Emily Wade

Infographic Design Tips: An Easy Guide for Beginners

Emily Wade · Mar 4, 2021 · 1 Comment

Have you ever seen an amazing infographic and wanted to create one yourself? If so, keep reading for some simple infographic design tips…

If you want to skip the reading, here’s my video featuring infographic design tips in Canva.

Are you looking for broader advice about personal branding? Head over to How to Brand Yourself instead.

Firstly, what is an infographic?

The word infographic originated in the 1970’s as a blend of information and graphic and according to Lexico.com, it is ‘a visual representation of information or data, e.g. as a chart or diagram’. You might see them featured on websites, blogs and social media platforms to communicate information in a visually engaging way.

Why should you use an infographic?

Quite simply, images naturally draw our attention, and can quickly communicate large amounts of information in a powerful way.

Infographics are useful for highlighting or summarising key information provided in the written content of a page. Or, they may convey extra information that is not already mentioned in the text. They can also be valuable for representing data-heavy scientific or technical information in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand manner.

Infographic Design Tips

Identify your Target Audience

One of the most important aspects of successful design is knowing who your target audience is. It’s important to be specific here. Choosing templates, colours and images that are most likely to appeal to your specific audience is crucial. Make sure you consider what will be appealing to, and provide value for, your audience!

Gather the Most Important Information

Before starting your design, you will need to have a clear idea of the information you want to convey. During the research phase, check that your sources are credible and note their details so you can cite them. Once you’ve found your source/s, type out some dot points of the key information that you want to include. Make sure you highlight only the most important bits; an infographic with too much text will be overwhelming and hard to read! It’s also important to be focused, here. Narrow your topic as much as possible.

Photo of a laptop keyboard on black background with rainbow lights projected onto it. — *Photo by Dhaval Parmar on Unsplash*

Choose a Template Design

Cchoosing a ready-made infographic template will make the design process much more streamlined! Canva has lots of templates to choose from and is an excellent option for beginners. I also like some of the options at Venngage, Piktochart and Adobe InDesign (this works for me because I have an existing Adobe subscription but if you don’t and would like to try InDesign, Adobe do offer a ‘free trial’ option).

When choosing a template, find something that is as close to what you need in terms of layout, colours and images/icons as possible. The fewer changes you need to make to a template, the better your results are likely to be! Your target audience should always be front-of-mind when making this decision.

The Design Process

When you alter colours, try to maintain the same number of colours provided in the template. In most cases, two or three colours will be perfect.

Maintain elements in balance. If you delete an element, adjust the spacing of everything else afterwards. You can customise icons and pictures, but try to maintain their size and position in the template.

Finally, simple is almost always better when it comes to design. Beware of over-crowding your design (with too much text or too many images). Maintaining white space around all elements helps to avoid a cramped look too.

If you really need more space, consider other options such as using multiple infographics (or cutting out less-important information).

The Finishing Touches

Have a break! I always recommend stepping away from your work before doing a final check and any required editing. Returning with ‘fresh eyes’ will help you to identify any errors, omissions or opportunities for improvement much more easily.

Ask for Feedback

Send your infographic to a trusted friend, colleague or family member. Someone who you trust to provide you with constructive feedback, of course!

Download and Publish

You might need to check the required file type and size/resolution for your intended purpose before downloading your design. A quick ‘Google’ will usually reveal the information you need if you can’t find the details on the website. You could also download the file using the default settings and see how it displays (comparing desktop and mobile viewing). When using a design platform like Canva, there are preset download settings for most popular social media sites. These are not always 100% accurate (especially with ‘magic resize’) but they can be a good starting point.

*Remember to revisit your content occasionally to make sure it’s as accurate as possible. You could set a reminder on your phone for every 6-12 months. If your content is aligned with current research and industry best practice, it is more likely to attract ongoing engagement.

Extra Resources and Tips about Infographic Design

Canva | Create Infographics

Venngage | Infographic Design Templates

Piktochart | Infographic Templates

Sessions.edu | Color Wheel – Color Calculator

Deakin Library Guide | Creating an Infographic

_{📷 Cover Image by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash}

This Is Why We Needed 2020

Emily Wade · Dec 30, 2020 · Leave a Comment

‘Unprecedented’ was the buzzword of 2020, a signal of the devastating pandemic that swept through populations worldwide, and it’s not over yet. Researchers state that with so much still to learn about Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we could be in ‘recovery-mode’ until at least 2025. One thing that this pandemic has brought into stark relief is our vulnerability as humans, and with scientists warning us of connections between the spread of infectious diseases and climate change, 2020 could be the wake-up call we needed!

One of the ‘PR problems’ of climate change is that for many of us, it seems too big and overwhelming to deal with. We are also separated from the natural world in our urban environments, so the threat of a climate crisis isn’t directly witnessed or felt. When it comes to a global human health pandemic though, the risk feels more immediate. And, we have been forced to make changes to our work, travel and leisure arrangements which has had positive flow-on environmental impacts.

So, what can we learn from 2020 that could propel us into a net-zero emissions future?

The Climate Change-Pandemic Relationship

Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, says that although we don’t have direct evidence that climate change is influencing the spread of COVID-19, we do know that it transforms how we relate to other species on the planet.

‘Many of the root causes of climate change also increase the risk of pandemics. Deforestation, which occurs mostly for agricultural purposes, is the largest cause of habitat loss worldwide. Loss of habitat forces animals to migrate and potentially contact other animals or people and share germs.’

To avoid more pandemic events and a substantially altered existence on earth, we need to make immediate and aggressive changes to our fossil-fuelled lifestyles. 2020 showed us that we’re highly capable of making these changes simply because we had to be.

A Renewed Focus

The spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and efforts to contain it forced many of us to slow down. We paused our fast-paced consumer-driven lifestyles due to lockdown restrictions. We changed our work arrangements to more flexible and remote options (if we were lucky). We stopped getting in cars to drive an hour to meetings that could be held via Zoom. We stopped boarding aeroplanes to fly interstate or overseas for conferences that could be hosted online. Less travel led to a reduction in burning of fossil fuels.

In short, we gave ourselves and our natural environment some much needed breathing space.

‘The International Energy Agency expects global CO^₂ emissions to drop by 8% this year’. Natural fluctuations in CO₂ levels and the fact that carbon doesn’t just disappear means that we’re yet to see any downward trend in atmospheric CO₂ levels. And we may not. It looks like CO^₂ is continuing to increase at the same rate as previous years which means that we need aggressive investments in renewable energy sources to tackle global warming.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2020 states that, ‘despite a dip in greenhouse gas emissions from the COVID-19 economic slowdown, the world is still heading for a catastrophic temperature rise above 3°C this century – far beyond the goals of the Paris Agreement. But UNEP’s Emissions Gap points to hope in a green pandemic recovery and growing commitments to net-zero emissions.

Renewed hope and focus on reducing emissions have been demonstrated at all levels; individual, government and corporate. However, it will take concerted effort to translate this into longer-term meaningful change, with some countries already surpassing pre-COVID emissions levels!

_{Emissions Gap Report 2020: An Inflection Point (Video)}

Working towards a new life and net-zero emissions will require us to make permanent lifestyle changes and collaborate with each other and our governments. Kenneth Martens Friesen, Ph.D. states in his book, Energy, Economics and Ethics, ‘energy consumption in the world today is intrinsically connected to ethics.’ He is referring to the need for strong, ethical leadership. And unlike previous generations that witnessed slow societal transformation through the use of fossil fuels, we don’t have the luxury of time. We need excellent leadership. Now. It might just be that our new ‘leaders’ will be everyday members of local communities. There are examples of successful grass-roots leadership across the globe already, and they often start with passionate individuals who have a deep love of their local community and natural environment.

Individual Motivation

For individuals, a slower-paced life and less travel allowed us to walk in our local neighbourhoods; to spend more time outdoors and observe our immediate environment, maybe even discovering the natural wonders on our doorsteps. We developed a richer appreciation of our immediate surroundings, which has deepened our connection to country, and home. Speaking on the Dumbo Feather Podcast, Travel Writer and ‘Master of Stillness’ Pico Iyer described how he and his wife had begun taking walks around their flat in Japan. They had lived in the same place for 28-years but never walked even 2-minutes from their home prior to lockdown. Iyer said something that I think we’re all guilty of to some degree, ‘I sleepwalk through my everyday life to a dangerous extent.’ He was referring to our habit of taking things for granted, especially those that are very close to home.

With a heightened awareness and appreciation of our natural environment often comes a desire to fight for its preservation. This is where inspired individuals can harness storytelling to communicate their passion/s and motivate others to join them in a collective pursuit of ‘better’. Again, the pandemic has proven that humans are already powerful collaborators.

The Power of Human Collaboration

2020 saw social injustice and disadvantage amplified. Those who were already in need, suffered more. Some who had only a small financial buffer lost jobs and suffered housing and food insecurity for the first time in their lives. Oz Harvest Founder and CEO, Ronni Kahn said that 1-million more Australians have required food relief since the beginning of March this year (quoted in May, 2020 – I’m sure this number has grown further since then). Oz Harvest have expanded and diversified their operations substantially throughout this year to meet growing demand.

The work of Oz Harvest and many other charitable organisations (driven by their largely volunteer workforces) has shone a light on the potential for humans to rally together and achieve phenomenal things under pressure. Being proactive and empathetic towards others in our communities will be a major driver behind the social and environmental reforms that we so desperately need.

Scientists have also cited the pandemic as a key driver of more effective collaboration. Nevan Krogan says he was inspired by his team’s work during the pandemic, dropping individual tasks and working together. He said, ‘when results are shared openly, science can progress so much faster.’ Where there is need (and money is invested), humans do rise to the challenge!

Inspired Leadership

Strong leadership is required to achieve change, and this doesn’t necessarily come from traditional government and corporate models. It often comes through the collaboration of like-minded individuals in movements such as the ‘Extinction Rebellion’. Founded by Roger Hallam and Gail Bradbrook in 2018, Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a global environmental movement with the following demands:

1. Tell the truth.

Governments must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

2. Act now.

Governments must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

3. Beyond politics.

Governments must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

There are also other examples of individuals and collectives who have challenged traditional governance models to motivate change. One of these is in the story of former Mayor of Frome (pron. ‘froom’), Peter Macfadyen who led a council of 10 independents to ‘reclaim local politics from the systems and political parties that were failing them.’ Much of Peter’s philosophy is bedded in the idea that we should ‘disrespect power’ in the sense of questioning traditional rules and processes to see if there’s a more productive and efficient way to govern. His time as Mayor of Frome demonstrated the potential for making substantial change by using existing wisdom within a population to make decisions. And when we’re talking about climate change as such a large-scale issue, we really do have to start somewhere. Logically, that somewhere is where we live, and love.

Peter cites Rob Hopkins’ writing on Transitions Towns as a brilliant resource for starting local and implementing change. Transitionnetwork.org also has some excellent, practical resources about ‘Transition’:

‘Transition is a movement that has been growing since 2005. It is about communities stepping up to address the big challenges they face by starting local. By coming together, they are able to create solutions together. They seek to nurture a caring culture, one focused on connection with self, others and nature. They are reclaiming the economy, sparking entrepreneurship, reimagining work, reskilling themselves and weaving webs of connection and support. Courageous conversations are being had; extraordinary change is unfolding.’

A Path Forward

Through lockdown restrictions many of us have discovered more sustainable lifestyle choices that we could continue with in the longer term. We needed this year to prove to us that we are powerful collaborators and change-makers; humans already have the tools we need to enact social and environmental transformation. Now, it’s a matter of digging in our heels and getting the job done!

Let’s hope that the human resilience we have witnessed to-date carries us into a period of social, environmental and economic recovery. And not only recovery but leads us into a more sustainable and viable future. We can do this by empowering individuals and communities to take action in small ways; to keep learning, questioning and campaigning.

We can each do something.

Start local.

Start small.

Sources/Extra Information

How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond in Nature.com

Coronavirus and Climate Change – C-CHANGE | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Monitoring of Atmospheric CO2 in Hawaii: Global Monitoring Laboratory – Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases

Nature.com Study: Near-real-time monitoring of global CO 2 emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic | Nature Communications

UN Emissions Gap Report and Paris Agreement. Includes priority areas for reduction: aviation and shipping: Emissions Gap Report 2020 | UNEP – UN Environment Programme

Our Impact during Covid-19 | OzHarvest

The power of collaboration in science: Science in the Wake of the Pandemic: How Will COVID-19 Change the Way We Do Research?

Rob Hopkins, Transitions Network

_{Header Image by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash}

A Virtual Graduation Speech for 2020

Emily Wade · Dec 22, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Students finishing University at the end of 2020 weren’t able to participate in a physical graduation ceremony due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions. Granted, these formal events are not always as innovative and engaging as they could be. Steeped in tradition and featuring regalia (cap and gown) signalling levels of academic achievement, some would argue that these ceremonies are out of touch with modern values. Despite this, most people agree that it’s still important to celebrate important lifetime achievements such as successfully completing a tertiary degree!

In the absence of a traditional, physical graduation ceremony option our digital media alumni group organised a virtual alternative: the ‘Officially Unofficial Graduation Ceremony’, held via Zoom on a Monday evening.

I was tasked with saying a few words to encourage, inspire and recognise our graduates (representing the group as both a former student and current teacher at Deakin University). Before I started writing, I searched the web for ‘graduation speeches’ in a quest to find ideas and inspiration. I found various blogs with listicles of the most inspiring ‘commencement speeches’ (a term mostly used in America). The same names were often featured near the top of these lists: Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005), Michelle Obama (Tuskegee, 2015), Natalie Portman (Harvard, 2015), and Amy Poehler (Harvard, 2011) among others. Many quotes that I found were inspiring but somehow, not quite suited to a virtual graduation ceremony at the end of 2020. I left the computer for a while and to ponder…

I came to the conclusion that I needed to compose a very short speech (a lengthy speech via Zoom might kill the celebratory vibe very quickly)! Quite simply, I wanted to congratulate our graduates and provide them with hope and inspiration for the future. Once I had settled on these goals I started drafting, inspired in-part by a book I was reading at the time called ‘This One Wild and Precious Life’ by Sarah Wilson and some recent posts and videos I had seen on Instagram.

Below is the speech I gave on the night…

In the crazy and somewhat unprecedented year that 2020 has been, graduating from your degree is an amazing achievement, and one that you’ve most likely had to fight harder for than you expected to almost 12-months ago, given all of the extra obstacles that have been thrown your way.

So, take this moment and be proud of your achievements, before moving forward with hope.

For some of you, graduation is something that formalises and embeds your existing skill set and career path, for others this is the beginning of something completely new. For some of you, the next step is uncertain and if this year has reminded us of anything, it’s that life is uncertain.

Life is a continuous journey of learning, growing and finding your way, along the way. If you feel that you’ve finished, you have certainly finished this thing, but there are still many more exciting and challenging steps to conquer on the road ahead.

As staff and fellow students at Deakin, we have been honoured to have you with us and we look forward to staying in touch, and collaborating with you into the future.

One of the most exciting things to consider now is that regardless of your particular degree, you will all be storytellers of some kind. You have the skills and experience to communicate with, and persuade others on any number of topics. This is so powerful because what our world needs more than anything right now is clear communication and empathy for others which can lead to meaningful change.

I don’t want to turn this into a climate change rant but I really feel that David Attenborough’s final Instagram video is fitting here, for several reasons. So, over to you, Sir David and congratulations to every one of you for achieving this very important step in your journey!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by A Life On Our Planet (@davidattenborough)

_{‘What happens next is up to us…‘ from @davidattenborough on Instagram}

Are you a teacher or student in Higher Education? I’d love to hear some of the innovative ways that you celebrated graduation during 2020! Share your thoughts below…

_{Header Image: Photo by Keith Luke on Unsplash}

Challenging Assumptions About Kids and Digital Technology

Emily Wade · Dec 5, 2020 · 4 Comments

I was speaking to a senior teacher at my kids’ school recently (let’s call her Penny, for the sake of this story). We were discussing a grade four school camp that my eldest son attended, and one situation that Penny described (which happened during the school camp) prompted me to consider how making assumptions about kids and digital technology can do them a serious disservice. Such assumptions can also blind us, as older generations, to the connected and creative beings that young people so often are. Below is the story that Penny told me and some of my reflections on how we as humans can develop a positive and proactive relationship with technology.

Penny told me that on a farm visit during the school camp, she and the other teachers noticed a large group of boys sitting down on a log to observe, rather than interacting with the animals. She said that the staff were shocked to see such a big group of kids opt out of an activity, and even appear bored. She also said that this was highly unusual behaviour for 10-year-olds, and something she’d never witnessed in previous cohorts. Penny then went on to make several sweeping assumptions about the situation, saying that ‘today’s kids don’t know how to engage with the natural world. These are city kids and it was sad to see them miss out on an opportunity.’ She added that ‘too much ICT (Information Communication Technology) is doing this to kids’ and that ‘many are spending hours on their iPads before bed, playing Fortnite and watching porn.’

‘Young boy feeding the goat‘ by Nenad Stojkovic (CC BY 2.0)

There are elements of truth to what Penny said but her generalisations troubled me on several levels, and at the time I felt like launching straight into a strongly-worded set of counter arguments and questions to challenge her position. How dare you judge children like that! There must be some other explanation! Kids didn’t invent this technology, they inherited it! Did you even ask them why they were sitting down, or did you just jump straight to making assumptions?

Instead of saying any of this though, I calmly offered some potential explanations, while still trying to wrap my own head around the scenario. My main thought was, maybe the boys were tired? They’d had a late night and then spent the whole morning bodyboarding at the beach. But Penny swiftly dismissed this suggestion, saying that the boys ‘shouldn’t have been tired.’

The scenario continued to play on my mind after I’d finished talking to Penny; she hadn’t explicitly said that my son was part of the group but I had guessed that he was. Opting out of an activity didn’t seem like something my son would usually do, so I decided to ask him about it when he got home from school. When I did ask him, my son explained that he had actually been the very first one to sit down because his foot was hurting (he had injured it during the previous bodyboarding activity). Shortly after he sat down, one of his peers came over, asked if he was okay and sat beside him for company. Then, a third boy (who coincidentally, comes from a farming background) joined them. From there, it was a domino effect with more boys coming to sit with them over the next few minutes. A simple act of empathy and mate-ship from one child had snowballed into others following and taking the opportunity to rest. As I said earlier, these kids had spent all morning being highly physically active at the beach after a late first night at camp. They were tired!

I certainly don’t think this warranted a stereotypical judgement that the boys were sitting down because they weren’t interested in engaging with animals and nature or were bored because the activity didn’t involve a screen. Unfortunately, the teachers seem to have misinterpreted the situation, and even missed an opportunity to congratulate the kids on their self-sufficient and empathetic behaviour.

I’m not denying how much our lives have been transformed by the most rapid period of technological development in human history. I am acutely aware of the increased time most of us spend on digital devices, social media and gaming today, even compared to 10-years ago. However, I’m also wary of engaging blindly with dystopian rhetoric. We must continue to think critically about technology and its broader impacts on our societies and cultures, considering multiple human and technological factors that are at play in any given situation.

Photo by Emily Wade | Graphic created on Canva

Demonising the technology and culture that our kids have inherited can’t be useful for their development. Focusing on the negative only serves to ignore the many benefits that technology brings to young people, such as access to information, social connection, community building, and entertainment.

The challenge to us as older generations is to look – and really see – our young people for what they’re creating and learning and who they’re connecting with online. At the same time of course, we need to set clear boundaries and keep them safe online, just as we do offline.

It’s also up to us as humans, to actively work to create the world that we want to live in. To campaign for the best uses of technology to solve health inequalities and allow humans to flourish socially. These are the democratising potentialities of the internet that we’ve been imagining since 1969, but so far haven’t realised.

I’ve just started reading Sarah Wilson’s beautiful book, ‘This One Wild and Precious Life’ and in it she grapples with different philosophies to explain the feeling of disconnect (and discontent) that many humans are feeling today. When addressing the issue of technology and ‘the bloody scrolling’ she says that ‘we tend to blame technology for much of this despair…’ She urges us to instead ask the courageous question, ‘what does technology enable?’ This isn’t about what technology does. It’s about what technology enables and amplifies in human behaviour. Sarah likens this to the argument that guns don’t kill, people do.

If you’d like to hear Sarah Wilson talking about her latest book, you can listen to this brilliant podcast from Dumbo Feather! 👇🏼

Professor Genevieve Bell also references the idea of technology, and AI particularly, as magnifying pre-existing human problems of inequity in her 2017 Boyer Lecture titled ‘Fast, smart and connected: How to build our digital future’.

These voices are some of many that help me to navigate my own thoughts on reconciling our uses of technology with a life well lived. They inspire me to hope and advocate for a world where technology can solve some of our most pressing societal issues. I think one of the biggest keys to enabling this change is for each of us to move from a place of judgement and moral panic to one of accepting the choices of other humans, considering their motivations and fears, and taking control of our own actions and responses.

American actor, Alan Alda is quoted as saying, ‘begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.’

I think this is sage advice for moving forward with hope!

Header Image by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

How to Brand Yourself

Emily Wade · Oct 10, 2020 · 2 Comments

A personal or business brand isn’t just a clever business name or stunning logo; it’s every element of your visual branding, marketing content and how you engage with your customers or clients at each point of contact – the whole package!

And, guess what? Even if you haven’t consciously set out to design your brand, you already have one. Chances are, it might not be as effective as it could be though.

⏸️

Pause, and ask yourself these questions before reading further:

What is your current brand or ‘personality’?
Have you thought consciously about developing your brand or has it just evolved, accidentally?
Is it consistent and recognisable?
Are you attracting the right audience?

Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

Now that you have a clear idea of what your current ‘brand’ is (or isn’t) let’s dig a little deeper.

What exactly is a ‘brand’?

Simply, a brand is an ‘identity’ which is defined by businessdictionary.com as a “Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors.”

A good brand is instantly recognisable, has a clearly defined product offering and is above all else, consistent. So, where do you start if you want to create a strong brand that attracts your target customer or audience? One of the best ways is to look at successful brands in your niche and learn from them.

Below, I look at the key ingredients for building a successful brand as demonstrated by Who Gives a Crap, who have managed to make the sale of environmentally friendly toilet paper (with a social conscience) into a unique, engaging and successful brand.

From the time they first launched their crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, Who Gives a Crap have had a clearly defined, engaging and well-targeted brand that just keeps on delivering! Before you keep reading, watch this video to see some of their clever branding in action…

Who Gives a Crap toilet paper – First Edition Video

So, what can we learn from the masterful branding of Who Gives a Crap?

Firstly, before you even start thinking about designing your brand and story, you must define your product and target customer.

Define your Product

If you are a service-based business, this step is just as important as for those running a product-based business. You need to spend time defining exactly what it is you do, what you sell and, most importantly, what makes your product or service unique compared to others in the marketplace. If you don’t have a well-defined product offering, potential customers will have no idea what you do, or sell!

Who Gives a Crap sell recycled toilet paper, and they’re not the only company who does so. The brand was launched on the back of a successful crowdfunding campaign in July 2012 after the three co-founders, Danny, Simon and Jehan, learnt that “2.3 billion people across the world don’t have access to a toilet… which means that around 289,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation.” The company sells 100% recycled toilet paper (via a mail subscription service) and donates 50% of their profits to “help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world.”

One important thing to note here is that Who Gives a Crap has other products lines but toilet paper is their main product and marketing ‘hero’. Also, the fact that they are both socially and environmentally conscious is unique, and forms a very important part of their ‘brand story’ (more about that later).

When you think about your own business, what do you want customers to remember when they think of your brand? What is the main thing you do or sell? If you have a range of products, what is your ‘hero’ product? Or, what is it that you do best?

Define your Customer

You could say that everyone is a potential customer when you’re selling toilet paper and I’ve heard many small business owners say a similar thing about their product or service. But designing a brand that appeals to ‘all’ is virtually impossible. Some small business owners get stumped at this point and if that’s you, the first thing to ask yourself is who is most likely to buy your product? Often, it is a customer of similar profile to the business owner themselves, because many enterprises are born out of a passion or inspiration very close to the heart of the founder. So, there’s your starting point!

In the case of Who Gives a Crap, their visual branding and content is clearly targeted at 25-40 year-old professionals and/or parents with a social and environmental conscience. Yes, any brand will pick up customers outside their target demographic, but you should always have an idea of the age range, gender/s, interests and vocations of your ‘ideal’ customer when designing and marketing your brand. If you’re a visual thinker, it can help to create a character with all the attributes of your target customer, and even give them a name!

Photo by Jo shua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash

Once you have defined your customer, the real fun can begin…

Develop your Visual Branding

As the name suggests, visual branding consists of your logo, font/s, colour/s and how those elements are applied across your brand, from business cards, website design and social media content, to email signatures, stationery, packaging, and more.

Who Gives a Crap execute their visual branding with absolute precision. From online content, to the cardboard box that the product arrives in, a consistent brand image is present at every single interaction with their customer (or potential customer).

When you set out to create your logo, and choose your colours and fonts, a professional designer can be invaluable. The more information you can give them about your product and customer, the better the result is likely to be. If you’re not in a position to sub-contract a designer right now, a cheaper alternative is to crowd-source design services, using a platform such as DesignCrowd, or 99Designs. I won’t delve into detailed design tips here, but there’s more to come on this topic soon. For now, if you’re interested in doing your own research on visual branding, you could start with the 99Designs blog on Visual Identity.

Developing your Brand’s Personality through Engaging Content

Many business publications would call this section ‘marketing strategy’ or something similar, but I wanted to draw particular attention to the ‘tone’ of your written content because it’s absolutely crucial to developing a ‘personality’ for your brand.

Customers who feel they know a brand are much more likely to develop a trusting (and loyal) relationship with it.

Who Gives a Crap offers a perfect example of using an informal, friendly and engaging tone with a strong dose of humour in all of their written content. You can see it on their website, product packaging and shipping boxes! Not only is the content light-hearted, clever and funny, it delivers the right key messages to their customers time and again. This creates loyal customers who are so happy that they recommend Who Gives a Crap to their friends and family too! No-brainer, right? Well, almost. The truth is that most small businesses try to create engaging content, and many achieve this to some degree, but the greatest challenge is being able to engage your customer consistently. That is, through a consistent tone, consistent messaging and consistent placement.

If writing isn’t your strong point, a freelance writing professional with business experience can craft a solid communications strategy (and content) for you. If your budget doesn’t allow for that right now, immerse yourself in reading the content of brands you admire, and practice your own writing. Then, ask for feedback from trusted friends or family (who will be honest with you) and keep working at it.

When you start to develop a tone for your brand, focus more on writing as if you were having a friendly conversation with your customers in-person, rather than trying to impress them with your technical knowledge or extensive vocabulary. In most cases, writing in an overly formal or academic tone when you’re trying to market your business will serve to drive potential customers away or at the very least, bore them to tears!

What is your Story?

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Your brand’s story should start with your passion; whatever it was that inspired you to start a business in the first place. What was the gap in the market, or opportunity, that you saw? What makes you unique? Starting with a clearly identified need for your product or service offering will be key to the success of your marketing strategy, and your business. We’ve seen Facebook and Instagram follow Snapchat’s lead by highlighting their story features in recent times, because this is what users are craving from brands. Essentially, your brand’s story is everything that goes into running your business, both front-of-house, and behind-the-scenes. The more you can invite your potential (or existing) customers into a space where you share your process, from ideas-generation through to design, production and distribution, the more likely they are to trust you. Consumers are becoming more savvy and take online research seriously, often demanding this sort of intimate detail before making a buying decision.

Once you have defined your target market, and developed your story, creating a mission statement or tagline to clearly communicate your key offering should be easy. If not easy, it should at least narrow your options. The challenge in developing your tagline will be to keep it both descriptive, and concise. You will need to prioritise which information is most important to include here. Shopify has a Free Slogan Maker that might not give you the perfect tagline, but it could kick-start your brainstorming process!

The Importance of Consistency

I couldn’t resist giving this word a paragraph of its own, because it is just so important. Creating a cohesive, consistent and engaging brand ensures that customers will recall your key product offerings when they come to make buying decisions. Even more importantly, a memorable brand lends itself to word-of-mouth recommendations from existing customers, which is one of the most powerful forms of marketing there is.

Wait, that was too many words! What should I do again??

In a nutshell…

Infographic Created using Canva

Extra Resources

The complete story and website of Who Gives A Crap

There are some fantastic tips for developing your brand’s story at HubSpot.

Trevor Young (Digital Citizen/PR Warrior) and Neil Patel each have a wealth of knowledge and resources on branding and digital marketing that you can explore.

For information on branding and developing content, most social media scheduling tools have their own blog with useful tips and tricks, such as Hootsuite, Later, Sprout Social, and Planoly.