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Creatives Meet Business

Listen in on what industry experts had to say at the latest Creatives Meet Business event. Host Ashland Viscosi curates and shares the best content and tips from the live events to help creatives and artists transition into creative entrepreneurs.
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Creatives Meet Business
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Now displaying: November, 2016
Nov 22, 2016

Hi there folks!

Creatives Meet Business is an event and podcast series based out of Austin, Texas for creatives of ALL disciplines to get from zero to one in thinking of themselves as business owners (in the creative sector).

This episode features Jeremy Cox, Digital Director at McGarrah Jessee. He shares so so much about branding - brand positioning, brand personality, branding elements, what makes a brand unique and distinctive, pitfalls and more. Because there's so so much that's exciting about this episode - let's hop in and hear what Jeremy has to say!

  • 0:00 to 1:55 - Ashland Opening Remarks and Intro of Jeremy Cox
  • 2:00 to 3:58 - Branding Your Site - Consistency in Tone and Appearance
    • Branding is vastly important
    • Branding - what does it mean. Jeremy's definition:
      • It's not - just a name, logo or a couple of colors
      • It is - the public facing manifestation of who you are
        • Also includes people's perception of what you've put out there
  • 3:59 to 4:40 - What is a Well-Architected Brand
    • Unique - therefore own-able
    • Easily recognizable
    • Consistent - everywhere
  • 4:41 to 6:45 - Brand Positioning and Brand Personality
    • Brand Positioning: A statement - a single sentence - that says what you do and do well that the competition can't do and can't touch and that people actually want
    • Brand Personality: A layer / filter to brand positioning - how do you do what you do?  Is it serious? Whimsical?
  • 6:46 to - 12:41 Branding Elements
    • Name - one of the first things people experience
    • Logo - visual counterpart to your or company's name
      • Do these fit through filter of brand positioning and brand personality?
      • Visual anchors
    • Copy - great opportunity for you to exercise your brand through words
      • Ex - Choice of tense - 1st person is conversational, personal; 3rd person expresses size, it's bigger than just me
    • Micro-level interactions on your site - confirmation page as a place to add personality through a purchase made through website
    • Color - apply with thought to user experience 
    • Typography - More choices available now online
      • Use caution - use legible copy in the body text but one that's a compliment to the personality of your main typeface
    • Visuals - don't say things with words when an image would be much better, don't say things with an image when a video would be much better
    • Structure of a site - are you allowing the user to digest it the right way?
    • Interactions and Animations within site 
  • 12:42 to 14:57 - Pitfalls 
    • Just like your brand shouldn't be all things to all people, your website shouldn't be. Don't be afraid to make decisions that focus you towards your audience and the purpose of what your business is meant to do
    • Don't get too intricate / too fancy. Take it one step at a time when building up your brand online
    • Don't think of your brand as static, it's not a static brand
    • Be cautious with templates (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace) - put the time in to craft it and make it your own. They have customizable ways to personalize it
    • Be careful not to lean too heavily on trends and assume that's what your brand is. Trends change more frequently than your brand should
  • 15:02 to 16:20 - Ashland Closing Remarks

If you like what you hear, share the podcast with your friends, rate and review. To stay in the loop - follow us on TwitterFacebook or subscribe to the newsletter.

We'll be sticking around the world of websites for a few weeks and have some pros that we can't wait to introduce you to. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks!

Ashland, Creatives Meet Business

Nov 8, 2016

Hi there folks!

Creatives Meet Business is an event and podcast series based out of Austin, Texas for creatives of ALL disciplines to get from zero to one in thinking of themselves as business owners (in the creative sector).

This episode features Alex O'Neal, an Austin-based UX Consultant with UXtraordinary and Instructor at General Assembly Austin. She shares so so much about testing, metrics, analytics and more. Alex begins with the reasons WHY we test and moves into metrics and analytics. She also walks us through a great alternative to AB tests for smaller sites - before and after snapshots. One of the coolest we things we learned about was POP - Prototyping on Paper (check it out, it's awesome). Without further adieu, here's Alex...

  • 0:00 to 3:18 - Ashland Opening Remarks and Intro of Alex O'Neal
  • 3:20 to 5:12 - Why Do We Test?
    • Two big questions of User Experience 
      • Who is on the other end of the screen?
      • What are they doing?
  • 5:15 to 7:59 - Analytics for Websites
    • Some hosting services offer their own metrics 
    • Conversion - Does the customer do what you wanted them to do
    • Device (Desktop or Phone) Used to Visit Site
    • Google Analytics - free service - uses a snippet of code that you embed on pages of your site
    • Exit - someone comes to site, looks around at a few pages and then leaves
    • Bounce rate - lands on site and doesn't explore other pages (not applicable with one page sites)
  • 8:00 to 9:05 - Behave.org
    • Formerly whichtestwon
    • They gather tests from large and small companies from all over the world and organize them by type of page (homepage, landing page, e-newsletter, etc) and vertical (type of industry or field)
    • They provide AB tests and analysis on which test worked and why
  • 9:06 to 10:53 -  Before and After Snapshots
    • When AB tests aren't an option, use before and after snapshots
    • Two versions of a page (original and new version you want to test)
    • Measure metrics for a specific period of time - Sunday through Saturday (for example)
    • Make the changes you're interested in testing and measure during the same time frame (Sunday through Saturday, for example)
    • Be mindful of federal holidays when selecting time frames to review
    • Transformation test - testing two very different looks and feels, helps with things like testing a site refresh
  • 10:54 to 13:34 - Example of Importance of Metrics and Analytics
  • 13:35 to 17:05 - User Testing or Usability Testing
    • Essentially you're putting a potential user in front of your site with a goal
    • It's very important to set tasks and goals
      • Ex. Ask them "Where would you go to sign up for an event?"
    • Jakob Nielsen suggests that when getting a group together for user testing no more than 6 people are needed. They'll find 90% of the issues on the website
    • Paper sketches - Prototyping on Paper (POP) 
  • 17:06 to 18:42 - Ashland Closing Remarks

Wanting to learn more about metrics? Here's a bit of bonus content - 11 Analytics That Are Actionable.

If you like what you hear, share the podcast with your friends, rate and review. To stay in the loop - follow us on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to the newsletter.

We'll be sticking around the world of websites for a few weeks and have some pros that we can't wait to introduce you to. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks!

Ashland, Creatives Meet Business

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