to determine whether you are comprehensively covering a topic.

To show that your site has strong context, you should also add LSI keywords to your site. These are terms that relate to your topic or business, and there are plenty of online tools to determine which are most effective for your established keywords.

One of the best ways to improve SEO is by creating original content, such as longer blogs, that include strong keywords and context. A blog page is also a great way to showcase your industry expertise without becoming too wordy on other pages of the site.

If your website is not optimized for mobile, 2018 is officially the year to fix that problem. 60% of Google searches now originate from a mobile device, and as a result, Google will adopt a mobile-first index this year. This means that for SEO purposes, Google will first consider the mobile version of your site. Any content that is hidden on the mobile version will be completely ignored for search ranking purposes.

To prepare for the mobile-first index, make sure that all of your content is displaying correctly on mobile, and is still intuitive. Remember, bounce back rates are a critical factor in SEO, so you don’t want users leaving your mobile site because they can’t properly view its information.

The Takeaway?

The best practices in online marketing are always changing, so it’s important to continuously research what’s relevant in SEO, and the tools available to increase traffic to your site. A website opens your brand to the world; keep usability, aesthetic appeal, and SEO in mind to ensure that it’s well represented.

Do you frequently find yourself staring at a blank word document? A blank canvas? A blank notebook? Struggling for new ideas? Mind drawing a blank? You’re not alone!

All creative professionals are likely to struggle with a creative block from time to time. Here at Liquid, creativity is the backbone of our business, so we heavily rely on our creative ideas. Let’s discuss the different types of creative block and various ways to overcome it so you can get back to creating amazing work!

3 Types of Creative Block:

1.  Close-Mindedness

The most common type of creative block, close-mindedness describes what happens when you get too caught up and boxed-in by your own common ways of thinking. It’s tough to come up with something new and exciting when your brain is stuck in “same old, same old” mode.

The solution? Step back and revamp your mindset! Surround yourself with others who have different ways of thinking, go explore new places, check out new media, and always ask yourself the question “how could this be made more exciting?”

2. Lack of Inspiration

For most of us, our minds just draw a complete blank every now and then. Whether due to burnout, sleepless nights, or a lack of caffeine, this can be the deadliest creative block of the bunch since our jobs need inspiration each and every day to keep our creative process alive.

Do not be discouraged if you have encountered this hurdle — it is all part of the process! The solution? Take a mental break, get a little bit of sleep, and then head out to find new outlets of inspiration — go to art galleries, concerts, film festivals, and just surround yourself with uplifting, innovative ideas.

3. Too Many Ideas!

Sometimes having too much on your mind can cause a creative block. Having too many disjointed ideas can cause you to feel paralyzed as you consider how to approach your next project or job. The solution? Create a list of your ideas, and group them into smaller groups of similar ideas. This will force you to only examine a couple of ideas at a time and will ease the stress of choosing a specific concept to work on.

Creative blocks can come in many forms and require different solutions to overcome them. Try the solutions above and get back to creating more quickly! Need additional help coming up with creative ideas for promoting your business? Give us a call! (352) 600-5050

Thinking about rebranding your business, but aren’t sure quite where to start? There comes a point in the life cycle of every business where things begin to feel a little outdated and it’s time for a refresh. And when it comes to rebranding, there’s more to think about than simply revamping your logo — you need to consider evolving your company’s mission, analyzing the state of your client’s user experience, and adapting your marketing strategy to best fit your current goals. It’s a lot to think about, but don’t worry — that’s where we come in!

Trends & Advancements

Each and everyday changes occur, both in the economy and with technology, that can (and should!) have an impact on your business. It can be tough to keep up with the latest trends and industry advancements on top of handling all the day to day responsibilities of running your business.

If you’re worried that you’re falling behind when it comes to the strategies and tactics you use for promoting your business and attracting new customers, it might be time to bring in marketing experts (that’s us!) to help formulate the perfect tactics for your company and get you back on track.

Update Your Image

If you’re fortunate enough to own a successful business that has seen growth and expansion over the years, then there’s a good chance you may have outgrown your initial branding. When you first started your company, your line of services may not have been as extensive as they are currently. Or, your mission, vision, and priorities may have evolved over time. That’s why it’s essential that your branding and image be kept up-to-date! These elements are among the first things that potential clients see when they are looking into your services — make sure you’re telling the right story about your business!

Strategy is Everything!

Considering and exploring new areas of opportunity and adjusting strategy accordingly is an important phase when rebranding your company. No matter how awesome your branding is, or how impressive your office, website or team culture are — it won’t mean a thing if you’re using the wrong strategy. Are you reaching the right people on the right platforms? Is there is a new audience that you could potentially be targeting or a new product or service that you should be launching to keep up with the competition?

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, give us a call at (352) 600-5050 to get started!