STEP THREE: DESIGN & DEFINE YOUR LOGO

There are many ways you’ll communicate your brand to your customers, but one of the most powerful and important is your logo. Your logo is your calling card. It’s instantly recognizable and as soon as someone sees it, they make the connection to your brand.

A good place to start in creating your own logo is to consider some of the logos you’re most familiar with. Brainstorm recognizable logos, as well as the logos of brands you regularly use. Consider which you like and don’t like, and which are most effective at communicating to you.
Logos come in all shapes and sizes and there are no strict guidelines per se, but here are a few considerations.

Three Types of Logos

There are three kinds of logos: text logos, image logos, and abstract image logos. Some logos mix all three of these types.

A text logo is simple and just presents the name of the company or a letter associated with it. Think of Google’s simple lettering. Most companies use their name as a logo. Very recognizable brands like Apple or Starbucks can get away with using no text.

Image logos show an image related to the company. Examples are McDonalds’ golden arches and the apple that is Apple’s logo. Starbucks’ logo is a stretch but still related: Seattle, the hometown of the company, is a seaport and the logo is a siren beckoning sailors.

An abstract symbol is something like Nike’s swoosh. It doesn’t say the company’s name or show an image related to the company, but somehow the movement of the swoosh communicates the brand’s message.

Logo Colors

The first thing to consider with colors is that most good, recognizable logos use only one or two colors. Simplicity is best.

The most used colors in brand logos are red, blue, and black or greyscale. However, many companies use other colors as well.

Colors need to be considered carefully because each color sparks certain associations in the mind. You want your logo’s colors to spark the associations you want to make and not something else.

Here’s a rundown on what, generally speaking, common colors mean to people:

Blue: Dependability, strength, calm.
Red: Attention-grabbing, energetic.
Green: Security, reliability, honesty, nature.
Pink, Yellow, and Orange: Excitement, youth, energy.
Brown: Dependable, simple, honest.
Black: Cool, sleek, high-tech.
White: Simple, pure.

Clean and Functional

Simple logos are best. Your logo should present a single image or word without any needless special effects that can distract from your message.

In addition to being clean, your logo also needs to be functional. What this means is that it’s easy to reproduce. Even if you use colors, it should look good in black and white because it won’t always be reproduced in color. Also make sure that your logo looks good whether big or small.
Invest the time, energy, money, and other resources in making the best logo possible. Your logo is extremely important for your branding and too many companies fail to put in the required effort.

Did You Miss It?

Part 1: Designing Your Brand
Part 2: Designing Your Brand Pt 2

Digital Marketing Trends: What to Look For in 2019

There are a lot of changes that have been witnessed in the digital marketing world. These are things that are associated with PPC, SEO, social media, as well as content marketing. There are times in the past when it was easy to dismiss things like visual search and artificial intelligence but that time has passed.

Today, there are many strategies and trends that are emerging in the digital marketing world and they keep on evolving with new technologies.

Key Digital Trends: 2019

It’s always important to appreciate that, in the digital world, things are dynamic. If you don’t stay in step with the changes, then you will not be relevant to the audience. As such, it is important for businesses to find out what is trending and what is no longer being used. When you know the strategies, you’ll be able to compete more effectively. You will also have a better chance of gaining more customers and retaining them.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence is taking the world by storm and this is with a good reason. Artificial intelligence is able to analyze the different behaviors of the consumer as well as search patterns. AI can also utilize the data retrieved from different social platforms as well as blog posts so that businesses can understand just how their customers and the users engage with services and products.

AI also offers tips and information to the users by simply engaging them in more natural conversations. It is projected that a greater percentage of the customer service will be utilizing AI Chatbot technology. If your business adopts AI, it will be possible to save costs and also grow more rapidly.

Programmatic Advertising

This is the use of AI to automate the process of buying ads. This will allow you to target audiences in a more targeted, relevant manner. Programmatic bidding in the real time as well as auctions are good examples of the programmatic ad buying. This translates to higher conversion rates as well as lower cost of customer acquisition.

Chatbots

Chatbots are an effective part of marketing digitally. Chatbots are a technology that is AI-aided and makes use of instant messaging so that people can engage in real time; regardless of the time of day or night. Chatbots can help businesses save a lot of money each year — especially in the healthcare and banking industries.

There are customers who have a preference for chatbots because they tend to be more responsive. In such a case, you receive prompt answers. Chatbots are able to recall a customer’s entire history with ease and speed. A Chatbot does not lose its patience, either. These virtual assistants offer customer service that is another way to appeal to a customer base with varying needs and goals. Chatbots are able to meet the expectations of the customers and they can also handle repetitive tasks; allowing you to focus on other areas of growing and maintaining your business.

Personalization

Anyone who wants to make it big in the coming year has to personalize their marketing. This means that you should personalize your emails, products, content, and so on. Data is usually readily available. You can access the purchase history of a consumer, their behavior, and even any links that have been clicked. This means that it is very easy to have custom content ready in the wings. Personalization is a great way in which customer relationships can be advanced with meaning.

The above trends and strategies should be monitored very closely in the coming year as they will mean a lot to online marketers and the businesses they work with. You need to have a well-thought-out strategy if you really want to stand out from the crowd. You should also look into influencer marketing, which is basically word of mouth from people who have a large following in your industry or niche.

You can also not ignore the social messaging apps. A lot of messages are sent every day on different platforms. Marketing where people are, is one of the best ways to get meaningful leads and conversions.

Every website hopes to drive traffic; but not just traffic, the right traffic. But once your audience is on the the site, how do you make the experience worthy of their time? Certainly, a great user experience is important, but that is a broad subject that could be entire series of posts.

For this post, however, let’s look at anchor text and how a site owner can make use of it to make the experience valued; while also lending some of its value to your SEO efforts.

Wait, What Is Anchor Text?

Good question. Quite simply, links on the Internet come in many shapes and sizes. For example, there are images, that when clicked, load a new page or new section of content (sometimes an entire new website). Anchor text, therefore, is the actual text (and words used) in a link that your audience clicks to load new content.

This is an example of anchor text (see the different styling of the words?).

The Dynamics of Anchor Text

Many business owners and marketers tend to miss the boat by sidelining anchor text; however, it is a dynamic element in boosting the brand and company on the Internet as part of the link displayed on the browser for quicker access to another piece of content or another website all together. It is a vibrant factor in the optimal application of on-page and off-page optimization in the SEO marketing approach — but it is also super helpful to the user, when implemented correctly.

The Types of Anchor Text

There are many specific features which anchor text could prove dynamic and vibrant in an online marketing strategy.

• Exact match: A successful online search refers to the exact keyword phrase chosen to match the title of contents in a webpage or site; this would generate a higher ranking for the content piece.
• Partial match: Anchor text that contains part of the keyword phrase selected may find more choices for the preferred information with a moderate ranking.
• Branded: Such anchor text has the brand name included to give a clear focus of the brand and its offerings.
• Generic: The anchor text comprises a general phrase that may not have any targeted keyword identified. This could relate to the general theme of the desired contents which makes it more challenging for website visitors to confirm the success of their search.
• Naked anchor links: This anchor text includes links that direct web visitors to the site using the available URL. This proves a dynamic way to bring in web traffic to the website where deeper online interaction could be fostered with frequent engagements by web users.
• LSI keywords: Such anchor text refers to the synonym(s) of targeted keywords which make it easier for site visitors to find what they want more precisely.

The best anchor text must have relevant features that would have it function as identified to benefit brand building and company growth.

1) Real and Versatile

According to the tough requirements of Google, every section of a website must offer true value to all of its users; this includes links and anchor text which web visitors may click on. Links should be positioned in the right places, in the best format, to ensure that site visitors are able to find them and click easily for further information that would benefit the user.

Good links must provide relevant and up-to-date information that would keep attracting site visitors to the site. Such links must be created without repetitive keywords; where relevant pages would be quickly directed to help website visitors make their favorable decision on the brand or company.

2) Avoid Over-Optimization

Google does not favor excessively optimized anchor text or any keyword-based anchor text that is overused in any page or post. An overwhelming amount of anchor text could result in red flags for Google; it is better to spread anchor text across the site in appropriate proportion and need. This would make the presence of anchor text more natural and relevant to attract the attention of website visitors for better reading and a better experience.

3) Relevant Anchors

It is the objective of top search engines, like Google, to want only the best of online user experience for website visitors at any site they visit. Therefore, it is preferred that anchor text links are placed where appropriate and they should be relevant (to bring more useful information to the site’s visitors).

Non-relevant anchors tend to be avoided or sidelined by search engines, particularly those with irrelevant or out-dated links. Relevant anchor text in any content tends to lend to a better user experience – and the major search engines look for that for your users.

4) Tracking Anchor Texts

The best SEO happens when noticeable attention is placed on actionable anchor text. This involves planning and implementing relevant backlinks that could direct targeted web visitors to the web page. Such links should be updated regularly to avoid website visitors from being directed to outdated content.

5) Good Anchor Distribution

Anchor text needs to be well-distributed on the website to ensure a fair proportion that captures the attention of site visitors, but also adds to the conversation. It can be overwhelming for website visitors to be bombarded with anchor text at every paragraph in every article in every sentence. Over-stuffing of keywords in the content should be avoided to allow visitors a valued experience; for better understanding and consumption of the message.

What is CAN-SPAM and why does it matter to your business?

Sending email campaigns or newsletters to your audience? Thinking about it?  The CAN-SPAM act is something you need to keep in mind. You may think of the internet as the wild west in terms of regulation. That would be a fallacy to believe, and the main sheriff, CAN-SPAM can seriously ruin your day if found to be in violation of the rule.

Three Types of Email

With CAN-SPAM what matters is the primary purpose of the email. There are three types of email messages and of the three types only one of which is regulated by CAN-SPAM.

1. Commercial content or that which advertises or promotes a commercial product or service. A website operated for a commercial purpose, means emailing a newsletter linking back to your website’s blog, puts that email in to the commercial realm.
2. Transactional or relationship content is when you’ve already performed a service or transaction with the customer and are updating them either about a past or ongoing transaction.
3. Other – any content that is not commercial, or transactional/relationship.

What is CAN-SPAM?

CAN-SPAM or the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003 is legislation passed by the United States Congress that regulates commercial email. A commercial email is any communication you send that has “the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites.” In plain english, it means any email you send about your business in any facet: cold emails, newsletters, email campaigns, ect., are all considered to be commercial emails. SPAM is considered to be any commercial email the receiver did not agree to receive.

CAN-SPAM Violations

Think it’s not a big deal if you get reported for a CAN-SPAM violation? It can truly be a deciding factor in whether or not your business goes bankrupt. EACH email you send found to be in violation of the law is subject to penalties of up to $41,484, and there are other factors which may increase the fines you are subjected to. Take note that more than one person can be held responsible for the violations. Still think it’s not a big deal?

How to Remain CAN-SPAM Compliant

Staying CAN-SPAM isn’t hard as there are a few things the law says you must do. Do these simple, easy steps and your emails remain CAN-SPAM complaint.

• Don’t send to people who haven’t stated they want to receive email from you. Sounds easy enough. If you send to a person who hasn’t asked to hear from you, or who you have never contacted before you are being a spammer you. Just don’t.
• Have an unsubscribe option. Sending an email to someone who has expressed interest in the past? Make sure they can unsubscribe from your email communications.
• If unsubscribes happen DO NOT RESUBSCRIBE THEM. Once a person no longer wants to hear from you via email that’s it. You can not re-add them and you MUST unsubscribe them within 10 days. They can chose to resubscribe at a later date, but it isn’t a choice you can make choice for them.
• Make sure your header information isn’t false or misleading. “From”, “To” and “Reply-To” must be accurate and identify who you are. Your domain and email address must also be accurate.
• Subject Lines must reflect the content of the message accurately.
• Identify the message as an ad.
• You must include a physical address. It’s against the law to not have a valid physical postal address. Work from home? Get a P.O. Box, a private mailbox, or use your home location.  As long as there is a physical address, it doesn’t matter what kind of physical address it is.

Staying compliant with CAN-SPAM is a requirement for any digital marketing agency doing business today. Failing to maintain compliance could cause harm to your reputation as well as your bank account. As long as you cover your bases you should have no issues. Questions or concerns? Reach out to us at 518.694.0044.

Let’s talk Tweeting!

Now it’s time to talk “tweeting” on the social platform that revolutionized the way we get information: Twitter. This is the fourth in our blog series on Social Media for Small Business.

Twitter

Twitter revolutionized the social media world when it arrived way back in 2006. The platform really pushed the use of hashtags and has changed how we consume both news and politics. Twitter acts like a conversation, allowing you to put out a “tweet” of 280 characters or less with an image or a link. People are able to respond in real time to your tweet, like your tweet, or “retweet” your original tweet to their followers. The ability to communicate in real time really changed up how conversations on social have taken place.

• Twitter has 313 million monthly active users.
• Twitter accounts for 16% of referrals to longer articles from social sites and 14% for shorter news articles. (Pew Research Center, 2016)
• Content consumption on Twitter has increased 25% in the last two years.

Twitter isn’t Facebook

Tweeting needs to be treated as a different beast altogether. Be sure to keep the following in mind.

• Keep it short. Just because Twitter has 280 characters for you to use, doesn’t mean you should!
• Understand hashtags and make them work for you. A hashtag is nothing more than the pound symbol (#) in front of a word or phrase that turns it into a searchable term on all social platforms.
• Follow industry leaders, not only to increase your knowledge, the chance of a follow back but because you’ll see all their conversations and maybe find potential customers.
• Be visible. Having your information visible and correct on Twitter matters as well.
• Make sure you have a bio. Let people know who you are!
• Be consistent in your branding. You’ll have to change the dimensions but make sure that your profile picture and header fit, and are relevant.
• Use relevant hashtags for posts, these can help you be found.
• Engage! If someone likes your tweet reach out to them with a thank you! Same for retweets, and especially if someone responds to your tweet.
• USE VISUALS. Nobody wants to read text all day!

Example #1: Nine Pin Cider

• Nine Pin Cider has a relevant header and profile picture.
• Their information is clear and their bio is short and to the point; They make hard cider in NY.
• The color scheme is consistent – green, bright and draws you in.
• They’ve included a link to their website.

On to engaging on Twitter:

• Retweeting with your audience is great! It’s lets folks know that you are a real person and you are seeing what they are putting out there through the use of tags and @’s.
  • This is also a method of gaining followers.

This next picture though is something you don’t want to do.

• Pushing posts like this, ones with no image and only a link forces folks to read and can cause them to ignore or overlook your posts.

Example #2: The Market

• The Market hotel has a very grainy header image that isn’t completely relevant and their profile picture is neither clear nor sized properly so the majority is cut off.
• This makes the profile appear as though not a lot of thought has gone into it.
• The bio is complete, but by using hashtags and @’s makes it a bit hard to read.
• They don’t post images in their tweets making them text only.
• They don’t retweet any of the posts they are tagged or @ed in, which can be disappointing for the members of the audience.

Everything about this Twitter page makes it feel like an afterthought and with the sporadic posting

Winning Tweet Example

• The following tweet encompasses all of the best practices we covered in the first half of this blog and as we can see by the engagement it received people liked what was being said.

• This post includes an image, hashtags and is short and sweet. We can see that it was retweeted and has some likes.

It’s important to remember that engaging on Twitter is the best method to grow not only your audience but also your brand. You want to make sure that the content you are putting out is relevant to the conversation you want to have. You also need to get out there and make connections, Twitter isn’t a make an account and leave it platform.

Feel free to reach out to us at 518-694-4044 if you have any questions or concerns. Do you have any tips for using Twitter for small business? Leave it in the comments.

Hopefully you are following along with our series on social media for small business. Today the topic is LinkedIn. If you’ve been in the business world you are probably familiar with the LinkedIn platform, and may not understand how beneficial it can be for your small business.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is considerably different than all previously covered social platforms. It was launched in 2003 and designed specifically with businesses and career networking in mind. This space isn’t as light and is used more for career building – staying in touch with past and current coworkers and clients as well as finding new ones. Best practices used for other platforms can fall short here.

• LinkedIn has 250 million active users.
• 40% of users are on the platform daily.
• 25% of adult internet users use LinkedIn. (Pew Research Center, 2015)
• LinkedIn is the only major social media platform for which usage rates are higher among 30- to 49-year-olds than among 18- to 29-year-olds.

So how exactly do you use LinkedIn?

• Keep it PROFESSIONAL: LinkedIn is not the place for your political views or pictures of your children and pets.
• Make sure your header and profile image are relevant and properly sized.
• Make sure your company page has all information filled out.
• LinkedIn has a feature where you can highlight your services and products. Use it.
• Ask your clients for recommendations of your services/products. The same way that other platforms offer reviews, the recommendations feature is powerful.
• Build thought leadership by posting blog articles to the page. Publish content that shows that you know what you are talking about.
• Respond to questions or comments on posts or through messenger
• Use LinkedIn to keep an eye on your competition and gain some valuable insight!

Examples:

Our first example is a small technology company page on LinkedIn. They are B2C, and while they are following some of the best practices, many of them they are not.

The positives:

• Their about us is filled out with all company details.
• It appears that they have recently updated the page.
• They have employees on the website which adds legitimacy to the company.

The Negatives:

• They have no header on their company page and their profile picture leaves a little to be desired.
• Their feed has not been posted to in 6 months
• This hurts their credibility as well as hurts their thought leadership
• The have a small number of followers meaning they are not actively trying to grow their network.

An example of a technology company also B2C killing it:

• This company has around the same number of posts, but almost 11k followers.
• All their posts are about their company – not just posts to a blog
  • Company culture
  • Company ideals
  • Jobs
• Photos are bright and engaging, not a solid feed of text and minimal images.
  This company is excited and they want you to know all about it.

The Takeaway

LinkedIn is a place to talk about your business professionally. It is the platform where you need to create a network of individuals you may be able to pitch to down the line, after you’ve developed your thought leadership through posting. You want to ask your clients to review you on LinkedIn, and maintain your activity posting relevant, interesting content.

Keep an eye out for the rest of our “Social Media for Small Business 101” blog series, as we still have Twitter, and Instagram left to cover. Find our Social Media basics here, and Facebook 101 here. If you have any comments or concerns reach out to us today!

Today our topic is Small Business Facebook pages and it’s the second blog in our social media for small business series. Love it or hate it, Facebook is here and utilizing it as part of your marketing strategy is important. First of all, Facebook can be a valuable asset in not only building your audience but also then engaging with that audience. This social platform is a fantastic source of social proof for your business and if you don’t have one you are really doing your business a disservice.

Small Business Facebook 101

Started way back in 2004 as a social networking site created by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and some friends in the dorm. It eventually spread to most college universities in the US and Canada, before opening to everyone with an email address over the age of 13 in 2006.

Not convinced you need a Facebook for your business?

• In 2018 Facebook now has 2.19 billion monthly active users.
• 5 new Facebook profiles are created every second.
• 58.3 million U.S. Facebook users were between 25 and 34 years old.
• 72% of adult internet users use Facebook.
• Facebook has the most engaged users:
  • 70% log on daily, including 43% who do so several times a day.

What do these statistics mean for you and your business? Facebook offers up many opportunities for your business, if you take advantage of them.

Things to keep in mind when using Facebook for your business:

• Facebook is image heavy, try to use video and images to entice viewers
• Facebook is predominantly for entertainment and value. People look to a company’s profile before making a purchase or reaching out to them.
• Facebook is “share” heavy.
• Content that resonates with the audience is more likely to be shared.
• You can target relevant audiences on Facebook

Examples

To make it easier let’s look at a examples of a small business killing it on Facebook.

Caskade Bar & Grill

Caskade Kitchen & Bar have hit the mark for having a standout Facebook page. Why does their page stand out? It:

• Has a header image and a profile image. 
• The images are not blown out or pixelated.
• Labeled as a restaurant.
• Has the about us section is filled out, including the contact information.
• The review section is utilized on the page. 
• Posts have images to quickly grab attention.

Diving into the engagement and reviews on the page offers up more insights:

Here we see comments.

Caskade Kitchen & Bar ENGAGES with their comments and reviews! If they don’t leave a comment, they make sure to like the comment so that they are above all, still engaging with the audience.

When they post they:

• Use Images!
  • Images are bright and clear, catching attention and drawing engagement to the post.On posts with questions, they RESPOND to the question or statement.
• Use Hashtags!
  • Hashtags used are relevant to the post – the name of the establishment, location and what the image is off.
• Again the image draws in engagement – likes, comments and shares, and the business makes a point to respond and like the comments – building community!

Not Up to Snuff

Now it’s time to flip it and review a small business not taking advantage of everything that Facebook has to offer.

Baja Chops Surf Grub have completely missed mark for a page with many missed opportunities on this page.

• This is an unofficial business page, meaning no one is running it and the small business is not utilizing this social media platform.
• The about is empty as the page is unofficial offering no way of contact for this business.
• Reviews are relatively old between 1-4 years old and offer again no interaction from the business.
• A quick Google search shows that this page is the only online real estate for this company.

Treating social this way gives an air of disregard, as though you don’t care enough to open up this channel of communication for your customers. This lack of social proof can hurt a company since more and more potential customers look to a company and their social platforms before moving forward.

Facebook for small business is a useful tool and a platform that you can’t afford to lose out on. Hopefully these best practices will allow you to form your own habits and help you build an engaging audience today. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us at (518) 694-4044.

If you are new to marketing, social media can seem like a huge mountain to climb. Getting started with social is super easy, so we’ve compiled this primer on what social media is, and best practices for the major platforms.

What is social media?

You may be familiar with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You’ve probably also heard of Instagram and Snapchat. These are all examples of social media platforms including the most popular ones.

Social media, by definition, is the use of websites and apps that allow the user to contribute content and participate in social networking. It’s important to note that social media is not a lead generation machine. That’s not to say you won’t get a couple of leads from your social media platforms, but you shouldn’t consider social to be a huge source of leads. Social media is a way to boost your engagement with your audience and help boost both your authority and social proof while aligning with the overall brand.

Why do I want social media?

Social media is a fantastic way to not only engage directly with your audience, but to build social credibility. Building and enhancing your brand, as well as your authority as a marketing expert, is important — social proof is one method of doing so. Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people look at actions and thoughts of others before they move forward with an additional action.

Social media gives you a way to share relevant, industry-specific content with your audience and build your brand and credibility. You also stay top-of-mind. Social media allows you to create a space for your thought leadership and be a resource to your audience. Just having social profiles also helps give you and your business legitimacy as people expect to find you on social. Not being there can make people distrust you. Regardless of the reason, you need social!

How do I use Social Media?

The real question is ‘how don’t you use social media’!? It’s important to remember that social media is free. Free advertising, free press, and free posting. While there are opportunities to pay and increase your social media reach, keep in mind that social media is generally not a solid lead generation platform. Social media can be an outlet for communication directly with your audience or another place for reviews. You can use your social media platforms as an additional place for information like your methods of contact, hours and location.

You can also help give the public an inside scoop of your company culture and showcase how awesome you really are. Use your social media platforms to advertise (sometimes at a lower cost than PPC), and gain insight on your audience as well.

How do I know if I am doing well with social media?

There are many benchmarks you can use to determine how well your social media platforms are performing, such as “likes”, “follows”, comments and engagement on posts. Depending on the platform we also look for “shares”, “and retweets.”

Now that you have an understanding of what social media is and why you should be using it to market your business, look out for the next blogs in this series as we cover best practices for each platform.

So many file types, what do you do!

There are so many different image formats out there. Some formats are better for print, while others are perfect for the web. Knowing which one is best can be a struggle. We’ve compiled a short primer on the most popular so you know which format to request when you need it. This is part one of a two part series and is focused on web files.

What is a JPEG?

JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group (you’ll know for the next trivia night) and that mouthful is usually found on the internet. These files are compressed and much smaller than a raw file which makes them best for uploading to social sites or being used in a newsletter. The majority of image programs will open a JPEG file, but that doesn’t mean you should use them in print. Due to the compressed nature of a JPEG you lose many details and they may have a grainy look when printed. Side eye any designer who gives you your art files in this format.

What is a PNG?

PNG is the shortened form of Portable Network Graphic and are commonly used as graphics on the web. PNGs are not animated like GIFS and they are not compressed like JPEGs. Because these files are not compressed they can be too large to use on many social media sites. Like a JPEG however most image programs will open a PNG and you will be able to save the file as a JPEG to compress it. PNGs may not be fantastic for shipping across the web due to their size, but they are good for print, due to their quality and clarity. Keep their size in mind and how that can affect the speed of your website when using them online.

What is a GIF?

You’ve probably seen the internet stuffed to the brim with GIFs and never given them much thought. GIFS are an older file format like the JPEG and it stands for Graphics Interchange Format. GIFS are also compressed files that support animations so you’ve probably sent one or two to a friend. A GIF is a web based file only – don’t use this in print and again be aware that because they are compressed the image quality can suffer extremely.

What do you do with them?

That depends on what you are hoping to use the particular file for. It’s important to note that while you can print with PNG files many designers frown on it as they are not really intended for print. These are the 3 files most associated with web use and they are the file types you need to know and be aware of in the digital world.

Keep an eye out for the next part in our file series on the print file types you need to know.