Creator's Block

WHAT INSPIRED THIS EPISODE?

A few weeks back, Quintain graphic designer Shelby and I co-hosted a monthly webinar for Quintain about brand style guides - both for visuals and for content.

And as we said when we were advertising for this webinar, “It doesn't matter if you're talking about redesigning your website or creating content for an inbound marketing strategy. If you don't have visual and content style guides for your brand, you risk eroding your credibility through inconsistent presentation, muddled messaging and sloppy execution.”

Unfortunately, most business owners and marketers consider style guides as a “nice to have” resource and not a “need to have.” That is until something goes wrong, and by then… well, it’s already too late.

So in this episode, Jessie-Lee takes our FIRST guest ever, Shelby, and myself on a deeper dive into the world of style guides - the backbone of your marketing strategy we’re pretty sure you’re ignoring.

 

SO, WHAT DID WE TALK ABOUT?

• How do you define a brand?
• What are the consequences a brand may experience if they don’t have style guides?
• Who is your style guide for, really?
• How Shelby puts together a visual style guide, and what you should include.
• Shelby’s experiences with clients who had no visual style guides.
• Why I developed our style guide process and my style guide workshop process, as well as what research I do before my workshops.
• What should be included in a content style guide - and why voice and tone are so critical. (And the one time that HubSpot totally underwhelmed/disappointed me with their style guide template.)
• What form should your style guide take, and where should it be stored?
• Our advice for those who are looking to get started in creating their own style guides.
• The biggest myths about each of our jobs.

 

HERE’S WHAT WE HAD TO SAY: JESSIE-LEE

“[Shelby and I] are both graphic designers. So it wasn’t until Liz took over as her role as content manager and started talking about style guides, that I looked at style guides as a multifaceted thing.”

“Back before we had Frontify, we would tell clients when we sent them a vector of their logo, ‘You’re not going to be able to open up this file on your computer unless you have Adobe Illustrator. But the reason you need this file is for t-shirts and pens, and things like that.’ [That’s because] vector files can get as small as a postage stamp or as big as a billboard - and the resolution looks exactly the same.”

“I really want to paint the picture that [a visual style guide] is more than just a finding place for your logo.”

 

LIZ

“What if you’re not using the same logo across all your different pieces of marketing collateral? What if it sounds like a different person wrote every single page of your website?

“Style guides are like processes. You take them for granted until you absolutely need them or there is a problem.”

“We have a tone application matrix for Quintain. I made up that [for my style guides], because I realized I didn’t have a good way to show what it means to adapt your tone in different situations.”

SHELBY

“Both the words that you’re writing and the way you present them to people - that’s everything that’s encompassed in these style guides.”

“I love that [through a visual style guide] I can share all of our templated documents. We have a template for our meeting agenda. We have a template for our PowerPoint presentation - that people should be using! … and I love that I can share this all in one place.”

“Tip number one, you need a brand style guide. You just need it. Even if it’s really, really simple. You just need to have something you can refer back to - that you can show to other people, that you can show to designers.”

HERE ARE THE RESOURCES WE TALKED ABOUT:

• Traction by Gino Wickman (Yup. Again.)
• “Are You Managing Your Brand as an Asset?” by Whitney Harmel
• Naptown Pint (My little side brand that Jessie-Lee pumped up this week)
• Voice and tone worksheets (What I use during my style guide workshop)
• “Brand Guide vs. Style Guide: What’s the Difference?” by Shelby Clarke
• “Raster vs. Vector: What Do They Mean and What’s the Difference?” by Shelby Clarke

 

ONE LAST THING...

In this episode, I spent a lot of time talking about who content style guides are for - content creators and marketers. That's not entirely true, however, as I failed to mention one of the pieces of advice I give all of our clients: Style guides are almost foundational resources that can (and should) be shared with others in your company.

A content style guide is a wonderful way to show people how you position your brand to the public, which can inform the work they do, even if they're not on your content or marketing teams.

 

GET IN TOUCH AND SPREAD THE CREATOR’S BLOCK LOVE

What did you think of this episode? Is there another topic or question you want us to take on? Or do you just want to say hi? Reach out to us on Twitter at @CreatorsBlockHQ or using the hashtag #creatorsblockparty. You can also say hi to Jessie-Lee at @jhyphenl, Shelby at @shelbstheging, and myself at @liztypes.

And don’t forget - whether you love us or hate us - we would really appreciate you reviewing our podcast on iTunes! 

…until next week!

 

 

What Inspired This Episode?

If you run your own business, or oversee the website for one, you know how critical they are to your business. When developed and designed correctly, your website has the potential to be the salesperson that keeps on selling - even when you turn out the lights and head home for the day - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

But time and time again, we run into businesses and clients who want to design the website for themselves - this is a critical mistake.

In this episode, Liz and I are not so much answering a question as we are staging an intervention. For all of the entrepreneurs, business owners and marketers out there who may be toying with the idea of a website redesign project, we get it. Your business and your website are your baby - as they should be.

But the fact remains that your website isn’t for you.

So, What Did We Talk About?

• If you shouldn’t design your website for you, who should you design it for?
• What are audience personas, and how dimensional should they be?
• What informs Jessie-Lee’s design choices during website projects
• How much a company’s sales process should figure into a website project
• Liz’s interviewing process for creating website copy - and why she loves salespeople
• Our advice for businesses vetting agencies/designers

 

Here’s What We Had to Say:

Jessie-Lee:

“It’s kind of like when you go to write a big research paper. You have to do the research, you have to do the outlines, before you can jump in and write the paper.”

“When we say ‘design,’ we don’t just mean colors and fonts. It has a lot to do with the user experience.”

“Seventy percent of the buyer’s journey happens before they even contact you. That’s incredible.”

“You have to test your designer a little bit. You need to put your designer in a situation where their options are to either need to push back and tell you that you’re making the wrong decision, or they’re going to cave. And if they completely cave, that’s a huge red flag.”

Liz:

“If you are not positioning your brand visually or through the copy on your website in a way that resonates with the audience you are trying to attract, what’s the point?”

“When you feel like you’re being sold to, you feel like you’re not being listened to, so you automatically do not trust anything that’s being said to you.”

“I’m the person in bed at 12:30 in the morning, reading LinkedIn.”

“If you’re a marketer, look to salespeople, because they instinctively understand how to talk to the people you’re trying to reach. Especially in the context of a website project.”

Here Are the Resources We Discussed:

• Traction by Gino Wickman (Again!)
• Audience Persona Worksheet
• “Do You Know Where Your Buyer Personas Are?” by Liz
• “How to Get Sales Enablement Right for Your Company” by Rich

 

Get in Touch and Spread the Creator's Block Love! 

What did you think of our first episode? Is there another topic or question you want us to take on? Or do you just want to say hi? Reach out to us on Twitter at @CreatorsBlockHQ or using the hashtag #creatorsblockparty. You can also say hi to me at@liztypes or Jessie-Lee at @jhyphenl.

And don’t forget - whether you love us or hate us - we would really appreciate you reviewing our podcast on iTunes! 

…until next week!

WHAT INSPIRED THIS EPISODE?

Jessie-Lee and I not only love what we do, we love where we do it - at an inbound marketing agency. But what some have dubbed “the agency life” isn’t for everyone. Or is it?

There seems to be a lot of debate in the marketing world about the role of an agency in someone’s career. Some see working at a marketing agency as a necessary (evil) prerequisite they need to knock out before moving onto the “next big thing” on their resume, while others have a fairy tale-like dream of working in a collaborative team environment, where they get to be creative every day. 

So in this week’s episode we try to answer the question: “Who should - and shouldn’t - work for a marketing agency?”

SO, WHAT DID WE TALK ABOUT?

• Can’t anyone work at a marketing agency? (Spoilers: Nope.)
• How we ended up at Quintain, and why we love agency life.
• Jessie-Lee shares what she looks for when she conducts her Quintain culture interviews, as well as some of her favorite questions.
• Red flags for job seekers - how to know when an agency might not be the right choice for you.
• Why the right people get that working at an agency is so much more than just doing the actual marketing.
• Our favorite ways to unwind outside of the office, when we need a little “self-care” refresh.

HERE’S WHAT WE HAD TO SAY: JESSIE-LEE

“The one thing that I hear time and time again that absolutely grinds my gears is, ‘Well, I think [working at an agency] could be really fun - to be super creative and collaborate a lot…’ It makes my heart sink a little bit.”

“It’s not like the movies, where you go into the room and there’s the pool table and the ping pong tables and the dartboards, and you’re in ideation mode all the time.”

“You do have to be a little off-your-rocker to work at an agency.”

“I wanted to be Ross from Friends when I grew up. It’s a cultural reference, Liz!”

“If you’re that person who needs that finite schedule of, “These are my work hours, and these are my play hours,” and those two don’t interact, agency life is going to be really hard for you.”

LIZ

“What frustrates me is when people go to an agency to check the box. ‘Oh, I just need the agency experience, before I can go in-house.’ Thank you. That’s like saying to us, ‘You’re the person I need to date, before I can get to the person I’m going to marry.’”

“It’s not like I came strolling out when I was a baby and said, ‘I want to work at an agency when I grow up!’”

“There’s no room for hubris at an agency. There’s no room for saying you know your crap and you don’t.”

“Anyone who works at an agency - in any capacity - is a relationship manager, to some degree.”

“Don’t be afraid to tell yourself what you don’t like to do, because then it’s easier to figure out what you do like to do.”

HERE ARE THE RESOURCES WE TALKED ABOUT:

• Blab video chat app
• The DiSC Assessment (We’re both i’s)
• Good to Great by Jim Collins (“The right people on the bus.”)
• Cootie Catcher or Fortune Teller?

GET IN TOUCH AND SPREAD THE CREATOR’S BLOCK LOVE

What did you think of this episode? Is there another topic or question you want us to take on? Or do you just want to say hi? Reach out to us on Twitter at @CreatorsBlockHQ or using the hashtag #creatorsblockparty. You can also say hi to me at @liztypes or Jessie-Lee at @jhyphenl.

And don’t forget - whether you love us or hate us - we would really appreciate you reviewing our podcast on iTunes! 

…until next week!

WHAT INSPIRED THIS EPISODE?

When you take a look under the hood of most marketing agencies, you might be tempted to only focus on the output of what they can provide for clients – from the quality of their design work and content, to the quantifiable results they are able to drive through the execution of their inbound activities. Those are all extremely important, but what kind of processes should an agency have as their engine, driving everything that they do?

In this episode, Liz and I tackle this complex topic, from our two very different perspectives. Me, with my project-driven website design process, and Liz with her multitude of recurring content creation processes. An interesting discussion not only for agencies, but also the companies that want to hire them.

SO, WHAT DID WE TALK ABOUT?

• Celebrating 10 years (for the second time!) of Quintain Marketing.
• Why creating processes is painful, but also vital.
• The true story of how I developed my comprehensive website redesign process.
• The difference between Liz's recurring processes and my project-based processes.
• How processes helped us solve problems we were avoiding – or didn’t know where there.
• How to leverage context to determine the format of your processes.
• The biggest lesson we’ve learned since we started at Quintain Marketing.

HERE’S WHAT WE HAD TO SAY: JESSIE-LEE

“In terms of writing a process that truly works for you, you almost have to be ready to meet failure at the gate.”

“People can tell you do things in your personal life. But until you decide you need it done, it’s not going to happen.”

“I think the reason why I look [at processes] in terms of ‘rules to break,’ and the reason why you’re so structured, is that I have the liberty of time, and you don’t.”  

“You have knowledge in your head, and you know what has to happen intuitively. But to put it down on paper is a whole other level.”

“[Write processes] sooner rather than later. And don’t do it by yourself. Process with a buddy.”

LIZ

“If you’re not willing to adapt [your processes], grow them, change them, have them evolve along with you – what’s the point of having them?”

“Even if you have to go back to your processes later with a hammer and smash them, you have to start with something.”

“Never trust an agency that doesn’t have processes. Not only that, they should have multiple processes.”

“People don’t say it out loud, but they don’t want to write processes, because they don’t want to make life more difficult.”

“Every person under an agency roof is a relationship manager of some kind.”

HERE ARE THE RESOURCES WE TALKED ABOUT:

• How to Improve Your Agency Processes from GatherContent
• How to Spot An Agency That Fails at Content Creation
• The case study questionnaire we use with our clients
• Rewind to our first Creator's Block episode

GET IN TOUCH AND SPREAD THE CREATOR’S BLOCK LOVE

What did you think of this episode? Is there another topic or question you want us to take on? Or do you just want to say hi? Reach out to us on Twitter at @CreatorsBlockHQ or using the hashtag #creatorsblockparty. You can also say hi to me at @liztypes or Jessie-Lee at @jhyphenl.

And don’t forget - whether you love us or hate us - we would really appreciate you reviewing our podcast on iTunes! 

…until next week!

What Inspired This Episode?

Jessie-Lee and I are both brand storytellers. While I do that in the literal sense with words, she does that visually through design and websites. So in this inaugural episode of the Creator’s Block podcast, we tackle a big, hairy issue that impacts both agency pros and business owners alike - how should design and content work together, especially in the context of a website redesign project?

Well, thanks to a big website we were collaborating on at the time we recorded this episode, we had a lot to say on this subject…

So, What Did We Talk About?

• Who we are and why we started the Creator’s Block podcast.
• Why designers and content creators can (and should) work hand-in-hand.
• Why you need to be thinking about design and content as two sides of the same coin.
• When it comes to website projects, which do you develop first? Content or design?
• The most important questions businesses should ask prospective agencies.
• What it takes to be an entrepreneur or to be truly passionate about something.

Here’s What We Had to Say:

Jessie-Lee

“I’m not a puppet. I’m a person who understands how to problem-solve visually.”

“Sometimes good ideas happen at 4:30 in the morning.”

“If you work at an agency in your own designer bubble - pop it. Pop it and go talk to your content person.”

“We win when our clients win. We like to develop partnerships with our clients.”

“Once you hit ‘go’ on launch day, that’s not the end of your website. That’s the beginning. A website is a dynamic, living, breathing thing.”

Liz

“You’re a designer; I’m a content creator. But ultimately, we’re both storytellers.”

“If someone is able to give you a simple answer - ‘Which comes first, content or design?’ - that’s a huge red flag.”

“If you run an agency, and your designers and content creators aren’t talking, you need to facilitate that.”

“It’s the ‘Jurassic Park’ rule. Just because you can make a dinosaur doesn’t mean you should.”

“You don’t get to have those amazing wins without a bit of pain and a ton of hard work - tons of mental and literal elbow grease.”

Here Are the Resources We Talked About:

• Traction by Gino Wickman
• The Quintain Culture Deck
• Growth-Driven Design: How to Take the Pain Out of a Website Redesign
• The Elbow High Five Put to the Test (Video)
• GatherContent (Liz’s Favorite Tool)
• The Unicorn Farm Isn’t Hiring

Get in Touch and Spread the Creator’s Block Love

What did you think of our first episode? Is there another topic or question you want us to take on? Or do you just want to say hi? Reach out to us on Twitter at @CreatorsBlockHQ or using the hashtag #creatorsblockparty. You can also say hi to me at @liztypes, or Jessie-Lee at @jhyphenl.

And don’t forget - whether you love us or hate us - we would really appreciate you reviewing the podcast.

…until next week!