Whether you own your own business, advertise for others, or just want to work on the way you present yourself, it is important to be well rounded in all aspects of representing your business. Well roundedness means having a focus on marketing, advertising, and design. Check out these super quick tips divided by category to add to your wheelhouse.
1. Know your audience.
How you talk depends on who you’re talking to. Get to know your audience to know what tone and voice to use.
2. Think outside of the box.
What’s the point in working so hard if you’re not going to stand out?
3. Know your angles.
Just like you do when you’re taking pictures, your business has a “good side”. Always put that best face forward with your customers.
4. Try to say only one thing.
Think about your competitors, and use your best angle to figure out what’s the single most important thing to say about your business.
5. Set goals.
Keep up with how you’re doing by setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound) goals.
6. Do your research.
Testing your ads in small groups with the target audience will ensure that you’re delivering a message that your target will be receptive to.
7. Quality over quantity.
Only post content that you are proud of. No one wants to see something that should have been just a rough draft.
8. Include a call to action.
Use language that is exciting and relatable to your audience in order to encourage them to act.
9. Advertise in all the right places.
Research your audience and see what types of media they pay attention to, and use that as the vehicle for your message.
10. Spend money to make money.
How are you going to make money from customers if customers don’t even know about you?
11. Don’t overdo it.
Keep it simple, sweet, and to the point. A lot of the times in design, less is more.
12. Limit your typefaces.
Stick to two fonts as a beginner designer: one for the headings and one for the body copy.
13. Hierarchy is your friend.
When there’s no hierarchy, everything is competing for your viewer’s attention. We’ve even used hierarchy in this blog – check out the “Advertising” heading versus “Hierarchy is your friend” subheading versus the text in this paragraph.
14. Be consistent.
Use the same alignment (left, right, or center), same fonts, and same colors to create a cohesive look and feel.
15. Take a hike.
Get up and walk around. Sitting at that computer too long won’t do you any good and it’ll give you a fresh perspective when you get back to designing.