Amplify Your Brand Message to Craft an SEO-Optimized Press Release

In this era of digital dominance, a well-crafted press release has the power to shape perception, engage audiences, and drive traffic to your website. As search engine algorithms evolve, it is essential to harness the potential of SEO to ensure your message reaches the right audience and climbs the search engine rankings.

Are you curious to know how to maximize the reach and impact of your press releases? Then you need to check out this article by Design Rush on Press Release SEO. In this article, they unravel the art of writing an SEO-optimized press release, exploring techniques and strategies to enhance visibility, garner media attention, and amplify your brand's voice in the vast digital landscape. From keyword research to strategic formatting, this knowledge will equip you with the insights and practical tactics to optimize your press releases and establish a strong online presence.

Click here to access the article and unlock the secrets to successful Press Release SEO.

829 Selected As A Top Branding Agency in California

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~ Celebrate Good Times, Come On! ~

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DesignRush has selected 829 as one of the
Top Branding Agencies in 2022

What an honor and privilege it is to be selected for a second time as one of the best branding agencies in California by DesignRush.

For 30 years, 829 has been viewing pivotal times of change as opportunity, leveraging design strategy to turn them into an advantage. We solve brand and business challenges purposefully and with an unwavering pursuit of great design. Our problem-solving, human-centric approach can help you define your brand, your brand experience and improve your brand strategy.

Through research, brand strategy and design, we create and revitalize brands, driving value through every interaction, by designing human-centered solutions for what matters most — to win over your customers. In doing so, we deliver rich brand experiences adaptable to any challenge, organization, experience, or medium.

If you are looking for a creative design agency to help grow your business, please get in touch and we would be happy to speak with you.

In the meantime, check out this great article on “How to Measure Brand Awareness”

Best Web Design Agency in CA - 2020

Top Web Design Companies In California

We’re excited to announce that 829 DESIGN has been ranked as one of the top-rated web design companies in California for offering high-quality web design and development services at DesignRush. We’re so honored to be included in this exclusive group.

A big shout out to all our clients - past & present - for helping us achieve this award. We’re grateful for your support! As experts in WordPress Design & Development, we love helping our clients successfully reach their business goals online by producing websites which not only attract the right audiences but also converts them into happy customers.

Have a project in mind that you’d like to discuss?

let’s start a conversation.

Get in touch (916) 581-1777

The State of UX in 2020

Illustration: Gus Morais

The State of UX in 2020

We are on the cusp of 2020 and what an iconic year this will be! The awesome and amazing folks at UX Design have spent tons of hours curating and sharing 2,411 links with 358,917 designers around the globe, and have come to identify a few of the trends our industry has been chatting about.

This is their fifth consecutive year publishing a trends report. If you have read any of their previous editions, then you will understand this is not an article about UI trends, but rather a more holistic analysis of UX Design as a discipline. The article covers all of the tools, methods, collaborations, career challenges, and how our community can make an impact on the world around us — one that we, consciously or not, have helped to design.

Here’s what to expect for UX in 2020. Read the article here: The State of UX in 2020

Branding Par Excellence

According to DesignRush, we’ve been selected as one of the Top Branding Agencies in 2019.

We are thrilled to be named one of the best qualified branding agencies in Roseville, CA. Branding is one of our specialities and something we live and breathe at 829 DESIGN.

You see, your brand is the foundation of your company. It represents your company’s personality and is a promise to your customers. Branding is far more than the development of an icon or tagline. Branding creates the face and voice of your company; it drives communication strategies. A brand is worthless if it doesn’t connect with the right audiences in a relevant way. In today’s market, savvy companies are always evolving their brand strategies as the digital marketplace develops and changes, so make sure yours is up-to-date!

A great brand is actionable, compelling, and true. Two out of three won’t do. It must be a blend of all three. Give us a call at (916) 581-1777 or email us at hello@829design.com and let’s create something awesome!

The World of Curated Branding

We have discussed branding quite a bit on our journal because it is the major touchpoint through which customers find you and keep finding you. It is your calling card in the business world. Many in the industry have been wondering where the logo will be going next. We might be looking at the beginning wave.

This week, we are bringing up a new angle on the traditional logo that might seem a bit far-fetched or intimidating, but it might just be genius.

Have you thought about a curated brand? 

What is a Curated Brand?

Have you noticed a few brands standing out lately? The age of consistent branding might be coming to a close. What will come next, you might ask? As Rory Macrae put it so well in his article: The age of the “Chameleon Brand” (Loving this term!!). In an age where everyone has their own customized desktop, cell phone, menu, and more, why should a brand appear the same to every eye? This is based on the same thinking that brings you the “share a Coke” campaign. Visually, the bottles are still very consistent with each other and the Coke brand, but each bottle is personalized in a very specific way. 

Google fiddles with this idea with their doodles all the time - more specifically, every time your birthday rolls around and your google landing page is decorated specifically for you. A company that has been doing this for much longer is M&M. You have been able to get personalized M&M candies made for years! Same old recognizable chocolates but with your message stamped onto them.

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Market Saturation

The market has become saturated with the same looks and feels. Not only that - we see giants everywhere, recognizable from a three-key jingle or a color. And they’ve caught on to it. So why do they need to plaster their logo across everything when its not needed? 

We are gradually stepping away from the traditional logo and branding, approaching the idea that you can morph into whatever your customer wants to see. Spooky, huh? One example of this is Netflix and their specialized content. They figure out what you love and select cover art for all the other titles to be most attractive to you. They figure this out in sneaky ways.

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Morphing Potential

What we are asking is: What if you could do that with your brand? How lethal would you be in your market?! This might still be a few years out, but it is definitely worth talking about. What kind of morphing would your brand be able to cope with? It might be worth taking the time to make sure you have a “morphing potential” in your base brand. If theres nowhere to go with it, it will not go far.

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While we all fear change just a little bit, it is something that your business depends on. It needs to be able to grow and change right along with your customers.

If you don’t have a chameleon brand, you might need to make some serious decisions.

Here are some questions to help you figure out if your brand is
flexible and dare I say…Chameleon-y?

• Do I currently have a strong branding system to utilize?

  • Colors, typography, graphic style, mood, visual iconography, sound/music?

• Is my brand translating well across all platforms?

• Does my current logo remain strong when simplified?

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Spread Your Wings, Darling!

Let’s give you some morphing power

If you’re looking for a professional opinion or hoping to update your branding system, you’ve come to the right place. Begin your journey by clicking a link below. You will be put in touch with one of our expert designers.

Email us: hello@829design.com or call (916) 581-1777

The Dangers of Sameness

We found an interesting article and wanted to share it with you, but we also wanted to translate it a bit and add our thoughts!

In a piece written by Tom Roach, he discusses the difference between distinctiveness and differentiation. While these two words might sound like the same exact thing, he discusses them as two separate schools of thought as it applies to marketing and branding. Here is a link to the article if you’d like to read it yourself!

 
Breaking the Mold

The whole idea of this article was to bring to light the fact that we are all trying to run successful businesses. In order to do that, we sometimes take the mold that we found was successful for one business then we change it just slightly to fit us and make us “stand out” a bit (while still being safely inside that mold). This doesn’t work too well though because you aren’t being distinctively different. You are still one of the masses that are trying to sell toner or blenders or whatever else. There is a definite risk to stepping out of the mold, but the risk for those who remain one of the masses is greater. As a business, you cannot risk NOT standing out. As Mr. Roach says in his article, “The idea of competitive advantage is intrinsically linked to difference. Which is why the marketing sections of business books always say the same thing – difference matters – and no marketing professors ever advocate sameness as a winning strategy.” (1)

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$$$ Through Difference

Brands are more successful when they set themselves apart. They might even get a better price for a product that is only slightly different than their competitors. Why is that? Because they look different therefore they MUST BE different. Worth the higher price tag, obviously. “An analysis of actual prices paid (from the loyalty card data of 2400 shoppers for 79 brands) showed that shoppers paid 22% more for brands they find different and meaningful vs those they didn’t, with difference alone accounting for 40% of this on average.” (2, Brown Study). How does one set their brand apart and make themselves seem more…more? Good question. I liked the way Tom Roach put it in his article. It’s not just a single smoking gun, it’s a culmination of several different things. Its a catchy tagline, a certain ad campaign, or even a branding strategy that isn’t at all what one would expect in your line of business. 

Not only does being different help you stand out in peoples minds, but it also helps predict sales in the future. “Brands which people score strongly for both meaning and difference grow sales around 8.2% better in the following year than brands which score poorly, with difference being responsible for at least 50% of the predictive power.” (3) This means that if you are different enough and have legitimate meaning behind what you’re doing and what your brand represents, you have a higher chance of being successful!

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So what are we saying? 

• Always shoot for unsaturated markets.

• Break that mold and make a definite move towards individuality.

• Keep looking for ways to be different and show you are different through public face, public interaction, or a number of different ways. 

If you are having troubles finding your way or you’re not sure how to start, begin by asking questions. Reach out to businesses that inspire you and ask what their secret is. Shoot your local experts an email by clicking HERE! ;) Definitely take a fine tooth comb to your business. Compare the visuals and websites to your level one and level two competitors. From there you can start deviating from the mold.

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It’s time to stand out.

Worried about your company in a saturated marketplace?

We can help you.

Email us: hello@829design.com or call (916) 581-1777

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Our Sources:

1. Roach, Tom. “The Stupidity of Sameness and the Value of Difference.” BBH, BBH Labs, 20 Mar. 2019, bbh-labs.com/the-stupidity-of-sameness-and-the-value-of-difference/.

2. Kantar Millward Brown R&D study: Shopcom and FlyBuys loyalty card data merged with equity survey responses at respondent level. Based on comparing a composite score built from meaningful and different to price paid for actual brand purchases of 2400 consumers. Analysis includes 79 brands. Low = bottom 25%, Medium = middle 50%, High = top 25% on ‘Premium’ score built from meaning and difference

3. Admap April 2017, ‘Establish KPIs that grow brand equity’, Josh Samuel, Kantar’