Every business works hard to stay competitive in the online marketplace. Search engine optimization, the process of improving one’s search rankings, is an important method of gaining visibility for many Bozeman, Montana businesses. A business owner generally puts themselves into the searcher’s shoes to see how his or her business ranks amongst the competition. With local searches gaining a large number of website visits, even small companies can showcase their goods and services to interested buyers.

When it comes to local search engine optimization, often your best tool is the materials you already produce to help your potential customers become better educated about your product or service. By reworking these materials to focus on specific key phrases your internet marketing can be more targeted and results driven.

Do your homework, but don’t over-do it

Start by creating a list of the 10 key phrases that you want to rank for. There’s a myriad of keyword research tools available, but let’s begin with what you as a business owner intuitively know. Good key phrases are usually a few words that describe what you do. Think of it this way, “If I didn’t know what the name of my business was, what words would I use to search for it?”

Optimize for a single topic

The basic idea to rank for new search phrases is that we need to create written content for each one. Over time, as you begin to create content for each key phrase you’ll organically (read free) rank in Google and other search engines. Examples of content could be describing a new product in a familiar way or a blog post telling current happenings around the company.

For the purpose of this article let’s take use the search phrase “gluten free bread in Bozeman” as an example. Google’s not really interested in us as business – they’re focused on making sure the searcher finds information that’s relevant. Accordingly, we need to create written content that speaks to the topic at hand. Some examples of blog articles that would do well in search engines could be:

• 3 Bozeman Companies Who Bake Gluten Free Bread
• Finding Gluten Free Bread in Bozeman
• Ranking the Best Gluten Free Breads in Bozeman, Montana

Basically, any articles you create should be around the topic you want to rank for. Throughout the article you should include the specific phrase in the headline and in the first sentence. Then mention it in context several times throughout the article. Overall though we always want to write for the reader, not for the search engines. Good content always trumps sneaky search engine tactics.

Recycle content for search engine optimization

As I mentioned earlier in this article a great resource for content are materials that already exist! Perhaps a brochure or press release you’ve written can be re-tooled. Product information sheets and even explanatory emails that you consistently send to customers are both good sources of information. Keep the topic narrow and the content lean. Be sure to focus on your single topic throughout. Look at trade magazines, other website and even competitors as sources of ideas. Take into consideration any questions that you receive consistently or areas that you feel your consumer may be misinformed or under-educated.

Many organizations have materials that exist only in written form. These are great for search engine optimization! Find someone in your organization who could type the articles up at a hourly rate or even better, for a per article fee. High schoolers and other students are usually great for this task.

Great content means more backlinks

The other benefit of writing great content – again the major component of search engine optimization – is that people want to link to your content. Each website, Facebook like or social media mention that links to your article is considered a vote of confidence to Google. The more backlinks you have the higher your content will appear in search rankings.

I hope that you’ve found this brief article on stress free search engine optimization beneficial. Please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Today’s Manifest marketing minute explores the popular content management system WordPress. Philip Downer discusses why Manifest Creative believes this platform is a powerful tool for Montana’s small businesses to extend their reach on the internet.

This video marks the first in a series that I think we’ll call “Manifest marketing minute”. If you’re liking what you see, consider subscribing to the Manifest Creative YouTube channel.

Have you used WordPress? Still wonder if it might be right for your Montana small business? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Last night was the 2010 Bozeman Tweetup hosted by the good folks over at KBZK, Future Farm and, of course, Manifest Creative. While the numbers have yet to be tallied, I’d be willing to bet that there were just about 100 Bozeman business owners in attendance. Sean Golliher of Future Farm gave a great presentation on why every small business should be involved in social media. I was asked to give a brief talk on how to get started with Facebook and Twitter.

One of the more enjoyable presentations that evening was from Chief Meteorologist Mike Heard of KBZK who spoke about his experiences with different social networking sites and the impact they’ve had on his profession.

Please take the short poll!

If you attended last night’s Tweetup, we’d love to have your feedback for future events. Did you enjoy the presentations? How was the venue? What kind of topics would you like covered in future events?

Let us know… Take the Bozeman Tweetup poll!

Basics of Twitter and Facebook Presentation

My presentation is available for download or viewing below. If you would like future access to any documents and information that I upload, become a friend on Scribd.com.

3rd Party Software for Social Media

HootSuite is free for basic users

HootSuite – A powerful, online tool that allows you to manage all of your social media profiles from one location. Schedule tweets, shorten links and track how many clicks your links generate. If you’ll only use one tool this is the one you need today!

TweetDeck is a free download available for both Mac and PC computers.

TweetDeck – A software application that you download to your computer, TweetDeck also allows you to manage multiple social media profiles. Easy to use for beginners, but powerful enough for marketing managers. One of my favorite features is the ability to create keyword searches and be notified whenever new Tweets matching the search appear.

Google Analytics is both free and powerful. Learn what's working for your website.

Google Analytics – If your website doesn’t have it installed, you’re missing the boat! Google’s free analytics software is probably your greatest ally in social media as it lets you see where the traffic from your website is being generated. Not sure if your Facebook ads are as effective as they could be? Analytics will let you see what pages Facebook users look at on your website before they make a purchase. Want to see if your Twitter posts have been driving traffic to your blog? Easily check what your most popular posts are, and which posts Twitter visitors tend to favor.

PolicyTool will help you to discover things you might not have otherwise considered.

PolicyTool – Policy Tool offers a free social media policy generator that will help you craft policies for your company and employees. Answer a few simple questions and PolicyTool will do all the heavy lifting for you.

Informative Social Media Videos

• Tom Peters and Seth Godin say “Let’s hear it for the blog”
• Social Media in Plain English – These are great for beginners!

Interesting Articles on Social Media Marketing for Montana

• Social Media for Business – Who’s doing it well and how
• 9 Social Media Topics that Need to Die
• The Sad Truth about Marketing Shortcuts
• 10 Small Business Social Media Marketing Tips
• 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business

Other social media presentations for Bozeman businesses

• 10 Must See Social Media Presentations

In today’s economy, many businesses are cutting their marketing budgets while searching for more effective pathways to maximize their advertising dollar. With smaller budgets to work with, advertisers must work smarter and more efficiently.  To be considered effective, it must offer your organization measurable, trackable results.

There’s only so much attention span available!

Businesses have been questioning the effectiveness of interruption based marketing, and challenging the shotgun approach of advertising in traditional broad-based media such as magazines, newspapers, television and radio to get their message out for quite some time. Since each of these forms of marketing are based on interrupting the viewer’s attention with an advertising message, we’ve become increasingly able to tune these mass-media messages out.

With ever-increasing costs and lower measurable return on investment (R.O.I.) from these forms of traditional advertising, it’s not surprising that these companies are turning their attention to a targeted, conversational approach using new media to augment or enhance their marketing plans.

So what is ‘new media’?

New media is simply a collective term for the use of websites, email marketing, blogging, online advertising, social media and other internet-driven technologies. These new media technologies typically integrate with each other and when well executed boast advantages that are hard to match with conventional forms of marketing.

At Manifest Creative, we have the advantage of providing both new media and traditional media services to our clients. In doing so, we see the shift to new media first hand… and from our experience it is happening at an excited pace. This is made clearly evident as many businesses are hurriedly trying to adapt their marketing plans to take advantage of current technologies.

In the wake of this trend many organizations are left wondering which direction to turn, and which route will ultimately garner the most bang for their buck. This can often be incredibly difficult when you consider the sheer amount of online services available. When you add a full assortment of social media options into the equation, things can really get confusing. At this point turning to an experienced professional can help immensely.

We specialize in helping companies of all sizes create road maps to new media success. We encourage our clients to take advantage of our experience, by allowing us to craft plans that capitalize on major online opportunities while avoiding common pitfalls and hazards. With our guidance and assistance we can make the transition to new media as smooth as possible, while providing measurable results along the way.

If your organization is looking at making the switch to new media or is looking at updating your existing online efforts, please consider giving us a call at 406-585-9406. We think you’ll be glad you did, and your first consultation with us is free!

From time to time, I help my Twitter friends out by designing a custom background for their Twitter page. While this is mostly a hobby, I do enjoy it as a creative exercise. If you’re interested in having us design your background, start by checking out a few Twitter profiles we’ve branded (see below), then contact me via Twitter or give us a call!

If you have a smidgen of Photoshop experience, and a basic knowledge of monitor resolutions, you can design your branded Twitter page yourself. To help you along the way, I’m posting the Twitter Photoshop template that we begin with. Here’s a small, JPEG preview to give you the general idea. You can download the ZIP file below!

This Photoshop template defines the header area, the safest areas for your content, and swatches to help you further customize your profile. Guides and different resolutions will help you to visualize how your background will look on the Twitter.com website.

Download the Photoshop Twitter background template

Download Twitter Photoshop Template (ZIP file, 0.80 MB)

Twitter profiles that Manifest Creative has designed

If you’re interested in having Manifest Creative design your custom branded Twitter profile, give us a call, or follow @manifestphil on Twitter!

• @MontanaBusiness
• @MichelleMontana
• @DomainScript
• @BSTC
• @jmangan
• @BigSkyMont
• @BozemanMT

More Twitter Design Resources

• Twitter Background Design How-To and Best Practices
• How to design perfect Twitter background
• 13 Tutorials & Resources for a Perfect Twitter Background
• Twitter Backgrounds Gallery
• 100+ Remarkably Beautiful Twitter Icons And Buttons
• Stock.Xchang – Good resource for free stock images

Did you find this template helpful?

Consider Tweeting this post, or bookmarking on your favorite social website!

Twitter background design questions?

Leave us a comment below and we’ll do our best to help out in a timely manner.

Here are five ideas to help your Montana business win on the web in 2009. While many of these ideas are not new or radical by any means, you’d be surprised at the number of businesses that haven’t caught on. My suggestion to any business is to start implementing at least a few of these ideas today. Your competition is probably a few steps ahead of you already. Don’t miss the boat and get caught left standing on the shore wondering what to do now!

1 ) If your business doesn’t have a website… IT’S TIME TO GET ONE.

Your customers are trying to find you right now, why not make it easier for them? The customers of today and even more importantly the customers of tomorrow are online. Whether you believe it or not, this IS your target demographic!

2) Simply having a website is not enough… IT HAS TO BE FOUND.

What good is your website if nobody can find it? You might have the best product or most fantastic widget available, but if no one knows about it, all you are left with is an incredible dud. Do your website a favor and learn about search engine optimization (SEO), or hire someone to do it it for you.

3) E-brochures don’t work… YOU MUST HAVE A CALL TO ACTION.

A beautiful website is just a waste of money if doesn’t make something happen. Don’t just have a presence online, make your website work for you! Decide what you want your website to do, and make those demands the main focus of your site.

4) Find something to sell online… IF NOT – WHY NOT?

I’m not saying you need set up a robust shopping cart system on your site, but chances are that you are already selling some kind of product or service, so why not offer it online as well? If you don’t have something to sell, then perhaps you have something to give away. You don’t need to to invent a product to sell online, every business already has SOMETHING in their inventory to sell online. So find yours and get started!

5) Blog… Blog… BLOG!!!

I can’t stress this enough! If you don’t already have or administer a blog, you had better get on the band wagon. When it comes to blogging the keys to success are the frequency and quality of posts that you write. When posting, include things that you are passionate about that pertain to your industry. You are a professional in your field, so capitalize from your experiences and knowledge and starting blogging today!

Need More Tips?

This post was intended to be short and sweet, but if you are left wanting to learn more, please contact us and we’ll be happy to set up a free initial consultation. As always, thanks for reading and we look forward getting your comments!

Want to get the most out of your LinkedIn group? Of course you do… we all do, but simply creating a group and hoping for the best is not enough. As with nearly everything else, it is going take a little work. In fact, the success of your group often directly correlates with the efforts you put in to it.

A little over a week ago, we here at Manifest Creative decided to create our own group as a part of our ongoing search engine marketing & social media experimentation. Our group is called Common Sense Marketing and our goal is to help promote the sharing of great ideas between our members, while at the same time helping each other to avoid common pitfalls of internet marketing.

We promoted the group pretty heavily through the marketing venues of Twitter and other various social medias right after it’s inception, and we quickly gained a dozen or more qualified members. This was encouraging, but what we’ve noticed now that the group is a little over a week old, is that activity within the group has already dropped off and become pretty stagnant.

Well refusing to accept a non-functioning group, I sent an e-mail today to all current members of the group with the tips below. I’m hoping that it will spark some further interest within the group. Anyhow, I wanted to share these tips as I think they can apply to any group. So here is my list… I hope you find it helpful.

10 ways to get the most out of your LinkedIn group:

1. Introduce yourself to the group, post a quick summary of who you are, what you do, and your goals for the group.

2. Share your best work with the group, after all everyone could use some inspiration from time to time.

3. Ask questions about problems or queries that are within the scope of the group.

4. Try to answer other peoples questions if you feel you have a solution.

5. Be active in discussions, this means posting, sharing and replying.

6. When you write a blog post or an article on your own website, remember to submit a link to it in the news section of your group.

7. Comment, share and bookmark (StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.) the posts of the people within your group. This will help the members of your group with their respective search engine rankings.

8. Fill out your LinkedIn profile as completely as possible.

9. Invite and refer other relevant people to your group, after all… the bigger the group, the more powerful it will be.

10. Keep checking back in to the group. Frequency and consistency will provide great pay-offs!

So there you have it… thanks! As always, if you feel this post is helpful please comment below and share it with other who you think will find it useful.

While these recommendations are fairly basic, and many may feel that they go without saying, I wanted to highlight them here:

#1) Your own domain name

Domain names usually cost about $10 per year from sites like GoDaddy.com. Do a bit of research and try to register your business name or an easily remembered domain name. Shorter is better, and try to stay away from .net or hyphenated names if you can.Here’s a great article from SitePoint.com on choosing a domain name for your site.

#2) A website host and e-mail address.

I’ve had great success with HostGator. Their plans are cheap and they will auto-install WordPress blogging software for you. (See information on WordPress below.) As for your e-mail address, it’s fine to have a general address such as info@yourname.com. However, since sales are about personal connections, I want you to set-up me@yourname.com. Your webhost or designer can help with this if needed.

#3) A clear idea of your internet marketing goals.

This doesn’t have to be a long paper detailing all the aspects of your internet marketing. Focus on 3 key elements and WRITE THEM DOWN – don’t type them! There’s something about physically putting pen to paper that will help you judge your upcoming efforts against these goals.Your goals should be simple things to begin with. Things like “I want to ensure that my business is found with my top 5 keywords on Google”, “I want to improve my monthly communication with my current customers”, or “I want generate 10 new sales leads each month”. The key is to be very specific.Your goals will change – I would be worried if they didn’t! But right now, get out your favorite fountain pen, Bic ballpoint or Sharpie marker and decide what they are.

#4) A blog or other publishing platform

One of the most popular blogging platforms is free software called Wordpress. A blog will allow you to quickly and cost-effectively publish articles that relate to the products or services that you’re looking to sell. They show to potential customers that you know what you’re talking about and that you want to help them with their purchasing decision.A blog theme is the look and feel of your blog. Wile a custom-designed theme would be ideal, there are many free and cheap blog themes available. Begin by doing a Google search. If you’re working with a web designer, talk with them about the type of content that you plan to publish. He or she will often have great advice about how to feature certain content on your blog, how to deal with comment spam and how to include social bookmarking on all of your posts.

#5) An analytics package

The industry standard has quickly become Google Analytics. You can sign up for free, and if you have basic knowledge of HTML, you can add it to your website yourself. There are also several free plug-ins for WordPress that will allow you to include your Google Analytics code on each page of your blog. Google Analytics is fairly easy to use, and there are great newbie articles floating around on the internet for that as well. Well, that concludes my list of must-haves… Things that every person starting out with internet marketing should learn as much as they can about. However, remember one thing for me… To avoid exhaustion, stick to the things that you know and love to do. If you’re best at writing the articles for a blog, let your website developer handle the rest. If digging into analytics and determining where your strongest areas for improvement are, do your best to stick to that and let a copywriter or colleague make your posts!

Throughout time as craftsmen and skilled artisans made or sold their respective goods or services, it has been customary for the trades-person to either sign or brand their work. As time went on and competition between similar products or services became more fierce, the need to separate oneself from competitors became increasingly important. It became apparent that establishing a unique look to a name or brand provided a means for consumers to quickly identify with a particular supplier, and thus pick it out from it’s competitors. This “look” or “brand” is now commonly referred to as one of the most important four letter words in business lingo… the logo.

Author’s note: This article is part of the “Making a Name For Yourself” series.

So here we sit in the 21st century, and as far as the logo is concerned not that much has changed. Modern businesses still have the need to brand their products and services, and it all begins with the design of an effective logo. These days we very seldom see a brand that has actually been burned or stamped into a product. However, it is still quite difficult to look around and not see some sort of logo somewhere.

Today major corporations are known to spend millions of dollars establishing their logo and building brand awareness as a major part of their corporate identity. These logo things are everywhere; on our clothes, on our vehicles, on signs and billboards and even in our bathrooms and showers! They appear in all shapes, sizes and colors… you can’t avoid them, and there is seemingly no escape from them.

This onslaught is perhaps the best reminder that any business; be it small or large, must have an eye catching and easily recognizable logo. A strong and recognizeable business image is more important now than ever before. In fact, with the average American viewing more than 3,000 advertising messages per day, having a distinguishable logo is one of the most critical investments any business will make.

With all of the importance bestowed upon the humble logo, we decided that it would be a good idea to break down the key elements that together create a great logo. We will also outline some of the common mistakes and pitfalls when designing one.

Start with a Sketch

Grab a pencil, some paper, and a large eraser and then go to work! Sketching your ideas out on paper will help you visualize the logo and take the concept from an idea into a shape. It will inspire and provide you an excellent opportunity to brainstorm. It also helps to provide direction for your graphic designer and will help to weed out ideas that are less desirable.

When you’ve got a good sketch, or least a good idea, then it is time to go digital and see your logo really take form!

Print vs. Web

In today’s marketplace, a logo must be easily recognized on various forms of print materials, as well as on a TV or computer screen. The general rule is to design the logo for print applications first, and then to adapt the print logo to meet the needs of multimedia. This is particularly important, because what may look great on the web can often get muddied and difficult to discern when printed out.

Keep it Simple

Think about some of the most popular logos throughout history. What is a common tie they all share? The answer is simplicity… and it’s a beautiful thing. Often when designing logos, designers get carried away with intricate designs that look stunning when viewed at five or more inches wide and with the millions of colors that today’s computer monitors are capable of displaying. Generally, this leads to problems down the road.

What really needs to be taken into consideration is how that logo will look when it is forced to change and adhere to certain reproduction standards. Does the logo degrade if it is shrunk down considerably? Is the logo still effective when reduced to black and white or gray scale coloring? If the main focus of a logo cannot be recognized at less than an inch wide, or if the brand is indiscernible when it’s colors are converted, then it is rendered essentially useless to your business.

Size Does Matter

A great logo should be easily recognized whether it is printed extremely small – like perhaps on the body of ballpoint pen, or excessively large – like on a billboard or semi-truck trailer. The success of any logo can be greatly attributed to it’s ability to be scalable to nearly any size, thus enabling it to be adjusted to fit to a wide variety of applications. If the logo’s design limits how small or large it can be, that in turn retards the logo’s ability to be effective over a broad range of possible mediums.

Size, as it refers to resolution, is also very critical when it comes to logo design. Usually the size of a logo’s resolution is measured in DPI (Dots Per Inch). When using a logo on printed materials the printer will generally insist that your logo be a minimum of 300 DPI to ensure a high quality print. On the other hand, the same logo can be used on the web with just 72 DPI; which is fine for viewing on a monitor, but is far from ideal for high quality printing. Click here for more information concerning DPI.

Proper File Formatting

Even a well designed logo is useless if it can’t be used, displayed, stored, transferred and edited. This is why all logos should be either designed as, or converted into vector format. Even logos that are hand drawn should be scanned and converted to vector format before the logo is actually considered complete. There are several distinct advantages of doing this, such as the logo being scalable, movable and editable without losing the quality of the image.

Essentially there are two choices of formatting. The optimal choice in logo design being vector graphics and the latter being raster graphics. This article is not the place to outline the properties and advantages of either format, but such information is readily available.

When saving the logo, remember to save it as several different file types. Be sure to properly edit and save as an EPS, PDF, TIFF, JPEG and GIF. This will ensure that the logo can be used across a wide variety of platforms and programs. For more information on various graphic file formats click here.

What’s Your Type?

Some of most common and respected logos are simply unique or distinct typefaces with slight graphic alterations. Most logo designs begin life as a particular font or typeface, and this is where a majority of designers derive their creativity from.

When a suitable typeface is found, then it is a matter of seeing how the spacing and arrangements of letters come into play. Sometimes certain letters in a logo may be rotated or skewed to produce a desired effect, or perhaps a single letter or series of letters might be typed in a contrasting color.

When choosing a typeface, keep in mind that certain fonts can give off a softer, more feminine feel; while others offer a sharper, more masculine tone. When used effectively, the good use of typography can work wonders in creating a custom logo. A truly exceptional logo begins conveying a sense of what a company or product is, even prior to the product actually being experienced!

Icons are Ideal

Although many popular logos don’t employ any graphic or icon, there are an equal or possibly even greater number of logos that do. Using a distinctive graphic element or symbol can sometimes be more recognizable than the accompanying letters that make up the logo. Examples of these powerful elements are the Macintosh Apple, the Nike “Swoosh” and the Chevrolet Bow-tie.

If using a icon or graphic as part of a logo, the graphic should also somehow tie into to the product it is being used to represent. This is not necessarily true in all cases, but as a general rule it is a good idea. After all, even though the proprietor of a cat litter company may be head over heels in love with an icon of a dog… it just doesn’t make sense to include that dog icon as part of the cat litter logo!

Just as with all the other elements we’ve described in this logo development article, it is all about simplicity. The most popular and time-tested logos in the world have the simplest and most easily recognizable shapes… do you really think this is a mere coincidence?

Color Is Key

The use of color in a logo can be profound, yet can be wasted if the logo can’t be identified when converted to black and white or even gray scale. When designing with multiple colors it is important to realize the usefulness of contrast and the impacts it can have on the overall design. Having good contrast also helps when the logo must be reproduced without the use of color.

When using colors, it is helpful to be at least somewhat educated in color theory as well. This is important because certain colors evoke subliminal feelings, emotions and meanings in some consumers. It should be noted that some businesses pay special attention to the importance of color, and have extremely rigid specifications on just what color a particular logo can be.

Again we emphasize the importance of keeping the use of color simple as well. At the very most, a logo’s color palette should be kept to five colors or less.

Timeless Beauty

For any logo to defy Father Time, some forethought must go into it at the very beginning. As with anything else, it is entirely possible for a logo to go out of style. It is extremely important to avoid getting caught up in trendy fonts or overly stylistic design. Think long-term and ask the following questions: Is the logo you have today going to be effective ten or even twenty years from now? Will your logo require massive revisions or possibly even an entire redesign to stay in-line with the times? Can you afford to revise all your marketing materials if your logo goes out of style?

Test & Roll-Out

When you think you’ve got your logo complete, think again. Make sure you show it to friends, family, co-workers, and complete strangers. Ask for open and honest feedback, and use that feedback to make adjustments. When it comes to making those changes, remember to use the collective response of your entire study group and to not make severe adjustments based solely on the opinions of one or two individuals. Also, try to not let your feelings get involved, in other words don’t let pride get in the way.

After all the changes have been made and the logo is finalized it is time do one last thing… celebrate! Take some pride in your achievement and put your new logo on everything! I suggest that you write a press release and send it to all the local publications. If it is applicable get some vehicle decals made, or perhaps even order some stickers and pass them out. After all, you have a brand new exciting logo to show off to the world… so get started!

Other posts in the “Making a Name For Yourself” series:
• Logo Development and Strategy
• Business Card Basics
• Letterhead & Envelopes
• Brand Building for Beginners

In the field of graphic design, identity is a term that often gets thrown around loosely, and as designers we assume that everyone just automatically knows what we are talking about. Well as I recently found out, that is sometimes not the case. Let me explain…

The other day I was in the middle of exchanging business cards with a prospective client. After inspecting my bright orange card for awhile, she looked at me inquisitively and asked, “Your card lists one of your services as Business Identity. What is Business Identity… and just how does it relate to my business?”

Well that question got me thinking, and so over the next few weeks Manifest Creative will be diving into the subject of identity, the many facets that can help define it relating to business in the modern marketplace. In this series we will inspect the many pieces and parts that collectively make up the identity of a business or entity. Let’s begin…

If you were to go to dictionary.com you would find the first definition of the word identity to be exactly as follows:

i·den·ti·ty –noun, plural -ties.

1. the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions: The identity of the fingerprints on the gun with those on file provided evidence that he was the killer.

Now that is all good and proper, but for the everyday person I find the above definition lacking, perhaps even a bit vague. To sum it up in laymen’s terms, identity is simply the defining characteristics by which something or someone is recognized.

When it comes to establishing a Business Identity, these defining characteristics can be made up of any number of things including custom logos or symbols, the use of a particular typeface, a specific color scheme, a radio jingle, a recognizable voice, or even the recognition a mascot or celebrity can provide.

As graphic designers, we use the term identity to pertain to specific materials that help a business make a great first impression – and better yet, a memorable one. A basic identity package usually includes developing a logo design and then applying the logo to custom business cards, letterhead and envelopes… these are the staple materials for nearly every business.

One of the key factors in establishing an identity is continuity throughout all marketing materials. In other words, making sure that all your visual materials share a similar look and feel. This in turn is one of the first steps of branding, and the foundation of how you market your business.

That is all for this installment of the Business Identity blog… In upcoming installments we will continue our in-depth look at identity, and dissect each of the individual parts of an identity package. Check back soon as we investigate each part and share the features, options and advantages of them in detail.