TGIF!

The first full week back at work after a short week can always feel so long, which is why we’re ending this one with a roundup that is nice and short.

Our favorite headlines this week include an infographic with tips for nailing down your brand’s visual identity, a reality check on what might be preventing your website from getting those hard-to-earn conversions, and a wellness-focused article about one tricky way you might be sabotaging your diet.

Whew… Deep breaths. We promise they aren’t too heavy.

Take a few minutes to check out our favorite headlines from this week, then let us know what you think on Facebook or Twitter. Enjoy!

The Takeaway: Your brand’s visual identity is the key to helping your audience recognize that a piece/message is from you, even if they can’t immediately see your logo. Think of it like the clothing you choose to wear; whether you realize it or not, it is sending a message to the people around you about who you are. The same is true with your brand – the way your brand is visually represented has an impact on how people will perceive you.

That is the reason it’s critical to make sure your visual identity is consistent in everything that you put out there: your business cards, stationery, marketing pieces, social media content, videos, website, and even the emails you send.

The best way to keep things consistent is to create a brand style guide. The style guide should include rules for every aspect of your visual identity: primary and secondary brand colors, approved typefaces/fonts, along with alternates for cases where a brand font isn’t available. It should also include rules for your logo and standard design elements, along with their usage, for example: “elements of the logo may not be split up”, “the logo must have a margin of 1 inch on either side”, or “text may only be on a white background or overlayed on a blue rectangle.”

Many brand style guides don’t need to be that specific, but starting with some rules is a great way to make sure that all pieces with your name associated fit the brand image you’ve worked hard to create.

The Takeaway: This article is focused on identifying and fixing an issue with nonprofit websites, but the takeaway can really be applied to any website. Whatever industry you’re in, it can be easy to fall into the trap of prioritizing one website metric above all others: conversion rate.

But you can’t expect to see conversions if you can’t even get people to stay on your site, right? That’s why the critical first step to building or redesigning your website should be identifying your primary audience and the key performance indicators that will help you measure how that audience is (or isn’t) responding to the site.

Our key takeaway here: For websites (and really all marketing efforts), don’t get swept up in the latest trends – instead, focus on your audience and the data their behaviors provide.

The Takeaway: There is good news and bad news when it comes to this article. The bad news: If you want to lose weight (and more importantly, get healthy), you’re going to have to give a few things up.

The good news: You don’t have to make drastic changes and give everything up at once. Start here – by giving up sugary drinks like soda (a.k.a. pop for us Midwesterners), juice, and even some sports drinks. If plain ol’ H20 doesn’t do it for you, try infusing water with different kinds of fruit and herbs for a refreshing, flavorful drink without the sugar and calories.

Just remember to start by making smaller changes. Those smaller changes will add up; plus, you may find it easier to sustain them as time goes on, as opposed to making big changes all at once.

What articles did you find particularly interesting or relevant? Let us know in the comments below!