DIY Design: How to Choose Colors for Your Small Business Logo and Brand

Whether you’re considering an elegant palette of Tiffany blue and black for your small business logo, or a more buttoned-up navy blue, consider the following factors when choosing colors for your logo and brand identity.
Accepted Color Formats for DIY Small Business Logo Design
red-green-blue-graphicThe graphic design industry uses various color formats that facilitate consistency across the industry. Even as a DIYer, some knowledge of the most commonly used formats will come in handy.
RGB
Your computer monitor, just like television screens, is made up of three colors: red, green and blue (RGB). Digital items, logos, websites, Powerpoint presentations and even some printed signs and trade show exhibit displays use the RGB model.
cyan-magenta-yellow and black graphic (CMYK)

CMYK

Items that are produced on an offset print press use the cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) model. Each color requires a specific plate to produce a realistic effect on paper, so that your photo maintains a realistic impression ‘like you are really there’ impression.
Spot Color 
spot color graphicItems that are printed using the silkscreen method and one-two color offset presses use specific ink colors. Many specialty advertising printers, silk screen printers, vehicle lettering, and short run offset printers offer a standard spot color palette. These are the standard rainbow of colors similar to a 12 piece Crayola® box with maybe a few more thrown in. You can choose navy blue, yellow, white, red, etc. and they are named the same way we learned them in kindergarten.
 
spot-color-graphicPantone Color Matching System®
Another option for spot color is the Pantone Matching System (PMS). PMS is the graphic design industry standard for ensuring the color of your small business logo will be the same in each printed item you order, every time. Even when you purchase items at different years, from different print resources, you will still maintain a consistent color for your brand.
Pantone® has thousands of colors to choose from for your small business logo. The colors are categorized and named with 3 or 4 digit numbers. (Connection Group logo uses PMS 873 Pantone Metallic Gold). If you want to go even further with using your brand color, Pantone offers wall paint and fabric swatches in your brand color too. Specifying a Pantone® color may be slightly more expensive than choosing a standard color. However, using Pantone colors for business cards or one to two color print pieces is often less expensive than full color printing. Plus, it will help establish your brand color.

Small Business Website Design Powered by WordPress

rls energy - small business website design rlsenergy.com
Rob Sepeter of RLS Energy contacted Connection Group for a small business website design. Mr. Sepeter found Connection Group when he visited a website we designed for a local retail gift and nursery shop, Hidden Trail. Hidden Trail Gift Shoppe specializes in nature themed gifts for home and garden, plus fresh plants and holiday greens. The website design quickly communicates this nature and environmental niche.
Although the original RLSEnergy.com website functioned and had similar content Mr. Sepeter felt the website design was not reflective of his clientele or the environmental nature of the products he offers. Another issue Mr. Sepeter asked us to address was the inability with the old site for ease in updates. Connection Group needed to set up a back end content management area where he or a staff person could easily and quickly edit website content, without having to have a PhD in web programming and development.
RLS is a start up company and serves customers throughout Michigan. RLSEnergy.com didn’t require a lot of automation or bells and whistles that e-commerce websites and some larger company websites often need. Connection Group solution for the small business website design that RLS Energy needed was to set up a website powered by the WordPress content management system (CMS). Choosing WordPress allowed us to keep the cost effective for the small business owner and also allow ease in website updates by any staff member. WordPress also offers numerous plug-ins that assist blog and small business website owners with automated features to help with SEO, comments, calendars, pretty much anything a website manager could need to optimize a website for effectiveness. Information on website and blog plugins are a whole different post but are an important considerations when looking at blog and website solution for your small business.
rls energy logo small business website designRLS Energy is enjoying the new environmental website design and in just one half hour content management training session they are now able to easily post project and merchandise photos and updates. Do you think a WordPress blog or small business website design would work for your company? Connect with us and let’s talk about your digital marketing and communication goals. We can help you choose the best blog or website solution that will grow with your company and allow you to control updates at the level you desire.
Stay connected!

February 2013

This month, we’re continuing to provide you with information that you can use to build and market your small business. We understand that diving into online marketing comes naturally to some, while others prefer leaving those tasks to a trusted brand manager. There’s useful information for both camps in this edition of Connectivity!

brand management circlesThe Web and Your Brand

Your choice: Brand Manager or Website Designer
In this article on our blog, we look at how you can decide whether you need a full-service brand manager or hire out just the website design and do everything else yourself.
Read More…
Connection Group website and blog samples using WordPress


DIY Alert! Build Your Own Blog or Website
A Simple Guide to Launching Your Small Business Website and Blog
Sometimes start-up businesses can get away without using our web design and development expertise to have a web presence. As your business grows we know we will continue to serve you and we can’t express how very important a web presence is for businesses right now. Would you believe there are still 49% of small businesses without websites? There is no reason for this (and no, a Facebook page doesn’t cover it – we discuss this too…) Take a look at our recent blog post to get step by step instructions…Read more…


Project Spotlight Event Promotions Print and Digital SolutionsMonthly Promotion for January 2013 is 15% off Full color brochures and sales sheets

A Simple Guide to Launching Your Small Business Website and Blog

websites-blog-samplesSetting up and launching a business website is a must if you are to succeed in marketing. Whether you’re hiring a website designer or doing everything yourself, having an online hub is vital. There’s simply no way around it, and today we’ll show you how to create and launch your small business website. We’ll focus primarily on setting up a self-hosted website using WordPress.
Before that, though, a number of folks may question why they need self-hosted websites for their small businesses, when there’s Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Setting up a business site involves a bit of time and financial investment, while Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other social media outlets are free. So what are the benefits to running your own website versus relying on third-party social media?

Facebook vs. Self-hosted Site

It’s true that a business website probably won’t be able to attract the gazillions of users that are on Facebook and Twitter combined. However, a small business owner should still build a strong online hub for the following reasons:
1. Ownership
As “king of your online castle,” you own not just the domain, but all the content in the site. By registering your own domain, you’re not just sitting on someone else’s property. Setting up your stand-alone website builds your authority in your niche, and adds to your legitimacy as a professional business owner.
2. Stability
The nature of social media means that its content changes rapidly by the day – or the hour! Updates that you’ve written yesterday may no longer be visible today. Not so with websites and blogs. Posted content is available on your site as long as it’s online. Such evergreen content will continue to help you build your brand and increase your search engine ranking.
3. Control
As the owner of your website, you control everything that your audience sees about your business. You decide what the content will be, and the action steps that will be available to your site’s visitors.
These are just three reasons why investing in a self-hosted website will bring you a greater return than spending all your online marketing efforts on social media.
That said, we’re not saying that you should concentrate solely on your website.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Being active on social media is essential for marketing your brand. If you’re building an audience online, you should be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. However, none of these sites should take the place of your website.
Your website should be the hub of all your online efforts. Social media should be outposts used to drive your desired audience to your website, where they can then make decisions to purchase your products or engage your services.

Setting Up a Self-Hosted Website and Blog

When we talk about setting up your online site, we also mean getting a blog up and running as part of your website. Having a blog offers advantages than a static website doesn’t have.
In terms of posting evergreen, useful content that will help you rank high in search engines, there’s nothing quite as easy to use as a blog. Posts and pages are what will give your website/blog depth in your niche topic. And blogs are inherently set up to make frequent posting quick and painless.
The steps below outline the process for setting up your blog from scratch:
1. Register your domain name
For maximum SEO benefits and brand recognition, your domain name should be www.yourbusiness.com. You register your domain through one of many domain registrars, such as HostGator, GoDaddy, NetworkSolutions, etc.
Registration must be renewed yearly. You can save money by registering domain for several years at a time.
2. Secure a hosting service
A webhost is the physical server where your website and data are kept. Many hosting companies also offer domain registration. You pay a fee for using the server space and bandwidth to run your website.
3. Install WordPress
WordPress is one of the best and easiest software to use for blogging. The software itself is free, and is available to download at WordPress.org. Some hosting companies offer a one-click installation to your domain.
4. Install a theme
While WordPress comes with a pre-installed theme (or blog design), you may want to install a different one that will better suit your business and your purposes. There are many free themes available for download. These may be accessed within the WordPress software or downloaded from WordPress.org.
For better functionality and a more professional look, you can also purchase a theme or get a website designer to create a custom look for your website that will grow with your content. Full disclosure, there are some restrictions with WordPress and other blogging software templates. Most small businesses will be well served with most of the templates but when you start to add more bells and whistles to your company website you may need a more robust custom template that will handle custom programming.
5. Start blogging
Once WordPress and the theme are installed, you can start creating content for your website. Login through www.yourbusiness.com/wp-admin/ to start posting pages and posts for your new online hub.
If you’re a DIYer, these first steps will help you launch your small business website and start building an audience online. However, if you’re not the type to dive into domain names and WordPress themes, you may want to look into having a web design or marketing company do these for you. The important thing is for you to get your brand in front of your audience, and establish yourself as an expert that they can trust with their business. And a well-designed small business website is the cornerstone of your online marketing strategy.

Should You Hire a Full-Service Brand Manager or Just a Website Designer?

web-design-brand-managementA couple of posts ago, we talked about how to be your own brand manager for your small business.
One of the first tasks in launching your brand is to set up a self-hosted and professional website. As a business owner, you can hire a web designer, and then do everything else yourself after your website is up and running.
However, after working to build a business, not every business owner will have the resources needed to take on the myriad tasks involved in brand marketing. While there are advantages to doing everything yourself, it may not always be feasible for everyone.
There are times when hiring a full-service brand and communications manager is best for your business. A full-service brand manager takes care of everything your business needs to attract more customers, establish and maintain a robust online presence, and present a consistent and professional company image.
This includes tasks such as creating a custom website, setting up social media accounts, providing content for webpages, blogs and newsletters, and providing consultation when needed. Some brand management companies, like Connection Group, even offer additional services in advertising and print communications such as corporate brochures and any item that communicates your brand message to your customer.
Today we’ll talk about how to evaluate whether it would be best for you to be your own brand manager, or if you should entrust the tasks involved in marketing to someone else. Some of the factors you need to consider include your available time, resources, expertise, interest, ability, and skills. We’ll take a look at three of those factors below:
Do You Have the Time?
Time is one of the most valuable resources of a small business owner. Many entrepreneurs put in far more hours than a full-time worker. What many don’t realize is that managing a brand (not just a company) requires a huge investment of careful thought and time.
Are you able to put in the hours needed to build a website or Facebook page, write press releases, blog articles and social media posts, craft newsletters, create visual displays, and monitor customer engagement? These are just some of the tasks that a brand manager can do for your company on a regular basis.
Do You Have the Expertise?
Launching an effective marketing campaign requires specific skills and knowledge. If you’re going to build your brand from the ground up, for example, some of the skills that you will need are website development, search engine optimization, graphic and print design, familiarity with social media, writing, and marketing ability.
If you don’t already have this type of expertise, ask yourself whether you are able to spend the time required to study and gain the skills you need.
Do You Have an Interest in Marketing?
Having a passion for your business and having a passion for marketing your business are two different things. In the same way that the skills required to make a product or provide a service are different from the skills necessary to spread the word about that product or service, your excitement over what your company offers may not translate to excitement for the type of marketing needed to reach and cultivate new customers.
As a business owner, one of the decisions you have to make is to weigh the benefits of investing in a skilled brand manager versus putting in the time to do it yourself. How many hours are you willing to spend on marketing every week? Do you have the knowledge, skills and interest to carry it through to the long-term?
If you would like to know more about what a full-service brand manager can do for your company, contact us today. Connection Group offers a free initial consultation. We can assess where you are in your online brand and marketing efforts. If all you need is a professionally-designed website, we can do that for you too. Remember, that first consultation is on us!

January 2013

Thank you for letting us partner with you through Connectivity, the Connection Group e-newsletter. It is our goal to make our monthly connections helpful and inspiring for you as a business owner.
In this edition, we share one of the best tools you can use to manage your online content.


Your Editorial Calendar

Building your online presence using a blog takes focus and time. You need regular updates and high-quality content that are relevant to your industry and business. One of the ways to streamline your blogging time is by using an editorial calendar.
An editorial calendar is a schedule for your blog or website. It is commonly used by magazines and online publications.
Whether it is as simple as a list of monthly topics for blog posts, using an editorial calendar saves you time. No more sitting in front of a computer and staring at a blank page.
Follow these steps to set up your own editorial calendar:

  • Use an Excel spreadsheet or a wall calendar with space to write on.
  • Add the dates of industry events such as trade shows, conferences, etc. Also add special occasions and important holidays. If you’re planning any special promotions for your services or products, put them in as well.
  • Brainstorm a list of topics you would like to write about.
  • Go through your list of topics and choose one for each month. Take into consideration the events and promotions you’ve already added. Eg., if you’re a florist, a post about choosing flowers for loved ones would be a great fit for February (Valentine’s Day).
  • The more specific you are with the topics you choose, the more time you will save when you sit down to write the article. But a general idea for a future article is fine too.

Remember that if ever you find that your needs change along the way, feel free to tweak your planned topics. The goal of having an editorial calendar is for you to save time and have a focus as you build your online brand.


owl logo design by connection graphicsMore for you…
Find out how to manage your brand as a small business on our blog.


Project Spotlight Event Promotions Print and Digital SolutionsMonthly Promotion for January 2013 is 15% off Full color brochures and sales sheets

Print and Digital Solutions for Successful Event Promotion

One of the ways we can help you grow your business is by offering suggestions for products that will help you achieve your goals. This month, we are featuring digital and print solutions you can use for event promotions.

Checklist for Effective Event Promotions

 
wise website home page designBefore you begin, make sure that all details about the event are clear and consistent across all promotional efforts. Check that all materials have the correct event name, time, location, and other information.
Create some or all of the following items for use in your promotions:
1. Save the Date announcements
Create an early buzz for your event with Save the Date announcements for sharing on postcards, emails, blogs, and other communications.
2. Digital and Printed Invitations
Digital invitations can be sent through a e-vite site, on Facebook, and/or by email. Printed options include a traditional card (with envelope), a postcard, etc.
wise event registration button sample3. RSVP and Payment Options
For printed invitations, include a phone number and email, or use a separate card for clients to mail back to you. Always indicate a deadline for RSVPs. On digital invitations, make sure there is a way attendees can RSVP electronically, either through a link, or by replying to your email. It’s a good idea to include a phone number, even in digital invites. Keep track of the RSVPs you receive, and send out reminders as needed.
For events that require payment, create a website page with a secure payment portal and include the link in all invitations.
example of web banner for an event4. Web Banners and Pages
Post event details and updates on your website and social media outposts. Include links to the pages in all your event communications.
5.  Sponsor and Exhibit Packets
For large events, consider creating sponsor and exhibit packets both in print and for the web. The information should include the benefits of sponsorships, the cost and size of booths/sponsorships, a map of the exhibit area, and a map of the general location.  When hosting a multiple-day event, include information on hotels, area attractions, etc.
wise social media logos6. Social Media Announcements
Regularly share information and links on your social media outposts (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.). Spread the word through your company or organization website, and other groups you are involved in. Let your audiences know when you add new speakers, sponsors, etc. Ask them to share, like, re-tweet, etc.
WISE 2013 Save the date flyer7. Print and Digital Advertisements
Purchase advertisements to promote your event. Consider print and online publications in relevant industries and geographical areas.
8. Event Program
Create a printed program with the event agenda, workshop list, speaker bios, etc.
9. Giveaways
Purchase specialty advertising items — such as pens, name tags, and notepads — to give away.
10. Signage
WISE Enter to WIn SignKeep your event organized with printed signs with directions to the location, specific rooms, exhibit halls, etc.
11. Visual Displays for Trade Show Booth and Table Tops
If you are an exhibitor at an event, visual displays for full-size booths or table tops are a must. Make sure your display is at the same level of professionalism as others who will be attending. Don’t be the booth everyone avoids!
12. Awards and Certificates
End your event on a high note with awards and certificates for participants. Thank them for their attendance and encourage them to maintain contact with you for future events and promotions.
13. Specialty Advertising / Promotional Giveaways
wise specialy adveritising mirror graphicHave an item to send home with attendees. Find an item that can be used multiple times and one that ties into your company or industry. Choose an item you know your clientele and prospects will relate to. For WISE, Women in Successful Enterprises, professional business women are the target market. One of the give-aways WISE shares is a small purse mirror with the brand logo and website domain on the back of it. It is an item members use time and time again – plus they use it in public so others can see the branding on the back and make inquiries about the organization. Don’t break the bank on overly fancy and expensive give-aways especially when your event is a trade show that may have attendees who are not interested in doing business with but like to partake in your freebies.
***
Use a combination of these digital and print solutions to successfully promote your event. You’ll find that a well-organized and memorable event will increase your audience and cement your brand. If you need help creating these solutions, contact us today.

On the Web: How to Manage Your Brand as a Small Business

As a small business owner, one of your jobs is to manage your brand online and off. In addition to reaching new customers and growing your company, you need to maintain an online presence and use it to achieve your goals.
logosWhile you’re good at what you do for your business and customers, you may not be quite as savvy when it comes to the internet. So, we put together this checklist for managing your website, and brand, as a small business owner. Putting these elements in action lets you take advantage of the opportunities that the web has to offer.

A. Have a Clear Message

Your business (and website) must have what is often called a unique value proposition (UVP), or unique selling point. What are you offering? Who is your audience?  What message do you want to send?
Before you start creating or revamping your website, you must be able to answer these questions.

  • Your offer is simply your roster of products or services and their corresponding prices.
  • Your ideal customer is the person whom you want to engage in your business. These are the people you want to attract to your website, and move to make a purchasing decision.
  • Your message is what you want to stand out in your prospects or customers mind. Are you the most economical, the best quality, the fastest, or the most experienced?

What comes next is a bit more complicated: Identifying and crafting your message. This is where the “unique” comes into your unique value proposition. What makes you uniquely qualified to offer these services? In other words, what makes your business different from the rest?
These are things you must think about before you set up your online hub. In order to have an effective website, you must identify what makes you different from all the others that are offering the same thing. If your business caters mainly to your local community, you would want to include that as part of what makes you stand out. You know your customers by name, you provide a personal touch to your services, and so on.
Once you know your message, you must present it in a clear, concise, and consistent way, which brings us to the next point.

B. Unify Your Brand

Everything that has your company’s name on it – whether it’s a business card, a logo, or a website – is part of your brand. They must all work together to get your unique message across to your ideal client.
Here are some practical tips that will help you with brand management in a way that supports your day-to-day work:
Your website must be self-hosted and be on a relevant domain name.
Self-hosted simply means it’s not a free service or platform, like Blogger or WordPress.com.
When your buy your domain name, it should be “yourbusiness.com” (example: connectiongraphics.com). Make it easy to remember, with no numbers or special characters except if it’s part of your company name.
A self-hosted site on a good domain name tells your customers that you’re an authority in your field. They can trust you with their business.
Create a unified look that reflects your company and mission.
The image your business presents must be consistent across all types of communications, whether it’s online or not.
The first place to start is your company logo. If you don’t have a logo, get a professional designer to make one for you. Use it on all your communications.
Pull colors and design elements out of your logo and use them in your website, e-newsletter, letterhead, promotional materials, etc. For example, if you use a clean sans-serif font on your business card, don’t go for swirly artsy types on your website.
Set-up online outposts.
Whether or not you like being on social media, it’s now practically a requirement for any business. You need to set up and maintain “online outposts.” These in turn will direct your ideal customer back to your website, and toward a decision to purchase.
These outposts include blogs, social media and newsletters.

C. Create Effective Content

Now that you have your self-hosted website and relevant online outposts, you need to turn your attention to the elements of your site that will turn your readers into customers.
Your business website must have the following:

  • About page (what your business is about, who you are, your qualifications, and other special attributes that will make the online reader want to do business with you)
  • Easy-to-navigate information about your services and/or products
  • Different ways to contact you (via contact form, address, email, twitter, Facebook, etc.)
  • Option to subscribe to an email newsletter or RSS feed
  • Secure product page and shopping cart, as needed
  • Regularly updated information about your services, products and related topics

The last item on the list above will help your clients know your business better, as well as help you get found in search engines. The best and easiest way to do this is to maintain a blog. High-quality and regularly-updated content will establish you as an authority in your niche.
As a small business owner, an effective online presence begins with and is established by a clear message, a unified look and effective content. If you’d like to learn more about how to manage your brand online and off, sign up for our newsletter, Connectivity.

Bring Good Energy to Your Business in 2013 – Feng Shui Your Brand!

feng-shui-your-brandA new year is bursting on the scene ushering in the promise of opportunities and change. This week, the year-end and a full moon energy moved me to clear clutter and rearrange rooms in my home and office. Considering elements, energy, color and flow in my personal space reminded me of how important incorporating the practice of Feng Shui is in business as well.
Feng shui is about creating and maintaining positive flowing energy. Special attention is paid to the five elements, the yin-yang balance of a structure, whether it be a brick and mortar building or a business structure.
Placement and balance of color, symbols, and the five elements of feng shui establish a flow that creates positive feelings and response. Brand messages need to exude positive feelings that resonate with the manager/owner, customers, prospects, employees, vendors and hopefully the general public. Utilizing some basic feng shui practices as it relates to your particular business can increase the positive image of your business and brand.
People respond to color and images much faster than they respond to words and it is wise to look at these guides while considering your business brand and imagery. Specific colors and elements are naturally associated with certain industries and can be incorporated into your office space, website and other elements of your company brand.
Here are the Five Feng Shui Elements applied to specific business industries:

  • FIRE: restaurants, cafes, retail, creative studios, sports related business, etc.
  • EARTH: real estate development, building/construction, agricultural, environmental
  • METAL: architect firms, technology, government, banking, accounting, all financial industries
  • WATER: employment agencies, massage and healing centers, cleaning services, beauty industry
  • WOOD: publishing agency, travel agencies, floral shops, clothing, schools, universities, day care centers, etc.

Each of the five feng shui elements are assigned shapes and colors that increase their energy. Depending on which element your industry belongs to, utilizing the corresponding shapes and colors in your branding will help strengthen the message and increase the positive energy.
Here are the shapes associated with each of the five feng shui elements:

  • WOOD: Rectangular
  • FIRE: Triangular
  • EARTH: Square
  • METAL: Round
  • WATER: Wavy

And here are the colors associated with each of the five feng shui elements:

  • WOOD: Green, Brown
  • FIRE: Red, Strong Yellow, Orange, Purple, Pink
  • EARTH: Light Yellow, Sandy/Earthy, Light Brown
  • METAL: White, Gray
  • WATER: Blue, Black

What do you do when your company offers services or products that incorporate multiple elements?
That’s when the feng shui magic begins!
You can make a determination on what element is the strongest for your company based on your brand focus. For instance, Connection Group provides graphic design and web design solutions for businesses. However, we also develop integrative marketing plans, plus offer marketing consultations, publishing services, and web hosting.
In review of the elements by industry, we could essentially choose all the elements. What is needed is a feng shui ‘cure’.
When you encounter this option, ask yourself which element choice feels and looks better? Since we do all of these services very well, thank you, we wanted to practice feng shui principles in our logo design and brand communication as much as possible. We also know that what our clients rave most about is how we infuse creative talent into every project. Delivering creative solutions is what we want our brand to communicate most. Hence we want Fire to be a strong element in our brand.
We also want to balance the fire by including some of the other elements associated with the services we provide. If you take a look at our logo, first, note the star symbol. A star is light and fire, the symbol itself is also made up of triangles, the shape associated with fire. The gold in the logo brings in the metal element for the technology solutions we develop. The overall circle shape is associated with metal also, but because we are incorporating the moon symbol the connection also relates to the earth element – and of course the circle shape is all about ‘flow’ right? The black interior is the water element that connects and grounds them all and relates to our business clientele.
As brand manager for small business owners, we study the five elements of feng shui and do our best to apply them to your business communications and promotions. However, feng shui should not be forced. It is a natural, organic flow that must feel right to reap the best energy. Balancing colors, shapes and placement to invite a positive relationship with everyone who interacts with your brand. Be mindful of the “feel-good” factor with images or symbols in your business communications.
Feng shui is a very in-depth practice and we have just skimmed the surface on how utilizing its practices can enhance your business. If you are interested in learning more about how to incorporate Feng Shui in your business branding, office or lifestyle, please contact us, we are always happy to build positive energy.
For self-study you may want to refer to a bagua map when relating feng shui to a home, office, building or landscaping to determine placement and generating positive flowing energy. Some of my favorite authors and resources on the subject include: Terah Kathryn Collins – Feng Shui for Prosperity and a most beautiful book by Rosalyn Dexter “Chinese Whispers.” On the web: http://www.amazon.com.
I wish you joy and luck in 2013. Stay connected!

Keep Your Business Connected

girls on rollercoaster

It’s been a load of fun!

As we are nearing the year end, Connection Group is excited to announce we will be bringing back our monthly e-newsletter “Connectivity”. As business has increased and our services have expanded over the last few years we have dedicated our time to meeting our customers needs by fulfilling their project requests and increasing our knowledge and skills in the areas of social media and internet marketing. Whew! It has been a fast paced rollercoaster ride with a mix of laughter, joy, fear and tears! We have grown to a full service design firm with a focus on integrative marketing.

So what does this all mean to you? It means we still make you look good, we make your ideas work, we make headlines and most importantly, make your job easier. Our design offering still include graphic design services of your choice, logos, brochures, illustrations, book covers, magazines, visual displays ( trade show graphics and signage) etc. Web design solutions include graphical interface, illustrations, photo optimizing, landing pages, web-galleries, websites that you can update yourself, e-commerce websites, members only websites and more. Web development includes; content management systems, payment portals, shopping carts, password protected areas, statistic tracking and analytics, etc.

The integrative marketing services Connection Group now offers small business marketing, consulting, internet marketing, print marketing, and social media marketing. Digital marketing includes marketing plan, publication calendars, website design and development, internet/digital advertising, research, e-press releases, internet copy writing, etc. Print marketing continues with direct mail pieces, corporate brochures, postcards, business cards, flyers, mailers and more. Lastly and most in demand currently is our social media marketing services. Connection Group manages all social media platforms for you. If you’re on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others we manage your posts, respond and update all areas, track and review analytics, write, publish and track regular blog entries. Am I leaving out anything? Probably, give us a call if there is something related that you need, we can help or we can refer you to another resource.

Don’t worry we are still offering options for these services. We provide monthly marketing solutions for customers that incorporate all of the above or we can tailor a package that fits a small business marketing budget. All services can be chosen individually or as a package to suit your needs each time.

We look forward to staying connected with you. We are committed to providing valuable small business marketing and design tips to help you grow your business, get more traffic and customers to your business. Subscribe to our e-newsletter, connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and ArchtypeMe we will be sharing current trends in business marketing and design, offering discounts and specials for printing and digital services and uploading fun, artistic cards to share with your family and friends for free!

Stay connected,
Connie