The Green Crow

Being Professional = Looking Professional

Wed, 22 Sep 2021 13:24:16 GMT

Consider your look when your audience is looking for business.

Keeping Up Appearances

Okay, so remember when you were little and your parents told you not to judge a book by its cover? Well, it wasn’t bad advice, but she should have also warned you that people judge books by their covers all the time! Whether they mean to or not, people will inevitably form a quick impression of you based on what they see. You might be one of the most professional businesses in your industry in terms of the quality of the services or products you offer, but that means very little if you don’t at least look the part.

Think about any job interview you’ve ever gone to, or will go to. You probably think carefully about what you’re going to wear, and maybe even dress a little better than you do from day to day. This isn’t because you’re trying to fool the interviewers into thinking you’re someone you’re not, it’s because you want to make a strong first impression by showing them how professional you can be.

Showing up with the right appearance shows that you take yourself seriously, and it encourages other people to take you seriously too. Taking yourself seriously gives you an air of confidence, and that’s what people want.

Web and Graphic Design

A professional image is key to attracting the right crowd to your business. It starts with things like a high-quality web page designed to impress your expertise upon anyone who visits it. People will take you seriously if they encounter a page that is informative, easy to navigate, and visually appealing.

On the flipside, if your website is cluttered, difficult to navigate, or just boring, people who stumble across it will quickly decide that you aren’t worth their time. Since the website is the first point of contact that most people will have with your business, you can’t neglect your web design. When people search for something in your industry, you want them to find you and remember the name of your business.

The same is true of your logo. A logo can be simple, but you can’t skimp on quality. Hiring professionals to take your ideas and turn them into a perfect visual representation of everything you stand for will attract new customers and make your business seem more legitimate. No one will be impressed by your doodling, unless of course you are a graphic designer. If you don’t happen to be an artist, just give us a call at Greenlight.

Visually Appealing Material

A professional image isn’t necessarily the stiff suit-and-tie, handshake and “yes, sir” that you might be imagining. While some industries require that sort of thing, most people are looking for a clean, engaging image. They want something authentic, something they know they can trust because of the care that has gone into its creation. The design experts at Greenlight Design can create that special something, which will help your business get noticed and stand out from the competition.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a marketing plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

Stop the Phone Tag

business@greenlightdesign.ca (Renee LeBlanc) — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 13:50:42 GMT

Stop the phone tag for better and faster communication

Get Real With Your Communication

You know what game nobody loves to play? Phone tag. It gets old really fast. Someone calls while you’re out cutting cheques or in a meeting, and leaves you a hasty message saying nothing more than “Call me back.” That’s real helpful. You call them back and they’re not in, so you leave a message confirming their call was received ― on the day they decided to take off to relieve some stress at the local driving range. This goes on and on until you finally manage to catch each other, but the timing is inconvenient so you arrange another time in the future to have a more detailed conversation. How much time are you losing at these switchboard games?

The Phone Isn’t the Best Answer

This may not be so much of a problem for people in the younger generation who grew up with digital communication and are just as comfortable emailing and texting people as they are with making a full-production TikTok video. Us older ― I mean “wiser” types are still hung up on our old-school telephone conversations. It is great to be able to pick up the phone and talk to someone, but if you are busy with your business and you’re trying to contact someone else who is busy with theirs, it can be very hard to actually make that happen. However, if you send an email with the information you’re looking for, you can let the other person respond carefully on their own time. If you really want to have a phone conversation, email them and agree on a time that you can put on your calendar.

The Beauty of Email

What I’m driving at here is that there are a lot of inefficiencies in communication between businesses. Why bother emailing someone to say that you tried calling, but never mention what you were calling about in the email itself? You could easily write up a detailed run-down about what you’d like to discuss so that they can respond directly to you with an answer. You don’t have to write a novel, but email isn’t Twitter, so you can use more than 140 characters! I mean, doesn’t it just grind your gears when someone sends you an email that says, “Hi, I tried calling but couldn’t get in touch with you. Call me when you have a chance.”

Texting?

What about text messages? Everywhere we go, people are pounding out little messages on their smartphones. Can texting be used for professional purposes? It seems a little too personal somehow, someone making your pocket rattle to say, “Hi, your invoice is ready.” Do you feeI slightly violated? I mean, FedEx will text you when your package arrives, and that strikes me as nothing but convenient. Is it alright if your yoga instructor texts you about an upcoming class? Or if your hair stylist texts you to ask what time you’d like to see her? There might not be a single answer to these questions. Maybe you’re fine with texting anyone and everyone, or maybe you reserve that mode of communication strictly for family and friends.

Whatever the case, don’t step halfway in. Use something to its full potential. Your personal life is one thing, but communication between businesses needs to be about efficiency. If we trim the fat from our frantic voicemail attempts and beef up our uninformed mini emails, we might emerge with a strong model for communication that actually saves time and works for us, instead of against us.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a marketing plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

Making an Emotional Appeal

business@greenlightdesign.ca (Renee LeBlanc) — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 14:51:02 GMT

Clients choosing to ignore your reasoning ? Use a different angle.

Marketing to the Heart

In marketing, your goal is to get the attention of your target audience and inform them of your product or service. At Greenlight, we know this is a complex process. Some companies try to release advertisements in an attempt to reason with the consumer. These campaigns try very hard to engage the viewer in a conversation, through which they hope to present enough facts, to help consumers make informed decisions.

When you approach marketing this way, you’re creating an uphill battle for yourself. You are trying to reason with people, when they can easily choose to ignore your reasoning. For one thing, people don’t like to be hyper-aware of the fact that someone is pitching to them. It needs to be more subtle than that. It also needs to be compelling. Your design should strike on a much deeper, more emotional level if you really want to have an effective brand.

Visual Appeal

The most obvious aspect of creating an emotional appeal to your audience is displaying something that captivates their imaginations through a visual depiction. For example, when we were hired to create promotional materials for several local parks, we chose to include high-quality pictures of the parks themselves as a backdrop for the text. These pictures are rich with color and feature sweeping views of perfectly manicured green lawns and pristine scenery. Everything about the images is so crisp that you can’t help but want to visit, as soon as you see them.

Our professional designers like to create memorable graphic design, knowing they’ll strike the right chord (so-to-speak).

The Right Words

Great imagery is key to making an effective emotional appeal―and the same is true for great words. Sometimes marketers present people with short, carefully-crafted bits of text meant to capture the imagination, or a narrator will speak in soft tones with perfect diction. Very often the words don’t explain the product itself, but what the product will do for your identity. Effective ads will sometimes play to our sense of pride by offering us a path to greatness ― “Just buy these yoga pants and you’ll be as flexible as a yogi guru!” While that may not be totally true, you’ll still feel compelled to believe something like that, without ever actually admitting to it.

Appealing Design

The design of whatever medium you choose is essential to its success. For example, a well-designed website should give visitors a sense of satisfaction as they browse it ― they should be able to easily find what they’re looking for without getting bombarded with irrelevant or sloppy content. A clean, professionally-designed website will encourage the visitor to stay and browse. He or she will be more likely to view you as an authority in your industry.

G reenlight Design can help you figure out what design you need to make the perfect emotional appeal to your target audience.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a marketing plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

Why I talk people out of their logo design and marketing collateral (at least for now)

business@greenlightdesign.ca (Renee LeBlanc) — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 14:12:32 GMT

Why I talk people out of their logo design and marketing collateral
(at least for now)

Before you pin me as a designer gone off the rails, I’m happy to let you know that’s not the case. I have been creating at an advanced level since I was 14, and designing a logo is something I take very seriously; no business should operate without one. But on occasion, I get a call from startup companies who think it’s the number one step to their business/marketing plan. The truth is, after I ask them a few specific questions, I decline to collaborate. Or, should I say, postpone the partnership. In short (after producing a solid business plan) there are a few steps which need to be completed, before we dive into your marketing strategy and visual communication tools.

Step 1: NUANS report

Staggeringly, many businesses do not do a thorough search on their business name to ensure no one else is using it.

This is SUPER important; investing in a full branding, and graphic design exercise, all to have it thrown into the garbage bin is not what we want for anyone. We would only end up with a pay check from a less-than-thrilled client, and a brand which would never see the light of day. That’s not what we want.

Your first step to getting this information, is through a NUANS report. This report will generate a list of business names which already exist (provincially or federally). In fact, a NUANS Report is required by the federal government, and most provincial governments, such as New Brunswick.

A simple online search will provide a plethora of online resources on procuring one of these reports for a small fee.

Step 2: Register your business

With your NUANS report in hand, you’re now ready to register your new business. In New Brunswick, this can be done at snb.ca. As of the date of publication, the direct link to the business registration page is:

https://www.pxw2.snb.ca/brs/docroot/start/landingPage.jsp

From there, you are well on your way to giving us a call for Step 3: Your branding exercise and marketing strategy . Hence, your logo.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a content strategy plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

Set Your Sails: Rebrand Your Business.

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 17:58:05 GMT

Rebranding: Turn the ship around

It’s time to freshen up that deck

When was the last time you took a look at your logo and the marketing materials that you use for your business? Have you given any thought to your business’s vision lately?

No?

Well plunge the coffee press and pull up a chair, because it’s high time you did! Everyone says you need to brand yourself, but it’s a bit of a vague buzzword. Brand marketing is important, but sometimes it turns into bland marketing. Maybe you need to reignite a brand that has lost its relevance, or maybe you need to reinvent a brand that’s been failing from the start. In either case, it’s time to start rebranding your business.

The Slippery Slope

It can be tempting to neglect the task of rebranding your business. Why? A lot of people don’t want to believe that poor branding is what’s holding their business back. They chalk it up to a weak economy, unmotivated employees, or pure bad luck.

The second reason is that they worry that rebranding will cost too much ― despite the fact that a good rebranding will more than pay for itself, given the increase in revenue you can expect from greater brand recognition. But you go on telling yourself these silly notions, because you don’t want to admit the undeniable truth: your brand needs an overhaul. It’s okay, swallow your pride and pick up the phone. Greenlight Design is capable of helping you turn this ship around. With compelling designs, we can re-invigorate your business and put the wind back into your sails. (Sorry for all the sailing metaphors, but we’re trying to make a point here.)

A Wake-up Call

“The wake-up call” is a classic complimentary hotel service that has somehow survived, despite the emergence of high-tech tools like alarm clocks. Very quaint. When you’re staying at a hotel, you can call the staff person working in the lobby, request a phone call at a specific time in the morning, and they will call you to wake you up so you don’t miss whatever important thing you have scheduled for that day. Pretty nice, right? Well actually no, it sucks. You’ll hate hearing the phone ring when you’re in a deep REM sleep dreaming about fluffy pillows and unicorns. But if someone doesn’t jolt you out of your sleep, you’ll miss the boat (yes, yet another boat metaphor).

Rebranding is the wake-up call for your business. The purpose of rebranding is to reacquaint your organization and its target audience with the vision of your company. A fresh, strong brand will clearly communicate the abilities of your business and inspire people to connect with you. A good brand showcases excellent work and compels people to look to you as the authority in your industry. And an effective rebranding will go a long way towards motivating everyone in your business to work hard and show their abilities off to clients.

Moncton or Anywhere

Whether you’re located here in Moncton or anywhere else in the world, Greenlight Design can help you rebrand your business. Our competitively-priced design team can create visually appealing work and perfectly communicate the professionalism of your business. We like to boast, but that’s only because we’ve got the skills to back it up.

Your Second Chance

Think of rebranding like a second chance. There are a lot of people out there competing for some air time, so you need to think about marketing a brand that stands out. We’re here to make your second chance fun by helping you build a brand you can be proud of. Give us a call, sailors. We’re here to help.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a content strategy plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

Logo talk: Finding something that sticks

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 14:21:00 GMT

Logo talk: Finding something tha t sticks

A logo is the face of your business. A well-de signed logo should make a lasting impression.

Whether you’re driving down the street or browsing the Internet, it’s bound to be only a matter of seconds before your eyes land on someone’s logo. The quality of that logo’s design will determine whether you fixate on it long enough to take notice of the business, or skim right over it.

Therefore, it goes without saying you need to have a professionally-designed image to present on your business cards, your website, promotional materials, letterheads and more.

T here are several types of logos you can choose for your business. Some businesses go with logos which are symbolic of something; much the same way as Twitter’s little blue bird in flight. Others use words with a distinctive font, like the iconic Walt Disney logo. Some logos do both, such as the FedEx logo, which cleverly incorporates an arrow between the “E” and the “x”. These are popular examples of major brands that we are all familiar with, thanks to their strong visual presence.

The First Step

If you’re starting a new business, the most effective way to get an attention-grabbing logo is by approaching a team of professional graphic designers, such as Greenlight Design. You can explain to them what your company will do, and they will come up with an image to suit your needs. Having a sign with a well-crafted logo adds legitimacy to your operation, which will help when you are hiring people, applying for business loans, submitting project proposals, and opening a new office.

Starting Up or Restarting?

Some people come to Greenlight asking us to design a logo, and they already have a symbol in mind that they really like. For whatever reason, this symbol means a lot to them and they want it to be a part of their logo. We love taking specific ideas like this and using them as a starting point, so we can create a visual identity to represent your unique endeavor!

We also get clients who have no idea what they want on their logo. That’s absolutely fine too. When this happens, we take the opportunity to sit down and learn more about the business owner’s vision for their company. Our graphic design geniuses get to work, making something which reflects that identity.

Logos don’t just come into play when you’re setting up a company ― they’re also a great way to change up your image and put a fresh face on an existing brand. At Greenlight, we love being involved in the rebranding process. A fresh image can breathe life into a struggling company by reintroducing it to customers, reaching out to a broader client base, and creating positive hype around the brand. Your company may be doing amazing things, but if your logo isn’t drawing in the right people and showing off your abilities, then it’s time for a new look.

Therefore, if you’re starting a business, think about your logo:

What will it look like?
What kind of message do you want to convey?
And if you already have a business with a logo you’ve been using for a while, is it effective enough at holding people’s attention?
Does it do enough to represent what your business stands for?
Do you have the visual appeal you need in order to bring people through the door for the first time?

If not, give the design professionals at Greenlight a call. We’ll be able to do something about it.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a content strategy plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

5 Reasons Why Great Design is Good for Business

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 13:43:24 GMT

5 reasons why great design is good for business

Okay, so maybe we’re a little biased, but at Greenlight Design, we believe great design adds tremendous value to your business.

Because of this, we’re extremely proud of the work we do and we love every challenge that comes our way. Take a spin through the list below and find out why!

1. Great design will raise the perceived quality of your business – Professionally designed marketing materials will communicate a strong message to your clients, which emphasizing your commitment to excellence. You may have a high-quality business (of course you do!) but people on the outside don’t necessarily know that. If you invest in professional design, you’ll be turning heads everywhere!

2. Great design will increase the popularity of your brand – Think about a clothing brand that you love. Why do you appreciate it so much? One reason is probably that you really like the design of the clothes. If it’s a popular brand, the design clearly has helped it get to where it is today. The same is true with all kinds of design―web, graphic or otherwise. Your business will improve in direct relation to your designs.

3. Great design drives sales – This point goes hand-in-hand with the last one. If you want your business to grow and be sustainable, it’s critical you find a way to consistently boost your sales. The design of your sales platform is just as important as the design of the product itself. If you sell out of a physical storefront, you want it to be an attractive setting. If you sell online, you want your site to be professionally designed to maximize usability and visual appeal.

4. Great design increases community impact – If you’re going for the local market, you want to develop a presence in the community. Good design will create buzz around your business and generate steady interest, giving you more recognition and influence in your community. It will even help you find new talent for your growing team―once people come to associate you with the image you’ve created, working for you becomes even more of an attractive opportunity.

5. Great design raises your profile in your industry – Whatever industry you work in, it should be your ultimate goal to be at the top of it. This will require a lot of key components, but one of them is great design. If you’re going to be an industry leader, you should look like a leader. You want marketing materials that are informative and portray you as the trusted authority on your field of expertise.

By now, we’ve said ' great design ' an a wful lot. What do we actually mean by that anyway? So glad you asked!

Greenlight is all about taking the idea behind a business or project and using our skills in graphic and web design to create something amazing which perfectly reflects the goals of the client. We love helping local businesses in the Moncton area do this, but our reach extends throughout North America as well. Great design takes time, and it can only be created by people who have developed their skills through years of experience. That’s us!

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a content strategy plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

Navigate your way to online success

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 13:22:13 GMT

Navigate your way to online success

We believe in the power of a strong web presence.

A Strong Web Presence

As you know, everyone uses the Internet these days. Even your 90-year-old great grandmother has a pretty good grasp on “the Facebooks”. Because online activity is now so much a part of our everyday lives, it’s very important for a business to have an active online presence. But life is about more than just showing up. At Greenlight Design, we believe in the power of a beautiful and strong web presence.

Get ’er Done!

Here at Greenlight, we’re capable of providing you with web design services which highlight the strengths of your business and let everyone know how great you are. When you choose to work with us, we’ll do things like:

Create original graphic design branded for your company's website
Create a layout for your site that is easy to navigate
Integrate CMS (Content Management System), allowing you to make your own text edits
Integrate your logo
Social media integration
Google Analytics integration
Facebook Pixel integration
SSL security
Blog and photo gallery capabilities
Get rid of clutter or material that detracts from the quality of the pages
Implement your vision into our final product

Because we believe in the power of a beautiful online presence, our professional team of designers will take the time do things the right way. Design is our passion, so when we get the chance to take on a web design project, we throw everything into it.

Internet Marketing

Your website needs high-quality web design to make a good first impression with anyone who comes across it. A professionally-designed website with engaging content and a seamless structure will quickly establish a sense of trust with potential customers. Every new post you add should be reflective of the overall quality of your company. Lots of businesses are credible and have the expertise people need, but they lose customers because their websites, a first point of contact for many people, are outdated and lack innovative design.

Judging Quality

It takes a professional designer to build a strong web presence, but it doesn’t take a professional to judge the quality of a site. Anyone who visits your website will very quickly decide if it contains what they’re looking for, and they will decide almost instantly whether or not your business looks credible. Since you have only a few seconds to impress them, the design of the home page is critical.

In case you think the cost of paying a designer isn’t worth it, think again. An expert will make a site people will want to explore, and which can work as a launching pad for your business. You want people to find your site and be so impressed with what they’re seeing that they want to learn more.

Depending on the type of business you’re in, you may want to appeal to local customers. For example, if you own a flooring business in Moncton, you want to make sure that the design of your site is the absolute best among the flooring businesses in Moncton. People looking for flooring will probably browse two or three sites before making their choice, and having a top-quality site will help you stand out from the competition.

Consult Us

If you aren’t sure how your web design can be improved, chime in. We’ll take a look at your site and make suggestions about what could be done. After we’ve talked, we can get to work improving the design aspects of your site so traffic increases and your business grows. We like to include our clients in the design process so you can be confident the final product reflects your vision as well as meets or exceeds your expectations of a great website.

Greenlight Design is a graphic design and marketing company. We can be your guide in identifying a content strategy plan, catered to your company or organization. Contact us today to learn more.

The Green Crow

Being Professional = Looking Professional

Consider your look when your audience is looking for business.

Keeping Up Appearances

Web and Graphic Design

Visually Appealing Material

Stop the Phone Tag

Stop the phone tag for better and faster communication

Get Real With Your Communication

The Phone Isn’t the Best Answer

The Beauty of Email

Texting?

Making an Emotional Appeal

Clients choosing to ignore your reasoning ? Use a different angle.

Why I talk people out of their logo design and marketing collateral (at least for now)

Why I talk people out of their logo design and marketing collateral ﻿ (at least for now)

Set Your Sails: Rebrand Your Business.

﻿ Rebranding: Turn the ship around

Logo talk: Finding something that sticks

A logo is the face of your business. A well-de ﻿ signed logo should make a lasting impression.

5 Reasons Why Great Design is Good for Business

Okay, so maybe we’re a little biased, but at Greenlight Design, we believe great design adds tremendous value to your business.

Navigate your way to online success

We believe in the power of a strong web presence. ﻿

Why I talk people out of their logo design and marketing collateral
(at least for now)

Rebranding: Turn the ship around

A logo is the face of your business. A well-de signed logo should make a lasting impression.

We believe in the power of a strong web presence.