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Attract Your Ideal Customer

As we recover from the most recent storm it’s hard to believe that spring will be here before we know it, bringing visitors and demand for seasonal services. For many local businesses, winter is a time to plan, with issues like inventory purchases, staffing strategy, and financial management top of mind. What about your customers? Are you clear on who they are and why they chose you? And do their purchases provide a consistent and profitable revenue stream? In this article we’ll explore how a website – even a simple

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Brand Building 104 – Color as a Design Tool

Color is a powerful design tool. From a user experience perspective, color and icons provide essential navigation guidance across apps and websites. Color also influences customers’ brand perception, sparking emotional responses, drawing attention to key messages, and putting them in the right frame of mind to make a purchase. Color theory is a complex topic. For a detailed overview, reference this Elementor article. However, you do not need to be a design professional to create an attractive color palette that supports your brand identity. This essay provides some simple guidance

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Brand Building 103 – The Value Proposition

There are so many unknowns to starting a small business. But customer value should not be one of them. At this point you’ve determined your target audience, their unmet needs and pain points and your unique selling points to address their needs. Now it’s time to convert that information into a clear, concise message that will engage your audience. The Foundation of Your Brand Strategy A value proposition is a statement that conveys what a brand does and how it differs from competitors. Having a value proposition is important because it

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Brand Creation | Kerr+Jones Fine Art & Craft

Diana Kerr and Kathleen Jones recently opened Kerr+Jones Fine Art & Craft, a gallery near Boothbay Harbor, Maine featuring contemporary Maine art and craft. Read on to learn more about how they created and implemented a brand for this premier  Mid-Coast Maine destination for unique and timeless works. Maine’s Fine Art Legacy With its rocky coastlines and wild forests Maine has captured the imagination of American legends such as the Wyeth family and Edward Hopper. Today, Maine makers continue to produce some of the finest works of art and crafts

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Brand Building 102 – Your Unique Selling Points

With a few exceptions, all businesses have competition. Whereas twenty years ago companies relied on unique, catchy slogans and visuals to stand out from the crowd, these promotional messages are now so overwhelming to consumers that they have become desensitized to them. In today’s environment it is critical for consumers and B2B companies to identify their Unique Selling Point, or USP. This is a unique benefit not available from competitors that fulfills a target audience’s need, creating a competitive advantage that will motivate consumers to choose you over alternatives. In

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Brand Building 101 – Find Your Audience

According to Forbes, half of all small businesses close within the first five years, primarily as a result of lack of market demand due to a failure to engage a target audience. Defining your target audience is a crucial step in launching a new or repositioning an under-performing business. It allows you to develop a brand identity and messaging to attract customers most likely to engage your services. This update discusses two simple activities to identify your target audience – customer segmentation and persona development, as a first step in

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Nice to Meet You

Hi, I’m Margaret Greene and this is my husband, Jim. As the principals at Paisley Boston, we’re small business owners just like you. Our small businesses are a major source of innovation, economic growth and national prosperity. According to Forbes Magazine, small businesses comprise 99.9% of US businesses and employ almost half of US workers. But succeeding as a small business is hard work, with nearly half failing within the first five years. Data from CB Insights indicates that the majority of these closures – 42% – are the result

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