When you engage a designer to design your new logo, at the end of the process you’re going to be handed over a number of files in different file formats. You may wonder why you receive so many files and also why you can’t even open some of them. Ideally, the designer will break up the files into different folders for print and digital or web use and also provide a folder containing the master file. The file formats you should receive are .ai, .eps, .jpg, .png and .pdf. The .ai and .eps files are the ‘God’ files and should be protected at all costs. Before we get into the file formats, it’s important to identify the two types of artwork that designers produce, vector and raster. Vector art is based on mathematical anchor points and infinitely scalable without compromising quality. Raster artwork is pixel based and unable to be scaled up without compromising or destroying the quality of the artwork. Once pixel and size parameters are set, this is the final output size of the artwork. Logos should always be designed in a vector format. Now that’s clear, let’s break down what the file formats are and where you can use them. AI (Adobe Illustrator Artwork) is a proprietary file format developed by Adobe Systems for vector artwork and the .ai file extension is used exclusively by Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is the industry standard for the development of all vector artwork across graphic design. EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) – this is a standard graphic file format for logos. EPS files are a PostScript file (a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing business), and a versatile editable file format. EPS files are usually generated by professional drawing applications as well as most desktop publishing/layout programs. While an .eps file can contain raster imagery, it is generally used solely for vector based artwork. JPEG or JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) – easily the most common file format you’ll find across the internet. JPEGs are raster files (pixel based) and known for their lossy compression. Lossy compression means that the quality of the image decreases as the file size decreases . There are differing resolution parameters depending on where your jpg may be used. Often the term dpi is used interchangeably when they definitely shouldn’t be. PPI (pixels per inch) describes the resolution of a digital image in pixels whereas DPI (dots per inch) is in fact, the amount of ink dots on a printed image. Although PPI predominantly refers to screen display, it also directly impacts the print size of your design and quality of the output. DPI, on the other hand, primarily only concerns print. Digital applications generally only require 72ppi, digital printing can be as low as 120-150ppi while offset printing requires 300ppi. If you have a jpeg you would like to print in larger quantities (offset), it will need to have over 4 times the resolution of an image used on the internet. PDF (Portable Document Format) – you can create PDF files from a wide range of programs, it is a truly portable file format that ‘holds’ artwork and text in place no matter what computer it is viewed from. They will also retain the integrity of vector artwork so are usually the best way for a client to view a crisp version of their logo. PDF’s can contain both vector and raster elements. PNG (Portable Network Graphics) – great for interactive documents such as web pages, but are generally not suitable for printing due to their file size. A signature trademark of PNG’s are that they usually have a transparent background – a significant advantage over a jpeg file. Like jpegs, PNG files are raster and cannot be used larger than 100% of original image size. They can be reduced in size. Now you’ve got through all of that, here’s an extra file format that you may come across: TIFF (Tagged Image File) – a high quality large raster file. While all other raster (pixel based) files feature some level of degradation, TIFF files generally are the highest quality raster version of your artwork. It is still not superior to any vector based artwork though, due to it not being scalable and generated using pixels.

If you are a business utilising social media as a marketing platform, you’ll be wanting engagement with your existing or potential customers. Or at the very least stopping people from simply scrolling past! So what can you do? We will share with you what we know…  It’s Hard So let’s get the fact that what you’re trying to achieve is hard. Why? Three big reasons; On average we are seeing 5000 ads a day (in and outside of social platforms) Facebooks’ algorithm has changed throttling businesses organic posts and focusing on friends and family People are scrolling faster – deciding if they are interested in contect much quicker So how can you as a business connect with your audience and stop them from scrolling past? Know your customer It is easier to engage with your ideal customer if you know who they are. You can speak their language and create content that speaks to them specifically. This is a case of quality over quantity. Targeting your client at the very beginning will drive your social media efforts going forward. So how do you know or find out? Each social feed has data and analytics. Look at what you are doing, what is working, age group and gender of your audience and use these to start experimenting more with what is actually driving YOUR audience engagement. Once you have the data, it will be easier for you to make informed decisions on what is scroll-stopping for your audience moving forward. Be a scroll-stopper When you are trying to get attention, what do you do? You are bold. Stay true to your brand, keep it real and build emotion. Sounds hard but you can do it. Use animations and colours that catch attention Find a way to stand out with your uniqueness Show your face with obvious emotion Building these three tips into a post is a sure fire way to stop scrollers. At the end of the day, the more emotion you can build into your design the more likely you are to get engagement. Use Video It is a fact that video is the best way to communicate when using social platforms and engage with your audience. Don’t be scared – a standout video can be simple, just ensure you hook your viewer ASAP. Feature people as consumers are naturally drawn to human faces Flash your logo to drive your brand association Have an intriguing set-up such as a quick movement or graphic that sparks curiosity Focus on Problem Solution We also recommend including captions on all of your videos as most videos are now viewed on mobiles.

If you are a business utilising Facebook as a marketing platform, you’ll want to build a decent following. Whether you are wanting to sell, share expertise or just talk to your customers, the number one question we get asked is how to build a following on Facebook? So, let’s dive in… Facebook isn’t what it used to be Once upon a time, if you liked a page – you were proud and engaged – Facebook would show your ‘following pride’ and your friends would see what kind of businesses you stood behind. However, now we are overwhelmed with businesses marketing to us. There are so many businesses trying to get our attention that we think twice about following a page. People are getting picky. Yes, we are trying to protect our feeds from continuous sales and instead are craving genuine connections. Create interesting content Sounds like a bit of a no brainer, but let’s dive into that a bit further. As a marketing company for other businesses, we know that it is vital that the content we create is Entertaining, Educating and Engaging. What you need is a following of people who engage with your content. If you have followers that are not engaged, they will stop seeing your posts. Create content that is totally you and your brand – let it be bold, funny, value-giving and authentic.

A lot of people can feel overwhelmed by the amount of jargon involved in technology fields. The acronym ‘SEO’ means nothing to most people but it is actually one of the most important aspects of building the online presence of your small business. SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It refers to the ability of your website content to be shown in a good position on a search engine results page. If done correctly, it can bring a lot of traffic to your website and clients to your business. There are many important aspects to SEO that aren’t obvious when you’re starting out. I will outline some of the basic principles in this blog. Why is SEO Important for Small Businesses? SEO will improve the visibility of your website in search engines, bringing more eyes to your website and brand. When your website appears in a high position on a results page, especially Google, it gives your business a sense of legitimacy as customers tend to trust that Google can judge whether a website is of good quality and the business is trustworthy. If you are hoping to increase the traffic to your website then SEO will need to be a major focus for you. While it is true that advertisements can bring traffic to your website these can be very expensive if the words you wish to advertise with are competitive. It is also true that many people will scroll past ads and look for ‘organic’ results as they will trust their quality more than someone who paid for a higher position. What Are ‘Organic’ Search Engine Results? Organic results are the websites that appear on a search engine results page without anyone paying the search engine to put them there. Most of the time the top result on a Google results page will be an advertisement but sometimes there will be several of them appearing at the top for lucrative search terms. However, searchers are becoming more savvy and will often scroll past these ads to find the top organic results. This is where the value of investing in your SEO comes into play. While SEO may seem like a lot of work to begin with, if you stick with it you can see incredible long-term results. How Can I Improve My Local SEO? The best thing you can do to improve your local SEO is to focus on high quality and helpful content. This type of content will contain useful words that search engines will read and know which results pages to show your website on. The quality of your content will keep visitors there longer, which will signal to search engines that your website is better than the rest.