Synergy Ministries Commissions New Logo and Corporate ID System

Synergy Ministries is a Christian Counseling and Educational ministry specializing in facilitating and improving the dynamics of social communities which are engaged in goal-oriented activities. To put it simply the goal of Synergy’s work and education is to see groups relating and working together at their maximum potential. Synergy, came to Rotolo Media for a new logo and corporate ID system which would communicate their ideals.

The idea of incorporating hands into the logo was discussed as one goal in the design of Synergy’s ID. We were pleased to be able to deliver on Synergy’s desire. By using stylized iconic hands in such a way as to communicate the coming together of individuals in partnership we created both a logo as well as the “S” of Synergy in their wordmark; a kind of logo within a logo. The Synergy hands logo will be used on its own as in the examples below of the watermark effect in the banner and business card and will with proper branding efforts no doubt come to be recognized apart from the wordmark.

Look for a website and other newmedia projects to follow as Synergy Ministries has expressed their strong desire to commission further design work from Rotolo Media.

Promote Your Business with a Company Blog

In today’s world of ecommerce a blog is no longer an option but a necessity. What better way to communicate the expertise you’ve accumulated in your arena of business than to regularly publish an original article or share a link to important content your audience might not otherwise find. Blogging is an essential part of the process of establishing yourself and your business as valuable and expert resources in your field. The following article outlines 10 points to consider in establishing or maintaining your company’s blog.

clipped from www.nytimes.com As the head of your company, you’re ideally positioned to lead an informal debate on the current issues that face small business owners and entrepreneurs in your market. So why not pen your thoughts with a CEO blog or company blog that’s visible to your customers, clients, and others who might become inspired by your entrepreneurial

Some Top Ideas About Design From Some Top Designers

Good design is an essential in today’s marketplace whether you’re creating objet d’art, industrial tools, furniture or websites. Thankfully the Web 2.0 trend is pushing clean and functional design to new heights. Read here the learned opinions of 15 of the best designers in their respective disciplines and glean the essential elements that they all share in their appreciation and execution of transcendent design.

clipped from www.fastcompany.com Everywhere you look today — from buildings and landscapes, to commercial products and public services, to Web sites and print products — design has taken on new meaning. Design isn’t just about decoration; it’s a critical component of how we communicate, collaborate, and compete. But behind the “look and feel” of any good design are a host of carefully conceived principles: fundamental propositions that define the essence of the design. The trick for all businesspeople today is to learn those underlying rules — to think like designers. With that in mind, Fast Company asked 15 top designers — creators of buildings, furniture, products, Web sites, costumes, and labels — to deconstruct something that exemplifies great design to them. More important, we asked them to tell us what we can

What Offline Business Owners Must Know About Online Storefronts

Some important points to remember when transitioning to the web or adding an online store to your traditional brick-and-mortar business model. It’s a whole new game!

clipped from www.freeinternetmarketingcourses.com It’s amazing and unfortunate that many website owners inadvertently put up barriers that discourage site visitors from actually doing business with them. This is especially true for people with brick-and-mortar businesses who are trying to build an online presence and who do not yet understand the differences between online and offline marketing. If someone walks into your local storefront, especially if they’ve had to drive to get to it and drop a few coins in the parking meter, they’re at least

NYTimes.Com Aggregates Third-Party Content, Marks Transformation of Media

As you will see by reading my blog it is a fusion of content that I have written along with an aggregation of the kind of content written by others that I want to share with you. This is a vital part of the content revolution we are in the midst of experiencing on the net today. This article about The New York Times implementing this same strategy is a fascinating look into this new phenomenon. I hope it goes a way toward explaining it all to some of the less initiated among my readers.

clipped from publishing2.com NYTimes.com wasn’t the first traditional media brand to aggregate third-party content — and it certainly won’t be the last. But the New York Times, once considered the national newspaper of record, represented one of the last bastions of the traditional media approach to content, i.e. we produce it ALL ourselves. And if anyone makes a credible run at doing it all by themselves, it’s the Times, which generates a prodigious volume of

Ten Low-Cost Ways to Promote Your Business

All small business owners know the challenges of keeping their business in the eyes of the buying public. I thought I would share this excellent article detailing ten ways to do just that without going broke!

clipped from sbinfocanada.about.com Business promotion is to running a successful business as practicing scales is to playing the piano well; it may not be a thrilling activity in itself, but you just have to do it! You should spend at least an hour a day on business promotion or planning how to promote your business (and more is better, if you can fit the time in)!You promote your business by getting the word out. The first axiom of business promotion is that

Basic Definitions: Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales

I found this to be a concise but clear little set of definitions to help explain these often elusive terms.

clipped from www.managementhelp.org It’s easy to become confused about these terms: advertising, marketing, promotion, public relations and publicity, and sales. The terms are often used interchangeably. However, they refer to different — but similar activities. Some basic definitions are provided below. A short example is also provided hopefully to help make the terms more clear to the reader. One Definition of Advertising Advertising is bringing a product (or service) to the attention of potential and current customers. Advertising is focused on one particular product or service. Thus, an advertising plan for one product might be

Top 5 Business Card Blunders

Check out this short but helpful article on avoiding the basic pitfalls of business card design and printing.

clipped from www.thestreet.com Nothing is more important to making a good first branding impression than your business card. In addition to the information included, a card’s look and feel also sends a strong message about your business. That’s why I’m perplexed by the many poorly designed business cards I see these days. Just because you can log on to various Web sites, “design” and print cards for free, doesn’t mean you should. The cardinal rule to creating a good business card is to ensure that it reflects your company’s image. From a branding perspective, this means

10 Keys for Direct Mail Success (1 thru 5)

Whenever I tackle a direct mail campaign I begin by going over as many of the following ten keys with my client as possible. Regardless of whether they have used direct mail as a strategy in their sales and marketing plan before I believe I cannot stress these points enough. If you carefully incorporate these key points in your next mailing you will definitely improve your results.

1.) Make Your Piece Personal

The days of “Dear Resident” are over folks. We’ve all received our share of personalized direct mail before. Even if we consider it junk mail the fact is it would be even “junkier” mail if it wasn’t personalized. If you’re sending out a mailing that includes a letter or anything that begins with “Dear So-and-so… ” it must be personalized. Obviously, the degree to which a piece can be personalized varies but there is no shortage of mailing list brokerage sources that can supply you with a list that has more than simply the vitals of Name, Address, etc. One caveat though, a letter can be overly personalized in the sense that you do not want to gratuitously repeat the valuable information you’ve gone to lengths to obtain. I once received a direct mail piece that must have mentioned my name, Michael, and my recently purchased Honda thirteen times within two short paragraphs. It’s great they got my name right but I could barely figure out that they were attempting to sell me an extended service warranty. Needless to say they did not make an effective impression.

2.) Make A Headline. And Make It BOLD!

Consider this your one shot at reaching this list, it shouldn’t be (more about that later), but write your copy and design your piece as if it will be. Use typography wisely. Emphasize at least one of your unique selling points boldly. Perhaps a different typeface, but certainly a larger point size is necessary. If when you hold your piece out at arms length and squint all you see is a uniform block of grey—then it needs a headline, badly.

3.) Emphasize Your Offer

Always include an offer in your campaign and give it emphasis. Do not let it remain buried in middle of your ad copy somewhere. Whether its a special discount, a rebate, a free gift or bonus—shout it from the rooftops. Your offer may be so compelling that it could warrant emphasis in your headline copy. You must of course be certain to mention it at least twice depending upon the length of your ad copy. It is a general rule that you should put an expiration on the offer. This is a time-tested truism that people will respond, all other things the same, significantly more often to an offer that will run out. This is called “pull”. The more response a mailing gets the more it’s said to “pull”.

4.) Make Use of Whitespace

Sometimes what you leave out is as important as what you put in. Don’t crowd your piece with the ad copy. Be as pithy as is reasonably possible given the parameters of your mailing (size of the paper, number of pages, etc.) while still doing justice to what the piece is trying to accomplish. By keeping your ad copy trim you’ll have the luxury of spacing your paragraphs amply and offsetting your headline somewhat from the rest of the copy. Remember, what designers call “white space” is not a waste of good paper, and it need not necessarily be white. White space is the open space that should be carefully left free between your mailing’s major design elements. It can be as simple as spacing out your paragraphs generously—try leaving two or three line returns between next time. This gives the eye a “breather” and makes looking at—let alone reading—your piece more enjoyable to your prospect.

5.) Whenever possible include a “Do-Something”

When it comes to tried-and-true strategies of direct mail, the “Do-Something” as I like to call it, is a sure-fire winner. A do-something is any element in which the recipient must— as the name more than implies— do something. Publisher’s Clearing House, for those of us old enough to remember, may well have invented this tactic by requiring us to tear out of a sheet of little thumbnail magazine covers the little stamp corresponding to our magazine of choice. There is something to the human psyche that just responds like a little child to the idea of sticking a sticker, punching out a perforated shape, or tearing out a stamp. So whenever possible, incorporate a dosomething in your direct mail piece.

Look for Keys number 6 through 10 in my next post…

Posted By: Michael Rotolo President of Rotolo Media

Posts are available as content for your newsletter, website, or blog with permission and terms. Contact Rotolo Media for details.

Full Color Business Cards

With the advent of digital printing technologies and the proliferation of dedicated 4 color process printing presses there is absolutely no reason for the typical business to go without a full-color business card. Many business owners, especially start-ups, make the mistake of simply assuming that such a card is too expensive. All too often the result is a trip to the nearest Staples, Office Depot or local quick printer for the old-school thermography (raised ink) on vellum card stock. Unless you’re in a very traditional line of work such as a lawyer or a banker these business cards simply do not pull their weight.

Why not instead take advantage of what a well-designed full color card can do for your business. A custom design can make the best use of the limited real estate available on the traditional 2″ x 3.5″ card. Your options include printing with full color on one or both sides, and the pricing of late will pleasantly surprise you. Printing the back in color also adds very little cost to the project and doubles your usable space. Those of you like me though who like the option of writing notes on business cards might want to second guess that decision since it’s next to impossible to get a ballpoint pen to write on the slick surface of these coated cards.

Many industries today have developed what amounts to almost an unwritten rule of including a photo of themselves on their business card. Realtors for some reason almost always do nowadays but if you’re among any number of other sales related industries this might serve you well also. Let’s face it, how many times do we grab a business card throw it in our wallet or purse and then only look at it again weeks or months later. In such cases a photo may be just what is necessary to jog the memory of someone we spent appreciable time with but who wasn’t ready to act upon using our goods or services. In my opinion your photo on your card can make the difference between your prospects remembering the time you invested in answering their questions and explaining the benefits of what you can do for them versus their simply tossing an otherwise more generic card in the circular file.

I would be remiss if I neglected to emphasize the role of good design with respect to business cards. Good design is crucial to the effectiveness of every business card and to any printed piece for that matter. Just because you have the option to print in almost every color in the rainbow does not by any stretch mean you should, nothing screams amateur more than a garish psychadelic cocaphany of color. The ability to print a full color card means that you can judiciously create, with the help of a design professional, a card which stands out among the pack. You can prominently display your logo and branding elements, bring in your company’s color palette, and as we’ve mentioned, include your photo or even photographs of your products or services.

These benefits mean you can support (and not undermine) all the other efforts you’re making in putting your best foot forward. Nothing makes me cringe more after spending time with someone whose just given an otherwise decent presentation than being handed, for lack of a better word, a lousy business card. Perhaps I’m more sensitive than most but a poorly designed or printed card communicates to me that this person or company just isn’t ready to compete with the guys in the big league. I can’t help but feel as if the lack of effort in this area might also be indicative of a lack of effort in other areas. Nothing smacks of this more than the use of the all too available templates that allow even a precocious eight year old to print a business card for his lemonade stand from Daddy’s inkjet printer. Please do not commit this atrocity to your business image unless you’re stranded in some third world country and find you’ve run out of your regular cards. Now, as for running out of cards… well, I’ll spare you that rant for some other time…

Posted By: Michael Rotolo President of Rotolo Media

Posts are available as content for your newsletter, website, or blog with permission and terms. Contact Rotolo Media for details.