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Your business logo is often the first symbol that customers come in contact with when being introduced to your brand. Whether it’s on your business card, your company letterhead, the door of your office or the header of your website, a logo speaks volumes about your company. A well-designed logo can help your company to be instantly recognized, thus building trust and credibility.

There’s no secret formula for a well designed logo, although there are some best practices to follow. First off, hire a professional designer. Just as you would employ an accounting expert to do your taxes, and an insurance expert to make sure your business is protected, hiring a professional logo designer will yield the best results for an investment so critical to your company’s success.

Steer clear of overcomplicated logos with many colors and wordy type. Consider the fact that your logo may be small enough to fit on a business card and large enough to be on a billboard. Therefore, simple shapes and two-tone logos can often say more than one that is over designed. A professional logo designer should be able to help with this.

Make sure to run the logo through a legal and copyright search. The last thing you want to do is plaster your new logo all over everything, only to find out that it’s already in use by another company in your industry.

If a logo isn’t working, don’t necessarily scrap it and start anew. First, determine why the logo isn’t connecting with your audience. If you already have equity in the logo, consider a logo evolution, like the Fortune 500 companies do. The longer you keep your logo, the easier it will be for your audience to have top-of-mind awareness of your company. Take Coca-Cola for example – they’ve had the same logo for over 125 years and by no coincidence, they are also the most recognized brand in the world.

If you’re thinking about hiring a designer to create a new business logo or evolve an existing one, start by gathering internal input. Document who your company is, who your audience is, what traits characterize your company, what you like/dislike about your current branding, and what you think your competition is doing right or wrong with theirs. Also, do your research and gather external data on your industry. Once you have a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve, you’ll be in a good spot to bring on a 3rd party designer.

To learn more about Website Jungle’s logo design process, contact us today.

As an open source CMS, Drupal counts over 600,000 users and contributors. It’s come a long way since being launched in 1999 as a message board. It’s one of the best software packages to use for website customization, and is a great out-of-the-box solution for developers.

You don’t have to be a seasoned programmer to appreciate Drupal and all that it has to offer. In comparison to other content management systems like WordPress and Joomla, Drupal is somewhere in the middle, making it appealing to a wide range of audiences. In fact, education heavyweights like Harvard and MIT run on Drupal, as do media giants Sony and Warner Brothers, and publishing companies like Popular Science and Fast Company.

Getting started with Drupal is quick and easy, especially with so much communal support. The Drupal site has a wealth of resources that include everything from documentation guides and marketing support to Drupal service providers to help newbies with the learning curve. And the robust community that stands behind the platform includes forums, social networks and even in-person events like DrupalCon and workshops located around the country for continued sharing of ideas and solutions.

Drupal also encourages participation and involvement by new developers in order to further improve the system. With an already user-friendly platform, powerful functionality, scalability and multi-tiered developer support, we’re not sure what other improvements need to be made, but we do appreciate the notion.

In about a year or so, mobile devices will overtake PCs in terms of usage. These devices are now used at every stage of the purchase cycle – from initial research to post-purchase tutorials. In fact, more than 1/2 of buyers talk about their purchase on a social network, or post a picture of a product after buying it. This enables expanded reach for brands, plus the best kind of (free) advertising – increased word of mouth. Businesses can either capitalize on this opportunity, or miss out on the mobile revenue stream.

A lot of buzz words get thrown around when it comes to mobile marketing. So what exactly does it mean to “go mobile”? The answer is simple, however, getting there may be a bit more difficult. Basically, businesses need to take their traditional marketing activities and find the best way to make them mobile. This includes everything from billboards and print ads (which can be transitioned to mobile banners and targeted ads on social networks) to print materials (which can be optimized for mobile viewing and downloads) to websites with customer service support and contact information (which can and should be formatted for the mobile devices which most visitors are using). All of these activities will help to enhance the consumer’s experience and provide streamlined delivery of information.

Mobile devices are unique in the fact that they have technologies that can be used to reach a customer at any place and any time. Functions like geolocation can be leveraged to push offers and promotions to customers while in a store, while mobile ad platforms let marketers reach customers at the point-of-purchase. For many businesses, building a mobile (native) app makes sense, in order to take advantage of technologies like GPS and the camera feature to sell their products, while also providing customers with quick and value-added information. Conveniently, app content doesn’t need a wireless connection, so users can still enjoy a branded experience – even when they can’t get online.

Mobile devices continue to provide marketers with new and engaging ways in which to connect with audiences. It’s no longer a question of whether or not your business should be on mobile – it’s a question of what mobile tactics make sense with your overall strategy. It may be something as simple as a mobile site with SMS alerts. Or it may be a more involved mobile app w/ notification functionality or NFC technology. But one thing’s for sure – your customers hold their mobile devices near and dear – as they do with the brands and businesses that are on them.