In my time as a web designer/developer/marketer, I’ve seen many businesses who use Google Adwords as the foundation for their online sales and/or lead-generation.  And why not?  Advertising is advertising isn’t it?  You pay someone for exposure to a market, which brings you leads, then you convert those leads for your own business profit.

But in today’s digital market place, automation and commoditization of ad placement has created the perfect-storm for facilitating an on-going addiction for short-term marketing bumps, often leaving ad-junkies with minimal gains, lighter pockets, and the need to spend more. Pay-Per-Click: In my personal view, it’s an epidemic of sorts.

The reason these businesses use Adwords as their primary (or only) means of web marketing, is because they plainly just didn’t know any better. They knew when it came to the web and marketing their business, Google was it.  But upon scratching the surface of why Google itself is even relevant, they found it: pay-per-click.  A ridiculously simple way to start advertising then and there. Google probably even gave them a taste for free. Right away, they were hooked.

They spent the next several months strategizing, pouring over statistics and click-analytics. They tested increases in allocations of marketing dollars in one keyword area, then tried another. They increased their dosage to see what would happen. Often times it produced a rush. They strung out their marketing budgets — knowing they’d find the perfect combination — bringing lead-bliss. But they were already blinded by the empty seduction of the click. The minute they stop paying: they have nothing.

Without a doubt, Google is the holy grail of internet marketing. But it’s important to ask yourself: how did this come to be in the first place? When you start to answer that question, you’re taking the first step towards recovery.

Google is the 117th biggest company in the US (by annual revenue; at the writing of this article), and 98% of their money made is on advertising. Now for the irony: the main offering that originally made Google the the brand that dominates web search, and still keeps them above and beyond all others today, earns them absolutely nothing. That’s right, I said nothing. Zero.

I am of course talking about Google’s search engine. The incomprehensible masterwork of language and mathematics, that finds what we’re looking for amongst billions of interconnected documents on the world wide web. In the main results of your search, you’ll find hundreds of listings, none of which paid Google a single cent to be listed there.

Of course, strategically mingled in, are the listings that advertisers paid for –but they are clearly marked: “Sponsored Links”.  These sponsored links live in 2 spots: in the smaller right hand column of Google’s results page, and at the very top, highlighted in yellow.

Now, this distinction is important.  Google needs to not only disclose that those listings were paid for, but visually divide them from the other non-paid listings.  Why? The answer is simple: credentials. Google’s search engine isn’t the most used by chance. It’s used the most because it’s the best.  If you were considered the best at making recommendations to your friends, wouldn’t your credentials suffer a hit if they suddenly found out that you were being paid to make certain recommendations to them? Even if only a small portion of the recommendations you were making were paid for –the majority of them were legitimate, but the paid ones where hidden within the others– It wouldn’t be good for your reputation.

Google, of course, knew this.  And as a search engine, credentials are your most prized asset.  Google’s credentials as the search engine that finds the most relevant results for our searches didn’t come lightly.  Millions of dollars have been poured into the technology that makes this possible.  So why would Google allow their precious technology that finds these results to be marred by bribery?  They wouldn’t.  And not only that, but they also don’t want people to be confused about which links were produced by their search technology, and which were the result of simple paid-placement. So they label them.

Well let’s be honest. Does Google care if you accidentally think a paid listing is an un-paid one, and click it? Of course they don’t.  Those are the links that they make money on, every time they are clicked. But in the interest of protecting their reputation for a superior search, they do want to disclose this –and make cues that hint this– accessible to everyone.

Currently, there’s probably decent amount of people who use Google, and don’t internally acknowledge the difference between paid and non-paid listings. But as the savvy of internet users is on the rise, the understanding of this point is surely following. Even Google themselves are training users to disregard their own advertisements, in some respects. Gmail, a widely popular webmail client and frequent ‘Top 10 Used Internet Site’ in itself (Google Search typically ranks #1), also displays ‘Sponsored Links’ in the same primary location as paid links in it’s search results. As millions of users (and growing) use gmail many times a day, they are being classically conditioned where to look for primary content, and where advertising exists that they can promptly disregard.

So, I’m saying Adwords is useless?  No. Pay-per-click advertising still holds it’s place in a broad strategy of internet marketing. But if you’re relying on Adwords as your primary channel for lead-generation on the web, well, I’d argue that you have a problem. Your online marketing strategy isn’t healthy. If there were “Marketing Food Groups”,  then your business would be trying to survive solely on candy. You wouldn’t do that to your body, so why do it to your company?

So what else is there?

OK, so you want to break the habit. You want to develop a healthy presence on the web. You want Google to look at your website and display it in search results because it’s a great site -pertaining to the user’s search, not because you’ve paid them for a hit. Once you get into Google’s main search results, maintaining and even enhancing your position just takes a small amount of additional effort over time. Do nothing, and it still could even take months for your presence to fade. That’s because it’s healthy.

Step one for building a healthy presence on the web is by having clean, standards-based,  HTML.  Your code itself should make sense, and enhance your topic. Developers call it “semantic-markup”……  You can even boost up certain parts of your site by including additional signifiers inside the code that explain important elements. Think of it as vitamins for your website, to make it stronger.  Aside from meta tags, there’s hundreds of ways to enhance your code (the right way).  This isn’t always the place for people who don’t know what they’re doing ‘under the hood’.  It might be best to hire a standards-compliant web developer to straighten your site out.

Step two: write good, meaningful content.  Google’s checked out your code and determined you look good. Now it reads through your content to determine if you’re genuine, if you’re shifty, or if you’re just a raving looney.  Google is a pretty damn good judgement of this, so be true with your content, and be thorough.

Don’t try and trick Google in either of the two capacities mentioned. If you have a strategy that is in any way based on deception, you’re looking to fail. You aren’t as smart as the nerds at Google, and even if you get some positive results from your attempts, they’ll eventually nail you.

And finally step three: work on the presence of your business on the world wide web away from your website. If you want Google to determine that your site is of the highest relevance, you want referrals. On the web, a referral is simply a link to your website that is housed by another website. Not all referrals are the same, however. Google considers a referral from a popular site to be worth more. The content of the linking site has relevance too. If you are linked from a popular site that is relevant to your subject this is valued more in Google’s all-seeing eye.

Lastly: Keep your AdWords account, and use it. I’d probably recommend dialing back you expenditures if they’re too much. Personally, I wouldn’t spend more then 30% of my web-marketing budget* on AdWords. (* Specifically, money budgeted for marketing efforts on the web only) Don’t have a web-marketing budget? I’d seriously consider allocating a portion of your overall marketing budget to the web. (I think it’s here to stay) Don’t have a marketing budget? You have bigger problems.

1. Having the position that your website is an all-inclusive marketing strategy.

Sometimes I feel like clients starting a website project think it’s going to ‘rain customers’ once they get their site up, and they won’t have to do any other marketing. The internet is a great tool in your marketing and promotional toolbox. But it should not be your only tool.

Sure, there’s Google. And there’s people out their searching for your products and services at this very moment. Part of your strategy should be to isolate and attract those people. But it shouldn’t be your entire strategy. One of the things that makes a website highly useful as a sales and marketing tool, is it’s ability to compliment other forms of marketing. Whether it be direct mail, advertising, directory listings or good old fashion pounding the pavement & handing out business cards, your website can be an assisting entity in supplying additional information, and giving your leads a direct and easily executable call-to-action.

Bottom line: I think as general rule, when projecting the contribution your website will make in your overall marketing plan, take the percentage of business you’d like to be generated from your website that is realistic, then cut it in half. Once you’ve done that, determine how you’ll fill that void with other marketing efforts. This serves a dual purpose: [1] You will have a conservative, safe projection for your business that will give you an idea about viability of your plan. And, [2] It insures that you won’t be lazy about your marketing. By forcing your self to fill your strategy with additional channels of promotion and marketing, your potential clients procured and retained will increase.

2. Assuming that users will “play around” on your site for enjoyment.

You love your business. It truly interests you. Why else would you do it in the first place? It seems like a good idea to create interactive multimedia, extensive image galleries, games and more – to create a level of awareness and appreciation in visitors – that your business deserves. Unfortunately, your clients and customers won’t show that kind of intricate interest. They’ve come to your site, because they need something. And since there’s hundreds of options to look for what they need besides your site, they need to find it, and obtain the information quick.

Bottom line: OK, this is kind of harsh. It’s not that no one will spend extended time on your site. But it’s safer to assume that a vast, vast majority will not (And Probably truer too). That way your site and content is streamlined for the quick-fix, and you can add additional layers for those who click around looking for extra goodies.

3. Thinking that the written content on your website isn’t important.

It’s surprising how much I come across this. The client wants a website. They have lofty expectations for the way it should look. Yet, they haven’t made a single consideration for what the site will say on it.

“People don’t read website copy.” Is a mantra I’ve heard. It’s one I won’t outrightly disagree with. It’s true, in general, web surfers rarely read in detail. But not all “surfers” are potential customers, and potential customers do read content. Not to mention Google, who could read (and index) your content weekly.

Bottom line: Your content is important. Write it like every sale depends on it. Keep it simple. Use keywords, but don’t over do it.

4. Making decisions on design, user experience, and content positioning – based solely on the way the site looks on your one machine, in your one browser of choice.

If you use IE 5, and demand that the site looks good when you look at it, then fine. That can be arranged. Of course it’ll cost more, and the returns you’ll actually get are insignificant. Because guess what? Did you know there’s an IE 6? Wait –did you know there’s an IE 7? …And actually… Did you know there’s an IE 8? I won’t even mention Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and other browsers. But they all display websites (sometimes drastically) different, and they’re all more popular then your precious 10-year old browser.

What’s my point? Even if you aren’t behind the times with your browser of choice, and for the sake of argument lets say you happen to use the most popular browser out there. More then Half of the people who visit your site still use a different browser then you. And that number is growing. Add to that the fact that everyone has different screen sizes, and some maximize browser windows while others keep them smaller.

Bottom line: Your web designers/developers should be looking at your website in multiple browsers and multiple operating systems. And when they design and create your site, they generally should be making considerations for low-common denominators. Trust them. They might not be able to see your screen, but they have a better idea of what’s on everybody else’s then you do.

5. Losing sight of the value your website can perpetuate, and selling the development short (or long).

I’ve been in the web design/development game for several years now, and along the way I’ve learned about sites that clients paid too much for. I’ve also dealt with clients who couldn’t find the value in building a website at the cost I estimated.

The only thing that matters of course, is the value perceived by the client. Unfortunately, many times, a business owner doesn’t really understand the full implications of value that a website has. In fact, sometimes they only want to have a website because “It’s something every company needs to do.”

Bullshit. (Pardon my lack of professionalism – there’s no other way to convey my feelings on this.) If you can’t think of a specific reason why a website would serve a benefit to your company, don’t build one at all. Of course, it’s pretty easy to come up with basic reasons. For example, you might just want to have your phone number listed on the web so people can call you. If that was it –if that was all you really wanted, the development costs of such a site would be very, very low. And in comparison, the value per cost would be very high, since, compared to being listed in a phone directory, it’d be a fraction of the cost. It’s when more an more parts of a site get added to form a large composite, the recognition of value starts to get blurry.

Bottom line: Evaluate all aspects of what you want your site to do and be. Understand the implications of cost for each component and weigh that against the value you see in it. If you don’t understand the value, ask the developer to explain it. If he can’t sell you on a reason to include a specific detail, trash it.

And why should they? People type in what they need to find in Google, and what comes up is proof enough that the system is working. But if you’re a business owner with a website or you have your own personal site and you’d like to get listed into Google, the concept of ‘indexing’ is one you should understand. Perhaps you might just be curious what the magic is behind your searches that return the list of sites you get to choose from.

My wife was under the impression that when she typed in a search term or phrase in Google, the search engine performed some sort of ‘live search’ across the entire breadth of the world wide web, scanning everything as it existed at that very moment, and condensing it into a relevant list of site-links. Although (to me) that seems more glorified –and at one point Google probably did do just that– today, it just plain isn’t possible. So what does happen? How does Google generate it’s results, and how does it decide they’re relevant?

Indexing.

Let’s pretend you are Google. Imagine you, sitting in a room, with 10 reference books. every so often, someone comes into the room and asks you a question, to which the answer can be found in your reference books. You quickly flip through the book you know to be relevant to the question, find the section specific to subject, and spit out a few passages from the book that shed light on the question asked.

But now lets say it’s not 10 reference books, but 1000. And many of the books’ general subject matter is almost indistinguishable from others without reading precise details of their contexts. It’d be physically impossible to find the references you’d need to answer people’s questions in a timely manner. And they don’t want to wait.

However, let’s say you have a photographic memory, and you can speed-read entire texts in a matter of several minutes -retaining 100% of their content. What do you do? Of course: you start reading every book. You don’t wait until someone asks something, to look for the answer. You memorize all the contents of all the books, and when someone asks a question. you can just recite the passages from memory.

Of course, we can’t leave it there. There’s one more twist: the books get updated. The content inside them changes -some every day, some every week, and some monthly. So you have to keep re-reading them when new versions are issued, memorizing the new content so you can recall it when a question regarding it, is asked. You’d be indexing.

This analogy illustrates how Google works. The amount of computing power it would take to crunch the content of the entire web in the brief time it takes to preform a search, isn’t even close to being available. Even with the massive super-computers of today, it’s just not possible. So instead, Google’s out there scanning websites, remembering their content, all the time. When a search is conducted on Google, it looks -not at the world wide web- but in it’s memory of all the sites it has scanned. It’s memory of these scanned sites is called it’s “index”. The act of scanning new sites, or old sites with updated content is called “indexing”.

With the vast number of sites, and changing content on the web, Google has it’s work cut out. It’s constantly scanning multiple sites simultaneously, through the use of programs called “crawlers”, “spiders”, or “bots”. Over 20,000 terabytes of data is indexed every day by Google-bots. How does it find it’s way around the web? It follows links. Links (hyperlinks) are what make the internet the dynamic field of information that it is. Links connect most of the web together into a chained-unit of growing information.

But it can take a while for Google to get to your website. Depending on what preparation has been done, it can take days, weeks, even months before Google finds your site and indexes it’s information. How it analyzes that information, and presents it during relative searches, is a subject for another post entirely.

The A.Fruit Design website has been in some stage of development for almost two years, incurring numerous format changes, tons of content re-writes, and one complete redesign all behind the scenes. Intermittent months of latency, caused by prioritizing client work over my own marketing efforts had at times dragged my progress down to a halt. When at a stand-still there were times it’d stay frozen for weeks, even months on end. But like a glacier, the terrain of my prioritization could only slow my progress, and sooner or later the slow progression forward prevailed.

Now that the launch is behind us, a great weight feels lifted — even if there are many ‘odds-and-ends’ to fix, change, or complete. There are many additions planned for almost every area of the site. What’s currently represented is basically a starting point. As stuff gets built, important areas will be announced in our newsletter which can be subscribed to here: The Juicebox (if you are currently a client, you’re already signed up). You can subscribe to the Blog RSS feed, to get notifications of future posts in the aggregator / feed reader of your choice.

Along with this strategic shift away from complete web-invisibility, I am making several drastic changes to internal systems, processes, and policies. All of these changes are specifically designed to better serve my existing and future clients.

In the previous installment of this series, (Part 1 of 3), I talked about the different individual parts of a business identity. When those parts are used effectively, they can form a strong basis of the visual part of your company’s branding.

Consider the inset diagram. (A) Represents the chosen name for your company. (B) Is the visual representation of your company, including the Logo-Type and the Logo-Mark. (C) Represents something we’re not going to go into much in this article: The overall perception of your products and/or services – which is the heart of your company’s brand. (In this article we’re specifically focusing on the Visual Identity of a company, so we’ll steer clear of the bigger subject that is your company’s comprehensive brand.)

The conjunctions of those parts equal distinct relationships. (AB) Is the automatic marriage of your company’s name, and the visual representation of it. This seems like an obvious and inherent connection. Mostly because one maintains the verbal language of a business name, while the other the written language. So yes, the natural connection of the verbal word “Target” and the word written out in bold Helvetica type, is not in itself anything special. We all know how to read right? Over time and repetition however, the relationship between these two parts can go beyond reading. Eventually, the goal is almost simultaneous recognition of identity. Upon seeing the mark(s) the company’s verbal name immediately and spontaneously internalizes in your mind, and subsequently: the products and/or services that the Identity stand for.

In fact, there’s studies that show even if you didn’t consciously know that the connection was made, you can be influenced by it:

Dr. Johan Karremans suggests that subliminal messages have an effect when the messages are goal-relevant (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2006). Karremans did a study assessing, whether subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink would affect a person’s choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individual’s feelings of being thirsty. By subliminally priming or preparing the participant with text or an image without being aware of it, gave the partaker familiarity with the product. Half of his participants were subliminally primed with Lipton Ice (“Lipton Ice” was repeatedly flashed on a computer screen for 24 milliseconds), while the other half was primed with a control that didn’t consist of a brand. In his study he found that subliminally priming a brand name of a drink (Lipton Ice) made those who were thirsty want the Lipton Ice. Those who were not thirsty however, were not influenced by the subliminal message since their goal was not to quench their thirst.
- Via Wikipedia ‘Subliminal Massage’: Karremans, J. (2006). Beyond vicary’s fantasies: the impact of subliminal priming and brand choice [Electronic Version]. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 792-798

Of course, the verbal internalization of the name “Lipton Ice”, and the display of it in white letters atop a red label/seal, don’t directly translate to a solution for quenching thirst on their own. That’s where the relationships (AC) and (BC) in our diagram come into play. (AC) Is the relationship between the Perception of a company’s products and services, with the verbal representation of the company’s identity. (BC) Is the relationship between the Perception of a company’s products and services, with the visual representation of the company’s identity.

When these relationships are strong, you have a strong Business Identity. But it doesn’t just happen automatically. The top two parts of our diagram (A & B), and the resulting relationship are the “Fruits” of good design. (Hey, when was the last time you got to use your name as a relevant pun?) The bottom part (C) and the included relationships are up to you, your business offerings and the right marketing. I’m going to assume you offer products and/or services that have value in themselves, to build strong relationships for (AC) & (BC) in our diagram. (Or at least you think you do.) If not, you might want to rethink exactly what your business plan is. In the center, ‘The X Factor’ is the result of all these parts and inter-relationships working, and the holy grail of visual-branding.

In the final installment of this series, I’ll swing my focus back onto the actual parts of your visual identity and the decisions you face, when trying to make one that is great.

When talking about a company or organization’s identity business owners, graphic designers, marketing professionals (and non-professionals alike) use words such as “Logo”, “Trademark”, “Font” and “Brand”. Often, these terms are used interchangeably and inaccurately. In this article, I plan to outline my understanding of a corporate identity dissection, and offer clarification on the anatomy of a business identity, using industry-professional vocabulary. After reading this article, you’ll be spouting proper design and marketing rhetoric when talking about the graphical look of your company.

To start, we should consider the basics. What is a ‘business identity’?

A companies business identity is everything visual and verbal that combine to form the assets which distinguish it’s reference from all others. Notice I said “it’s reference”. What distinguishes the actual business, is it’s products and/or services. However, your business identity is your business’ persona, it’s facade, it’s projected image. The business identity is a big part of your company’s overall brand, and can be an key factor in influencing the way customers look at your business.

As a graphic designer, I often get requests from new business owners to create a “logo” for their company. Usually, at this point they have already given their company a name. What they are requesting from me, is to create the visual identity for their company. They’ve already taken a very important first step in the creation of their Business Identity, by giving their business a name and binding it in language. When that name is transcribed, formalized, and standardized in written and graphical language, the visual aspect of their company’s identity takes shape.

What’s in a Name?

Determining the proper noun by which your company is referred to, is an imperative step in the creation of your business identity. Too often this is an afterthought, and companies and organizations miss a key opportunity to distinguish themselves from their competitors from day 1 of the inception of their identity.

Ideally, a company’s name should be distinguishable; meaning, it shouldn’t be easily mistakable as one of it’s competitors. It should also be memorable; meaning, it leaves a lasting impression in the minds of consumers. The internet boom took the choosing of distinguishable names to an extreme. Suddenly names of companies sprung up like Yahoo, and Google – names that were not only memorable, but fun to say. Linguistically, the chosen name may or may not have additional meaning in contexts outside the company. Sometimes this meaning has a relative connection to the company and it’s brand, sometime it does not. Nike is an athletic shoe company, but it’s also the name of a greek goddess who personified ‘victory’.

The Sum of It’s Parts

To generalize, A company’s Visual Identity may be divided into two main anatomical parts: The Logo-Type, and the Logo-Mark. Each part can play a role in the visual realization of the given name. Not all graphical representations of corporate identities will have both, sometimes only one of these parts may exist -but we’ll get to that later.

The Logo-Type represents the stylized written name of the company which may be created using custom made letter forms, a pre-existing set of type (a font), or often times a combination of the both. The logo-type provides the connection between the verbal dimension of the name and it’s visual perception as written language. A successful logo-type has regard for legibility, and of course memorability and characteristics that make it stand out from competitors. The logo-type may also be referred to as the “word-mark”.

The Logo-Mark is a graphical symbol that accompanies the logo-type, providing a visual communication that extends beyond written and spoken language, making a connection in the mind of the viewer between the company’s name and the symbol that represents it. Visually, it can be symbol-based, pictorially-based, or completely abstract. Sometimes this connection has literal implications, sometimes it is conceptually-abstract, and sometimes seemingly unrelated altogether. The electronics and computer maker Apple, Inc. has an apple for their logo-mark, an obvious connection. The investment firm T. Rowe Price has a ram for their logo-mark –perhaps not imagery you’d think of when your pondering over mutual funds– unless that is, you know about T. Rowe Price.

Arguably, your word-mark has the most importance when visually communicating your brand. Without it, your audience must rely purely on the recognition of your logo-mark, and the company it represents. Often the word-mark can stand alone, and sometimes the integration between the two is such that they are basically a single mark. On rare occasions a company’s brand and it’s Identity carries enough recognition, that the logo-mark can effectively stand alone.

In Part II of this series, I discuss the psychology of Identities and their parts.