By Erika Kruger
Out of sight is out of mind!
So often, familiar expressions such as these convey
important life and business lessons.
Being out of customers’ minds can leave business
owners seriously out of pocket.
Any business that is not harnessing the power of
visual communication will soon discover that their services or products are not
uppermost in the buyers’ minds. If our business or our brand is not in direct
view of our target market, it is easily forgotten. People tend to stop thinking
about things that they don’t often see.
Worse than being forgotten, is being lost in
obscurity. If consumers have never seen you around, out of sight, out of mind actually means that you just do not exist
and they have no idea that your business can be of service to them.
Now that badly affects the bottom line.
It leaves you
out of pocket.
Yes another stock phrase but one that boasts two different meanings these days.
The conventional use comes from an accounting
term to pay from ones personal funds, something
us business owners are going to end up doing if we don’t push ourselves to see
and be seen quickly and effectively.
The other, more recent meaning of being out
of pocket often used in Silicon Valley and implying that someone is unavailable, that we are no longer in other people’s pocket.
It also suggests that no-one can get hold of us
in any way possible – not via email, not via telephone and not via cell phone. We
have isolated ourselves.
But that may not be the only way we are playing hard to get.
Feeling invisible?
Our customers might find it hard to get what our business
is all about. Our brand message could be
getting lost in:
- too much text,
- bad design and
- poor quality, bland and badly chosen images.
Read also: IMAGES CAN MAKE OR BREAK A WEB PAGE: Using images to put the brake on a speedy click through
Are your branding, marketing, advertising and PR
campaigns failing to harness the power of high quality and appropriate images
to keep you in direct vision of your customers?
5 things you could do:
If you answered yes to those questions, this will help you improve your business' visibility:
- Learn a new language. Become visually literate.
- Explore research done on visual communication, images as web content and eye tracking. Read also: Photos as Web Content - Jakob Nielsen
- Invest in the best visual communication team you can afford – designers, web designers, photographers etc.
- Develop an image strategy as part of brand building and involve a professional photographer from the start. Read also: Photography in UX Design - Tim Bilsborough
- Involve a professional commercial photographer from the start.
Remain in your
customers’ sight and minds so that you can find a place in their hearts.
