Ever hear of the sayings:

“Species that don’t change, die”
~Author unknown (If you like to think that Charles Darwin said this that’s fine with me)

“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
— C.S. Lewis

So what’s so great about being comfortable…it’s enjoyable for a time and then it’s time to get back to work.

Read why good design won’t make you comfortable…click here

• Create content that offers helpful tips, useful tricks and/or interesting facts.
• Check out your successful competitors and try to one-up what they’re doing.
• Be sincere in the help and expertise you’re offering, if money is your only bottom-line it will become painfully obvious and turn people off.
• It takes time. Information on the internet seems to happen instantly but it still takes time, don’t give up on improving your website and generating new content it will pay off in the long-run.

What the customer doesn’t want:

1. Hard to read labels
2. Information in different places
3. Rx number emphasized even though not the most important info for patient on day-to-day basis
4. Hard to read directions
5. Informational form separate from medication
6. No functional reason for bottle dissimilarity.
7. Easy to confuse spouses medication with your own.

A Design with the Customer in Mind:

Following excerpt is from Small Business Canada

You need to develop your target market as specifically as possible if you’re going to market your product or service effectively. So think of your “ideal” client or customer as a person. Visualize him or her in detail. “See” what he or she does, thinks, and wants.

If you can’t visualize this person clearly and distinctly, then you need to research your potential customer or client until you can. Because until you can define your target market, you won’t be able to make the decisions that need to be made about marketing, such as how, where, and when to advertise.

Creating a successful brand (how a company reflects its value and culture both externally and internally) involves 7 factors.

1. Quality
2. Positioning
3. Repositioning
4. Communications
5. First-mover advantage
6. Long term perspective
7. Internal Marketing

Click here for more details on the 7 factors to building brand value.

“The most common misunderstanding I encounter has to do with the perception of clients. I’d say 90% of the clients I’ve dealt with underestimate the amount of work that making a website will be on their end. Paying a designer to make them a website isn’t enough; the entire design depends on what content and message they wish to convey, and most of them don’t realize how much thought they need to put into that. It’s amazing to think that you can wait three weeks for a single paragraph of text from a client for their home page, but it happens regularly.”

Our point of view: This quote is true more often than not. When you’re creating a website for your business the content is just as important as the packaging. At Emphasis you’re not only utilising graphic design expertise you also gain a co-author and marketing partner. We know what needs to be in the content and how to deliver it, we will work alongside you to make sure that it doesn’t take ‘3 weeks’ to create a paragraph for your home page.

Your gift has double the impact

Haiti’s foundation continues to shake. After a large 6.1 aftershock hit Port-au-Prince on Wednesday, January 20, we received an urgent message from our Canadian GAiN staff in Haiti.

“People in the area where we are staying are all outside of their homes again, if they are still standing. People are talking loudly, some crying,” writes Bill Blaney, director of GAiN Canada, in an email Wednesday morning. “After spending the past 5 days seeing, feeling and smelling the destruction and massive loss of life from the earthquake just over one week ago, I am deeply moved.” Learn More >>

I found this article on www.marketingcharts.com  summarizing the results from some recent polls done on small businesses and their web presence. It seems that less than half of small businesses have a website, this comes despite the fact the 39% of those who use the web to find local businesses usually can’t find the specific business they were looking for and usually end up settling for another business with a stronger online presence. Still don’t think a website is important to get found? Keep reading…

Small Business Web Presence is Low

Despite the growing use of online media for local searches, small businesses owners – when compared with the general population – are slightly behind the curve in terms of online media usage. Some 41% report turning to online search engines first, and 31% turn to Yellow pages directories first. Moreover, small businesses are also behind the curve in terms of their web presence. Only 44% of small businesses have a website.

This disparity, according to Webvisible, clearly illustrates the reasons why consumers have difficulty finding small business information. Many consumers report that they have struggled to recall the name of a business in their area or wish to quickly check the website for store hours, directions or a phone number, Webvisible said. However, when using a search engine to find a business they know exists, only 19% of survey respondents report never or rarely encountering trouble locating that business online and 39% say they routinely have difficulty.

Small Businesses Not Satisfied with Web Presence

Though less than half of small businesses do have a website, the ones that do are not necessarily seeking to get traffic to it, and are not happy overall with their online marketing. Among those small businesses that have a website:

• 51% believe both the quality and ability of their site to acquire new customers is only “fair” or “poor.”
• 30% of business owners feel that they typically do a better job of marketing than a close competitor.
• 78% believe they advertise in the same places as their competitors.
• Only 7% of small business owners say their primary marketing goal is to get more visitors to their website.
• 61% spend less than three hours a week marketing their website.
• 99% of small business owners are directly involved in the marketing.
• 65% believe it is very important to know where their customers come from.
• Only 9% are satisfied with their online marketing efforts.
• 78% of small business owners dedicate 10% or less of their budget to marketing. Of those, half spend less than 10% of their marketing budget on internet advertising, while 30% do no Internet advertising.

Narrowing the Divide – Small Businesses Making Gains in Internet Marketing

Though small businesses are behind the curve in terms of online media, the situation is improving, the survey found. As consumers continue to seek the businesses that they want to purchase from, they are forcing classic forms of push marketing to gradually fade. As the consumer audience moves to the web and search engines in particular, local businesses are making moves in their online marketing efforts. A look at the last two years shows that local businesses are closing the gap and beginning to advertise where consumers are looking, though the divide remains significant:

• Search engines are now the #1 resource for small business owners looking for local products or services.
• 69% of small business owners use search engines to find local businesses more often than they did two years ago. And 84% know what a “sponsored link” advertisement is.
• Over the past two years, 43% of small businesses say they have increased use of search engines in their marketing efforts. In contrast, use of traditional small business advertising mediums is on the decline:
  •  23% say they use the Yellow pages less
  • 42% say they use the local newspaper less
• New advertising mediums such as video, SMS, e-mail, and mobile devices are showing steep increases over two years ago among small groups of early adopters.

About the survey: WebVisible, Inc. in partnership with Nielsen Online, asked 2,159 US internet users, including 261 small business owners, how they were influenced by local business advertising. Data was fine-tuned by Nielsen Online’s weighting procedures to ensure maximum accuracy in reporting. Responses were gathered from randomly selected individuals in the Nielsen Online MegaPanel in October 2008.

For the purpose of this survey, the term “local business” refers to any retail business in a respondent’s local area, including restaurants, entertainment venues, places of recreation, etc. and services such as plumbers or accountants. The term “Internet Yellow Pages” refers to online Yellow Pages websites such as yellowpages.com, judysbook.com, superpages.com, etc

Taken from ‘Great Divide’ Separates Small Biz, Online Consumers” to see full article click here.

Just starting out or starting over?

Starting your own business is a daunting task, let’s face it you’re saying good-bye to a steady pay cheque and facing a world of uncertainty…but you’re also entering into a place where you can explore your creative abilities without someone standing over your shoulder. Also, you get to experience the thrill of risk…we’re living in a time where most people are looking for stability and comfort and they’re willing to sacrifice spontaneity, excitement and greatness for that matter.

However, you don’t want to leap without looking, by doing the proper market research you can decrease risks and common pitfalls. So where do you begin? Below are some tips and resources that will get you started in the right direction.

1. Two Types of Market Research:

• Primary Research: Create your own questionnaires and find out what you need to know from focus groups. This is very specific, detailed information and is time-consuming and labour intensive.
• Secondary Research:  Here you compile research that has already been done by someone else. These results aren’t as specific as you would want them but you will save time and money.

    2. Your Target Market: Who Are They?

A target market is a group of people that share certain common characteristics such as age, income, education, lifestyle, and values, among others, and that are most likely to buy your product or service. When you think of your target market, you should concentrate on the characteristics for the majority of your customers, but not all of your customers. Once you’ve defined a target market find out where they are, use the resources available to you. For instance the local, provincial, and federal governments have excellent sources of demographic information. Check-out the B.C. government publishes Neighbourhood Income and Demographics and BizMapBC puts out Neighbourhood and Commercial Profiles.

   3. Your Competition:

Researching your competition will help you in three key ways; you will find out what not to do, you will find out what works and you will get an idea of how to differentiate yourself from the rest. 

   4. Industry Trends:

You need to be aware of the current and the long-term trends that could impact your business. Visit online sources such as Springwise or Trendhunter to research industry and societal trends. You can also search licensed periodical indexes for relevant magazines and newspaper articles. Your local city hall’s planning department can provide information regarding density and future developments.

These tips should give you an idea of the amount of work you’re in for, and remember measure twice cut once, meaning the more preliminary work you do will help minimize mistakes and set-backs. Also, check out Small Business BC to help you stay on top of current events in the world of small business.

Main Site: www.emphasisdesigns.ca