Sometimes it can be a struggle to fit Marketing and Blogging into the busy schedule of a Graphic Designer, but it is still necessary. Think of all the creative experiences you can have by writing about what you love to do! The first battle is getting it out of your head that blogging A. is a waste of time, B. will take too long, or C. is too much effort for too little reward. All Wrong! Continue with these tips for Blogging Success and you'll be on the fast track to getting more Graphic Design clients, and perhaps even have a good time while you write.
Obstacle #1: Time
The main complaint I hear when I tell people they need to blog in order to up their web traffic is, 'I don't have the time', or 'It takes too long'. My question is though, have you tried? Blogging doesn't have to be a part-time job. What's more, is that writing out a list of topics may help you cut down the time it takes to come up with things to write about! Take some time, think about your daily goings-on and write down a few ideas. It will take you 10 minutes. Next, map out what each post could contain, kind of like an outline; that should take another 10 minutes. Then - write about 400-500 words on that topic. Once you get going, the words will start to fly! Do this twice a week and you've spend about
Obstacle #2: Writing Topics
This is undoubtedly the hardest part of blogging: coming up with concepts. But the thing is, you talk about Graphic Design everyday! To friends, clients, family and business colleagues. How is it so hard to talk to the internet? Pick your favorite aspect of design, and run with it. Talk about your favorite font, or even the history of your favorite font. You might learn a thing or two in the process.
Obstacle #3: Mechanics
Most people, once they get past the time and topic issues, are baffled as to how to blog and on what. The answer? Blogger. Wordpress. Posterous. Tumblr. All absolutely FREE and completely user friendly. You don't even need to log into Posterous (you blog by sending the platform an email!). Hit post and you're done.
If you can come up with more reasons to NOT blog, please let me know - because blogging is the lifeblood of our society - we wouldn't learn new things or discover great inspiration if not for others sharing their knowledge and design on the web. Try it yourself and you may be surprised at the outcome.
If you're not a designer and need a hand with your logo design, business card or website design, hire us! We're among the great Graphic Designers in Chicago and are more than willing to share our knowledge with you and your business.
Thanks for reading.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Choosing the Right Graphic Design Firm is Critical
Chicago Graphic Design
Most businesses start out with a business idea with the very best intentions. They have a great idea do a lot of research, they get the necessary funding but when it comes to choosing the right graphic design company they do not do their homework. This can lead to some big problems later on down the road.We're going to use a real life example to best convey this example. Take a new law firm starting up in the city of Chicago. They chose a location, and got the best design minds working on their offices. But, when it comes to the image that they want to portray to the public, they are quite blaze about this subject and will often let their new logo design and branding be designed by either themselves, or a friend of a friend. This logo and branding will then go on their marketing materials that are seen by clients and prospective clients.
From letterheads, business cards, email footers, all the way to their website, this unprofessional branding will be implemented with no thought or understanding of the business or what the business and owners are trying to communicate.
Because people do not really undersatnd the benefits of strong graphic design and they think that creating a logo design or brand identity solution is extremely easy they are not willing to pay a good price to get this done. If they had hired an established design comapny in the first place to create a brand for their company; a brand that will last a life time, as the company grows and expands it wouldn't have to face the issue of an identity crisis and be forced to re-design their logo all over again.
So lesson being: Your branding and logo design are just as important as your office location, the chairs in your reception area and the services you provide.
Chicago Logo Design
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Chicago Graphic Design: Design Elements in Web Design
Chicago Graphic Design elements in web design can sometimes be complex. Not only do you need to design for comfort and function, it has to be easily navigated no matter how illustrated or off the wall your graphics are. Use these tips for effective alternative web design using graphics.
First of all, text links are used for identification and if the only links on your website are images, people will get lost on your website. Additionally, some internet connections do not allow for fast loading images and if your only internal linking relies on imagery, your website will frustrate and overwhelm those users.
To combat this, make your images static and use a text-based link to move your web visitors around the page. Chicago Graphic Design
2. Use automatic scrolling with caution
This has to do with scrolling, obviously. When building a website, try to keep your content rich enough but short enough to be viewed with the shortest amount of scrolling. Also, if you've got cool stuff at the bottom of your custom website, nobody will have the patience to get there!
4. Don’t rely on the browser
The sentence “Please use IE to view the site under 800×600 resolution” often appears in many websites. We prefer Firefox, Chrome and Safari because we need them to test the readability of pages when designing websites. But most users will not install so many browsers and will usually only use one. Make sure you view your website in all different types of browsers, most especially Internet Explorer, since this will be the buggiest browser of them all.
5. Don’t forget the copyright
Intellectual property theft is rampant on the internet. With the number of pop-up blogs and personal websites, you need to guard your content and images against internet theft. If you need to reference other's images or content, please do so. To protect yourself, copyright your information.
6. Update timely
This is big for SEO as well. If you've had a website for longer than a year and haven't updated it, it's time to now! It's a waste of html if it just sits there.
Chicago Graphic Design, Chicago Graphics Artists, Chicago Print Designers, Chicago Ad Agency, Graphic Design Companies, Phoenix Graphic Design, Charlotte Graphic Design, Los Angeles Graphic Design, NYC Ad Agency
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Schaumburg Designers: More than Meets the Eye!
Welcome to Schaumburg Marketing Company's creative blog.
Here you'll find a plethora of information on Schaumburg Marketing & Design, Schaumburg Graphic Design, Schaumburg Web Design and Schaumburg SEO.
We Design with YOU in mind.
At SMC, a Creative Agency, we put you first. We listen to your ideas and consider your marketing and business goals every step of the way. We take a personal approach with your projects. We get to know you and your business personally, which helps us accurately interpret your needs and integrate them into your design solutions.
Our design process is a straight-forward approach which is guided by our clients' ideas and objectives. We manage the timeline of your projects by focusing on your schedule so your business needs can be met.
Who are we?
The Schaumburg Marketing Agency's creative marketing team is comprised of talented Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Programmers, Writers, SEO Experts, Marketing Strategists, and Photographers who work together to create design solutions that work for you and your business.
We have a simple philosophy. Hire the most dedicated and creative people who love to work in a creative environment and are passionate about what they do. The result is a team that loves to design, write, program, and market. This philosophy is what has transformed us into the respected marketing company it is today. We not only create innovative designs and brand solutions, we love having the opportunity to build relationships with our clients.
Our proven track record as a leading Schaumburg Graphic Design Firm and Creative Agency lets us take pride in our ability to create and implement the most strategic and creative marketing solutions for you and your company.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Advertising Online with Website Banner Ads
Chicago Advertising
Chicago and Schaumburg businesses that are considering marketing and advertising to boost their company's sales should consider banner advertising along with other options. This is essentially putting up an ad on a related, or newsworthy website that will show your ad to readers who may be interested in your services. If you can believe it, people will drive by a business for years and never go inside. It may be because they don't know what the business offers, or simply don't like the name.
A great advertisement, on or offline, will bring in traffic. A web banner needs to show exactly what you do within seconds, so it's incredibly important to have a Chicago advertising agency design these ads for you. They'll also know exactly where to place them, how to link them, and how to track visits to your website through them. The cost of these services can be surprisingly affordable, and are designed to bring in a lot more business than the cost of the banner itself.
Online, the typical banner is around 1'' by 6'' or 150 pixels by 600 pixels. That's no a lot of room! Choose your words wisely, offer something, or promote a current sale to get people to come to your website and either make a purchase or send you their information. It's as easy as that!
At our company, we offer a full range of services from graphic design and branding to web design and search engine optimization, and everything in between. We recently designed and produced an entire trade show booth for one of our clients along with all the handouts, business cards and 30 second video to boot! Point being? You don't have to go to two separate agencies to get your website banner advertising up and generating leads!
Call us today at 847.537.0067 or visit our website, Chicago Graphic Design, to read more about advertising, logo design and web design services.
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