It’s graduation season! As thousands of young people across the country don their caps and gowns, I’d like to give some advice to all of the future marketers out there. Here are a few things to remember that have taken me years to learn. And to be honest, I am still learning.

It’s Okay to Ask for Help

There’s a pit in my stomach that forms whenever I need to ask for help. I have to remind myself that I don’t have to do it all myself. One of the wonderful things about working for an agency is that everyone has different skills. Different co-workers can pitch in on different parts of a project when needed. They can also give you advice on how to get things done.

Asking for help doesn’t mean your slacking or not taking your responsibilities seriously. It means you should thank your lucky stars that you have a team backing you. Marketing is a team sport and it works better when you work with others.

Writing Skills are Important – and Rare

At the start of my career, I took my writing skills for granted. I thought everyone can write. No big deal.

After a few more years in the workforce I learned that everyone can write but not everyone can write well. So much of marketing is writing. Or starts with writing – advertising copy, scripts, creative briefs, white papers, taglines, web copy, blog posts, social media and the list goes on. If you can hone your writing skills, you will stand out from the pack.

Stop Worrying So Much

Early in my career, I worried about so many things. I worried about finding my “niche.” It seemed like everyone in my office was good at something I wasn’t. (Which is by design, see “It’s Okay to Ask for Help” above.) I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get to where I wanted to go, which was a title with the word “director” in it.

Its understandable to worry a lot about your career, especially at the beginning of it. In my case, the only antidote that I could find to my constant worrying was time and experience. I stopped caring about having a niche when I figured out that I am interested in many things . My advice: figure out what you’re interested in and what is important to you. Develop your natural talents and stop trying to force yourself into some mold you think you need to fit into.

Your Goals Might Change

Which brings me to that “brass ring” syndrome I had for the longest time. At some point, I figured out that being the director of something was not going to make me happy. Making things, working with great people, moving fast and yes, sometimes breaking things, that makes me happy. A fancy title does not.

In sum, it’s important to think about what makes you happy and fulfilled. I know that’s easy for me to say, especially from my vantage point of having spent many years in this industry. And I know that the first few years in any career are going to feel like you’ve been thrown into the deep end.

Remember, it’s easier to float on a rising tide than to swim against it. You just have to find the right tide. So, go and catch your next wave, and see where it takes you.  

More advice for recent graduates:

• Just graduated? Here’s how to start looking for a job
• CEOs share their best advice for college graduates
• Graduating in a recession: Advice from ’08 and ’09 grads for the class of 2021

R Studio 101

You may be wondering, what is R Studio? Is it easy to learn? R Studio is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics. The overall goal of R Studio is to help you summarize and analyze data that will provide insights for making data-driven marketing decisions. While it is not initially easy, like most things, through practice and many trials you can hone your skills just as I have.

This past semester, at Baylor University, I had the pleasure of doing in-depth customer analysis through R Studio and learned how to create data visualizations and perform different statistical analyses using R codes.

Data Science

Data science is the future of business analytics, yet it is often difficult to figure out where to start. The last thing you want to do is waste time and money with the wrong tool or program. Making effective use of your time involves two pieces: 

(1) selecting the right tool for the job at hand

(2) efficiently learning how to use the tool to increase value for your business.

This blog focuses on the first part, explaining why R is the right choice in three points.

Reason One: High Return on Value

The first reason for why R may be the right tool for the job is if you are looking to use a statistical programing language that lends itself well to an extensive infrastructure of big data. R covers a wide range of topics such as econometrics, finance, and time series. R has the best-in-class tools for visualization, reporting, and interactivity, which are just as important to business as they are to science. Because of this, R is well-suited for scientists, engineers, and business professionals.

With the analysis of customer analytics through R, business professionals can:

1. Increase sales to new and existing customers.
2. Increase response rates and customer loyalty.
3. Reduce campaign costs by targeting customers most likely to respond.
4. Increase sales force effectiveness by targeting qualified prospects.
5. Reduce customer churn by accurately predicting customers most likely to leave and developing the right proactive campaigns to retain them.
6. Deliver the right message by segmenting customers more effectively and better understanding target populations.
7. Deliver higher returns on marketing and promotions investments by contacting the right customers with highly relevant offers/messages.

These all important marks for a company and can be drastically improved through R.

Reason Two: Free Open-Source Tool

When downloading R for business use, one of the greatest pros is that it is an open-source program. Therefore, it can be modified and redistributed as per the user’s need. It is great for visualization and has far more capabilities, compared to other tools like Python.

Companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, are using R programming as their core platform to make online advertising more effective. They also use R for economic forecasting and Big-Data statistical modeling. Due to the results that the ‘console’ and ‘plots’ provide in R, these big-name brands are able to make dutifully noted decisions.

Reason Three: Easy to Use

What is great about using R Studio is that once you understand the basics, you will be able to transcribe codes to more advanced stages since they have similar frameworks. Although it takes a couple tries to understand the statistical language, through failure comes success. To help create successful codes and interpretations, the RStudio Cheatsheets are a great reference guide for R syntax as well as YouTube videos.

Conclusion

Whether you use R or Python or another program, find out what your customer data strategy is and what your marketing strategy is to find that perfect balance between the two.

2021 moved consumer shopping from brick and mortar to eCommerce – most likely for good. Increased demand for online shopping turned retail into an Omnichannel experience over night. Right at the cusp of experiential retail taking over, many retailers pivoted to eCommerce. So online was the only experience in shopping last year for many. Some stores and services even stayed exclusively eCommerce for the better part of 2021 – and remain so still.

Moving a brick and mortar business to eCommerce – like a restaurant, a doctor’s office, a clothing boutique – isn’t easy, and in 2020 many retailers moved their businesses years into the future in an instant. How exactly did they do that?

Pivoting from bricks to clicks

While planning to add the services of tele-health such as video sessions and text therapy, our client Apple Counseling sped up their timeline when 2021 presented them with a situation where their services were more in demand than ever. Yet, in-person brick and mortar was not the preferred method for experiencing mental health services.

By putting the infrastructure in place to accommodate many types of digital health services, and a robust new website, Apple was able to pivot quickly from exclusively brick and mortar to ecommerce. Going forward, they’ll keep the digital services they’ve added as they open their offices back up to in-person sessions. This new hybrid model is one that is being replicated all over the world of retail.

How to incorporate brick and mortar to ecommerce into your business model

Making ecommerce part of your long-term strategy is a smart move. eMarketer estimates that ecommerce sales grew 27.6% in 2020. Start by assessing how your customers use your business. For instance, if you are a restaurant, what percentage of your business is already take-away and to-go orders? What are you doing to maximize this experience for your customers already, and how can you streamline it or plus it up to make it better? Increase your eCommerce sales by adding new ways to order like website, social, text or 3^rd party apps.

A consumer Incisiv survey  indicated that 80% of shoppers expect to continue to use contactless and curbside pickup this year. Can you repurpose part of your brick and mortar space to make it easier to fulfill your eCommerce orders? Instead of a clothing boutique, can you make your merchandise accessible on-line?

Our client GNB, a women’s clothing retailer, quickly built out website and Instagram last year to showcase her customer’s favorite brands and fulfilled orders in a new way. Now that she has opened her brick and mortar up in a new space, she is keeping the online store in place to continue to cater to the wider audience she developed when she was exclusively online.

Your Business Strategy Pivot

When you move from in-store to on-line you’ll need to perhaps rethink your business plan to accommodate a regional versus local audience. Rely on your social media analytics for demographic information to guide your choices. Cater to the right audience. Think about the yoga studios that pivoted to teaching class online, or the wineries that now offer Zoom tastings with professional sommeliers.

Your “physical” space might become an order fulfillment center, or a showroom only. Showrooms are a growing choice for retailers (like Sephora) to show off a smaller portion of their total inventory. Customers can then place their orders in the showroom. Or, return to pick them up in a few days or have them sent to their home. But the customer will have had the chance to interact with your retail brand in person to some extent.

Your New Brick and Mortar to eCommerce Product Mix

Products that factor into an eCommerce retail business versus an in-person retail business may vary. Consider shipping, logistics and storage when rethinking your product or service mix. Think about what consumers are looking for – the needs of the market. How your brand can make your customers’ lives easier in some way?

Marketing for a digital-first business

With an eCommerce-first model, more of your budget will go to digital improvements in your website, digital marketing and social media. Upgrade not just the look of your website to really give customers the feel of your brand – upgrade your SEO. Search engine optimization can help the right customers find you on search engines. Use a combination of keywords, content marketing, targeted digital marketing and social media. Optimizing how you talk about your business online can help new customers find you faster.

When your brand transitions from brick and mortar retail to eCommerce, you can reinforce your brand’s benefits with your current customers while growing a new audience online. Then the convenience of online retail opens up a whole new world of potential business. With some thoughtful strategy and a digital marketing plan, your retail business can capitalize on this trend, and you can double down on your brand smoothly and successfully moving from brick and mortar to eCommerce.

It’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy for the second half of the year. With Q1 in the rearview mirror, and thick in the midst of Q2 now is the time to plan what comes next.

Failing to plan is planning to fail

My kids hear Benjamin Franklin’s quote about planning often. They are teenage boys and the simplicity of “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” strikes a chord. In October we talked about 2021 marketing planning – and it is absolutely crazy that the second half of 2021 is right around the corner. May is the perfect time to plus-delta your marketing plan to rock Q3 and Q4.  

We wax the marketing plan lyrical often, if you want some additional reading search Marketing Plan right here on Off Your Rocker, because it is a topic we keep coming back to because it is that important. Running through your activities, business, leisure or really anything without a plan to evaluate often leads to a failure.

Who could have planned for 2020!?!

For real. If you had pandemic marketing plan – ROCK ON! Many threw out the 2020 marketing plan and went into crisis or survival mode. Is it safe to say most everyone was scrambling in the unchartered time. Now that we are well into Q2, what lessons can we learn? Should we all write pandemic marketing plans? No! Should you have crisis plan? Maybe. Should you have a stop-gap strategy at-the-ready if everything falls apart? Yes.

Plan to evaluate a pivot

It was easier for teams to pivot from a plan versus starting from scratch in 2020. Existing plans guided and grounded activity for some, for others it gave a communication channel for policy and operation updates. We were reminded of the importance of staying positive in all marketing efforts and staying true to your brand. We celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit of our network and were honored to be a part of several brand launches in the back half of 2020.

Now is the time to look at the 2021 plan to evaluate what stays in, what stops and what needs to be added. Let’s get ready for the second half and move forward with purpose and intention to flourish the rest of the year.

Seamless, sharp, and sophisticated. That is the vision that Front Porch Marketing has for you and your brand as we share why you should style your Instagram highlights.

With the right color scheme, design, and icons, you can drive more views and engagement with your Instagram bio at little to no cost.

If you are looking for a push to execute this vision and wow your audience the next time, they see your page, this is the blog for you!

The Vision

When you open up your company’s Instagram page, what is the first thing you see? Most likely, your eyes go to the colorful posts or maybe a bold profile picture with a strong branding icon, but acting as an overlooked middleman is a row of highlight icons. Currently, there may be as little as 0 or as many as 100 on your page – the sky is the limit.

Truly, the only limit that is regarded is that only up to 100 pictures can be posted within a story highlight, but highlights – much like a reel – should be seamless, sharp, and sophisticated and not fragmented, sloppy, and cluttered. Most importantly, they should be an extension of your brand’s story.  

The Highlight

Many take a lot of time and effort to create the perfect “story” to post on Instagram. Whether it includes colorful gifs, a unique poll, engaging videos, or a giveaway you are extending a vision to viewers about your brand and its values. What is disheartening about all that time and effort is that it dwindles in significance alongside the 24-hour frame that stories are set on. Plus it requires the utmost strategic thinking.

Now, with story highlight reels you are able to make the stories on your Instagram stay permanently on your profile for viewers to enjoy at any given moment. By adding this extra step to your Instagram branding strategy, you are able to strategically use a prime location on your bio and create an immediate place of engagement with users.

Step 1: Be Seamless

What is great about engagement is that you can cast the vision for what viewers see and find different ways to resonate with them. For example, aesthetics are incredibly favored amongst millennials and are a growing target market for many companies. Thus, considering aesthetics on all social media platforms allows you to connect with this audience and others like it.

To create a seamless experience for users, use highlights to promote content that can showcase your products or services, express your brand, drive traffic and market your business. If your profile has bold colors, seamlessly transition the same color palette to your story highlights while also extending a nod to your brand as a whole. If your posts have a color scheme, extend it to your highlight to establish immediate brand recognition or go with a splash of color to draw in your audience with a double look. No matter what you choose, think about your brand as a whole and embody that within your highlight story covers – the first picture that viewers see on a highlight reel.

Step 2: Be Sharp

When it comes to your story highlight covers, always use high-definition content and think “succinct” when it comes to titles. There is a 10–11 character count rule of thumb when it comes to highlight covers. The more characters you use, the higher the chance that your highlight title will end up with an ellipsis instead of the word you were trying to promote. Whether you use CTA words like “events,” “promotions,” “sales,” or “giveaways,” be consistent and above all, do not be misleading in any way.

Step 3: Be Sophisticated

Last but not least, when it comes to Instagram story highlights create a look of sophistication. By using sites like Canva, Unsplash, and/or Pinterest, there are 100’s of highlight cover designs that are pre-made and ready to go at a moments notice for you and your company. No matter if you choose icons, HD pictures, graphic designs or a color palette, always keep your brand at the forefront.

In Conclusion

First, to bring your Instagram to the next level, revamp the look of your Instagram’s aesthetics with a seamless, sharp, and sophisticated look. Second, when it comes to highlight covers think about what story you want your viewers to plug into. Third, see your platform through the viewers eyes to see which highlights you want them to engage with first.  In summary, bring the middleman to the forefront.

Chances are you have seen a post or two about what days and what times are the best for posting on social media. And in fact, they are all probably right, and probably wrong. You see, the best time and place for YOUR social media is totally dependent upon your followers.

Short Cuts to an Optimal Social Media Time and Place Posting Schedule

What people want is a quick fix to their social media. A set-it-and-forget it system that they can follow that requires the least amount of work. But social media is not a broadcast channel like television, radio, or a print ad. Social media is supposed to be SOCIAL. Your social media channels are the place where you can actually have one-on-one conversations with people who love your brand already. How do you know they love you already? They’ve chosen to follow you, haven’t they? So talk with them when they are sitting there ready to have that conversation.

Sure, there are general guidelines for posting on social media channels, many of which have to do with putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for a moment. When are people most likely scrolling thru Instagram? What are people doing on their lunch break besides eating? (hint: scrolling thru Instagram) What’s the last thing that people do before they go to sleep at night, while they’re laying in bed? (another hint: scrolling thru Instagram) You get the picture. So how do you determine what social media channels and times are the best for your brand? When can you maximize a conversation with your followers going forward? The short answer is “the past”.

The Right Channel for Your Social Media

Each social media platform has a specific and different purpose. By offering a little bit different perspective and content on each channel of social media (instead of using the channels to broadcast like a tv or radio station) a company can show their many sides and offer a more nuanced look at their company, much like you would develop a friendship with a real person and grow to appreciate the many facets of their personality. So after you’ve given your social media channels a spring cleaning, start looking at your analytics.

Social Media Analytics

Every platform you post on for your brand has some form of analytics. You can see a surprising amount of information about your followers in the insights part of your dashboard, whatever the platform. One of the most valuable pieces of information in there is when your followers are on the platform. Start there. Your followers might be the breakfast crowd, in which case 6:15 – 8:30am is a good time for you. Maybe your followers are night owls in which case, program your posts (or manually post them) after 9:00pm.

With 63% of American users checking Instagram at least once a day, and 74% of American users checking Facebook once a day – according to Hootsuite – , you’re sure to find at least one and probably more than one heavy use time in your follower insights.

Scheduling platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer and Planoly make it even easier – they look at the analytics of your followers and tell you the best times to post without the research. Taking advantage of these low-cost automation platforms can save you valuable time, so you can concentrate your efforts on content creation.

Past Performance

Look at your social media feed on any channel as an indicator of what to post in the future. Which posts did well? What type of content got the most likes or comments? Do more of that. Look to your past performance to guide your future endeavors.

What are your competitors doing?

Competitive research is not just for branding and creative. Take a look at what your competitors are posting – what, when and where – when you’re setting up your optimal schedule. Look for patterns in not just your own feed, but in the similar feeds of your competitors and do more of what they are doing the best.

Post, Rinse, Repeat

Testing your content in different forms and at different times will also provide key insights when scheduling the best times and places for your social media as part of your content marketing plan. There is no one-size-fits-all best time solution that will fit every grand, as your brand’s best time and best platform are just as unique as your branding.

With a little effort upfront, you can glean insights into your audience that will not only increase your engagement, but actually help your followers even more. They have questions they want answered and you have the answer – so use the information that is readily available and answer that question sooner.

The Clean Up 

Spring cleaning comes in many forms but have you extended it to your social media? Although this sounds like an odd notion, tidying up your social media ensures that your online platforms are building up daily engagement and generating leads. 

When you don’t pay attention to your social pages, your platforms become dated – something that should always be a priority to avoid. 

By focusing on these five points in your social media, you can make sure to revamp your social presence, renew your look, and refocus your brand strategy.

The Logo

When it comes to spring cleaning, start out with the basics. Your logo! Are your colors dated? Should you go brighter? Bolder? Is your logo still considered modern? These are all questions you should ask yourself to make sure that your company is putting their best foot forward and aligning with today’s day and age. 

The Header 

The header is one of the first things that your viewers will see when they come to Facebook and LinkedIn! When you look at it, ask yourself if the picture is…

1. High quality? 
2. Modern or dated? 
3. Reflecting the season your company is in? 
4. Updated with the awards and certificates your company has gotten throughout the year? 
5. Used across all platforms? 

Once these questions are answered, your social media strategy is that much closer to being polished.

The Bio

The bio for your company may be short and sweet or long and informative but is it as updated as possible? Are there new hashtags you want to include that are easily found? Are there any typos you may have missed the first time you wrote it? 

No matter how fantastic your bio may be, the smallest writing error can cast doubt about your capabilities to be detail-oriented. This is a mistake you never want to have reflected in your platforms.

The Feed

When it comes to your feed you want to make sure that it is an extension of your latest brand strategy. If your brand is bold then extend that message through bold colors, sharp photos, and succinct captions. If your brand is playful then extend your brand through bright colors, whimsical photos, and emojis. 

Now that you know what you want your feed to look like, look at it from a grander scale.

Do the last posts reflect a past brand strategy? Do you want that to be the first thing that viewers note? Or do you have a new brand strategy that you want to promote and want that to be the focal point? 

Whatever the case, you will want the most current brand strategy to be noticeable at first glance. Take the time to see your company from the eyes of your viewers.

The Website

When your customers look for your website, are they able to find it easily? If not, you may need to revamp and renew the list of keywords that is used for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on each page.

By using the most up-to-date keywords, you’re able to make sure that your site is found in an easy manner. Decreasing the level of friction for customers to be able to locate your website and find the information they are looking for is important because it can be the difference of gaining or losing a lead. 

You’ll also want to make sure that all the tweaks that you make on your social media platforms are extended to your site. If you made the colors brighter on your logo, extend that color palette to your site. If you modernized your feed, make sure that your photos and messaging on your site reflect that change. For every action there will always be a reaction.

The Conclusion

No matter how big or small your spring cleaning is, always keep your brand at the forefront. Taking the time to be detail-oriented, using these focal points, and putting your brand first is sure to create a springtime glow for you and your company.

Remote work happens and has before 2020. Newsflash!

The pandemic made it essential. Corporate offices closed. ODL. Now what are we going to do?

Many were unsettled.

Front Porch Marketing didn’t miss a beat.

Going back to 2011 when our company was founded, I was inspired by a business leader who started her business on a virtual model years prior. They still are rocking remote work and a “galactic headquarters.” F yer I. Successful companies have been using this model for years and years.

Companies functioned virtually decades before 2020. Really? Yes, friends, yes, they did.

Many questions were asked in 2020:
• Team engagement. How can we function as a team without our myriad of useless meetings?
• New business development. How would I do new biz development if not meeting one-on-one? Talk to your business partners. Existing clients, associations, affiliations, time to find new connections via LinkedIn.
• Meetings. We must be in person and spend an hour at least pontificating all the thing. Nope. No, you do not.
• Client relationships. How can we nurture them if they aren’t in person? Pick up the phone.

5 key reasons, and there are more, remote work works

• It is more efficient. Less time spent commuting, more working.
• Remote work is flexible. Choose the hours you work. Throw in a load of laundry between emails. It is important to remember, however, you don’t always have to be “on.” Walk away from the computer light, Carol Ann.
• Enhances the work horizon. Our team is all over North Texas and Colorado and and and which means we can benefit from being a part of many communities and have access to top talent anywhere.
• Business development happens. Less disruptions, more focus. Biz dev doesn’t have to be face to face. Utilize your resources. Resourceful people find new ways to make shit happen so their businesses thrive.
• Saves money. Eliminates the unnecessary things. I pay my mortgage only, not rent for an office and its utilities too. Only one cleaning service. Less tax burden.

How we work impacts everything from our satisfaction to the broader economy. Speaking of broader economy, we are seeing wide reaching benefits from the pandemic. More small business owners are open to working with agencies that aren’t in their own backyards.

I will save the story of the business referral someone gave to a rocking business owner in California that recently led to our newest client relationship.

We aren’t “remaking work.” Remote work is how we have worked for 10 years. We focus on doing great work with people we love for people we love while taking care of our loves.

The Pinnacle Moment

If you had to think of a pinnacle moment with the C.E.O.S. in your life, what does that look like?

Does it center around an act of kindness that was fueled by previously voicing a need? Providing a spectacular purchasing process because you answered all of the customer’s questions? Or simply, being affirmed by a team leader for a job well done?

Through each of these experiences, the space to have a conversation was created.

The Pinnacle Question

Celeste Headlee, award-winning journalist, professional speaker and best-selling author of We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, is notorious for creating these spaces with people and raises an important question in 2016 that is still relevant today.

 “Is there any 21^st century skill more important than being able to sustain coherent, confident conversation?”

To put it simply, no.

Headlee believes that in order to hone this skill people need to engage in “honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening.”

Yet, sadly, this skill has been greatly inhibited by a highly polarized culture. One that is constantly driven by the need to speak with the intent to be heard instead of speaking with the intent to listen.

This egotistic intent, where the focus is on oneself instead of others, has created an unbalance that Headlee hopes to restore to balance.

“A conversation requires a balance between talking and listening, and somewhere along the way, we lost that balance.”

This unbalanced, polarized culture is fueled by the most trivial of issues from politics to entertainment. Nowadays people are so passionate for or against a side that the idea of compromise has become pointless to them.

“Pew Research did a study of 10,000 American adults, and they found that at this moment, we are more polarized, we are more divided, than we ever have been in history.”

Although this study seems daunting and irrevocable, Headlee’s decades of professional speaking experience allowed her to create a framework that will help renew the balance and bring people back to the roots of speaking with the intent to listen.

Headlee’s 10 ways to have a better conversation:

1: Don’t multitask. Be present.

2: Don’t pontificate. Enter each conversation with the assumption that you have something to learn.

3: Use open-ended questions. Find out the five W’s: Who? What? Where? When? Why?

4: Go with the flow.

5: If you don’t know, say that you don’t know.

6: Don’t equate your experience with the other person’s experience. All experiences are individual.

7: Try not to repeat yourself.

8: Stay out of the weeds. Focus on the root of the story not the trivial points.

9: Listen.

10: Be brief.

Although 10 rules seems like a lot to remember, Headlee states that if a person takes the time to master even one of these rules that they will be skilled enough to create a space to enjoy better conversations with coworkers, friends, and team members.

Conclusion

Whether you use one or more of these rules, Headlee’s TED Talk boils down to this, “Go out, talk to people, listen to people, and, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.”

I am truly amazed each day by the people in my life and grateful for the conversations that have made me into the person I am today.

My hope for you, is that this framework will help you flourish in your day to day conversations with the C.E.O.S. in your life and encourage growth in your soft skills.

Go out and do great things!

Bio on Headlee

Celeste Headlee, the speaker of this TED Talk, “10 ways to have a better conversation,” has over 20 million total views to date. Celeste’s work and insights are featured on TODAY, Psychology Today, Inc., NPR, Time, Essence, Elle, BuzzFeed, Salon, Parade, and many more. She has presented to over 100 companies, conferences and universities including Apple, Google, United Airlines, Duke University, Chobani and ESPN, and received the 2019 Media Changemaker Award, (celesteheadlee.com).

There comes a time in every company’s life when their logo might need a little freshening up. Maybe it looks dated. Or it no longer reflects your company. Maybe your logo looked great on your original product, but it no longer works for what you manufacture now.

Take a page from logo makeovers past and ask yourself, “What does your logo communicate now?”

Your Logo No Longer Works with Your Products

Imagine pairing Apple’s first iteration of their iconic apple-shaped logo, the rainbow-striped apple, with the first-generation iMac. The iMac debuted in 1998 and was a colorful departure from the standard boxy, beige and gray computers of the time. If Apple stuck with their rainbow-striped logo, the result would have been a product that looked more like a child’s toy than a high-tech computer.

Does your logo “play well” with your existing products? If not, it might be time to thank it for its service and toss out the elements of your logo that no longer work for you.

Your Logo Looks Dated – Burger King Edition

All design reflects its time and if your logo reflects the last century, then perhaps it’s time to give your logo a second look.

Let’s take a look at the recent Burger King rebrand. Their logo was designed in 1999 and it looks like it. Their old logo reminds me of ‘90s sports team logos – modern, lots of dynamic movement and some sharp edges. You know, everything you want in your food. 🤷‍♀️

Their new logo is simpler, puts the burger front and center and it looks friendlier. Plus, it looks great on a small screen. Brands must think about where their logo is going to live and if that logo doesn’t look good blown up on a billboard or shrunk down to the size of an app icon, then it might be time for a change.

Your Logo Looks Dated and it No Longer Works with Your Products – Instagram Edition

Remember when app icons used to be skeuomorphic? That is, they were designed to look like the thing they represent. i.e. The recycling bin icon on your desktop that looks like an actual recycling bin. Software designers used skeuomorphism as a shorthand way to get people acclimated to using computers and other digital devices. Picture what the old iPhone icons and interface used to look like – if you wanted to look at your contacts, you tapped on the icon that looked like an address book. When you opened your notes, the screen looked like a yellow notepad.  

But there are times when skeuomorphic design can go off the rails a little. What happens when users no longer use the things these icons are meant to represent? Exhibit A, the “Save” icon in Word – it looks like a disk that I used to tote around in high school.  How are users supposed to know to click on that icon to save their document? Answer: users just learn over time that’s what you need to click on, but I wouldn’t call that very user-friendly or intuitive.

Skeuomorphic design can also look messy and cluttered. Users could see more of their contacts if the interface did not look like a literal address book

There is a reason why app icons became more and more “flat” and minimalist over time – its easier to see them on a mobile device. Which brings me to Instagram.

In 2016, Instagram changed their logo from an icon that looked reminiscent of an old Polaroid camera to what it is today, a minimalist representation of a camera with a colorful gradient background. And the internet, of course, had some thoughts:

“The new Instagram logo looks like a rejected starburst flavor.”

@trecoast

Okay, so the new logo was not universally loved. But, in the end, things turned out alright for Instagram. One, because its Instagram, a photo-taking juggernaut of an app that managed to tap into humanity’s need to take selfies and shill vitamin gummies. And, because their new logo:

Made them stand out from the rest of the apps on your phone.

Have you ever noticed that a lot of app icons are blue? Don’t believe me? Take a look at this:

Gave them a unifying design language they could use across their app, creating a better user-experience.

Instead of making each function of the app a literal representation, i.e. a boomerang icon in the shape of a boomerang, they could now be designed to represent their use. Which is why the boomerang function in Instagram looks like an infinity symbol because it replays a short video over and over again. A good logo gives a company different ways to talk about itself visually.

A bad logo can limit a company’s design choices. For instance, if your company’s logo features a gradient, its going to be difficult to embroider that logo on a shirt. If you can’t reverse your logo i.e. it looks the same in black-on-white as it does in white-on-black, then that really limits your design options.

You might find that you can only put your logo on a light background. Which isn’t the end of the world. But if you want to put your logo on say, a photo of a manufacturing facility in motion, then that photo had better be light and bright or it will get lost in the darkness.

Plays well in all sorts of uses.

For example, if you want people to use your app, it would be best to create a simple logo that can be slapped onto a flier, a business card, a website etc, and still look good. Imagine if Instagram still used their old logo and how that little brown polaroid would look on a business card or the bottom of a flier. Which is easier to for the average person to identify, that camera or the “rejected starburst flavor?”

Most companies do not fail or succeed based on their logo. Quality design is an investment, one that you might not have the resources for right now. But a logo can communicate more to your customers than a thousand commercials ever will.

What does your logo communicate to your current and potential customers? Is that the message you want to send? Or is it time for a refresh?