Bourn Creative

7 Ways To Alienate Your Designer & Go From Client to Contract

Jennifer Bourn — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:00:45 +0000

In a perfect world, working with your designer would be a perfect partnership of creativity, communication, and collaboration — at least that is what designers strive for. But that’s not always the case…

A designer begins every project excited about what they will create and about bringing the client’s vision to life — they wouldn’t have accepted the project is they weren’t.

They are excited about solving problems, helping their clients succeed, and building a new relationship or strengthening an existing one. They value their client and look forward to becoming their long term creative partner.

You should know that designers have so much pride in their work and so much invested in their clients’ success, that they will often bend over backward, throw in extra work, and go above and beyond your contract just to make sure the final result is as good as it can possibly be. Mainly because the success of your project puts their reputation on the line.

But occasionally, a switch gets flipped, and the dynamics of the relationship change

Something happens, or several things happen, that cause a designer to shift the way they view a client and a project.

It’s the critical point where a client stops being a client and starts being a contract that needs to be fulfilled — where a designer throws their hands in the air and gives up trying to make it totally awesome, and instead just wants it to be good and done.

Luckily for the best designers, this doesn’t happen often. Now, I’m not going to lie and tell you this has never happened to me. Unfortunately it has and if it is early enough in the project, we refund the deposit and part ways with a referral to another designer. Or if we’re already in too deep, we complete the scope of work outlined in the contract, maintain our quality standards, and when we’re done, we simply don’t work with them again.

Note: The best designers will always protect their reputation, finish the project with integrity, and deliver the same quality of work no matter what. They simply won’t go above and beyond.

With that said …

Here 8 guaranteed-to-work tips you can use to alienate your designer and go from client to contract:

Question Everything They Do Or Say.
Constantly challenge your designer and second guess everything they do and say. Ask for their advice then disregard it. Delay the project for months while you get second opinions and suggestions on the design from everyone you know including your grandma, your next door neighbor’s daughter, your mastermind group, your garbageman, your coach, your friends, and yes, the grocery store clerk — because they all know what will work better than your designer.
Dishonor Your Contract.
After the contract has been signed and the project has been started, change the scope of work several times. Take advantage of your designer and demand extra revisions and request lots of additional work that wasn’t included in the contract. When your designer tells you they can accommodate you but that the new work would require a new estimate, be very mean to them — threaten them and say rude, nasty things to them.
Disappear Without Notice.
Sometime in the middle of the project simply disappear. Stop responding to email and don’t return their phone calls — but be sure to stay active on social media so they can see that you’re still running your business and making money. If it’s a WordPress project, make sure you disappear long enough that WordPress releases an update and plugins release updates so your designer has to do extra work to maintain your in progress site while it hogs space in their development hosting account.
Answer Questions With “I Don’t Know.”
Your designer will ask you questions about your business, your brand, your clients, or your goals — and they’ll ask you questions about site requirements, preferences, and what’s working or not working about your current site. Don’t give them any information. Answer every question with, “I don’t know.” And just for fun, throw in a, “Isn’t that what I hired you for? Why are you asking me?”
Belittle Their Work.
Never tell your designer they did a good job. Never compliment them or say anything nice. Only ever point out the things you don’t like — and act the fate of your entire business rests on even the tiniest design element. In fact, when they’re done with the design, belittle what they do and tell them you could have done it yourself, but you just couldn’t be bothered.
Don’t Let Them be Creative.
After the contract is signed and the project is started, surprise your designer will drawings you did of exactly what you want your website to look like and send them screenshots of sites you want to copy. Tell them you’re not interested in their input or design ideas, and that you just want them to “make” exactly what you sent them — and be sure they know it shouldn’t be hard or take much time because you’re just copying other sites.
Disrespect Boundaries.
Email and call your designer over and over until you get them to answer, even if it’s more than 10 times in on hour. Make outrageous demands that they work over the weekend or in the middle of the night without extra compensation and expect that they will respond to your emails 24/7/365 — and when they don’t throw a huge temper tantrum and threaten them.
Never Respond or Say Thank You.
When your designer sends you design drafts, website proofs, or other materials, don’t respond for days or weeks — don’t even acknowledge that they did the work for you. When you ask them to do something for you, never say thank you and just demand more.

Some of the items listed above are deal breakers, like “Don’t let them be creative” — that may drive your designer to their grave with one infraction!

Other tips aren’t as big of a deal, so you may have to do a few of them in a short time span to really make them effective and drive your designer to take up a violent sport.

Are you a designer who has been treated this way? Are you a business owner whom has learned a thing or two? Did I simply make you laugh? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

The post 7 Ways To Alienate Your Designer & Go From Client to Contract appeared first on Bourn Creative.

Want a Design Job? 9 Tips to Get Hired at a Creative Agency

Jennifer Bourn — Mon, 06 May 2013 16:00:55 +0000

When I graduated with my degree in graphic design from Sacramento State University, California, finding the job I wanted was tough.

I worked mostly full-time through college for an amazingly talented woman with 3 children who owned an advertising agency she ran out of her home (Hint: Inspiration for starting Bourn Creative). By the time I graduated, I had completed four internships and several intern/student projects — yes, I’ve always been a driven, over-achiever.

Upon graduation I wanted to work at a big agency, I dreamed of working my way up the agency ladder to Creative Director — and I was willing to do the work to make it happen. Then reality hit. I began looking for a job in my last semester of college. I researched the creative companies in and around Sacramento, researched who was hiring, researched who their clients, were, what their mission, was, what they stood for and represented. I figured out who I wanted to work for and why … then I applied.

I applied at agencies whose culture I identified with, companies whose values aligned with mine, companies that were doing awesome things:

I didn’t write a single cookie-cutter, fill-in-the-blank, impersonal, cover letter
I took the time to get to know the companies so I could have intelligent conversation about how I would fit in
I knew WHY I wanted to work there and it was about the company, not about me being a motivated, self starter with mad design skills who enjoys working under pressure in a team environment
I followed the application instructions to the letter

I got shut down several times. In fact, one agency owner I really respected at THE place to work in town, actually crushed me, but that’s a story for another post.

Luckily, before I graduated, I got recruited to work for a local publishing company, and while there was offered a position at a Sacramento PR firm. Then in 2005 I founded Bourn Creative and today …

Bourn Creative is Rapidly Growing

Today I am proud to say Bourn Creative — with small business and entrepreneurial clients in several countries around the world including the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South America, The United Kingdom, Holland, Germany, and Europe — is busier than ever.

And we’re looking to expand our team!

Before we post position details publicly, I shared the opportunities in a few design/dev groups, and while one or two inquires look promising, the rest drove me to write this blog post, in hopes it will help them land a different opportunity — one that’s a better fit — in the future.

9 Tips On How to Get Hired at A Creative Agency

Follow the instructions included in the job posting exactly.
The instructions are there for a reason, and assume that one of those reasons is to see if you can follow instructions. If you don’t follow the instructions, it is likely your application, resume, and portfolio won’t even be looked at.

Example: If the instructions say to email your application and includes an email address, email them using that email address. A private Facebook message is not an email. A LinkedIn InMail message is not an email.

Read the position requirements carefully.
An employer is looking for someone with a specific skill set and carefully crafted the job description and requirements list because that is what they are looking for. If you don’t have the skills needed, or meet the requirements, don’t apply — you’re wasting their time and your own.

Example: If the job description requires web design experience, don’t submit a resume void of web design experience, or a portfolio with no web design projects in it. Likewise, if the position requires knowledge of WordPress and you’ve never used it, this isn’t going to a position you should apply for.

Do your homework and get to know the company.
Employers can tell when you’re just blanketing every job posting with the same cookie cutter, half-baked, generic response. Sometimes I look at an application and wonder if they even know what we do. If you want to be noticed and taken seriously as a candidate, you need to get to know the company you are trying to land a position with. Comb through their website, read their blog, check them out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+.

Example: There’s a good chance your application will hit the trash if your cover letter is generic and not tailored to the company and if it is impersonal. If you can’t show your prospective employer that you “get” them, that you understand their business, and that you understand the industry, you’re toast. Make it personal, relevant, and worth their time to review.

Think like a marketer and know it’s not about you.
Marketers understand that consumer don’t want to hear you talk about yourself all day, they want to hear and talk about themselves. Stop using “I” and start using “You.” When writing to a prospective employer, instead of focusing all of your communication on you, focus it on the company. You need to know why you think they are awesome, what resonates with you about their message, approach, culture, etc., and/or what you particularly admire. Then show them you understand their problem (why they need to hire) and deliver the solution (you).

Example: Don’t be afraid to not talk about yourself all the time in your cover letter, portfolio, and resume. Ironically the less you make it about you, the more success you’ll have. Remember, talent is talent and a skill can be taught, but your mindset, and approach, your desire to learn and grow, your passion and desire, and your ability to serve the team and the clients well is where you really set yourself apart.

Write a killer personal message — always no matter what.
The days of the old “why I’m so great” impersonal, jargon and buzzword-filled, template cover letters are over. Telling me you’re a team player that thrives in a deadline-oriented creative environment, or writing that your skills with the Adobe Creative Suite and your desire to learn will be a benefit to our company aren’t going to win you anything but a yawn. Instead, opt for a personal, heartfelt letter or message to the employer about WHY you want to work for them, why you’re passionate about what you do, and why you think you’d be a good fit. (HINT: Use the information from the previous tip in your letter)

Example: Your certificates, degrees, credentials, and experience are important. But not as important as your understanding of what your prospective employer does, who they serve, and how you’ll fit in. Again, think like a marketer and first deliver the be

Check your social profiles and Google yourself.
Potential employers will google you to see what comes up and how you’re presenting yourself in the world. Most will search for you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and the more tech savvy will also search for you on Google+, Pintrest, and Instagram.

Example: If a Google search for your name results in photos of you half naked, drunk, flipping off the camera, or returns other inappropriate content, clean that mess up. If your social feeds are littered with profanity, negativity, and complaining, or show you bashing your current employer, your industry, or your peers, you’ll be viewed as a high risk — a liability to the brand and you won’t get the job.

Have an awesome portfolio site that’s easy to use.
When design is what you do, or code is your specialty, your site better be stellar — it needs to be a showcase of what you can do, your style of work, and the quality your clients and employers can expect. You wouldn’t show up to an interview unshowered and looking like a slob (I hope), so do let your website show up that way either. Every detail needs to be considered and thought out. The code needs to be immaculate. And it better look great and be easy to use on a mobile phone. Your personal site is the center of how your personal brand shows up in the world, and it says a lot about who you are as a human and as a designer.

Example: There is no excuse for a designer’s site to have broken links, typos, poorly written code, and bad graphics. Likewise, if your site is broken on a smart phone or tablet and the content or portfolio can’t be viewed, or there are glaring errors in the responsive design, fix it immediately. It’s better to have a non-responsive site, than one that doesn’t work and looks bad — especially if you’re a designer. Remember, your site doesn’t have to be super advanced or complicated, but it does need to be clean and it needs to work. It’s more than okay so say, “I don’t have much experience with that yet, but I’m learning and here’s how.”

Don’t Be Lazy. Do the work.
No business owner wants to hire someone who is lazy, does the minimum acceptable, and missed deadlines — especially at a creative agency, where everything that leaves the office is a representation of the brand, their reputation, and the work they do. Creative agencies are looking for team members they can count on to get the job done no matter what. They are looking for designers and developers who have so much pride in their work that they’ll go above and beyond because their work is their reputation.

Example: Two quick paragraphs in an email do not replace a professional cover letter or personal letter of interest. That just shows the employer you didn’t care enough to put effort into trying to get the job. Remember, how you do anything is how you do everything. How you respond to a job posting will be judged. If you half-@ss trying to get the job, you demonstrate that you’ll half-@ss your work on the job.

Follow up and show you really want the job.
Agency life is crazy life, agency owners are crazy busy, and paying client work (and deadlines) will always come first. Show you really care about the opportunity and that you want the job. Follow up if you don’t hear back or receive a response and show your prospective employer you understand the power of persistency, follow up, and staying top of mind.

Example: Follow up doesn’t always have to be in the form of a phone call or email. If your prospective employer attends networking meetings or chamber events, volunteers at a non-profit, or you happy to see from their social feeds that they’ll be at a certain event, figure out how you can be in the same place, attend the same event, or go to the same networking meeting. Introduce yourself, start an interesting conversation, and let them know you applied for the position and are looking forward to hearing from them.

That’s It! 9 Tips on how to get hired as a designer or developer at a creative agency

If you follow the tips I’ve outlined below, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of the other designers and developers trying to land the same position — and if you ever apply for a position with us at Bourn Creative, you’ll know exactly what we’re looking for.

If you’re a graphic designer, web designer, developer, or a creative employer, or you’re a business owner or entrepreneur that hires freelancers, I’d love to hear what you think or some of your experiences in the comments below.

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One Profound Question That Can Drastically Improve Your Marketing

Jennifer Bourn — Thu, 02 May 2013 00:47:41 +0000

I’ll bet you started your business to follow a passion, to do something you love, or to create your own future.

And yet, marketing is what you find yourself wrapped up in all the time.

After all, you need leads, clients, and customers, and no one can hire you, buy from you, or learn from you if they don’t know that you exist!

Why Marketing Is So Hard

You’re good at what you do. You know it. In fact, you’re brilliant at what you do. But unfortunately, for most of us marketing isn’t what you do best.

You probably don’t have a marketing or business degree
You didn’t run a corporate marketing department in a past life
You probably don’t have a background in marketing and sales
You more than likely weren’t a salesperson in your past life

But now that you have a business, you are forced to market it. You have to get in front of your audience and be seen. You need consumers to know about your business and want to buy from you. You need to persuade consumers to buy from you and tell their friends about you.

Marketers Selling Marketing

Now that you know you need to market your business, you look online for help. You want to know:

How do you market your business?
How can you leverage social media to get new clients?
How can you make more sales by blogging?
How do you get more people to your website?
How do you get people to click the buy button, fill out your contact form, or opt-in?

And you find and endless supply of information — you find the marketers selling marketing. You’re reading, watching videos, and listening to audios about everything you should be doing and why you should be doing it.

You’re not really learning how to do anything, you’re getting overwhelmed by all the information, you’re wondering why everyone sounds the same, and why some of the information is conflicting — and you’re not sure which information is right or wrong, now or old, true or false.

Then You Learn About Marketing With Benefits

Then just as you’re at your wit’s end, you come across an awesome expert with a clear article that makes everything seem so much simpler than you thought. You read a few of their blog posts and you start to feel better. (There are actually a lot of great bloggers who don’t just regurgitate content)

You get a few solid nuggets of wisdom you can implement, and you learn all about marketing with benefits not features — that consumers want to know all about how your product, program, or service will help them. They want to know why they should care and what’s in it for them.

So you focus on determining the benefits of what you’re selling. You maybe ask some of your friends or family members, or even ask a few customers or clients. All the while thinking to yourself, this sounded a lot easier than it is.

Then you finally have it. You have a list of the benefits of your offer and you show them to a friend of your who is in marketing — and she tells you these aren’t really compelling benefits.

And you’re crushed. Back to the drawing board you go.

One Profound Marketing Question

Then you a blog post like this one, and you learn the one simple, yet profound marketing question that will drastically improve your marketing. The one question that will help you drill down the big, emotional, juicy benefits that will transform your marketing from ho-hum to hooray!

Are you ready? Here’s the question:

And the result of that is?

That’s it. That’s the question. To create the most effective marketing messages that speak right to the big emotions of your ideal clients, all you need to be able to do is ask and answer this question.

The key is to keep asking it until you can’t ask it any more.

Here’s how it works:

Write down a feature of the product, program, or service you are selling
Ask, And the result of that is?
Write down the result of having the feature
Then ask, And the result of that is?
Write down the benefits of the result
Then ask, And the result of that is?
Write down the added benefit
Keep asking, And the result of that is? until you have no answers left to give
Use the big emotional benefits in your marketing

Here’s an example:

Feature: Simple healthy recipes
And the result of that is? Cook at home more
And the result of that is? Eat better and family would be healthier
And the result of that is? Kids would learn to make healthy choices
And the result of that is? Lose weight and feel better
And the result of that is? Have more energy
And the result of that is? Get out of the house more with family
And the result of that is? More time having fun with family
And the result of that is? Create more memories

Do you see how simple it was to go from a boring feature to more emotional benefits?

Where it gets even more interesting is when you go through this process with your ideal clients and get them to answer the question And the result of that is? — they will tell you exactly what the big benefits are naturally!

With this one simple, profound question, you can easily and quickly improve your marketing messages and create powerful calls to action that convert.

Try it, and let me know what you think!

The post One Profound Question That Can Drastically Improve Your Marketing appeared first on Bourn Creative.

WordPress Web Design: Four New Genesis WordPress Sites Live

Jennifer Bourn — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:42:59 +0000

With business events, entrepreneurial conferences, software conferences, our local Sacramento WordPress Meetup group, and a few WordCamps, Brian and I have been traveling a lot the past few months. Then when you throw in all our normal client work, and running our own business, things get a little crazy and the hours behind our computers get a little long.

Luckily we LOVE what we do — and we LOVE the Internet.

In the past four weeks, we have taken four different Genesis WordPress sites live — Cool right?! Here they are:

Write to Incite — Custom, Responsive, Genesis WordPress Theme Design

Write to Incite is a San Diego-based consultancy specializing in digital content strategy and online copywriting. Michele Richardson and her team develop clear, results-oriented content for your website, blog, email, social media, mobile and more.

Michele hired Bourn Creative to design a custom WordPress site powered by the Genesis Framework that was completely responsive, as well as her social media design and email newsletter design. Check out Write to Incite in our portfolio

Kailash Sozzani — Custom, Genesis WordPress Theme Design

Kailash Sozzani works with women entrepreneurs to empower and transform the way they look (color, clothes, hair,etc.), think (their beliefs) and feel about themselves (self-esteem). For Kailash, transforming the way they look on the outside to express who they are on the inside, gives them confidence and power to create the money, business, and life that they want.

Kailash hired Bourn Creative to design a custom WordPress Website (powered by the Genesis Framework), social media design, and ezine design. Check out Kailash’s site in our portfolio

Focus Property Management Group — StudioPress Theme Customization

Focus Property Management Group provides a wide range of property management services for communities and home owners associations. Their goal is to provide the financial oversight and management needed to ensure the investment in their members’ homes are protected, and the responsibilities of the Association are met within budget.

Focus PMG hired Bourn Creative to create a new website for the business by customizing an existing StudioPress WordPress theme. Check out their WordPress project in our portfolio

Kelly Roach Coaching — Custom, Genesis WordPress Theme Design

Kelly Roach is a rapid results expert and highly skilled time-compression coach. She teaches business leaders innovative business strategies to rapidly increase productivity and profits (often by 50% or more).

Kelly hired Bourn Creative to create a custom WordPress website (powered by the Genesis Framework), ezine design, social media design, speaker one sheet and form design, and the design of her free CD. Check out Kelly’s projects in our portfolio

Are you ready to seriously uplevel your online brand and website?

Our ideal clients usually have all the pieces of a successful online business in place already — the pieces just aren’t very good. Nor are they all working together to build one rock solid brand reputation.

They know that while what they have in place got them to where they are today, it isn’t going to get them where they want to go.

If this sounds like you, and you’re ready to step up your brand in a big way, contact us today to learn more about how we can help you transform your blah business presence into an extraordinary brand and create a WordPress website that works when you’re not working.

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Making Decisions Based On Where You’ve Been vs. Where You Want To Go

Jennifer Bourn — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:49:58 +0000

The ability to make decisions in business is critical to your success — as long as you’re using the right frame of reference, and frame of mind for your decision-making.

For the sake of this article, I’ll assume that you are not a business owner satisfied with the status quo, but an entrepreneur striving to improve, evolve, and grow.

The Wrong Decision-Making Mindset

There is a popular phrase often tossed around by business coaches: “What you focus on expands.”

With that belief in mind, one surefire way to stay where you are and stunt your business growth is to focus on the past — what has happened before, what was true before, what worked before — and let it hold you back.

Focusing on where you’ve been will result is staying where you are.

The same is true for your decision-making mindset. To move your business forward, continue to grow, and achieve your goals, it is imperative that you stop making decisions based on where you have been.

The Right Decision-Making Mindset

All of our clients have one thing in common: They know that what they have in place, while it has gotten them to where they are now, isn’t going to get them where they want to go.

They understand you must honor your journey and what has transpired in the past, but that you must not dwell on it.

They know that to move your business forward, continue to grow, and achieve your goals, you must focus on where you want to go, and who you will become when you get there, and you must make decisions in your business based on looking forward not looking back.

Growing Your Business & Improving Your Website

Each time you are making a decision in your business, you need to ask yourself, “Am I making this decision based on where I’ve been, or where I want to go?”

Now don’t get me wrong, you can’t ignore the past and everything you have learned, but you also can’t let fear and the past guide your actions. After all, if you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same result.

The same is true for your website.

Take a Look at Your Current Website

Review your current website and being as objective as possible, ask yourself:

“Does my website reflect where I’ve been or where I want to go?”
“Does my website represent who I was or who I want to become?”
“Does my website communicate my past or my future?”

If your answers align with the latter choices, congratulations. The reputation you are building is moving your business forward.

But, if your answers align with the first set of choices, the consumer perception of your brand and business may be working against you and making your marketing and sales more difficult. More than likely, for you, it is time for a brand up leveling and a website redesign.

Make The Decision Today

If you’re ready to make a decision based on where you want to be, and you’d like our support to create you a powerful, personal, profitable platform that will support you in achieving your biggest business goals, contact us today! I invite you to learn more about how we can help you transform your blah business presence into an extraordinary brand and create a WordPress website that works when you’re not working.

The post Making Decisions Based On Where You’ve Been vs. Where You Want To Go appeared first on Bourn Creative.

Start A Sales Conversation With Your Marketing Message

Jennifer Bourn — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:35:57 +0000

Recently I flew to LA for Thrive Live, Ali Brown’s Elevate member event. The two day event, was mainly taught by Elevate coaches James Roche, Joy Chudacoff, and Sue Painter (as Ali is very pregnant with twins!), and was focused on basic business concepts like your mission, your marketing message, and your business model.

One of those areas caused some serious grief and stress for many of the attendees… and the exact same thing causes several of our clients who are newer to business ownership to freak out a little. Can you guess which one it is?

It wasn’t understanding and communicating their mission, and it wasn’t choosing a business model.

It was figuring out a marketing message and how to communicate what you do in a way that is clear, easy to understand, and in alignment with your mission and values.

As I sat in the room, I couldn’t help but think that if this many business owners at this event were struggling with crafting their marketing message, then imagine how many others around the world are struggling with the same problem … Yikes!

Why is crafting a succinct, powerful marketing message so difficult?

A marketing message is simply a tool to open the door to a deeper conversation with someone — a tool to spark interest in prospects who may be ideal clients — a short 1-2 sentence story about who you serve, why you do what you do, what you do, and why you’re awesome.

But I think too many people, especially solopreneurs and new entrepreneurs, don’t realize it’s just a tool. Instead they think their marketing message has to be perfect right out of the gate, and that if they get it “just right” it will magically win them tons of new clients.

So they stress out, second-guess, critique, change, rewrite, freak out, second-guess themselves, and rewrite it some more. And what’s worse, they use “not having a marketing message” as an excuse to not take action. They wait to get out there, to network, to market their business because their message isn’t perfect.

A marketing message simply answers the question, “What do you do?”

As James shared with the group, it needs to be simple — not to abstract, to out there, or too clever. It must be clear, and in plain English so it is easy to understand.

The key to is to craft a simple message that comes from your gut, speaks from your heart, and communicates your mission. You need to know the emotional feeling you want to convey and what you want people to know about what you do.

A powerful marketing message that is heartfelt not only opens doors and starts conversations … It supports the sale. Your presence when communicating your marketing message, when sharing with someone what you do, matters. Your potential clients want to feel heard & understood. They want to know you have empathy, that you “get them.”.

Meet your prospects where they are

When crafting your marketing message, remember that the most effective message meets your prospects right where they are right now. When you share with them what you do, you need to speak right to the struggle or problem they are experiencing right now — not a big picture solution.

They have a complaint — something they are struggling with, frustrated with, or something they need to overcome or fix. Your job, and the job of your marketing message is to:

Let them know you understand their complaints, that you get them
Communicate the cause of their complaints, what’s the situation
Identify the real reason they are experiencing frustration, the root of the problem, and how you can help
Recommend a solution — the next steps to solve the problem
Share why this is a great solution, the benefits of solving the problem
If it sparks interest and they resonate with your message, have a deeper conversation

I know the list above can sound like a lot. You may even be thinking, “No one is going to want to listen to all that when they simply ask me, ‘So what do you do?’”

Trust me. I get it. I struggled with my marketing message a long time when I first started my business. But I didn’t let it stop me. I tried out different messages, different words, different approaches. I tested it at networking events, tweaked it, and changed it, until it finally clicked. And I learned …

Keep your marketing message simple, and change it up based on your audience.

You can cover all of the points above in a simple, clear marketing message and powerfully answer the question, “What do you do?” without launching into a long, overly-detailed, drawn out answer.

Here’s my quick 6-step formula to help you craft your marketing message — I call this formula my magic sentence:

I help [IDEAL CLIENT]
who are struggling with [COMPLAINT/SITUATION]
do/be/get/achieve [DESIRED SOLUTION]
so they can [BIG EMOTIONAL RESULT]
[DIFFERENTIATOR] (i.e. in only 7 days, without sacrificing foods they love, faster or easier)
even if [COMMON OBJECTION]. (i.e. nothing else has worked, you have no time, you think you can’t afford it)

Isn’t that a simple formula?!

Just plug in the details that are right for your business and practice it a lot. That way, next time you’re at a networking event, your marketing message will roll right off your tongue naturally and effortlessly.

And if you want to take it a step further, use these simple magic sentence formula “add-ons” to turn your magic sentence into a killer elevator pitch:

I do that through/by/with [WHAT YOU OFFER] (i.e. private coaching, group programs, speaking)
And my clients/customers/audiences often say [SOCIAL PROOF]
If you are interested in [NEXT STEPS] (i.e. learning more, achieving the same results)
I invite you to [ACTION TO TAKE NOW]

When you use the magic sentence formula combined with these add-ons, you’ll not only feel confident in speaking about what you do, but powerful in knowing that you sound like a true professional who knows exactly what you’re doing.

Now Don’t Forget to Take Action!

Knowledge is great, but not if you don’t take action! So craft your marketing message using my formula above and please share your completed message in the comments below.

The post Start A Sales Conversation With Your Marketing Message appeared first on Bourn Creative.

FREE Tone-on-Tone Scalloped Edge Circle Social Media Icons

Jennifer Bourn — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:01:15 +0000

Our scalloped edge circle social media icons are perfect for adding a feminine touch to your website without overdoing the “girly stuff.” And if you liked those, you’re going to love our tone-on-tone scalloped circle social media icons for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and RSS.

Plus, get them in 48 different colors, at 5 different sizes (32×32, 48×48, 64×64, 96×96, 125×125), all as transparent PNGs so you can use them on any color website background, with the HTML and CSS code to show you exactly how to use them and how to add a cool opacity effect on hover!

Colors included in the icon pack:

How to Use The Social Icons:

Not quite sure how to use these social media icons on your website?

Here is some basic HTML and CSS to help get you started after you upload the icon images to your website server:

Minimum HTML required to show and link the icons

HTML with title and alt tags for usability and SEO

HTML with title tag, alt tag, and CSS class to add a simple hover effect to icons

To create the hover effect add the following to your website or WordPress theme style.css file

/* Social Icons 
----------------------------------------------- */

a.social-icons {
	margin-right: 5px; /*Adjust This Value As Needed*/
}

a.social-icons:hover {
	opacity: .7;
	filter:alpha(opacity=70); /* For IE8 and earlier */
}

Complete example

If you want to use the social icons in a WordPress page or post, you will probably have to remove the line breaks between each HTML link as WordPress will sometimes automatically add breaks and put each icon on its own line instead of inline.

Complete example with line breaks removed

More Icon Packs & Design Resources!

Stay tuned! We’ll be releasing several additional icons packs shortly featuring different shapes — plus, we’ll be bringing you even more design resources. Until next time …

The post FREE Tone-on-Tone Scalloped Edge Circle Social Media Icons appeared first on Bourn Creative.

1680 FREE Scalloped Edge Circle Social Media Icons

Jennifer Bourn — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:58:11 +0000

It’s time to get fancy. In this free social media icon pack we combined the simplicity of the circle with a feminine scalloped edge to bring you what my daughter calls the “fancy circle” icon pack that adds just the right amount of femininity to your social media icons without overdoing it.

Get our scalloped circle icons for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and RSS in 48 different colors, at 5 different sizes (32×32, 48×48, 64×64, 96×96, 125×125), all as transparent PNGs so you can use them on any color website background *#8212; and get the HTML and CSS code to show you exactly how to use them and how to add a cool opacity effect on hover!

Colors included in the icon pack:

How to Use The Social Icons:

Not quite sure how to use these social media icons on your website?

Here is some basic HTML and CSS to help get you started after you upload the icon images to your website server:

Minimum HTML required to show and link the icons

HTML with title and alt tags for usability and SEO

HTML with title tag, alt tag, and CSS class to add a simple hover effect to icons

To create the hover effect add the following to your website or WordPress theme style.css file

/* Social Icons 
----------------------------------------------- */

a.social-icons {
	margin-right: 5px; /*Adjust This Value As Needed*/
}

a.social-icons:hover {
	opacity: .7;
	filter:alpha(opacity=70); /* For IE8 and earlier */
}

Complete example

Complete example with line breaks removed

More Icon Packs & Design Resources!

Stay tuned! We’ll be releasing several additional icons packs shortly featuring different shapes — plus, we’ll be bringing you even more design resources. Until next time …

The post 1680 FREE Scalloped Edge Circle Social Media Icons appeared first on Bourn Creative.

Genesis SEO Settings Guide

Brian Bourn — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:37:47 +0000

At Bourn Creative, we build our custom designed WordPress websites exclusively on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress.

The reasons behind our choice to develop our custom themes on the Genesis Framework are numerous, but a few we often highlight are that the Genesis Framework is very flexible/customizable, coded extremely well, and has been built with SEO as a priority (SEO — the art and science of being found online through organic search).

After all, a beautifully designed website means nothing if consumers and search engines can’t find you.

Genesis already has most SEO requirements built into the framework. As a result, a separate WordPress SEO plugin isn’t necessary, which means one less plugin to manage, and keep updated.

Guide & Instructions for the Genesis SEO Settings

The following settings are found after clicking SEO Settings under Genesis in the left column of the WordPress Dashboard.

Doctitle Settings

These are site-wide settings that affect the HTML Doctitle (also known as SEO Title or Title Tag) of every WordPress page and post. Doctitles are very important for both search robots and real people. They are often the blue clickable link in Google’s search results and are what is usually displayed in browser tabs and favorites lists.

The general rule for Doctitles is to limit them to around 65 characters, including spaces. If your title is longer, the remaining text usually gets cut off and ellipses are shown in the search results. Hence the recommendation to have your site title appended to the right of the doctitle — so it gets cut off before the main title of your page or post will.

Append Site Description to Doctitle on homepage — Inserts the site description from the WordPress General Settings after the title on your home page. We usually uncheck this box and suggest writing the complete homepage title in the settings below (if you have your blog on the home page or are using a completely widgetized homepage template), or on the actual home page in the WordPress editor (if you are using a standard WordPress page as your homepage).

Append Site Name to Doctitle on inner pages — Adds the site name from the WordPress General Settings after the title on inner pages and posts. We usually check this box.

Doctitle (HTML title) Append Location — Determines which side of the SEO title to add the site name or description. Most SEO experts agree that if you append the page/post titles with the site name it should go the right of the separator (example: Custom WordPress Themes & Graphic Design | Bourn Creative).

Doctitle (HTML title) Separator — The character that goes between the title and appended text. The Genesis default is a dash, but I personally like to use a pipe (the vertical line above the enter key on your keyboard).

Homepage Settings

These are the homepage specific SEO settings if your blog is on the front page of your site or if your homepage template uses only widgets. These settings will not apply if a static page is set as the front page.

If your site is set to use a static WordPress page as your homepage, you will need to set the SEO settings on that particular page. SEO Settings for individual pages & posts can be found later in this post.

Which text would you like to be wrapped in H1 (Heading 1) tags? — For a blog on the homepage or a widgeted homepage, we usually check the box Site Description or add an H1 tag manually within a text widget, depending on the site’s design.

Home Doctitle — Only used on this screen if your site has the blog on the homepage or uses a widgeted homepage template.

Home META Description — Also only used on this screen if your site has the blog on the homepage or uses a widgeted homepage template. A meta description will appear in the source code markup of your page or post, but like the Doctitle, it isn’t visible to people viewing your site. The general rule for meta descriptions is to limit them to around 155 characters and don’t just use them to stuff keywords. Write one really good, descriptive sentence about the homepage. Some search engines will show your meta description as the two lines of black text that shows below the clickable link in the search results.

Home META Keywords — The meta keywords tag is generally ignored by search engines so our recommendation is to not worry about or waste your time with them. This is not meant to be confused with the actual on-page keywords you use in your page content.

Homepage Robots Meta Tags — These checkboxes tell search engines how to handle the homepage. Noindex tells search engines not to index the page and not to include it in search results pages listings. Nofollow tells search engines not follow any any links from this page. Noarchive tells search engines not to make an archive copy of the page. Unless you are creating a private site, leave these unchecked.

Document Head Settings

Relationship Link Tags — These are tags added by WordPress that currently have no SEO value but can have an impact on how fast your site loads. They are disabled by default, but if you have a specific need for a plugin or other non typical use, you can enable them as needed here.

Windows Live Writer Support — Applicable only if you use software that supports this. Otherwise leave unchecked.

Shortlink Tag — Check this if required by any third party service you are using. Otherwise leave unchecked.

Robots Meta Settings

Noindex is explained in the home settings above. Here you can select what other parts of the site to apply these options to.

At least one of your archives should be indexed, but indexing multiple archives will typically result in a duplicate content penalty by the search engines. There is frequent debate in the SEO world of what archive to have indexed so there is no clear answer on this one. For the majority of our clients who are running 1-2 author blogs, we usually set the category archives to be indexed.

It’s also usually best to leave the noodp (No Open Directory) and the noydir (No Yahoo Directory) options checked so those tags are added the HTML of your pages and posts.

Archives Settings

Canonical Paginated Archives — Canonical links will point search engines to the front page of paginated content (content spanning multiple pages). This tells search bots that “this is paged content and the first page starts here”. It also helps to avoid spreading keywords across multiple pages. It’s generally good practice to leave this box checked.

Individual Page & Post Genesis SEO Settings

Besides the site wide SEO settings and home page settings from above (if your site has the blog on the home page or has a fully widgeted home page template), each page and post will have their own SEO settings visible when you are in the WordPress post/page editor for that particular page or post.

Theme SEO Settings

Custom Document Title — Same general rules as Doctitle from above, but here you get a nice character counter to let you know when you get close to the 65-70 limit.

Custom Post/Page Meta Description — Same as explained above and you also get the nifty counter to let you know when you are around 155.

Custom Post/Page Keywords — Don’t waste your time with these, most search engines don’t pay attention to this.

Custom Canonical URI — No sense in explaining this, just read this www.mattcutts.com/blog/canonical-link-tag/

Custom Redirect URI — No sense in explaining this either, just read this article from Google

Robots Meta Settings — For pages you want search engines to index leave these unchecked. For thank you pages, confirmation pages, download pages, etc. — those pages you don’t want to show up in the search listings — we typically check noindex and nofollow.

Custom Tracking/Conversion Code — This is where you can paste code from certain software vendors to track conversions or sales. By default it is empty.

Category & Tag Archive Genesis SEO Settings

Each category and tag archive on a Genesis based site will have its own SEO settings as well as a few important content options that may impact your SEO. These are a little harder to find. You can access the settings two ways; when viewing a category or tag while logged into WordPress you can click the Edit link in the black admin bar or go to Categories or Tags under Posts in the WordPress Dashboard and then click edit on the category or tag you want to add options to.

Archive Headline — Here you can add a headline for the individual category or tag archive. When you add a headline here it will be added as an H1 (heading 1) on the archive page.

Archive Intro Text — Here you can add a short description as an introduction to the category or tag archive. Both the Archive Headline and Archive Intro Text will be shown at the top of the first page of the particular archive.

With our custom designs, we usually target the Archive Headline to be a different size and color of the post headlines below and will often apply italic font styling or other design styles to the Archive Intro Text to separate it from the post content below.

Theme SEO Settings — Here you can add a Custom Document Title, Meta Description, and override the Robots Meta archive settings from the main Genesis SEO settings menu. This allows you to add noindex, nofollow, or noarchive to a category or tag archive if you have those options unchecked in the general SEO settings. By default your archives indexation rules will follow what you have set in the general settings.

Author Archive Genesis SEO Settings

The final Genesis SEO settings option is for the author archives that are automatically created by WordPress. You can access the author SEO settings by going to Users in the WordPress Dashboard and either selecting Your Profile or All Users then edit for the author you want to change.

On this screen you have the same options as the category and tag archives to display an Intro Headline and Intro Text, add a doctitle, meta description, and indexation rules; but you also have additional options to show the Author Box on individual blog posts and/or author archives. The author box will pull your Gravatar image and the content you add in the Biographical Info box under About Yourself in the same user profile screen.

Wrapping It Up

As you can tell, the Genesis SEO options and settings are very comprehensive, and they provide you with multiple options. It’s important to remember that SEO is an ongoing task of maintaining a site and your site’s SEO should be monitored and adjusted over time.

SEO Nerd Bonus!

How to Add Google Authorship to your WordPress site

The post Genesis SEO Settings Guide appeared first on Bourn Creative.

FREE Tone-on-Tone Flower Shaped Social Media Icons

Jennifer Bourn — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:40:59 +0000

Let’s continue the girly icons!

If you liked our original flower social media icon pack, you’re going to love our tone-on-tone flower social media icons for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and RSS that match your brand and your color palette for a more cohesive look.

Plus, get them in48 colors, at 5 different sizes (32×32, 48×48, 64×64, 96×96, 125×125), all as transparent PNGs so you can use them on any color website background.

And we’re giving you the HTML and CSS code to show you exactly how to use them and how to add a cool opacity effect on hover!

Colors included in the icon pack:

How to Use The Social Icons:

Not quite sure how to use these social media icons on your website?

Here is some basic HTML and CSS to help get you started after you upload the icon images to your website server:

Minimum HTML required to show and link the icons

HTML with title and alt tags for usability and SEO

HTML with title tag, alt tag, and CSS class to add a simple hover effect to icons

To create the hover effect add the following to your website or WordPress theme style.css file

/* Social Icons 
----------------------------------------------- */

a.social-icons {
	margin-right: 5px; /*Adjust This Value As Needed*/
}

a.social-icons:hover {
	opacity: .7;
	filter:alpha(opacity=70); /* For IE8 and earlier */
}

Complete example

Complete example with line breaks removed

More Icon Packs & Design Resources!

Stay tuned! We’ll be releasing several additional icons packs shortly featuring different shapes — plus, we’ll be bringing you even more design resources. Until next time …

The post FREE Tone-on-Tone Flower Shaped Social Media Icons appeared first on Bourn Creative.