Early on, the focus is simple: does the product work? You’re testing ideas, talking to customers, and figuring out what resonates.

At a certain point, that changes. The product is working. Customers are seeing value. You have momentum.

Now the focus shifts from proving the product to expanding how it reaches the market. There are more conversations. More customers. More people involved. You’re no longer discovering what works. You’re trying to apply what works more consistently.

That’s where things start to feel different.

You’re entering the early growth stage. What once felt clear in small conversations now needs to be translated across teams, audiences, and channels. It’s the next stage after Product-Market fit.

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What early growth fit looks like in practice

This stage shows up in practical ways.

Sales processes begin to take shape. Marketing expands across channels. Messaging appears in more places and formats. New hires join and bring their own interpretations. Roles become more specialized.

The company is moving from experimentation toward repeatability. But the brand hasn’t fully caught up yet.

Messaging isn’t always aligned. Positioning isn’t consistently understood across the organization. Different teams describe the product in slightly different ways.

The product is working, but the explanation of it isn’t always consistent.

Why does this stage create brand pressure?

What worked before was flexible, conversational, and often led by a small group or sometimes just the founder. Now, that same clarity needs to hold across the organization.

This is where brand maturity starts to matter.

It’s no longer enough to have a product that works. You need to translate that product capability into:

• Clear differentiation
• Messaging that can be used consistently across teams
• A narrative that works beyond early adopters

Where things start to break down

This is a natural transition. But without structure, things begin to scatter.

Messaging and visuals vary across teams. Sales and marketing are not always aligned. Different audiences hear different versions of the story.

Each version may make sense on its own. But together, they don’t always add up to a clear picture.

Expansion without clarity leads to fragmentation.

Common branding mistakes in go-to-market fit

Mistake 1: Assuming what worked in the past will continue to work

Early messaging that worked in smaller conversations and with early adopters doesn’t always translate across broader audiences. What once felt clear starts to feel inconsistent when applied in different contexts.

The problem here is that early adopters and mainstream buyers are often motivated by different things. Messaging that helped win your first customers may not be the same messaging that helps you reach the next group.

Mistake 2: Repeating the message without alignment

As more teams begin communicating the product, the same core message gets reused, but not always in the same way.

Sales adapts it for conversations. Marketing adjusts it for different audiences. The Product team explains it in their own terms. Everyone is working from the same general idea, but interpreting it differently.

Over time, those small adjustments create multiple versions of the message. It starts to feel familiar, but not consistent.

The issue isn’t adaptation. It’s the lack of a shared foundation guiding how the message should be used.

When prospects hear different explanations depending on who they talk to, confusion starts to replace clarity. Instead of reinforcing the same story, each interaction introduces a slightly different one.

Mistake 3: Increasing activity instead of improving clarity

Marketing expands. Sales activity increases. More people are talking about the product. But more activity creates more opportunities for things to fall out of alignment. Instead of reinforcing the brand, it starts to pull it apart.

The issue is that each team often develops its own way of communicating the product. Marketing creates messaging frameworks. Sales develops sales narratives. Product creates its own explanations. Without a shared lens, these efforts evolve independently. Consistency is lost, and teams can begin debating whose version of the story is correct rather than working from a common foundation.

The real challenge: growth without losing clarity

At this stage, the goal isn’t to lock everything down. You still need flexibility. But you also need enough structure to keep things aligned.

The challenge is not losing flexibility. It’s creating enough clarity that growth strengthens consistency instead of fragmenting it.

What strong teams do differently in early growth

Strong teams shift their focus during this stage. They’re no longer trying to figure out what the message is. They’re making sure it can be used consistently across the business. That usually means focusing on a few key areas.

Defining how the message should be used

It’s not just about what the message is. It’s about how it shows up in:

• Sales conversations
• Marketing campaigns
• Product explanations
• Customer interactions

This gives teams a shared starting point, even when the message needs to be adapted for different situations.

Creating consistency across teams

As more people communicate the product, alignment becomes more important. Strong teams make sure sales, marketing, leadership, and product teams are working from the same foundation. Consistency builds clarity over time.

Connecting messaging across touchpoints

Customers don’t experience your brand in one place. They see it across your website, sales conversations, content, product experience, onboarding, and support interactions.

Strong teams make sure those experiences feel connected rather than separate.

Introducing structure without overcomplicating things

This isn’t about building a massive brand system overnight. It’s about creating enough structure so:

• Teams don’t have to guess
• Messaging doesn’t drift
• New efforts reinforce the brand instead of fragmenting it

What you’re experiencing has a name: brand maturity lag

What you’re experiencing isn’t random. It’s a pattern that shows up in growing companies. This is brand maturity lag.

Your product has evolved. Your reach has expanded. But your brand clarity hasn’t fully caught up yet. That gap creates friction long before most companies recognize the cause.

Why this stage matters more than it seems

If left unaddressed, these issues compound over time. Small inconsistencies become larger problems. Messaging becomes harder to manage. Customers need more explanation, not less, creating additional work for teams across sales, marketing, and support.

Fixing it later becomes more difficult because more people, systems, and processes are involved. This is the stage where clarity starts to matter more than speed.

Want to understand what comes next and how to prepare for it?

Early growth is only one phase of brand development. As your business continues to evolve, your brand needs to evolve with it.

If you want to better understand:

• How branding changes across growth stages
• What to prioritize at each phase
• How to recognize brand maturity lag and avoid common missteps

Download the guide on brand maturity lag.

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Sometimes brand challenges don’t usually come from making the wrong decision. They come from making the right decision at the wrong time.

As a business grows, what the brand needs also changes. When that evolution falls out of sync, things start to feel harder than they should:

• Messaging gets less clear.
• Teams describe the company differently.
• Customers need more explanation, not less.

These are some of the most common branding mistakes, and they tend to show up at predictable stages of growth.

Recognizing these patterns early helps you avoid unnecessary complexity and focus on what actually needs to change.

Stage 1: Overbuilding the brand too early

One of the most common branding mistakes to avoid is investing too heavily in the brand before the foundation is clear. Early-stage companies often feel pressure to build:

• A full visual identity system
• Detailed brand guidelines
• A polished website

But if your positioning isn’t clear yet, those assets are built on unstable ground. At this Ideation stage, your priority should be:

• Understanding your market
• Clarifying your value
• Testing how your product is perceived

A simple, functional brand is enough. Depth comes later.

Stage 2: Treating product messaging as brand strategy

This is one of the most common branding mistakes in B2B brand positioning. Early on, feature-focused messaging can work. Technical buyers and early adopters are willing to dig into details.

But as you grow in the Product-Market fit stage, that approach starts to break down. Broader audiences don’t want to decode your product. They want to understand what it does for them. If your messaging stays focused on features:

• Your differentiation weakens
• Your value becomes harder to explain
• Sales conversations take longer

Strong brands translate features into outcomes. Not just what the product does, but what it changes for the customer.

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Stage 3: Allowing messaging to fragment during growth

In early growth stages, experimentation is expected. You test different messages, adjust based on feedback, and you learn what resonates.

But without alignment, that flexibility turns into fragmentation. Different teams describe the company in different ways. Marketing and sales aren’t always aligned. Customers hear different versions of the story.

This is one of the most common branding mistakes because it builds slowly and often goes unnoticed at first. Over time, it creates confusion and slows momentum.

Stage 4: Scaling execution without strategic alignment

As companies grow, activity increases. There are more campaigns, a need for more content, and you’re managing more channels. But more activity creates more opportunities for things to fall out of alignment.

If the underlying strategy isn’t aligned, scaling execution can amplify inconsistency instead of fixing it. You may see:

• A website that says one thing
• Sales decks that say another
• Campaigns that don’t connect back to a clear message

This is where many teams assume the issue is execution, when it’s actually alignment.

Stage 5: Assuming the brand is “done” at maturity

Reaching a certain level of maturity doesn’t mean your brand is finished. Markets change, and competitors often reposition. Meanwhile, new products are always being introduced, and audiences evolve.

Without ongoing attention, even strong brands start to lose clarity. This is one of the more subtle common branding mistakes to avoid, because things may still appear to be working. But over time, the brand becomes less effective and harder to manage.

The underlying pattern: brand maturity lag

Across every stage, the most common challenge isn’t branding itself. It’s timing.

Brand maturity lag happens when your business evolves faster than your brand. When your product grows, your audience expands, and your organization becomes more complex, but your brand doesn’t keep up.

When that happens:

• Decision-making slows down
• Messaging becomes inconsistent
• Teams compensate with an explanation

When your brand evolves alongside your business, things feel clearer:

• Your message is easier to communicate.
• Your positioning is easier to understand.
• Your growth feels more intentional.

Additional branding mistakes that can show up at any stage

Some branding mistakes aren’t tied to a specific stage. They can show up early or later as your business grows. These are some more common branding mistakes to avoid:

Testing visuals without strategic insight
It’s easy to compare logo options, color palettes, or design directions based on personal preference. But without a clear strategy behind the work, feedback becomes subjective. The question shouldn’t just be “Which one do we like?” It should be “Which one best reflects who we are, what makes us different, and who we need to reach?”

This is where structure helps. Our Branding Compass tool is designed to remove the guesswork by connecting your business identity and differentiation to visual direction so decisions are based on strategy, not preference.

Keeping messaging broad to avoid excluding potential customers.
This is one of the most common branding mistakes, especially early on. It feels safer to keep messaging broadly so you don’t exclude potential customers. But in practice, that approach weakens your positioning and differentiation.

When a brand tries to speak to everyone, it rarely resonates with anyone. In the early stages, focus matters more than reach. As you move into scaling and maturity, you can expand your audience, but that only works if your positioning is already clear.

A brand that doesn’t connect with the culture
When the brand doesn’t reflect how your team actually communicates or operates, it feels disconnected. Messaging becomes harder to maintain and less believable. Strong brands are aligned internally first.

Copying competitors instead of defining your place in the market
It’s natural to look at competitors when shaping your brand. But copying what others are doing creates a different problem. If your brand sounds like everyone else, your value becomes harder to explain, and buyers have fewer reasons to choose you. 

Competitor research should help you understand the landscape, not define your direction. You want your brand to reflect what makes your business unique, not what’s already familiar.

Want to go deeper?

Most branding issues aren’t isolated problems. They’re signals that your business has reached a new stage and your brand hasn’t caught up yet.

The goal isn’t to get everything right from the start. It’s to recognize when something needs to change and make the right adjustments at the right time.

If you’re trying to understand what your brand needs at your current stage or what comes next, we’ve put together a guide to help.

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The post Common Branding Mistakes Across Growth Stages appeared first on Visible Logic.

There’s a moment when things start to work. Customers are signing up, some are sticking, and you’re getting real feedback.

It feels like progress.

But at the same time, things feel messy. Some customers convert easily, while others don’t. Your messaging changes depending on who you’re talking to. Your team describes the product in slightly different ways.

You’re gaining traction, but you’re also seeing where things don’t quite line up yet.

That’s product-market fit.

What SaaS product-market fit looks like in practice

At this stage, the product is working, but it’s not fully clear why it works for some customers and not others.

In practice, that usually shows up in a few ways:

• Customers understand the value, but don’t always convert
• One audience shows strong interest, while another doesn’t
• The same feature resonates in one conversation but falls flat in the next

When you step back, this often points to a few underlying issues:

• You may not have the right customer group yet
• You may be highlighting the wrong features
• Or you haven’t fully connected the product to the problem it solves

You’re getting feedback and making improvements.

But your positioning is still forming. Your messaging shifts depending on the audience, your visuals aren’t fully defined, and you’re still testing who your product is really for.

This is normal at this stage.

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Why branding feels inconsistent during product-market fit

At this stage, branding often feels like it’s all over the place. That’s because there’s tension between product clarity and brand clarity.

Right now, the goal is to get clarity on the product, then brand clarity comes later. Therefore, teams do what they need to do to move forward:

• They rely on features to explain the product.
• They adjust messaging in real time based on who they’re talking to.
• They test different ways of describing the same thing.

Each audience responds to something different. Early adopters tend to understand the product quickly, but the broader market doesn’t.

And that’s where inconsistency starts to show.

What most SaaS teams miss after reaching the Validation stage

Getting to this stage is a big step, but it’s also where new problems start to show up.

Mistake 1: Treating product validation as positioning clarity

Just because the product works doesn’t mean your positioning is clear. You may know it delivers value, but you may not yet know how to explain that value consistently.

Mistake 2: Leading with features instead of outcomes

Features are easy to talk about, but customers don’t buy features. They buy results.

That’s why benefit selling matters. If your messaging stays focused on features, it becomes harder for new customers to understand why your product matters.

Mistake 3: Letting messaging evolve without alignment

At this stage, messaging changes constantly, and that’s expected. But if there’s no shared direction, those changes start to pull things apart:

• Different team members describe the product differently.
• Sales conversations vary.
• Marketing experiments don’t build on each other.

Over time, this creates confusion instead of clarity.

The hidden risk during SaaS product-market fit

What works in this stage doesn’t always scale. Feature-heavy messaging can help you get early traction, but it starts to break down as you grow.

You’ll start to see:

• Weaker differentiation
• Longer sales cycles
• More time spent explaining the product

Instead of clarity, you get more explanation.

This is also when brand maturity lag becomes more visible. Your product is evolving quickly, but your brand hasn’t caught up yet.

What strong SaaS leaders focus on during validation 

The goal isn’t to “perfect the brand” at this stage. It’s to build the foundation for clarity. Strong teams focus on:

Clarifying the right customer

Who gets the most value from your product?
Who understands it fastest?
Who is easiest to convert?

That’s where your focus should go.

Turning features into outcomes

Start with what the product does.
Translate that into benefits.
Then connect those benefits to real outcomes.

Not just what the product is, but what it changes for the customer.

Creating shared language

Your team should be able to describe the product in a similar way. Not scripted, but aligned. This makes sales conversations smoother and marketing more consistent.

Preparing for scale

You don’t need a fully developed brand system yet, but you should start thinking about:

• How your messaging will hold up as you grow
• How new customers will understand your product
• How future products might fit in

When product-market fit is not enough 

As you grow, things get more complex. You hire more people, expand your audience, and add new features or products.

The inconsistency that was manageable early on becomes harder to ignore. Messaging starts to fragment, teams drift in different directions, and customers need more explanation, not less.

This is when alignment becomes critical.

How a tech brand should evolve beyond product-market fit

Product-market fit is an important stage, but it’s only one stage. Your brand needs to evolve as your business enters the early growth stage (Go-to-Market Fit). What worked when you were testing and learning won’t always work when you’re scaling.

At some point, you need to:

• Define your positioning more clearly
• Align your messaging across teams
• Build a system that supports growth

That shift doesn’t happen automatically. It needs to be intentional.

Want to go deeper?

If you’re starting to see these challenges, or want to get ahead of them, we’ve put together a guide that breaks down how branding needs to evolve as your company grows.

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The post Branding During the SaaS Product-Market Fit Stage appeared first on Visible Logic.

Naming a SaaS product is one of those decisions that seems simple at the start. You pick a name, move on, and focus on building and selling.

But that name doesn’t just live on your homepage. It shows up in sales conversations, product demos, pricing pages, and customer support. And over time, it starts to shape how people understand your product and your brand.

This is where small decisions early on, like in the ideation stage, can create bigger challenges later.

Naming a SaaS product isn’t just about what works today. It’s about choosing something that will still make sense as your business grows.

Every SaaS brand starts with both a company brand and a product name

Most SaaS companies launch with a single product.

At that stage, the company name and the product name are often the same, or at least used interchangeably. There isn’t much need to separate them yet. That’s normal.

But this is also the moment where early naming decisions start to matter more than they seem. Should you use one name for both? Or should you separate them from the start?

Either approach can work. What matters is that you think about where this could go.

If your business grows beyond one product, will this naming approach still make sense?

Will it be clear how new products fit in? Or will you have to rethink everything later?

You don’t need to solve your entire brand structure on day one. But you should avoid decisions that make things harder to untangle as you grow.

SaaS product naming vs company naming: what’s the difference?

Your company name and your product names do different jobs, but they should work together to communicate a cohesive brand.

A company name:

• Is more connected to the people and team
• Is used for legal purposes and is therefore more visible to investors
• Represents your reputation
• Signals your positioning in the market
• Can (and often should) carry meaning and value

A SaaS product name:

• Is customer-facing
• Clarifies what the product is or does
• Helps customers navigate your offering
• Reinforces your brand, not competes with it

The first question is to determine if you need separate product and company names. 

The benefit of keeping them as one:

• One brand
• One trademark
• One domain name

The drawbacks of keeping the company and software product name as one:

• The brands serve different purposes
• Challenges when you expand from one product to two

In this blog, we’re going to focus on what makes the strongest product name. If you’re using the same name for both, keep in mind some of these drawbacks. 

If you’re earlier in your journey and still working through how to ideally name your organization, that’s a different process with a different set of considerations. Learn more about how to name a startup, because your company name helps set the foundation. Your product name system is what builds upon it. 

The biggest mistake: not thinking strategically about brand naming

When you’re a startup, you’re focused on getting your SaaS launched into the marketplace. You’re developing the right features, calculating a successful business model, and finding product-market fit. 

Your name is the most visible part of your brand and can support or detract from all of this work.

But don’t forget that when you’re successful, your brand will be an asset that grows with your business. You may eventually introduce additional products. Or, you may have proprietary solutions and features that get named.

It’s important that your name meets your short-term needs, but don’t be short-sighted.

Name for clarity, not cleverness

In early-stage companies, clever names feel like a shortcut to differentiation.

But in SaaS, clarity almost always wins. If a prospect hears your product name and has to ask, “Wait… what does that do?”

You’ve already introduced friction into the buying process.

A strong SaaS product name doesn’t need to explain everything, but it should anchor the conversation in the right direction and build upon the brand system it lives in. When a product name feels disconnected from the brand, consumers see:

• Products that sound like they could belong to different companies
• Messaging that feels inconsistent
• A growing need to “re-explain” your offering

This can turn into a brand problem. 

Naming a suite of products

Whether at the start or later in your business development, you will likely consider adding additional products.

Start with the naming structure and the role your product plays

Before naming anything, define the structure that product names need to follow. You’ll want to consider:

• How should the products relate to each other?
• Do we want consistent naming conventions?
• How will this scale as we add more offerings?

This could look like:

• A modifier system tied to your core brand: Your brand stays central with consistent modifiers to differentiate the product.
  Example: BrandName Analytics, BrandName Insights, BrandName Engage
• A category-based structure that reflects product roles: Products are named based on what they do, using a shared language system across the suite.
  Example: Analytics, Reporting, Automation
• A naming framework that balances clarity with brand tone: Names are descriptive enough to guide understanding, but still reflect your brand’s voice and positioning.
  Example: Pulse (real-time monitoring), Flow (workflow automation), Signal (alerts and insights)

A defined naming structure eliminates the need to reinvent the wheel with every new product and prevents your brand from drifting over time. With that structure in place, the next step is to define the product’s role within your ecosystem before exploring name options.

Ask:

• Is this your core platform?
• A feature turned into a product?
• A premium add-on?
• A standalone tool?
• How will this scale as we add more offerings?

Because the name should reflect its role, not just its functionality.

For example:

• Core platforms often benefit from broader, scalable names
• Add-ons or modules may need descriptive or system-based naming
• Tools designed for specific use cases can be more functional and direct

Without this clarity, naming becomes subjective and usually inconsistent. 

Keep your product name a part of your brand system

Product naming should never require you to reinvent your brand. It should extend it. That means your SaaS product name should:

• Fit your tone of voice
• Align with your positioning
• Support your visual and verbal identity
• Make sense alongside current and future offerings

If your product name feels like a departure from your brand, it creates barriers internally and externally. Teams will describe the product differently, and customers don’t connect the name back to your brand. Strong SaaS brands don’t just have good names. They also have cohesive naming systems.

There’s a common assumption that you have to choose between a name that’s clear and a name that’s on brand. In fact, the strongest product names do both. They anchor understanding quickly and reinforce how the brand shows up. 

Product naming for scale: think beyond this launch

A name might work today but create problems later, especially as you enter the scaling stage of your business. 

Common issues:

• It’s too narrow for future expansion
• It doesn’t fit with additional products
• It forces awkward naming patterns as you grow

Good product naming anticipates:

• New features becoming products
• New products entering the ecosystem
• The need for consistency across everything

You’re not just naming a product. You’re shaping how your product suite will evolve. Companies like Apple don’t approach product naming as one-off decisions.

There’s a clear, repeatable system, for example, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac, and iTunes. These product names reinforce the brand while making each product instantly recognizable. That consistency isn’t accidental. It’s part of their product naming system.

Product names should make your SaaS brand stronger, not hard to manage

When product naming is done well:

• Your offering is easier to understand
• Your messaging stays consistent
• Your brand scales without loss of momentum

When it’s done in isolation:

• Things feel disconnected
• Teams compensate with long explanations
• And the brand becomes harder to manage over time

This isn’t about finding the perfect name, but building a system where every name works together. Salesforce uses a clear naming structure across products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Marketing Cloud, making it immediately obvious how each offering fits within the larger ecosystem.

HubSpot is another great example that uses a structured naming system (Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub) that allows the brand to grow without becoming harder to understand. 

Need help with a naming system that scales and more?

At Visible Logic, we help SaaS companies move beyond one-off naming decisions and create strong brand systems that support long-term growth.

Whether you’re naming something new or trying to bring consistency to an existing product suite, the goal is the same: build a system that holds up as you scale.

Explore our past work and branding case studies to see how we’ve helped companies, from early-stage startups defining their brand to established businesses revitalizing and realigning their brand marketing.

Is Your Brand Keeping Pace with Your Growth?

As your company grows, your brand can quickly fall out of sync across messaging, visuals, and how you show up in the market.

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The post How to Name a SaaS Product (and Why it’s Different From Naming Your Startup) appeared first on Visible Logic.

Early-stage tech startups operate in a state of constant motion, especially while still defining problem-solution fit. The product is evolving. The ideal customer profile is changing. Hiring decisions carry disproportionate weight. Investor conversations demand clarity before the company fully has it.

In this environment, branding often feels secondary or confusing:

• Should you invest in it now?
• Is your value proposition strong enough?
• Are you risking long-term perception by delaying investment in brand?

For founders, CMOs, and growth leaders navigating problem-solution fit, these questions should be expected. The ideation stage is not designed for brand scale. It’s designed for learning.

But how branding is handled during this phase can quietly influence how smoothly the company transitions into growth.

Why branding feels unclear during the problem-solution fit stage

During ideation, branding often feels unclear. It reflects the natural uncertainty of shaping a new product, audience, and narrative simultaneously.

At this point, the company is still validating the problem, refining the solution, and learning which audience segments respond most strongly. This is the reality of early-stage startup branding. Messaging and visuals evolve because understanding evolves. Positioning shifts because insight deepens. What sounded right last month may no longer reflect what the team is discovering now.

For C-suite leaders and early marketing hires, this creates tension.

There is pressure to appear established while the company is still experimenting. Investors expect a strong strategic narrative and a clear path forward. Prospects want confidence. New hires need direction. Yet the organization is still shaping its core narrative in real time.

This often leads to one of two reactions.

Some teams overcorrect by investing heavily in branding too early, formalizing messaging, and locking in positioning. They launch full websites, produce polished brand videos, and build complex visual systems before their positioning has stabilized. Months later, those assets need to be rebuilt.

Other teams go in the opposite direction. They treat branding as something to revisit later and allow the brand to remain entirely fluid. While this preserves flexibility, it can also prevent emerging clarity from being captured and shared across the organization.

Neither extreme is ideal.

The challenge at this stage is not whether to invest in branding. It is understanding what branding should actually accomplish during the problem-solution fit stage.

At ideation, your brand should support clarity, not scale. It should help leaders articulate the problem, test positioning hypotheses, and create shared language internally without constraining necessary experimentation.

When that balance is understood, branding becomes a tool for learning rather than a premature structure imposed on a moving target.

What most teams get wrong during ideation

More often, early-stage companies struggle because they misjudge what branding should accomplish at this stage.

There are three common patterns that show up repeatedly. These patterns are common in early-stage startup branding when leaders are navigating product-market uncertainty.

1. Overbuilding too early

In an effort to look established, some teams invest heavily in brand systems before their positioning has stabilized. They spend significant resources on full website builds and other marketing initiatives that depend on clear branding, while their understanding of the market is still evolving.

When assumptions shift, those assets often need to be reworked. The issue is not ambition. It is timing.

A brand structure built too early can constrain learning instead of supporting it and be costly when it needs to be redone.

2. Ignoring brand clarity entirely

Other teams move in the opposite direction. Because the product is still evolving, they delay any intentional thinking about the brand. Messaging lives inside founder conversations. Language shifts without being captured. New hires interpret the company narrative differently.

This preserves flexibility, but it also prevents emerging clarity from being shared across the organization. Just as importantly, it prevents the brand from building recognizable consistency in the market.

Brands strengthen through repeated, consistent expression. When messaging changes constantly and is not documented, the company never compounds recognition.

Over time, this creates invisible misalignment.

3. Confusing product explanation with brand strategy

During the ideation phase of an early business, it is natural to rely heavily on explaining features and functionality. The team is close to the product and excited about what it does.

Specifications and feature lists may explain functionality, but they rarely communicate value, which is why product specs alone rarely drive sales. Buyers respond more strongly to clear articulation of benefits and outcomes than to technical detail alone. 

During this phase, it’s critical that brand messaging moves beyond features and connects to something more emotional.

The hidden organizational risk leaders often miss

As the team expands beyond the founder, new voices begin representing the company. Early hires interpret positioning through their own experience. Product language influences how marketing communicates. Investor conversations shape how leadership frames the narrative.

Individually, these shifts seem small. Collectively, they begin to paint a confusing picture of how the company is understood both internally and externally.

If emerging clarity is not captured and aligned, messaging starts to diverge. The company may sound slightly different depending on who is speaking. New hires may struggle to summarize the value proposition consistently. Sales conversations may lean heavily on explanation rather than immediate clarity.

This is often the early signal of brand maturity lag. In early-stage startups, this lag often begins quietly during problem-solution fit, when pivots and growth prevent messaging clarity. 

It rarely appears as a dramatic roadblock. Instead, it shows up as subtle inconsistency, repeated debates about positioning, and increasing reliance on founder-led storytelling.

At this stage, the goal is not to formalize everything. It is to ensure that learning is being translated into a shared language.

When leaders recognize this dynamic early, they can evolve intentionally. When they ignore it, complexity compounds faster than clarity.

What early-stage leaders should do to make the most of the ideation stage?

The ideation stage offers a rare window to shape strategic clarity before complexity sets in. Few phases in a company’s life offer this level of proximity to the problem, the customer, and the core insight that will eventually define the brand. Leaders are still close to real conversations. Feedback loops are short. Language has not yet been diluted by scale.

Strong leaders resist the pressure to overengineer the brand before core positioning has stabilized. 

Instead, they focus on a few critical disciplines.

They capture emerging language

As customer conversations reveal what resonates, they document it. Phrases that consistently connect with prospects are noted. Objections that surface repeatedly are analyzed. Patterns begin forming.

This does not require a full messaging framework. It requires attention and intentional capture.

They create shared understanding internally

Even in small teams, alignment matters. Strong leaders ensure that everyone can articulate the core problem, the target audience, and the emerging value proposition in similar terms.

Perfect consistency is not the goal. Shared direction is.

They stay lean by design

Rather than investing heavily in visual systems or rigid brand guidelines, they maintain flexibility. Design and messaging remain adaptable while positioning is still being tested.

Lean brand development at this stage protects resources and preserves speed.

They separate experimentation from identity

Features may evolve. Product details may change. Target segments may narrow, grow, or pivot.

But the core problem the company exists to solve should begin stabilizing. Strong leaders distinguish between evolving tactics and foundational clarity.

Over time, these signals reveal something more important than features. They reveal positioning.

At this stage, brand is not about polish. It is about sharpening perspective. It is about discovering the language that captures the company’s emerging identity before that identity is locked into structure.

Leaders who embrace this phase see lean brand development as creating the scaffolding for future brand development. They understand that clarity formed during ideation becomes the raw material for future differentiation.

Handled intentionally, this phase does not delay branding. It strengthens it.

What happens to your brand when ideation gives way to growth

The ideation stage is not meant to last forever. What once worked in small conversations must now translate across functions and markets.

This is where branding requirements begin to shift.

Founder-led storytelling is no longer enough. Informal language becomes harder to scale. Messaging that evolved organically now needs structure. What began as exploration must gradually become alignment.

Leaders who recognize this shift early can evolve their brand intentionally. They move from capturing clarity to formalizing it. From flexible narratives to shared positioning. From learning to alignment.

Those who do not often experience growing friction without immediately understanding the cause.

Brand maturity lag does not appear because early branding was wrong. It appears when growth accelerates, and brand evolution does not keep pace.

Understanding when this shift is happening allows leaders to prepare rather than react.

How your brand evolves as your startup matures

Branding during ideation is about discovery and clarity. As early-stage startups move toward validation, early growth, and scaling, the role of brand expands significantly.

What begins as founder-led messaging eventually needs structure. What starts as problem articulation must evolve into differentiation. What works in early traction must support broader markets and larger opportunities.

Seeing the full progression helps leaders anticipate what comes next rather than waiting for friction to force change.

If you would like to understand how brand strategy evolves across each stage of startup growth, download the Brand Evolution Framework to explore the full model.

Is Your Brand Keeping Pace with Your Growth?

As your company grows, your brand can quickly fall out of sync across messaging, visuals, and how you show up in the market.

Get access to our practical framework to help you spot gaps and scale with clarity.

Download Guide

If you are navigating ideation and want an external perspective on how to approach branding intentionally without overbuilding too soon, a structured conversation can provide clarity.

At Visible Logic, we work with B2B tech leaders to align brand strategy with their current stage of growth. During ideation, that often means helping teams sharpen positioning, capture emerging clarity, and prepare for the transition into validation.

If this stage feels both promising and uncertain, it may be the right moment to step back and think strategically about how the brand should support what comes next.

The post Inside the Ideation Stage: What Tech Leaders Should Know About Early-Stage Startup Branding appeared first on Visible Logic.

Why infographics still matter in content marketing

People process visual information faster than text. In an environment where audiences are constantly scanning information, clarity becomes a competitive advantage.

Infographics help simplify complex ideas and make them easier to understand quickly.

This is especially important for technology companies. Many are building sophisticated platforms, tools, or systems that require explanation before their value is fully understood. Product teams may grasp the details immediately, but buyers, partners, and investors often need a clearer way to see how everything fits together.

That gap between complexity and understanding is where infographics provide real value.

In modern content marketing, infographics also support broader goals such as:

• Improving engagement with content
• Making insights easier to share on social platforms
• Extending the value of research and thought leadership

For many technology companies, infographics are not just design elements. They are strategic communication tools. 

What is an infographic?

An infographic is defined as a visual representation of information, data, or knowledge designed to make complex ideas easier to understand quickly. 

Rather than relying on long explanations, infographics combine structure, visuals, and concise messaging to communicate ideas efficiently. 

Visual communication has long been used in technical fields through:

• Engineering diagrams
• Technical manuals
• Scientific charts
• System schematics

Today, technology companies use infographics to help broader audiences understand complex systems and products.

When ideas are visualized clearly, they become easier to process and remember.

Key characteristics of effective infographics

Not all infographics are equally effective. The strongest follow a few core principles. 

They communicate clearly on their own.

A well-designed infographic should be able to stand alone without requiring a long explanation beside it.

They use a clear visual hierarchy

Information should flow logically so readers naturally move through the content in the intended order.

They balance minimal text and strong visuals

The goal isn’t to remove information, but present it more efficiently

They focus on clarity over volume

Instead of trying to explain everything at once, effective infographics highlight the most important ideas. 

When these principles come together, infographics become powerful communication assets rather than just another decorative element. 

Why infographics work especially well for tech companies

Technology companies often face a problem known as a complexity gap. 

On one side are the teams building the product, who understand the technical depth and capabilities. On the other side are audiences trying to evaluate whether the product solves their problem.

Infographics help close that gap by making systems, processes, and value easier to see.

For example, a cloud infrastructure company might use an infographic to show how data flows through its platform.

They also help buyers quickly understand the core questions they are trying to answer:

• What does this product do?
• How does it work?
• Why does it matter?

A cybersecurity company, for instance, might visualize how threats are detected and stopped within its platform.

Infographics are also useful in sales conversations, where complex offerings need to be explained clearly. A machine learning company might show how its model processes data and produces insights.

For companies selling sophisticated technology, visuals often make communication far more effective.

3 strategic ways technology companies use infographics

1. Visualizing data, research, and industry insights

One of the most common uses of infographics is turning complex data into clear insights.

Technology companies often produce:

• Industry research reports
• Benchmark studies
• Market analysis
• Product performance data

Infographics help highlight key findings instead of presenting large tables of information.

They work particularly well alongside:

• White papers
• Research reports
• Thought leadership articles

When done well, they make insights easier to understand and share.

2. Explaining complex products and platforms

Another major use of infographics is explaining how a product works.

They can visualize:

• Product architecture
• Platform ecosystems
• Technology stacks
• System integrations

For example, a DevOps platform might show how code moves from development to deployment, where automation occurs, and how monitoring fits into the process.

This allows potential customers to understand the system quickly.

3. Visualizing processes and workflows

Infographics are also effective for explaining step-by-step processes.

This is particularly useful when:

• Products require onboarding
• A structured workflow must be followed
• Customers need to understand how a system operates over time

For example, a cloud security company might illustrate how a threat is detected, analyzed, and neutralized.

Visualizing the process helps audiences understand it at a glance.

Best practices for creating effective infographics

Focus on one clear message.
Infographics work best when they communicate a single idea well.

Avoid overcrowding the design with too many elements or data points.
Use strong visual hierarchy so readers naturally move through the information.

Design for shareability. Effective infographics should work across:

• Social media
• Blog posts
• Presentations
• Marketing materials

Finally, maintain brand consistency by including:

• Brand colors
• Typography
• Logo placement
• A consistent visual style

These elements help strengthen brand recognition over time.

Why infographics are powerful brand-building tools

Infographics do more than communicate information. They help establish authority.

When a technology company consistently produces helpful visual explanations, it becomes known as a reliable source of insight within its industry.

Infographics help companies:

• Demonstrate expertise
• Simplify complex topics
• Build audience trust
• Create shareable content

In many cases, the companies that explain ideas most clearly are the ones audiences remember.

Turning complex ideas into visual stories

Technology companies often operate in environments where complexity is unavoidable. But complexity does not need to create confusion.

Infographics help translate technical ideas into clear visual stories that audiences can understand quickly.

As part of a broader content strategy, they can make research easier to digest, products easier to explain, and insights more memorable.

When complex ideas are presented visually, they become easier to understand, share, and remember.

The post How to Use Infographics to Clarify, Educate and Build Your Brand appeared first on Visible Logic.

Why a business name for technology companies matters more than you think

In the tech world, nine times out of ten, your company name often makes its first impression, long before your product demo ever does.

Investors scan pitch decks. Potential adopters browse product directories. Enterprise buyers encounter your name in work chats, vendor lists, or recommendation emails. Before anyone fully understands your technology, they are already forming assumptions about your credibility, scale, and seriousness. All of this from your name.

A strong business name for technology companies does more than sound good. It builds memorability, signals expertise, and creates the foundation for long-term brand equity.

For SaaS startups and technology founders, naming is not cosmetic. It is strategic infrastructure.

Your product will evolve. Your roadmap will expand. But your name will likely stay with you for years. Getting it right early can remove friction in fundraising, hiring, and customer acquisition.

Here are five strategic principles that help technology companies choose a name that supports growth instead of limiting it.

1. Start with positioning, not cleverness

Many tech founders start the naming process by brainstorming creative or clever words. But strong names rarely start there. Strong names start with strong strategy.

Before generating name ideas, you need clarity on what your company actually represents in the market. Ask foundational questions such as:

• Are you a SaaS platform, an AI tool, a cybersecurity firm, or a developer product?
• What core value or transformation do you provide?
• Who is the primary audience?

Your audience matters more than most founders initially realize. A name that resonates with early adopters and technical users may not resonate with enterprise buyers. A name that works in startup circles might not carry the same credibility in regulated industries.

Equally important is avoiding the trap of generic tech buzzwords. Words like tech, data, digital, systems, and solutions appear in thousands of company names. When overused, they dilute differentiation rather than strengthen it. 

Remember when everything was e- or i- like e-mail and i-phones? Then it was names incorporating IO (internet of things) and currently the buzz is software that incorporate ‘AI’ into their names. But nearly all of these cutting-edge technologies become less distinctive as time goes on and start to feel dated when a newer wave of innovation hits.

The strongest technology company names emerge from a clear positioning strategy. They reinforce what makes the company distinct instead of blending into the sea of “Techify” clones.

A memorable business name for technology companies should sharpen your positioning, not blur it.

2. Balance innovation with clarity

Technology founders often gravitate toward abstract or invented names. This approach can work well, but only if it maintains clarity.

The most effective tech names meet a few simple tests:

• They are easy to pronounce.
• They are easy to spell after hearing them once.
• They do not require constant explanation.

If people repeatedly ask how to say or spell your company name, you are introducing friction into every conversation about your product.

For SaaS startups in particular, clarity builds trust. This is especially true when selling to enterprise buyers who are naturally risk-averse. A name that feels confusing, gimmicky, or overly trendy can quietly undermine credibility.

When evaluating potential names, ask yourself a few practical questions:

• Does it sound credible in a boardroom?
• Would a CIO feel confident recommending this vendor internally?
• Does the name feel durable enough to support a serious technology platform?

Innovation in naming is valuable, but it should never come at the expense of clarity.

3. Secure the digital foundation early

For most technology companies, your digital presence is the primary storefront.

Your website, developer documentation, and online visibility are often the first touchpoints for potential customers. That makes domain availability and digital discoverability essential considerations during the naming process.

Whenever possible, prioritize securing the .com domain, especially for B2B SaaS companies. While alternative domains can work, .com still carries the strongest credibility and memorability in business environments.

Beyond the domain, it is also worth checking:

• Availability of consistent social media handles
• Developer platforms like GitHub
• Product discovery platforms such as Product Hunt
• Search results for similar tools or products

Searchability matters more than many founders expect. If your tech brand name is difficult to spell, impossible to Google, or buried beneath unrelated search results, you are adding unnecessary friction to your growth engine.

A strong name should make it easier for customers, partners, and investors to find you online.

4. Do serious trademark and competitive research

The technology landscape is crowded, and naming conflicts are more common than many startups anticipate.

Before committing to a name, it is essential to conduct proper trademark and competitive research. This goes beyond simply checking whether the exact name exists.

You should also evaluate:

• Similar sounding company names
• Companies operating in adjacent technology categories
• Existing trademarks in relevant jurisdictions
  

If you plan to operate internationally, the scope of research should extend beyond your home country. What seems available locally may already be protected elsewhere.

Rebranding a SaaS company after raising funding due to a trademark conflict can be extremely expensive. Beyond legal costs, it can damage credibility and disrupt customer recognition at a critical growth stage.

Investing time in legal and competitive due diligence early can prevent costly problems later.

5. Choose a name that can grow with your product

Technology companies evolve quickly.

What begins as a single product often expands into a broader platform, ecosystem, or suite of tools. The name you choose today should be flexible enough to support that evolution.

Founders should be cautious about names that:

• Lock the company into a single feature
• Tie the brand too tightly to one industry
• Describe only the initial MVP

While descriptive names can be helpful in the early stages, overly narrow names may create limitations as your product roadmap expands.

The most effective business names for technology companies leave room for growth. They allow the company to launch new products, expand into new markets, and build a broader platform without outgrowing the brand itself.

In many cases, slightly broader or more conceptual names provide the flexibility that scaling technology companies need.

A strong tech company name is a strategic asset

Your product will iterate.

Your interface will evolve.
Your features will multiply.
Your roadmap will expand.

Your name, however, will likely remain.

For SaaS startups and technology founders, a thoughtful business name is not just a branding exercise. It is a strategic asset that supports fundraising conversations, customer acquisition, and long-term brand equity.

Choosing the right name early gives your company a clearer story, stronger memorability, and a more durable foundation for growth.

If you are building a technology company and want to get the name right from the start, it is worth investing in a strategic naming process before momentum makes change difficult.

The post 5 Strategic Tips for Naming SaaS & Tech Startups appeared first on Visible Logic.

The complexity myth

There’s a common myth in the marketplace when it comes to complex brands: “We’re complicated. Our brand can’t be simple.”

It makes sense at first glance. As humans, we tend to follow the logical assumption that states more input requires more output. In other words, if something grows in complexity behind the scenes, surely it has to grow in complexity on the surface too. 

This assumption often shows up like this: 

• More services = more pages
  
• More audiences = more messaging
  
• More nuance = more design elements

In design this isn’t the truth. Complexity in operations does not require the same amount of complexity in presentation. It does, in fact, require intention and discipline. The more complex your organization becomes, the more important it is, and more challenging it becomes to communicate it clearly. 

This is where the myth breaks down. Complexity is an internal reality. Clarity is an external responsibility. 

Why complex brands struggle with simplicity

So why do complex brands struggle with simplicity? Because complex brands juggle multiple moving parts that all demand their own attention and prioritization.

• Internal stakeholders want representation. 
• Every department wants visibility. 
• Every offer feels essential. 

With all of these moving parts, design becomes a negotiation. 

There’s also the fear of leaving something out, “What if they don’t see everything we do?”. We mistake information for clarity and over-explaining becomes a security blanket. But  more words does not equate to more understanding. A page overloaded with information increases cognitive load. When everything is emphasized, nothing stands out.

Simplicity, in that environment, can feel risky. But it’s actually strategic.

Clarity and minimalism are connected

It’s hard to be clear, when you have extraneous words and decorations in your brand communication.

That’s why clarity often goes hand in hand with minimal design choices and simple language.

What minimal design actually means (and what it doesn’t)

To begin, it’s important to understand what minimal design actually means — and for that matter, what it doesn’t.

Minimal design doesn’t equate to simplifying for simplicity’s sake. It requires understanding and intention. To be clear, you shouldn’t start deleting assets or content willy-nilly because you feel your messaging is getting overly complicated.

What’s key is identify the truly important and core elements. Then, work to pare back everything else.

Removing elements without intention doesn’t make your brand more strategic. In most cases, it just creates confusion. Design that feels empty and lacks personality. Messaging that’s hard to follow. 

Now that we’ve covered what minimal design is not, it’s important to discuss what it should look like. Minimal design with intention looks like:

• Clear hierarchy
• Intentional restraint
• Focused messaging
• Strategic white space
• A disciplined editing process

Minimal design isn’t about having less to say. It’s about knowing what matters most. 

The strategic advantages of minimal design 

When done with intention, minimal design creates measurable advantages. Here are some examples of the advantages that minimal design will bring to your brand: 

It Reduces Cognitive Overload

People scan before they read. Clear hierarchy guides attention. Simplicity increases comprehension. When audiences can quickly identify what matters, they engage more confidently.

It Elevates Perceived Authority

Confident brands don’t over-explain. Focus signals expertise. When you communicate selectively, it implies you know exactly what deserves attention.

It Makes Complexity Feel Manageable

Structured presentation helps audiences navigate nuance. Layered information keeps complex topics digestible. You don’t remove complexity; you organize it.

It Improves Conversion

Fewer distractions.
Clear calls to action.
Stronger decision momentum.

When people are confused and overwhelmed, the feeling is uncomfortable. Their reaction is to move away from the discomfort. When people clearly understand they feel understood, and they’re more likely to move forward.

The paradox: simplicity requires more strategy

Here’s the part so many organizations underestimate: Simplicity is harder. 

Minimal design demands clarity at the leadership level.

• It forces prioritization.
• It exposes weak messaging.
• It requires alignment before execution. 

You cannot simplify if your strategy is unclear. You can try to prioritize every potential audience, explain every service you have to offer, and go into depth on the specifications of every product, but the truth of the matter is this: without discipline, your design will reflect all of that indecision and uncertainty. Minimalism is not an aesthetic shortcut. It is the visible result of disciplined thinking.

Closing: The confidence to be clear

Complex brands don’t need complex design.

They need confident prioritization.

They need disciplined storytelling. 

They need to make it easy for people to understand why they matter. 

The more complex your organization becomes, the more your audience needs you to simplify it. But simplicity doesn’t start in design. It starts with clarity. Before design can be minimal, your message has to be focused. If you can’t explain why your brand matters quickly, no amount of white space will fix it.

That’s why minimal design and brand clarity go hand in hand. 

The post Why Minimal Design Works for Even the Most Complex Brands appeared first on Visible Logic.

If someone asked you why your business matters, would you be able to answer without pausing?

Not with a paragraph.
Not with industry jargon.
Just a clear, short, confident explanation.

It’s common for people to assume that clarity comes from providing as much detail as possible about the service or product being provided. They think, “Oh, we aren’t saying enough”. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Clarity comes from simplification. 

Brand clarity isn’t about the visuals, clever taglines, or overly detailed product descriptions filled with technical terminology and data. It’s about understanding why you exist and being able to communicate that plainly. Real clarity comes from cutting through the noise—features, jargon, and assumptions—to uncover the simple, human reason your business exists in the first place. 

When clarity is there, decisions get easier, marketing gets sharper, and conversions move faster. When it’s not, everything feels uphill.

So, if answering that question feels harder than it should, that’s a clear sign that you’re missing brand clarity—and it’s one of the most common growth blockers businesses face.

The brand clarity test

Here is a simple way to test: 

• Can you explain why your business matters in one sentence?
• How about in 30 seconds?
• Could you explain it clearly to someone completely outside of your industry?

If your answer changes drastically from question to question, or keeps getting longer with each question instead of clearer—you are missing clarity, my friend. 

How to improve your brand clarity

Symptoms of unclear branding show up everywhere, and can hurt your business in very real ways. Confusion causes:

• Sales conversations to drag on
• Conversions to suffer
• Marketing to sound too generic
• Friction in internal decision making

Here are some exercises to help you simplify your story and nail down why your brand matters. 

Ask 5 whys

This exercise prompts you to ask “why” after each statement—five times if needed—until you uncover the real reason behind what you do. Start by asking yourself why your brand matters, then ask ‘why’? Keep going until you find the real kernel of what’s important about your brand.

Identify emotions

Try to describe the most basic human emotion that is improved with your brand. For example, rather than saying your software has 25% fewer errors, describe the ease and confidence that comes from reliable outcomes. Or, talk about relief from frustration, pride in quality work, or even peace of mind. These core emotions may be positive in nature, or focused on eliminating a pain.

Explain it to a kindergartener

Imagine you’re talking to your grandma or someone at a cocktail party. If you can’t explain your business without buzzwords or backstory, there’s still work to be done. Maybe a 5-year-old reading level is too rudimentary, but understanding the value of what you do should be understandable to people of all ages. Note: this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t tailor your messages to your ideal client, it does mean the gut of your value proposition should be easy to understand. 

Why clear branding drives business growth

When your brand is clear, everything improves. Marketing becomes more effective because the message is focused. Sales becomes more efficient because prospects understand the value faster. Teams align around shared priorities instead of opinions. Most importantly, people have a clear reason to pay attention.

Brand clarity isn’t a polish step. It’s the foundation for growth. Address it, and the improvement shows up everywhere.

The post Can You Tell Me Quickly Why Your Brand Matters? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Software companies often talk about their “target audience,” often as if there is only one. In reality, most software websites are juggling communication with several very different groups of people at the same time. Each group has its own priorities, pressures, and definitions of success.

That complexity is exactly why so many software websites struggle and fall short. They’re often built either:

• Too focused on product features
• Or too narrowly aimed at one stakeholder while ignoring the rest

The strongest software websites take a more deliberate approach. They know to serve three key target markets: users, buyers, and investors or partners.

Each of these audiences matter, but they do not matter equally. 

Why target markets matter more for software websites

Unlike traditional marketing websites, software websites play a fundamentally different role. They aren’t focused solely on driving traffic or generating awareness. Instead, they support:

• Long, multi-step buying cycles
• Internal advocacy and decision-making
• Ongoing evaluation long after the first demo 

When building a software website it’s important to remember it is not just a marketing tool—it’s a sales enablement, education, and trust-building platform. In many cases, your website is being used simultaneously by someone who wants to know how the product works, someone who needs to justify the budget, and someone who is assessing the long-term viability of your company. If your site speaks clearly to only one of those people, it creates friction everywhere else.

Understanding who you’re speaking to—and when—is critical.

The user: your most important audience

Who is the user? 

Users are the people who interact with your product every day. Depending on the software, they may be:

• Practitioners
• Operators
• Administrators
• Analysts
• Developers

They’re closest to the problem your software solves and most familiar with the realities of the work.

What users need from your website

When users visit your website, they are looking for clarity. They want to understand what the software does, how it works, and how it fits into their daily workflows. They care less about big-picture vision statements and more about whether the product will make their job easier, faster, or less frustrating.

Some questions they might be asking are:

• What does this software actually do?
  
• How does it work?
  
• Will it fit into my day-to-day workflow?

Users care less about lofty vision statements and more about the practicality of the product. A strong software website speaks to users in real, concrete terms: explaining features through use cases, showcasing how the product fits into existing systems and processes, and, most importantly, reflecting an understanding of the realities of the user’s work. When a website does this well, it creates an immediate sense of trust: this product was built by people who understand my job.

Why marketing to users matters

Users are often the starting point of the buying process. Even though users don’t sign the contract themselves, they influence the decision to purchase more than anyone else. A website that speaks directly to users equips them with the language and confidence they need to advocate internally.

The buyer: the decision-maker

Who is the buyer?

 Buyers are accountable for budgets, risk, and ROI—and they evaluate software very differently than users do. Buyers may include:

• CFOs
• Department heads
• IT leaders
• Procurement teams

These are the people and teams who are responsible for approving the investment and managing the risk that comes with it. 

What buyers need from your software website

Buyers ask different questions than users. Instead of being concerned with how a feature works, they are more invested in what it delivers. They may ask questions like:

• What business value does this deliver? 
• Why should we trust this company?
• How does this compare to alternatives? 
• Is this worth the investment? 

They want to understand the business value and trade-offs involved in choosing your solution over others. Trust and credibility are critical at this stage.

To cater to the buyer market, a strong software website should provide clarity and build trust. Your website should provide: 

• Clear articulation of outcomes and benefits
• Credibility signals (case studies, customer logos, testimonials) 
• Pricing clarity or logic
• Evidence that your product solves a meaningful business problem

Above all, your website should make the case for why this investment is worth making. 

The user–buyer relationship

In many organizations, users advocate for the product while buyers give the final approval. When your website supports both perspectives, it shortens sales cycles and reduces internal friction.

A strong website supports both sides:

• Users understand and believe in the product
• Buyers see clear value and reduced risk

Investors and partners: the long-term view

Who are investors and partners?

A third audience for your software website is investors and partners. This group includes:

• Potential investors
• Strategic collaborators
• Industry partners
• Future Acquirers

This group is often ignored or overemphasized. They may not be your primary audience today—but they’re paying attention.

What they need from your website

Investors and partners are typically less interested in the feature-level details of your product and more focused on the bigger picture. They ask questions about the market opportunity for your product/business, your company’s vision, and its potential for growth. They look for signals of credibility and momentum, often gathering this information from:

• About pages
• Leadership bios
• Press or News sections 
• Thought leadership content

While this audience is important, it should not drive your entire website. Investors are best served when users and buyers already trust what they see. When the first two audiences are confident, the third tends to follow naturally.

How target markets change as your company grows

As software companies evolve, their audiences evolve with them. You may move upmarket, pivot your product, or even enter new industries. With that movement, user profiles change, buying committees expand, and expectations shift.

Websites that are too narrowly positioned struggle to adapt. Messaging that once felt sharp can quickly become limiting. The most resilient software brands are built with flexibility in mind. They communicate clearly without boxing themselves into a single use case, role, industry, or market.

A strong website grows alongside the company, reflecting where the product is today while leaving room for where it’s headed next.

Bringing It All Together

Every effective software website considers users, buyers, and investors—but it keeps users at the forefront of marketing.

Users are the starting point of the buying process, and marketing to them leads to effective internal advocacy and kickstarts the long-term buying cycle that software companies benefit from.

Weak websites tend to lean too heavily on one audience at the expense of others. They may focus on corporate branding without supporting user experience, emphasize product features while ignoring business value, or cater to investors instead of customers.

Strong websites do the opposite. They center users by reflecting real needs and experiences. They equip buyers with clear, credible information to make confident decisions. And they present a compelling, trustworthy face to investors—without building the site for them.

When all three audiences are considered thoughtfully, your website becomes more than a marketing asset. It becomes a strategic tool that supports growth at every stage.

The post The 3 Key Target Markets Every Software Website Must Serve appeared first on Visible Logic.

Why your business name matters more than you think

Your business name is often the first impression a potential client has of your company, before they visit your website, read your messaging, or understand what you offer. And whether you realize it or not, your name immediately communicates signals about credibility, value, and fit. The right name attracts the right clients. The wrong name can quietly push them away.

For founders and growing businesses, especially B2B tech startups, naming isn’t just a creative exercise. It’s a strategic decision that influences how your business is perceived, positioned, and trusted. Long before an introduction call or a product demo ever happens.

Your business name is a strategic tool, not a creative afterthought

A strong business name does more than sound good. It’s an integral part of brand strategy, not just creativity.  Your business name supports your positioning, reinforces your value, and sets expectations for the experience you deliver.

One of the biggest challenges with naming a business is timing. A name needs to be established early and quickly because everything else grows from it: your domain name, website, logo, messaging, and marketing. That pressure to “move fast” often leads founders to rely on instinct alone.

Yet naming is one of the few foundational decisions where people skip professional guidance. Even though they would never rely solely on gut instinct for legal, financial, or technical decisions, they are just as critical to long-term success.

For many early-stage and B2B tech companies, this shows up as a name that worked for launch speed but doesn’t hold up once the business starts selling to more sophisticated buyers.

And if you’re already up and running with the wrong name, the friction compounds. Messaging becomes harder. Differentiation weakens. Growth stalls. If you haven’t yet built meaningful brand visibility, a strategic rename can actually remove barriers rather than create them.

Start with your ideal client, not your personal preference

A common naming trap is choosing a name because it resonates personally with the founder. But liking a name isn’t the same as it working.

Effective naming starts with a clear understanding of your ideal client:

• Who are they?
• What industry are they in?
• What problems are they trying to solve?
• What tone will they trust?

For B2B tech startups, this often means naming beyond the founder mindset. A name that feels clever or intuitive internally may not resonate with procurement teams, investors, or enterprise buyers who are scanning for credibility and clarity.

What your name communicates (even when you don’t realize it)

Every name sends signals, whether intentional or not. Based on how you name your business, it can reflect:

• Industry assumptions and expertise
• Price and value cues (premium vs. budget)
• Emotional tone: friendly, bold, technical, human, or corporate

In B2B tech especially, names can unintentionally feel too academic, too consumer-oriented, or too experimental. Thus, creating hesitation before a product is even evaluated.

Common naming mistakes that attract the wrong clients

Since any name can convey a message, it’s important to avoid names that attract the wrong type of clients. This can lead to time lost and wasted resources. Some of the most common mistakes when naming a business include:

• Generic or vague names that blend in
• Overly clever, inside-joke, or founder-centric names
• Narrow or technical names that limit future growth
• Product-based names that don’t scale as offerings expand
• Names that require constant explanation

These issues don’t just affect perception. They can actively attract the wrong clients or repel the right ones.

Should you use a business name generator?

Business name generators can be useful tools, but only in the right context.

They’re helpful for:

• Sparking ideas
• Exploring word patterns or directions

They fall short because they lack:

• Strategic context
• Audience understanding
• Differentiation

Generated names often sound similar, are already in use, or feel generic. For B2B tech companies, this can be especially risky, where credibility with investors and enterprise buyers matters from day one.

Name generators are best used as inspiration, not decision-makers.

B2B tech startups: special naming considerations

B2B tech startups face unique naming challenges:

• Balancing innovation with credibility
• Avoiding names that feel like research projects rather than businesses
• Choosing a name that works across your website, pitch decks, investor conversations, and enterprise sales cycles

Availability and risk checks are also critical:

• Is a relevant domain name available?
• What appears when you search the name today?
  
  • Similar companies
  • Competing products
  • Unintended or problematic associations

Ignoring these factors can create confusion, weaken SEO, or introduce risk before you’ve even gained traction.

Balancing clarity, differentiation, and longevity

The most effective business names balance three essential qualities: clarity, differentiation, and longevity. When one outweighs the others, the name can create confusion or limit growth.

Clarity helps people immediately understand what kind of business you are. If your name leaves prospects guessing or requires frequent explanation, it may be working against you. This is especially important for service-based companies and B2B tech startups, where trust and comprehension matter early in the buying process.

Differentiation keeps your brand from blending into a crowded market. While abstract names can work, they need strong positioning and messaging to support them. Without that strategy, many names end up sounding generic or interchangeable. Particularly in tech, where similar naming patterns are everywhere.

Longevity ensures your name can grow with your business. Overly descriptive, trendy, or technical names may feel right today but can become restrictive as your offerings expand or your audience evolves. A strong name leaves room for growth without forcing a future rebrand.

For B2B tech startups, this balance is critical. A name should feel innovative enough for early traction while remaining credible in investor meetings, enterprise sales cycles, and long-term market positioning.

Practical questions to test your business name

Before committing to a business name, it’s important to test it against real-world scenarios, not just personal preference. Start by asking whether the name attracts the right clients:

• Does this name attract the clients we want to work with?
• Would our ideal client trust this name at first glance?
• Does it reflect the experience we deliver?
• Can it scale as the business evolves?

For B2B tech companies, practical testing should extend into real use cases:

• Does this name feel credible in a boardroom or RFP?
• Would it hold up on a pitch deck in front of investors?
• Does it sound professional when spoken aloud by a sales team?

Finally, test for friction. If you find yourself constantly explaining, qualifying, or justifying the name, that’s valuable feedback. A strong name should open doors, not slow conversations down.

These questions don’t just help you choose a name. They help ensure your name is aligned with where your business is going, not just where it’s been.

The role of naming within a larger brand system

Your business name doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s the foundation of your entire brand system. It influences how your logo is designed, how your messaging is written, and how your website communicates value. A strong name makes brand decisions easier and more consistent, while a weak or misaligned name forces workarounds, explanations, and compromises across every touchpoint. 

For growing businesses and B2B tech startups, a well-aligned name supports cohesive storytelling across marketing, sales, and investor communications, ensuring your brand feels intentional, credible, and easy to understand as it scales.

A name that works for your business

Naming your business isn’t just a creative decision. It’s a strategic one that impacts credibility, clarity, and growth. The right name helps attract the right clients, supports your positioning, and makes every part of your brand easier to build and scale.

At Visible Logic, our business naming services are designed to remove guesswork from one of the most important brand decisions you’ll make. We guide clients through a strategic naming process supported by a custom scoring rubric that evaluates name options based on audience fit, differentiation, scalability, and long-term viability, so decisions are based on insight, not instinct.

If your current name feels limiting, unclear, or out of sync with where your business is headed, it may be time to rethink it. A strong name doesn’t just describe your business, it works for it.

The post Naming a Business to Attract the Right Clients appeared first on Visible Logic.

We’re proud to share that Visible Logic has received a Platinum MarCom Award for the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) 2024 Annual Report, along with an Honorable Mention for web design of MTI’s website.

Administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), the MarCom Awards recognize excellence in marketing and communication on a global scale. Since 2004, the competition has grown into one of the largest and most respected creative programs in the world, drawing roughly 7,000 print and digital entries each year from dozens of countries. A Platinum award represents the highest level of achievement—placing this work among the very best in the industry.

About the MarCom Awards

MarCom is designed by creatives, for creatives. Entries are judged individually on their own merits—never against one another—and evaluated solely on quality, creativity, and resourcefulness. Judges are senior-level marketing and communication professionals who assess work based on learned standards of creative excellence, not persuasive essays or production budgets.

The competition’s credibility is reinforced by AMCP’s commitment to fairness, accessibility, and service to the community. Entry fees are intentionally kept low, pro bono nonprofit work is exempt from fees, and AMCP has contributed more than $250,000 to charitable causes in recent years.

The project: MTI’s 25th anniversary annual report

MTI’s 2024 Annual Report marked a major milestone: 25 years of fueling innovation across Maine. The challenge was to create a report that could celebrate record-breaking funding, clearly demonstrate statewide economic impact, and keep readers engaged through complex financial information.

Our strategy focused on:

Humanizing the data through storytelling
Rather than relying solely on charts and numbers, we interviewed funded entrepreneurs across the state. Their stories illustrated how MTI’s support goes beyond capital—providing validation, connections, and long-term job creation.

Turning complex information into visual narratives
Investment data and financial reporting were transformed into clear, approachable visuals that made impact easy to understand without sacrificing accuracy or depth.

The result was a highly engaging annual report that communicated MTI’s economic impact while honoring the people and ideas driving Maine’s innovation economy.

Additional recognition: MTI website honorable mention

In addition to the Platinum win, we also received an Honorable Mention for web design for MTI’s website. This recognition reinforces the importance of creating a cohesive brand experience across both print and digital touchpoints—especially for organizations communicating complex, high-impact work.

Why this recognition matters

MarCom’s international reputation for fair, consistent judging provides meaningful third-party validation. With no preset number of winners and no reliance on explanations or promotional narratives, recognition is earned purely on the strength of the work.

We’re honored to see this project recognized at the Platinum level and proud of our ongoing partnership with MTI. It’s a powerful reminder of what’s possible when strategy, storytelling, and design work together to make impact visible.

Want to see how this work came together across brand, design, and digital?

Explore our full branding and marketing initiative with Maine Technology Institute, where strategy, storytelling, and design work together to amplify impact across channels.

If you’re looking for a strategic partner to help clarify your story, elevate your brand, and bring complex ideas to life, we’d love to be part of your journey.

The post Visible Logic Wins Platinum MarCom Award for MTI’s 2024 Annual Report appeared first on Visible Logic.

We’re excited to share that Visible Logic has been recognized with two 2025 Davey Awards—a Gold and a Silver—for our recent website redesign work. These honors celebrate the creativity, strategy, and craft our team brings to every client engagement.

Celebrating big ideas from small agencies

The Davey Awards are known for championing outstanding work from small agencies, boutique shops, and independent creators who produce exceptional results without massive budgets. Inspired by the story of David vs. Goliath, the program celebrates creativity, strategic thinking, and the ability to “punch above your weight.”

Entries are judged by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (AIVA)—a panel of 500+ creative leaders from respected organizations including National Geographic Society, NASA/JPL, Tom Ford Beauty, NAACP, and more. Gold winners typically score 9 or above, and Silver winners score between 7 and 8.9 on the AIVA’s rigorous 10-point scale.

Being recognized by this group is both an honor and a testament to the impact of our work.

Gold award

Dynamic Grid – clean energy startup website: from academic to marketable

Dynamic Grid is a clean-energy startup built on years of advanced academic research. Their team needed a website that translated this deeply technical foundation into a compelling, market-ready brand experience for utilities, partners, and investors.

Our approach focused on:

• Simplifying complex technical concepts into clear messaging
• Creating a modern, energized visual design rooted in clean-tech aesthetics
• Positioning Dynamic Grid as a commercial-ready innovator—not just a research-driven organization
• Building a flexible, scalable website to support their growth and fundraising

The result is a polished, credible digital presence that reflects where Dynamic Grid is headed—and it’s an honor to see this work recognized with a Gold Davey Award.

Silver award

MTI – strategic redesign: transforming innovation

The Maine Technology Institute (MTI) plays a critical role in funding innovation, supporting entrepreneurs, and fueling Maine’s economic growth. Yet their previous website made it difficult for users to navigate resources, understand funding pathways, or discover success stories.

Our redesign focused on transforming both structure and storytelling.

We delivered:

• A new user-centered site architecture that simplifies navigation
• Clear pathways for entrepreneurs, partners, and community stakeholders
• A refreshed visual identity that modernizes MTI while honoring its mission
• Streamlined content that communicates impact, opportunities, and success stories

The redesigned site elevates MTI’s presence and better supports the innovators they serve. We’re proud that this work earned a Silver Davey Award.

Why this recognition matters

The Davey Awards highlight exceptional creative work produced by small but mighty teams. Being honored alongside other standout agencies is deeply meaningful to us—because it reinforces what we’ve always believed:

You don’t need the biggest budget to produce big results. You need clarity, creativity, strategic thinking, and the right collaborative team.

We’re grateful to Dynamic Grid and MTI for trusting us with their brands and digital experiences.

Explore the award-winning work

Take a closer look at the Dynamic Grid website redesign, which earned this year’s Gold Davey Award.

We’ll be sharing more about our work with MTI soon. In the meantime, explore our other brand and web case studies to see how we help organizations communicate clearly, look sharp, and stand out.

If you’re planning a website redesign or need help elevating your brand, we’d love to talk.

The post Visible Logic Wins Two 2025 Davey Awards for Website Redesign Excellence appeared first on Visible Logic.

Launching a startup means juggling more tasks than any one team should reasonably handle. Product development, fundraising, customer discovery, hiring—your list is endless, and everything competes for limited time and resources.

Yet one thing remains true for every new business: A startup needs a website.

But just as importantly, your first website does not need to be perfect.

From our experience working with early-stage companies, we’ve seen how valuable a simple, functional first website can be. It’s less about perfection and more about creating a foundation, learning quickly, and preparing for what comes next.

Startups have limited time and money — and that’s okay

In the early stages, every decision involves trade-offs. Founders often feel pressure to perfect their first website before launching, but delaying the process rarely helps.

A clean, straightforward website:

• Validates your business
• Helps prospects and partners learn who you are
• Enables early content and SEO groundwork
• Gives you real-world feedback you can build on

Your first site is a stepping stone—not a forever solution.

Why every startup still needs a website — even a simple one

Even the most minimal version of a website provides meaningful benefits.

It establishes credibility

A website signals legitimacy and makes it easier for investors, partners, and customers to learn about you.

It provides a home for your messaging

Your value proposition, product overview, and contact information should be accessible from day one.

It creates a consistent first impression

Even a simple layout and clear copy can communicate professionalism and intent.

It supports early sales, recruiting, and outreach

A basic website offers structure for materials like pitch decks, feature summaries, or job opportunities.

It makes your next website much easier to build

This is an important advantage many early founders overlook. By launching a simple site first, you gain insight into:

• How content should be structured
• What navigation approaches make sense
• What resonates with visitors and what doesn’t
• How quickly your offering evolves
• What you’ll want and won’t want when you work with a professional web firm later

These early learnings make your future collaboration with a web design team more efficient, strategic, and aligned.

The surprising benefits of launching an imperfect website

A first website isn’t just a placeholder; it’s an essential learning tool.

1. It helps refine your message

Turning your value proposition into copy and visuals clarifies how you talk about your business internally and externally.

2. It provides real user data

Analytics show where people spend their time, what they ignore, and what they expect to find.

3. It highlights how fast your startup evolves

As your product, audience, and positioning shift, your first site quickly becomes outdated—a clear indicator that perfection isn’t the goal.

4. It allows you to test assumptions early

Your website becomes a messaging MVP, giving you evidence of what resonates before you invest in a larger build.

Why you shouldn’t let your first website live forever

While an early-stage website plays an important role, there comes a point when it starts holding you back. As your company matures:

• Expectations around credibility increase
• Competitors have more polished experiences
• Your brand and product become more refined

Many scaling startups intentionally move away from the “scrappy” look to signal maturity and readiness for growth.

This is where partnering with a branding and web design team can be transformative. At Visible Logic, we specialize in helping growing startups move from their initial, DIY-style website to a modern, strategically built site that reflects the company they’re becoming.

When to upgrade from your first startup website

Signs you’ve outgrown your first site include:

• Increased traffic or market traction
• Clearer product-market fit
• Refined brand messaging
• Expanded audiences or new markets
• A need for stronger UX, visuals, or technical performance

At this stage, a professionally designed website elevates credibility and supports growth.

Creating your first startup website: what actually matters

A first website doesn’t need to be elaborate. What matters most is functionality, clarity, and flexibility.

Prioritize simple, clear messaging

Visitors should immediately understand what you offer and why it’s valuable.

Focus on a primary call-to-action

Keep the next step obvious—sign up, request a demo, join a waitlist, etc.

Use a clean, no-frills, easy-to-update design

Your messaging and product will evolve quickly. Your website should be able to keep up. Overly intricate or complex designs can slow down your progress and make it harder to adapt as your startup evolves.

Launch small

A compact, flexible site is far better than a sprawling one that’s hard to maintain. Think of this as your MVP website—quick to create and designed for continuous iteration.

Make sure analytics are in place

Early insights will shape the next version of your site far more effectively than internal planning alone.

Final thoughts: launch small, learn fast, level up when you’re ready

Your first startup website doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to exist.

• It establishes credibility.
• It clarifies your message.
• It provides real insights.
• It creates a foundation you can build on.

And when your business reaches the next stage, a more refined, professionally designed website can showcase the growth, maturity, and sophistication of your evolving brand. Visible Logic has guided many startups through that evolution—from refining brand identity to designing a professional, scalable website that supports growth. If you’re ready for that next step, explore our branding case studies to see how we’ve helped other companies evolve their brand and web presence with clarity, confidence, and impact.

The post Why Your First Startup Website Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect appeared first on Visible Logic.

A logo is often the first thing people notice about your business—and the last thing they remember. It’s more than just a visual mark; it’s the foundation of your brand identity. A great logo communicates who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, all within a single glance.

In this post, we’ll look at why a logo matters, what makes a good one, and how a strategic approach to logo design can elevate your entire brand.

What a logo really represents

A logo is much more than decoration. It’s a visual representation of your company’s mission, values, and personality. It acts as a shorthand for your brand—instantly connecting audiences to your story, your quality, and your purpose.

When thoughtfully designed, a logo conveys confidence, trust, and authenticity. It helps customers feel they’re in the right place and that your brand aligns with what they need or believe in.

Why a logo matters

1. First impressions count

Your logo is often your brand’s handshake—it’s on your website, business cards, social channels, and product packaging. A polished, professional logo signals credibility and care, reassuring customers that your business is legitimate and trustworthy.

2. Creates brand recognition

Consistent logo use builds familiarity. Over time, it helps people instantly recognize your business among competitors. Think of iconic examples like Apple’s apple, Nike’s swoosh, or FedEx’s hidden arrow—each evokes an immediate response and emotional connection.

Here’s one example of a Visible Logic–designed logo that captures the business’s unique vision and brand personality—crafted by our award-winning design team.

This example comes from our work with SimKit, a medical education startup. Visible Logic helped develop their brand from the ground up—including the name, logo design, website, and marketing launch. Their team shared,

“We just had our advisory committee meeting and showed off your awesome work. People were very impressed!”

— Jason Hine, SimKit Founder

SimKit’s brand identity reflects its mission to simplify medical training and deliver (literally in a box that comes monthly) consistent, high-quality education—showcasing how a well-designed logo can express both vision and purpose.

View more logos designed by Visible Logic.

3. Builds trust and loyalty

Consistency builds trust. When customers see the same logo across your website, marketing materials, and signage, it reinforces reliability and professionalism. Over time, your logo becomes a symbol of your reputation and values.

4. Supports marketing and growth

A logo anchors your entire visual identity—from colors and fonts to social posts and marketing materials. That consistency strengthens every interaction your audience has with your brand, helping you stand out and scale confidently.

What makes a good logo

A strong logo should be:

• Simple – easy to recognize and remember
• Memorable – distinct enough to stand out
• Relevant – fits your brand’s values and audience
• Versatile – works across print, digital, and large or small formats
• Timeless – won’t feel dated in a few years

Scalability and functionality matter

A great logo works everywhere it appears—on a website favicon, social profile, tradeshow banner, or product packaging. Scalability ensures your logo maintains its integrity and readability at any size, while functionality ensures it works across formats, color modes, and real-world applications.

If your current logo doesn’t scale well or feels outdated in certain contexts, it might be time for an update. We cover this topic more in our post on when and how to refresh your logo.

Wordmark logos

Not every brand needs a symbol. A wordmark logo—built entirely from stylized typography—can be the perfect solution for companies that would struggle to represent their product or service with a graphic. Wordmarks build strong name recognition and make your company name itself iconic. Well-known examples include Coca-Cola and FedEx, both of which rely solely on typography to make a lasting impression.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Relying on DIY or template-based designs that don’t align with your brand personality.
• Overcomplicating the design or chasing trends that quickly look outdated.
• Ignoring scalability—your logo needs to look just as sharp on a website favicon as it does on signage or packaging.

A professional designer ensures your logo looks cohesive and effective everywhere your brand appears.

The role of strategy in logo design

A successful logo doesn’t happen by accident. It’s grounded in strategy—built to reflect your brand’s values, appeal to your target audience, and support your business goals. 

A logo should never be designed in isolation. It must grow out of a deep understanding of your organization—its mission, positioning, and the people it serves. Professional designers look beyond aesthetics, aligning visual identity with messaging, tone, and long-term business and brand strategy. This ensures that the logo not only looks great but also communicates meaning and drives connection.

How Visible Logic approaches logo and brand development

At Visible Logic, we take a structured, strategic approach to logo design—one that integrates brand strategy, creative development, and measurable outcomes.

1. Discovery

We start with Branding Compass, our proprietary tool that clarifies your brand vision through data-driven research and expert facilitation. Every team member has an equal voice, helping uncover alignment and discord early. This process builds clarity and consensus, setting a strong foundation for design.

2. Benchmark

Before we start creating, we define what a successful brand should look and feel like. Together, we set measurable goals and establish clear benchmarks to evaluate creative concepts. Everyone agrees on what “success” means before any design begins.

3. Creative development

Here’s where your brand comes to life. We develop the visuals and messaging that define your brand:

• Brand strategy, differentiation, and positioning
• Naming, logo, and visual identity
• Key messages, brand guidelines, and website

If our creative concepts don’t meet the benchmark, we return to refine them—ensuring every element truly represents your brand.

This full-circle process ensures your logo isn’t just beautiful—it’s purposeful, measurable, and effective.

Invest in a logo that represents your brand

A great logo does more than make your brand look good—it helps customers trust you, remember you, and choose you. Investing in a professionally designed logo is investing in your credibility and long-term success.

At Visible Logic, we help organizations create logos that capture who they are and connect with their audiences. Take a look at our brand case studies to see how a strong logo can elevate a brand’s presence and performance.

The post The Importance of Having a Logo appeared first on Visible Logic.

Visible Logic is proud to announce that we’ve been honored with a Gold Award in the AVA Digital Awards for our redesign of the Aspen Systems website under the Web-Based Production category.

The AVA Digital Awards, administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), is an international competition that recognizes outstanding achievement in digital creativity, branding, and strategy. Celebrating excellence across web design, digital campaigns, social media, video, and more. The AVA Awards honor professionals whose work exemplifies innovation and impact in the digital space.

Entries are judged individually—not against each other—based on creativity, quality, and resourcefulness. Judges assess each submission solely on its own merits, with Gold Awards given to entries representing exceptional achievement in digital communication.

The project: transforming aspen systems’ digital presence

Our winning project, Transforming Complex ERP Software into Clear Value for Food Industry Leaders, highlights the website redesign we developed for Aspen Systems, a leading provider of ERP software for food processors and distributors.

Aspen Systems’ flagship platform, Canopy, offers specialized solutions for managing complex food industry operations. However, their previous website struggled to convey the sophistication of the platform and its real-world benefits to potential clients.

Visible Logic partnered with Aspen Systems to create a modern, intuitive, and strategically structured website that reflects their expertise and clearly communicates business value. The redesign included:

• A refreshed, professional design system that showcases Aspen’s leadership in the food technology sector
• Restructured information architecture for easier navigation through complex product features
• A benefit-driven content strategy that translates technical capabilities into tangible business outcomes
• Enhanced storytelling through client success stories and testimonials
• A simplified CMS that empowers Aspen’s internal team to maintain and update the site with ease

The result is a website that not only looks polished and professional but also serves as a powerful marketing tool—helping Aspen Systems connect with prospects, build credibility, and drive qualified leads.

Recognizing strategy, craft, and creativity

Winning Gold at the AVA Digital Awards reflects Visible Logic’s commitment to clarity, creativity, and strategy in every digital experience we design. It’s a testament to how thoughtful design and messaging can transform even the most technical B2B offerings into compelling stories that resonate with decision-makers.

At Visible Logic, we help B2B tech and SaaS companies elevate their digital presence, clarify complex ideas, and drive measurable results. Our team blends strategic insight with award-winning design to build brands that stand out—and sometimes even bring home the gold. Explore our brand case studies to see how Visible Logic has helped other B2B and SaaS companies transform their brands and digital experiences.

Ready to transform your website?

Let’s make your next redesign not just a success—but award-worthy.

The post Visible Logic Wins Gold at the AVA Digital Awards for Website Redesign Excellence appeared first on Visible Logic.

Many B2B companies believe the sales process begins when a prospect fills out a form or requests a demo. In reality, most buyers are already 57–70% through their decision-making process before ever reaching out to sales.

By the time someone lands on your contact page, they’ve already been researching, comparing, and forming opinions about your company and your competitors. The question is: did your brand show up along the way?

Understanding the modern B2B customer’s journey

The traditional linear funnel—awareness, consideration, decision—has evolved dramatically. Today’s B2B buyers are self-directed and digitally empowered, relying heavily on online research, peer validation, and industry reviews before engaging with any sales rep.

For companies offering complex or technical products, this journey tends to be even longer and more nuanced. It often involves multiple stakeholders—engineers, product users, procurement specialists, and financial decision-makers—each with their own priorities and questions.

Your job as a brand? Make sure each of them can find the answers they need—before they ever speak to you.

What happens during the self-education phase (that crucial 57–70%)

Before a prospect ever appears in your CRM, they’re out there actively gathering information. They’re reading product comparisons, scanning case studies, downloading white papers, and evaluating your competitors’ websites.

In complex sales, each stakeholder is assessing a different aspect of your offering:

• Technical users want to know if your product integrates with their existing systems.
• Financial decision-makers are calculating ROI and long-term value.
• Executives are looking for strategic alignment and risk mitigation.

If your messaging doesn’t speak to these perspectives—or worse, if your brand isn’t visible where they’re looking—you risk being filtered out before the conversation even starts.

Creating content that guides buyers before they call you

To reach B2B buyers early, your content must meet them where they are in the journey. That means developing materials tailored to each stage:

• Awareness: Educational blog posts, explainer videos, or infographics that clarify the problem your product solves.
• Consideration: Case studies, comparison guides, and webinars that show how your solution stacks up.
• Decision: ROI calculators, product demos, and testimonials that reinforce confidence in choosing you.

The goal is to make your brand the trusted resource that simplifies complex decisions. When buyers finally reach out, they’ll feel like they already know—and trust—your company.

Turning features into business value

Complex products often come with long lists of features and specs. But buyers don’t make decisions based on specs alone—they want to understand what those specs mean for their business.

A feature-driven message speaks to what your product does.
A benefit-driven message explains why it matters.

For example, instead of saying “Our software offers real-time analytics,” say “Our software helps teams make faster, data-backed decisions.” The shift connects emotionally with decision-makers while still reassuring technical audiences that the product delivers substance.

By translating technical strengths into business outcomes (features vs. benefits), you bridge the gap between the engineers who use your product and the executives who approve the purchase.

Mapping touchpoints that build trust

Before reaching your website, B2B buyers explore multiple digital touchpoints. Review sites and industry directories such as G2, Capterra, Forrester, and Gartner often play a major role in shaping perceptions—especially in SaaS and B2B tech.

That means consistency matters.
Your brand’s message, visuals, and tone should align across all channels.

Accurate and well-managed listings not only strengthen credibility but also boost your SEO visibility—increasing the chances that the right buyers find you first.

Common mistakes B2B companies make

Even the most innovative companies can lose ground early in the B2B customer’s journey. Some common pitfalls include:

• Relying too heavily on direct sales outreach instead of building an educational content strategy.
• Producing content that’s overly technical or focused only on features.
• Neglecting brand consistency or design quality can undermine trust.
• Ignoring key research platforms where buyers validate vendors, like G2 or industry directories.

Avoiding these mistakes helps you stay in the conversation while competitors fade into the background.

How Visible Logic helps B2B brands engage buyers earlier

At Visible Logic, we help complex B2B brands educate, engage, and earn trust earlier in the buying process.

From clear messaging and benefit-focused storytelling to cohesive branding and digital presence management, we help your company show up confidently where your buyers are looking.

Because when your brand communicates clearly—before they ever call—you’re already halfway to the sale.

If you’d like to see this approach in action, take a look at our brand case studies. You’ll see how Visible Logic has transformed B2B brands—especially in the SaaS and tech sectors—helping them clarify their message, strengthen credibility, and connect with the right audiences earlier in the journey. 

The post The B2B Customer’s Journey for Complex Products: What Happens Before They Call You appeared first on Visible Logic.

As your business grows, your brand needs to grow with it. What worked at launch (your logo, messaging, and visual identity) may no longer reflect your expanded offerings, new markets, or evolved company mission. Rebranding for scale isn’t just about looking fresh; it’s about creating a systemized, flexible brand that supports growth, resonates with diverse audiences, and communicates your value consistently.

In this guide, we’ll walk through a step-by-step process for rebranding for growth, including evolving your visual identity, refining your messaging, and systemizing brand elements to match organizational growth.

1. Assess your current brand

Before making changes, you need to understand what you have. Conduct a thorough audit of your existing brand assets, including your logo, typography, color palette, imagery, and messaging. Ask:

• Does the current brand accurately reflect the company today?
• Are there inconsistencies across platforms or touchpoints?
• What elements are worth keeping because they carry brand recognition?

This assessment sets the foundation for a rebrand that balances continuity with growth.

2. Define your brand’s next stage

Rebranding for growth starts with clarity on where you’re headed. Revisit your mission, vision, and core values. Identify new audiences or markets you want to reach. Then establish guiding principles that will steer all visual and messaging decisions. A clear, strategic foundation ensures your rebrand is aligned with business objectives and long-term growth.

3. Visual identity evolution

Your visual identity is the most immediate representation of your brand. As your company scales, consider:

• Logo refresh: Modernize without losing recognition.
• Updated design elements: Refresh your color palette, typography, and imagery to reflect your new positioning.
• Scalability: Ensure your design works across digital, print, social media, and physical signage.

See how Visible Logic has helped clients like STARC, where we revamped their brand to better support their growth with a new logo, brand style, and marketing materials. We also partnered with Group Market Share, helping this growing software company successfully rebrand into Retego with a fresh visual identity that reflected its evolution and future direction.

4. Messaging refinement

Visuals tell part of your story, but messaging communicates your value. Focus on:

• Translating growth and new offerings into clear, compelling copy.
• Developing value propositions for multiple audiences, including B2B clients, partners, and end users.
• Auditing tone and voice to ensure consistency across websites, campaigns, and sales collateral.

Marketing is about more than explaining features; it’s about connecting with your audience in ways that are memorable, meaningful, and aligned with business goals.

5. Systemize brand elements

A scalable brand is a systemized one. Standardize:

• Brand guidelines for internal and external teams.
• Templates for presentations, social media, and digital assets.
• Modular design elements that can accommodate future product lines or services.

Systemizing your brand ensures consistency and reduces duplication across departments. This also allows new team members to adopt the brand quickly.

6. Launch strategy

Rebranding for scale isn’t complete until you roll it out. A strong launch includes:

• Internal alignment: Ensure employees and stakeholders understand and embrace the refreshed brand.
• External rollout: Plan timing, messaging, and channels to introduce your updated brand to clients, partners, and the public.
• Monitoring and iteration: Gather feedback and adjust your rollout as needed to maximize impact.

7. Maintain and evolve

Your brand should grow alongside your business. Schedule periodic audits to ensure your messaging, visual identity, and systems remain aligned with company objectives. Use data and feedback to make updates without losing the core elements that make your brand recognizable and trustworthy.

Future-proofing your brand

As your company grows, your brand should be able to grow with it. A scalable brand is one that can adapt as you introduce new products, enter new markets, or expand your team, without losing recognition or consistency. Future-proofing your brand means thinking beyond today’s design trends and building a flexible visual and messaging system that can evolve over time. This approach ensures your brand continues to look modern, stay relevant, and communicate your value, no matter how your business changes.

Rebrand for Growth with Visible Logic

Whether you’re evolving your visual identity or refining your messaging, rebranding for growth requires a thoughtful strategy and the right creative partner. At Visible Logic, we help growing businesses build brands that scale. From logo design and brand systems to messaging frameworks and marketing materials, our team creates cohesive, flexible identities that can evolve alongside your business. Our award-winning design work ensures your brand isn’t just refreshed for today, it’s ready for what comes next. 

Take a look at our recent branding case studies to see how we’ve helped companies successfully evolve for growth. Imagine what your rebrand could look like with Visible Logic as your partner.

The post Rebrand for Scale: A Step-by-Step Guide for B2B Businesses appeared first on Visible Logic.

Engineers excel at building innovative, technically sound products. They understand architecture, performance, and the smallest details that make a product work flawlessly. But even the most advanced product won’t succeed if customers don’t understand why it matters.

Marketing bridges that gap. Not by repeating specs word-for-word, but by translating technical brilliance into clear, compelling stories that drive adoption, build trust, and connect with decision-makers. Without this translation, even the best products can struggle to reach their audience.

The downside of using engineers’ specs as marketing copy

Engineering teams are incredible at building products, but translating technical brilliance into messaging that resonates with customers is a different skill set. Simply copying engineers’ specs or technical descriptions won’t communicate value, solve problems, or connect emotionally with buyers. Here are some common problems that occur when marketing uses what engineers write without changing it:

• Too focused on technical details –  Simply presenting features doesn’t communicate why they matter to the customer. This is a classic features vs. benefits problem. For example, a processor speed or database capacity is impressive, but it won’t sell itself or explain why it matters.
• Jargon-heavy communication – Technical language can confuse or alienate non-engineering stakeholders.
• Lack of emotional connection – Buyers want solutions that make their work easier, their business more efficient, or their lives less stressful. Specs alone can’t communicate that.

The key takeaway: marketing shouldn’t just copy engineers’ words. It should translate them into benefits that resonate with customers.

Common pitfalls to avoid

What happens when engineering teams take the lead on marketing copy:

• Letting engineers “do it all” and unintentionally alienating customers.
• Focusing only on features in presentations, demos, or sales decks.
• Underestimating the need for brand and messaging consistency across all channels.
• Leading with jargon-heavy content that only technical users understand.

How marketing complements engineering strengths

Rather than copying specs, a skilled marketing partner enhances engineers’ efforts. They ensure that complex specs are distilled into benefits for executives, ROI-focused insights for CFOs, and ease-of-use messages for end users. In this way, marketing doesn’t replace engineering. It amplifies its strengths by: 

• Translating features into benefits – Marketing converts specs into clear value statements that show why a feature matters.
• Crafting a consistent brand voice – Engineers focus on functionality; marketers ensure messaging resonates across websites, pitch decks, and sales materials.
• Telling stories, not specs – Case studies, testimonials, and real-world examples connect with buyers in a way raw technical data cannot.
• Creating emotional resonance – Marketing helps products feel approachable, relevant, and indispensable to the people who use them.

Together, the two disciplines ensure that both the technical depth and the business value are represented. 

Real world example

In this example of a sales sheet we created for a client, you can see how technical specs are translated into benefits for the consumer.

The power of marketing and engineering partnerships

Engineers and marketers bring different but equally critical skills to the table. And when they collaborate effectively, they create messaging that goes beyond technical specs. This partnership leads to:

• Clearer communication. Marketing translates technical strengths into language that resonates with all stakeholders.
• Stronger market positioning. Instead of sounding like every other tech company, your brand demonstrates unique value.
• Faster sales cycles. Decision-makers understand the business benefits sooner, reducing time spent clarifying technical details.
• Higher adoption rates. Customers not only buy the product but also know how it will make their lives easier.

In short, marketing doesn’t dilute the message from engineering. It sharpens it. And when these strengths are combined, companies can communicate their innovation in a way that connects, persuades, and sells.

What engineering teams should look for in a marketing team

Not all marketing teams are created equal. When evaluating a partner, engineers should look for:

• Industry fluency – The team understands how to translate complex, technical products into benefits customers actually care about, not just repeat specs.
• B2B/SaaS experience – Proven track record in selling complex solutions to multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to build trust – Messaging should feel authentic and credible.
• Strong collaboration skills – Respect for engineering expertise while guiding strategy.
• Proof of success – Case studies, measurable results, and a portfolio that demonstrates outcomes.

How Visible Logic can transform your engineering team’s effort into sales success

At Visible Logic, we help engineering teams turn their technical expertise into marketing that actually connects with customers. We don’t just copy specs, we translate them into benefits, outcomes, and stories that resonate with every stakeholder.

Our experience across B2B and SaaS industries ensures messaging that strengthens credibility, positions products for adoption, and drives measurable results. By combining technical insight with marketing strategy, we help engineers bring their vision to market in a way that grows both awareness and sales. Explore our branding case studies to see how we’ve helped other companies transform technical brilliance into real-world impact.

The post Why Marketing Shouldn’t Just Copy Specs from Engineers (And What to Do Instead) appeared first on Visible Logic.

When it comes to selling a product, especially in B2B or tech, many businesses make the mistake of leading with technical specifications. They highlight the processor speed, the number of integrations, the size of the database, or the layers of security. While these specs matter, they rarely seal the deal on their own.

Why? Because customers don’t buy specs. They buy outcomes. If you want to win over decision-makers, users, and stakeholders alike, you need to translate features into benefits and show how your product solves real problems.

Why technical specs alone don’t sell

Specs often fail because they focus on the “what” instead of the “why.” If you’ve ever seen a product pitch that rattles off numbers, acronyms, and technical jargon, you know how quickly eyes can glaze over. 

A spec sheet assumes the buyer is already an expert. But in reality, buyers often aren’t. A CFO evaluating your software, for example, doesn’t necessarily care about how many integrations your platform has. At least, not at first. What they care about is how it will save money, reduce risk, or make their team more efficient. Here is a breakdown of where specs fall short:

• Focus on features, not value. Specs tell what a product does, not why it matters. “99.9% uptime” is a feature. “Never worry about costly downtime again” is a benefit.
• Lack of understanding and jargon. Technical details can overwhelm or confuse audiences. If a CFO or non-technical buyer can’t understand the value behind the specs, you’ll lose buy-in.
• No emotional or human connection. Specs are sterile. Benefits, like saving time, reducing stress, or unlocking growth, connect on a human level.
• Doesn’t address pain points. Features don’t always connect back to the specific challenges your audience is trying to solve. It’s much easier to bring an emotional connection to your benefits.
• Assumes customer expertise. Not every buyer has the technical background to interpret specs. Benefits bridge the gap.
• Inability to show proof of value. A feature is just a claim until you show how it impacts results. Without benefits tied to outcomes, the numbers lack weight.

Why benefits matter more than features

Benefits translate specs into business value. They explain why your product matters and how it makes life better for your client. For example:

• A secure cloud platform (feature) becomes peace of mind for IT teams and executives (benefit).
• Faster processing speed (feature) becomes more productive and results in fewer wasted hours (benefit).
• Custom integrations (feature) become smoother workflows and less double-entry (benefit).

By focusing on benefits, you help decision-makers see the bigger picture. Your product doesn’t just work: it solves problems, reduces costs, improves efficiency, and drives growth.

A better way to sell

If specs aren’t the answer, what is? How do you shift from specs-first to benefits-first? The key is to start with a value-driven sales approach that builds on customer outcomes.

• Customer pain points and desired outcomes. Start by identifying what your customers want to avoid (wasted time, errors, security risks) and what they want to achieve (growth, savings, efficiency).
• Benefits and solutions. Frame your product as the solution to those challenges. Specs should support, not lead.
• Simple value propositions. Distill benefits into clear, memorable statements that resonate with your audience.
• Emotional connection. Speak to the human side of your buyer: ease of use, peace of mind, trust.
• Strategic use of specs. Specs should reinforce claims once the value is established. For example, “Our customers save 10 hours per week thanks to our automation. That’s possible because our platform integrates with over 200 tools.”
• Sell to multiple layers of an organization. In B2B, the end user, technical team, and executive leadership all have different priorities. Tailor benefits to each: usability for users, security for IT, ROI for executives.
• Back up your claims. Case studies, testimonials, and data points prove that your benefits aren’t just marketing spin.

How to translate features into value

One of the easiest ways to reframe features into benefits is to ask a simple question: “So what?” Below is a simple framework to ensure you’re always selling benefits, not just specs. After each step, you’ll want to ask yourself, “So what?”

1. List the feature. Example: “Real-time analytics dashboard.”
2. Ask: What does this do? “Gives immediate access to performance data.”
3. Translate into a benefit. “Helps managers make faster, more confident decisions.”
4. Tie it to business value. “Which leads to increased efficiency and quicker growth.”

By laddering up from the feature, the action it performs, the immediate benefit, and the broader business value, you can make even the most technical detail resonate with decision-makers. 

Example (Tech/SaaS):

• Feature: “Single sign-on (SSO).”
• What does this do: “Provides a way for individuals to log into various applications and programs using just one login.”
• Benefit: “Users don’t waste time juggling passwords.”
• Business value: “Improves security, reduces IT support tickets, boosts efficiency, and saves costs.”

Common mistakes to avoid

It’s tempting to stick with specs. They feel safe and measurable. But leaning too heavily on them leads to common pitfalls:

• Using jargon that alienates non-technical buyers.
• Assuming features speak for themselves.
• Forgetting to connect specs to pain points or emotions.
• Ignoring proof of success, like case studies or customer stories.

A specs-first approach can even weaken your pitch if competitors offer similar numbers. Benefits are where differentiation truly happens.

Bonus Tip: Avoid lengthy, wordy presentations. Nothing loses an audience faster than a presentation overloaded with technical details and jargon. When you focus too heavily on features, it’s easy to fall into this trap. Your message becomes long-winded and hard to follow. Instead, framing your message around benefits keeps your delivery clear, concise, and engaging. By showing how your product solves real problems, you’ll hold attention and create stronger connections with your audience.

How Visible Logic can help

At Visible Logic, we specialize in helping businesses translate their features into meaningful benefits. Whether you’re a SaaS startup or an established B2B company, our team knows how to position your product around outcomes that matter to users, technical buyers, and executives alike.

We combine strategic messaging with compelling visuals to ensure your brand tells the full story, not just what your product does, but why it matters. That’s how you cut through the noise, justify your pricing, and connect with the people who make buying decisions.

Take a look at our client work to see how we’ve helped other businesses move beyond specs and highlight the real value of their products.

The post Features vs. Benefits: Why Specs Don’t Sell Your Product appeared first on Visible Logic.

Your logo is one of the most recognizable parts of your brand. It appears everywhere, on your website, social media profiles, business cards, packaging, and even in your customers’ minds. But no matter how timeless a design may seem, there often comes a point when it no longer reflects who you are or where your business is headed. That’s when it’s time to consider a logo refresh.

A refreshed logo doesn’t always mean starting from scratch. Sometimes, it’s a matter of subtle changes that modernize your look while preserving the brand recognition you’ve worked hard to build. In this guide, we’ll explore when to make the change, how to do it right, and what to avoid along the way.

When should you refresh your logo?

Not every business needs to change logos every few years. But there are clear signs that yours might be ready for a makeover:

1. Your business has evolved.
   If your offerings, mission, or target audience have shifted since your last logo design, your visuals should evolve too. For example, a local coffee shop that’s now selling products nationwide may need a more versatile and scalable design.
2. Your logo looks dated.
   Design trends change. Gradients, bevels, or ultra-thin fonts that felt fresh in 2010 might look tired today. If your competitors have sleek, modern marks while yours feel stuck in another era, customers may assume your business is behind the times.
3. It doesn’t work well digitally.
   Logos designed for print don’t always scale well for social media avatars, app icons, or website favicons. If your logo loses detail or becomes illegible when small, it’s time to update your logo.
4. It’s not memorable.
   A generic or overly complex design is harder to recognize. Strong logos are simple, distinctive, and work in a variety of contexts.

Spotting these warning signs early can help you stay ahead of the curve. A thoughtful, refreshed logo not only solves today’s challenges but also positions your brand to grow confidently into the future.

Why is refreshing your logo important?

A logo refresh isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s a strategic move. Updating your visual identity can:

• Signal growth and innovation. A refreshed logo tells customers you’re adapting, improving, and staying relevant.
• Improve recognition. Simplifying shapes or typography can make your logo easier to spot in a crowded feed or busy storefront.
• Build trust. People naturally associate professional, modern design with professionalism and quality service.
• Support multi-channel marketing. A new design can ensure your brand looks great in all formats, from digital to print.

For some companies, redesigning a logo is part of a full rebrand. Our guide on five reasons to rebrand your business explains when that bigger step might be right.

How to refresh your logo

Wondering how to update a logo without losing the brand recognition you’ve built? Follow these steps:

1. Audit your existing logo.
   Identify its strongest features (color palette, symbol, font style) and decide which elements should stay. You’ll want to retain important aspects of your logo that maintain brand recognition with your loyal consumers. A good logo refresh builds on brand equity rather than starting from zero.
2. Define the purpose of the update.
   Are you trying to modernize? Improve legibility? Appeal to a new audience? A clear goal will guide the design process.
3. Research competitors and industry trends.
   Look at other brands in your space. Avoid trying to copy them, but identify where your logo stands out or falls short.
4. Work with a professional designer.
   Even minor adjustments benefit from an experienced eye. They can ensure your refreshed design is balanced, scalable, and visually consistent.
5. Test the design.
   See how it looks on business cards, signage, websites, and social profiles. If it doesn’t hold up across formats, tweak before launch.

A successful logo refresh strikes the balance between evolution and continuity. By refining what already works and aligning your design with today’s needs, you’ll create a logo that not only resonates now but also supports your brand’s vision.

Best practices for updating your logo

A refreshed logo should strike the right balance between creativity and consistency. Following these best practices will help you update your logo in a way that strengthens brand recognition and supports your long-term goals.

• Keep what works. Don’t throw away brand recognition by making drastic changes without reason.
• Simplify when possible. Minimalist designs often age better and are easier to use across platforms.
• Think about future use. Will this design still feel fresh in five years? Can it adapt to new products or markets?
• Test in different sizes and backgrounds. Your refreshed logo should work as a tiny icon and on a large billboard.
• Consider accessibility. Choose colors with strong contrast and legible fonts.

The golden rule for designing logos
Great logos don’t happen by accident. They’re guided by a few timeless principles. Professional designers often rely on six “golden rules” when redesigning a logo or giving an existing brand mark a refresh:

• Simplicity: Clean, uncluttered designs are easier to recognize and more versatile.
• Memorability: A logo should leave a lasting impression after just one glance.
• Timelessness: Avoid overused trends so your design still feels relevant years from now.
• Versatility: Your logo should look just as strong on a billboard as it does in a social media icon.
• Relevance: The design needs to align with your industry, audience, and brand personality.
• Uniqueness: A distinctive logo helps you stand apart from competitors.

In addition to these rules, many iconic brands have leaned on the golden ratio in their logo design. This mathematical proportion (1:1.618) creates natural harmony and balance, qualities that make a logo more visually appealing. Famous examples include Apple, Pepsi, and Twitter (before its transition to X).

If you’re wondering how to update a logo so it feels balanced and effective, applying these principles is a smart place to start. For a deeper dive, our article on the best shape for a logo can help you evaluate your current design.

What to avoid when updating your logo

When updating your logo, avoid these common pitfalls, which can harm your brand identity and recognition:

• Following short-lived fads. That hyper-trendy look might be outdated within a year.
• Making it unrecognizable. If customers can’t tell it’s still you, you risk losing loyalty.
• Overcomplicating the design. Too many details, colors, or fonts can make it less versatile.
• Rushing the process. Skipping research and testing can lead to expensive mistakes.

Can you use AI to refresh your logo?

With so many AI tools available today, it’s tempting to wonder if you can simply hand over your branding to an algorithm. AI can be a useful starting point, helping you brainstorm ideas or spark creative direction. However, it has major limitations when it comes to refreshing a logo.

What are the negatives of using AI to update your logo?

If you’re considering using AI to update your logo, it’s important to consider the drawbacks:

• Lack of originality
  AI tools pull from pre-programmed templates and existing design patterns. That means the results are rarely unique and may fail to reflect your brand’s distinct values or story.
• Unclear ownership and liability
  Logos generated by AI don’t always come with clear rights. Without proper ownership, you could run into legal or trademark challenges when trying to protect your brand identity.
• Limited customization
  AI might produce a simple synthetic logo, but it can’t accommodate detailed revisions, creative direction, or strategic design decisions the way a human designer can.
• Generic or outdated looks
  Because AI leans on existing designs, the results often appear generic or worse, outdated. Making it harder for your brand to not only stand out against competitors, but also to connect with your audience.
• Lacks human design thinking
  Great logos come from creativity, empathy, and judgment. AI can’t replicate the way a professional considers brand personality, audience perception, and emotional resonance in a design.
• Technical and compatibility issues
  Many AI-generated logos aren’t provided in the correct file formats or resolutions for long-term use. You may struggle with scalability, editing, or applying the design consistently across platforms.
• Lack of brand flexibility
  Most companies need multiple logo variations: horizontal, vertical, monochrome, transparent PNGs, high-resolution print files, and more. AI tools typically generate just one static version without the adaptability you’ll actually need.

AI can be a helpful brainstorming tool, but it shouldn’t be your solution when you’re redesigning a logo. To create a mark that’s original, adaptable, and legally protected, it’s worth investing in a professional designer who can ensure your refreshed logo aligns with your brand identity and business goals.

How often should you refresh your logo

There’s no set rule, but many businesses update every 5–10 years. However, your brand’s evolution should dictate the timing, not the calendar. Some companies make small tweaks more frequently to stay modern without committing to a full redesign of a logo. However, industry and audience expectations can give you a good benchmark.

For tech companies: Technology moves fast, and your visual identity needs to signal that you’re innovative and current. Many successful tech brands make noticeable logo refreshes every 5–7 years, with smaller tweaks in between. For example, here are two popular tech giants that have evolved their logos over time:

• Google has updated its logo several times in the last two decades. This includes moving from a serif font with bevel effects in the late ’90s to today’s clean, flat design in 2015. Each refresh is aligned with major product or design system changes. The most recent update is the “G” icon that happened in May 2025 to align it with its Gemini AI branding.
• Apple has also made subtle but impactful changes over time. This industry leader has refreshed their logo at least 7 times since the 1970s. Switching from the rainbow-striped logo to a sleek monochrome look that works seamlessly across devices and marketing channels.

For B2B product businesses: These companies often value stability and trust, so dramatic changes are less frequent. A good rule of thumb is to reevaluate your logo every 7–10 years to ensure it still resonates with your audience and reflects your positioning. Small updates (like color adjustments or font refinements) can happen more frequently without confusing your market.

The key is not to refresh on a rigid schedule, but rather to watch for signs that your logo is falling behind. Whether that’s due to design trends, evolving technology, or a shift in your target audience’s expectations.

What to do after you have refreshed your logo

Once your logo refresh is complete, it’s time to roll it out consistently. Here’s a quick checklist to help you with rolling out your refreshed logo:

• Update all touchpoints. Website, social media profiles, packaging, email signatures, ads. Everything should feature the new design.
• Announce the change. Share the story behind your refreshed look and how it reflects your growth. Sending out an enewsletter, writing a blog post, and sharing the news on social media are great ways to announce the update and keep in touch with your customers.
• Provide brand guidelines. Give your team clear rules on how to use the new logo to maintain consistency.
• Monitor feedback. See how customers respond and be prepared to make small adjustments if necessary.

Refresh your logo with Visible Logic

Refreshing your logo is more than just a design update. It’s about creating a visual identity that reflects your business today and resonates with your audience tomorrow. At Visible Logic, we specialize in helping businesses redesign logos that are not only visually striking but also emotionally meaningful.

Our team takes the time to understand your brand’s mission, values, and goals, then translates that into a refreshed logo that builds recognition and trust. With over 20 years of experience, we’ve guided organizations across industries through the process of updating their logos with designs that stand the test of time.

We’re proud to share that Visible Logic recently won four awards in the 25th annual GDUSA Digital Design Awards, placing us among the top 10% of more than 3,000 entries. This recognition highlights our commitment to design excellence and strategic branding.

Curious about the impact of a professional logo refresh? Take a look at our past client work to see how we’ve helped businesses update their logos and branding to better connect with their audiences and stand out in competitive markets.

When you’re ready to refresh your logo with a partner who understands both design and strategy, Visible Logic is here to help.

The post How to Know When & How to Refresh Your Logo appeared first on Visible Logic.

Sometimes, you nail a project—and it still doesn’t launch.

That’s exactly what happened after Visible Logic helped bring the Eastern Maine Life Sciences & Technology Hub of Excellence to life. We created a compelling brand identity for the state-funded initiative: a memorable name, a distinctive logo, a comprehensive style guide, and a fully developed website. Every deliverable hit the mark. The client was thrilled.

And then… the organization disbanded before anything went live.

From an impossible name to a memorable brand

This initiative started with a mouthful: Eastern Maine Life Sciences & Technology Hub of Excellence. Try fitting that on a business card.

We streamlined it to EMSTAR, short for the Eastern Maine Science, Technology & Academic Region. The name retained the integrity of the original while creating something people could actually remember and use.

The brand centered around a stylized star, with colors pulled from Maine’s natural environment. We developed a full visual system and guidelines to support an organization that would rely heavily on partnerships and volunteers.

The website laid the groundwork for everything EMSTAR hoped to achieve, built around clear themes: study, discover, innovate, thrive. The messaging spoke not only to professional opportunities but also to the quality of life in Eastern Maine.

Every piece worked together. The strategy was sound. The design was thoughtful. The identity was clear, compelling, and well-executed. The client loved it.

So what happened? Bureaucratic shifts. Changing priorities. Funding reallocated. The usual suspects in public initiatives. Through no fault of the project or the team, EMSTAR never launched. But that doesn’t diminish the work.

Not all great brands successfully launch or survive

As creatives, we do a lot of work that never sees the light of day. First as a design student, you develop brand identities, websites and brochures for pretend organizations and these completed projects never get printed or go live. As an agency we almost always present multiple creative solutions—multiple logo designs or website mockups to choose from. There’s actually significantly more work that doesn’t get all the way to the finish line compared to what does.

Great branding has value, even if it never goes public. The thinking, the problem-solving, the collaborative process all contribute to learning and growth. EMSTAR taught us a lot: How to brand a state-funded initiative, how to navigate complex stakeholder dynamics, and how to build flexibility into a brand designed for collaboration.

We’re disappointed that the organization has disbanded and still wanted to showcase our thoughtful brand work.

What this means for your next branding project

Branding isn’t just about the final logo or website. It’s about the strategy and clarity that come from working with experts who understand how to bring big, complicated ideas to life.

That value doesn’t disappear if plans shift.

At Visible Logic, we create brands that are built to adapt—because we know that business realities change. Timelines move. Teams reorganize. The strongest creative work can weather those changes and even set the stage for future success.

Your brand should work hard, no matter what comes next

Your product or service deserves branding that clarifies, connects, and converts. Markets shift. Organizations evolve. Regulations change. But when you invest in clear communication and smart brand development, you’re positioned for success, whatever direction things take.

Ready to build a brand that delivers lasting value? Let’s talk.

The post When Great Branding Work Never Sees the Light of Day appeared first on Visible Logic.

Visible Logic has been honored with four awards in the 25th annual GDUSA Digital Design Awards, placing us among the top 10% of over 3,000 entries in this prestigious competition. 

The GDUSA Digital Design Awards recognize the power of design to enhance online and interactive experiences across websites, social media, email marketing, digital ads, publications, video, and more. Our work for UNAR Labs, Maine Technology Institute (MTI), and Aspen Systems showcases our ability to transform complex information into clear, engaging digital communications. Read on for some background on the projects that were recognized.

UNAR/Morf website

Mathematics has long been a barrier for visually impaired students due to its visual nature and complex notation. UNAR developed a revolutionary technology to address this challenge, and we helped bring their solution to market. We coined the name “Morf” to evoke the software’s transformative ability to morph inaccessible mathematical content into accessible formats. 

Our work included creating a distinctive logo that balanced technological innovation with approachability. We then developed clear messaging that explained the complex capabilities in benefit-focused language, designing an accessible website that showcased the product’s features, and creating informational graphics that made the innovative process understandable for non-technical audiences.

MTI impact video

For their 25th anniversary, Maine Technology Institute (MTI) wanted a compelling visual narrative to showcase how their funding programs directly impact Maine’s entrepreneurs and economy. Our video effectively balances personal testimonials with institutional messaging, creating an emotionally resonant tool that MTI can use for outreach, education, and stakeholder engagement while reinforcing their essential role in Maine’s innovation ecosystem.

MTI e-newsletter

MTI was in need of a digital communication vehicle that could showcase funding opportunities and success stories to Maine’s innovation stakeholders. The e-newsletter we created features color-coded sections, strategic CTA buttons, and balanced content serving both entrepreneurs seeking funding and stakeholders tracking economic development, all while maintaining MTI’s cohesive brand identity.

Aspen Systems website

When Aspen Systems’s outdated website failed to showcase their industry leadership and the advanced capabilities of their specialized ERP platform for food processors, they turned to Visible Logic to sharpen their competitive edge. Working collaboratively with Aspen’s team, we created a modernized design system, balancing professional credibility with accessibility through clean layouts, enhanced testimonial presentations, and industry-specific photography. Plus, we transformed technical specifications into benefit-focused messaging while preserving SEO value.

We’re thrilled to be recognized for our work!
Looking for award-winning designs for your next project? Book a discovery call to get started!

The post Visible Logic Wins Four Awards in the 2025 GDUSA Digital Design Awards™ appeared first on Visible Logic.

The web development landscape has exploded with options since WordPress launched in 2003. We’ve built sites on everything from Squarespace and Drupal to Wix and even custom-coded content management systems (CMS). But over the years, we’ve found our choice of platform is always driven by our clients’ needs.

We work with small businesses, non-profits, start-ups, and solopreneurs—people who are often wearing many hats and don’t have time to wrestle with overly complex platforms.

That’s why we keep coming back to WordPress.

Here are five reasons we prefer WordPress for small businesses and what’s changed since we first started recommending it. 

1. Your team will actually use WordPress

WordPress has mastered something many platforms haven’t: it’s actually easy for non-technical users to learn and use. We’ve watched many of our clients struggle with developer-friendly platforms that are intimidating for anyone without coding experience. WordPress strikes the perfect balance. The block editor (introduced in 2018) makes content creation intuitive, while advanced users can still access the flexibility they need.

Your marketing team can publish blog posts without calling IT. Your sales team can update case studies without waiting weeks for developer availability. When your team can manage content independently, your website becomes a living, breathing asset instead of a static brochure.

2. WordPress scales with growing businesses

WordPress powers 43 percent of all websites globally, including major enterprise sites like The New York Times, Sony Music, and The Walt Disney Company. This isn’t the simple blogging platform it started as.

Today’s WordPress handles complex integrations seamlessly. Need to connect your customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation platform, and analytics tools? There’s likely a plugin for that. Want to add e-commerce? Simply add WooCommerce. How about membership areas or custom databases? There are plenty of options for these, too. WordPress can handle it without rebuilding from scratch.

For growing B2B companies, this scalability is crucial. You’re not locked into a platform that works today but becomes limiting as you expand.

3. The WordPress ecosystem keeps getting stronger

WordPress is more than a website platform. It’s a huge network of tools, plugins, and people who are constantly improving what it can do. Yes, there are great forums and tutorials, but there’s also a steady stream of new features inspired by real business needs.

• Gutenberg, the WordPress block editor, makes it easy to create a polished design without hiring a designer. 
• Managed hosting options offer built-in security features and expertise to safeguard large-scale deployments. 
• Third-party security plugins offer vulnerability scanning, malware removal, and real-time threat detection. 
• Popular WordPress performance plugins can dramatically speed up your site—matching the performance of big-budget solutions—by optimizing images, refining code, and caching pages.

Because the WordPress ecosystem is so active and diverse, there’s often a ready-made solution for challenges you haven’t even run into yet. As your business grows or changes, WordPress can grow with you.

It’s also incredibly well-connected—if you want to integrate with a CRM, marketing automation tool, or other third-party platform, chances are there’s already a plugin or API built for it. WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS, and that means nearly every major software company builds with WordPress compatibility in mind.

4. You own your web content—and your destiny

With WordPress, you’re in control. Unlike proprietary platforms that lock you into their ecosystem, WordPress is open source—meaning your content, design, and site functionality are yours to keep. You’re not tied to a single vendor, host, or developer. If you need to migrate, WordPress’s export tools make it simple. Want to switch developers or bring work in-house? There’s a global community of WordPress experts ready to step in.

This level of ownership gives you long-term flexibility and leverage. You can evolve your site as your business grows, adapt to new tech without rebuilding from scratch, and avoid the risks of platform lock-in. If you’re building something meant to last, that kind of freedom matters more than the latest bells and whistles.

5. WordPress delivers measurable results

Not only is WordPress easy to use, it’s built to support your business goals. The powerful SEO features give you fine-tuned control over the things that impact your search rankings. And with the flexibility to build custom landing pages, improve conversion paths, and connect with your favorite marketing tools, your website becomes a real growth engine. 

Sure, some of the newer content management platforms are impressive. But for many small businesses, these tools can introduce more hassle than they’re worth—adding layers of complexity or limiting what you can do without a developer.

Is WordPress right for your business?

WordPress makes sense if you want:

• A website that grows with your business
• Content management your team can handle independently
• Flexible integration with your tech stack
• Ownership of your digital assets
• Proven performance at scale

When is it not the right choice? If you need a simple landing page, have zero technical resources, or want a completely hands-off solution, there are better options.

Need help clarifying whether WordPress fits your business goals? We offer free website and messaging assessments to help you make the right platform decision.

The post 5 Reasons We Recommend WordPress for Small Businesses appeared first on Visible Logic.

Your prospects are drowning in technical terms—and it’s pushing them away from your product.

When your marketing is packed with industry jargon, acronyms, and insider language, you’re building walls instead of bridges. Prospects don’t have time to decode what you’re saying. They need to understand your value quickly, or they’ll move on to a competitor who speaks their language.

The real cost of speaking in code

Every piece of jargon in your messaging creates friction. 

Your CFO prospect doesn’t care about your “API-first architecture with microservices deployment.” They want to know if your solution will save money and reduce risk.

Your end users don’t need to understand your “machine learning algorithms with predictive analytics capabilities.” They want to know if your tool will make their job easier and help them get home on time.

When you use language that only insiders understand, you’re essentially telling prospects: “This isn’t for you unless you already know what we know.” That’s not a winning sales strategy. And it’s not hypothetical—research shows that B2B websites have just seconds to make an impression. If buyers don’t “get it” fast, they’re gone.

What buyers actually want to hear from your business

What do your prospects actually want? Not buzzwords. Not a rundown of how your technology works. They want to know how you help them succeed. Specifically:

• A clear problem they recognize: Start with the pain point. Your audience doesn’t think in frameworks—they think in frustrations.
  Instead of “optimize operational inefficiencies,” try “eliminate the manual tasks that keep your team working late.”
• A simple promise of benefit: Lead with outcomes, not inner workings.
  “Reduce customer support tickets by 40%” hits harder than “AI-powered sentiment analysis with automated routing protocols.”
• Evidence that you understand their world: Use their language, not yours.
  If your audience says “inventory,” don’t call it a “stock management system.” If they say “budget,” don’t say “capital allocation framework.”

When your words reflect how your buyers think, you build trust—and traction.

A translation test

Here’s a quick way to check if your messaging is too technical: Can someone outside your industry understand it in 10 seconds?
Try this: take your homepage headline and read it to a friend who doesn’t work in your field. Ask them what your company does and who you help. If they can’t answer quickly, your language is too complex. Your product might be sophisticated, but your explanation doesn’t have to be complicated.

When technical details matter to buyers

We’re not saying to eliminate technical information. Just give it the right place and purpose.

Your buyers do need to know if your solution integrates with their existing systems or meets compliance requirements—but not right away. That information becomes valuable once they’ve already decided your product is worth considering.

Lead with benefits. Follow with features. Let your technical materials support the sale, not stall it.

Making the switch to simpler messaging

Simplifying your messaging doesn’t mean dumbing down your product. It’s about respecting your prospects’ time and attention. Start by identifying every piece of jargon in your current marketing. Then rewrite each term in plain language that emphasizes outcomes instead of processes.

Jargon: “Leverage our proprietary algorithms”
Plain speak: “Get accurate results faster”

Jargon: “Scalable cloud-native infrastructure”
Plain speak: “Grows with your business without IT headaches”

What’s the payoff of simplifying your message? Your prospects will actually read your marketing—and more importantly, they’ll finally understand why your product is worth buying.

Best practices for using acronyms

Acronyms are everywhere in business writing, especially in tech, marketing, and human resources. But using them without clear explanation can alienate your audience or create confusion, even among people who are “supposed” to know what they mean. Instead, spell it out, and explain what it means in context. 

Don’t just write out what the acronym stands for.  Clarify what it actually means in practical terms. For example:

• API (Application Programming Interface): Instead of stopping at the definition, explain, “An API lets different software programs talk to each other, like syncing your payroll system with your accounting software.”
• MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead): Rather than assuming shared understanding, explain, “An MQL is someone who’s engaged with your marketing enough to be considered a potential customer. Every company defines this differently. Some look at email opens, others focus on demo requests.”

Don’t assume shared definitions. Even when someone knows what the letters stand for, the meaning can vary. For example:

• KPI (Key Performance Indicator): These are performance metrics, but what counts as “key” depends on your company’s goals.
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management): It’s not just a database. It’s the system you use to track interactions and manage customer relationships.

Define the phrase on first use. Write out the full term the first time, followed by the acronym in parentheses: customer relationship management (CRM). After that, you can use just the acronym.

Tailor your depth of explanation. If your audience is mixed (technical and non-technical), always err on the side of over-explaining.

Use links or hover-over tips (in digital formats) to offer quick definitions without disrupting flow.our marketing—and more importantly, they’ll finally understand why your product is worth buying.

Need help clarifying your messaging? 

Visible Logic specializes in helping B2B companies communicate complex products and services in ways that prospects actually understand. We dig deep to see the whole picture, then simplify and organize complexity so your message resonates with buyers. Ready to fix your brand? Contact us to get started.

The post Stop Using Jargon: Understand What Buyers Actually Want (and Boost Sales) appeared first on Visible Logic.

Your software could be revolutionary. Your app might solve problems nobody else has tackled. But here’s the hard truth: you only have 55 seconds to convey that. If a visitor can’t understand what you offer in that time, you’ve lost them.

For software company websites, this is especially critical. Your website often is the sales pitch. Every element needs to work strategically to convert visitors into customers.

At Visible Logic, we’ve analyzed hundreds of software websites and partnered with companies from scrappy startups to acquisition-ready enterprises. The patterns are clear. Successful software websites consistently implement these 10 essential features.

1. Crystal-clear value proposition

The most successful software websites communicate their core benefit immediately. Within seconds of landing on your site, visitors should understand what your software does and how it benefits them. Your value proposition should be front and center, often in a concise headline with supporting sub-text and visuals. 

Think beyond feature lists. Focus on the transformation your software creates. Does it eliminate manual errors? Reduce processing time by 40%? Scale operations without adding headcount? Lead with that outcome.

2. Strategic CTA hierarchy

Multiple competing buttons create decision paralysis that kills conversions instantly. The solution lies in creating a clear hierarchy with one dominant primary action and strategically positioned secondary options.

Your primary CTA should dominate. Think “Start Free Trial” or “Schedule Demo” prominently placed in navigation and above the fold. Secondary actions like “Learn More” or “See Pricing” belong in supporting positions where they enhance rather than compete with your main conversion goal. 

3. Targeted, benefit-driven messaging for your ideal customer

Features tell, but benefits sell. Your prospects don’t care that your SaaS platform uses a proprietary AI engine. They care that it cuts invoice processing time from days to minutes and eliminates 95% of manual data entry. Lead with transformational outcomes, then support them with technical details. 

Also, consider who your product is for. What problems do they face? How does your software solve them? What does success look like? Structure your messaging around the customer journey. What bottlenecks are finance teams facing? How does your software streamline their workflows? What does success look like in 30, 60, or 90 days?

4. Interactive product demonstrations

A recent study by Gartner found that 40% of buyers prefer to watch product demos before making a software purchase. Consider embedded demos, clickable prototypes, or sandbox environments where users can explore core functionality. This helps users visualize the experience and reduce uncertainty about how the product works.

5. Clean, professional web design with intuitive navigation

Web design affects how people perceive your credibility. A cluttered or outdated design can create doubt about your software’s quality. Visitors should be able to find key information quickly. Clear navigation, intuitive page flow, and well-organized content reduce friction and keep users engaged. Use clean layouts, ample white space, and modern typography to inspire confidence. 

6. Strategic social proof 

B2B buyers need validation that others have succeeded with your solution. Highlight logos of current clients, customer testimonials, and third-party reviews. But generic testimonials won’t cut it. Share specific customer outcomes, metrics, case studies, and third-party reviews. Real customer stories with measurable results outperform marketing copy consistently.

7. Trust signals and security indicators

Security concerns can derail software sales instantly. Beyond social proof, make sure you’re reinforcing credibility with security badges, press mentions, compliance statements (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.), or “as seen in” logos. Display uptime guarantees, performance metrics, and customer support availability. These elements may seem minor, but they address fundamental purchase objections before they arise, especially for B2B buyers who need confidence in your platform’s reliability.

8. Conversion-optimized pricing pages

The pricing page is often the most-visited website page for software company websites. Don’t make people dig to find what they need. Even if your pricing is custom or complex, give enough detail to set expectations.

Essential elements:

• Clear feature comparisons between tiers
• Social proof integrated throughout
• ROI calculators or value demonstrations
• Prominent free trial or demo options
• Annual vs. monthly pricing incentives

The best pricing pages build confidence in the purchase decision and demonstrate the value your software provides.

9. Mobile-optimized, fast-loading performance

A great website doesn’t just look good—it performs. Did you know that most users expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less? Page speed directly impacts both user experience and SEO, making performance optimization a competitive necessity.

Your software company website must function flawlessly across all devices. And that means more than just having a responsive layout. Mobile optimization includes fast load times, touch-friendly navigation, and layouts that adapt cleanly to smaller screens. Because if your site frustrates users on mobile, they won’t stick around.

10. Strategic SEO foundation and content architecture

Your website needs to capture prospects throughout their entire evaluation process. That means informational content should be available for early-stage researchers, comparison-focused pages for evaluation phases, and solution-specific landing pages for ready-to-buy visitors.

Forward-thinking startups plan for the expansion of web content with flexible navigation that accommodates new features, resource sections for documentation and support, and blog architecture that supports thought leadership.

11. Advanced analytics implementation

Understanding how users interact with your site is key to making smarter marketing and UX decisions. But advanced analytics go far beyond pageviews and bounce rates. With the right setup, you can track conversion paths, identify drop-off points, analyze content engagement, monitor demo and trial signups, and attribute conversions across multiple campaigns and channels.

Tools like Google Analytics 4, when configured strategically, unlock insights that can significantly improve conversion rates and reduce customer acquisition costs. Ultimately, your software website should continuously inform how you attract, convert, and retain them.

The bottom line: your website is a growth engine

Building an effective, well-designed and technologically sound website is a massive undertaking and critical to the success of your software or app. It’s not a project that should be an afterthought or rushed. Ready to transform your software’s digital presence? Contact Visible Logic today to get started.

The post 10 Must-Haves for High-Converting Software Company Websites appeared first on Visible Logic.

When you sell a complex product or service, explaining your value to potential customers can be tough. You need to clearly communicate what you do, how you solve problems, and why you’re different—all in a way that your audience understands and finds engaging. That’s where your value proposition comes into play.

Let’s look at how to craft a unique value prop that clearly explains what you offer, speaks to your audience, and sets you apart from the competition.

UVP vs. USP vs. elevator speech

You’ll hear terms like unique value proposition (UVP) and unique selling proposition (USP) thrown around a lot. There’s no universal agreement on what makes them different, and honestly, it doesn’t matter what you call it. What matters is creating a clear message that shows customers what’s in it for them. Whether you call it a UVP, USP, or just your value statement, the goal is the same: explain how you solve problems and why you’re the right choice. Don’t just list features—focus on the benefits your customers will actually experience.

Many people also confuse a value prop with an elevator pitch, but they serve different purposes. An elevator pitch is a quick, general introduction meant for people you’ve just met—often when you know little about their background. Your value proposition, on the other hand, is crafted with a specific audience in mind and is usually used when you have a better understanding of who you’re talking to.

What makes a good value prop?

A good unique value proposition tells customers what your product does, what problems it solves, how you’re different, and what benefits they can expect. For tech and specialized businesses, this is tricky. You need to show your expertise without confusing or overwhelming your audience.

Think about a pizza parlor. They don’t need to explain what pizza is. They just tell you why their pizza is better. But if your product or service is more complex, you can’t assume people already understand what you do. If you skip over the details, your message might end up too vague or too full of jargon.

Here’s how this might look for a fictional data analytics company:

Too simple: DataTech helps businesses make better decisions.

Too complex: DataTech integrates multi-source data streams using machine-learning algorithms to optimize efficiency and create actionable intelligence.

Just right: DataTech analyzes your business data to find waste and predict trends, helping banks save money and make better decisions.

Why generic value statements don’t work

Many specialized businesses use general language like, “We help our clients succeed.” The problem? Almost every business says something similar. It doesn’t explain what makes your work different or valuable.

Instead, you need to say what field you work in, who your clients are, what problems you solve, and how you do it differently. The more specific you are, the easier it is for potential customers to understand your value—and the more clearly you’ll stand out from the competition.

However, too many high-tech businesses overload their value proposition with jargon or buzzwords. People aren’t impressed by complicated terms. They want to know if your product or service will help them solve real problems, work more efficiently, or grow their business. Keep your message clear, relevant, and easy to understand.

Adjust your message to different audience—without the jargon

Your unique value proposition should change depending on who you’re talking to. When speaking to others in your field, it’s okay to include technical details. They’ll understand and appreciate the nuance. But for people outside your industry, use plain language and simple examples. For general audiences, focus on outcomes like saving money, saving time, or making life easier.

How to create your unique value prop

When writing your value proposition, try this approach:

• Say what you do—in plain language.
• Name the specific problems you solve.
• Explain how you solve them differently than others.
• Use words your audience understands.

You’re aiming for a message that follows the Goldilocks principle: not too vague, not too technical—just right.

Is your unique value proposition working?

Ask yourself: Would someone outside your industry get what you do? Does it show why you’re different? Does it address problems your customers have? Can you say it in under 30 seconds?

Your value prop should be short—just one to two sentences, three at most. If you can’t say it in 30 seconds, it’s too long. Think of your value proposition as the opening line that gets the conversation started. Once someone is interested and asks questions, then you can dive into additional benefits, specific product features, and technical details. But all of that extra information isn’t part of your core value proposition. Keep it focused on the main problem you solve and why you’re the right solution.

If you’re having trouble explaining your complex business, we can help. Visible Logic helps complicated brands clarify their message so they can attract more customers and grow. Reach out today to learn more.

The post Why Your Unique Value Proposition Isn’t Working—and How to Fix It appeared first on Visible Logic.

The theme of this year’s Communicator Awards, “Communication is Connection,” aligns perfectly with Visible Logic’s mission to help brands clarify their message and connect with audiences. Our winning project, “25 Years of Catalyzing Maine’s Innovation Economy— MTI 2024 Annual Report,” tackled the challenge of transforming complex financial data into an engaging, accessible visual narrative for Maine Technology Institute’s special 25th anniversary edition. 

With thousands of entries received from across the United States and around the globe, The Communicator Awards remains one of the largest and most competitive programs honoring excellence in marketing, communication and creative work. Receiving the Award of Excellence demonstrates our commitment to clear, compelling marketing that connects with diverse audiences.

To view more of Visible Logic’s award-winning work, click here. For more information about The Communicator Awards, visit communicatorawards.com.

The post Visible Logic Wins Award of Excellence at 31st Annual Communicator Awards  appeared first on Visible Logic.

Building web content is like rolling a snowball down a hillside. Start with one thoughtful piece, and watch how it gathers momentum, size, and impact as it moves through digital channels.

When you create web content that simultaneously builds brand authority, improves SEO, and increases visibility, you’re getting more than eyeballs—you’re creating a self-reinforcing cycle of growth.

The foundation: web content that works harder

Here’s what makes web content powerful for complex brands in our experience: every piece can serve multiple strategic purposes simultaneously.

Consider a technical blog post that explains a complex industry challenge. Done well, it:

• Establishes thought leadership in your space
• Answers specific questions your prospects search for
• Reinforces your brand voice and expertise
• Creates shareable content for social media and email campaigns that drive traffic back to your site

We’ve seen how a single piece of web content can create ripple effects. Our client DAVO’s in-depth blog posts about sales tax brings in organic traffic, while positioning them as thought leaders, improving their domain authority, and becoming a resource for prospects to reference during sales conversations and on social media.

Building momentum: content that compounds

The magic happens when your web content builds on itself. Each new piece:

• Strengthens your search visibility with more indexed pages
• Develops your unique perspective that becomes part of your brand
• Creates more opportunities for internal linking
• Provides fresh material to share across social media and email campaigns
• Drives traffic back to your website from multiple channels

Think about a series of technical how-to guides or industry analysis pieces. Individually, they answer specific questions. Together, they create a comprehensive resource that demonstrates deep expertise and captures search traffic from multiple related queries.

Accelerating growth: the snowball effect in action

When web content truly succeeds, it creates a self-reinforcing cycle:

• Quality content ranks higher: Search engines reward in-depth, valuable content
• Higher rankings bring more visitors: More people discover your expertise
• More visitors engage with your brand: They explore other content, subscribe, or share
• Your content gets shared across channels: Email newsletters, social media, and industry forums amplify your reach
• Multiple traffic sources point back to your website: Strengthening domain authority and engagement metrics
• Increased engagement signals quality: This further improves your search rankings
• The cycle continues: Each piece builds authority for all your content

This is why a company’s 20th blog post performs better than their first, even with the same level of effort. The accumulated authority and interconnected content create momentum that amplifies individual efforts.

5 steps to creating your own content snowball

1. Identify your content sweet spot: Find topics where your expertise intersects with your audience’s most pressing questions
2. Create content that serves multiple goals: Each piece should advance thought leadership while targeting specific search queries
3. Build on what works: Use analytics to identify your most successful content, then create related pieces that expand on those topics
4. Connect the dots: Link related content pieces together, creating a web of resources that keeps visitors engaged and improves SEO
5. Amplify across channels: Share each piece through social media, email newsletters, and other channels to drive traffic back to your website

The beauty of this approach? Your efforts compound over time. Six months of consistent, strategic web content creates a foundation that amplifies everything you publish afterward.

Are you creating web content that builds on itself, or are your pieces standing in isolation? When you approach content creation with this snowball effect in mind, each post becomes an investment in your long-term digital presence and brand authority.

Ready to start building your content snowball? The momentum starts with your next post. Contact Visible Logic to learn more.

The post The Compounding Power of Branding, Content, and SEO appeared first on Visible Logic.

Remember when creating letterhead meant designing a layout, ordering specialty paper, and feeding it through the printer just right? Those days are largely behind us. Today, with most communication happening electronically, it’s time to bring your branding into the digital age.

A professional, consistent digital letterhead is essential for reinforcing your brand identity across every touchpoint, from client proposals to internal memos. Let’s take a look at how to create and implement digital letterhead templates that keep your branding polished, consistent, and practical for everyday use—and how Visible Logic can help.

Why digital letterhead matters

Digital letterhead solves a surprising number of headaches—especially for growing teams and hybrid work environments. Just some of the benefits include:

• No more printer jams or specialty paper
• Consistent branding across all office locations and remote workers
• Easy sharing and real-time collaboration
• A professional appearance—on screen or in print

Most importantly, it prevents the “Frankenstein effect,” where every department (or individual) creates their own version of branded documents. With the right templates in place, your team stays on the same page—literally.

Your digital template toolkit

There are a few main ways to create digital letterhead, depending on what software your organization already uses. Here are two of the most common approaches:

Microsoft Word templates

Microsoft Word is still a staple in many workplaces, and for good reason. You can:

• Create a branded master document with your logo, colors, fonts, and contact info
• Save it as a reusable .dotx template
• Distribute it to your team for consistent use

These templates are easy to manage and don’t require internet access, making them great for traditional office environments or teams that rely on printed documents.

Google Docs templates

If your organization uses Google Workspace, Docs offers a modern, cloud-based alternative:

• Access templates from any device
• Collaborate in real time
• Roll out updates across your team without re-sending files
• Eliminate version control issues

Google Docs templates are especially useful for remote teams or organizations with frequent cross-team collaboration.

Go beyond letterhead: build a full template system

It’s important to remember that your brand isn’t confined to a single page. It shows up in every document your team creates and sends. From internal reports to client presentations, every piece of communication is an opportunity to reinforce your professionalism and visual identity.

That’s why it’s important to think beyond just letterhead. A consistent, well-designed system of templates not only saves time, it ensures your brand stays strong and cohesive in every scenario:

• Presentations (PowerPoint or Google Slides)
• Reports, proposals, and white papers
• Invoices, estimates, and receipts
• Email signatures

Creating a cohesive system of branded templates helps you boost brand recognition across every client or partner interaction—and saves your team time recreating the wheel.

Why work with a design professional

Sure, you can create basic templates in-house—but here are some compelling reasons to bring in a professional partner, including:

• Ensuring compatibility and design consistency across software versions and platforms
• Getting expert help with advanced formatting and design hierarchy
• Creating a library of templates that cover all your communication needs
• Receiving training or documentation so your team actually uses them correctly

At Visible Logic, we help organizations streamline their communications by creating branded digital template systems. We start by understanding your current workflow and challenges, then develop practical, flexible solutions your team will adopt with confidence.

Looking to build or refine your brand’s digital templates?

Digital letterhead templates are more than a modern convenience. They’re a key part of your brand infrastructure. When done right, they create clarity, consistency, and professionalism across every communication.

Visible Logic can help you create a full system that supports your team, simplifies your processes, and strengthens your brand identity. Let’s talk about yours today.

Whenever we design an identity project for a new company or service we usually create a letterhead as part of the logo package. The letterhead design gets sent off to the offset printer and the client has a ream of beautifully designed and printed stationery paper. But in this internet age, many people are sending letters, proposals, estimates, etc. only as electronic files. So if you use Microsoft Word to write letters, it makes sense to have an electronic version of your letterhead.

To ensure that we are able to design a cohesive look and feel for our client’s electronic letterhead, we start by creating many of the elements in either Illustrator or Photoshop and then pull them into Word.

I put together a video showing how to create an electronic version of a letterhead design. The tutorial includes how to get your graphic images to bleed to the edge of the page by overriding the margin settings in the header and footer area.

Not sure you have all the graphic elements ready to create your own electronic letterhead? Need a professional graphic designer to help you? Contact us and let us design both your printed and electronic stationery.

The post From Paper to Pixel: Creating Digital Letterhead Templates for a Stronger Brand appeared first on Visible Logic.

“Can you send that photo?” When clients request logos, photos, or artwork, we always ask how they’ll use the image. Why? Because the correct file type and color format directly impact how your brand appears in different media.

Here’s a straightforward guide to the most common color systems and when to use each one.

PMS = Pantone Matching System

The Pantone Matching System consists of thousands of numbered color swatches. Most corporate brand colors are identified with a specific PMS number. These are also called “spot colors.”

Think of it like choosing paint for your walls: you select from color swatches by number, and the color is pre-mixed before application. This system works best for materials using one or two primary colors, such as logos, business cards, or letterhead.

Benefits of PMS colors:

• Most accurate color matching
• Sharper details

CMYK = Cyan, magenta, yellow, black. Also called 4-color, or process

CMYK refers to full-color printing, also called 4-color or process printing. When you need to reproduce photographs or complex graphics, this is your go-to system.

For every shade and color, CMYK determines the percentage of each of the four inks needed. These percentages translate into tiny dots that your eye blends to see the full spectrum of color.

When to use CMYK:

• Any printing that includes photographs
• Projects with multiple colors beyond what’s practical for spot colors
• Digital printing (most digital printers use CMYK)

Full-color offset printing always uses CMYK. Large presses can accommodate the four process colors plus additional Pantone colors when necessary—for instance, when you have photos requiring CMYK but also need exact color matching for a logo.

What ink type is best for my print job?

Before the rise of digital printing, it was often less expensive to print one-two color jobs, rather than in full color. This was because there were fewer printing plates. If you had a small job like a batch of business cards, they were designed and printed to use PMS colors.

Nowadays, small print runs are created on high-end digital printers, which do not use Pantone colors. So, you can use as many colors as you like and it will not increase the cost.

RGB = red, green, blue

RGB is the color system for everything digital—computer monitors, televisions, phones, and tablets. The critical distinction: PMS and CMYK are for print, while RGB is for digital applications.

Web Safe colors are a subset of 216 RGB colors that display consistently even on limited-capability monitors. Though most modern screens can display millions of colors, some web design code still references this palette.

Remember: even with “web safe” colors, the same color will appear differently across devices due to screen brightness, lighting conditions, and individual display settings.

Hex code color formulas

Hex color codes, short for hexadecimal, convert RGB values into a six-digit numbering system. They’re represented like #RRGGBB, where RR represents the amount of red, GG represents green, and BB represents blue, each with values ranging from 00 to FF.

RGB and Hex values denote the same color values using different naming systems.

Always provide the right file format

Providing the correct file type and color profile ensures the most accurate color reproduction and avoids technical problems.

While professional designers can convert between color formats, some systems cannot handle incorrect formats, causing colors to render incorrectly or files to fail completely.

Best practices for brand colors

When developing a new logo or brand identity, define your colors in all systems. Many people only note the Hex # and leave out the rgb values because it’s essentially the same information. 

As an example, Visible Logic’s green is:

• PMS: 376
• CMYK: 50% cyan, 0% magenta, 100% yellow, 0% black
• RGB: r140, g198, b63
• Hex code: #8cc63f (for web)

Keep in mind that some colors translate more consistently across systems than others. Unusual or extremely vibrant colors can be particularly challenging to match precisely between print and digital formats.

Why this matters for your brand

So, what do color systems have to do with the success of your business? When your brand colors appear inconsistently across different media, it creates subtle confusion for your audience. For businesses with complex products or services, the last thing you want is to add cognitive friction through inconsistent visuals. Every element of communication should be precise and intentional—including your colors. Consistent color use is a fundamental part of that clarity.

When we work with clients in technical fields, specialized software, or innovative services, we ensure their brand colors translate correctly across all applications—from technical documentation to marketing materials, from print collateral to digital platforms. This consistency helps simplify, clarify, and organize complexity.

Need help ensuring your brand colors appear consistently across all your marketing channels? Contact Visible Logic for expert guidance.

The post CMYK, RGB, PMS: Color Systems Defined appeared first on Visible Logic.

When designing a logo, one of the important decisions is choosing the right shape. Your logo’s shape works silently but powerfully, influencing everything from social media engagement to conversion rates. Whether you’re launching the next iconic brand or simply trying to get more clicks on your ads, shapes can communicate a lot more than you realize. Let’s explore what determines the best shape for a logo.

The horizontal rectangle: still a classic choice

Historically, a horizontal rectangle was considered the ideal shape for a logo. This didn’t mean the logo itself had to be a rectangle, but rather that the overall proportions worked best within these dimensions.

Why does this shape work so well? The horizontal rectangle mirrors our natural field of vision and appears in many everyday contexts from movie screens to computer monitors. Our eyes can quickly scan and absorb information presented in this format. Even today, as digital platforms evolve, this format remains highly effective for ensuring logos are easily recognizable and adaptable across various devices and layouts.

Square logos: essential for digital presence

Square logos have become increasingly important with the rise of social media and mobile apps. While many platforms display profile images as circles, they require a square format for proper positioning. Social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn use square images that are often cropped into circles, making it crucial for brands to design logos that work well within both shapes. Additionally, app icons and favicons are typically square, reinforcing the need for this versatile format.

A well-designed square version of your logo should:

• Maintain brand recognition
• Be legible at small sizes
• Work well at various resolutions
• Translate effectively to a favicon

Many established brands have adapted by creating square versions of traditionally horizontal logos or by extracting recognizable elements that can stand alone in a square format. Take Microsoft, for example. While the full wordmark is horizontal, Microsoft uses its four-color square icon independently for app icons, favicons, and social media.

Importance of responsive logo design

The modern approach to logo design embraces responsiveness—creating versions that adapt to different contexts while maintaining brand identity. Your logo system might include:

• Primary logo (Horizontal): Best for websites, letterheads, signage, and general branding
• Square/circular variant: Ideal for social media profiles, app icons, and places where a compact version is needed
• Simplified mark: Useful for favicons, watermarks, and very small-scale branding needs
• Vertical stack: Works well in narrow spaces where the horizontal version wouldn’t fit

Each variation maintains core brand elements while optimizing for specific display requirements.

The challenge of long business names

Companies with lengthy names face particular challenges. When working with a long name, consider:

• Creating a monogram or abbreviated version
• Developing a distinctive icon that can stand alone
• Using a stacked arrangement for certain applications
• Exploring creative typography that works in compressed spaces
• Considering a descriptor line that can be added or removed depending on the application

Many of our clients, particularly those with complex services or products, have successfully navigated this challenge by developing a flexible system. On the other hand, you can also focus on building your brand to a level where it can be recognized by an acronym, like MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation).

Logo shape psychology

Beyond practical considerations, shapes communicate subconscious messages:

• Circles: Unity, community, continuity, protection
• Squares/Rectangles: Stability, balance, professionalism, reliability
• Triangles: Direction, energy, progress, action
• Horizontal lines: Calm, tranquility, reliability
• Vertical lines: Strength, growth, authority

Consider how your logo shape aligns with your brand values and industry expectations. 

There’s always the option of combining shapes, which often helps communicate more complex brand stories. For example, the integration of squares (stability) with dynamic elements (innovation) helps establish both trustworthiness and forward-thinking capabilities.

Finding balance in logo shapes

Your logo should work as both a functional asset and a powerful brand symbol. By aligning shape psychology with your brand’s message, you create a logo that’s not just visually appealing—but strategically meaningful. The ideal approach balances:

• Practical application needs: where and how your logo will appear
• Brand personality: what shapes reinforce your values
• Industry context: what shapes are expected in your field
• Differentiation: how your shape helps you stand out

Your logo shapes your future: time to get it right

While the horizontal rectangle remains an excellent all-purpose shape, today’s brands need a flexible system of logo variations. The best shape for a logo depends on your specific brand needs, industry, and application requirements.

When developing a new logo or refreshing an existing one, plan for adaptability from the start. A well-designed logo system provides shapes for every context while maintaining consistent brand recognition.

Need help developing a flexible, effective logo system for your brand? Contact Visible Logic to discuss how we can help you create a logo that works across your marketing.

The post What Is the Best Shape for a Logo? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Did you know that 74% of consumers judge a brand’s credibility based on its visual presentation? When it comes to professional communication, typography isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about precision that communicates competence and attention to detail.

Professional designers have long observed that punctuation marks rank among the most commonly misused elements in business communications. Let’s dive into how to properly use these subtle but powerful typographic elements to elevate your brand’s professionalism.

Hyphens, em dashes, and en dashes: what’s the difference?

Hyphens (-)

The hyphen is the smallest of these marks, used primarily for compound words or when breaking words at line ends. For example: “The user-friendly interface impressed our client.” Simple to type—just use the key next to zero on your keyboard.

Em dashes (—)

Em dashes are the widest of these marks—approximately the width of the letter “m”—and create strong breaks within sentences. They’re perfect for emphasizing a point or inserting a clarifying thought.

Pro tip: Em dashes should not have spaces around them. On Mac, use shift-option-hyphen. In Microsoft Word, typing two hyphens will often automatically convert to an em dash. In HTML you can use the alpha code: —

En dashes (–)

En dashes sit between hyphens and em dashes in width and are used primarily for ranges: “Pages 15–42” or “The meeting runs 1:00–2:30 PM.” On Mac, create with option-hyphen.  In HTML use the alpha code –

Quotation marks vs prime/hash marks: a small distinction with big impact

One of the most prevalent typographic errors in business communications is the confusion between proper quotation marks and prime/hash marks.

Quotation Marks (” “)

These curly marks frame speech or quoted material. They’re also used for titles of articles or shorter works.

Important note: Quotation marks should never be used for emphasis. This growing trend actually undermines your message. When you write: Our “premium” service… readers might interpret this as sarcasm rather than emphasis.

Prime/hash marks (′ ″)

These straight marks are specifically for measurements: “The new office space is 20′ × 15′.” Using these for quotations is a typographic error that can make your content appear less polished.

A note about typography and HTML

Keep in mind that HTML environments may present challenges for proper typography. Unlike print design software, which offers precise control over characters and spacing, HTML environments can be inconsistent in how they render typographic elements. Issues like auto-converting straight quotes instead of using proper curly quotation marks, incorrect dash substitutions, and font rendering inconsistencies across browsers can make it challenging to maintain typographic precision.

Why does typography matter for your business?

Typography is more than just choosing the right font—it’s about precision, clarity, and professionalism. While most businesses focus on colors, logos, and layouts, small typographic details like dashes and quotation marks often go unnoticed. Yet, these subtle elements can shape how your brand is perceived. Misused punctuation can make content look unpolished, while proper typesetting signals credibility and attention to detail. 

Typography can:

• Signal professionalism and attention to detail
• Enhance readability and comprehension
• Distinguish your brand from competitors who overlook these elements
• Reinforce brand consistency across all touchpoints

6 typography implementation tips for modern businesses

Here are some quick tips that can ensure your printed materials, presentations, and brand assets demonstrate a level of professionalism that clients and partners will notice:

1. Enable “smart quotes” in your word processing and design software.
2. Create a typography guide as part of your brand standards.
3. Utilize keyboard shortcuts for special characters to save time.
4. Double-check marketing materials and presentations, where typography errors are most visible.
5. Consider a proofreader with typography knowledge for important documents.
6. Partner with a professional graphic designer to ensure visual accuracy and consistency.

Remember, in business communication, how you present your message is just as important as the message itself. These details might seem insignificant, but they contribute significantly to how your brand is perceived with your competitors.

For more tips on maintaining a polished, professional brand, be sure to stay up to date with Visible Logic’s blog. Contact us today to book a discovery call.

The post Typography Matters: How to Properly Typeset Dashes, Quotation Marks, and More in Business Communications appeared first on Visible Logic.

When was the last time you asked yourself whether your brand still reflects who you are today? Businesses evolve, and what once felt like a perfect fit may no longer capture your vision, audience, or market position. A rebrand can signal an exciting new chapter in your company’s evolution.

But a rebrand isn’t just a new logo—it’s an opportunity to realign your brand’s positioning, messaging, and identity with your current value proposition.

For many business owners and marketers, the idea of rebranding can feel daunting. But even industry giants like Apple, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola have evolved to stay relevant. Adaptation isn’t just an advantage—it’s a necessity.

Why rebranding matters now more than ever

While rebranding certainly requires investment in both time and resources, the potential returns can be enormous. A well-executed rebrand injects new energy into your company, reinvigorates your team, and reconnects you with your audience in meaningful ways.

But how do you know when it’s time? While there’s no universal formula, certain situations clearly signal the need for a brand refresh. Here are five compelling reasons to rebrand your business.

1. Your company has evolved beyond its original identity

Has your business expanded its offerings, shifted its focus, or fundamentally changed its operational model? When your company undergoes change, your brand needs to keep pace.

Signs you’ve outgrown your brand:

• You’ve added new product lines or service categories
• Your target audience has expanded or changed
• Your business model has pivoted significantly
• You find yourself explaining “what we actually do now” in most introductions

For example, a financial services firm that began focusing solely on tax preparation might now offer comprehensive wealth management services. Or perhaps your B2B software company has expanded from a single-function tool to an integrated enterprise solution.

These evolutions alter who you are fundamentally as a company. When this happens, your current branding may no longer accurately represent your capabilities or appeal to your new target audience.

2. Your marketing strategy demands more sophisticated branding

Many successful businesses build their initial growth through referrals and word-of-mouth with minimal investment in formal marketing. But as you scale, this approach becomes limiting.

If you’re preparing to amplify your marketing efforts—whether through digital campaigns, content strategy, or traditional channels—your brand assets need to support these initiatives effectively.

Consider rebranding before scaling marketing if:

• Your existing brand assets don’t translate well across multiple channels
• Your visual identity lacks consistency or professional polish
• You don’t have established brand guidelines for voice, tone, and messaging
• Your current branding doesn’t project the level of expertise you deliver

Why invest in expanded marketing if your fundamental brand elements don’t effectively communicate your value? A cohesive, professional brand will provide the foundation that makes all your marketing efforts more effective.

3. You’re struggling to stand out in an increasingly crowded market

In business, differentiation isn’t optional—it’s essential. As new competitors enter your space and established players evolve their positions, your unique value proposition becomes increasingly important.

When you operated in a niche with limited competition, your brand might have been an afterthought. But as options multiply, consumers need compelling reasons to choose you specifically.

Signs your brand lacks differentiation:

• Prospects frequently compare you directly to competitors on price alone
• Your messaging sounds remarkably similar to competitors
• You struggle to articulate what makes your approach unique
• Your visual identity blends in with industry norms rather than standing out

A strategic rebrand can help you clarify and enhance what makes your company special, giving prospects clear reasons to choose you over alternatives.

4. Your visual identity appears outdated

Design trends evolve, and an outdated visual identity can subtly communicate that your company isn’t keeping pace with innovation. If you find yourself embarrassed by your logo, website, or marketing materials, it’s a clear sign that a refresh is overdue.

Visual branding elements that often need updating:

• Logos with dated typography, colors, or overly complex designs
• Websites with poor mobile optimization or outdated user experiences
• Inconsistent brand applications across different platforms and materials
• Visual styles that don’t align with your current market position

An updated visual identity signals that your company is forward-thinking and attentive to quality—important attributes in any competitive market.

5. Your business performance indicates the need for change

While rebranding shouldn’t be viewed as a magic solution for fundamental business problems, declining performance often signals the need to reevaluate your market position.

Perhaps your sales have plateaued, your lead generation has dropped, or your business simply feels stagnant. A thoughtful rebrand offers the opportunity to address underlying issues in how you communicate your value.

That said, keep in mind that rebranding alone won’t fix operational problems or product shortcomings. Before investing in a rebrand, ensure you’ve addressed any fundamental issues with your offerings or business model.

Is it time to rebrand your business?

A poor brand—one that misrepresents who you are or fails to communicate your unique value—creates friction in every marketing and sales conversation. It’s like swimming upstream.

Conversely, a well-executed rebrand can catalyze new growth by:

• Clarifying your value proposition for prospects and partners
• Energizing your team around a cohesive vision
• Providing a platform to reintroduce yourself to the market
• Conveying your company’s evolution

At Visible Logic, we help complicated brands clarify and communicate their message. Our approach digs deep to understand your business challenges, looks broadly at market opportunities, and delivers highly customized solutions that simplify complexity.Ready to explore whether rebranding makes sense for your business? Contact us for a free assessment of your current brand positioning and learn how we might help you communicate more effectively with your ideal clients.

The post Five Reasons to Rebrand Your Business appeared first on Visible Logic.

Sometimes the most powerful insights about business come from unexpected places. Take a simple park sign in Freeport, Maine, that perfectly demonstrates what leading brands know about brand communication.

The sign that says it all

Picture this. You’re leaving a peaceful campground in Freeport, Maine. Instead of seeing the standard “Drive Slowly” sign, you encounter one that reads “Drive Leisurely.” It’s carved in wood rather than stamped in metal. And while the typography might make a designer cringe, it delivers its message perfectly.

Why does this matter for your B2B brand? Because this simple sign demonstrates three critical principles of effective communication that apply whether you’re selling enterprise software or manufacturing equipment.

1. Word choice changes everything

The shift from “slowly” to “leisurely” isn’t just semantic—it’s strategic. “Slowly” is a command; “leisurely” is an invitation. In B2B communication, this subtle difference can transform how prospects perceive your message. Consider these contrasts:

Traditional B2B language → Evolved communication

• “Reduce costs” → “Optimize investment”
• “Increase efficiency” → “Transform operations”
• “Technical support” → “Success partnership”

2. Design reinforces message

The wooden sign’s rustic design is more than aesthetic. It aligns with the experience it promotes. Imagine if the same message were printed in bold, industrial-style lettering. The effect would be entirely different. Similarly, your B2B brand’s visual elements should reinforce your core message. 

Your visual identity—color palette, typography, imagery—shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should actively support your message and brand positioning. A sleek, minimalist design might signal innovation and efficiency, while a more traditional aesthetic could convey stability and trust. When your visuals and words work together, your brand becomes more compelling, credible, and memorable.

3. Context matters

The sign works because it matches its environment and audience mindset. Your B2B communication needs the same careful consideration of context. Are you speaking to:

• C-suite executives scanning for ROI?
• Technical teams evaluating implementation?
• Procurement specialists comparing specifications?

Each audience needs both message and design tailored to their context. A data-heavy white paper might resonate with technical teams, while a visually engaging infographic could be more effective for executives seeking high-level insights. Likewise, procurement specialists may respond best to clear, comparison-driven layouts, while end-users might need intuitive, benefit-focused messaging. 

Aligning both content and design with audience expectations ensures your communication is not only seen but truly understood and acted upon.

Applying these principles to your B2B brand

Effective brand communication isn’t just about what you say—it’s about how you say it. The right words, visuals, and context work together to shape perception, build trust, and drive action. So how can you apply these insights to your complex product or service?

Audit your current communications

• Does your word choice match your brand’s sophistication?
• Do your visual elements support or distract from your message?
• Are you considering context in both design and copy decisions?

Integrate design and copy from the start 

Don’t treat them as separate elements—they should be developed together, each informing the other. When our clients align design and messaging, they see a noticeable boost in engagement and understanding—often making their communication clearer and more effective.

Test with your audience 

Like that park sign, your communication should feel natural and appropriate to your audience. Regular testing and feedback can help ensure you’re hitting the mark.

Ready to better align your brand’s message and design? 

Just as that park sign achieves its goal through the perfect marriage of message and medium, your B2B brand needs both elements working in harmony. Start by examining one piece of your marketing material. Does the design reinforce the message? Does the copy complement the visuals? The answers might reveal your next strategic move.If you’re ready to elevate your brand with compelling messaging and design, schedule a consultation with Visible Logic.

The post Simple Signs, Powerful Lessons: What a Park Sign Can Teach Us About Brand Communication appeared first on Visible Logic.

Yes. And here are 7 reasons your B2B company needs one

Did you know that most B2B buyers—nearly 60 percent—research extensively online before they even consider reaching out to sales? This means your prospects are forming opinions about your business long before you have a chance to pitch. For companies with complex products or services, a well-executed blog can be the bridge between curiosity and conversion.

But are blogs still a thing? Absolutely. From building trust to driving leads, a blog isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a game-changer for B2B success. Here are seven reasons why—and how to make yours work effectively for your business.

1. Support modern B2B research 

The B2B buying process has fundamentally changed. Today’s decision-makers spend considerable time researching independently before engaging with vendors. For complex purchases, this research phase becomes even more critical as stakeholders need to thoroughly understand potential solutions. 

Your blog becomes a place for your prospects to find clear, helpful information during this pivotal research phase. Technical content demonstrates your deep understanding of industry challenges and shows real solutions to specific problems. This helps prospects evaluate fit before reaching out and builds confidence in your capabilities.

Pro tip: Map your prospects’ most common pre-purchase questions with Google’s “People Also Ask” results for your industry’s key terms—then create content that specifically answers these queries.

2. Showcase your expertise and build trust

In B2B, trust is everything. When you consistently demonstrate deep expertise, you build trust with prospects who value knowledge and want a partner who truly understands their challenges. A blog gives you space to share insights, thought leadership, and the “why” behind your products or services. By explaining your process, solving industry challenges, or offering tips, you can position your company as a trusted partner—not just another vendor.

Pro tip: Consider how you can share your team’s unique perspectives on industry developments, regulatory changes, or technical advances. 

3. Clarify complex solutions 

Think about the last time you researched a complex solution. You probably wanted to understand not just what it does, but how it works, why it works that way, and what makes it different from alternatives. Your prospects are no different. Through strategic blog content, you can explain technical concepts without overwhelming readers, break down complex processes into manageable pieces, and show exactly how your solution solves specific problems.

Pro tip: Explain complex concepts in clear terms while maintaining the sophistication your audience expects. 

4. Communicate with multiple decision-makers 

Complex B2B purchases never involve just one decision-maker. Technical teams need to understand implementation details and integration requirements. Financial decision-makers want clear ROI analysis and cost comparisons. Executive stakeholders focus on strategic benefits and competitive advantages. Your blog provides space to address all these perspectives thoroughly while showing how your solution delivers value at every level.

Pro tip: Create a content matrix that maps your key messages to each stakeholder’s priorities, ensuring every blog post intentionally addresses multiple decision-makers’ perspectives. For example, pair technical implementation details with corresponding ROI metrics to speak to both IT teams and financial stakeholders.

5. Showcase real results 

For complex products and services, seeing real implementation examples builds buyer confidence. Case studies and success stories demonstrate how your solution works in practice, but blog posts let you tell these stories in different ways while maintaining appropriate confidentiality. This practical content helps prospects envision how your solution could work in their environment.

Pro tip: Use different angles to illuminate various use cases and applications. Share specific challenges you’ve solved, explain implementation processes, and highlight measurable results. 

6. Turn blog content into a marketing engine

Think of your blog as the engine that powers your entire marketing ecosystem. One well-crafted post can attract qualified prospects through search, fuel your social presence with substantial insights, and give your email newsletters genuine value. Instead of creating separate content for each channel, your blog becomes a strategic foundation that drives engagement across every touchpoint.

Pro tip: Before writing any blog post, map out how you’ll repurpose its key insights across channels to maximize your content investment and maintain consistent messaging.

7. Drive measurable business growth

Did you know that B2B companies with blogs generate 67% more leads than those without? But here’s the real insight: for complex products and services, these leads are typically more qualified and further along in their decision-making process. Why? Because they’ve already invested time understanding your solution through your content.

When you consistently publish strategic blog content, you’re not just creating posts—you’re building a self-qualifying sales tool. Prospects who read multiple blog posts show higher engagement rates, shorter sales cycles, and better close rates. They come to sales conversations already understanding your value proposition and technical capabilities.

Pro tip: Track which blog posts your best clients read before converting, then create more content that mirrors those successful pathways to help future prospects follow the same journey.

A note on the blog commitment

Maintaining a blog isn’t always easy—it requires consistent effort and planning. However, with a clear strategy and Visible Logic’s content writing experts, blogging can become one of the most powerful tools in your B2B marketing arsenal. If you’re looking for better visibility, stronger relationships, and more leads, contact Visible Logic today.

The post Are Blogs Still a Thing? appeared first on Visible Logic.

[The following paragraph was written by AI.]
Within the contemporary digital marketing landscape, content creation represents a key strategic imperative. Organizations must consistently generate high-quality content to effectively engage target demographics and maintain a robust online presence. The proliferation of artificial intelligence-driven content generation platforms offers cost-effective solutions for fulfilling content requirements. These innovative technologies streamline content workflows and facilitate scalable marketing initiatives, enabling businesses to efficiently amplify their reach and impact.

Did that intro feel a bit off to you? Too jargony? A bit generic? Missing something? We think so, too. We intentionally used AI to write it to demonstrate a point. While it’s technically correct and grammatically sound, it lacks the authentic voice that makes content truly connect with an audience. It’s missing a human touch.

In the rush to keep up with competitors and get content out the door, many small business owners fall into this trap. They see everyone else publishing regular content, feel the pressure to keep up, and decide to handle it in-house—either writing it themselves or turning to AI. The result? Content that checks the box of “published” but fails to truly connect with their audience.

Let’s explore why DIY content writing might be damaging your brand more than you realize.

The temptation of quick fixes and DIY solutions

Many small business owners believe writing their own content is the smart choice. After all, who knows their business better than they do? And with budgets being tight, content creation often feels like something that can—and should—be handled in-house. 

Some choose to write everything themselves, while others turn to AI writing tools like ChatGPT, which promise instant content at the push of a button. The appeal is undeniable—especially when competitors are publishing three blogs a week while you’re struggling to post one a month. Both DIY content writing and AI seem to offer the perfect solution for keeping up without breaking the bank. But do they really?

The hidden traps of DIY content writing

When business owners try to write their own content, we see common patterns emerge:

• Time drain: What starts as “I’ll just write a quick blog post” turns into hours of staring at a blank screen or endless revising. That’s valuable time taken away from running your business and serving clients.
  
• Too close to the subject: When you’re deeply immersed in your field, it’s incredibly difficult to step back and explain concepts at the right level for your audience. We often see DIY content that either oversimplifies complex ideas (losing credibility) or dives too deep into technical details (losing readers). AI has the opposite problem. It generates superficial content that lacks the depth of real expertise and fails to showcase your unique perspective.
  
• Inconsistent publishing: Without a dedicated content creation process, DIY efforts often start strong but quickly fade as other business priorities take precedence. The result is abandoned blogs, e-newsletters, or social posts that can actually harm your credibility.

3 things DIY and AI content usually miss

While AI can string together grammatically correct sentences, and business owners can write about their own industry, both approaches fundamentally miss important elements:

1. Understanding your brand’s unique perspective
   Every small business owner has a distinct way of seeing and solving problems. This perspective comes from years of experience and countless client interactions. AI simply cannot replicate this, and business owners and employees are often too close to their work to articulate it effectively. They either get lost in the technical details or skip over the valuable insights that make their approach special.
   
2. Capturing your authentic voice
   Your brand voice is more than just a style guide. It’s the culmination of your company’s culture, values, and approach to serving clients. When we help complicated brands clarify their message, we’re not just choosing words—we’re articulating their unique way of thinking.
   
3. Addressing audience pain points with real solutions
   Generic content provides generic answers. But your audience isn’t looking for generic solutions. They’re looking for someone who truly understands their specific challenges and can provide targeted, practical guidance.

When to consider professional content writing services

You might need professional content writing help if:

• Your brand deals with complex products or services that require deep understanding to explain effectively
• Your content needs to speak to multiple stakeholders
• You find yourself spending hours trying to perfect content that still doesn’t quite hit the mark
• Your DIY content isn’t generating the engagement you expected
• You can’t maintain a consistent publishing schedule

At Visible Logic, we frequently work with innovative services, technical products, and specialized software companies that struggle with these exact challenges. Business leaders in these industries have deep expertise but find it difficult to communicate their value clearly. Their products often need to speak to various decision-makers—from technical implementers to C-suite executives—each with different concerns and levels of understanding. 

When clients come to us after trying to handle content in-house, they often tell us how much time they wasted trying to perfect blog posts and web copy that still didn’t quite work. This is precisely why you need a partner who can translate your expertise into clear, compelling content that resonates with each segment of your audience.

Ready to strengthen your content strategy?

If you want to share content that not only reads well but actually drives results, let’s have a conversation. Whether it’s building thought leadership, generating qualified leads, or converting prospects into clients, Visible Logic’s content writing services can help build your brand—and your business. Contact us today.

The post Why DIY Content Could Be Killing Your Brand appeared first on Visible Logic.

This commemorative anniversary book design captures Maine Technology Institute’s 25-year legacy of empowering innovation across Maine. The publication artfully weaves vibrant gradient sections, impactful testimonials, and data visualization into a cohesive narrative celebrating $372M+ in deployed funds and 4,000+ supported projects. Its dynamic layout and thoughtful typography transform complex institutional history into an engaging visual story of statewide entrepreneurial transformation.

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Aspen Systems provides specialized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for food processors and distributors through their flagship platform, Canopy. They approached Visible Logic to modernize their website and better communicate their unique value proposition to potential clients.

Read on to learn how our team transformed Aspen’s online presence.

The challenge: outdated design and unclear messaging

In the competitive ERP software market, standing out requires more than just great features—it demands clear communication of value and benefits. Aspen Systems had built a robust platform specifically designed for food industry needs, but their website wasn’t doing justice to their expertise. They faced several challenges with their existing website:

• An outdated design that didn’t reflect their industry leadership
• Disorganized content that failed to showcase their product capabilities
• Inconsistent brand presentation across marketing materials
• Complex technical features that needed clear, benefit-focused explanations

Our solution: a strategic transformation

To transform Aspen’s online presence, we knew we needed more than just a visual refresh. Our approach combined strategic planning, clear messaging, and modern design to create a website that would effectively communicate Aspen’s unique value proposition to their target audience.

Discovery and planning

We began with a comprehensive review of design, functionality, and strategy. After analyzing their sales materials and current website, we:

• Created a new sitemap to better organize content
• Developed clear messaging that highlighted key benefits
• Established project goals through a detailed creative brief
• Recommended more reliable hosting solutions

Modernized design

With a solid strategy in place, we focused on creating a design that would reflect Aspen’s professional capabilities while making complex information accessible and engaging. The new design featured:

• Clean, contemporary layout with a clear content hierarchy
• Enhanced visual presentation of client testimonials
• Strategic use of industry-specific photography
• Consistent application of brand colors and elements

Content strategy

Technical software requires a careful balance between detailed specifications and clear benefits. Our content strategy focused on achieving this balance while maintaining SEO effectiveness:

• Rewrote key pages to focus on customer benefits
• Integrated existing SEO work into new content
• Organized complex technical information into digestible sections
• Created compelling calls-to-action to drive sales inquiries

Collaborative implementation

Success in complex website projects depends on a strong partnership between agency and client. Throughout this project, we maintained close collaboration with the Aspen team:

• Presented design mockups for feedback and refinement
• Coordinated with multiple stakeholders for content review
• Provided team training for website maintenance
• Established ongoing monthly maintenance support

Results: a website that drives business growth

The reimagined website serves as a powerful marketing tool that accurately reflects Aspen’s position as a leader in food industry ERP solutions. Through careful planning and execution, we achieved:

• Modern design that positions them as an industry leader
• Clear organization that helps prospects find relevant information
• Compelling, benefit-focused content that drives engagement
• Enhanced testimonial presentation that builds trust
• Simplified content management for the internal team

Another satisfied client

Client feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with 5-star reviews for the project. The new website now serves as an effective sales tool that clearly communicates Aspen’s unique value in the food industry ERP space.

“We made a good decision choosing your company.” Lisa Lawrence, Owner, President & CEO.

The post Modern Website Redesign Helps ERP Software Provider Better Serve Food Industry Clients appeared first on Visible Logic.

Today’s tech companies face a unique challenge in effectively marketing complex, specialized products to a sophisticated audience. While some tech leaders might dismiss content marketing as better suited for B2C brands, the reality is quite different. Content marketing isn’t just an effective marketing tool for tech companies—it’s essential for establishing authority, driving qualified leads, and supporting complex sales cycles.

The power of tech expertise in narrow markets

Tech companies have a distinct advantage in content marketing—genuine, deep expertise. Unlike broader markets where countless voices compete for attention, specialized tech knowledge creates natural authority. When you develop content about proprietary software solutions or niche consulting services, you’re not competing with hobbyist bloggers or DIY enthusiasts. You’re showcasing unique insights that only true industry experts can provide.

This expertise becomes particularly powerful when combined with long-tail SEO strategy. While your technical content might attract fewer overall visitors, it will reach exactly the right audience—the decision-makers and technical evaluators who influence purchasing decisions.

Breaking down common misconceptions about content marketing for tech companies

Many tech companies hesitate to invest in content marketing based on outdated assumptions. Let’s address these head-on:

“Our sales happen offline.”

Even if you typically close your final deals in person, your prospects are conducting extensive online research before making first contact. High-quality content serves as your digital sales team, answering technical questions and building credibility 24/7. Without it, you might never make it onto the shortlist for RFPs or vendor evaluations.

“Our sales cycles are too long.”

Complex sales cycles actually benefit from content marketing. Different content pieces can target various stakeholders—from technical decision-makers to CFOs—and address specific concerns at each stage of the buying journey. Your content becomes a valuable resource that prospects return to throughout their evaluation process.

“Everyone in our industry already knows us.”

In an era of rapid digital transformation, relying solely on existing relationships is risky. New competitors emerge, decision-makers change roles, and younger tech professionals expect to find comprehensive information online. Content marketing helps maintain your position as an industry leader while making your expertise visible to new decision-makers.

Maximize your impact in technical markets

Effective content marketing in technical markets requires strategic precision and deep expertise. The key is to deliver high-value content that resonates with sophisticated audiences while maintaining technical accuracy throughout the buyer’s journey. 

Here are four ways to maximize your content marketing impact in technical industries:

1. Embrace technical depth: Don’t water down your content. Technical decision-makers appreciate detailed, specific information that demonstrates real expertise. Use industry-specific language and tackle complex topics head-on.
   
2. Focus on quality over quantity: In specialized markets, one deeply technical white paper or case study can generate more qualified leads than dozens of surface-level blog posts. Invest in professionals who can deliver substantial, authoritative content.
   
3. Align content with the buying cycle:

• Top of funnel: Technical overviews and industry trend analysis
• Middle of funnel: Detailed specifications and comparison guides
• Bottom of funnel: Case studies and implementation documentation
  

4. Choose the right channels: While consumer-focused platforms might not suit your needs, professional channels like LinkedIn and targeted email newsletters can be highly effective for reaching technical audiences.

The role of professional content marketing services

Creating effective technical content requires a unique blend of marketing expertise and technical understanding. Professional content marketing services that specialize in tech can:

• Translate complex technical concepts into compelling content
• Develop SEO strategies focused on technical keywords
• Create content that resonates with both technical and business decision-makers
• Maintain consistent publishing schedules without burdening internal technical experts

The key is approaching content marketing with the same precision and expertise you bring to your technical solutions. Whether you’re developing content in-house or partnering with specialized marketing services, make sure your technical expertise shines through in every piece you publish. Partner with Visible Logic, a renowned content marketing agency, and watch your business thrive.

The post The Truth About Content Marketing for Tech Companies appeared first on Visible Logic.

As the holiday season approaches, we at Visible Logic would like to take a moment to reflect on what makes Thanksgiving special to us. From family traditions to workplace appreciation, our team shares their personal thoughts on this cherished American holiday.

Our CEO, Emily Brackett, appreciates Thanksgiving’s focus on presence over presents. “At Thanksgiving there’s no gift giving,” she notes, highlighting how the holiday encourages meaningful experiences over material consumption. For Emily, the joy comes from shared meals and family connections, with the added benefit of a long weekend that allows the Visible Logic team to fully disconnect and recharge.

The spirit of gratitude runs deep throughout our organization

DeAnne Curran, our senior designer & developer, expresses appreciation for our collaborative environment: “I am grateful to work with such a great team of talented and supportive people. I’m so happy we get to be challenged, continue to grow and learn.”

Account manager Lauren Keiser echoes this sentiment, particularly noting the company’s growth trajectory: “I am very grateful for my VL family/team who work collaboratively together and dig in to solve complex projects.” She specifically acknowledges Emily’s leadership in fostering our team’s development.

Our copy & content writer, Ali Doyle, finds fulfillment in our client relationships, sharing that she feels “privileged to help tell the stories of each of our amazing clients.” Meanwhile, Peter Morris, junior graphic designer, values the innovative spirit and camaraderie that defines our workplace culture: “It’s not everyday that you get to work with colleagues with shared drive and focus. I love that we do great work and have fun along the way.”

Grateful hearts make great teams

As we prepare to enjoy the holiday break, we’re reminded that gratitude isn’t just a seasonal practice—it’s woven into the fabric of our company culture. From our Visible Logic family to yours, we wish you a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

The post Celebrating Gratitude: The Visible Logic Team Reflects on Thanksgiving appeared first on Visible Logic.

We’re thrilled to announce that Visible Logic has been recognized with a 2024 Silver Davey Award in the Features-Copywriting category. This award celebrates our success in crafting compelling copy for a single-page medtech website designed for EB Innovations’ AIR – Augmented Infant Resuscitation product.

The power of big ideas from small agencies

The Davey Awards hold a special place in the creative world. Often referred to as the “Oscars for small agencies,” they celebrate the power of brilliant ideas brought to life by passionate teams like ours. Being recognized by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), a prestigious group of industry leaders from companies like Disney, Microsoft, and Spotify, is a true honor.

We’re incredibly proud of this achievement and excited to continue leveraging our expertise to create impactful digital experiences for our clients.

Helping birth attendants give the first breath of life

AIR is a life-saving innovation designed to equip birth attendants with the confidence and knowledge needed to deliver a newborn’s first breath. Our goal with the website was to create a streamlined experience that clearly communicated the product’s benefits, achievements, and team expertise.

Through a combination of research, strategic planning, and impactful copywriting, we effectively presented the following:

• Detailed product information: Providing a clear understanding of AIR’s features and functionalities.
• Compelling benefits: Highlighting how AIR empowers birth attendants and improves infant outcomes.
• Impressive accomplishments: Sharing EB Innovations’ achievements in the field of neonatal resuscitation.
• Team bios: Introducing the dedicated individuals behind AIR.
• User-friendly contact form: Facilitating inquiries and fostering connection.

Want to see the award-winning website?

Click here to experience the streamlined and informative website we designed for AIR. Then, take a moment to learn more about Visible Logic’s website services and reach out for a consultation.

The post Visible Logic Wins a Davey Award for Our Work with EB Innovations appeared first on Visible Logic.

While most businesses focus on blogging for SEO and website traffic, its impact extends far beyond digital metrics. The real power of blogging lies in how it transforms your business presence both online and offline.

Here are five ways business blogging can help market and build your business beyond the digital realm.

1. Accelerates the sales process

B2B buyers follow a consistent pattern when making purchase decisions. One recent study of 900 small businesses found they spend 70% of their buying journey doing their own research before talking to vendors. When prospects arrive at your first meeting having read your blog posts, they’re already familiar with your approach and expertise. This pre-built trust often leads to shorter sales cycles and higher conversion rates. According to the latest research, companies that maintain active blogs generate 67% more leads than those without. 

2. Opens doors to speaking opportunities

In today’s expertise-driven marketplace, thought leadership creates valuable offline opportunities. Your blog serves as a public portfolio of your insights and expertise. By consistently sharing your unique perspectives and expertise online, you create living proof of your thought leadership. When conference organizers and event planners search for fresh voices in your industry, your blog serves as evidence of your distinct point of view and depth of knowledge.

3. Develops stronger communication skills

Regular blogging improves your ability to articulate ideas clearly and persuasively. This enhanced communication skill transfers directly to those speaking engagements, as well as client meetings, presentations, and networking events. The practice of organizing thoughts and explaining concepts in writing makes you a more effective communicator in all business situations. Plus, having a library of well-thought-out content helps you speak more confidently about your area of expertise.

4. Enhances client communication

Your blog becomes a valuable resource library that supports real-world client interactions. Instead of repeatedly explaining complex concepts, you can direct clients to well-crafted blog posts that provide detailed explanations. This not only saves time but ensures consistent messaging across all client communications. It’s particularly valuable for addressing common questions or concerns that arise during client meetings.

5. Deepens market understanding

Creating regular content forces you to stay current with industry trends and continuously consider your clients’ needs. This deeper understanding manifests in better product development, more relevant service offerings, and more meaningful client conversations. The process of researching and writing about industry topics keeps you at the forefront of your field, making you a more valuable resource to clients and partners.

Making blog writing work for your business

While maintaining a blog requires significant effort, its benefits extend far beyond digital metrics. The key is to approach blogging strategically:

• Focus on quality over quantity
• Address real client challenges and questions
• Share genuine insights from your experience
• Maintain a consistent publishing schedule
• Repurpose blog content for presentations and client materials

Remember, every blog post is an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise, build trust, and create valuable content that serves both your digital presence and real-world business relationships.Rather than viewing blogging solely as a digital marketing tactic, consider it an investment in your overall business growth and professional development. 

Don’t have the time or resources to maintain a consistent blogging strategy? Reach out to Visible Logic’s content marketing team. We can help you develop and execute a purposeful blog that drives both online engagement and offline business growth—without the stress of doing it all yourself.

The post 5 Ways Business Blogging Drives Offline Success appeared first on Visible Logic.

The Hidden Pitfalls of DIY Graphic Design

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you have countless tools at your fingertips to create your own designs. From logo makers to website builders, the DIY design route can seem tempting. After all, why pay for a professional designer when you can do it yourself? Well, before you jump on the DIY bandwagon, it’s crucial to understand the potential pitfalls—especially the ones you might not even be aware of.

The allure of DIY graphic design

The idea of creating your own website, designing your own logo, or crafting your own marketing materials can be incredibly appealing. It promises control, more immediate results, cost savings, and the satisfaction of bringing your vision to life with your own hands. Beyond these practical benefits, DIY design often taps into a deeper psychological need. 

Many entrepreneurs find themselves caught up in the excitement of learning new skills, relishing the creative process and feeling a sense of pride in their finished product. But this enthusiasm can be a double-edged sword. It’s not uncommon for business owners to invest countless hours in design projects, perfecting every detail, only to end up with results that may not meet professional standards.

The emotional investment in these DIY efforts can make it difficult to view the outcome objectively. Friends, family, and even colleagues might hesitate to provide honest feedback, not wanting to dampen the creator’s enthusiasm or hurt their feelings. This combination of time-intensive learning, personal pride, and potentially biased feedback can sometimes lead to a misalignment between the perceived and actual quality of DIY design efforts.

The “unknown unknowns” of design

The old adage “you don’t know what you don’t know” is particularly relevant in design. Let’s explore why.

Recently, a client asked us to review some of their in-house design work before finalizing it. What was most striking were the inconsistencies that seemed glaringly obvious to us but had gone unnoticed by them.

For instance, the layout primarily used a sans-serif font, but one section inexplicably switched to a serif font. This simple mistake disrupted the overall cohesiveness of the piece. When we pointed it out, our client admitted they felt something was off but couldn’t pinpoint the issue.

This scenario perfectly illustrates the concept of “unknown unknowns” in design—elements that can make or break your visual communication but might not even be on your radar if you lack design expertise.

5 reasons professional graphic design matters

Now, you might be wondering if professional design is really worth the investment. The short answer is a resounding YES. In today’s visually saturated digital landscape, where first impressions are often made in milliseconds, professional design isn’t just about making things look pretty—it’s a strategic business decision that can significantly impact your brand’s perception, customer trust, and ultimately, your bottom line. 

Collaborating with a professional design agency delivers high-quality, strategic visual solutions that often yield a stronger return on investment compared to DIY efforts, which may fall short of your brand’s true potential. When you partner with Visible Logic, for instance, you get a unique blend of creativity, technical expertise, and strategic thinking that can transform your brand’s visual identity from merely adequate to truly exceptional and impactful. Benefits include:

1. Consistency: Professionals ensure all design elements work together harmoniously, creating a cohesive brand image.
   
   
2. Visual hierarchy: Designers understand how to guide the viewer’s eye through information, emphasizing what’s most important.
   
   
3. Brand storytelling: Experienced designers can translate your brand’s values and personality into visual elements.
   
   
4. Technical knowledge: From print specifications to web optimization, professionals understand the technical aspects that affect design quality.
   
   
5. Accessibility: Professional designs consider factors like readability and color contrast, ensuring your message reaches all audiences.

Balancing DIY and professional design

While hiring a professional for all your design needs is ideal, it’s not always feasible for every small business. To improve your DIY graphic design efforts:

• Start by educating yourself through online courses in basic design principles and color theory
• Take advantage of tools like Canva or Mailchimp to create templates
• Don’t work in isolation. Seek feedback by joining design communities or forums where you can receive constructive criticism 
• When starting a new project, ask your designer to create simple brand guidelines for you with fonts and colors to use, then follow those guidelines as you customize any premade templates

That said, remember, it’s crucial to recognize when a project is beyond your capabilities. For pivotal elements like a new site or overall brand identity, don’t hesitate to invest in professional help from Visible Logic. We’ve been creating award-winning logos, packaging, and websites and more for over 20 years. Contact us today for a consultation.

The post The Hidden Pitfalls of DIY Graphic Design appeared first on Visible Logic.

It’s more challenging than ever for tech startups to capture the attention of investors or early adopters. It’s a hyper-competitive innovation ecosystem, and with the rise of AI, blockchain, and other cutting-edge technologies, explaining your product or service can be tough. If your audience doesn’t grasp your concept quickly, you risk losing their interest — and potential funding or sales. That’s why having a tech startup pitch that attracts investors is key.

But how do you know if your pitch is truly compelling? What if you’re so immersed in your product that you can’t see the forest for the trees? The key lies in stepping back and viewing your pitch through the eyes of someone unfamiliar with your technology. Here are three strategies to do just that.

1. Simplify with relatable stories and analogies

In our attention-scarce world, we often have mere seconds to make an impression. Whether you’re in a formal pitch competition or a casual meeting with a VC, you need to quickly move your audience from confusion to comprehension. A well-crafted analogy can bridge this gap effectively. For example:

• “Think of us as Airbnb for electric vehicle charging stations”
• “We’re the ChatGPT for financial advice”
• “We’re building the Shopify for Web3 commerce”

These analogies leverage familiar concepts to explain new ideas quickly. However, remember that the analogy is just a starting point. Use it to frame your concept, then dive into what makes your solution unique.

Couple storytelling with an analogy and you strike gold. Take Dropbox’s early pitch, for example, It opened with the problem, weaved a strong narrative, and culminated with an enticing solution. By keeping each slide simple and focused, they created an unforgettable pitch that continues to inspire founders to this day. They also compared their cloud storage to a “magic folder” that seamlessly works across devices. This simple analogy helped investors understand the problem they were solving without getting bogged down by tech details. 

2. Highlight the problem you’re solving with data

The second crucial element is addressing a clear and urgent market need. Investors don’t just invest in good ideas — they invest in solutions that solve pressing problems. Your pitch should not only define the problem but make it feel urgent by backing it up with real-world data.

For tech startups, identifying market gaps and addressing them with a solution backed by trends and statistics is key. For example, if you’re developing cybersecurity software, point out how cyberattacks have increased by 150% in the last five years, and explain how your product directly mitigates this risk. A clean energy startup may be wise to paint a picture of a world grappling with extreme weather events and rising sea levels. 

By showing investors that your product tackles a tangible problem with growing demand, you make a stronger case for why they should invest now. Use compelling statistics and personal anecdotes to make the problem feel real and urgent. When your audience feels the pain point acutely, they’re more likely to appreciate your solution.

3. Position yourself in the competitive landscape

In today’s mature startup ecosystem, it’s rare to find a completely untapped market. Instead of claiming there’s no competition, which might raise red flags, showcase your understanding of the market landscape. A great pitch not only acknowledges competitors but proves how your startup is different and better. It’s no longer enough to say you’re “faster” or “cheaper.” Today’s investors want to see a clear, defendable differentiation.

Consider creating a simple visual aid that plots your competitors on axes relevant to your industry. For example:

• AI capability vs. user privacy
• Processing speed vs. energy efficiency
• Customization vs. ease of use

Then, position your startup in a unique, advantageous spot on this map. For instance, if you’re pitching a new AI-powered productivity tool, you might show how you offer more advanced features than traditional project management software, but with better data privacy than big tech alternatives. This approach demonstrates market validation for your concept, shows you’ve done thorough research, and highlights your unique value proposition.

Remember, your goal isn’t to showcase every technical detail, but to ignite curiosity and understanding in your audience.

Partner with pros to create your winning tech startup pitch 

A successful pitch in today’s tech environment requires a clear understanding of both your technology and the market you’re playing in. Simplify complex ideas through storytelling, underscore urgent market needs with compelling data, and set your startup apart by showcasing how you outpace the competition. If you can master these three elements, you’ll leave a lasting impression on investors, partners, and customers alike. Partner with Visible Logic to make it happen.

The post 3 Critical Elements for a Tech Startup Pitch That Attracts Investors appeared first on Visible Logic.

In the ever-evolving world of design and branding, longevity is a testament to excellence. This year, Visible Logic proudly celebrates its 23rd anniversary, marking over two decades of innovative design solutions and impactful client collaborations. As we reflect on this milestone, we’re reminded of the transformative power of clear, logical design in communicating complex ideas.

Making a name for ourselves

Founded in 2001, Visible Logic was born from a vision to stand out in the crowded field of design firms. Unlike many agencies named after their founders, our name was chosen to embody our core mission: making the complicated simple. This philosophy has been our guiding light for 23 years, driving our approach to every project and client relationship.

As the branding industry has transformed over the years, so too has Visible Logic. We’ve adapted to new technologies, embraced emerging trends, and refined our skills. Yet, our fundamental focus on clarity and logic in design has remained steadfast. This unwavering commitment has been the key to our longevity and success.

Our journey over the past 23 years has been marked by numerous highlights:

• Client success stories: We’ve nurtured long-standing relationships with clients, helping them achieve remarkable growth milestones. Our work has not only earned industry accolades but also contributed significantly to our clients’ successes.
  
• Brand evolution: Our own evolution from 2001 to now serves as a testament to the power of thoughtful naming and design. The enduring relevance of our brand demonstrates how well-conceived identities can withstand the test of time.
  
• Unseen designs: While not every project sees the light of day, we celebrate the creativity poured into these “what might have been” designs. These unseen works are an integral part of our journey, showcasing our commitment to innovation regardless of the outcome.

This anniversary is more than just a celebration of Visible Logic’s growth. It’s a tribute to the philosophy that has driven our success — the belief that design should illuminate, not complicate. From websites to logos, we’ve collaborated with countless clients, each project adding a unique thread to the tapestry of our experience.

As we look to the future, we remain committed to our mission of bringing clarity and understanding to the world through design. We’re excited to continue pushing the boundaries of creativity, fostering meaningful collaborations, and making the complex beautifully simple.Here’s to 23 years of Visible Logic, and to many more years of creativity, innovation, and stunning design.

The post Celebrating 23 Years of Visible Logic: A Journey of Creativity and Clarity appeared first on Visible Logic.

In a digital-first business landscape, your online presence is often the first impression potential clients have of your company. For B2B small businesses, one crucial element that’s frequently overlooked is the importance of professional headshots. 

Let’s explore why investing in high-quality, uniform headshots for your team is not just a nice-to-have, but a necessity for success.

Putting a face to your brand with headshots

When potential clients visit your website, they’re not just looking for services or products—they’re looking for people they can trust and work with. Featuring your team members’ headshots on your website accomplishes several key goals:

• Builds trust: By showing the faces behind your business, you’re immediately establishing a human connection with your potential clients.
• Demonstrates legitimacy: Professional headshots signal that you’re a serious, established business—not a fly-by-night operation.
• Showcases your team: It allows clients to “meet” your team before they even reach out, creating a sense of familiarity and comfort.

The power of consistency in branding

Having “matching” headshots does more than just make your website look polished—it sends a powerful message about your company, including:

• Unity: Consistent headshots suggest a cohesive team that works well together.
• Professionalism: It shows attention to detail and a commitment to presenting a unified front.
• Brand Identity: Uniform headshots become part of your visual branding, reinforcing your company’s image.

Overcoming the challenges of modern business

In today’s world of remote work and distributed teams, getting everyone together for a photo shoot can be challenging. Here are some strategies to consider:

For solopreneurs and small, stable teams

If you’re a solopreneur or have a very small, stable team (like a partnership), working with a local professional photographer can be an excellent option. You’ll get high-quality, personalized results, and you only need to update when you want a fresh look.

For growing or distributed teams

For businesses with remote team members or those experiencing frequent growth, maintaining consistency with local photographers can be difficult. This is where services like Headshots.com come in handy. Here’s what they offer:

• Simplified management: An all-in-one dashboard allows you to choose backgrounds, track progress, send reminders, and download headshots. You maintain control while the service handles the details.
• Time and cost efficiency: The service coordinates with your team, setting deadlines and sending reminders to ensure timely completion of headshots.
• User-friendly process: Team members can take their own headshots using just their cell phones, guided by a simple tutorial. Direct support is available if needed.
• Guaranteed quality: Professional editors hand-edit each headshot, ensuring studio-quality results and consistency across your team. Bulk or individual downloads are available from the dashboard.

Professional headshots in action

To see the impact of consistent, professional headshots in action, take a look at Visible Logic’s about page. As a fully remote business, we faced the challenge of obtaining uniform headshots for our distributed team. By using Headshots.com, we were able to achieve a cohesive, professional image across all team members, regardless of physical location. 

In the B2B world, where relationships and trust are paramount, professional headshots are an investment in your brand’s image and credibility. They humanize your business, showcase your team’s professionalism, and create a lasting first impression. Make sure it’s a strong one with professional, consistent headshots of your team.

Want to learn more about branding tips? Contact us today to start the conversation.

The post Why Professional Headshots Are Essential for Your B2B Small Business appeared first on Visible Logic.

Website speed is more than a convenience — it’s critical to user experience, search engine rankings, and conversations. In fact, even a 1-second delay in page load time can result in a 7 percent reduction in conversions. For a lot of small businesses, 7 percent is easily the difference between profit and loss.

At the foundation of website speed lies a critical factor often overlooked: your choice of hosting provider and plan. Let’s dive into the key factors that can make or break your site’s performance and explore actionable steps you can take to turbocharge your site speed.

What is website speed?

Website speed, or website performance, measures the time it takes for a browser to render a fully functional web page. Quick-loading sites captivate users, boost traffic, and increase conversions. Sites that are slow to load tend to frustrate visitors, potentially driving them to competitors.

Your choice of web hosting provider can significantly affect your website’s overall effectiveness. It plays a key role in shaping visitor satisfaction, search engine visibility, lead generation, and data protection. By selecting a high-quality hosting service, you’ll benefit from swift data delivery, consistent uptime even during busy periods, strong safeguards against cyber threats, and the ability to grow your online presence.

Take our client, the Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon, for example. As you’ll see below, the simple act of switching web hosts helped boost their Google site speed score — as well as the organization’s expectations.

What happens when you use low-cost, low-quality web hosting?

The Maine Marathon is a nonprofit, all-volunteer running race that’s heading into its 33rd year. Because their primary goal is to fundraise for local charities, how and where they spend their marketing dollars is highly considered. For many years, they used the most affordable web hosting in an effort to be able to give more back to their community.

Unfortunately for the Maine Marathon, the saying is true — you get what you pay for. Although their website was well built, their hosting service lacked support and an easy way to make regular backups. What’s worse, the site couldn’t handle heavy traffic, so on race day morning, it crashed. Racers and spectators weren’t able to look up important information about parking, checking in, and start time. To make matters worse, the lack of site support made it difficult to get the site back up and running. Talk about a poor user experience.

Lesson learned

For years, Visible Logic had recommended that the Maine Marathon upgrade and switch to a more reputable web host. This unfortunate race-day experience was the inspiration they needed to take our advice. Soon after, they signed an agreement with our preferred hosting company, WP Engine, which gave them quality support and automated backups. 

The result? A major improvement in page speed performance scores. 

Previous desktop site score: 86

Current desktop site speed score: 97

For reference, scores are based on Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, which analyzes the performance of web pages on mobile and desktop devices. The tool gives you a score between 0 and 100, with a higher score usually meaning your page is optimized for speed and efficiency. Simply switching web hosts delivered near-perfect site performance for the Maine Marathon — and users noticed.

“Our website now loads so fast … our participants will now be better informed because of the convenience speed brings to a search for information. Thank you!” – Race team feedback.

Review your site to see if you need to make a change

We encourage you to evaluate your current hosting provider and to use tools like PageSpeed Insights to track your site’s performance. If you’d like to improve your site performance by transferring to a better host, contact us and we’d be happy to help.

The post Why Website Hosting Speed Matters: A Local Marathon’s Experience appeared first on Visible Logic.

In today’s digital landscape, content marketing plays a crucial role in building brand awareness and driving customer engagement. However, creating high-quality content consistently can be challenging for many businesses. This is where outsourcing comes into play. Let’s explore six essential tips to help you successfully outsource your content marketing efforts.

1. Define your content strategy

A well-defined content strategy is the foundation of successful outsourcing. Start by conducting a thorough analysis of your brand’s current position and future goals. Identify your target audience segments and create detailed buyer personas. This will help you understand their pain points, interests, and preferred content formats.

Next, outline specific, measurable objectives for your content marketing efforts. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive conversions? Each goal may require different types of content and distribution strategies.

Determine the content types that resonate best with your audience and align with your goals. This could include blog posts, whitepapers, infographics, videos, podcasts, or social media content. Also, establish a content calendar to plan themes and topics in advance.

With a comprehensive strategy, your outsourcing partners can ensure all content creation efforts are aligned with your brand’s vision and marketing objectives.

While cost is a factor, prioritize value over price. A slightly more expensive partner who delivers high-quality, effective content may provide a better return on investment than a cheaper option that requires extensive revisions or produces subpar results.

2. Choose the right content marketing partners 

Selecting the right outsourcing partners is crucial for the success of your content marketing efforts. Begin by clearly defining the skills and expertise you need. Do you require industry-specific knowledge, SEO expertise, or proficiency in certain content formats?

Research potential agencies or freelancers thoroughly. Look beyond their websites and marketing materials. Review their portfolios in detail, paying attention to the quality, style, and variety of their work. Don’t hesitate to ask for samples specific to your industry or content type.

Check references and read client testimonials. If possible, speak directly with some of their current or past clients to get honest feedback about their experience.

Consider the partner’s communication style and work process. Do they align with your company’s culture and workflow? Effective collaboration often depends on compatible communication styles and work ethics.

Also, assess their technological capabilities. Do they use content management systems or collaboration tools that integrate well with your existing infrastructure?

While cost is a factor, prioritize value over price. A slightly more expensive partner who delivers high-quality, effective content may provide a better return on investment than a cheaper option that requires extensive revisions or produces subpar results.

3. Set clear expectations 

Setting clear expectations is vital for a smooth outsourcing relationship and high-quality content results. Start by creating comprehensive content briefs for each project. These should include:

• The target audience and buyer persona
• The main topic and key points to cover
• Desired word count or content length
• Preferred tone and style (formal, conversational, humorous, etc.)
• Keywords for SEO (if applicable)
• Call-to-action requirements
• Deadline and milestones for longer projects

Provide a detailed style guide that outlines your brand voice, preferred terminology, formatting guidelines, and any industry-specific conventions. This ensures consistency across all content, regardless of who creates it.

Share examples of content you admire, both from your own brand and others. Explain what you like about these pieces to give creators a clear idea of your expectations.

Clarify the revision process upfront. How many rounds of revisions are included? What’s the timeline for each stage? Setting these expectations early can prevent misunderstandings and streamline the content creation process.

Also, be clear about content rights and ownership. Ensure your agreement covers copyright transfer and any restrictions on the use of the content. By setting clear, detailed expectations from the start, you’ll reduce the need for extensive revisions and ensure that the outsourced content aligns closely with your vision and requirements.

4. Establish a robust content review process

A robust review process is essential for maintaining the quality and consistency of outsourced content. Start by creating a standardized review checklist that covers all aspects of content quality, including accuracy of information, adherence to brand voice, grammar and spelling, SEO optimization, and alignment with the original brief.

Designate specific team members for different aspects of the review process. For example, a subject matter expert might check for accuracy and depth of information, while a marketing team member could review for brand consistency and messaging.

Implement a multi-stage review process:

• Adhere to the brief and overall quality.
• Verify facts, figures, and technical accuracy.
• Check for grammar, style, and tone.
• Ensure all previous feedback has been incorporated and the content is ready for publication.

Provide constructive, specific feedback to content creators. Instead of just pointing out issues, explain why something doesn’t work and suggest improvements. This helps creators understand your preferences better and improve over time.

5. Prioritize collaboration 

Fostering a collaborative relationship with your outsourcing partners can significantly enhance the quality and effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. Treat your outsourced team as an extension of your in-house team rather than just vendors.

Schedule regular check-ins or status meetings. These can be weekly or monthly, depending on the volume of content being produced. Use these meetings to discuss ongoing projects, address any challenges, and share feedback.

Organize brainstorming sessions that include both your in-house team and outsourced partners. This can lead to fresh perspectives and innovative content ideas that blend external expertise with in-depth knowledge of your brand.

Create shared spaces for ongoing communication, such as Slack channels or project management tools. This allows for quick questions, updates, and idea sharing outside of formal meetings.

Provide your outsourcing partners with access to relevant information about your company, products, and industry. The more they understand your business, the better they can create content that truly represents your brand.

Consider inviting key outsourced team members to important company events or product launches. This can deepen their understanding of your brand and foster a sense of connection to your company’s mission.

6. Monitor content performance and ROI

Tracking the performance of your outsourced content is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your strategy and making data-driven decisions. Start by identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your content marketing goals. These might include:

• Traffic metrics: Page views, unique visitors, time on page
• Engagement metrics: Comments, shares, likes
• SEO metrics: Search rankings, organic traffic
• Lead generation metrics: Form fills, email sign-ups
• Conversion metrics: Click-through rates, sales attributed to content

Implement robust analytics tools to track these metrics. Google Analytics, content-specific tools like BuzzSumo, and your own CRM can provide valuable insights. Create a dashboard that aggregates data from various sources, giving you a comprehensive view of content performance at a glance.

Regularly analyze this data to identify trends and patterns. Which types of content are performing best? Are there specific topics or formats that resonate more with your audience?

Calculate the return on investment (ROI) for your outsourced content. Consider both the cost of content creation and the value it generates in terms of leads, conversions, or other relevant metrics. Use these insights to refine your content strategy. This might involve doubling down on successful content types, adjusting your target audience, or reallocating resources to more effective channels.

Share performance data with your outsourcing partners. This transparency can help them understand what’s working well and where they need to improve, leading to better results over time. Consider implementing A/B testing for different content elements (headlines, formats, call-to-actions) to continuously optimize your content strategy.

By consistently monitoring performance and ROI, you can ensure that your outsourced content marketing efforts are driving real business results and continuously improve your strategy based on data-driven insights.

By following these tips, you can streamline your content marketing efforts through outsourcing. Remember, successful outsourcing is a partnership that requires ongoing communication and refinement. Partner with Visible Logic and you’ll be able to leverage our expertise to create compelling content that resonates with your audience and drives business growth.

The post 6 Tips for Outsourcing Your Content Marketing appeared first on Visible Logic.

Visible Logic is proud to announce that we recently won a 2024 GDUSA Digital Design Award for our email marketing campaign for the Maine Marathon. The emails are part of our comprehensive marketing plan that builds off of a rebrand for the Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon completed in 2017. 

GDUSA’s annual American Digital Design Awards celebrates the power of exceptional design to enhance online and interactive experiences – including websites, social media, email marketing, digital advertising, e-publications, apps, video, animation, UX/UI design, and so much more. We’re proud to be recognized among an elite selection of roughly 250 winners from 3000+ entries.

Engaging email marketing drives marathon registrations

The Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon is a Maine Track Club event. The 2024 race will be the 33rd edition – making this one of the longest-running marathon events in New England. 

To build awareness and drive registrations for the event, Visible Logic has consistently relied on email marketing. The emails are designed and deployed with Mail on the Mark. Keeping runners engaged and informed, emails became a primary channel for communicating race details, and each newsletter and update saw a corresponding spike in registration. 

We’re  thrilled that this component of the rebranding effort has earned the Maine Marathon the recognition this charity event deserves. 

Long-running partnership keeps Maine Marathon on the move

After years of stagnant growth, the organization’s new race director, Bob Dunfey, turned to Visible Logic for brand positioning, a visual rebrand and marketing of the event. Since then, the partnership has grown, helping set record registration numbers for a race that was losing steam. Visible Logic has driven increased race registrations every year with the exception of 2020 when only a virtual event was held.

“Visible Logic helps us define how the event should be marketed, to whom, and where. In terms of metrics, our social media presence has grown, and our pre-registrations have gone up by 86%,” Bob Dunfey commented.

Are you looking for compelling content that will engage audiences, increase website traffic, and expand your brand reach? Partner with Visible Logic. From email strategy to digital ad campaigns to award-winning website design, we’ll keep you running. 

The post Visible Logic Wins 2024 American Digital Design Award appeared first on Visible Logic.

What happens when you start with website content before design?

We’ve encountered clients who will write their content and present a complete document to us. While it’s great they’ve been thinking about their website’s content, this approach can lead to several issues. 

Writing website text as one long document misunderstands how most visitors navigate websites. Unlike a book with a defined start and end, websites are non-linear. Visitors may not start on the home page, and they certainly won’t read all the text from top to bottom. Instead, they skim and jump between pages based on their interests. This behavior requires a different approach to content creation, one that considers the user’s journey and breaks information into digestible chunks. Other issues include:

• Lack of visual hierarchy: Without design input, content may not effectively emphasize key messages.
  
• Missed opportunities for interactivity: Text-heavy content might overlook possibilities for engaging interactive elements. And nobody wants to read long blocks of text.
  
• SEO challenges: Content created in isolation might not align with current SEO best practices.

What happens when you start with website design before content?

On the other extreme, focusing solely on design without content consideration is equally problematic. In the past, we’ve attempted preliminary web designs using placeholder text (remember Lorem Ipsum Greek type?), hoping the final content would fit well. However, we’ve learned that this approach simply doesn’t work. We can’t design effectively without a sense of the content. It can quickly lead to the following:

• Unrealistic layouts: Designs may not accommodate actual content length or complexity.
  
• Poor user experience (UX): Without understanding content flow, navigation might become counterintuitive.
  
• Missed content opportunities: Design-first approaches might not allow for emerging content types like dynamic personalization or using a graphic or video to better explain a concept.

5 reasons to work on web content and design together

1. Navigation structure depends on content volume
   The amount of content directly influences your navigation structure. A site with few pages can use a simple horizontal navigation bar. However, if you have more than about eight pages, you’ll need to group them into categories, leading to more complex navigation like drop-down menus or sub-menu lists.
   
2. Content isn’t just words
   The best way to explain something isn’t through long, narrative text. Images, illustrations, charts, and videos can convey messages more effectively and memorably. Your web designer can help you explore these alternatives to enhance your message.
   
3. Visual elements must work well with your design
   The framework of your website should seamlessly integrate with all visual elements. Colors, typography, and sizing need to be considered holistically to create a cohesive, professional and branded look.
   
4. Messaging is a joint effort
   Your message is most effectively conveyed when design and content work in tandem. While content and message are sometimes used interchangeably, understanding the difference is crucial for creating an impactful website. The website Visible Logic redesigned for ScanPower took this into account.
   
5. Early collaboration leads to better outcomes
   Making decisions about how to best express your messages should happen early in the web design process. This collaborative approach ensures that the final development of all elements—web design, text, and non-text content—aligns with your goals.

Other considerations when building a website

Mobile-first and responsive design

With mobile devices accounting for over 50% of web traffic, your content and design must work seamlessly across all screen sizes. This means considering how content adapts and how design elements shift to maintain readability and functionality.

Accessibility and inclusive design

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are more critical than ever. Both design and content need to consider color contrast, screen reader compatibility, and keyboard navigation. This isn’t just about compliance—it’s about reaching a wider audience.

The role of UX writing and microcopy

These days, every word on your website counts. UX writing and microcopy—the small pieces of text on buttons, forms, and interfaces—play a crucial role in guiding users and shaping their experience. This requires close collaboration between designers and content creators to ensure consistency and clarity throughout the user journey.

Data-driven decision making

Analytics now play a central role in both design and content strategy. A/B testing, heat maps, and user behavior analysis inform decisions about everything from layout to content length. This iterative approach means that design and content are never truly “finished” but continually evolving based on user data.

Performance optimization

Google’s Core Web Vitals have made page speed crucial for both SEO and user experience. Content strategists need to convey information concisely, while designers balance visual appeal with fast load times. This requires ongoing communication and compromise.

Why choose Visible Logic for your web project?

At Visible Logic, we’ve evolved our approach to meet the demands of modern web development. Our integrated team of content strategists, designers, and data analysts work in harmony to create websites that are not just visually appealing, but also:

• Highly performant across all devices
• Accessible to all users
• Optimized for both traditional and voice search
• Personalized for individual user experiences
• Continuously improved based on real user data

Ready to bring your web presence into 2024 and beyond? Contact us for a consultation and discover how our integrated approach can transform your digital strategy.

The post Which Comes First: Website Content or Design? appeared first on Visible Logic.

What is the best call-to-action (CTA) you can use? Calls-to-action, like “buy now” or “request a demo” are often treated as an afterthought. After all, you just wrote a whole landing page to convince someone to request a demo, so does the exact wording of the request matter? The answer is yes, it does matter. It matters a lot.

Read on to learn about what factors go into choosing the right call-to-action.

What is a call to action?

A call-to-action (CTA) is a short, active phrase that asks a prospect to take an action that shows their interest in your business. CTAs aren’t just for purchasing. A CTA can also ask the prospect to learn more, subscribe to your newsletter, or download a white paper.

A call-to-action invites active participation from the prospect, which is critical for further brand engagement and ultimately conversion. Spending time and money creating social media posts, for example, won’t generate nearly as much ROI unless those posts involve a CTA to visit your website, read more about a topic, or join your newsletter. Similarly, without a formal and clear CTA on your website, prospects may not be sure how to buy from you. And that confusion may lead them to leave your website and consider a competitor.

What is the best call-to-action for your business sales cycle?

The kinds of calls-to-action you need changes based on how long your sales cycle is.

• Short Sales Cycle. An example of a business with a short sales cycle is office supplies. While you may do some price comparison, it’s unlikely you’re going to do a ton of research before buying. Calls to action in this case need to be direct such as a discount coupon or featured product.
• Medium Sales Cycle. Many professional services companies have medium sales cycles. This might be anywhere from 30 days to three years. They need to stay in touch with prospects and prove themselves as respected experts.
• Long (and Offline) Sales Cycle. A highly technical medical device or the architectural services necessary to design a large office building is never going to be purchased based on the whim of a discount code. Sales cycles in these businesses are long and more importantly, the final sales process takes place offline. However, these businesses would still benefit from a call to “stay in touch”.

Most B2B businesses have medium to long sales cycles. In addition to CTAs that convert prospects into a client, they need CTAs that show expertise, convince, and invite prospects to stay in touch.

Choose your CTA based on where you are in the marketing funnel

A marketing funnel describes how people first find out about your business, through to the decision to buy from you. The marketing funnel usually has four stages: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. Calls-to-action are needed in every step of the funnel.

• Awareness: Marketing activities in the awareness stage of the funnel can include writing blog posts about a topic that is relevant to your business, or creating social media posts and using hashtags to attract people to your post. The purpose of these activities is to make people aware of your brand and the problem that you can solve. The next step you want them to take is to learn more about your business. Calls-to-action can be “learn more” or “visit our website” or “subscribe to our channel”.
• Interest: Marketing activities in the interest stage of the funnel are aimed at getting prospects to stay engaged with your brand. Calls-to-action are similar to the awareness stage, with a specific focus of getting them to opt-in to further contact with your brand. This can include “download the eBook” or “subscribe to our newsletter”.
• Desire: Once a prospect has engaged with your brand and understands what problem you can solve, it’s time to get them to consider what you offer. You should focus your CTAs on getting them to find out more about your product. This may include “learn more”, or “schedule a demo”.
• Action: In this final stage of the marketing funnel, you want to convert an engaged prospect into a potential customer. Calls-to-action in this stage could be “contact us for a quote”, or “start your free trial.”

Identifying what stage of the marketing funnel a marketing activity is in helps you narrow down what call-to-action is best. Another factor to consider when choosing a CTA is your branding.

Choosing a call-to-action that’s right for your brand

Consistent branding is important, and calls-to-action are a great place to reinforce your branding. If you use a CTA that doesn’t fit with your brand voice, prospects may be confused or discouraged from taking that next step.

Let’s say you’re creating a social media post in the awareness stage with the goal of having someone click on the link to read a blog post. Here are how two different brands may write that call to action:

Brand #1 has a target audience of young entrepreneurs and small businesses that are looking for easy ways to grow their business. This brand may write “Get the hacks!” as a CTA leading to a blog post describing “hacks” for quick growth.

Brand #2 is a cybersecurity business with a target audience of risk-averse technology businesses that are looking for useful information on cybersecurity. This brand may write a CTA of “Read the blog post” or “Get more information”.

Integrating your call-to-action into your design

People have a short attention span, and it’s important that you make it clear exactly what action you want them to take, and make it as easy as possible for them to take that action.

Never assume that someone know what to do. For example, if you’re posting on LinkedIn, you might assume that if you put a link to a blog post at the bottom of your post, people will click on it to learn more about the topic your post is about. They will not. If you write “click the link below to learn more about this topic!”, then people will know exactly where to click.

The call-to-action you use on your website may be one of the most important calls-to-action you use, because it likely leads to the first stage of sales. Therefore, you should make it easy for people to take that next step, by putting your CTA in multiple places on your website. Following website navigation best practices, your CTA should be at the top of the page.

CTAs are important, but they’re just one piece of the marketing puzzle

Calls-to-action are a critical part of your marketing efforts, because they help move prospects along the marketing funnel, with the end goal of conversion to a client. Well written CTAs are just one part of the marketing, puzzle. Without a clear, compelling offer, prospects won’t feel inspired to take the action you want them to take.

Clearly communicating the benefits of your products and services, along with highlighting the specific problems you solve, help people get excited about becoming a customer.

If you’re a B2B business that has a complex or highly technical product or service, communicating clearly is critical to attracting and engaging prospects. But it isn’t always easy.

If you want to learn more about how to communicate complexity so you can increase sales and attract investors, download our newest eBook here.

The post What are the best calls to action for B2B businesses? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Most startups have one goal on their mind – growth. And a great way to grow your potential customer base is to drive more people to your website. That’s where SEO comes in. Read on to learn 7 SEO tips for software startups. 

Why SEO is important for software startups 

Not all businesses need to prioritize SEO strategies, but software startups should. That’s because software startups often use their website as their sales tool. Therefore, increasing traffic to your website can increase your pool of potential customers. 

Beyond getting people to click on your content and go to your site, SEO is fundamentally about producing content that your target audience cares about and is interested in. By doing so, you’re also laser targeting the right people with your content. 

7 SEO tips for software startups

SEO is a long term strategy that’s never really over. It’s easy to sink tons of money and time into SEO, without seeing substantial results. These 7 tips will help you prioritize your SEO efforts so you can increase your organic traffic quicker, and with fewer resources. 

#1 Focus on specific goals 

How do you avoid falling into the black hole (and money pit) that is SEO? Identify 2-3 goals, and prioritize your efforts according to those goals. Do you want to increase branded organic traffic, or non-branded organic traffic? Do you want to start establishing yourself as the ultimate resource in your specific industry? Each of these goals will require different strategies. 

At Visible Logic, our approach to SEO always starts with defining goals, and prioritizing only those efforts that directly contribute to those goals. 

#2 Start with a strong brand foundation 

Despite what you may have heard, SEO and branding can and should work together to help expand your reach and attract your target audience. 

The ultimate goal of SEO is to increase organic traffic to your website, but what happens when people get there? If you don’t have a strong, consistent, and targeted brand foundation that attracts your target audience, then that increase in traffic will amount to nothing because people will not stay on your site long. And as a software company, your website is one of your main sales tools. 

Before devoting resources to SEO, ensure that you have clear brand guidelines, including visuals like colors and fonts, as well as messaging like your Unique Value Proposition and client personas. 

#3 Create content to attract different audiences

You likely have more than one client personas. And if your software is used both by individuals and businesses, then you have even more target audiences. When selling to businesses, the end user can be completely different from the purchaser. 

For example, let’s say you’re selling a project management tool. The end user of that product and individual purchasers are probably searching for keywords like “productivity tool” or “how to be more efficient”. On the other hand, the person purchasing a piece of software for a business may be the CTO or a manager. They may be searching for terms like “project management tools.” 

Create content for each of these different audiences and client personas to increase the chance of them visiting your website.  

#4 Focus on showcasing expertise and authority 

Google ranks search results according to E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Therefore, you should focus on content that establishes your expertise and authority. What does this mean? Create content around topics that pertain to your product. 

Another great way to signal to Google that your website is authoritative and trustworthy is to create long, well thought out content. Get creative – not every piece of content needs to be a blog. Add in videos, infographics, whitepapers. Anything that brings value to your target audiences and showcases your expertise. 

#5 Always include a Call to Action 

As the old saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. While the ultimate goal of creating content for SEO is not to convert customers, every piece of content you create should include a Call to Action – a next step for the prospect to take. 

Not all Calls to Action will be “buy now”. They could guide the prospect to request a demo, go to a pricing page, or contact you. Whatever the Call to Action is, it’s important to include one to increase prospect engagement with your company. 

#6 Test and improve 

SEO is a long term strategy. It takes Google as long as 8 weeks to index a page, meaning that if you create a piece of content you may not see any traffic to that page for up to 2 months. Overall improvement of organic traffic or increasing rankings for specific keywords can take months – or even years – to see happen. 

Because it takes so long to see any changes, it’s important not to change everything at once or implement every strategy at once. Focus on 3 or 4 actions, and then wait one or two months. Did those actions move the needle forward? From there, you can take 3 more actions. 

Slow and incremental change is what ultimately leads to the best SEO results. 

#7 Find opportunities to showcase your product 

As a software company, your website is where a lot of your sales happen. As such, it’s important to find opportunities to showcase your product. 

What does this mean? If you’re creating content that your target audience cares about and that you have expertise in, you should be creating content that is relevant to your product. Try to find opportunities within your content to include screenshots or videos that demo the product. 

Content pieces are not sales sheets, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t talk about your product and its benefits directly, especially if it makes sense in the piece. 

Move the needle forward on your SEO strategy with Visible Logic 

Do you want to increase organic traffic to your website so you can make more sales? At Visible Logic, we offer SEO strategy and content creation. 

We start every SEO project with an in-depth audit to understand what you are currently ranking for, what kind of traffic you are getting, and where there are opportunities for improvement. Then, we work closely with you to better understand your goals. 

We craft our SEO strategy with a laser focus on advancing your goals, prioritizing 3-4 SEO improvement activities. We reassess and adjust our strategy periodically to ensure the highest ROI.  

Want to know more? Let’s talk. 

The post 7 SEO Tips for Software Startups  appeared first on Visible Logic.

At Visible Logic, we love working on Maine nonprofit branding and marketing projects because we get the chance to help organizations that are invested in improving our local communities. 

Read on to learn about how we’ve helped Maine nonprofits make Maine – and the world – a better place. 

Branding and marketing challenges for nonprofits 

We approach nonprofit projects the same way we start any new branding and marketing project – by conducting an audit to discover the organization’s unique value proposition, target audiences, their pain points, and what has and hasn’t worked for the organization previously. 

That being said, there are some branding and marketing challenges that are unique to nonprofits.

• Appealing to multiple, different audiences: Nonprofits often have two or more audiences that they need to appeal to with equal weight. One audience, for example, could be the people that the nonprofit helps or brings together, and the other audience is people and organizations that donate to and fund the nonprofit. 
• Communicating with accuracy, and simplicity: Some nonprofits work closely with government agencies that require very specific, technical ways of communicating. Other nonprofits need to communicate a very complex problem (like climate change, or health disparities) in a simple, engaging way.  
• Making the most with a tight budget: Nonprofits rely on donations to keep operating, which means they often don’t have a large branding and marketing budget. Instead of having an ongoing budget, nonprofits will sometimes receive a source of funding for a specific marketing initiative. 

Read on to learn about how we’ve helped Maine nonprofits overcome these challenges so they can leave a bigger impact. 

Supporting brands that invest in Maine communities  

Over the years, we’ve helped Maine nonprofits expand their reach and fulfill their missions. These are just some of the Maine nonprofit branding and marketing projects we love to show off.  

MTI – Maine Technology Institute

MTI is a state-funded nonprofit that gives funding for innovative Maine businesses. When MTI first came to us, they didn’t have the resources to put together a brand that would appeal to their target audiences. 

We developed a cohesive and engaging visual identity that MTI’s team could use to quickly put together marketing materials. We also worked closely with their team to clarify the messaging for their various funding programs. 

Visible Logic has been working with MTI for over 6 years to help them fulfill their mission of supporting Maine’s innovation economy. Since their founding in 1999, MTI has directly invested over $280M in almost 3,000 distinct projects across Maine. 

Maine Marathon 

BEFORE AND AFTER

The Gorham Savings Bank Maine Marathon is a nonprofit, volunteer-led organization that organizes the Maine Marathon, half-marathon, and relay race every October in Portland. Maine Marathon has raised $5.2M for local charities since 1997. 

As a volunteer-run organization, Maine Marathon did not have many resources to handle their marketing needs internally. Registration was falling due to competition from other regional races, and they needed to bring their numbers back up. 

Visible Logic stepped in with a comprehensive strategy for increasing their registration numbers. First, we identified that Maine Marathon needed a rebrand. We helped them identify their unique differentiators and then turned that into a visual identity and messaging that we carried from their logo, to the website, and even in designing their race swag. 

We made sure that the website had accurate and accessible information about the race, as well as refining the registration process on RunSignUp. From there, we created a strategy for promotional emails, social media, and a PPC campaign.

Since working with Visible Logic, Maine Marathon has seen an increase in race registration every year (except the 2020 virtual race). Our strategy led to a record 4,116 registrations in 2023. As a result, Maine Marathon is able to donate more money every year to local Maine charities.

Defend Our Health 

BEFORE AND AFTER

Defend Our Health is a nonprofit dedicated to protecting environmental public health by enacting policy changes to reduce toxic chemicals in our food, water, and products.

When we first started working with Defend Our Health, they were called The Environmental Health Strategy Center, and their work was mostly known to other insiders, like scientists, policy makers, and other advocates. They wanted to expand their grassroots movement and therefore expand their brand reach to more people. 

We initiated a complete rebrand, including renaming the organization to Defend Our Health – a name, as well as a call to action – designing a new logo, and redesigning their website. 

Defend Our Health now has a compelling brand and website that reflects their mission to be a grassroots movement that enacts real change in environmental public health. 

MERIT

The Maine Retirement Investment Trust (MERIT) is an organization created by new Maine legislation that created an individual retirement savings obligation for Maine employers with 5 or more employees. 

When MERIT first came to us, they had no name or brand presence, but had to start spreading the word about this new program. 

We created the name MERIT, Maine(ME) Retirement Investment Trust, an informative and easy to remember name. We also created a logo incorporating Maine’s famous pine trees.

As MERIT was just starting to communicate the new retirement savings law, they needed employer and employee flyers that they could hand out at various events.   

As a result of our work with them, MERIT now has a name and logo that they can expand on as they grow. 

Raising Readers

Raising Readers is a Maine literacy program that gives free, high quality books to every child in Maine from birth through the age of 5. 

Although Raising Readers had been going strong in Maine for over 20 years, their website and visual identity was due for an update. Visible Logic stepped in to create a new website for them. 

We focused on showcasing Raising Reader’s impact over the years, as well as organizing their content and making it easier for users to search books in the Raising Readers catalog. We also created inclusive illustrations for the website that showed the types of families that access the program across Maine. 

Raising Readers now has a website with a friendly design and easy-to-use back end that showcases their impact on Maine. 

Goodwill Northern New England

Goodwill of Northern New England is the local branch of the nationwide Goodwill nonprofit organization. Their website needed to reflect the local impact that Goodwill of Northern New England has, with a national brand.

Their previous website was difficult for their team to easily publish communications or edit. As a small team, they needed a quick way to make updates and publish new information to their website. We started our project by auditing their existing website, which led us to the conclusion that we needed to start with a new website.

Our design and development team gave Goodwill of Northern New England the flexibility to make changes and updates on their website, reorganized and simplified their content, and fixed their website navigation.

MainePERS

BEFORE AND AFTER

The Maine Public Employees Retirement System (MainePERS) manages retirement plans for many public employees in Maine. While not technically classified as a nonprofit, MainPERS is still a not-for-profit organization that does a lot of good in Maine, which is why we’ve included it in this list. 

As a government-adjacent organization, MainePERS needs to project consistency and stability. They came to us because they wanted to change their logo. Our challenge was to create a modern brand identity that would appeal to their diverse audience of members, as well as their staff. 

We created an updated logo and a visual system that helped members identify information relevant to them. We then overhauled their website, including organizing content, and redesigning the website with the new brand identity.   

MainePERS now has a fresh, modern brand identity that they can apply consistently across all of their communications. 

How we help Maine nonprofits leave a lasting impact

The needs of each nonprofit we’ve worked with has been different. That’s why we start every Maine nonprofit branding and marketing project with understanding what the organization does, and focusing on the projects that will help the organization leave the biggest impact.

Brand identity 

A compelling brand identity is critical for nonprofits. A brand identity lays the foundation for an organization’s visual identity, and core messaging.

With Defend Our Health, a new brand allowed them to showcase their new focus as a grassroots movement and inspire people to get involved.

Maine Marathon’s new brand featured a fun, compelling visual identity that highlighted the best that Maine has to offer.

As governement-adjacent organizations, MERIT and MainePERS brand identity focused on stability, and gave these organizations a visual identity they could use for future marketing efforts.

Website design

For nonprofits, a website isn’t just a quick place to check out what an organization offers. A website acts as a repository of information, and a place for people to get inspired, and engaged.

For Raising Readers, we designed a website that showcased the program and served as a platform for parents and caregivers to search for the right books for their children.

The website build of Goodwill of Northern New England was focused on creating a website that would be easy for people to navigate, and flexible enough for the team to update and add to the website as needed.

Impact Marketing

One of the most important ways nonprofits communicate is showcasing their impact on the communities they serve. Impact marketing not only gets people engaged and excited about the nonprofit’s mission, but helps boost donation and fundraising efforts.

The key to impact marketing is to create graphics that are easy to understand, and leave an immediate impact. For Maine Marathon, we chose to create a graph that highlighted their waste diversion program in the shape of a dumpster.

MainePERS reports include a lot of technical information. To simplify, we created graphs with easy color delineation to simplify how this information is presented.

For MTI, we created simple graphics that clearly demonstrated how MTI uses its funds to create an impact in Maine.

The best choice for branding and marketing your Maine nonprofit

At Visible Logic, we believe in being an active part of our local community. That’s why we partner with Maine nonprofits to help them leave the biggest impact they can.

From brand identity, logo design, and website redesign to ongoing services like content marketing and digital ads, we deliver work that will let your nonprofit increase its reach and awareness.

If you’re a Maine nonprofit that’s looking to leave a lasting impact, talk to us. We’d love to help.

The post Best Maine nonprofit branding and marketing projects appeared first on Visible Logic.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a critical part of many content marketing strategies. But how important is SEO for referral businesses that don’t rely on website traffic for leads?

SEO is a long term strategy that is constantly changing. Some businesses need to devote many resources to SEO in order to make a dent in their competitive landscape. For other businesses, pouring resources into SEO can mean that you’re wasting money and time.

Read on to learn about how much SEO strategy you should invest in for your website if most of your leads come from referrals.

The SEO foundation every website needs

Over 60% of consumers use Google to find information about local businesses. For online businesses, Google can be a critical tool for people to find their website.

Having a solid SEO foundation is an absolute must for every business these days, whether you’re a software company or a brick-and-mortar bakery.

These are some basics that comprise a strong SEO foundation. These best practices are not expensive, or time-consuming.

• Create a clear content hierarchy: It should be very clear what your website is about, and what each page is about. If pages are related to each other, the page hierarchy of your website should reflect that.
• Improve your website speed: Loading speed is one of the most important factors that Google takes into consideration. A slow loading website gets penalized, meaning it will be more difficult for leads to find your website.
• Make the most of the content you do have: Use H1 tags and alt tags correctly. Don’t overuse graphic images, fill in keywords, descriptions and other meta data on all pages.
• Write content with the reader in mind: If you write with your ideal client in mind, it increases the chance your text will be relevant to both readers and search engines.
• Keep your site current: Build a plan to update, add and maintain content. Use a CMS tool like WordPress to make this easier. Consider adding a blog or article library. This will take time and effort so make sure you’re up to the task.
• Ask for links from groups and associates you are involved with: This can help boost a website’s authority, which is a critical part of how Google ranks website content.

You should include these SEO fundamentals in your website, regardless of the kind of business you have. But how do you know when it’s time to invest more in SEO?

When you should invest in SEO

As with any part of your business, you need to have goals and priorities in mind when deciding how much to invest in SEO.

If you anticipate that most of your leads will come from your website, then you may want to invest in SEO to make it easier for people to find your website. This can include creating new content that targets keywords that your target audience is likely searching for.

If you use your website to make sales, then increasing traffic to your website is critical. SEO can help you do that.

How important is SEO for referral businesses?

Sinking time and money into advanced SEO strategies may ultimately be a waste for businesses that get most of their leads from referrals.

Businesses that offer personalized services, like attorneys, CPAs, and marketing agencies (like Visible Logic) are reliant on good referrals. Because these services are personalized and often pricy, people are not likely to decide whether or not to engage these businesses based solely on their website.

Referral businesses tend to have a longer sales cycle that relies on personal conversations with people. You should still always have a compelling website with an SEO foundation, but because your leads don’t come from organic traffic you likely don’t need to invest much in SEO.

People need to be able to find you on the web, but what are they searching for? If you are a business built on referrals, it’s more likely they’ll be Googling your actual business name, rather than a more generic keyword. Luckily, it’s relatively easy to rank highly for your own brand name without any additional strategy.

SEO is not critical for referral-based businesses. A solid SEO foundation will ensure that people can follow up with referrals by searching for your brand name and visiting your website.

How important is SEO for your website? It depends on your goals. Whether you’re looking for a simple and solid SEO foundation for your website, or more advanced SEO content creation, let’s talk.

The post How important is SEO for referral businesses? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Faced with limited resources and a need to prioritize marketing efforts, many business owners may be wondering if they should focus on branding or SEO more. But why one or the other? Some may think that branding and SEO oppose each other – that focusing on branding can hurt SEO rankings, or that following SEO best practices leads to lackluster branding.

Read on to learn about how SEO and branding differ, how they can actually work together to achieve the same goals, and how to know when it’s time to invest more in either strategy. 

What are the main goals of SEO? 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a set of strategies with the goal of increasing organic traffic to a website. 

SEO strategies can include the strategic use of keywords that your target audience is searching for, in the hopes of ranking highly for those keywords. Often this means creating or optimizing content. 

There are also technical strategies to SEO, like optimizing site speed, and ensuring that your content is tagged correctly. 

Google looks at both the authority of a website and the relevance of content when deciding on rankings. Google measures authority by how many websites link to your websites. At its core, authority is about how well known your brand is, because Google understands that we trust established sources. 

SEO strategies are heavy on data and look for long-term, gradual growth. 

What are the main goals of branding? 

Branding is the active process of creatively shaping your brand to establish trust and recognizability. 

This includes how your visuals and messaging work together to demonstrate the unique value your brand brings to the market and attract your target audience. 

Branding activities include the naming of a business, creating a logo and website, making creative decisions like what are the brand’s colors and fonts. In addition, branding includes your messaging and voice and making decisions on how you talk to your audience.   

Branding projects require a lot of creativity and the results are often used for many years. 

How branding and SEO are different 

Branding is about using creative assets, and SEO looks at data and numbers. Because of this, people often assume that branding and SEO work at odds with each other. 

This stems from a larger misconception that conforming to strategy and data stifles creative pursuits. In truth, creative people often thrive with limitations on what they can create.

The tension between SEO and branding does require some thought when creating a website.

Some websites may have a problem with “overbranding”. Every product name is so creative and vague that people have a hard time finding that brand’s products by searching for what they are looking for. Other websites prioritize highly designed video or graphic elements that cannot be indexed for keywords and may slow the website down, actively harming their SEO rankings. 

On the other hand, over optimization to improve SEO rankings can result in a boring, unmemorable website, which can seriously harm branding efforts. Over optimizing can include forcing keywords where they don’t belong, or creating content that has a good chance of ranking for a keyword but isn’t useful for the audience. 

Given the above example, it’s not surprising that many people think that SEO and branding clash with each other. The trick is to balance the two. 

You don’t have to choose between branding or SEO 

You don’t need to choose between branding or SEO because you should ideally be doing a balance of both. 

When done correctly, SEO and branding work together. 

When done right, branding helps build website authority, which in turn improves SEO. Good branding means that more people will recognize and trust your brand. In turn, you’ll have more people linking to your site. Good branding increases trust and establishes your brand as a useful answer to a problem, which means people will likely access your website more often. Given that the ultimate goal of SEO is to increase organic traffic, branding helps achieve this goal. 

Some brands don’t have great brand name recognition. As a result, not a lot of people are searching for their brand name. SEO strategies can improve branded search results, which helps establish the brand as a leader in their field. 

That may seem like circular logic, but that’s exactly the point. Branding can improve SEO which in turn can bolster branding efforts. This only works if you invest in both branding and SEO. If you completely ignore branding, your SEO efforts will harm your brand. And if you completely ignore branding, you won’t see a lot of SEO improvement. 

If you have limited resources, this may not seem like great news. After all, you can’t do everything at once. Luckily, you don’t have to give 100% to branding and SEO. 

Should you invest more in branding or SEO? 

A good website design or redesign involves a healthy balance of branding and SEO. A well designed and developed website will give you a solid SEO foundation. Good branding will help build your trust and authority. 

But there may be times where you want to devote more resources to one strategy over the other. 

Every website project should have goals, and these goals will determine which strategy you devote more resources to, or if you devote equal resources to SEO and branding. 

If you’ve identified that your target audience is most likely to find you via search results, you may want to devote more resources to SEO, to ensure your audience can easily find you. 

On the other hand, if your brand is new and not well established, you may want to focus more on building a comprehensive brand strategy. 

Branding and SEO work together to help increase your website’s visibility and build brand trust and recognition. If you’re looking for a comprehensive website design or redesign that incorporates award-winning design and SEO strategy, let’s talk. 

The post Is branding or SEO more important? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Maine Technology Institute (MTI) is a state-funded, public-private partnership that gives funding to Maine entrepreneurs that are developing innovative businesses, products, and services.

As a critical part of funding innovative business in Maine, MTI partners with entrepreneurs, publicly-traded companies, nonprofits, government organizations, trade groups, venture capital firms, and more. This mix of audiences presents some branding and marketing challenges.

Read on to learn more about how we’ve been helping MTI with nonprofit branding and marketing projects since 2018.

The challenge of connecting with multiple audiences 

Most brands have one primary target audience that they are trying to attract and convert. As a nonprofit, however, MTI has two target audiences that hold equal weight – the entrepreneurs that apply for MTI funding, and the stakeholders that keep MTI itself funded. 

When MTI first came to us, they struggled to maintain consistent branding that would appeal to both audiences.  

Our solution: Adaptable branding that stands the test of time 

With an ever-changing organization like MTI, we knew we had to create brand guidelines and tools that were flexible, and easy to use for different purposes. 

A branding toolkit for flexible marketing

Our first goal was to create consistent brand guidelines. We established brand elements, including a set of icons for various stages of the application process, and a consistent visual language for creating graphics.

These brand elements were easy to repurpose, and all worked together. We incorporated these brand elements into various marketing materials, including a new email template.

The end product was a branding toolkit that MTI could customize for any purpose and quickly disseminate new marketing materials. 

Annual reports that people want to read

As a nonprofit, MTI has reporting obligations to various stakeholders. Annual reports are a great way to not only report back, but also highlight successes to potentially attract new funding and partnerships. 

When we first started working with MTI, their annual reports looked and read like an obligation. We saw an opportunity to take this long, technical document and turn it into an engaging marketing piece about MTI’s continued impact. 

Visible Logic art-directed photo shoots, created data visualizations, and highlighted the stories of successful MTI-funded ventures. The result was a concise and compelling annual report that more people would actually want to read. 

Success stories 

MTI funds innovative companies and ideas, but defining innovation isn’t always easy. As a result, entrepreneurs could struggle to self-identify as a good fit for MTI funding. We create success stories to help Maine businesses get a better understanding of what projects MTI typically funds. Every month we profile an MTI-funded project.

These success stories served the double purpose of not only helping entrepreneurs self-identify as a fit for MTI, but also to communicate MTI’s impact on Maine to stakeholders. 

The challenge of attracting more qualified leads 

As MTI has grown over the years, their funding programs have expanded and changed. Information on the difference between funding programs wasn’t always easy to find. Potential clients couldn’t easily self-identify which program would be a good fit for them. 

The application process for most MTI programs starts with a conversation with MTI’s staff to establish a good fit for the program. MTI funding officers found that they were getting more and more unqualified leads. They were devoting resources to educating leads on the basic details of MTI funding programs. 

MTI needed a way for potential leads to quickly find the information needed to self-determine which funding program would be a good fit for them. 

Our solution – Simplifying content and redesigning the homepage 

Visible Logic worked closely with the MTI team to rewrite copy for and redesign all of the funding program pages. 

We created top level pages for each funding program that summarized that program’s funding criteria, application process, and any other details needed. The pages were highlighted with calls to action to learn more about each step of the process. 

As we worked on this project, we quickly realized that MTI’s homepage did not provide easy navigation for entrepreneurs interested in funding programs. We redesigned MTI’s homepage to include evocative questions that help the user self-select what they’re interested in learning more about. 

We also changed the navigational title of the funding program pages to “Explore Funding Programs”, pushing users to take an active role in learning more about what funding programs are available. 

The result is a website that quickly guides the user to whatever program interests them. In just a few clicks, interested entrepreneurs can see what programs are available at a glance, gather the information they need to identify if they’re a good fit for a specific program, and take the next step to book a call with MTI. 

This reorganization cuts down on the amount of unqualified leads that contact MTI. Now prospective clients have an easier time identifying if they are a good fit for MTI programs. 

The challenge of raising awareness for special funding programs 

In addition to funding innovative projects through it’s State-sponsored fund, MTI supports two other funding programs. MTI is Maine’s official support organization for SBIR or STTR federal funding, and encourages Maine businesses to apply for these programs. Also, the Maine Entrepreneurial Resources Corps (MERC) provides funding that helps Maine businesses pay consulting fees. 

Our solutions – Marketing materials that increase awareness and encourages program applications

Over the years, we’ve helped MTI raise awareness for these special funding programs.  

SBIR funding support 

SBIR and STTR are two federal funding programs that offer large grants for the research and development of products in a variety of industries. 

While this program is extremely beneficial for small businesses, it’s not widely known. Funding application information is confusing, and difficult to find on federal websites. 

We created compelling visuals and clear messaging to promote these federal funding programs and encourage businesses to apply. This included messaging that cleared up common misconceptions about the program, and statistics about past awardees.

Eligibility criteria for these funding programs is not always clear cut. We created a self-guided assessment quiz to help businesses get a sense of whether or not they are ready to apply for SBIR or STTR. We also highlighted success stories that feature SBIR funding, so businesses could see what other Maine ventures were successful in getting this coveted funding. 

MERC 

MERC helps Maine entrepreneurs get expert consulting by funding up to $20,000 of a consulting project fee. Because MERC is funded through the Domestic Trade Pilot Program, it has more broad funding criteria than other MTI programs. 

We highlighted this expanded eligibility on MTI’s website, as well as writing MERC-specific success stories to highlight how Maine entrepreneurs have used MERC to pay for business critical consulting projects. 

In addition to providing funding, MERC is at its core a database of Maine consultants. Visible Logic is proud to be a MERC consultant. Our clients have used MERC funding in the past to help pay for branding and marketing projects. MERC funding has helped them expand the scope of their projects, without increasing their budget. 

Results – MTI is growing Maine’s innovation economy

Through the years, we’ve supported MTI as they’ve grown their funding programs. MTI now has a consistent brand, funding information that’s clear, and easy to navigate, engaging impact publications like success stories and annual reports, and so much more. 

We are proud to support MTI with their mission of growing Maine’s innovation economy. 

Are you a Maine business that wants to level up your branding and marketing? With MERC funding, you can get more done for less. MERC will fund up to half of a project fee, up to $20,000. What could your business do with an extra $20,000 for branding and marketing?

The post Case study: Nonprofit marketing and branding for MTI appeared first on Visible Logic.

Whether you’re selling products or software directly on your site, or you use your site to capture leads via a contact form, your website is likely an integral part of your sales process. If you use your website to convert prospects into customers, getting more people to visit your website is important. That’s where SEO comes in. 

SEO encompasses many different strategies, and a lot of marketers have strong – and often conflicting – ideas about what can improve a website’s SEO. 

Read on to learn about SEO, our approach to SEO, and how we help our clients improve their SEO.

What is SEO? 

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a strategy that improves your chances of people finding your website by searching for certain words. 

Unless there’s a technical problem, search engines like Google and Bing can likely find your website. SEO improves how close to the top of a search page your website shows up, and what specific terms bring up your page in search results.  

SEO is a large and complicated set of strategies. There are content SEO strategies and technical SEO strategies. There are some strategies that are basic, and easy to implement, while other require technical knowledge or a long-term investment.

Technical SEO strategies

Organized and well-coded sites make it easy for Google to understand your content and therefore rank well for specific terms. 

Google scans the text on your site in your headlines, navigation, and body copy to understand what a page is about and what search queries that page answers. 

Speed is an important factor in Google search rankings. Google penalizes slow-loading sites.

Content SEO strategies

Search engine algorithms are designed to show people content that they’re interested in seeing. At its core, SEO is about optimizing content so it shows up when people are searching for relevant terms.

That means creating and organizing content that’s easy to skim for answers to people’s questions, or giving a clear path for more information.

Website content should include relevant keywords – phrases that people search for – that are related to that business. For example, if you’re an accountant, you may want to focus on words like ‘CPA,’ ‘tax returns,’ or ‘tax planning’. If you’re writing your website in a way that’s informative, you’ll likely already be using these words.

SEO is competitive and complex

The strategies listed above are really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SEO improvement. There are endless strategies that can quickly become overwhelming.

There are a lot of SEO strategies because it’s very competitive to rank highly on Google search for specific keywords. For example, there are thousands of accountants across America, and many of their websites will heavily feature relevant keywords like “CPA” and “taxes.” So how can your website rank highly for these words? Even ranking locally for keywords can be difficult. How many accountants are in your city?

SEO can never be achieved 100%, because that is impossible. You should be incredibly wary of any agency that promises you a certain ranking on Google. Many factors that go into SEO are out of anybody’s control, and no one can make those promises.

So why bother with SEO? Because it can boost the amount of people coming to your website through search. Organic search traffic can lead to increased conversions, because they’ve likely clicked on your site as an answer to a question or problem they have.

Read on to learn about how we approach the complex and competitive landscape of SEO.

The Visible Logic approach to SEO – incremental, targeted improvement

It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with all of the things marketers tell you that you “should” be doing to improve your SEO. Even if you have unlimited time and money, you still wouldn’t be able to achieve everything on a “SEO checklist”.

Instead, at Visible Logic we let our clients’ goals guide our SEO efforts. We focus on incremental improvement that is sustainable in the long-term, and can lead to slow and steady success.

Our approach to SEO includes:

• Aim for “better”: There is no such thing as 100% when it comes to SEO. There is always room for improvement. Instead of aiming for perfection, we look at where you are now and find ways to continually improve.
• There is no one correct answer: There are multiple SEO strategies, and some are more effective for certain kinds of businesses than others. We tailor SEO strategies to the needs of our client.
• Measured and sustainable investment: SEO success builds over time. To see results, you need to be consistent. That means that if you decide to post a weekly blog, you need to have the resources to keep that up, otherwise you won’t see results in the long term.
• Write for people, not machines: We don’t force keywords or chase vanity metrics. SEO content should be high quality, relevant content that your target audience is interested in. In fact, that’s exactly what Google’s algorithm is designed for.

So how do we go about implementing this approach to SEO into strategies that move the needle forward for our clients?

How we improve SEO for our clients

Every SEO project is different, and we don’t use cookie cutter strategies. That being said, most of our SEO projects follow the same steps.

Identify SEO goals and needs

SEO strategy works when it’s guided by specific goals. We start by asking clients why they are interested in improving their SEO. Some clients request SEO services because SEO is something that they’ve heard is important, but in reality they don’t have the budget or are at a stage in their marketing where it makes sense to invest time and money into SEO strategies.

If we agree that working on SEO makes sense for the client, we ask them about their SEO goals. What are some specific terms they’d like to rank highly for? What are some metrics they want to track?

SEO audit

We start most projects with an audit, and SEO is no different. We use tools like SEMrush and GA4 to get an baseline picture of your website’s SEO health.

Some of the things that we look for in particular with an SEO audit are:

• Top keywords: What keywords are you ranking highest for already? Are these keywords that are relevant to your goals? Sometimes a website will rank highly for a keyword that isn’t very relevant to current content or goals.
• Top performing pages: What pages of your website are bringing in the most organic search traffic? What keywords are those pages ranking for?
• Site authority: How authoritative a website is factors strongly into Google rankings. Backlinks – external links that link to your pages – raises a website’s authority. We check the quantity and quality of your backlinks.
• Site speed: We check the speed of your site and identify what could be causing a slow load time.

Establish a strong SEO foundation

No amount of SEO-optimized content will improve a website’s SEO if there isn’t a strong technical SEO foundation. We build all of our websites with this in mind. By using custom and clean code instead of prebuilt themes or templates, we can optimize the speed of your website.

We also ensure that there are no directly embedded videos, large images or any other functionality that can slow your site speed.

We recommend all of our clients run the Yoast SEO plugin on their sites and will install it for you if we build your site. Yoast has a free basic edition, but some of its paid features may be worthwhile. Once you install Yoast, it’s easy to see whether you’ve filled out all the correct information that Google needs to correctly index your page.

This strong technical foundation will make it much easier to ramp up your SEO efforts.

Consistent improvement and reporting

SEO strategies generally take a long time to start seeing results. It can take up to a month for Google to reindex a page, meaning that you’re not likely to see any change immediately. Google likes to see websites that consistently add content, as opposed to adding dozens of blog posts all at once. It’s important not to try everything all at once, rather to implement one change, wait to see the result, and go from there. If you change 5 things at once, it will be impossible to know what change has led to an improvement, or decline in your SEO.

We decide on 1-3 SEO goals for the quarter, and focus only on those. For most clients, this can include improving on-page SEO for their core website pages, or focusing on the creation of new content to target specific keywords.

Although we only focus on a few goals at a time, we continue to track and report on general SEO metrics. That’s because changing one thing can inadvertently affect a completely different aspect of SEO.

Double duty SEO

SEO improvement is not the kind of project that happens in a vacuum. It should – and usually is – part of a larger marketing strategy, and should complement those efforts.

Often, we pair organic SEO strategy with a paid search campaign. This is especially useful for companies that are trying to rank highly for their own brand name.

Or, we write content that’s keyword-rich and also shows thought leadership. The same content that’s attracting Google’s attention, can be shared on social media or in a newsletter to stay top of mind with your current clients. Specifically, when we create SEO optimized content for our clients, we often include a social media post that the client can use that links to the piece of content. This not only drives more traffic to your website, but also helps you post more consistently on social media.

When and how much should you invest in SEO?

Establishing a strong SEO foundation is critical to future SEO success. You should have SEO best practices in mind when you are considering creating your website. It costs a lot more money to go back and optimize a website, rather than taking the time to do it right.

That being said, many websites will hit an SEO “ceiling” where they aren’t seeing any further improvements, even if their website has a technical SEO foundation.

We recommend investing in SEO when:

• You are seeing a plateau or decrease in organic search traffic, despite your current efforts
• You have the resources to devote to a long-term strategy
• You aren’t relying on SEO improvement to meet an immediate need, like increasing conversions in the next month

So how much should you invest in SEO improvement? Should you attempt SEO improvement in-house, or outsource the work? Here are some things to take into consideration:

• What is your budget? Some aspects of SEO improvement, like weekly content creation, can be costly to implement. Focus on what you need most in order to improve SEO, and assess whether it’s more cost effective to hire or train someone in your team to implement, or hire an agency.
• How much time do you and your team have? Creating a weekly blog post in-house may be beyond your team’s capacity. Hiring an agency for ongoing SEO improvement is often more attainable than growing your team.
• How much have you already invested in SEO? If you’re not very far along in your SEO improvement journey, it’s actually easier and less costly to make large improvements by creating quality content. If you’ve already done SEO work and are struggling to continue to improve, you’ll likely need to invest more resources into advanced strategies like systematic backlink requests and creating video content.

Are you ready to improve your website’s SEO?

We can work with your budget and goals to create a sustainable and effective SEO strategy that help your target audience find your website more easily.

If you’re interested in improving your website’s SEO, let’s talk.

The post The Visible Logic approach to SEO appeared first on Visible Logic.

We are proud to be based in Portland, Maine. Our Maine startup branding and marketing projects contribute to the Maine spirit of collaboration and innovation. That’s why we love working with Maine startups to help them grow and continue making Maine a special place for businesses. 

Every city has its fair share of branding agencies, but we want Visible Logic to be more than the local default. We are an active part of an ecosystem of organizations that rally together resources to help Maine businesses grow. 

Read on to learn more about how we help Maine startups grow.

Branding and marketing challenges for startups

Startups have different branding and marketing needs than more established companies. Here are three of the most common challenges startups face as they develop their brand and go to market.

1. Initial Branding Most startups will transform as they grow, but that doesn’t mean they should wait until they have a finished product to start investing in branding. We create initial brands for our startup clients to launch into the marketplace or to help them begin to raise funds. Often, the process of creating an initial brand helps our client clarify exactly who their target audience is. 
2. Message clarification We love working with innovative startups that are doing something unique. These startups often have a challenge in their messaging – how can they communicate their unique products or services in a simple and engaging way? We help startups create messaging that is clear, compelling, and consistent. 
3. Growth and acquisition For many startups, the ultimate goal is growth with an eye toward investments and exits. We strategize and implement multi-channel marketing strategies to boost conversions, which helps startups prove their concept’s marketability. We also help startups move to the next step of the startup lifecycle by creating impactful pitch decks.

Supporting Maine startups through the startup lifecycle 

Below are four examples of how we’ve helped Maine Startups launch and grow.

DAVO

Branding and marketing helped this startup get acquired and continue to grow

DAVO developed an app to help automate sales tax for restaurants and small retailers. 

When we first started working with DAVO, they were a lean startup based in Maine. We helped establish initial branding, including creating illustrative icons that they could use to highlight the app’s benefits. From there, we helped them develop pitch decks to not only attract integration partners, but to secure VC funding for their company to grow. 

DAVO has since been acquired by Avalara, and we have continued working with them to create a robust SEO and content strategy, as well as seamlessly integrate Avalara’s branding with DAVO’s branding.

STARC

Branding and go-to market strategy to help scale one of America’s fastest growing manufacturers 

STARC is a manufacturing startup based in Maine that builds reusable, temporary containment for large renovation projects, often in hospitals or airports. 

Our work with STARC started with establishing a clean and professional brand that could scale with the company. We initially designed a new logo that reflected its product: modular walls. STARC had big plans for growth and planned to introduce new products, so we helped them develop a naming and graphic system ready to accommodate their growing product line. We established an entire visual system, including a series of icons and art-directing multiple photo shoots. 

STARC leans heavily on its sales team to prospect and bring in deals. Visible Logic has developed sales support materials including sales decks, videos and catalogs so STARC can present a unified brand and compelling messaging throughout the sales process.

We created a comprehensive go-to market strategy for STARC’s second and third products, including ad campaigns and industry-specific sales collateral. We also developed content-driven campaigns around ebooks that were used on their website and in LinkedIn campaigns to quickly highlight how STARC products address – and even exceed – the containment needs of hospitals.  

Since working with us, STARC has moved through the startup lifecycle, and was ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies for four years in a row. In 2023 it was acquired by a Private Equity firm.

Dynamic Grid

Helping a clean energy startup go from academic to marketable 

Dynamic Grid is a startup that has developed technology to make clean energy efforts more efficient. 

 Like many startups, this company has had to pivot as market conditions have changed.

Visible Logic first stepped in with Dynamic Grid’s previous iteration as Introspective Systems. We developed a robust deck that explained their AI-driven edge technology using animations and slides.

After deciding to change names, we then helped then designed a new brand under the name Dynamic Grid.

Like many of our startup clients, Dynamic Grid’s main challenge is that they have a complex product. On one hand, their product needed to be communicated simply, so end-users like homeowners could immediately understand the product and its benefits. On the other hand, they also needed to speak with authority and knowledge to utility companies and legislators interested in clean energy. 

We created a website that spoke to these two different audiences. Taking the time to fully understand their product, we helped Dynamic Grid move beyond academic language, into compelling and simplified marketing copy. We paired the copy with graphics that clearly demonstrate how the product works, and its benefits.

SimKit

Creating and launching a brand 

SimKit is a medtech startup that simplifies emergency medicine simulation training. They provide a monthly subscription of both physical simulation models and digital learning modules. 

Before

After

When SimKit came to us, the initial branding and name they were using was confusing, and not visually appealing. We created the name SimKit, designed their logo and brand identity. 

SimKit needed a brand identity that positioned them in the healthcare industry, but still looked inviting, and clean. We designed a logo using a light, medicinal blue and incorporated a minimal icon of a box, to represent that SimKit is a subscription box company. We continued these elements when designing their shipping boxes. 

Part of their product is an online learning portal which we built to allow e-commerce purchases, deliver the educational content, and track member progress. We also designed and developed their marketing website. 

To help them have a successful launch, we created a go to market strategy, including a social media content creation, and branded conference materials. Expand this!

ReMo

Branding an app and marketing for growth 

ReMo is an app built by LiteracyTech that was created by teachers to simplify the administrative work of literacy education. The app logs student progress, organizes libraries, and helps educators keep track of books. 

Our work with ReMo started with establishing a new brand, including a name and visual identity. The name is a shortened version of ‘Read More’ and logo launched their energetic and friendly brand. We worked with the app development team to ensure that the brand identity was carried out in the UI. 

Once the app and website launched, we helped ReMo develop their pitch deck that won Maine’s $25,000 Top Gun prize. 

How we help Maine startups grow

Brand identity for startups 

Establishing a consistent brand foundation is crucial to startup growth because it allows the startup to identify and attract the right audience for their products and services. 

We’ve helped startups with:

• Naming
• Logo design
• Brand standards and templates
• Product packaging

Startup website 

Many of our startup clients need a new website in order to attract their target audience.

We’ve helped startups with:

• Simple, one-page sites
• Custom built WordPress websites
• Membership sites
• Learning Management Sites (LMS)
• E-commerce sites
• Connecting their marketing website to their online software

Pitch decks and sales presentations

Pitch decks and sales presentations are an essential tool in attracting customers, funders and investors. 

We’ve helped startups:

• Clarify their story
• Visualize their financial data
• Support their sales team close sales
• Attract VC, PE and Angel investments
• Win pitch contests

Go to market marketing

Launching a new brand or product requires a targeted marketing strategy. 

We’ve helped startup successfully go-to market by

• Developing multi-channel product-launch ad campaigns
• Use pay-per-click campaigns to learn about their ideal customer and key benefits
• Develop sales support materials
• Make effective use of trade shows

The best choice for branding and marketing your Maine startup

At Visible Logic, we love helping Maine startups with their branding and marketing, because we believe in the growth of Maine businesses. 

That’s why the Maine Technology Institute lists Visible Logic in their database of consultants for the Maine Entrepreneur Resources Corps (MERC). With MERC, Maine businesses can get up to $20,000 in funding for consulting projects, like branding or marketing. Many of our startup clients take advantage of this amazing resource to partially fund their branding and marketing projects with us. 

If you’re a Maine startup that’s looking to jumpstart your growth, talk to us. We’d love to help.

The post Our Maine startup branding and marketing projects appeared first on Visible Logic.

Why do people visit your website? Usually, it’s to find out more information about your business, or hopefully to even purchase your products or services. Website navigation best practices can help you attract and convert customers.

Your website should make it as easy as possible for anyone to find the information they need to convert to a customer. Read on to learn about why website navigation is important and 5 website navigation best practices that can increase your website’s conversion rate.

Why website navigation is important

People who cannot find what they are looking for are going to quickly leave your site and you’ve probably lost your prospect for good.

In 2006 the journal of Behaviour & Information Technology crunched the data and found that you have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression with your website. While that’s an old statistic, it’s likely that you have even less time to make a good impression today as the competition for people’s interest has only increased in the last few years.

A good first impression means that the user can find what they were looking for when they clicked through to your site, whether that be more information about your company or your products.

What if people can’t find what they’re looking for on your website? Chances are, you’ll lose their business forever. In fact, 89% of customers do business with a competitor because of a poor website experience.

Luckily, there are a few things you can do to improve your website navigation and increase conversion on your website.

5 Website navigation best practices to increase conversion

Website navigation best practices tend to be common sense. So why do so many companies not follow these website navigation best practices? Maintaining a website isn’t always easy, and it’s important to set aside time to revisit your site and ensure you’re adhering to these practices.

#1 Keep your website content clearly organized

There are several ways that websites get off track, and become confusing for users. When you’re thinking about how to organize the pages on your website, always think about it from the perspective of the user.

Users spend an average of 6.44 seconds looking at a navigation menu, and 38% of users take page layout and navigation into account when judging a site.

Group your navigational items in a way that makes sense to your viewers. That means organizing content like an org chart. All of your content should be arranged by levels, with subpages clearly sitting below landing pages, and section-heads that make sense.

As your company grows and you add more content, it’s important to stick to this hierarchy. There are some pages, like special events, news items, or special offers, that won’t obviously fit into the regular flow of pages.

An obvious solution could be to create these as stand-alone landing pages that live outside of your main navigation. Landing pages are great as part of a marketing campaign, but can be confusing if there’s not a clear path for users to gain additional information.

Spending some time analyzing your site traffic may help you understand the typical paths through your site that users take, so you can ensure that key information is easy to find.

#2 Position content strategically on the page

This website navigation best practice has the most potential to increase conversion.

People’s attention spans are short, and users want to find what they’re looking for quickly. That’s why it’s important that your most important information, like your deep benefits, are positioned where users look the most.

According to one study, 57% of time on a website is spent looking above the fold (the content before you scroll down), and 74% of time is spent in the first two “screenfuls”. Users tend to read from the left uppermost part of the site, and then “zigzag” their way down. That means that the top left part of your site is prime real estate.

So what information should you put in the coveted “above the fold” section? Statistics show that the global conversion rate of websites is only 3.68%. That’s incredibly low. But what if you grab someone’s attention from the beginning? Your product or service’s deep benefits should feature prominently in the top portion of your site, along with a call to action.

#3 Keep your website navigation current

Most business websites start out with a navigation that is well-organized. The problems most commonly arise as the business changes and the navigational buckets no longer makes sense.

As your offerings change (and it seems like most businesses are always changing!), make sure you can move around pages or rename pages and sections. If your business grows and changes enough, you may need to consider an overhaul to the navigational system.

The key is to revisit your website navigation often.

#4 Use effective web design to aid navigation

Remember that not everyone enters your website from your home page. Assume that some visitors didn’t start at the “start” so you need to give clues about where someone is and how they get to other places.

• There can be design clues, such as highlighting within the navigation what page you are on, rather than having it revert to an “off” state.
• There can be clues within the URL by making the specific page address show clearly it’s place within the website. For example: domain.com/about/team
• Use breadcrumb navigation to show path
• Be consistent with all these systems

Here is an example, from MainePERS, BEFORE we updated their site:

And an example AFTER we updated their site:

As you can see, the URL structure, the main and sub-navigation menus, and the breadcrumb navigation all consistently reinforce the visitor’s place within the site. It also makes it clear where they could click to go somewhere else.

What about sitemaps? Many websites offer sitemaps to help aid visitors in finding the right information. There is certainly no harm in offering a sitemap (and there is some potential SEO benefits from adding one), but do not force your prospects to use a sitemap. The organization of your website should be clear enough that a sitemap is unnecessary.

#5 Optimize for mobile use

Not everyone sits in front of their computer with attention undivided as they navigate your website. In fact, 54% of all website traffic in the U.S. is from mobile devices. Globally, that number skyrockets to 65%.

If your website is not optimized for mobile use, over half of your site visitors will simply leave.

Luckily, most website builders today have tools to make mobile optimization easy. But keep in mind that certain functions, like text hovering and carousels, might not work on mobile.

Does your website navigation need help? Whether you want to create a new website and aren’t sure where to start or you need to reorganize your website following a business restructure, we can help. Talk to us about how we can implement these website navigation best practices to help you attract and convert customers.

The post 5 Website Navigation Best Practices That Convert Customers appeared first on Visible Logic.

Visible Logic has recently launched a redesigned website for ScanPower, and we’re happy to report that the new website was selected for a Gold AVA Digital Award in the category of B2B website. 

ScanPower is a SaaS company that provides software that helps Amazon sellers simplify and scale their business. 

We helped ScanPower reach a new target market by designing a website that clearly communicated the benefits of the software, as well as clearly defined the different software plans available. 

2024 AVA Digital Awards Gold Winner: B2B Website 

ScanPower’s redesigned website was a Gold winner in the 2024 AVA Digital Awards, in the category of B2B Website. The AVA awards recognize the importance of digital arts, technology, and information in changing the way people communicate. 

Visible Logic’s redesign of the ScanPower website was recognized for the way design and messaging came together to create a clear and compelling SaaS website. 

Communicating value to a new market 

Visible Logic kicked off the website project with a website audit, as is standard for most of our projects. 

ScanPower was in the midst of pivoting to a new market of large, multi-warehouse sellers, and knew that their website did not attract this new market. 

Our audit focused on identifying opportunities to address this new audience’s pain points and communicate how ScanPower addresses those pain points. 

We also worked closely with ScanPower to change the structure of their software pricing to clearly reflect each of their target customers. 

Clear messaging and compelling design 

Before

After

We rewrote ScanPower’s website to ensure that it was attracting their new target audience, as well as clearly communicating the benefits of the ScanPower software. 

We updated their design with illustrations to clearly show how the software works to simplify and scale Amazon selling operations. 

In addition to the updated copy and design, we created a clear and compelling pricing page that made it easy for customers to self select the plan that works best for them. 

We have since gone on to develop and implement an ongoing marketing strategy for ScanPower.

Is your SaaS website not reaching the right audience? We can help. At Visible Logic, we take a holistic approach to website design and redesign that integrates clear copy, compelling design, and strategic web development. Talk to us to get started on your website redesign. 

The post ScanPower website redesign wins award appeared first on Visible Logic.

The key to developing a good brand with widespread recognition is consistency. But how do you ensure brand consistency and why is it so important?

A brand isn’t just something you have on file. Your brand gets developed and strengthened the more you use it. Every email, social media post, press release, and ad that goes out is another impression of your brand. But are you showing, and saying, the same thing every time?

Read on to learn more about brand consistency, why it’s crucial to brand visibility, and how to ensure brand consistency.

What does brand consistency mean?

Brand consistency means using the same design and messaging elements every time you try to increase brand recognition, attract prospects, and convert customers.

Visual brand consistency

From a designer’s perspective, brand consistency means:

• Use the same business name, logo, and/or logotype. Typesetting the name and other elements in a fixed fashion.
• Choose a couple of typefaces and use them all the time. Read these tips about working with fonts.
• Choose a corporate color, or color palette and using them as the dominant color scheme throughout your materials—printed or online.
• Use consistent visual elements across media. Some examples are: always using a certain style of photography; or always setting quotations in Garamond Italic; or always have one large color block at the top of the page.
• Create “lock ups” for your elements. This means, for example, a certain way of setting the logo + tagline. These groupings become fixed.
• Create design systems that are similar throughout all of your materials. From a business card to a web site to an educational brochure, there should be certain elements that are always the same.

Brand consistency in messaging

Your messaging —the words you use and how you use them— is equally important when it comes to brand consistency.

From a writer’s perspective, brand consistency means:

• Establish grammar and punctuation guidelines. Do you use sentence or title case for blog titles and headers? Do you use the Oxford comma, or not?
• Write with the same voice. Is your brand formal, or informal? Do you opt for more of a friendly, or informative tone?
• Standardize brand and product names. This seems trivial, but brands often have standards for writing their name. For example, ClickUp should always be written with a capital C and U. Clickup would be unacceptable.
• Decide how to treat industry-specific terms. Are acronyms written out? Are technical terms defined?
• Establish one or two tag lines. These are short, benefit-driven phrases that will show up a lot in your marketing collateral.

Why is brand consistency important?

There’s an old adage in branding that it takes the average user 5-7 consistent impressions to actually remember a brand. That’s 5-7 emails, social media posts, visits to a website etc.

In fact, it’s very hard to measure this and some experts put it has high as 8 or even 13 brand touch points. As people get overloaded with media and their attention span shortens, this number will continue to grow.

The important thing to remember is, those impressions need to be consistent in order for someone to remember who you are.

Avoid confusion

The obvious reason is that your potential clients and customers are being introduced to you and you don’t want to confuse them. As a small business, (in contrast to a well-known multi-national corporation) make it easy for someone to remember you by being consistent with how you present yourself.

People take notice of certain elements, but can’t always remember all the details.

For example, you meet a potential client at a networking event and give them your business card which features a large, red, circular logo. A few weeks later, that person is thinking they may need your services so they google your name and go to your website. If they see a large, red, circular logo they feel confident that they’re at the right place. If, on your web site you show your logo (even the same graphic) in green, they will feel confused and question whether this is indeed the same person and company they had in mind.

People trust things that they know

The first example highlights the most basic type of confusion that can cost you sales. But often it’s more subtle than that. Every time a potential client hears your business name or sees your logo it gets registered, even slightly, in their memory.

The stronger a memory—and therefore connection—someone has to a brand, the more likely they are to buy from that brand. Consumers are more likely to choose brands that are familiar, because they seem known, established, and therefore trustworthy.

It makes business sense—increase your returns

Often, business owners make their corporate identity inconsistent without giving it much thought. One example is an entrepreneur who decides to hire a web development firm to create their web site and another design studio for their printed work, without having the two end products coordinated.

In this example, you’ve paid for two projects but rather than having those two pieces compounding your brand and building them exponentially, you may end up with two unmatched or poorly matched marketing tools. Therefore, the two pieces are not as effective in building brand recognition as one coordinated effort.

How to ensure brand consistency

Ensuring brand consistency starts with getting everyone on the same page about your brand. This includes any internal stakeholders, your marketing partners, and any contractors you may work with.

Establish a brand guide

A brand guide is one place that houses all of your branding guidelines. This includes any visual elements, including high quality files of your logo, directions for font usage, and color codes for your brand colors.

You should also develop a voice and tone guide. This is a document that outlines all of your grammar guidelines, brand and product name norms, and details about your brand voice.

Communicate your brand guide

A brand guide should be communicated early, and should be easily accessible to anyone working on your branding and marketing. Share the guide with contractors, internally, your marketing partners, and with any other brand you are partnering with.

Create branded templates

Templates are an easy way to ensure brand consistency. You can create a handful of templates for social media posts, that way your social media pages are consistently branded. You can create templates for presentations, proposals, emails, or any other kind of collateral that you create often.

Use branded assets for internal communication

One of the best ways to ensure brand consistency is to get buy-in from everyone in your company. Use branded assets, like branded PowerPoint presentations, for all internal communication. This helps reinforce the importance of your brand.

Brand consistency exponentially increases the effectiveness of your brand. For businesses that are reorganizing, experiencing high growth, or adding product lines, bringing together a consistent brand can be complex and time consuming.

With other 20 years of branding and marketing experience, Visible Logic can help you create a brand that leaves an impact, and use that brand efficiently and consistently. If you’re ready to level up your brand, talk to us.

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The post How to Ensure Brand Consistency and Why It Matters appeared first on Visible Logic.

A logo is a graphic, but it’s so much more. Logos are the face of your brand, and act as a homing beacon to attract your target audience. That’s why the B2B logo design process starts long before we start actually designing.

As a B2B business, you’re likely looking for a logo that’s classic, modern, yet still eye-catching. Creating a distinct logo that attracts other businesses and contributes to widespread brand recognition isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s often easier to design flashy and fun logos for consumer brands. Creating a logo that attracts your B2B audience requires research to understand where your brand is positioned in the market and then turning that into simple visual that reflects with your strengths and differentiators.

Our clients hire us for our award-winning design work, but it’s really what happens in advance of the design that makes our projects such a success. Our logo design process includes substantial positioning and competitive research to make sure your logo is the best reflection of your brand.

Read on to learn about our B2B logo design process, how we do positioning research, and how we bring it all together in exceptional design.

What is our B2B logo design process?

Our logo design process involves a lot more research than it does design. A typical B2B logo design process includes:

• Clarifying internal brand traits
• Positioning research
• Turning ideas into visuals

Clarifying your internal brand positioning

A good logo reflects the personality of the organization.

Think about the Home Depot logo and you see that’s its bold, but not refined. By contrast, the Apple logo is slick. Each logo brings to mind the customer experience of each company. This should be true for your B2B brand as well.

Many organizations have trouble clearly articulating who they are and what makes you different. Here is a typical description we hear from a small business owner looking for a new logo:

I’m looking for something classic but modern, simple but not plain, conservative but not boring.

As you can see, there are some inherent contradictions in these descriptions. Extracting these details from your team or your customers and then synthesizing what we’ve heard is at the heart of the B2B logo design process.

What is brand positioning research?

Positioning research is the process of figuring out exactly how your brand compares to other brands in the marketplace.

As a startup or new business, one piece of advice you will hear frequently is to look at the market and determine where there is a need. What are people looking for and not finding?

The same research that helps you evaluate the market can help you develop your brand identity. Your prospective customers may currently find solutions that position themselves as high tech, but not friendly. Or they may see solutions with a high expertise level but are not local. Armed with this knowledge, we can figure out what elements should be part of a logo design or a brand’s broader visual position.

A logo can give a prospect subtle clues into who your brand is, and what it can offer them. Positioning research helps us differentiate your brand from the competition. Then, we can design a logo that reflects your brand’s unique qualities.

How much research on brand positioning should you invest in?

Brand positioning research isn’t just critical to your logo design — it shapes your messaging and can even give you a direction for future brand growth.

Brand positioning should be done in the early stages of brand creation or a rebrand. Over the years, your brand can and will change. After substantial restructuring or when you feel like your branding and marketing has gone stale are also great times to conduct brand positioning research.

An investment in understanding the marketplace and claiming your brand position will have value for your business for years to come and for applications far beyond logo design.

Who should do your brand positioning research?

When we work with new clients, some of them have spent a lot of time doing this type of preliminary research. Others want to rely heavily on us to do this for them.

Ideally it will be a mix. You always know your industry better than we do. But we have the eyes of an outsider. This perspective can be extremely valuable. Plus, our research gets viewed through our lens of experience in matching market positioning to brand and visual positioning.

In fact, we always prefer to verify the data and references our clients give us.

For example, our clients may be considering only their closest and truest rivals as competitors when really there are many others who are important. These competitors may be on the outskirts of your geographic target, or their core offering is not the same as yours, but you overlap.

These differentiators may seems large and distinct to you, but may not be that clear to your prospects. You should be aware of these players if you want to do a thorough analysis of your marketplace.

Some people are surprised that we do this type of “business” research. But without this, you are evaluating design mainly on aesthetics and not on how they will work for your business.

Attracting your ideal customers with the right design

Most important in positioning research is identifying what will make your brand compelling to your target market.

For some small businesses, especially one-person companies or other micro businesses, it can be hard to let go of the look you want to convey. Even if it doesn’t connect with your prospects.

Going into the logo design process with an open mind, rather than a fixed idea of the right design solution, will help you uncover the best solution.

Turning ideas into visuals

Listening carefully and translating that information into graphic format is what we do exceptionally well here at Visible Logic. We translate your ideas into typography, shapes, images and color.

We are keenly aware of what design styles connect with what types of expectations. Often these are elements that, as a non-designer, you may be able to recognize but not communicate. For example, for years law firms have used all-cap, serif fonts. So, now we expect something stable, traditional and intellectual when we see that type of typography. We recognize trends and apply them appropriately to your design.

Iterative logo design process

Once we have a strong idea of your brand position and have created a visual identity, it’s time to start designing logos. While you’ll typically only need one logo, we usually design many options as part of the design process. This is highly iterative, we give options, and the client narrows it down.

Great logos start with a strong idea or concept and then are also exceptionally well-designed. We must get the concept right first and then finesse the execution.

While even our first round of logo designs look highly polished because they are created on a computer, they are actually still sketches. The early rounds of design are meant to focus mostly on concept, knowing that details about the color, typography, style of the graphic, etc. can all continue to evolve and be refined.

And remember that because a logo is a simplified representation of your brand, it will never reflect everything about your business. The best logos are extremely simple and will bring to mind the most essential ideas about your brand.

Invest in a logo that reflects the best of your brand

Your logo is the face of your brand. For B2B businesses, a good logo should reflect your brand’s position and help attract quality prospects. At Visible Logic, we excel at getting to the heart of what sets your brand apart, and designing a logo that reflects the best of your brand. If you want to get started on designing a logo, let’s talk.

The post The B2B logo design process appeared first on Visible Logic.

Have you ever started a branding or marketing project – with an agency or internally – only to realize halfway through that you’re duplicating efforts, the deliverables aren’t meeting your expectations, or your marketer has gone in a completely different direction with your brand? At Visible Logic, we often conduct an audit before starting branding, marketing, or website projects so we can avoid these problems. 

Read on to learn about why we do audits, what kind of audits we do, why our clients find them useful, and what you can expect from a pre-project audit.  

Why do we do a brand audit, website audit or marketing audit?

Most of our clients come to us when something isn’t working in their branding and marketing. Which means they’re eager to get started and fix the problem. 

One of the first conversations we have with clients is to set the expectation for an in-depth audit before jumping into the work that they hired us for. And once we explain why we do these audits, clients agree with us that it’s a helpful first step. 

These are just some of the ways audits help both us and the client: 

Accurate estimates

We know that budget is a concern for clients, especially startups. Putting together an accurate scope of work with estimated fees is almost impossible if we don’t know what we’re getting into. 

For example, a client may state that their website only needs a minor refresh. Once we conduct an audit we find that indeed their messaging and design doesn’t require a major overhaul, but their web site has been built using a confusing web of plugins and site-builder tools. Before we can make changes, we might need to devote time to building the site correctly, or sorting through which plugins are necessary. 

Another common scenario is when a prospect comes to us for a specific type of marketing, like paid social ads. When we conduct our audit and learn more about their target audience, we might realize that paid social is not going to be the most effective channel for reaching their target market. An audit can help us redirect resources to more effective marketing channels.

Understand our starting point

When you use the GPS in your car, you need to know two things – where you currently are, and where you want to go. Our audits help us – and you – understand both of these critical points. 

Audits help you discover your starting point by getting a complete picture of how your brand and marketing is right now. This gives us time to uncover potential discrepancies between what your website promises and the customer experience, or inconsistencies between your marketing and sales messages.

Some businesses have a clear vision of where they want to go, and others need some assistance in getting clarity. Our audits can also help clarify the endpoint, and begin to sketch out the roadmap for getting there. 

Avoiding duplicate efforts

We want to review what’s already been done to see not only how effective it was, but why. Let’s say a client has already tried sending e-newsletters and they weren’t successful, we want to review those emails. Did they have poor content or ugly design? Then it may be worthwhile to try e-newsletters again, with revamped graphics and copy. Other times, we may decide that previous efforts failed because it was the wrong marketing channel for their audience, and would therefore recommend trying something else. 

What kinds of audits we do and what we include

Every audit is unique, based on the individual challenges, size and type of business. In general, we do three kinds of audits: Brand audits, marketing audits, and website audits. 

Brand audit

Brand audits take a magnifying glass to your brand. 

We start with reviewing your current brand. That means reviewing products/services, identifying key features, your ideal customers, and your current sales process and business model. Then, we review your current usage of visual identity and messaging. In order to understand the context of your brand in your industry, we compare your products/services to competitors in the marketplace, and articulate differentiators. Then, we assess the brand hierarchy of the parent brand (if applicable), and any products or service lines. 

Once we’ve established where your brand is, we start to define where you want to be. We use a combination of small group meetings with our proprietary branding software Branding Compass to get your input on what kind of message you want your brand to convey. We will ask you to clarify key benefits of your products and services and how they connect to your brand, as well as share any likes and dislikes about design, fonts, or other visuals. 

Then, we identify and summarize the key audience group for each business unit and write a value proposition for each. From there, we make recommendations and sketch out a plan of how we get you to where you want to go. 

B2B marketing audit

For marketing projects, we start with auditing all of your current marketing efforts. With so many available marketing channels, it’s important to ensure that your messaging is consistent across channels. 

We will review any current or past social, email, and pay-per-click efforts, as well as earned media, and your website. We want to gain an understanding of what’s been done so far, how effective it’s been, and how consistent your efforts have been. We’ll also see what key marketing metrics (if any) are being tracked, and what the source of the data is. 

From there, we’ll typically map out a funnel or a customer journey map. Then, we’ll put together a 12-month marketing plan that gets you to where you want to be. We’ll highlight what channels to focus on and create a high-level strategy for each channel. 

Website audit

We often get requests for website redesigns. Before starting, we like to conduct a website audit. 

Our website audit will give us insight into two areas:

1. Brand: whether the site reflects the messaging and visual identity that you envision.
2. Functionality: how the site is functioning and what is needed for each to be optimized to reach your business goals.

We review your site for quality of design, messaging, and site architecture. We also do an SEO overview audit to see what kind of organic traffic your site is getting and what kind of keywords you’re currently ranking for. We review any Call-To-Actions (CTAs), including checking for CRM or other software integrations.

We review the functionality to see what it’s like to interact with your site as a prospect or customer. On the technical side, we run a Google Site Speed Test and GTMetrix to determine technical optimization, as well as reviewing current plugins. 

Once we have a picture of how well your website is working, we’ll put together a plan for getting your website where you want it to be. This often includes a mix of improving the technical aspects of your website alongside improving messaging, graphics, and on-page SEO. 

How can an audit help you understand your brand and marketing? 

Audits help us develop a clear project scope of work, but they can also help you understand your own brand and marketing better. 

When we conduct an audit, we have an outside perspective. This can help you understand how others see your brand and can highlight strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. 

Weaknesses and opportunities then become a starting point for defining and measuring the success of a project. 

An audit can also help give you ideas for next steps beyond the scope of the current project. We often provide more recommendations than is possible to address in one project scope. This gives both us and the client a clear direction for further work. 

Audits are a tool that delivers a roadmap from where you are to where you want to be. While they may delay the start of a project, audits ultimately help us stay on track with a project scope and deliver the best results. If you’re ready to take the next step and start your own brand, marketing, or website audit, contact us and we’ll get started.

The post Why we do an audit before starting a branding, marketing or website project appeared first on Visible Logic.

Roof Master knew that they excelled at helping people navigate roof repair insurance claims. We helped Roof Master create messaging and a visual identity that clearly communicated this value proposition. We also created and executed a digital marketing strategy to strengthen their local visibility. 

Read on to find out how Visible Logic helped Roof Master become a trusted local name in roof repairs!  

Communicating the Roof Master Way

Roof Master needed to clearly communicate their specialized process for helping customers with roof damage handle their insurance claims. These insurance claims are confusing and time consuming, and filing the claim incorrectly could limit the amount of coverage the customer receives for roof repairs. 

What sets Roof Master apart is that they provide free roof damage inspection and full scope of work that makes it easy for the homeowner to submit an insurance claim. They also meet with the insurance adjuster to make sure no damage goes unnoticed. Finally, they submit invoices directly to the insurance company.

Visible Logic developed ‘The Roof Master Process’ to visually highlight this process and communicate the benefit to the customer. Using representative icons and framing the process in an easy-to-follow format, Roof Master can now easily communicate what sets them apart from other local roofing contractors. 

A Complete Visual Identity and Website

We designed a clear, eye-catching logo that emphasized their identity as a Texas-based business. From there, Visible Logic created a cohesive design that was easily replicated into different mediums, including a truck wrap and lawn signs. 

We then redesigned the website to reflect the new messaging and visual identity that we created. In order to position Roof Master as a trustworthy choice in roof repairs, we featured testimonials and reviews on the homepage, as well as adding team biographies to the website. We also showcased Roof Master’s many awards and accreditation, further fostering trust. 

To make it easier for customers to hire Roof Master, we added a “Book Appointment” button on the top navigation of the website. 

Before

After

A Digital Marketing Strategy That Drove 36% Conversion

We worked closely with Roof Master to create a multi-channel marketing plan that would build trust with their audience. We built a funnel that tracked not only leads, but conversion to paid jobs. 

PPC

Visible Logic planned and implemented Google Ads to increase awareness of Roof Master and drive conversions. The ads ran for 10 months, and reached a conversion rate of 36%, leading to over 40 new appointments with potential clients. 

Reviews and Google Local Optimization

Visible Logic identified and implemented a new way to solicit more positive reviews. Using Roof Master’s online invoicing platform, we created a survey that clients would be prompted to fill out immediately upon invoice payment. If they rated Roof Master highly in the survey, they were then asked to leave a Google review. 

Visible Logic also improved Roof Master’s Google business listing ensuring they showed up in local search.

SEO

We conducted SEO keyword research and optimization, focusing on localization, to increase traffic to the website. This included on-page optimization and writing new website content.

Social

Visible Logic used the new visual identity to create social media graphics and testimonial templates. We also implemented the new design to Roof Master’s Facebook page. This made it easy for Roof Master to continue to create new and engaging social posts. 

Results: Local Trust and an Increase in New Client Appointments

As a result of our rebranding after acquisition and digital marketing strategy, Roof Master is now a trusted name in roof repairs in the Lubbock area. 

Here is what the team said about working with us: 

The post Case Study: Cohesive Rebranding After Acquisition for a Texas Roofer appeared first on Visible Logic.

About our client

SimKit is a medical education company whose goal is to provide timely and efficient emergency medicine (EM) simulation training for rare procedures. 

The challenge

SimKit was eager to launch their new product – a 12-month digital and physical curriculum – but they were held back by their confusing branding. They needed a strong and cohesive brand, a launch marketing strategy, and ongoing marketing support.  

Visible Logic stepped in to help them rename and rebrand their business to appeal to their target audience, as well as create a launch plan for their website and products. 

The solution

A New Name 

SimKit came to us with the name HALO Med. They first reached out to us as a Branding Compass client – hoping to get a bit of guidance on their branding so they could do their marketing themselves. 

Once the client understood everything that was involved in rebranding and developing a successful launch plan, they agreed that they would be better served as a Visible Logic client.

We immediately knew that HALO Med would need a new name. HALO, a specialized acronym that describes procedures as High Acuity Low Occurrence, was not commonly known even among the client’s specialized target audience of EM clinicians. The word HALO was also challenging for search and trademark purposes because of how commonly it is used in other sectors.

Visible Logic conducted discovery work to understand the target audience’s pain points, fears, and motivations. We decided on the name SimKit. Not only does this name clearly communicate the product – boxes of simulation training materials – but it also helped address a fear that simulation training can only happen in long, costly training sessions. In contrast, SimKit provides simulation training on the go, in highly portable “kits”. 

New visual identity

Along with a new name, SimKit needed a new logo and brand identity. It was important for SimKit that their logo clearly positioned them in the healthcare industry, while still looking clean and inviting. 

Visible Logic designed a logo using a softer medicinal blue. The logo also incorporated the shape of a box, clearly communicating what product SimKit provides. Along with a logo, we provided a full brand guide and custom designed each of SimKit’s 12 shipping boxes. 

Before

After

Website design and development 

Physical simulation kits are only one half of what SimKit provides. They also developed accompanying digital lessons for simulation training. 

Visible Logic worked with SimKit to select learning management and member management systems. We then made sure that those systems, along with their e-commerce store, were seamlessly integrated with their website to ensure a smooth customer journey. 

Before

After

Launch Marketing

Visible Logic planned for the launch in stages. First, we launched in a beta stage, to ensure that all website modules were integrated and working correctly. Then we announced a presale, and finally we launched on July 5th, 2023. Each stage of the launch marketing strategy included promotional emails and social media posts. 

Keeping the Momentum Going 

Following a smooth launch, Visible Logic stepped has developed a multi-channel campaign to attract customers.

Trade shows

We identified physician conferences as an opportunity for SimKit to demonstrate the value of their curriculum directly to their target audience. Visible Logic created banner graphics, postcards, stickers, and designed a compelling booth for SimKit. We also designed custom temporary tattoos that conference participants could place on their body, drumming up interest in SimKit. 

Lead-capturing Interactive Quiz

Any startup has the initial challenge of building their email list, and SimKit was no different. We built an interactive quiz as a lead magnet. This short quiz was featured on their website, as well as a trade show. 

Interest group ads

SimKit has a very specific and specialized audience – emergency medicine clinicians. In order to laser-target that audience, Visible Logic created ads to run in special interest groups that pertain to physicians. 

Social Media

When SimKit started working with us, they had virtually no social media presence and only posted content sporadically. We created a content calendar to ensure consistent posting, and created social media content. Visible Logic then generated a list of ideas and graphic templates to help SimKit create their own organic content. Then, we built look-alike audiences on Meta to serve ads to just the right people.

Results: A successful launch and a growing audience 

As a result of a successful launch marketing strategy and ongoing marketing efforts, SimKit has been able to make those crucial early sales and secure funding to support their growth. 

Here is what they had to say about working with Visible Logic: 

Visible Logic is proud to continue helping SimKit market their product to more emergency medicine physicians. 

The post Case study: Launch marketing and a fresh rebrand for SimKit  appeared first on Visible Logic.

Depending on your industry and how established your business is you may need to focus more heavily on design, messaging, specialized development or SEO when planning a website. At Visible Logic, we always take a well-rounded holistic approach, yet some sites need to focus more heavily on one area or the other. 

Understanding what you want to improve about your site will help you know who to hire for your website and to communicate your needs.

Design focused websites

The design is the first thing users see when they visit your website. A visually appealing and well-organized design immediately captures their attention and creates a positive first impression. By contrast, a poorly designed website can turn users away, potentially leading to lost opportunities and lower conversion rates.

Design-focused websites prioritize user experience, making it easy for visitors to navigate, find information, and achieve their goals. A design-focused website aligns with your brand’s identity, style, and messaging. Consistent branding elements, such as colors, fonts, and imagery, help users recognize and remember your brand more easily. This recognition can lead to increased trust and brand loyalty. 

Some simple, or brochure-style sites are mostly about design and creating a professional and unique brand experience based on the design.

Who should you hire to create your website if design is your biggest priority? A firm with a strong web design portfolio.

Example of improved website design for software company, DAVO

When we relaunched DAVO’s site it was important that the website strongly align with their brand and was better organized for users. Visible Logic created an award-winning design. We revamped it again later when they were purchased by Avalara and needed an updated design that reflected their new brand identity.

Messaging and writing on your website

Immediately after the first impression of design, people start to read.

The words on your site must clearly communicate your offerings. Also, your website copy can tell the story of your brand’s value and purpose to your target audience. 

Clear and concise messaging helps visitors quickly understand what your website is about, what products or services you offer, and how they can benefit from them. If visitors are confused or don’t understand your message, they are likely to leave your site without taking any action. 

In a competitive market, being clear about your unique strengths, benefits, or values sets you apart from competitors. It gives visitors a reason to choose your brand over others.

Messaging applies most directly to the headlines on your website, yet it has a broader impact. The items in your navigation give a quick-read overview of what you do and what’s important. The sections of content on your home page, or any other area of your site, lead people through your messaging quickly and engages them with your and your business. And of course, the imagery you use helps to tell the story without words. 

Who should you hire to create your website if people have trouble understanding what you do? Make sure the team includes strong copywriters.

Example of improved messaging and writing on a website for software company, ScanPower

Scan Power needed a new site that better explained its offerings. After more than a decade of development, the functionality of their software had expanded. It’s more robust platform now had a different ideal customer that they wanted to attract. 

The new site makes the benefits of the expanded features more understandable and the updated photography helps the new audience recognize themselves immediately.

Website development & functionality

Website functionality refers to the features, capabilities, and interactivity of a website that allow users to perform various tasks and achieve their goals. 

Simple sites are sometimes called brochure-style websites because all a viewer does is read the information. But more robust interactivity can help make your website valuable in many different ways. 

Common examples of website functionality include:

• E-commerce, customer support chatbots, and order tracking systems.
• integration with external tools and services, such as payment gateways, social media platforms, email marketing services, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems

Some of these functions benefit your customers or prospects who access your site. Some functionality may benefit your internal team by automating and streamline business functions for your sales team, marketing, warehouse, accounting, etc.

Highly specialized functionality may require a software developer. Or, using pre-built WordPress plugins means that you can build complex functionality quickly. Your website developer is not custom coding something from scratch. However, most of these pre-built solutions need customization. Your developer may adjust the settings to work exactly as you wish. And she may change the styles to match your brand standards and the rest of your website.

Who should you hire to create your website if you need advanced functionality? A firm with experience building other similar sites.

Example of a better functioning website for non-profit, Goodwill Northern New England

Goodwill Northern New England needed a more usable site, not just for the site’s front-end users but for those creating content and updating the site in the back end. Their current site often required them to reach out for IT support to make updates. After understanding their needs, we created a site that was more flexible and easier for their communications team to update and maintain on their own. 

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your website

SEO helps improve your website’s visibility in search engine results. If your website ranks higher on search engine pages, it is more likely to be seen by users. Better search results leads to increased organic traffic. Websites that rank higher in search results are often perceived as more credible and trustworthy by users. 

Incorporating relevant keywords and phrases into your messaging and meta data, to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results.

Also fast site speed and proper site architecture is a factor in search results. So, technical optimization of your website can improve your ranking in search engine results page (SERP).

SEO requires initial research to understand the keywords you want to rank for and insert them into text and meta fields. But it is also long-term strategy that requires adding new keyword-rich content to your site on a regular basis. Unlike paid advertising, SEO doesn’t involve direct ad costs for each click or impression, but will require time to write new content and optimize existing content.

Who should you hire to create your website if design SEO is important? Your web team can optimize your site after it’s launched, (and will need ongoing optimization) but it’s best to think about SEO from the start. Make sure your copywriters use the right keywords in the copy.

Example of improving SEO for software company website, Branding Compass

Branding Compass used their blog to attract significant search engine traffic to the site. By carefully including keywords within the blogs, organic site increased. This content also helped to build trust by educating, rather than selling to, prospects.

What’s most important to your website?

Recognizing how your website is part of your marketing strategies will guide you to what’s most important to your website: design, writing, functionality or SEO. 

Of course, great sites do well in all four areas. But understanding how your site supports your business will help you prioritize your goals for the site and find the best partner to work with.

The post Your website needs help! Is design, messaging, functionality or SEO the problem? appeared first on Visible Logic.

ACE was experiencing declining membership and needed an event marketing strategy to reach new memberships and renew interest in the organization. 

Visible Logic helped ACE strengthen their messaging about membership benefits as well as setting them up with training and resources to continue marketing on an ongoing basis. Visible Logic also created and promoted a new event to reach potential members. 

Read on to find out how Visible Logic helped ACE get new members! 

The Challenge of Increasing Membership

ACE was experiencing a membership that was aging and declining. They were interested in reaching new and younger members to keep the organization going strong. Their model was based on monthly in-person meetings. During COVID, they had to pivot this model to Zoom meetings, but they weren’t reaching new people. 

As in-person restrictions were lifted, ACE knew they needed to focus on rebuilding membership. They needed to first clarify the benefits of membership and who their ideal client was, and then needed to engage with those people. 

ACE is an all-volunteer-run organization, so any marketing that needed ongoing attention needed to be quick and easy for them to implement. 

Clarifying the Benefits of ACE Membership 

Visible Logic did a member survey to better understand the perceptions of ACE and what people valued most from their membership. 

This survey helped clarify their benefits into 3 categories – Networking, Learning, and Promotion – which we crafted into messaging for their website and a flier. 

ACE can reuse this messaging in future marketing efforts as well as use this messaging to more accurately target their ideal client. 

An Event to Attract New Members

One of ACE’s biggest goals was to attract new members. Within one year, they wanted at least 5 new members to join ACE. 

Visible Logic created the idea of the Consultants Academy – an event meant to help new entrepreneurs successfully launch as consultants. The goal with this event was to reach potential members and show them the benefits of joining ACE. Because Consultants Academy targeted people early in their career, the hope was that they would become long-term members. 

To promote Consultants Academy, we launched a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaign on LinkedIn. With a relatively small spend, we were able to drive traffic to the website. As a result of this campaign and other marketing efforts, over two dozen people attended the Consultants Academy.  

The Consultants Academy proved to be successful in attracting new members. ACE had 10 new members before the end of the year – twice their goal. In addition, the event yielded the addition of two new members to their board. 

Setting Up Systems For Ongoing Marketing 

Because ACE is run entirely by volunteers, it was important that Visible Logic provided a way for ACE to continue marketing in a way that was quick and easy. 

We set up a marketing calendar and cadence for repeated and continual outreach using email and LinkedIn. With this in place, ACE could know exactly what they should be doing every month. 

Our team set up a “show-then-do” system for ACE to follow. We set up templates in Canva and MailChimp that made it easy for volunteers to plug in text and graphics to quickly great social posts and branded emails. As a start, Visible Logic took the lead on all of the marketing for Consultants Academy, so ACE could learn what goes into promoting events. 

Visible Logic put an event marketing system in place so ACE could continue marketing their events in the future. 

Results: Renewed Energy and Optimism 

As a result of the Consultants Academy and clarifying their messaging, ACE was able to attract 10 new members within a year – double their original goal. 

Here is what the team said about working with us: 

Although Visible Logic often works as a “done for you” service, we were proud to set up the all-volunteer team of ACE with deliverables and systems that they can use to continue marketing their organization. 

The post Case Study: Increasing Membership and Engagement for Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) appeared first on Visible Logic.

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, usually in the form of Google Adwords can be an effective way to reach your target audience. 

What we like about PPC is that if someone is searching for something, they are actively showing an intent to buy. By contrast, if you put an offer into someone’s social media feed, or even tell them about your business at a networking event, they may not be an ideal client or they just may not be actively looking for your product or service at the time you communicate with them.

Are you wasting money with your PPC campaigns?

Unfortunately, it’s really easy to waste a lot of money quickly with a poorly managed PPC campaign. There are many steps a prospect will take from viewing your ad to buying from you. Each of these interactions has potential pitfalls and so each step needs to be tested and optimized. 

To get someone to convert from a PPC ad, think about their entire journey:

1. What are they searching for and what search terms do they use?
2. What offer is in the ad to make them click?
3. What information and persuasion do they need from you once they are on your website?
4. What follow-up will they need before they are ready to buy?

To begin, you’ll need to find and optimize your campaigns for the right keywords. You can also narrow your target by location, demographic details, and more. When you fail to optimize your campaign you may pay for clicks from people who are unlikely to buy from you.

We’ve seen a lot of campaigns that were poorly optimized. Most often this happens when you pay for clicks to your site based on keywords or people that are not really a good fit for what you are selling. You don’t always want a high click-thru rate! 

Setting and optimizing different campaigns on the Google platform can easily get confusing. You can have multiple campaigns and every campaign can have multiple ads. As part of an optimization strategy, you may run some A/B tests or try out different ads. It can very quickly become overwhelming to manage. So keep your campaigns well organized and simple, if you can.

The real secret to PPC optimization

It’s easy to see the complexity of setting up Adwords campaigns. And the cost is very visible to you when you see your credit card charges to Google.

But often the real way to optimize your PPC campaigns is outside of the Google platform. The reason you may not see sales or other conversions may have nothing to do with the keywords and demographic settings of the campaign. It may be an issue with the text of your ad. And even more likely the problem is with the web page that you’re sending people to and how you follow up.

On average, people need 8 or more brand touchpoints to buy from you. These interactions with your brand start with learning to recognize who you are, what you’re selling and how you might help them. Then they build familiarity with you and eventually have trust in you. For large ticket items, it might be as many as 15 touchpoints!

Your follow up campaign is as at least as critical as the PPC set up. This is what can turn an unprofitable campaign into one with strong ROI.

The most common way to follow up with a PPC campaign is to use a drip email campaign. Make sure that your initial offer includes some way of enticing them to give their email address, even if they don’t buy yet. Then plan an email sequence with at least five emails.

And don’t just do autoresponder emails, consider retargeting or direct outreach.

Maximize conversions by optimizing the follow through

A poor performing PPC campaign may really mean you have bad follow through. When you aren’t seeing sales or leads, you may think that the problem is at the top of the funnel with the setup of your campaign’s keywords or audience demographics. When you see the traffic come and then bounce away, you assume it’s because they aren’t your ideal customers.

In reality, they may be your perfect client, but you need to improve your messaging, look more professional do a lot more follow up.

The post The overlooked steps to mastering PPC conversions appeared first on Visible Logic.

Brand positioning is figuring out how you compare to other options in the marketplace. It’s critical to set yourself apart from the competition.

There’s always more than one business that a buyer can choose from. And as humans, we like to categorize and rank. So we do that with business options, too.

For example, there are probably many pizza places in your city. I might say in Portland, Maine, “Pizza Villa has been around for decades. They are classic. Flatbread has unique flavors. Monte’s serves Roman style, and Pizzaolo has those big, thin NY slices. Domino’s might work if you don’t want to wait and don’t want to pay a lot.”

All of these places serve pizza, but each is different than the others based on how they cook their pizza, the toppings they offer, whether it’s available by the slice, at the counter, sitting down or delivered, etc.

Why brand positioning matters

Imagine I’m a personal fitness trainer and have developed a core workout that can be completed in ten minutes. That sounds pretty good until I remember 8-minute abs. I should not position my training by how fast it is. Instead, I should look for other ways to stand out. Maybe the exercises are safer than other programs or can be done at your desk, or I’ll focus on a specific group of people, like women who have recently given birth.

Similarly, when you develop your visual identity or logo, you want to be sure that it’s distinct from your competitors. Even if your favorite design or color scheme seems perfect for your visual identity, it would be ill-advised to use it if it is too similar to a competitor. You don’t want to be confused with any other business.

How to understand or create your brand position

Your brand position is all about how you relate to other options in the marketplace. Start by researching your competitors. Create a list of your competitors and then describe how you are different.  

You may be smaller, bigger, more complex, more simple, more convenient, full-service, etc.

If you recognize that some of your differentiators put you first, make that benefit front and center. If you are the smallest, the most convenient, or the fastest, put your focus on it. 

You may find that you have some universal differences, or you may squeeze in between. For example, a Honda Civic is positioned as a small, durable, economical car. A Ferrari is a fast, expensive sports car. A Lexus is in the middle, fancier than many basic cars, but not ultra premium either.

Of course, it all depends on what you’re comparing yourself to. Some consider Lexus a ‘fancy’ Toyota because Toyota makes these cars. But Toyota decided to position the Lexus brand as a more luxury brand than the cars they sell under the Toyota brand.

Focus your positioning on your closest competitors. Burger King differentiates itself from McDonald’s, not from a Michelin-starred restaurant.

How brand positioning helps your business

Understanding your brand position and pushing or elevating your differentiators is helpful in many ways.

Know what features and benefits to emphasize

Your product or service likely has many features and benefits. It can be challenging to know which ones to talk about first. Once you compare your product or service to your competitors, you’ll see where there are similarities and what are most distinct. Brand positioning is all about capitalizing on differences.

For example, Jiffy Lube’s name fits perfectly with its core offering, which is fast oil changes. People may go there for an oil change but find another mechanic if they have more significant car issues. 

Compare your visual identity

When you are reviewing your competitors, also look at their visual identity. Look at what colors are in the logo or their website and what symbol or graphic is in their logo. You may want to review their website, social media postings, signage, or decor.

Remember that customers are reading, scrolling, and swiping quickly. First impressions, like color, have a considerable impact. Choosing a color or design style that stands out from other options in the marketplace will make your brand more memorable.

Take advantage of marketplace gaps

Back to the pizza example. Imagine you want to start a pizza restaurant and realize there already are quite a few in your city. Then, it’s time to figure out where there is still an opportunity. Maybe you can choose a different location. Perhaps you can stay open later than anyone else. Maybe you elevate pizza into a five-star meal. 

When you identify a gap in the marketplace, you can build your brand around what’s unique, and it becomes a business advantage.

Make your brand stand out

Your brand will be most successful if it’s unique and memorable. It takes many repetitions for people to understand and remember your brand. Ensuring that you are different than your competition will make it easier for your brand to stand out.

The post What is brand positioning? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Year after year, email outperforms every other marketing strategy. According to 2021 data, email drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, higher than any other channel. Yet too many people think it’s no longer relevant and switch to other channels that are more expensive or just don’t get results.

We have been preaching about our email approach and how it relates to marketing for years and continue seeing its value for our business and clients. 

Six reasons why email marketing is so powerful

1. You own your list. When you get an email subscriber, you can contact them anytime. With platforms like Facebook, Twitter (!), or any other external platform, you never know when changes to their algorithm or business goals will suddenly stymie your outreach. You can take your list with you even if you switch email providers.
2. Direct contact. Aside from deliverability issues, every email you send should be seen by your list. Even if someone doesn’t open the email, they probably read your name and subject line; you’ve made another brand impression. Because of algorithms, many social media posts are never even shown to your followers. 
3. Measurable results. You can see and track every email open and click thru. This gives you concrete data on what’s working and what’s not.
4. Push people down the funnel. Email is almost always the connector to move your prospects from awareness to consideration. There are other ways to do this, but email is highly efficient. For most businesses, prospects are not ready to buy after just hearing about your products or service once. They want to learn more about you and your company and build trust in you. Email allows you to share your expertise and build rapport to encourage a prospect to take the next step.
5. Automation. Using drip campaigns or autoresponders, you send out a string of email messages without lifting a finger. You set up the campaign once, and your emails get sent every time a prospect takes a certain action. 
6. Aggregate your promotions and communications. If you write a blog, post videos on YouTube, or share insights on LinkedIn, it’s smart to share great content by email. You probably have people who follow you or your brand on different platforms and may miss it otherwise. When you spend time putting together impactful content or an irresistible offer, email can multiply your results.

Our approach to successful email marketing

Any of the major email platforms will work

It really doesn’t matter whether you use MailChimp, Constant Contact, HubSpot, or something else. They all let you design emails and set up automated campaigns. There are differences in pricing, ease of use, and how they integrate with other online platforms. 

More than ten years ago, we became an agency partner of Campaign Monitor and created our Mail on the Mark service. We like how we can create customized templates or use their drag-and-drop tools.

But we have experience with all of the major platforms and can help you choose which one is right for you.

Plan for lots of repetition

It’s unrealistic to think you can immediately send one email and drum up sales or registrations. It’s continually staying top of mind and repeatedly sharing your knowledge, insights, or promotions to get people to take action.

If you are creating a newsletter, send it frequently and consistently. 

If you are developing an email drip campaign, don’t stop at just one or two emails. Plan to send at least five and ideally more.

Email’s big flaw

The primary shortcoming of email marketing is that you need to build your list. Before you can use email marketing, you’ll need to do some complementary activities to encourage people to join your email list.

Some common ways to get people to join your email list:

• Gated content. A prospect gives their email address in return for an e-book or other valuable content like a video, worksheet, or calculator.
• Educational content. People will join your list if your e-newsletter delivers valuable insights and information.
• Social media promotions. Social media is a better way to expand awareness of your brand. Make sure some of your posts encourage people to join your list. You can offer gated content or promotion.
• Discounts. If you have website traffic, offer a discount to get a prospect to join your email list. This works well for consumer products, but service professionals can offer free consultations.

Most important, don’t expect someone to join your e-newsletter list without a good reason. Just having a form on your website will not be enough. People get a lot of emails, and unless you clarify there’s a benefit to providing an email, they probably will not be inclined to do so. Some non-profits or events companies can gather email addresses because people want to stay connected and be informed, but most other businesses need something more compelling.

How to get started with email marketing

Every size and type of business should make email marketing a priority. It will take time to build your email list, so find consistent ways to do this. In the beginning, it may be just adding people one by one that you meet at networking events (make sure you ask their permission). Then, start using an offer as a way to move your social media followers to your email list.

Once you have a list, start thinking about what your contacts want. You can write blogs and share them by email or other industry blogs if that’s easier. You can share examples of your work or customer testimonials. You can offer special promotions like discounts or free consultations.

Hiring a professional to manage your email marketing

The biggest challenge with email marketing is keeping up with it. We frequently hear from our clients that they want to send out at least one email a month, but they often fall short. Most only send four emails a year when they try to do it independently.

Outsourcing your email approach to a marketing firm ensures that your emails are sent consistently. The experts will handle the writing, design, formatting, and scheduling. A firm like ours knows the tools well and can quickly create drip campaigns and integrate them with CRM.

Knowing the incredible ROI of email marketing, it makes sense to invest in a professional approach to email marketing.

The post Our Approach to Email Marketing appeared first on Visible Logic.

Keeping track of your licenses and renewals is important to ensure your site continues running smoothly long after launch day.

Here is a breakdown of some ongoing costs to prepare your website budget.

Domain name

Your domain name is purchased at a registrar and is your top-level URL. 

Some hosts include a domain name registration for free, but on average, they are about $12-15 annually from most registrars for common domain suffixes such as a .com.

Consider setting your domain name registration to auto-renew so you don’t have to worry about your site going down or losing your domain name. 

Some businesses have multiple domain names registered. If your extra domains redirect to your main site, you’ll need to pay for domain name registration (but nothing else listed below). 

TIP: If you forget where you registered your domain name, you can use this tool to look it up. 

Hosting

Your host is where all the files and databases that make up your site are stored. Hosting costs can vary, with more expensive hosting having better support and more features. Basic hosting is around $15-30 per month, but your site hosting needs may be as much as a few hundred dollars per month.

SSL certificate

An SSL certificate is a must-have for websites for security, SEO, and customer trust. This certificate makes the “S” in the HTTPS in your web address. 

Often the easiest way to get an SSL is from your host. Many hosts include free SSL certificates or provide them for purchase.  

A one-year SSL certificate averages about $50, but it can be hundreds of dollars depending on your security needs. If you let your SSL expire, visitors will see a security warning about your site. 

Licenses (plugins, fonts, etc.)

When setting up your site, you or your site creator may have purchased software, plugins, or fonts. Most of these licenses need to be renewed yearly. The cost for these can range greatly, and there are various options for renewals. 

For example, some plugins will no longer work if you do not renew your license. Others continue to work but cannot be updated without a current license. Or, you may not receive technical support without an out-to-date license.

It’s important to understand what your license and renewals include. 

Email

Depending on what you use for email service, this may or may not be a cost for you. Many hosts offer basic email as part of their web hosting service. 

However, some hosts don’t include email, and many people are switching to more robust email services like Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace. These both have tiered pricing and can vary depending on your needs. 

Ongoing updates and maintenance

Your website will inevitably need updates. In addition to content and design changes needed to keep the site current and fresh, you’ll also need regular maintenance to update plugins and the platform to keep them up-to-date and secure. 

Think about what you feel capable of doing yourself and what you prefer to delegate, either internally or externally. You may be able to make changes on your own, have staff to maintain the site, or need to hire out depending on your needs. 

Like many things, your website will run better and last longer with regular maintenance.

The post What to budget for your website on an ongoing basis appeared first on Visible Logic.

Deciding whether to rebrand is a difficult decision. It can feel risky. 

You’ve probably heard that consistency is essential to branding. So if consistency is good, you may think that any change to your brand is a mistake. While you certainly want to be careful with making unneeded changes to your brand, there are times when it is better to adjust something about your brand rather than carry on with what you have.

Another concern is that you don’t know what to expect with the process or the results. Will it all be worthwhile?

You may have heard from colleagues about a bad experience: they didn’t like the result, felt it took too long or was not worth the expense. Following a process will make it more likely that you’ll end up with something you like and have a strong ROI.

Figure out where you are and where you want to be

Just like you can’t use a GPS without a start and end point, a successful rebranding process defines your current and ideal new brands.

We use the following tools and strategies to clarify where you are and where you want to go.

• Brand audit: We review your current brand by looking at your website, marketing campaigns, proposal, sales decks, etc.
• Customer or employee surveys: We’ll ask current customers and employees how they perceive your brand.
• Interviews: In-depth, conversational questions to unearth more subtleties than a survey.
• Marketplace review: Take a fresh and thorough look at what your competitors are doing. Your customers may be comparing your business (and brand) to other options in the marketplace.
• Inspiration: We’ll help you articulate and clarify how you envision your new brand by looking at examples for inspiration.

Define the qualities of an ideal new brand

Agreeing on how a new brand will look and sound is essential. That doesn’t mean we decide upfront what font to use or color. It means that we define the traits of your ideal brand.

You’re asking your branding firm to try many options without guidelines. Don’t just wait to see what you like. Following the “I’ll know it when I see it” philosophy will be a long, frustrating process.

For many people, it can be challenging to put into words how they envision a brand’s creative and ephemeral qualities. Using our decades of experience developing new brands and improving existing brands, we can help you define the qualities you’re looking for.

These established goalposts become the way to measure every creative decision. Rather than just saying that you like or dislike a logo, you can compare the design against your wish list. 

Determine how much change you need

After we understand the gap between where you are and where you want to be, we can determine how much of a rebrand you need. Sometimes, you’re not that far off and need to clean up, refresh or expand your existing brand. Other times, it’s clear that everything from your name to your logo, website, value proposition, and everything in between needs adjustments.

Consistency is vital to branding, so if there’s a way to connect your old brand to your new brand, it’s probably a good idea. This can often be done by reusing one or more of your colors from the old logo in the new logo. Or, the concept of a logo can be retained, but the design is upgraded.

In some cases, retaining those old elements will be a hindrance. 

Rebranding is a signal to the world that your business has changed. A fresh new logo is a highly visible way of showing customers and prospects that you are heading in a new direction.

If your current brand does not represent your core traits or attract your ideal clients, you should move away from the old one. In this situation, similarities between the old and new brands are not particularly beneficial. Getting an on-target new brand that captures your brand traits and appeals to your buyers is more important.

Is it time to rebrand?

A good next step is to read our e-book to help you plan for a successful process.

The post Our Approach to Rebranding appeared first on Visible Logic.

Rebranding inspiration

Take a look at some of our favorite before-and-afters from rebranding projects where we helped clients: refresh, redesign, and rebrand.

Get some inspiration from seeing projects for software, manufacturing companies, consulting firms, trade associations, events and government agencies.

Refresh your brand: Keep what’s working and make it better

There are many benefits to connecting your new visual identity to the old. If you can retain the same colors or visual elements, you will lose less brand equity, and the transition will be more straightforward for your customers.

Refreshing is a good choice when your logo looks outdated or unprofessional, but you haven’t had any substantial changes to your business or the customers you serve. Creating a higher-quality logo will help your company or product look high quality.

Redesign your brand: New visuals better represent the same organization.

If your current brand identity looks outdated or unprofessional, it may be better to redo it completely. While there can be a benefit to trying to connect with your existing brand, you may see more value with a complete break.

Organizations trying to attract different customers or partners may need to rethink how they envision their brand. Redesigning your visual identity to better align with core brand traits will be worthwhile.

A significant redesign often leads to a new design for your website or other marketing materials to keep them all cohesive.

Rebranding: Rebuilding your brand from the ground up

Sometimes, you need more than just a visual change. It would be best if you had a new name, messaging, and an updated logo.

The amount of change in your brand is usually related to the significance of the difference in your business. If you’re pivoting to new products or a new business model, you may need a complete rebrand to be relevant to your new target market.

Is it time to rebrand?

Avoid 6 common mistakes and plan for a successful rebrand that grows your business.

Learn More

Should you refresh, redesign, or rebrand?

There are many pros and cons to weigh as you decide whether to stick it out with your current brand or try to update it. These six questions that may help you evaluate your situation.

The post Rebranding Before and Afters appeared first on Visible Logic.

Here are six questions that may help you evaluate your situation.

1-What’s good with your current brand?

It’s easy to focus on why you dislike your name or logo, but don’t overlook how your brand works. This can also help you determine if you need something completely new or if you will make some adjustments to your existing brand.

2-Do you need a new brand or just additions to your current brand?

When we work with new businesses, we usually put together a style guide that includes the fonts and colors used in their brand. As your business grows and you use more channels for marketing your company, your brand and guidelines need to expand.

For example, you may need new versions of your current logo that work in black and white or horizontally. You may need to expand your visual identity beyond the logo and create a complete visual brand by developing secondary color palettes, icons, or a library of images.

Creating these assets systematically, rather than as-needed for each project, allows you to plan for how you want your brand to grow.

3-Do you need something new, or do you need to clarify what you already have?

Similar to number 2 above, many businesses lack brand guidelines that are thorough enough.

Maybe your sales team is making PowerPoint decks, and your marketing team is creating social media graphics, yet they don’t look like they came from the same company. That’s probably because the corporate brand standards do not include the guidance they need.

Instead of a new brand, you may need to create a library of approved images or standards that describe the imagery that fits your brand. Then, it would help if you made these assets and guidelines available and understandable to everyone creating materials.

4-How many places will you have to update if you change your brand?

If you have a business with signs, trucks, uniforms, packaging, etc., there will be considerable expense beyond the creative fees for a visual rebranding.

However, if you have a professional services company, you probably do not have a lot of collateral that needs reprinting. Expenses beyond the design fees will be minimal.

Make sure you factor the entire cost of rebranding into your budget.

5-How well-known are you really?

Most small businesses lack visibility and awareness. The personal brands of the founders or lead employees are often more important than the corporate brand.

If you lack brand awareness, there is little risk of making a change. Go ahead and rebrand if a new brand will better represent your company.  

6-How does your current brand fit in with your plans?

When you initially came up with your name, logo, or other brand assets, they probably filled a need you had at the time. Now, there is some reason you feel it’s not a good fit.

If this mismatch is getting worse, you will want to rebrand eventually. To avoid being in the same situation a few years from now, consider where you want your business to head and build a brand you can continue growing into.

If it is time to rebrand

Updating your brand or rebranding can take many forms. Be clear about what’s not working with your current brand, and then work with an expert to help you evaluate the best way to reshape your brand to suit your needs.

Is it time to rebrand?

Avoid 6 common mistakes and plan for a successful rebrand that grows your business.

Read the E-book

The post Should you rebrand? Six questions to ask yourself appeared first on Visible Logic.

Understanding how users access your site has a lot of value. If you know which browsers they are using and what type of devices they view your site, you can ensure your site looks the best and is working correctly for most of your users.

Not all browsers interpret sites the same, and something that looks one way in one browser may look slightly or significantly different in another. Understanding which browsers to prioritize can help make sure you are sticking to budgets and giving your site visitors the best experience.

Since we build websites, this data is essential for us. We want to ensure that we design for, test, and optimize the most popular browsers our client’s users use.

As you can see in that video, Internet Explorer used to dominate for years. We would spend a lot of time optimizing for that browser, which was a challenge. 

The web browser and tech data are unique to your business

The animation shows the current landscape with Chrome having 80% market share, Firefox with 5%, and Safari with less than 4%. As a Firefox fan, I was surprised by these numbers. I decided to spot-check our website traffic and three clients that are similar B2B businesses. All of us had around 20% of our web traffic on Safari. This makes sense to me because iPhones and Macs both default to Safari.

The point is that you need to do your research on your customers.

The animation in the video was based on traffic from W3 School’s website, which may have a totally different audience than your own site.

Know your own site’s visitors

You’ll hear a lot of statistics about mobile dominating web searches and that mobile browsing accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide. But it depends on your industry. While that might be true overall, we work primarily with B2B businesses, and most of their customers are accessing their websites on their laptops.

However, businesses in the construction or travel industry may find a higher mobile use than average because their clientele is out in the field. We have an auto service client who is much closer to the worldwide average, probably because their customers may be making an appointment when they get in their car and remember they need an oil change, rather than at their computer.

Check your site’s audience technology

Optimizing your website based on dominant browsers and devices is a good idea, but you need to verify the data for your own site first.

If you are using Google Analytics 4 follow this link for steps to see browsers, os and device stats.

If you are using Universal Analytics learn more about your audience’s technology use here.

Get in touch if you need help auditing your site’s audience technology.

The post What Web Browsers (and Devices) Are Your Website Viewers Using? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Since WordPress was initially created as a blogging platform, the Classic Editor in WordPress was built for basic content like text and images. This limited the types of layouts someone could easily create unless they knew HTML.

What are WordPress visual editors?

Visual editors or page builders allow you to create complex formats on a WordPress page more quickly. You can add columns or design different page sections in different sizes or styles.

Competitors like SquareSpace and Wix made it easy for users to have more complex layouts on their platforms. Page builders came to WordPress as a response.

Some of the more widely known WordPress visual editors are Divi Builder, WP Bakery, Elementor, and Visual Composer. 

These editor tools were great for a DIYer who wanted to be able to build and customize their site themselves but didn’t have coding and development skills.

Now you are stuck with it…forever

The problem with these editors arises when you want to stop using them. It isn’t easy to unshackle your site from them once you use them.

Visual page builders write code injected into the page to create these slick layouts. This code gets embedded and mixed up directly with your text and images.

Trying to revert to either the Classic editor or the newer, more visual Gutenberg block editor will leave you with a pile of HTML code and inline styles that will display as part of your content should you ever decide to stop using the editor. Once you’ve used the page builder on a page, you can’t revert to the native WordPress editor.

This problem typically arises when someone is ready to redesign their site and wants to switch to a new theme or have us create a custom WordPress theme.

Mixing up code and content

The idea behind WordPress themes is that you should be able to swap between them pretty quickly. Ideally, your content stays the same, and you only change your layout and styles.

But with inline styles, as described above, the styling code gets embedded into the content.

An easy theme upgrade becomes impossible once you start using a page builder. 

Visual editors also slow down your site

Page builders are also notoriously slow. Many of the code’s customizations for fonts, colors, etc., are ‘inlined.’ This creates site code that’s large and bloated, which will reduce load times.

Also, many of these editors can do everything a website could ever need to do. Most are adding code for lots of functions your site may never use.

All this extra code and functionality will slow down your site and affect your site speed score with Google.  

You probably don’t need a visual editor anymore

WordPress introduced the Gutenburg block editor in 2018, making creating complex layouts much more accessible. The blocks are a more visual approach to page layout and are now part of the core WordPress tool.

The block editor continuously evolves, and new features are added with every release. At this point, site creators can use the block editor in conjunction with plugins to create complex page layouts that rival page builders without the added bloat of poor code. This also allows for more flexibility when you update your theme.

How to move forward if you’re using a page builder tool

If you’re ready to move away from a page-building editor, be prepared for some hard work. There is no silver bullet for removing the leftover code and shortcodes left in place by these builders when you are ready to stop using them.

Plugins

A few plugins can help strip out the code based on which builder you’ve used. Unfortunately, they are typically not 100% accurate.

Manual code cleanup

Expect to review and clean up every page on your site when you move away from a visual editing tool. You may be manually removing code or copying-and-pasting content to a new editor.

Start fresh

Sometimes a “nuke it” approach is the best way to unchain your site from these editors.

It can be an opportunity to thoroughly audit a site and decide what needs to stay and what needs to be updated. Then, you can create a new site with updated content.

Ready to get rid of your page builder?

Visible Logic has helped many clients transition away from the page builder they are stuck with. We can start by auditing your current site and help you decide if we’ll transfer content or start fresh.

In addition to the design, we’ll help organize and write new copies. We’ll then create a custom WordPress theme built for your specific needs. And we have a thorough project management approach to manage the transition.

The post WordPress page builders and visual editors: Why you should avoid them and how to transition off of them appeared first on Visible Logic.

Visible Logic started with an audit of the site to better understand the technical needs and gain insight into what was and wasn’t working for the users of the site and the admins making updates and changes to the site. We then redesigned the website by creating a custom WordPress theme using the block editor. Check out the new and improved site here.

Before

After

Site audit

Before starting the non-profit’s website redesign project, Visible Logic did a site audit in the first phase to better understand how the current site was built. While it was built in WordPress, we learned that the staff had challenges with the current site’s backend because of plugins and custom coding.

We also evaluated how difficult it would be to move the site from one theme to another. Because their current site was using a page builder tool, we knew that transferring to another theme would involve a lot of manual copy and pasting. We also determined there were a lot of unneeded pages.

This information helped both Visible Logic and the client understand and specify the scope of work needed. It also helped us define our roles. We decided which work we needed to do and what the client would do.

We could move into phase two with a plan with the goals and challenges clarified. Here are some of the most impactful improvements we made to the new site in the redesign.

Easy-to-use for site editors

In our audit, we learned that the site used the classic editor and a page builder tool. And the majority of updates needed to be done through a developer because of customized plugins and code. We also found that the site had a lot of highly specialized functionality such as customs forms, specially formatted donations lists, a value estimator, and job listings.

We converted the site to the WordPress block editor and created custom blocks for the theme. This made it easier for anyone to make edits and updates. The communications team could build more customized layouts without turning to their tech team.

Location listings

We converted the cumbersome location listings from custom post types to an organized list on a single page. We also added the ability to schedule notifications about store closings and hours updates, so no one needed to log in after hours to make changes.

Forms

Goodwill needs to connect people to the various programs, services, and training they offer. So, they had a lot of contact forms. However, the forms were all custom coded and could not be accessed by the site’s WordPress editors. By switching the forms to GravityForms WordPress admin, users could now easily edit, update or create new forms.

We also helped integrate their email and texting services so users could signup for notifications in a single location.

Calendar of sales and events

Goodwill NNE offers sales and saving based on the color of the tag on the item in their stores. Although the dates for these sales were scheduled far ahead, the calendar was currently created monthly as a PDF that was uploaded to the site. The color-of-the-week changes each week, and there are also days with additional discounts for veterans and seniors.

Visible Logic was able to add and style a calendar that could schedule these reoccurring events for years in advance. And the team can add new sales events on the fly. It’s as simple as adding a new post in WordPress.

Updated navigation to reflect organized content

The site had multiple navigations, and it was difficult to understand how its content was organized because the navigation and page structure were unrelated. You could get to some pages via multiple locations, and some links took you to PDFs or other unexpected behaviors as a user. This made it hard to find information and a challenge for users coming to the site to find information about the critical programs Goodwill NNE offers.

We created a sitemap with the site structure as part of the site audit. This helped GNNE determine what needed to stay, go, or be updated and helped prioritize key pages and info into an organized hierarchy.

The new navigation is based on the page structure and makes it easy to find information about the different programs, services, training, and stores.

Before

After

Check out the new site

We are excited to have helped improve GNNE’s site and helped support such a wonderful organization.

The post Non-Profit Website Redesign: Goodwill Northern New England appeared first on Visible Logic.

To allow your marketing agency to run ads on your behalf, you need to set up the account, give them access and add a credit card to pay for the ad spend. We recommend that our clients maintain control of these items and then grant us access. Here’s how!

Create A Google Account

To start, you will need to create a Google account. You may already have an account if you use Gmail or have Google Analytics running on your website.

You can sign in to your Google account with another email using these steps, but you will need a Google email address to access the account and be a user. 

You will need an email address and a website for the business you want to run ads for. When you first create your account, you will be entered into “Smart Mode” however, you will want to switch to “Expert Mode” so you can get the most out of Google Ads and have access to all the features it has to offer. To do this, you can navigate to the “New campaign” page and click “Switch to Expert Mode” at the bottom of the screen.

Full instructions can be found here.

Adding and Managing Users

Google Ads allows you to add team members to the account to access the Ads and see all the data and information within the account. Each person must have their own separate Google account.

When you invite someone, you must assign them a role within the account. There are multiple roles in the google Ads system already, so you will choose the one that best applies to the person. The primary role is Administrator, which gives full access to the account. In contrast, the executive role is read-only access, so the person can evaluate everything that is going on yet not have the permission to make any changes. 

Suppose you allow access to a third party to manage an advertising campaign. In that case, granting them Administrator-level access is recommended so they can have all the tools available to them to allow them to complete the previously agreed-upon work.

Invitations expire after one month. Also, if you ever need to revoke access to someone, it is always possible to deactivate users. Full instructions can be found here.

Adding a Payment Method to Google Ads

Once your account is created, you will need to enter payment information. Select the tool icon and navigate “Settings” underneath the billing tab. You will first need to enter the country of your payment source along with your business name and address. After this information is entered, you will then be able to enter your billing information. Here you will enter it in the name listed on the card you plan on using to pay, along with the card number, expiration date, and security code. When all the information is entered correctly, click “Submit and Activate.”

You can choose between automation and manual payments. Automatic payments are automatically charged to your payment method, and with manual payments, you will need to add a predetermined amount to your account. Fill payment instructions can be found here.

Now that your billing information has been added and accepted by Google, the ads and campaigns you create can begin to run.

Google Analytics

You’ll want to have Google Analytics running on your website, too. This will help you understand who visits your website, where they go, and how they got there.

If you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, create an account for free. We have a similar blog post on how to navigate the sign-up process for Google Analytics, and you can find that here.

The post Google Ads Account Creation and Access appeared first on Visible Logic.

Visible Logic is excited to announce the redesigned Branding Compass website was a winner in the 22nd Annual GDUSA Digital Design Awards.

Graphic Design USA presents this industry award annually, formerly known as a ‘Web Design’ award. This year’s award was expanded to include online experiences like social media, email marketing, and more. The site was selected from over 2,400 other applicants, a record-breaking number of entries.

The Branding Compass website and the Application UI were cited in the award. Visible Logic also won for the Raising Readers website this year.

Visible Logic announced Branding Compass, a web-based application and DIY tool for small business owners and startups to build their brand, in early 2017. Since its launch, the web-based tool has grown and changed. To help our clients better understand the new capabilities, additions, and benefits of using Branding Compass, Visible Logic redesigned the Branding Compass website in 2022.

The post Branding Compass Website Wins Award appeared first on Visible Logic.

Creating your account and tracking code

The steps to begin tracking are outlined below. Full instructions can be found here.

1. Create a Google account or sign in if you already have one.
2. Create a Property. This is usually the name of your business or website.
3. Select the data stream. Select web for embedding on your site.
4. Add the Analytics tag to your site. You need to add a tag to every webpage you want to track. You can add the code in several ways, including having your web developer add the tag within the HTML, adding the code to your theme or template, or using a plugin.  

Once the code is embedded on your website, Google tracks the data. You don’t have to do anything else. Any time you log in, you’ll be able to see all the data starting from the day the Analytics code went live. 

Tag Manager may be beneficial for more granular tracking of various social and web links. 

Adding and Managing Users

Once your account is set up, you can add additional users to the account to see the data and set up goals. To add new users, follow the instructions here. You can select what permissions or level of access each user has when you add them. You can also modify this access later. You can add as many users as you like, and if you have multiple properties, you can add users to just specific properties. 

A new user can see all of your past data. For example, if you give your digital marketing agency access to your Google Analytics account, they’ll be able to see all of your historical data. 

The post Google Analytics Account Creation and Access appeared first on Visible Logic.

Should I attend an in-person event?
Should I wear a mask?
Should I make plans to travel?
Will prices continue to rise with inflation? 
Are we headed for a recession?
Is the pandemic over or not?

Many routine things like going out to eat, attending business networking events, or grocery shopping are now ripe with the opportunity to overthink everything.

It often boils down to:
Will, I regret doing it? 
Will I miss out on something if I don’t do it? 
Is it worth it?

We’re all exhausted from the decision-making (yes, it’s tiring to make too many decisions). 

What does this mean if you’re trying to market your products or services?

Here are four insights to consider when evaluating and planning your marketing during uncertain times.

1. Expect different results

This is the most critical and universal lens through which you should view your current marketing approach. We can all agree that the world has drastically changed since the beginning of 2020. What worked for your marketing three years ago may not work now. 

There’s an oxymoronic quality to the feelings we’re experiencing these days. For example:

• We’re more comfortable with Zoom than ever before but so sick of it that we may not want to attend another Zoom meeting or webinar.
• We desperately miss face-to-face interaction but may still be frightened of the health risks associated with in-person events.

No business or non-profit has come through this unchanged. And your marketing needs to change, too.

2. Try something new

There’s a significant reshuffling of what’s working and what’s not. But there are no universal winners and losers. The very thing that you’re giving up on may be just the right strategy for someone else. 

Just because something works for another business or used to work for you in the past, it may not be effective for you right now.

Maybe you used to do in-person networking and now need to try social posting. Perhaps you never considered pay-per-click, and now it’s time. Maybe your organic traffic is slowly building or slowly tapering off.

For months, many people were waiting to see what things would be like, ‘post pandemic’ or in the ‘new normal.’ Instead of just waiting and contemplating, it’s time to try something new if you do not see results. 

Decide on one strategy to try and test it for the next six months–that’s long enough to get data and measure results. Then, six months from now, you can reevaluate and pivot if necessary based on the results, your business, and the economic outlook.

3. Prospects are cautious

Everyone is over-evaluating everything, so give them the details they want.

Sometimes, people regret moving too slowly and missing out on a deal or trend. More people are now willing to slow down and evaluate everything carefully. 

Answer your prospects’ questions. This is best done with your website. Your website is safe and universally available. 

Pre-pandemic, people tolerated restaurants with terrible websites. Now customers want to see the menu (not PDF), the hours, and any particular policies or details. And because we all know that there are supply-chain issues and labor shortages, we want to feel confident that the offerings and hours we see posted are accurate and up-to-date.

At Visible Logic, we don’t work with many restaurants; we primarily work with B2B firms and non-profits. But the advice is the same: build trust online with a website that is accurate, updated, and thoroughly discusses what you offer so that people can get detailed information from you.

You can describe what it’s like to work with you. You can create demo videos and explainer videos. You may want to be more transparent about your prices. Introduce your team and founder with photos or videos and bios. These are all things that help build trust with your prospects.

4. Sales cycles are slow

People are moving slowly or even outright waffling on their decisions. 

Businesses make a plan, then reassess and then adjust their strategy. Remember how many times Apple has announced its back-to-work plans? Almost always delaying (rather than moving faster) on making hard decisions.

The good news is that this gives you many opportunities to educate your prospects on what you do and why you do it better than anyone else. 

Think about how you will stay in touch with prospects. Automated email drip campaigns are likely the easiest and most effective. It also allows you to mix written communications, videos, or graphics.

Three trends to invest in now to improve your marketing results

What’s working for some businesses may be the opposite for others. There are many different paths, but you need to focus on these three significant steps.

1-Raise awareness of your product or organization online.

As people spend more time at home, online, and with limited interaction with others, you need to get in front of prospects using digital marketing. Pay-per-click ads, a content marketing strategy, and social media are the top three ways to do this. You can expect different costs and timelines to see results; the best one for you will depend on your business and client base.

2-Improve your website.

Your website is the foundation of your whole online identity. It should appeal to your ideal prospects in how it looks and with the writing. It should be technically sound—meaning if your site is anything more than just a brochure, it must work smoothly. Finally, it should be easy for your team to manage so that you can keep it up-to-date.

3-Create a lead nurturing campaign.

Stay in touch during long sales cycles!

Stay in touch with written content, product updates, videos, and special offers. This is most easily done with email. Or, consider texting if the audience is right. You can do this in other ways—with phone calls and organic social media outreach, for example—but email is the easiest, most robust, and most effective.

The post Marketing In Uncertain Times appeared first on Visible Logic.

Before

After

Visible Logic recently launched a redesigned website for Raising Readers. Raising Readers is a non-profit working to improve literacy in Maine by distributing high-quality books to every child in Maine, starting at birth through age 5 at well-child visits. Pediatricians and literacy experts choose the books to be age-appropriate and high-quality. Many feature authors and illustrators with connections to Maine.

Raising Readers touches every child in Maine and is genuinely part of growing up in Maine.

The team at Visible Logic is so proud to have helped this organization redesign and relaunch its website!

The new site is easier for the organization to use, extends the program’s impact outside of Maine, and has been recognized for its award-winning design.

Winner: 2022 American Digital Design Award

The website was a winner in the 22nd Annual GDUSA Digital Design Awards. Graphic Design USA presented this industry award annually, and the Raising Readers site was selected in the website design category.

Showing off their accomplishments

The new site showcases the curated books and demonstrates the program’s impact over the past twenty years, all with an updated look and feel.

Raising Readers has so much to be proud of! They have given away more than 3 million books and have achieved their goal of reaching every single child in Maine. We started by making these successes easy to find with significant call-outs at the top of the new site.

Every year the organization chooses new books to distribute. Books are selected because they are considered age-appropriate by pediatricians and literacy experts. Over the past twenty years, Raising Readers has compiled a long list of these high-quality books that are great for program participants (e.g., Maine families) and for parents, educators, and caregivers anywhere.

They wanted to make this list of books available to other people looking for excellent book recommendations.

Export, audit, cleanup, then add new functionality

Previously, the site admins had to log in to multiple locations to see and manage the database, and there was little control over how the book listings could be displayed on the site. Creating a way to let people sort, search and filter the book listings was a critical feature of improving the site.

Visible Logic worked closely with the Raising Readers team to help clean up the database so that more interactive functionality could be added to the book listings. Our team converted the data into a spreadsheet that could be reviewed, updated, and edited by the Raising Readers team. Once the database was complete, the book list was imported into WordPress with fields listed on each book’s page like ISBN, author, and information about child development at the specific age the book targets.

By having the books all managed in WordPress, the site administrators can easily update and add new books and incorporate the books in more dynamic ways.

Searching & filtering their curated book list

Their list of recommended books had become valuable to people outside the program as a resource for finding age-appropriate, high-quality books. Visible Logic implemented a search and filter tool on their book listings so parents and caregivers can easily find the right book from the hundreds listed on the site.

Their books can be filtered by if they are Maine-based, if they have a book activity associated with them, if they are Dr. recommended for special topics like potty training or new siblings, and their availability and age group. A search is also in place if a user wants to find a specific topic.

Save your favorites

A favorite function was added so that users could “save” their favorites, then print, email or save them as a PDF (all without creating an account). It’s perfect to create a list to bring to the library or share as a birthday wish list.

Customized illustrations

One of the goals of the new site was to ensure that the imagery of the families represented the diversity of the program since every family accesses it with young children across the State. Their previous website had primarily used photography, but it is a challenge when using photos—especially stock—to show what a family can look like. Visible Logic created a set of custom illustrations that felt accessible, friendly, and inclusive of the types of families that access the program across Maine.

The post Redesigned Raising Readers Website Wins Award appeared first on Visible Logic.

Most rebranding efforts involve a small group of team members. Here’s how to share the news with internal and external audiences so that the launch of the new brand is a success.

Open communication leads to a more successful launch of a new brand

Usually, a rebranding project involves a group of key employees from the leadership tier of the organization and people from marketing or communications. This makes sense because rebranding is an important strategic decision for an organization.

However, being too insular with your process means that you miss out on essential insights from other sources. Additionally, it can tell the result feels thrust upon and therefore rebelled against by people who were excluded from the process.

There are five key ways you’ll want to communicate about your rebranding plan, and it starts far before you’re ready to unveil a new name or logo.

1. Gather input from employees or members 
2. Gather input from external sources and audiences
3. Communicate progress on the project
4. Plan for the roll-out
5. Launch!

1. Gather input from employees or members 

Depending on the size of your organization, people outside of the immediate group working on the rebranding project may have little or no knowledge of the planned rebrand. If possible, involve additional team members so that there is acceptance and excitement about the new brand in the works.

It’s better to involve employees early in the process rather than springing it on them once everything is complete. Also, we do NOT recommend having them vote on a new name or logo. Those types of ‘beauty contests’ rarely work out.

It’s much better to involve them in the strategic input that’s part of a branding project’s early and hugely important research and discovery phase. 

Good questions to get input from employees include: 

What do they hear from customers and clients about your brand?

Team members who directly work with customers and prospects probably have essential insights into how your brand is perceived in the marketplace. For example, they might hear remarks like, “I’ve never been in here before because I always thought you did something different.” Or, “I’ve seen your ads and thought….”

What are the most significant objections that arise in the sales process?

Not all sales objections can be addressed with a rebrand. But sometimes, it’s the mismatch between a prospect’s perception of a brand and the organization’s reality that makes a sale difficult. For example, if your visual identity screams ‘low cost’ but your prices are high, a more luxury-feeling brand would help you attract the correct type of prospects.

What other brands do they value or would they want to emulate?

It’s essential to understand who your direct competitors are. It’s also helpful to hear what other brands your employees, partners, and customers know and value. These can be important benchmarks for your rebranding process. 

2. Gather input from external sources and audiences

Partners, customers, or vendors can provide a valuable exterior view that’s helpful in the rebranding process. 

Getting outsiders involved with an important internal business project like rebranding can feel risky. But remember that the goal of your updated brand is to make it appealing to prospects, customers, partners, members, donors, etc. And as much as you try, you can’t always guess what’s most important to them.

Be careful how you solicit input. It should be targeted, so you get data and anecdotes about the perception of your brand. Too many external opinions have the potential to drive you off course because their ultimate goals and concerns may not match your business goals.

Again, the best way to gather external feedback is early in the process. You can survey or interview customers or partners and get input on these items:

What is their favorite thing about your company?

You may be able to use these memorable and positive traits as a nugget of something in your new brand. Great brands reflect honestly on the organization they represent. So if your clients and vendors are mentioning something about your products or how you work, it’s something that may be worth elevating to a core element in your brand.

Ask them to describe, in their own words, what you do. Or ask them what confuses them about your product or service.

Rebranding is not just about visuals. It is an opportunity to clarify and refine your brand messaging. You know your offerings inside and out, but you may be surprised how much confusion there is about precisely what you offer in the marketplace. Understanding what outsiders think of you and what they misunderstand about you can help you do better with this in your new brand messaging.

Now that you have relevant insights gathered from employees and external sources use these observations as guideposts in your rebranding process.

3. Communicate progress on the rebrand project

A rebranding project takes several months from start to finish. As you move through the process, it’s good to keep some internal team members up-to-date on your progress.

Who you tell depends on the size of your organization. Enormous organizations may not keep every employee apprised of the project, but small businesses should.

There are two good reasons for this:

• Open communication is almost always better than doing things in secret. Your employees or members will appreciate the transparency because it eases their minds about the coming changes. 
• Your employees may think of some overlooked places that you’ll need to remember to prepare for. For example, your team may have forgotten that an online customer portal will need to be updated and requires help from an external IT vendor.

4. Plan for the roll-out

This is arguably the most critical step for successfully launching a rebrand.

Plan for the mechanics

Start by creating a list of all the places that need to be updated with your new brand. Here are some of the common ones to get you started:

• Website
• Business cards or printed marketing materials
• Social media channels. Do you need to rename your page or secure new handles in addition to adjusting any cover or avatar graphics?
• Business listings (if your name is changing)
• Email templates
• Letterhead, proposals, estimating templates
• Vehicles, uniforms, signs, tradeshow booths, etc.

Start writing your story

Your current brand is familiar. Rebranding means change, and change is notoriously difficult for humans. People may instinctively push back. 

It often feels better if you can explain why you made the change.

There are two critical components to this story: 

1. explain why your old brand wasn’t a good fit and 
2. show why the new brand is a better asset to the organization.

To share why your old brand was not serving your organization, you can use ideas gathered during your input phase of work. These may be data points from a survey or quotes from interviewed people.

Then, paint the picture of how you want your brand to be perceived. Give specific details about why the new brand—the new name, logo, or messaging—better represents your organization and adds value to your business.

Schedule the launch

Don’t just decide, at the moment, to put your new logo on your website. Plan out the sequence of internal communications, external communications, and how the actual brand launch will happen (see below).

Find the right day for this big announcement and complex dance. Have all of your key employees and partners available at the critical time, not when someone is on vacation! If the rollout includes working with external vendors, make sure they understand the essential nature of the deadline and are available with the right resources. 

Also, think about what happens with old assets. For example, if you change your name and domain name, remember that someone should have your old website redirect to your new one.

5. Launch your rebrand!

There will probably be one day when you formally announce your rebrand and update your marketing and communications channels. You may be imagining a big ‘reveal,’ but you’re more likely to have a smooth and successful launch with a more planned and measured approach. 

Here are the key steps:

Start telling people that change is coming 

You don’t have to reveal the new name or new logo, but about 1-2 weeks in advance, tell them an exciting announcement about a rebrand is coming soon. You can do this by email or speaking directly with key partners or customers.

Queue up the new brand 

Get your most visible external channels ready. Have everything prepped for your website, social media channels, and physical location changes. If you’re changing domain names and social media channels, it’s OK to turn them live a couple of days in advance. This will ensure that they are ready on launch day. Have them written, formatted, and ready to go if you plan to send a mass email or make a social media announcement.

Share the news 

On launch day, let everyone know and tell the story you crafted in advance. 

Continue to remind people

Keep reminding people of the connection to your old brand in your marketing and communications, especially if you have a new name. For example, on your website’s home and about page, you should mention any previous names for your organization for at least one year. You may be surprised how many people aren’t paying attention to your rebrand.

Rebranding takes a lot of effort, time, and money to complete. Still, suppose it moves your organization from feeling disconnected from its brand to feeling excited and proud of its brand. In that case, it will be a worthwhile investment and a business asset that increases in value over time. Make sure you celebrate the hard work and new beginnings that are part of a rebrand.

The post How to Successfully Communicate and Launch Your Rebrand appeared first on Visible Logic.

Unfortunately, many of the websites we are replacing did not have long, fruitful lives. These sites were recently completed — by other agencies or freelancers — and fell far short of our client’s expectations.

They’re often brand new. Many are less than a year old.

Some of the sites we fix were originally built cheaply by cutting corners. Others are pretty flashy and expensive but lack basic functionality. All of them were created by other agencies or freelancers who failed to meet the clients’ expectations.

This is unfortunate for any business owner, and I thought I’d share some thoughts on how you might avoid this issue altogether.

Who to Hire: Designer or developer? Freelancer or agency?

Think of hiring someone to build your website the same way you would a contractor to work on your house or a mechanic on your car — with some basic understanding, a little insider knowledge, and the right questions, you can get what you want and not get burned.

Websites are similar — to get it done right, you need to hire the right person (or people). I wouldn’t hire a plumber to do my electrical, and I wouldn’t want major work done to my car at an express oil change. So let’s look at some different roles and what they do.

A web designer determines what a site looks like. Their goal is to make the site look good and create the overall visual appearance through colors, fonts, imagery, and layout. They can do this in Photoshop, directly in HTML and CSS, or by customizing a pre-made theme. To continue the home improvement analogy, think of them as interior decorators.

A web developer builds out the functionality of the site. They’re like plumbers, electricians, and HVAC contractors — they handle the unseen stuff that makes a website work and function. Often, they’ll use a platform like WordPress and other plugins to manage the complex operations. They’ll fine-tune and customize using HTML, PHP, or JavaScript.

A freelancer might have some skill and familiarity in both disciplines, but they’re likely to excel at one or the other. Take note of whether they call themselves a “developer” or “designer” — that will give you insight into their expertise, process, and priorities. It will also indicate the type of site you’ll get: One designed to look good or one designed to function well.

A web firm or agency should have designers and developers on staff who will collaborate and combine their expertise to build your website. Using an agency increases the chance that your site will be designed and developed well. It will also give you access to some other essential skills that often go overlooked when websites get built.

What Else Makes a Website ‘Good’?

Making sure your site looks good and works well is essential. But those aren’t the only qualities that go into a well-made website. It would be best if you thought about what a visitor will do when they arrive at your page and how they might come there in the first place.

Content

A mistake we often see businesses make (whether we’re making their site or not) is wanting to create their content. On the surface, it makes sense — who knows your business better than you?

But ask yourself: Do you know how to craft copy that will stand out from the competition? Create clear messaging to sell your brand? Entertaining and informative content to keep your audience engaged? And do you know how to make it all fit seamlessly with a design and flow well with the site’s functionality?

Doing this — and doing it well — is a highly-specialized skill, just like web design and development. Even if your content is already written, it can constantly be improved and optimized by a professional copywriter and content creator.

Marketing Specialists

A site may be immaculately designed, flawlessly developed, and feature great content. But if no one visits it, what’s the point? Attracting, retaining, and converting customers is a whole other skill set for building a website.

This can include instilling good SEO practices to make your page appear higher in searches, marketing content to show off your expertise, and translating analytics to see where visitors come from and the path they take through your site.

And the best time to implement these practices is while the site is being built. They should be part of the plan from the beginning and baked into the design and development. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone launch a site than come to us for help optimizing it. It can be done — but never as efficiently or effectively as doing it from the start.

What’s Right For Me?

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when deciding on how (and who) to build your website. While every instance is unique, the are some common pros and cons for each, as well general circumstances when one may be preferable to another.

Hiring a freelance designer

Pros

• Your site will be visually appealing
• It can often be done more quickly and less expensively than using an agency.

Cons

• Will likely use pre-made templates and themes that can lead to technical issues
• Requires you to provide and optimize the content

You may want to hire a web designer if…

You need an online presence for your brand that looks good, only needs to convey basic information, and requires no complex functionality.

Hiring a freelance developer

Pros

• Capable of building robust functionality for your site
• May be able to optimize the technical implementation and speed of the site

Cons

• Risk clunky design that will turn off users and poorly represent your brand
• Requires you to provide content and be more involved with visual direction

You may want to hire a web developer if…

Your website requires more complex and customized processes, and visual appearance is less of a concern.

Hiring a firm or agency

Pros

• Marries design, functionality, and content
• Can think beyond the initial site to SEO, analytical and marketing processes

Cons

• Longer process than just hiring a freelancer
• More expensive (Starting around $1.5k for a freelancer vs. $10k for an agency)

You may want to hire an agency if…

Your website is a vital component of your business in attracting, converting, and retaining customers, and you need help navigating evolving technology and marketing trends.

Of course, making a fully-formed and good decision is much more nuanced than this. So if you require help building a comprehensive web experience (or need help fixing your current one), get in touch. We’re happy to go over your needs and help you make the right choice.

The post How to Hire the Right Person to Build the Website You Need appeared first on Visible Logic.

From extra-small to extra-large, websites come in all shapes and sizes. The size, complexity, and cost of a website can be determined by how many pages you have, the functionality, and whether you are using a pre-made theme or designing something from scratch.

What’s important is that you see ROI (Return on Investment) from what you spend creating your website. It should serve your goals.

Don’t underestimate the value of your website. Even if your website is not set for direct sales, I will bet that nearly every prospect went to your website before they interacted with you. If your site doesn’t come up in search, or if a prospect felt your website didn’t look professional, you probably will never know about that lost business.

Below you will see samples of several websites we’ve built recently to understand how websites of all sizes can be effective.

X-Small: Hyde Discovery Process

We created a one-page website for the Hyde Discovery Process to help them launch their new educational program. Their sales were focused on reaching their current network, and they needed a site where a prospect could learn about the latest product and book a time for a sales call.

One-page websites are a simple, straightforward way to tell your brand story. If you don’t have a lot of content, don’t make people jump around to different pages of your site.

Small: SchoolSquare

SchoolSquare is an EdTech company, and its site is typical for a small business or startup. They have four main pages and a blog.

For most small businesses, you should be able to explain the benefits of your product or service in 3-5 pages. Adding on a blog is an excellent way to increase search engine traffic to your site, and it gives you a platform to show off your expertise and thought leadership.

Medium: StopHazing

The non-profit StopHazing needed a website explaining its services and housed more information about its research and resources. The StopHazing website is medium-sized because it has sub-pages under their top-level pages.

Once you start having second-level pages, you need to make more decisions about how pages are organized. Also, you may want sidebar or dropdown navigation to access those sub-pages.

Large: Defend Our Health

The site for this non-profit shows how you’ll want to tailor your design as the amount of content grows. Spend some time looking around Defend Our Health’s website, and you’ll see how the layout changes as you get deeper into each of their campaigns. And there’s some other functionality like an interactive timeline showing their history and connection points to their blogs, donation tools, and action alerts.

To make your site more engaging, avoid having every page design feel the same. Adjusting the structure of your content makes it more readable and impactful.

X-Large: MainePERS

The Maine Public Employees Retirement System website contains hundreds of pages, linked PDFs, and forms. A large part of this project was helping our client review, and better organize the vast amount of content. Then, we worked together to develop a site architecture that was easy to understand and navigate.

If you’re rebuilding a large, existing site, expect to spend significant time auditing the current content. It’s challenging to begin the design until everyone is on board with what pages, documents, and forms will be moved, edited, or deleted.

The post What Website Size Fits Your Business Needs — XS, S, M, L, or XL? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Your menus should be thoughtful and standardized.

A good menu starts with a sitemap

Organizing your site’s content should be one of the first things to consider when planning a website design. Start by listing out all the planned pages on your site. Then review the list to determine what pages can be grouped based on the content. 

The relationship between pages looks like a family tree or an org chart. The top-level pages are parents, the pages under that are children, next are grandchildren, and so on. You can also call these top-level , second-level, third-level pages, etc.

You can use sitemap software or even just a spreadsheet to help you visualize the groupings and rankings. 

Then decide what pages need the most visibility. These will appear in your main top-level menu. 

That navigational menu should not have too many items, or it will be overwhelming. Depending on your website design, the number of items in this menu may be limited by the space available. Ensure you are only listing the most important pages. Sometimes less important top-level pages can be put into a menu that isn’t as prominent in the design, such as in the footer.

Seven is probably the most top-level pages you’ll want visible in your main menu, and fewer than that are better.

Next, you’ll organize your sub-pages underneath your top-level pages. When planning this structure, you’ll need to balance how deep you want people to dig against having too many top-level items. 

Try to minimize the levels within your sitemap, so users don’t have to go digging and find what they need in minimum clicks. Unless you have a tremendous amount of content, you don’t want to go beyond third-level pages, and having only second-level pages is ideal for most business websites. 

Menus should match the sitemap

Once you have organized your pages into a sitemap, your menus should match that. When menus stray from the organizational structure of your website, users end up confused. 

The top-level pages will be in your main navigation bar. The lower-level pages will be accessible by dropdown menus, or other sub-navigation menus like you typically see in a sidebar.

People expect that if they click on a link in a sidebar (which shows your second-level pages), they will navigate to a page related to the one they are on. It’s off-putting to click a link in a sub-navigation that brings you to a completely different part of the site. It can be hard to figure out how you got there or get back to where you had been. 

What if a user decides to come back later to complete a purchase and can’t find the page? 

Website menu dos and don’ts

• Do start by organizing your content with a sitemap
• Do make the menus match the organization of your pages
• Do use expected logic like left to right, and top to bottom, when organizing menus. (Put your most important items to the left or at the top of your menu list.)
• Don’t link to pages outside your site without having them open in a new tab (and do open internal pages within the same tab)
• Don’t link to files like PDFs or images in your menu. A menu item should bring you to a web page.
• Don’t make users guess what part of the site a navigation item will bring them to.

WordPress menus

WordPress can generate menus automatically for you, or you can create them manually.

The WordPress ‘menu’ function makes it easy to create and modify multiple menus on a site. 

The advantage of these menus is that a WordPress admin has more customization options control, and can decide what’s included, the order, and create links to non-pages and external links. Another advantage is it’s easy to exclude pages; for example, landing pages you don’t want to include in your nav, you don’t add. 

However, it’s easy for these menus to get out of sync with the content on your site. For example, when new pages are added to your site, you may forget to add them to the appropriate menu. And you’ll also need to remove them or update them later as content changes.  

The alternative is to generate a dynamic menu based on your site structure automatically. This is done programmatically by building it into your site theme. If a new page or subpage is added, it is automatically added to your menu, dropdown, or sub-navigation with no action from the admin other than publishing the page. 

Our approach to website menus and design

When deciding which type of menu to use, our most significant considerations are the menus’ complexity and how frequently changes are made. 

If you have a site with a clear hierarchy that is not likely to change, then a dynamic menu automated through the theme is most manageable since the user will not need any maintenance if changes are made. 

If the menu needs specialized links such as styled buttons, outbound links, a mix of pages or post types, or will frequently be changing and excluding pages, using the WordPress menus is best because it offers more versatility. 

The post Website Menus: Navigating Your Site in an Expected Way appeared first on Visible Logic.

Websites can cost $500 to $50,000 (part of what’s so confusing about them!), so the wrong decision can be a costly mistake. The wrong partner will likely lead to a frustrating process and potentially poor results. In some cases, you could have a lot of expense and little to show for it.

Should you create your website?

To begin, you may be considering a DIY platform like SquareSpace or Wix rather than hiring a professional to create your site for you. Should you spend thousands of dollars when you could do it yourself for free?

Unless you happen to have experience with web design, it’s doubtful you’ll be able to pull off an effective website without some professional help. Many small business owners try to ignore the significant risks of a poorly designed website. The potential loss of business from a website that looks unprofessional or doesn’t function properly is not worth the risk. You’re likely to lose business without even being aware of it because your site is not being found in search or is a turn-off to prospects once they get there.

And is that site really free when you think about the value of your time?

Think of hiring a professional to build your website the same way as you would a contractor to work on your house or a mechanic on your car — with some basic understanding, a little insider knowledge, and the right questions, and you can get what you want and not get burned.

You wouldn’t hire a plumber to do your electrical work, and you wouldn’t want major work done to your car at an express oil change. Websites are similar — to get it done right, you need to hire the right person (or team).

Roles and skills needed for your website

Let’s start by looking at some different roles and what they do.

Many people use the words ‘web designer’ and ‘web developer’ interchangeably, but they aren’t the same thing, and they aren’t the same skill.

Web designer

A web designer determines how a site looks.

To continue the home improvement analogy, think of them as interior designers and decorators. Their goal is to make the site look good and create the overall visual appearance through colors, fonts, imagery, and layout. They can do this in any number of ways — directly in HTML and CSS, customizing a pre-made theme, or pulling in graphic files like illustrations and photography.

And similar to the difference between a designer and a decorator, some focus on aesthetic changes like customizing colors and fonts in a pre-built theme, whereas some are ready to develop more significant creative ideas. Do you need a fresh coat of paint and a new rug, or are you looking to create built-ins and maybe take down some out-of-date paneling?

Web developer

A web developer builds out the functionality of the site. They’re like plumbers, electricians, and HVAC contractors — they handle the unseen stuff that makes a website work and function. Often, they’ll use a platform like WordPress and other plugins to manage the complex operations. They’ll fine-tune and customize using HTML, PHP, or JavaScript.

You can expect nearly every web developer to know how to handle typical website functionality like having a blog or an events calendar. For more complex and specialized functions like membership sites, e-commerce sites, or custom applications, you’ll want to find someone with more specific knowledge and experience.

Should you choose a freelancer or an agency for your website?

There are different skills needed to create a website. Sometimes one person has the experience to do both, and sometimes you’ll need a team with more specialized skills to get the best site.

Freelance web designers and developers

A freelancer might have some skill and familiarity in design and development, but they’re likely to excel at one. Take note of whether they call themselves a “developer” or “designer” — that will give you insight into their expertise, process, and priorities. It will also indicate the type of site you’ll get: One designed to look good or one designed to function well.

For example, a freelancer may be more likely to purchase a pre-built theme and customize the design. Or, they may be stronger at development, but their designs are clunky and uninspired.

Web firm or web agency

A web firm or agency should have designers and developers on staff who will collaborate and combine their expertise to build your website. Using an agency increases the chance that your site will be designed and developed well.

You will also get many more skills that may be critical to getting a website you’ll love. These additional team members may include:

• A copywriter who will help you write or edit your text. A copywriter can either write from scratch after learning about your product or service or edit what you provide to make it more readable and impactful. Writing for online reading is a specialized skill.
• An SEO expert is essential if having Google find your site is an integral part of your marketing strategy. SEO will include some development tasks (usually maximizing site speed and choosing an SEO plugin like Yoast). And, you’ll want an SEO expert to add the right keywords to your page titles and metadata.
• An account manager or project manager will ensure that your project moves along smoothly. Large-scale websites are complex projects, and it’s very easy for delays and budget overruns to cause problems. Having someone on the team whose priority is efficiently moving a project forward will lead to a much better experience.

How to find the best website partner

The first thing to do is assess the size and complexity of your website.

If you need a simple, brochure-style site with a limited budget, you’ll probably do best with a freelancer. Just be prepared to accept some limitations to the functionality or caliber of the design. Also, it will be up to you to write all of your content (or hire another freelance writer).

The best way to get recommendations for the right firm or agency is to ask your professional colleagues. Start by looking at websites that you like and have similar complexity to what you are looking for. Then, ask the website owner who they worked with. Make sure you find out if they were happy with the result and the process.

Then, spend some time looking at the websites of the freelancers or agencies you’re considering. Review samples of their work and try to learn more about their process. If they have team bios or a blog, read them to understand how they work. Then, schedule a call to share your goals. This conversation should be a two-way dialogue to understand if your website needs are a good fit for their strengths and if their costs and processes will work for you.

Calculate the value of your site

Think about how valuable your website is to your business.

While a few businesses rely only on foot traffic or word-of-mouth referrals, nearly everyone wants to check out the website of any potential company they are considering working with. An outcome of the pandemic is that your online presence is more critical than ever.

Your website doesn’t need to be complicated. But it needs to demonstrate your quality, function flawlessly, and represent your brand.

Skimping on your website probably has a more substantial negative effect than you’ll ever realize. You can’t ever know and can’t measure all the people who didn’t consider your business because your site didn’t come up in search. Or, they took a look at your site and evaluated that your business is not very professional because of the impression they got from your site.

This cannot be expressed strongly enough. We all make judgments about a business based on its website.

The post Who Should You Hire to Create Your Website? Freelancer, Agency, Designer, or Developer? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Video transcript

There are many ways to define the word brand.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has a famous quote where he said, ‘Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.’

And you know what’s probably being said about your brand when you’re not in the room: nothing! In fact, if you’re a small business owner and you are not out there networking, making sales calls, or being active on social media, nobody is thinking about your business at all. As a small business owner, your biggest struggle is almost always finding enough customers.

So while it’s true that your brand is created by your customers’ perceptions, (eventually) you can do a lot, especially at the beginning to craft that perception. If you are a new business owner, it is absolutely up to you to actively create your brand.

The most important thing for new business owners to work on is speaking clearly about why and how their business can help others. Then, your visual identity can help make your brand messages sticky because we are all very visual people.

If you’re looking for a better quote to guide you, I prefer this:

“Your brand comes from condensing the entire tangible and intangible experience of your product or company into something recognizable. Branding is actively shaping that perception.”

The post Why Jeff Bezos is Wrong about Branding appeared first on Visible Logic.

Many problems that business owners think of as marketing problems are signs that you have a branding problem.

If you haven’t clarified your market position, making your differentiators clear to your prospects isn’t easy. If you don’t have a consistent visual identity, you need extra touchpoints to build brand recognition. 

Taking time to clarify and formalize your brand—including your visual style, tone of voice, and critical messages—is crucial to making your marketing more effective.

3 signs that your marketing problems are branding problems.

1. Poor landing page conversions on your PPC campaigns

In a pay-per-click campaign, there are many steps along the way from search to sale. If you feel confident that you have the right keywords and get traffic to your landing page, but you are not making sales, then the problem is with the landing page.

In this case, you’ve gotten all the marketing tactics right: you’ve set up a campaign focused on the right audience, you’ve discovered relevant keywords, and you’ve bid successfully. But you won’t see final conversions if your brand message doesn’t make sense.

Landing pages are like micro versions of your brand. Every weakness in your brand gets amplified when you focus it on a landing page.

If your message isn’t connecting to your audience: no clicks.

If the visual design looks unprofessional: no clicks.

If you don’t appear to be trustworthy: definitely no clicks.

Getting clear on just the right benefits to focus on and saying that clearly, succinctly, and emotionally are essential elements of compelling landing page copy. Then, putting it into a professionally designed web page will lead to a high converting landing page.

2. Your sales cycle is too long

It takes time to move a prospect through your funnel and make a sale, and poor branding will slow down that process. 

Why? It’s most likely because you lack consistency in your branding. 

It takes, on average, anywhere from 3-13 touchpoints before someone is ready to buy. The exact number depends on your industry, what you’re selling, the cost of your product or service, and other factors. 

When you move someone down your marketing funnel, your goal is to push them through the typical phases of knowing me, like me, trust me, and buy from me. 

If every interaction with your brand looks different or feels different, you’re not building up that recognition which is critical to building trust.

Make sure you use consistent colors, images, fonts, and messaging in all of your marketing efforts. It’s like greasing the sides of your funnel!

3. Your e-newsletter has poor open and click-thru rates

E-newsletters are a great way to remind customers and prospects about your business. If they opt into regular emails from you, it’s a clear indication that they are interested in your product or service.

When you’re helpful or inspiring, they want to hear from you. 

But if they sign up and then regularly delete your emails without reading them or without clicking through to buy, read more or take action, then they’ve started to diminish the value of your brand.

Once someone starts doing the auto-delete, getting them hooked again is tough. From the start, make sure every newsletter is well-designed and has valuable content.

E-newsletters are part of building a long, ongoing relationship with your business and your brand. Like everything with branding, focus on consistency, high-quality graphics, and understandable messaging.

Invest in your brand story and visual identity to reduce marketing and sales costs

Unfortunately, many businesses see branding as a one-time expense and an expenditure that they want to keep as low as possible. They are eager to move into revenue-driving activities like marketing campaigns and sales calls.

But, when you skimp on brand development, you end up spending far more than that cost because of the slow, ineffective marketing and sales activities.

The post Marketing Not Working? 3 Signs You Need to Fix Your Branding First. appeared first on Visible Logic.

You may have employees or outside vendors who contribute articles, make updates or maintain your site’s themes and plugins. One of the benefits of WordPress is that you can easily set up new users and give them the specific access they need (and nothing more).

The basics of WordPress security and access rights

Don’t share your login with others.

Create a new account for anyone who will access the admin dashboard.

But, you don’t have to give everyone the same access and privileges.

A typical WordPress website may have pages, a blog, forms, and an array of plugins all doing different functions. Now think of your editors, authors, contributors, and admins. Each user needs access to the WordPress dashboard, but access levels should vary. 

We recommend that you follow the Principle of Least Privilege.

What is the Principle of Least Privilege?

The principle of least privilege (PoLP)  was formulated by Jerome Saltzer, who stated, “Every program and every privileged user of the system should operate using the least amount of privilege necessary to complete the job.”

More simply: don’t give users access beyond what they need. Only the minimum necessary rights should be assigned. It is a cybersecurity best practice and a significant step in protecting your website.

This can apply to more than your websites, such as company files, physical assets, and more. Just as you probably wouldn’t give a new employee the keys to the CEO’s desk, you may not want to provide them with a password that grants complete access to your website.

How does the Principle of Least Privilege apply to WordPress?

Laziness often works against the principle of least privilege. It’s sometimes easiest to assign everyone the same role. No research, no back and no forth requesting more access, easy peasy, right?

Let’s get into why we shouldn’t access more than needed. 

The Admin access to WordPress has a lot of potentially dangerous power, including adding or deleting other users or deleting a site entirely. As you can imagine, giving this ability to someone who has mischievous or ill intentions could cause some severe harm to your site.

Sometimes intentions aren’t malicious. A well-intentioned but inexperienced user with admin privileges could change a theme without understanding the consequences or remove a plugin because they didn’t know it was performing an essential function on the site.  

Best Practices for setting up WordPress Users

Use WordPress roles to implement PoLP

Become familiar with what the capabilities and roles are for WordPress users. Understand what different users need to access and assign them a role that matches only up to that need, no more. 

Some plugins will allow you to assign specific privileges based on a particular user role. There are also several plugins that you can use to create new and custom WordPress roles if you aren’t finding a perfectly matched role for your needs. Conducting some research to determine privileges needed and testing can take some time to assess and discern, but it’s well worth it.

Allow for the shortest duration necessary 

Remember to scale back or remove privileges when they are no longer necessary or appropriate. Sometimes users may be granted additional access, say to complete a particular update, but it’s important to remember to revert once the work is complete. 

As an example, when troubleshooting a theme or plugin, the author may request temporary access to your site for troubleshooting. These temporary users should be removed as soon as access is no longer needed. 

Reassess frequently

If you are performing regular maintenance on your site (you should be), that may be an excellent time to review your users and determine if there are any that should be removed or have their roles adjusted.

Frequent reviews will help identify updates that need to be made. You may have an employee who was bumped up to an Editor role to post while the regular editor was out. Or check for employees who have changed jobs and should no longer have access at all. 

The post Who should have access to your website? appeared first on Visible Logic.

Every website combines design, content, and technology to bring it to life. The difference between a successful website and an ineffective site is usually because one or more of these factors has not been adequately considered.

Design

The design of a website refers to what it looks like. The colors that are used, the typography, the style and size of the images, what the navigation looks like, and how the elements are arranged on the page are all part of the site’s design. 

Like any other type of design, website design relies on many small choices to add up to the finished whole. For example, adjusting any of the following will affect the final impression of a website:

• Are the colors bright or muted, monochromatic or multi-colored?
• Do the elements feel crowded or is there lots of white space?
• What fonts are used and how big are the headings, subheads and body type?
• What is the style of any imagery—photographs, illustrations or drawings?
• What other design elements are used such as lines, color blocks, drop shadows, gradients, etc.

The design of a website affects our first impressions when we first arrive and continues as we navigate through the pages, read text, fill out forms, or more. It touches every element from the background colors, typography, buttons, and images to the footer. Design starts at the top of the page with the navigational items’ size, color, and placement.

Web design and branding

Your website should reflect your brand by using the right colors, fonts, logo files, and design elements. 

Templates and themes

When looking at website templates or themes, you usually look at the design. Whether you’ll be building your site using a build-it-yourself tool like Squarespace or Wix or selecting a pre-built theme for WordPress, you may find yourself looking at pre-made designs. 

It can be hard to adjust the design of pre-built templates to work with your brand and your vision.

Web design is not everything that goes into making a website

Design is often the first thing someone thinks about for a website. Some people use the term ‘web design’ when referring to all the facets of building a site. For example, I hear small business owners say they want to find a ‘web designer’ to create their website, and then I watch them hire a developer to build their site (with disappointing results).

Technology, development or coding

How your site is built is critical to how it functions. What platform you choose or how a developer codes your site will open up possibilities or restrict your options. Some standard website functionality includes:

• A contact form: so that people can submit an inquiry to you
• E-commerce: allowing customers to purchase items online
• A blog: that shows articles in chronological order and may allow comments
• A calendar that displays events by date
• Slideshows, interactive maps, and more

There are many other web-based applications with more robust functionality but let’s stay focused on business websites.

What platform you choose dictates whether the functionality is possible (or at least easy to do). And every platform can be made more robust with custom development.

Web building platforms

Years ago, you had to know HTML and CSS to create a website, but not anymore.

Many web-building platforms allow someone without any understanding of web development to create a website easily. The most common are Squarespace, Wix, or Shopify. These sites use templates and drag-n-drop editors, plus they include the hosting, so many small business owners can launch their website quickly without outside expertise.

Platforms such as WordPress are more complicated to set up but may offer more functionality or customization. Some people buy a theme and build their WordPress site themselves, but it is more common to use an outside developer to help you. Once WordPress is set up, you are usually focused only on updating or adding content and not adjusting the design itself. 

Advanced functions

Nearly every web building tool can display text, images, and videos and has a way to create basic forms. But some online functionality is connected to your choice of platform. 

For example, you can’t easily sell products without using an e-commerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce.

Content

The third major component of your website is the content.

Content refers to all of the text, images, videos, sounds, animations that someone experiences on your site. Most of this is text, from the most prominent headline to the tiniest bit of legal copy. The images include product photos, headshots, and other imagery that creates the design of your site. Embedded videos, sounds, or animations may also be part of your website.

Copywriting

A written copy is arguably the essential part of the content on your site.

Many people overlook the importance of the written text when building their site. They don’t consider who will write the copy and how important it is to have concise, impactful writing on a website. 

Yet, nearly all of us have experienced great messaging that drives us to take action, confusing content that gets us frustrated, or too-long copy that bores us.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Great copywriting engages your website visitors. And this exact text is also how Google and other search engines rank your site for relevant keywords.

If getting traffic through search is an integral part of your marketing strategy, you’ll need to optimize your content for search engines. This begins with researching keywords and using them on your web pages. You can’t just put the words in the metadata, and you’ll want to use your relevant keywords in your headlines, subheads, and body text.

Writing, editing, porting content

Every piece of content on your website needs to be placed on the website. While this seems obvious, the amount of work involved can be tremendous when you think about everything that’s involved.

If you have a new website or new pages created as part of a website redesign, all of the content needs to be developed. Copy needs to be written. Photos need to be chosen and placed within the design. Even deciding what fields need to show up on a form is creating new website content.

If you have an existing site that you are redesigning or rebuilding, you need to plan to move all the content from the old site to the new site. 

Great websites combine design, writing and technology

Websites are a unique challenge because you need to be thinking about all three of these areas holistically. 

Otherwise, you’ll likely be frustrated with the process or disappointed with the results.

Problems happen when you don’t consider all three 

Maybe a few of these scenarios sound familiar?

You look at a sample template or theme, and it looks great. But when you try to customize it to your business, it doesn’t look as good anymore. That’s because the design is built around different content.

You add a slideshow to your website and customize it to match your site’s design and get incredibly frustrated. This is because the functionality is built around a different design.

You decide to move from one platform to another and realize you’ll have to copy and paste all of your content manually. This is because your content is tied to your development platform.

This is why it’s so challenging for small businesses owners to consider what platform to use or what firm to work with. 

Our approach

Here at Visible Logic, we take a holistic view of building websites, which means the whole process is different. 

We start with a planning phase where we consider your goals for the site and how the design, content, and functionality will all work together.

During this discovery phase we:

• audit all current web pages and content. 
• create content outlines for new content. 
• organize the pages into sitemaps. 
• research plugins or options to build the functionality.
• consider the branding (following established brand guidelines or developing the design in conjunction with a new brand development).

During this preliminary phase, our designers, writers, and developers are each learning about your goals and contributing their research and expertise. Considering all of these aspects, we develop a plan and ultimately a website that has considered these critical aspects together.

The post Avoid Disappointment: Design, Development, and Content Will Make Your Website Successful appeared first on Visible Logic.

Some of this is just semantics, but some of it is an important strategy.

Why you should remain consistent with your brand

There is good reason to be wary of changing your brand too frequently. 

Consistency is essential in branding. It usually takes multiple touchpoints for someone to recognize and trust your brand. Once you are remembered and trustworthy, you can begin the sales process. Face it; you’re not going to make a sale if people don’t fully understand who you are, what you do, or they don’t trust you.

You may be tired of seeing the same colors and fonts, but your prospects are probably not as bored of it as you are.

Even as you work to maintain consistency, remember that all brands are constantly evolving. 

When a company locks down its visual identity with an in-depth brand standards guide, they are like a wooden pier on a beach. What’s happening around them is constantly changing while they appear entirely fixed. But likely, their brand is slowly eroding and eventually susceptible to severe damage with the right conditions.

Allowing some amount of flexibility or growth will result in a stronger brand. This is like how steel-framed skyscrapers allow some movement to prevent them from entirely breaking. 

Every strong, growing brand will go through change and enhancements over time. 

Even the lengthiest style guides can’t account for every situation. And they probably shouldn’t. 

You’ll want to use styles and formats that feel up-to-date while always keeping a connection with consistent brand standards.

For example, you may need to create a version of your logo that fits a new technology. A common issue arises when your logo is very horizontal, and then you have to make a square or round version for the profile picture on social media. 

However, there are times when you want to be more intentional about pivoting from your current brand.

Rebrand or refresh?

When you want to make a more significant change, it’s time to rebrand or at least refresh your current brand. There are many reasons for redoing your brand.

Rebranding usually means a radical departure from your current brand. It signals that something significant has changed in your business. Rebrands often include an entirely new name. 

Rebranding has risks because you’ll need to educate people about your new identity. You may lose brand equity in the process. That is why a proper rebrand is only recommended when the positive outcomes from a better-aligned brand outweigh the potential cost of the work and the loss in equity. 

BEFORE AND AFTER

A brand refresh usually means that the core pillars of your brand remain unchanged but that there are parts of your brand that need a redesign, realignment, or redo. You might need to redesign your visual identity to feel current and fresh. Or, you may need to rewrite your messaging or tagline to express what you are offering.

It’s a spectrum from refreshing to redesigning to rebranding. And it doesn’t matter what you call it. 

BEFORE AND AFTER

Successful ways to refresh or rebuild your brand

The amount of change you make should be connected to how much your current brand feels ‘off’ from where it should be. 

For example, if your business name no longer represents what you do, you probably need a completely new brand. This radical change will require a new logo, domain name for your website, registering new social media handles, and updating business listings. This expense and effort are probably worth it because having a name that misrepresents your core products or services is likely confusing prospects and limiting your business growth.

A well-executed rebranding or refresh often connects the new brand with the old one. Some successful ways to do this include:

• Redesign your logo using the same concept but refining the design.
• Redesign your logo using a new graphic symbol but keeping the old color.
• Using the old font for the new name.

Your brand is a reflection of your business. When it feels outdated, poorly designed, or off-target it isn’t easy to feel proud. It limits your growth because it’s unattractive to prospects, or your embarrassment about it is holding you back from doing the marketing you should be doing.

The post Rebrand, Refresh or Remain Steady appeared first on Visible Logic.

A contact form on your website is so basic that you may not even give it much thought. But they are often a critical piece of your website functionality.

Your contact form may be the first interaction you have with a prospect. So they should look good and work flawlessly—ensuring you receive every submission.

Why do I need a form? Why can’t I just have an email link?

You could list your email address and have people click on the link to contact you, but we don’t recommend it. 

With this setup, when someone clicks on your email address, it will open a mail client on the user’s computer. So it may launch MacMail, Outlook, or whatever tool they use to send and receive email. However, not everyone has a mail client set-up. For example, the website visitor might be using a device at a public place or having multiple email accounts, like personal vs. work. 

A form ensures they can contact you from wherever they are.

As the website owner, you can still receive the form submission as an email if that’s the easiest way to respond.

Best free WordPress contact form: Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is a free plugin that can be used for form submissions and is very popular. Its functionality is pretty simple, but this could work for you if all you need is the basics.

Pros: 

• Free. 
• Allows for CAPTCHA to help prevent spam.

Cons: 

• Doesn’t store submissions (read on for why this is important). 
• Clunky to set up since you need to use code tags. 
• No additional functionality. 
• Frequently has deliverability issues.

Please keep reading to learn why it’s worth it to upgrade your contact form.

Never lose a form submission

One of the benefits of using a more advanced WordPress contact form is that you’ll have a record of every submission. 

It’s a terrible feeling when you realize you’ve not received any form submissions for a while and check only to find that something has been misconfigured. How many potential sales did you miss? In our opinion, it’s worth the extra cost to know your submissions are being stored so nothing is ever lost.

With more advanced WordPress forms tools, all of the submissions can be found in the admin panel of your website.

Form tools have more functionality

Using a more advanced WordPress form tool also allows for better tracking. We like to set a Google Analytics goal for the thank you page that someone sees after submitting the contact form. Then you can quickly see how many submissions you are receiving as you review your website data.

When you use a form, you can also integrate it with other tools. For example, you can set it up so that everyone who submits a contact form is added to your email marketing list. Or, if you use a CRM like SalesForce or Hubspot, your contact form can integrate with that platform, and the contact form submission becomes a step in the sales funnel.

The best paid WordPress form plugin: Gravity Forms

It’s almost always worth it to upgrade from Contact Form 7 to something more robust and more reliable. Our favorite is Gravity Forms.

The most significant advantage is that all submissions are stored. This is a massive help if you want to export lists and helps ensure nothing is ever lost in a spam or junk folder. It has a drag and drop interface and a lot of optional extra functionality.

You can set up the form with conditional options, meaning they see additional follow-up questions based on someone’s answer. Gravity Forms also allows you to customize the autoresponder and the redirects. 

An autoresponder is an email that automatically gets sent when someone submits the form. For example, you can use this to immediately send someone a welcome email or a request to book an online appointment so that you don’t have to do that manually every time.

Pros: 

• Stores submissions. 
• Lots of integrations for other marketing tools, payment processing and more. 
• Easy to use and set up. 
• Allows for CAPTCHA to help prevent spam.

Cons: 

• Gravity Forms pricing starts at $59 per year (well worth the piece of mind).
• Cost for a yearly license and some add-ons need to be purchased separately. 

If you are planning to purchase a Gravity Forms license, use our affiliate link: rocketgenius.pxf.io/visiblelogic

Use your WordPress Form tool for more than just your contact form

Once you’ve invested in a paid form tool, you’ll be able to use it for more than just your contact form. Gravity Forms make it easy to set up and use forms in many different ways on your website. Some of the most common methods are:

• Create an e-newsletter signup form. Nearly every email marketing tool (like MailChimp, Hubspot, etc.) allows you to put a form on your website, but Gravity Forms makes it easier to style the form and control what happens after submission.
• Automatically send out information. Send things like white papers or catalogs to everyone who fills out your online form. Without investing in a CRM, you can build your email list by having people submit a form to request information.
• Integrating with your CRM. It’s much easier to integrate with CRMs like SalesForce or HubSpot if you use a forms tool. You can have different lead forms on your site and you can track what page the person was on when they submitted the form.

If you need help choosing the best form plugin or setting up a form, contact us, and we are happy to help. 

The post The Best Contact Form For Your WordPress Website appeared first on Visible Logic.