If you are a business leader, I am sure that you are really excited about your business. You love your business and you truly believe in its value. This is good. However, it’s important not to lose sight of why your business is here in the first place. It’s here to meet the needs of your audience. It can be easy to get caught up in the newness and excitement of your business, and unintentionally lose sight of what is important. Your brand is not about you, it’s about the customer. If you are frustrated with the growth of your business, committing to this branding mindset may help unlock new opportunities for you.

Branding is about telling a compelling story which places the customer at the center of it. Brands live to help customers become the successful protagonist in their story. In other words, customers are not here to serve your business, you are here to serve them. This insight is well written about in Donald Miller’s book, Building a StoryBrand. In his book, Miller explains, “The fatal mistake some brands make… is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide.”

Developing your brand message is key to a successful brand strategy. Instead of shouting “Buy this. Buy this. Buy This!” Your branding message ought to be, “I am here to help you accomplish your specific goals, with flare.”

Understanding that it is not about you, can take the pressure off of your business. You can’t be all things to all people and you definitely can’t solve every problem in the world. Yet, you can help your customers improve their lives as they make progress toward their desired outcomes. Identifying your distinct value proposition will aid you in strategic decisions. Your content should be a reflection of your customer’s story. Does your photography capture the impact that your company has on real lives? Do your blog posts inform and inspire your target audience? Is your social media strategy engaging and inclusive? These are the types of questions that must be asked as you build up your brand.

At the end of the day, your brand is providing a sense of meaning. It’s up to you to decide what your meaning is. Is your brand here to encourage the masses to take mental health seriously? Is your brand here to provide awesome travel experiences? In order to be there for your customers, you need to have a strong sense of your brand identity. Once you pinpoint who you are, you can confidently shape your brand strategy to be centered on your customer needs and not yours. Prioritizing the craving of your customers is your best chance at achieving sustainable business growth.

B R A N D - This word has become increasingly popular over the last few years and for some it has even provided a life of meaning and excitement. We see the term all over social media (mine included) and it has the ability to convey a powerful portrayal of a deeper purpose. A brand used to exclusively represent the type of car, or whiskey, or cereal one desired to purchase. But now, brands are nearly synonymous with persons. A human identity is suddenly being represented online as a “personal brand”. My goal here is not to critique the usage of this term, nor is it to hype it up, I merely want to bring attention to its increasing relevance in our culture.

Like it or not, the convergence of brand and human is not going anywhere. This is the future of our civilization. As our economy and technology continues to evolve, more opportunities will arise for people to sell goods and services through their social media platforms. I think the rise of social media as the main navigator for social awareness and communication is the major reason for the emergence of personal brands.

Social media and personal branding has made business much more relational, which is good. Having a human face attached to the image of a company, makes the business relationship feel more authentic and reliable. People are much more likely to make buying decisions when they have sense of connection and meaning attached to a company. This is why branding can be so important. Branding is all about crafting the careful image and identity that a company, or person, wants to portray to a customer.

To be “on brand” means to successfully express the message and purpose of your business in a consistent, and stylish manner. The beautiful thing about branding, is that it is attached to your personality. Your personality, is uniquely yours and no one can take it away. No matter how saturated your market is, the complex nature that makes you who you are is something that can always differentiate yourself from your competitors. That’s good news.

No matter what your profession is, I would recommend that you invest time in crafting your brand personality. As you develop your personal brand, you put yourself in a position where you can leverage your own personhood and make decisions that scale your business. Effectively branding yourself puts power and freedom in your own hands. This is the way of the future. You don’t have to develop a personal brand, but if you are a business person, a leader, or an artist, it will definitely be beneficial for you to create a strong online presence of who you are and what value you are providing.

Developing your personal brand is a tactic that can help you capture the reality of who you are and thus, expressing fully in the world. Obviously, any branding success will only last if you are committed to portraying your authentic self. If you are trying to convince the world that you are someone that you are not, then there will be no lasting benefit. However, if you are secure in who you are and you believe in your message, through time, you will impact many people in a positive way.

In its absolute simplest form, marketing is the art of communicating a message. As marketers, we are called to ponder what message we will share with the world. My personal goal is to use marketing as a tool to help encourage people to be mindfully present and grateful in every moment. The culture I hope to help create is a culture that doesn’t value material success so much, but one that values the complex human experience that we all find ourselves in. I believe this shift in world view should be adopted by all marketers alike as we work to make the world a healthier place.

Society often tells us that if you want happiness and fulfillment, you must attain more and more. Marketers often make this society worse by building off of that harmful creed, and saying, “If you want happiness and to feel superhuman, here buy this.” As artists and marketers, we have the power to shift that focus. My desire is for us to live in a culture that celebrates the reality of life. A culture that fully embraces peace and anxiety, love and loss, joy and fear. I want to communicate a message that we all share a wide range of human emotions, and that is okay and healthy. Stand tall and be confident of your scars and your quirks and your pain. To even have scars means that you have truly lived. These painful experiences are exactly what gives our lives meaning in the first place. Imagine a world where you got everything you wanted all the time — that would get so… boring. Or if you were super happy-happy all the time, that wouldn’t be natural and would probably elicit concern from others.

The messages that society sends are not helpful to attain the healthy life we were designed for. Paradoxically, trying to attain happiness and fulfillment is the very act that leaves us feeling miserable. Instead, I think it is more beneficial to celebrate the day-to-day that we find ourselves immersed in. Let’s use photography, design, storytelling, and community, to build a lasting connection between us all. I think, with this authentic connection, we can make the life experience a lot less lonely and a lot more beautiful.

To reiterate: brands should stop making the false promise about how any product will save you. Nothing will. Marketing should use artistry to communicate the beautiful reality of our existence in the here and now. Good brands are only here to contribute to your unique experience. I understand that much of our buying behavior is based on what we want to become, but I believe we can still address this desire without sacrificing the mental health of the public. We can both be mindfully appreciative for where we are in the moment and have healthy desires for our future hopes.

The year of 2019, I believe, will be a year replete with high quality digital art. The aesthetic literacy of consumers has increased in recent years, and your business cannot afford to seem aesthetically rugged or unappealing.

What matters most to your business is the value of your product/service, but in today’s market, the way you look will matter just as much. While it’s not all about mere appearance, having a good product, without an appealing visual impression will hinder you from maximizing your results. Companies will need to invest time and resources in creating an amazing brand experience through the arts. It’s an increasingly noisy world, and you don’t need to rely on cheap gimmicks or shock value to get the attention you deserve. Utilizing art as a tool for your marketing will boost your brand reputation and will result in increased brand equity.

Art via Design

A logo should communicate the complexity of your brand identity in a simple visual manner. Developing a beautiful logo means taking the time to develop a beautiful and unique image by utilizing color, depth, shapes, and shades to create a sense of curiosity for the viewer. The person interacting with your logo should have a sense that there is something deeper going on within the image. It should be clear, at first glance, that the logo isn’t simply a pretty image, but a unique piece of art containing a hidden and uplifting message. A truly artistic logo will incite inspiration upon first glance.

Art via Photography

There is no debating the dominance of social media when it comes to digital marketing — yet it surprises me how many companies have yet to utilize the effectiveness of high quality photography. Still, I see ministries, non-profits, and small businesses alike, use low-resolution photos to sell their products and services. Many companies post content for content’s sake, but don’t take the time to develop a truly moving piece of art. If your content is not artistically delightful, then you are simply adding to the noise of all the other social media buzz. Utilizing high quality photography can cause the average Instagram “scroller” to pause at the intersection of your post, and mindfully take in the beauty of your content. This way, consumers want to see what you are posting, and you resist giving the impression of a spammy business account who only wants something from others. You instead appear as a market leader providing value to others.

Art via Story

A good story is what connects the audience to your brand. Take the time to artfully share your company story and the story of your customers. What is the end goal and the mission of your brand? Express your goals clearly and emotionally to get others excited to join your story. Storytelling is what gives meaning to this life so it’s important to include your customers in your journey. Humans have been telling stories for as long as we’ve been here, so it’s no wonder that this form of art can be really beneficial to your brand’s growth.

In Conclusion

True art should both delight and instruct — and I can’t think of better definition for marketing. Spending time and resources on high quality content is an investment worthwhile. Capturing the beauty of your brand through design, photography, and storytelling is one major way to help your company rise above its competitors. In addition, don’t be surprised if you and your company culture respond positively to the brand refinements. Sometimes looking the part can reenergize the culture — we all know how our attitudes change when we put on that fresh new business suit. Taking your business seriously enough to ensure that the quality of your content matches the value of your business can set you up on a good trajectory for the upcoming year.

I remember waking up at 5AM, putting on my weight vest, and doing sprints in the sand pits every cold morning. I played basketball growing up and my ultimate dream was to be in the NBA. The grandiose hope of athletic superstardom taught me how to grind relentlessly, knowing that there was always someone out there working harder than me. Despite my work ethic, I never learned how to work smart at that age. I was a good player, but I think my lack of understanding prevented me from becoming the best that I could have been. That bad habit of working hard, but not smart, followed me throughout college and shortly after. I found myself going to school, working at Trader Joe’s, starting my own business, and working in ministry all at once. Although the intentions were pure, I was working too hard, and not smart. As I’ve continued to grow and evolve, my goal has been to masterfully develop an intelligent work ethic for my business and life goals, and I think you should consider doing the same.

I’m writing this piece on the first day of the new year and a lot of people who have respectable goals will likely fail because they will lack a proper intelligent work ethic. Many will look to 2019 with the hopes of changing too many things all at once. Without an intelligent work ethic, you risk becoming overwhelmed and burnt out. You can work hard to grow your brand in an effective way without wasting your time and energy.

Use Your Time Wisely

Try not to spend a lot of time performing ineffective tactics, rather spend your precious time perfecting content of high quality. This might mean having less content at first, but if you take your time to develop truly good content, you will get better and faster at making effective work. To help this process, select small attainable goals, and then do that well — better than anyone else.

Focus on Your Target

After you identify your specific goals, make sure the projects and tasks you are working on will help you reach your targeted desires. It’s easy to get lost in the busyness and lose track of the main goal. Learning the discipline of narrowing your focus will ensure a better impact with less work as opposed to little impact with more work.

It’s About Relationships

It’s also important to specify who your target audience is. Ask yourself questions to help build your marketing strategy like: What demographic of people will help you achieve your goals? How will you connect with that target audience? Who do you want to collaborate with? Answering these questions will help you work smarter by targeting the right people. Business is all about people, yet many entrepreneurs and business owners can have a tendency to put their heads down and ignore all others in their path. One of the most intelligent things you can do for your business, is cultivating strong and healthy relationships with the people in your life. People hold the keys to opportunities, and treating others with generosity, kindness, and grace will open more doors for you and your business. Other humans will reciprocate the energy you put out towards them, and if you do this with love, it will be good news for your brand.

Sleep and Rest

I remember drinking coffee and Red Bulls at midnight during college as I would carry out my all-nighters. I thought I was showing diligence and executing a respectable work ethic. I was working hard, sure, but not intelligently. I try not to live with regrets, but I have since learned that I do not create my best work at 3AM in the morning. For me, my mind functions at the highest level when I have my 6–8 hours of sleep and when I am working from a place of rest. When I am stressed out and trying to force my productivity, I am left with work I am often less proud of. If running off of adrenaline and little sleep works for you, then go for it, but have the self-awareness to know how you operate at the most efficient level.

Learn and Execute

There is a plethora of information out there, yet so few of us actually take advantage of it. Many people spend time reading a ton of books or blogs like this one, but don’t actually execute the knowledge. On the other hand, some of us are executing our strategies, but haven’t taken the time to learn new strategies, trends, or insights. I think as entrepreneurs, we need to hold ourselves to the humble cycle of learning and execution. Constantly learning new information, and executing that new knowledge on a daily basis.

Don’t get me wrong, your enthusiasm and work ethic is admirable and inspiring. However, I think we need to reevaluate what it means to work hard — even if that means rejecting certain sacred cows. Take the time to nurture your mind, body, and soul. Identify the specific goals you have and work intelligently by perfecting your products/service and developing healthy relationships. Use your energy on the things that will help you achieve your targeted goals, and in time, you will see positive results.

Have you overcomplicated your marketing strategy? From all the marketing trends, and various social media pages, and podcasts, and blogs, I mean how could you not overcomplicate it? When it comes to the wonderful world of marketing, it is all too easy to lose sight of what matters. And what matters is building a kickass brand experience.

As someone who earned my degree in business, it has been challenging for me to reconcile my passion for marketing with my irritation of this noisy, oversaturated digital world we have found ourselves in. From politicians, to pastors, to businesspeople, everyone is simply trying to get others to do something. Apparently, professionalism is all about persuading others to make a decision that benefits the messenger. In order to bring myself some peace, I have come to this personal conclusion: stop trying to get others to do something, and simply provide value without an agenda. This may seem antithetical to your purposes, but I am going to explain why businesses should adopt the same mindset.

What would happen to your business if you stopped spending so much time, money, and energy reading the latest marketing books, or listening to endless podcasts, or going to expensive conferences? My bet is that not much would change. What you (and I) (and all of us) need is an improved brand experience. And this brand experience should be centered on authenticity, consistency, and high quality content. As business owners, we should focus on perfecting our products and services, and allow time for word-of-mouth to work its magic. Of course, I am not recommending that you cut your marketing budget completely, but I think it’s time to reevaluate your marketing strategy.

Your time and hard work should be spent developing a transformative business that genuinely makes lives better and more fulfilled. Forming a truly amazing customer experience would do most of the marketing work for you. Done properly, your improved brand experience would increase the likelihood of product evangelism, which is the most effective form of marketing.

As we consider improving your overall brand experience, for the sake of this brief article, let’s focus on digital marketing and your online presence. Whether we like it or not, people spend a lot of time on social media, and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon. No one wants to be talked at or sold to. Of course we all know that, but we marketers still do it. No matter how “authentic” your content seems, that bold “sponsored” sign still gets the point across loud and clear. We are viewing an ad, and you want something from us. Customers want to be autonomous agents of unique desires and perspectives. We don’t want to feel like sheep who are easily manipulated. This requires business owners to shift our mindsets. We are not merely marketing to get others to buy, we are marketing to add value to people’s lives. Paradoxically, the desired results will follow.

Instagram is fused with celebrities and influencers showing off their most exotic life, which causes everyday people to only post content of their most recent vacations and road trips. Instagram seems to ignore the day to day that most of us find ourselves in. No wonder there is a rise in anxiety and depression. As a content creator, I refuse to be a contributor to the culture of comparison. Instead, I will use my camera to capture the heavenly reality that we find ourselves in, here and now. I have decided to offer value by providing bright, cool photos of the beautiful people and places in my life. This way, I continue to challenge myself as a photographer, and I celebrate the real people that exist in my life. I’m not paying Influencers, I’m not doing photo shoots with professional models. I am attempting to capture the divine beauty in the eyes of my closest friends. (see @nateluhh)

This authentic approach to photography, design, and social media, I believe, should be applied to all business efforts. Every marketer will tell you that authenticity is what matters today, but yet it all still seems so forced. The artist shapes culture, and marketers hold the power, let’s get rid of the gimmicks and create a world of positivity and realness.

Use the art of photography and design to capture the authentic power of your brand. Allow social media to show the real benefit of your business, with no schemes attached. Social Media marketing is about showing off your awesome business and inviting others into your adventure. Let’s be clear though; being authentic doesn’t do all the work for you. You must also be consistent and your content must be of high quality.

If your photography is subpar, social media users will ignore it. No matter how authentic it is. Furthermore, having one, really good photo that tells the story of your brand, likely wont help your business either. You must be a consistent presence to the public in order for this strategy to work.

Thus, the fusion of authenticity, consistency, and high quality content will certainly improve your brand experience. I would love the opportunity to join you in your business ventures and assist a creative hand. If you are interested in collaborating, feel free to email me at nate@milesmarketing.net!

SIMPLIFIED MARKETING

It’s the beginning of the new year and you are going to be seeing a whole lotta articles about the new marketing trends for 2018. As much as my futurist personality loves the new gadgets and tools, I am here to argue that in order to succeed in this evolving, complex world, we first need to learn to simplify, perfect, and maximize our marketing efforts. The simplifying process begins with reevaluating your brand and deconstructing the marketing strategy. Whether you are building a personal brand, starting a non-profit, or rebranding your already-successful company, 2018 is about simplifying your endeavors to maximize what works in the name of pragmatism. The future (or now) will be replete with complicated technology and algorithms, and the masses will crave simplicity, minimalism, and the human touch. Therefore, the great marketers of the future are experts of authenticity, clean design, and patience. This is my brief guideline to bring us back to the basics in order to advance in this coming age. The simplified marketing process emphasizes your brand, strategy, and execution.

BRAND

Your brand is your identity, your purpose, your culture, and your theme. If you don’t have a firm grasp on your company’s identity, it is likely that your marketing efforts will miss the mark. Every aspect of your creative strategy needs to be an extension of who you are. You find your brand’s identity by knowing your purpose and by solidifying your unique selling point (USP). Why does your company exist? What value are you bringing to the world? Why should the public prefer your product/services as opposed to the competition? These are questions to help determine what truly makes your business special.

Good branding means people can associate a specific idea with your company. When you hear “think different”, you likely associate that phrase with Apple. When you see a quizzical animated lamp, you associate it with Pixar. These are examples of companies who have utilized imagery and language to reflect the purpose of their brand identity.

As you develop your brand, focus on the substance of your message. Your message should be directly connected to the mission of your company. Ask yourself what the purpose of your business is and why customers should be passionate about it. From there, your marketing strategy is simply to communicate from heart — to — heart. In a technological world full of bots and AI, keep your marketing human, and full of passion.

It is also important to find your target audience. Who is your tribe? What demographic of people actually want your product or service? And be honest with yourself: who is willing to spend money for the value that you are bringing? Once you find your customer base, speak to their interests and build a genuine relationship with them.

STRATEGY

After you form an authentic awareness of your brand identity and message, it’s time to get creative. How can you creatively tell the story of your brand to the world? In what creative forms can you express the beauty of your company? This is why it’s so important to have a stable identity, without it, your imaginative escapades can take you to all sorts of places. Think outside the box, but keep your creative ambitions connected to you who you are so you don’t get overwhelmed and distracted in the buzzing digital world of 2018.

Pay attention to what your competition is doing, and seek out new ways to creatively express your brand’s value. Don’t get distracted making ads that have nothing to do with your identity. This may seemingly work for GEICO, or car commercials, but it likely wont work for you. Your audience should have a solid idea of who your company is and what you do just from seeing your online presence. Keep it creative and innovative, but maintain simplicity and clarity. This difficult balance is easier said than done, so try to stay focused. If you find yourself posting content on social media that has very little to do with the value proposition of your brand, be gracious to yourself, and get back on track — it’s never too late to hone it in. You also don’t need hyper-glamorous ad campaigns. People can sense when you’re “doing too much”. Be a crafty steward of what you have, and deliver your message in a clean, authentic, well-designed way. If the message is strong enough, and the quality is good enough, eventually, the masses will pick it up.

Lastly, content is still king. Through what forms of content are the best ways to capture the beauty of your brand and to tell your story? Would your target audience respond better to Facebook ads? Instagram photos? YouTube videos? Blogs? Podcasts? Obviously there are many ways to create content for your brand, and as long as you keep your messaging and brand identity united, I recommend you experiment with all forms of content. Trusting that you have a coherent design and consistent theme, you can utilize all the various communication tools available to you.

EXECUTION

In terms of executing your strategy, there are really three major rules: locate your target audience, post high quality content, and be consistent.

Assuming you have your target audience narrowed down, a major part of successful execution is finding where they are. Is your audience mostly active on Facebook or Instagram? What are their interests and where do they spend their time? What kinds of accounts do they follow on social media? Is it possible to cross-pollinate with other brands without losing a sense of your identity? These questions will help you maximize your online presence.

In a noisy world and a saturated market, how do you cut through the noise? My advice, is to do it the same way a mother’s voice is recognized in a crowd — have a distinct, recognizable voice. Be an intimate, and trustworthy voice. Have a voice that is known, and admired. Of course, this voice is merely an audible continuation of your Brand.

The public has been awakened to good design and photography. With so many creatives available, you have no excuse to post cheesy stock photos or lazy clip art design. Your photos should be crisp and they should communicate a story. There should be proper dimensions to the photos you take and you should be aware of the difference between landscape vs portrait. You must have proper image/text ratio in the ads and content you post as well. These are just a couple rules to ensure quality content. Invest in professionals, bring in a designer, outsource to a freelancer, hire Miles Marketing, do what needs to be done to ensure that your brand and strategy is not lost in dull content.

Once you create a bank of high quality content, the next step is to be a consistent online force. Be prepared to post often and to be active on all platforms of social media. If you are a steady presence on social media, and if people are having pleasant experiences with your content, eventually your product/services will be top of mind for customers when they need you most.

The most difficult phase of this simplified marketing process is to be consistent and patient. For any ambitious business owner, patience is often a frustrating requirement, yet we know it’s the only way to grow a mature brand, to build a healthy culture, and to spark a sustainable movement. Resist any urge to buy Instagram followers. It isn’t helpful to attract fake interest, it’s not lucrative and those numbers will fade. What you need is genuine customers to become disciples of your brand and thus, evangelists. It is here, where the highest form of marketing is birthed — word of mouth.

With a strong Brand identity, coherent design across all platforms, and a consistent message, you are putting your company in good position to spark a movement. As you work to make sure your customer base feels connected to your brand, they will feel a part of something bigger than themselves, and will share those experiences of grandeur with their circles of influence.

WHY I AM FROM THE FUTUR.

Marketers shape culture, and it is up to us to illuminate the world with the beauty of brands. I am from the future because I understand that in a complex, evolving world, where artificial intelligence will continue to grow in influence and prominence, what the public desires from companies, is not more confusing noise, but a simple, clean, healthy, and HUMAN presence.

Intro

Thanks to Apple CDO, Jony Ive, the masses have been awakened to what good design is. For the past few years, we have been living in the age of information and aesthetics. As a culture, our design-literacy has peaked due to the mainstream success of well-designed Apple, Tesla, Starbucks, and Nike, to name a few. It also doesn’t hurt that we are immersed in Instagram Culture. Due to these factors, most people can identify when something is of good, or poor design. We’ve all been subject to the cheesy ad campaigns, cringe-worthy late night commercials, or cluttered websites that seem to raise blood pressure in angst. The sheer design of a message, has the ability to create an emotion in the mind of the beholder. This is why I see marketing as the art of business. Good design is about more than making something look nice, rather it is about transferring a mood, a vibe, to the viewer with hopes of successfully communicating your idea.

Before we go on, it’s important to remember that although aesthetics is important, it isn’t good design if the product or service doesn’t function properly. Good design is always holistic. Or as Jony Ive puts it,

“We have always thought about design as being so much more than just the way something looks. It’s the whole thing: the way something works on so many different levels. Ultimately, of course, design defines so much of our experience.”

So for those who are interested, here’s an invitation into my mind when I come to design a graphic. Every artist has their own process, but feel free to borrow or retract parts of my process.

.01 Know Brand Identity

.02 Know the Message

.03 Find Inspiration

.04 Keep it Crisp & Simple

.05 Power of Color

.06 Transparency

.07 Ratio of Text and Image

.08 Obsess over the Details

.01 Know Brand Identity

At Miles Marketing, we believe every part of the creative process is stemmed out of a solid understanding of brand identity. Brand identity is the very core of every project. If there isn’t a strong understanding and deep knowing of the personhood of a brand, then every step in the design process will risk missing the main point. Through design, you are introducing yourself, the brand, to the world. As the ancient aphorism says, “know thyself” this is truly important for individuals, as well as brands!

.02 Know the Message

It seems obvious but these first two steps are everything. They are the cornerstones to a proper design. To stay focused on the objective, you must recognize the main message that you want the audience to know. If there isn’t a firm grasp on the main message, it is likely that the message will get lost in details and distractions.

.03 Find Inspiration

Once you know the identity and message, it’s time to find the most creative and efficient way to communicate that message. Finding inspiration can be a great source of momentum and can spark your creativity into the right direction. Of course, you can’t force inspiration, so remain aware of the timeline you are under. However, if the time permits, open your imagination to a variety of sources — nature, movies, colors, people, etc. As long as your strategy is specific to the Brand Identity and Message, you can filter inspiration through your strategic lens to form a coherent design.

If you are creating an ad campaign for Patagonia backpacks, it might be helpful to look to nature in order to find inspiration. Allow yourself to notice things that are often missed, and challenge yourself to bring it to life. For example, if you are hiking, looking for inspiration for Patagonia, you might notice the natural color gradient from desert-tan sand to the green grass to the dark brown trees. You can then accept the challenge to make those colors come alive in your ad campaign.

.04 Keep it Simple & Crisp

Since creatives can be so invested in the designing process, it is entirely plausible that they overdue it. Personally, unless I already have the exact design in mind, I tend to throw everything out on the canvas and then work backward. I’ll put out every idea that I have, I’ll try every color theme, size, order, that comes to mind, and then I weed out anything that is not needed. It is really important to remove any excess that isn’t necessary to your design.

.05 Power of Color

This is an area of design where I have to constantly challenge myself. My comfort zone, whether in fashion or graphic design, is to stick with black, white, and tonal colors. I’ve grown up viewing color as an aggressive, loud, and distracting aspect of design. This is why as a child I liked Batman and all black sports cars. My philosophy is centered on communicating the functionality, the message, the action of a product, and color has always seemed, to me, an unnecessary feat that drives away the attention of the audience. However, as I continue to grow and challenge myself as a designer, I see the power of color. With the help of the work of Jessica Walsh, and a deeper appreciation for the psychology of color, I’ve learned to use the power of color in a strategic and responsible way.

.06 Transparency

One easy way to keep a design clean, is to make your imagery transparent. I use this rule mostly in my logo design. Moving away from blocky and busy logos, and toward the simple and transparent, can give your brand added personality. My favorite aspect of a transparent logo is seeing it adapt to its given environment. A logo that interacts with different backgrounds can give the impression that it is conscious and aware of its surroundings. Transparent logos look smooth, unless of course, the background is the exact color of the logo, in that case you should design an inverted color of your logo for those rare occasions.

.07 Ratio of Text & Image

Stay away from too much text, unless your design is uniquely text based — in that case it better be damn obvious. In an ad campaign for example, it can be tempting to express through words as much as you can, with as much imagery as you can. Keep it simple. More imagery, less text. This rule is especially easy for social media campaigns, since you can throw all your text and information in the caption. Unless it is the logo/tagline, there should not be repeated text in the graphic and the caption. That repetition can be awkward and annoying. Again, More imagery, less text.

.08 Obsess over the Details

Before you begin designing, while you are in the process of designing, and after you are “done” designing, be obsessive over the details. Width and length matters, the size of the imagery matters, the boldness of the lines matter, the text font deeply matters. If you can’t make a decision on the details, export different variations of your design, ask others for their opinion, pray, sleep on it. And then choose one. If you’ve followed this process carefully, the chances are high that whichever variation you decide to go with looks great. Pat yourself on the back, enjoy a treat, because you’ve just created something crisp, clean, and smooth that will enhance the life experience of the public.

Conclusion

It is important to reinstate that Design is about functionality and feeling. Good design has a beautiful transcendence to it which causes people to have an emotional reaction. If your finished project doesn’t make you feel something, it is likely, the public won’t feel it either. You want something that you can be proud of, take the extra steps, or hire the correct people, to make sure the artwork is maximized to its potential. This is an essential rule for illuminating the world with the beauty of your brand!

(Firstly, it’s important to make the obvious distinction that marketing is a branch in business that carries a lot of very specific focuses. I want to be clear that my writing is specifically to be applied to CONTENT MARKETING.)

Around a year ago, I was at a networking event full of marketers. In the busy venue I was having a conversation with a fellow marketer about, you guessed it — marketing. In the conversation, I confessed that I loved marketing, due to the “spiritual good I see in it.” He looked at me, dumbfounded, and remarked, “I’ve never heard anyone describe marketing like that before.” It was at that moment, that I felt compelled to share my ideas of marketing with fellow business owners and ministry leaders and marketers and creatives and friends and family and people.

Similar to marketing, the term spirituality also carries a lot of weight. There is so much that can be said about spirituality, but for the case of this post I’m going to define Good Spirituality as, meditative practices that are based on Truth, Beauty, and Transformation.

TRUTH

Good Spirituality is based on Truth. This world is full of good intentioned, yet contradictory and harmful ideas. Too often Bad Spirituality brings harm upon individuals and communities. In the same way, Marketing, if not based in Truth, can bring harm upon customers and companies. When your content Marketing highlights the genuine, authentic, and valuable reality of your product or service, it is a Good Spiritual practice. There’s no need to fabricate your message, if what you are selling is Truly wonderful.

Even in the act of communicating your message, you are taking a step into the spiritual realm. In writing copy, or social media captions, or taglines, or blog posts, you are diving into the mind of your target audience, hoping to grasp a connection. This unifying practice, based on a true message, brings positivity to your company and your target audience.

BEAUTY

Good Spirituality is based on Beauty. In meditative practices, people are often aided by a beautiful environment (ocean, woods, temple, minimalist bedroom). Also, people may meditate on a beautiful image, or thought, or sound (painting, God, gongs). Beauty and Spirituality go hand-in-hand, mainly due to the fact that in meditative practices, the practitioner is attempting to connect to Beauty itself. It is said that the observance of Beauty can allow us to one with the Divine — the very Source of Beauty.

Good Marketing is a home for Beauty. Marketing opened the door, prepared dinner, and made the bed for design, and photography, and videography, and writing, and oration, and typography, and music, and so many forms of beauty, to have a place to live and make a living! I can testify, that while I am in the “zone” working on a creative project, I seem to be lost in the Oneness of God. Time is gone. My debilitating self-conscious goes mute. I feel I can create anything. It’s very spiritual.

When organizations allow room for dedicated attention to Beauty in their marketing efforts, there can be huge benefits. Thanks to huge companies like Apple and Nike, and small businesses like local coffee shops, most people can identify good/bad design now. This is good for companies who utilize quality design, because the public takes note, and that builds the credibility of your brand. It is bad for companies who do not utilize quality design, because the public takes note, and that destroys the credibility of your brand.

TRANSFORMATION

Good Spirituality is based on Transformation. Most often, the reason people engage in spiritual traditions, or rituals, or practices is because they desire to change. People want to be closer to God, people want better mental health, people want to feel less stressed and more joyful. Within spiritual practice, there appears to be beneficial impacts on the well-being of the person. Now good marketing, which promotes products or services based on True Value, and fused with a Beautiful experience and imagery, can bring Transformation to the customer — and culture as a whole. Again to highlight the example of local coffee shops: innovators decided to craft artisan coffee (Beauty), communicated the value of their carefully roasted coffee beans with no weird gimmicks or lame campaigns (Truth), and the beautiful environments and great tasting coffee lifted culture and created a greater sense of community (Transformation).

There is much more that can be said about the spirituality of marketing, but my desire is to spark your interest and open your eyes to see business in a new light. I hope at least that you can see marketing as a beautiful practice and something that is much more then pesky, shady salespeople. I can confidently state that marketing will always be a spiritual practice for me, as long as it’s based on Truth, Beauty, and Transformation.

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