10 Places to Use Your Logo to Maximise Your Brands Exposure

November 25, 2010 - 20 CommentsWritten by
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For any business online or off your logo becomes an important part of your corporate identity. There are several places on a website which beg to be branded with a logo and there are even more opportunities around the web to promote your site and build logo recognition.

1. Header

The most important place to put a logo on a website is front and center. Having a logo for your header helps keep your icon in the eyes of the user at all times. And because tradition breeds convention, for navigation purposes it’s helpful to make your logo a home page link. Users are often inclined to click on a logo or header to get back to the home page, so it’s wise to use an image as opposed to making the logo a part of the background. If you use WordPress there are a huge variety of template options with customizable headers so that you can be creative with incorporating your logo.

2. Content

Online marketing strategists talk at length about the need for content on a website. The content they are referring to means more than products, and about us pages. It means education, information and articles that a website provides to add value and attract links. The key to making the most of this content is the presence of an effective call-to-action that serves to draw visitors further into a site. Even with a logo as your header, it is important to use your logo prominently on these content pages in order to keep the true business of your website as the star of your page.

For an in-depth look into ‘Call to Action’,could try this article from BoagWorld.com: 10 Techniques for an Effective ‘Call to Action’. And for some ‘Call to Action’ inspiration you could try this resource: 25 Examples of Convincing Call-to-Action Buttons.

3. Favicon

The favicon is a neat little icon shown next to your URL on your browser. This little guy is great for adding branding and professionalism to a web page. But it’s also particularly useful for people who use multiple browsing tabs to easily locate a website in a cluttered browser. It’s remarkably easy to set up and can add a little extra distinction to your site.

Here is a useful Favicon generator you could use for designing your own mini icon, and here is the code you would use within your websites header:

<link REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://yoursitedotcom.here/yourdir/favicon.ico">

4. Twitter

Sure Twitter is all the rage among the kids these days, tweeting their weekend plans, their OMG’s and FML’s. But it’s also surprisingly useful for businesses to make contacts, monitor conversations about their brand and market and to spread the word about new content, promotions or products. Even if you want to avoid the constant stream of chatter that seems pervasive on Twitter, it’s still wise to claim your name and set up a profile. When you create a company profile it’s important to incorporate your logo into a custom background and as a profile pic. When it serves as the main image, every time you send out a tweet you are visually placing your logo in front of all of your followers.

Here are 5 Free Online Twitter Background Generators from singlefunction.com, or you could download this Free PSD Twitter Background Template and customize to your taste.

5. FaceBook

Just like Twitter, even though FB is a full of inane status updates and Farmville, it’s also major marketing channel. Creating a fan or group page for a business gives you the opportunity to connect directly with customers and to offer exclusive offers and information to fans and friends. Through the use of FBML (Face Book Mark-up Language) the options for customization are limitless. Again the page itself should use a logo wisely, but it is most important to place it as your profile pic, so that your brand becomes instantly recognizable in an in-box or a news feed.

Here is a great resource from Smashing Magazine that offers all you will ever need in getting started with Facebook pages: Designing A Facebook Fan Page: Showcases, Tutorials, Resources

6. Digg/Reddit

There’s no disputing the power of social sites when it comes to getting recognition and sending traffic and links. But you have to play the game right. There are a lot of rules (spoken and un-spoken) when it comes to making the most of social networking sites. Marketers and self-promoters are often unwelcome and ostracized. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for strategic use of a logo on your profile. Perhaps it may not be the best for submitting content, but it is certainly valuable for commenting, voting and engaging in honest dialogue with potential customers.

7. You Tube

If you haven’t even considered using video on your site, then you are a few years behind. The fact is video is one of the fastest growing verticals on the web. While having videos embedded on your website is the best for links and traffic, it’s also smart to have a You Tube channel. This will help your videos be found not only in standard searches, but in You Tube Specific searches as well. There are a multitude ways to customize a You Tube channel but again the use of a prominent logo here is extremely valuable.

Here is a great getting started guide for setting up your personal YouTube channel: Beginner’s Guide to Creating your own YouTube channel. Or, from Mashable, you could try HOW TO: Customize Your YouTube Channel.

8. Email

Email marketing has become a huge asset for a number of websites and online businesses. Opt-in email lists which allow you to alert customers to new products, promotions or information can be a great way to bring people in. Email marketing can actually be a huge part of your online efforts and as the lists get longer they can become a challenge to manage. But whether you choose to go it alone or enlist the services on an email marketing management service, this is another essential place to include your logo. Whether it’s an image inserted into your signature or a complex graphic that features the logo, including it here is another way to keep your brand in customer’s minds and in-boxes.

9. Guest Posts

If you haven’t thought about it, writing guest posts on other people’s blogs is a great way to promote your brand and introduce yourself to a new community of people. It’s a great chance to build relationships and credibility. It’s also another opportunity to get your logo in front of people who are unfamiliar with your brand.

If you would like to contribute an article on Speckyboy get in touch with us, we would love to hear from you.

10. Gravatars

This is a great one to use in conjunctions with guest posts. A Gravatar is essentially a program that assigns an image to a particular email address. This can also be helpful when you are leaving blog comments on other people’s blogs. Using a logo for a Gravatar helps promote your brand visually, putting your icon in front of new audiences every time you blog or comment any where off of your site.
Here is the resource for creating a personalized Gravatar.

These are only a few of the little ways what you can help push your brand image forward simply by using a logo image strategically on and off of your site, if you have any to add we would love to heasr from you within the comments.

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About the Author: (1 Articles)

Jana spends much of her time writing for quality logo products a website specializing in the creation of customized promotional products and branded items.

Comments and Reactions

  • Aleks Bochniak

    Obvious list this one.

    All I see is:

    1. Internet

    what about?

    2.
    3.
    4.
    5.
    6.
    7.
    8.
    9.
    10. Kitchen fridge

    ?

  • http://www.cikmarketing.ca Chantielle

    Hmm, I don’t know if I agree with the Twitter or Gravatar statements. I think it’s important to put an actual face in these areas – people respond better to people than they do to brands.

    Perhaps use a profile pic with a small logo overlay in a corner. Or be holding up a picture of your logo in your profile shot. That way your logo is still present, but your followers know they’re talking to a real, breathing person.

    • http://www.ChiefAlchemist.com Mark “Chief Alchemist” Simchock

      That’s an interesting point. Now please allow me to offer an alt-view of this. (Nothing personal of course.)

      If you’re building a brand then promote the brand. If you’re promoting yourself, then you should promote yourself. Duh? That said, people also respond to babies and cute animals but I don’t think any of us are willing to say that’s wise, eh?

      For example, what’s-his-face from Mashable uses his personal photo and not the Mashable logo on Twitter. Personally, that doesn’t make sense to me. In fact, it kinda reeks of the old real estate agent myth of having to have your face on your biz card. Because people will trust you. Really? Then why doesn’t everyone and their mum have their face on their biz card?

      Regardless IMHO, this is all (once again) a misguided discussion.. Let’s face it, week after week it’s the same discussion. That is, how to get high quality clients/projects. Ya all go for all the “exposure” you want. And yes please worry about people (read: all people) responding to your photo. If that’s your plan, then run with it.

      Moi? I’m looking for the right people, the right clients and the right projects. If I find that comes from a photo, then so be it. However, if they’re picking me because of my photo and not because of the content I push out (e.g., this long wind winded comment; lol) then doesn’t that sound like a red flag? This isn’t Match.com, is it?

      As subtle as that point might be there’s a difference between a (old media-esque) shotgun blast (appealing to all) and contemporary sniper fire (forever questing for quality). A difference that IMHO influences mindset and in turn cascades through other down stream decisions.

      In summary, the myth is incorrect, it’s not about exposure. If you want exposure, just walk out your front door, stand in the middle of the street and drop your trousers. hehe. The Holy Grail is about being remembered for the right reasons by the right people. Right?

      My point is, next time your find yourself unsatisfied with the amount of time you spend “responding” and “responding” and “responding” then keep in mind that the road taken was for “people respond better” instead of “better people responding”. Pardon me if it seems like I’m mincing words, but these things matter.

      Finally, a logo is just a symbol. It in and of itself is meaningless. It’s value is defined by what is behind it. A great logo does not make a company great. Not at all. Great companies create great meaning and that meaning comes to be represented in their logo. to those who believe that the key to success is splattering your logo everywhere then I’d like to suggest you think again.

      Rant over. Back to work!! :)

  • http://www.zephyr-webdesign.com Jocelyn

    I love and agree with all these points save one: adding a logo to the email signature. When interacting with clients who do this, I find it’s more work to repeatedly separate out project-releated attachments from the logo image, and when we work with project tracking systems such as BaseCamp, the logos are uploaded to the system every time anyone from that company posts a message or replies to a message, which can add up! Keeping the files clean and find-able on group working sites like this is important, and it’s time wasting to wade through 100 duplicates of the logo. Is there a better way to do this? I see the value when emailing to potential customers, just not your internal team…..

  • http://iamautocomplete.com/ Angelee

    Logo is #1 in branding. I first see the speckyboy logo in twitter and it made curious how you came up with it but I got it when I opened up your site. You did it great!

    Thanks for sharing all these. See yah in twitter! we actually follow each other….

  • http://www.colddesign.it Giacomo Colddesign

    Very useful.. thanks..!!

  • http://www.webdesign2day.com raybak

    I am just waiting for my site logo to get designed and I will use it everywhere :D

  • http://www.globalvoices.co.uk Translation Services UK

    Great post on brand awareness, a lot of these I already knew about. Also if your organisation publishes online media (like flash or documentation) or brochure material.

  • http://www.journeytodesign.com Seth Waite

    Too often I feel designers and website owners are not using their logo’s enough.

    Getting visitors to remember you is harder than most website owners realize and having multiple locations with your logo is really important. Otherwise when the reader tries to come back to your site and can’t remember its name… you wont be left out.

    Another point is to spend the time or money on getting a professional logo designed. Don’t just slap something together.

  • http://www.superhug.com/ Jennie Superhug

    Thanks for this, I enjoyed reading this article, Jana. Great to read about FBML too. New to me :-)

  • http://www.amnavigator.com/blog Geno Prussakov

    Great post, Jana. But why no Twitter sharing button embedded in the post?

  • http://www.intel.com/en_uk/Consumer/Products/Processors/corei3.htm Janey

    Tending to agree with Chantielle — but why can’t you just use both?

  • http://www.ChiefAlchemist.com Mark “Chief Alchemist” Simchock

    Oh my. Sorry, I didn’t realize my comment was a full blog post. lol

  • http://www.ace-media.in/ Ace Media

    I agree with Chantielle, and feel that on twitter you should focus more on social interaction rather than brand promotion.

  • http://nocturno.com.uy zedkin

    I agree with Chantielle…but only in some cases….for example….I’m a Freelance Web Designer….so I’m the face of my one-person company…..if you want to keep it personal…then you should use your face on twitter. But if you got a bigger company. Then, your logo, is the company’s face.

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  • http://www.freecssshowcase.com Ram

    Thank you very much for help me to know about the places to use the logos to maximize our brands exposure. Keep up sharing useful things ever like this.

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  • http://www.netonet.co.il/ שי עגיב

    True That!

  • http://www.facebook.com/michael.zee2 Michael Zee

    Agree.