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All business owners and business development managers know that you can never stand still. To stay ahead in any market place you have to be alert and proactive. One area where you can easily make a difference is in how you present yourself.
The research suggests that:
“good design matters whether your company focuses on physical goods, digital products, services, or some combination of these.”
So just what is ‘good design’ and how can it be applied to your business?
There are some simple steps to improving your overall presentation in order to smarten up your act:
Focus on brand and identity
Consider if your brand is strong, recognisable and appropriate. Is it applied clearly and consistently across every customer point of contact? If not, start with a brand alignment process. Set a standard and employ it firmly in every possible situation – from your door sign to your website to your email signature and beyond.
The creation of a Corporate Guide is the ideal way to establish your brand guidelines and ensure that they are replicated authentically every time.
Make your communication visually appealing and well organised
Use professionally designed pre-branded templates for your Word and Powerpoint documents with pre-set text sizes, bullet point styles, indents, callouts and quotations to ensure consistency.
Create a library of appropriate icons and images that can be used to provide visual relief, reinforce your messages and punctuate your work. Use white space to balance your pages and make content easier to take in.
Make your communication succinct – less is more
Think about how you are conveying your content and then think about how your customer or client will relate to it. Is it too wordy, are the paragraphs too long and dense (and potentially boring), is it repetitive, are there pages and pages of words with no relief?
Add balance and pace to your content by ensuring that paragraphs are easy to absorb, that you introduce bullet points to emphasise key points, and relevant graphics to support your aims. But above all avoid repetition and aim to convey the maximum sense within a reasonable word count.
Think specifically about being different
It is so important to create a good first impression. Rather like turning up in a well-tailored suit and adopting the right manner, how you present your business, at every turn, is key to the sense of professionalism and credibility that you generate.
There are many ways to apply design effectively to hone how your business is perceived – no matter what sector you work in:
The list goes on and on.
It’s all about standing out from the crowd
We can develop unique, eye-catching and out-of-the-ordinary presentation materials and deliverables to really make an impact and ensure that your business leaves a lasting impression.
Observe the difference
Why do I need this? Because the stats are there, the results are in – it works!
In fact, if you want to take your business up-market, to develop and grow, there is a critical point at which design and the resulting public perception it creates, are absolutely pivotal. As one of our clients recently informed us following the delivery of proposal for a multi-million pound project:
“At the end of the day, the competition was extremely stiff, and ultimately it was the quality of our presentation that tipped the balance.”