With an estimated 3 billion people using the Internet these days, it’s no secret that we are living in an online world. As such, businesses are suddenly moving their marketing and branding tactics online to capture this massive audience.
If you’re looking to cut yourself a piece of this online audience, then it’s time to start marketing your business for online media. Online media channels can include anything from press releases and news publications to social media channels, websites, remarketing ads, and more. But don’t expect to reach much of an audience through these channels without first designing a logo for the digital era.
The most important aspect of any successful online media campaign is your brand logo. To design a logo that fits your brand and works well online, there are a few key tricks you will need to take into account during your logo design process. Below we’ve mapped out how to design a logo for any type of online media source.
Logo design best practices for online media
- Choose a simple design. Minimalistic logo designs are critical when it comes to marketing a business online. It is easy for online users to get overwhelmed with colors, shapes, and fonts on their screens that a simple, well-designed logo will be like a breath of fresh air. Try to choose simple shapes, clean lines, and only a few colors. These days, many businesses are opting out of a tagline to simplify their logo design even further. Other businesses, such as Starbucks and Twitter, have even done away with the company name in exchange for their well-recognized icons.
- Make it dynamic. Even though you may never find your logo on promotional products or printed across a storefront, you still need to design a logo that is flexible. Just because your logo isn’t going on a restaurant menu or pen, doesn’t mean it will be confined to different sized spaces. Keep in mind that social media channels all require different sized images, as do feature blog or article images and website header areas. The shape and style of a business logo is a significant contributor to whether or not a logo will be dynamic across online media channels. For instance, horizontal logos may not look great on a Facebook profile picture, whereas a square badge logo will look best in this situation.
- Optimize for any device. Just as you would design a website for any sized device, so too should you design your logo to look great across all devices. If you’re designing an online app, for instance, create a logo for your business that can be easily scaled down to just it’s icon, or perhaps the first letter of your business name. Whatever you do, make sure that your business doesn’t lose its identity even with the abbreviated design displayed on smaller devices.
- Create multiple variations. As we mentioned above, having a dynamic logo design will ensure that your brand logo can be quickly and easily displayed across multiple online media. However, you may find that you love the original shape and style of your business logo. If this is the case, then be sure to ask your professional designer to create multiple sized variations of it. Request that they create PNGs and other image files of your logo for social media sites, news sites, and your company website. This way your logo design won’t be warped or stretched while trying to fit a confined space.
- Send a message. Don’t just go through the motions when you’re designing a business logo. Sure you will want to incorporate text, colors, icons, and other design aspects, but if you don’t have a message to send to your online audience, then why bother with the creative process in the first place? Before you begin to create a logo, step back and decide on what kind of message you want to portray to your users. If you’re having trouble coming up with a design that accurately portrays what your company, product, or service is about, then perhaps it’s time to enlist in the help of a logo design team.
Once you have these best practices in mind, it’s time to start designing a logo. You have a lot of options to choose from to design a logo. We recommend looking into an online logo maker, contacting a professional designer, or creating one yourself if you have creative programs such as Photoshop or Indesign. When you’re done making your business logo, it’s time to add it to your online channels!
The best online media channels to add your logo to
- Websites. When building a website, the first image you should upload should be your business logo. Make sure your logo is displayed above the fold (the part of the page that loads before a user scrolls down the page) so that it’s the first thing people see. You don’t have to worry about whether or not it will look good if you’ve instilled the logo design best practices from above.
- Blogs. If you run a separate blog from your website, or if your blog is hosted on a subdomain, then don’t forget to add your company logo to your blog. Many businesses will often ask for guest bloggers to build backlinks and content. If your company plans to do any guest blogging in the future, don’t forget to send your logo and a link back to your website along with your blog post.
- News articles. Press releases and news articles that talk about your brand or company should always include your logo. News articles and press releases can often get a lot of online visibility, so you want to make sure your business logo is front and center on the page. Be sure to ask the online publication first whether or not they will accept images along with content. If they don’t, then at least ask them to include a link in their article that goes back to your website (where users will ultimately see your logo).
- Emails. Running an email campaign? Email campaigns are a great way to generate interest in a sale or promotion you’re running. This online marketing tool is also very cost effective, with a huge ROI. No matter whether your email list is large or small, be sure to include your business logo either in the header of your email blast or the footer. There’s a good chance that your recipients are forwarding your emails to friends, family, and coworkers — so it’s best to look professional and spread awareness for your brand.
- Social media. Speaking of trying to look professional, nothing screams unprofessional quite like a random social media profile picture that doesn’t relate to your business whatsoever. Keep in mind that your social media channels are just as visible online as your website, so it’s essential to brand your social profiles as you would with any other online marketing platform. Don’t forget to create multiple variations of your new logo design to ensure that it looks great across all channels.
- Online Ads. If you plan on running any paid advertising campaigns, then consider ads with images included. If you believe you don’t have a good image of your product, service, or storefront, then use your new business logo until you can find a substitute. Display ads and ads on social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram are very picture-heavy, so make sure that you use the best quality image of your logo, such as a PNG file for high-resolution.
- Local business listings. One of the best ways to improve brand awareness for your business is through local business listing profiles. Creating a listing profile is another opportunity to drive traffic back to your site in the form of referral traffic. However, before users can visit your site from local listing sites, you first need to ensure that your listing profile is filled out completely — and this includes adding your company logo. Adding a logo and accurate contact information (name, address, phone number) will significantly improve the chances of users looking at your listing profile over your industry competitors.
Ready to design a logo and add it to your online channels? Check out our easy-to-use logo design app which allows you to customize your logo for all types of online and offline marketing channels.
