Secrets of How SBD Works Like a Mother for You REVEALED!

Is Your Business Ready to Dominate 2026? Here’s How to Start Strong in Q1

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 23:08:35 GMT

Is Your Business Ready
to Dominate 2026?
Here’s How to Start Strong in Q1

As we enter 2026, businesses face a landscape where marketing isn’t just about visibility—it’s about survival and growth. The competition is fierce, and customer expectations are higher than ever. If you’re looking to make 2025 a year of growth, innovation, and success, it’s time to prioritize your marketing efforts and ensure you’re ready to hit the ground running in Q1.

Here’s why investing in marketing is non-negotiable for 2025—and how SBD can be your ultimate partner in success.

Why Marketing Efforts Matter More Than Ever

Customer Expectations Are Shifting
Customers in 2026 expect personalized experiences, authenticity, and fast responses. A robust marketing strategy ensures you’re connecting with your audience where and how they want to engage.
Digital Evolution Is Accelerating
From AI-driven tools to evolving SEO algorithms, staying current with digital trends is no longer optional. An active marketing approach helps your business adapt and thrive in this fast-paced environment.
Branding Equals Trust
Customers don’t just buy products; they buy into brands they trust. Strong branding positions your company as a market leader and fosters long-term loyalty.

How to Be Ready for Q1 2026

Audit and Refine Your Current Strategy
Evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Identify gaps in your branding, digital presence, or PR strategy to create a plan for improvement.
Leverage SEO and SEM Early
Search engines remain the primary way customers discover businesses. Fine-tuning your SEO and SEM strategies early ensures your brand is the first they find in 2026.
Embrace Multi-Channel Marketing
From social media to email, blogs, and paid ads, your marketing should meet customers across multiple platforms.
Focus on ROI-Driven Efforts
The key is not just spending on marketing but spending strategically. A clear focus on measurable ROI will keep your budget optimized and your results impactful.

Why Hire an Agency for Your Marketing Needs?

Partnering with a skilled marketing agency is the smartest way to ensure your efforts are targeted, impactful, and efficient. Here’s what SBD brings to the table:

Expertise Across the Board
Agencies specialize in the critical areas of SEO, SEM, PR, branding, and content creation, keeping you ahead of the curve.
Time and Resource Savings
With professionals managing your campaigns, you can focus on running your business while they focus on driving growth.
Tailored Strategies for Your Business
A good agency creates customized plans that align with your goals and market position, ensuring your message cuts through the noise.
Scalability and Adaptability
As your business grows or pivots, an agency can quickly adjust strategies to keep you on track.

Your Next Step to Success

2026 will belong to businesses that prioritize strategic marketing from day one. If you’re ready to start strong, let us help. At SBD Agency , we specialize in delivering results-driven marketing, branding, SEO/SEM, and PR solutions tailored to your needs.

Let’s make Q1 your launchpad for success by making marketing a priority now. Together, we’ll make this your best year yet!
Click HERE to schedule a complimentary consultation.

The SBD Brand Identity Approach

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 18:53:14 GMT

THE SBD BRAND IDENTITY APPROACH

At SBD our team of Brand Strategists is committed to helping businesses develop a consistent and compelling brand voice by guiding the messaging, tone, and style that resonates with the target audience. Here's how we approach it:

1. Understanding the Brand’s Identity and Values

We work closely with businesses to understand their mission, core values, vision, and unique selling points (USPs). This helps ensure that the brand voice aligns with the company's overall identity. We interview leadership and team members to extract insights that define what the brand stands for and what kind of emotional response it aims to evoke.

2. Researching the Target Audience

Knowing the audience is crucial for developing a brand voice. SBD conducts market research, analyzes customer demographics, preferences, pain points, and behaviors. Understanding the audience helps us determine whether the brand voice should be casual, professional, playful, authoritative, or a mix of tones.

3. Creating Brand Voice Guidelines

Once the brand’s identity and audience are clear, we create comprehensive guidelines that outline the brand’s voice and tone. These guidelines typically include:

Tone of voice (e.g., friendly, informative, or inspirational)
Language choices (formal vs. informal, technical vs. approachable)
Consistent messaging themes (values or taglines)
Examples of the brand voice in action (to ensure consistency across various platforms)

These guidelines become a reference for all communications, from social media posts to emails and advertising campaigns.

4. Consistency Across All Channels

SBD’s team ensures that the brand voice is applied consistently across all customer touchpoints—whether it's on social media, websites, newsletters, ads, or customer service interactions. This consistency helps build trust and recognition over time. We also train staff on how to use the brand voice in customer-facing communications.

5. Adapting the Voice Without Losing Identity

A good brand voice is flexible enough to adapt to different platforms and contexts while still maintaining a consistent core identity. For example, the tone on Twitter may be more conversational, while email newsletters may be more formal. SBD’s direction ensures that the brand’s voice adjusts to different media without losing its essence.

6. Storytelling and Emotional Connection

Our strategists use storytelling techniques to craft narratives that connect emotionally with the audience. A compelling brand voice tells a story that draws customers in and creates a personal connection. By weaving a narrative around the brand’s values and purpose, we help businesses create a memorable and authentic presence.

7. Ongoing Refinement and Adaptation

As markets and consumer expectations evolve, SBD’s team monitors the brand's impact and makes adjustments to the voice as necessary. We analyze data from campaigns, customer feedback, and social listening to refine the brand voice, ensuring it stays relevant and engaging over time.

8. Aligning the Visual Brand Identity

A consistent brand voice extends beyond just words; it also aligns with the visual elements like logos, brand colors, fonts, and design styles. SBD ensures that the visual brand identity—such as color schemes, imagery, and layouts—reflects the tone and personality of the brand. These visual elements create a cohesive experience across all marketing materials, from websites and social media to packaging and print ads. Consistency in both messaging and visuals strengthens brand recognition and creates a unified, memorable identity.

By helping businesses establish and maintain a strong brand voice, SBD’s brand strategists contribute to long-term brand loyalty, recognition, and differentiation from competitors.

Reach out today to schedule your complimentary brand identity consultation.

THOUGHT LEADER Q&A: Peter Herring. SBD Copywriter and Brand Strategist

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:31:01 GMT

Peter Herring: SBD Copywriter and Brand Strategist

We are incredibly fortunate to have such talented team members at our agency, each bringing their own unique expertise and creativity to every project. Today, we're excited to introduce Peter Herring, whose outstanding skills and passion for marketing have proven invaluable in delivering exceptional results for our clients. Peter’s dedication to strategic innovation and attention to detail consistently elevates our work, ensuring that each campaign is not only successful but also exceeds client expectations. In this Q&A, we’ll get to know more about Peter and the incredible value he brings to our team and your projects!

What inspired you to become a writer, and what do you enjoy most about the job?
Celebrated marketing writer David Olgilvy said that a good writer is someone who is interested in everything. I'm interested in everything; writing is a marvelous license to explore. As a poet and fiction writer, that means characters and themes that matter. That storytelling crosses over to marketing writing; it's still about the story. As a marketing writer, I love the variety of companies and fields I work in , the constant challenge to learn and promote new things, services, ideas.

How do you come up with fresh and creative ideas for your writing, especially when working on similar types of projects?

Walks, showers, inspirations that come out of the blue at odd hours. The best ideas don't usually come at a desk. Even if clients are in similar industries, there are differences between their product tiers, differences between their company personalities, and of course differences in their niche markets. All of these require unique messaging and proper "voice."

What’s the biggest misconception people have about copywriting? Can you share a time when your writing made a significant impact on a project or campaign?

People sometimes think copywriting is just about being clever. While clever words and turns of phrases are useful, what copywriters are really doing is finding the emotional connection between their client's products or services and their target audience. Then we write to that in language that reveals those connections (benefits) in a voice that speaks to the target audience.

While I can think of dozens of stories, a recent favorite is Iconic Magazine for SBD's client, Arciform. Iconic doesn't advertise, market or sell; instead it just tells human stories about Arciform's team members and clients, and adventure stories about fascinating projects. People love stories! But in the background, Iconic is also telling readers what a wonderful company Arciform is to work with, doing a lot of marketing indeed.

What’s your favorite type of project to work on and why?
A project with words! OK, kidding aside, I love challenging projects where I research, discover and learn about new products or services. Most of the fun is having a client tell me the features of their product/service, then digging down to discover the relevant benefit to their target market, and then crafting the verbal nugget that will entice their customers to engage.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to improve their writing skills, whether for business or personal use?

Active verbs and directness are your best friends; don't write passive sentences and do get to your point without adding filler words.

How do you handle writer’s block or a creative slump?

Writer's block is just an idea that hasn't showed up yet; it's out walking, it'll be here. Often, if stuck, I'll open a second doc and call it Project Haha! Then I'm free to write anything in it, and that's often where the block-breaking ideas appear. I've yet to run into slumps and I've been doing this for 32 years, but if I do, I'll write about it.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about human behavior from your work as a writer and brand strategist?

Without going into brain science, people feel first, think second. If they don't like the feeling they get they don't engage, or even consider. We mammals are built for making emotional connections—with other people, pets, things. That's why brand strategists go beyond features to look for the emotional connection between company/products and audience. And why copywriters use a quiver full of tricks—including voice, emotional keywords — to establish that connection up front.

DESIGNING FOR THE DESIGNER

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 21:19:02 GMT

SBD’S Marketing Process for CREEKSTONE DESIGN + REMODEL

Why are logos like Olympic Weightlifters? Yes, we’re talking about your company name, set in a specific typeface, in a particular color, with that graphic icon next to it. But...weightlifter? Exactly! Because your logo proceeds you everywhere, online, offline. With that icon, a powerful symbol of your unique expertise, and that font and color, chosen to elicit a trusting response in your target market, it does a lot of heavy lifting for your brand. It attracts attention, it engenders trust and willingness to try your company or product out, it sticks in peoples’ heads and hearts. It hoists your reputation.

Sbd’s Marketing Process for CREEKSTONE DESIGN + REMODEL

ABOVE: Logo Design by SBD

At SBD Agency, we love creating logos for our clients. It’s at the heart of what we do as a marketing agency, the centerpiece of branding. One unique and memorable icon, your name in a standout typeface, and a wickedly cool color scheme encapsulate your brand at a glance. And we love the process. Getting to know your company in and out, getting to know your target audience, working collaboratively with you through a series of logo iterations to arrive at the perfect representation of your company.

As much as we love branding and logo creation for all our clients, we welcome the opportunity to design a logo for a fellow designer. First off, to have a designer - in the case of Creekstone, a design-build remodeler - choose your agency to create the centerpiece of their brand assets, is an honor. Second, it’s a fun - and challenging - chance to collaborate with a fellow creative.

With Creekstone, we began with our signature brand questionnaire, a document of questions that delve deep into a company’s brand personality. Challenges came as our client followed his own creative process, first trying to determine whether he wanted the company to be named after him, or to use a more evocative name.

ABOVE: Logo exploration and evolution of the brand

Accordingly, we first designed logo possibilities for John May Designs, then JM Design + Remodel, combined with very architecturally inspired icons. The client came back with a concern that he may want to sell the company at some point. We generally advise that a company that may be seeking to sell at some point, disassociate themselves from the owner, expanding the brand to the company. John liked the name Creekstone, a word that evokes a calming, enchanted feel – who doesn’t love the sound of water flowing over stones? With Creekstone, that feeling of relaxation transfers to the company. Relax, we have your redesign handled.

Collaborative work began on an organic logo that worked alongside the name to accentuate the emotional feeling. However, the client pivoted, saying that he really wanted to return to a more architectural icon, one that reflected the exactitude of his work. After a few iterations, the final logo, at the top of this page, was selected. The eye catching 3D trompe-l’oeil icon, with its contemporary, precise, intersecting lines, conveys in a glance Creekstone’s design style. Which tends to be elegant, precisely aligned to their customer’s expectations, and modern.

In addition to the new name and logo, we worked on a website design and photo styling for Creekstone. For his website, the client wanted a novel look, an architectural use of the space that reflected his own elegant contemporary designs. We created the home page using a combination of photos of his work punctuated by complementary geometric shapes that quickly catch the eye and convey information, plus reflect the geometric flow of the logo.

WEBSITE DESIGN

John May originally knew of Snow Blackwood, SBD’s owner, due to her time with Oregon Home, so he knew she was an expert in creating photography that would get picked up for editorial coverage. We coordinated all aspects of the photoshoot with the client, homeowners, and prop suppliers, including hiring photographer David Papazian, matching his clean style to Creekstone's contemporary designs. We rearranged the kitchen cabinets with light colored dish ware, brought in splashes of color with fruits and flowers, set the scene with an open magazine, and was on set all day to make sure all shot requests were correctly executed for the client.

TOC CONCERT HALL

Fri, 03 May 2024 17:58:28 GMT

Every year, for several years, we’ve created campaigns for TOC that generate tens of thousands of dollars in donations. Most of this work is done for the Willamette Week’s annual Give Guide. This year, we did it again – and then some. Not only did we create online and in-publication materials, but we also wanted to connect with TOC’s fans in the most personal way: in the venue itself. The need was urgent. That’s because an expensive upgrade to the alarm system is required in 2024. Thus, we created these posters.

While the Old Church has always been a great place to hear live music, its website needed a refresh. Our goal was to create something more modern, more user-friendly – and to help them attract a younger audience. We knew any representation of the venue had to show off its number one asset: the stunning interior. So that’s the first thing you see on the homepage. In addition, we made it easy for users to get the info they wanted, so we streamlined the Events page, making it easier to find dates and times for your favorite groups. And we created quick links for Spotify, Tidal, and Etix. Finally, because we want to attract (and not put-off) a younger demographic, we made the site very mobile-friendly!

Hearing live music in The Old Church (TOC) is nothing short of heavenly – the acoustics are stunning, with high and low notes reverberating and mellowed by the wooden columns and fixtures. So when we were asked to help with their yearly fundraiser, our spirits soared. The mission? To make sure The Old Church raised $35,000 using the Willamette Week GiveGuide. Right away, we went to work drafting hipper, more friendly language and imagery. Ultimately our GiveGuide campaign included social posts, emails and a set of ads in the GiveGuide itself. The result? We got them to the promised land ($35,000) and then some!

ICONIC MAGAZINE

Fri, 03 May 2024 17:56:20 GMT

From Once Upon a Time to Happily Ever After: People Love Stories.

In 2022, ARCIFORM asked us to jump into a new, out-of-box campaign. We asked, “How high?” They said, “We want to get our story out there; we want people to see our work and we think that will sell itself.” We put on our marketing hats and thought about all the marketing avenues we could take. After a while we doffed those hats. Looked at each other. And decided, “Oh, heck, let’s not market them.”

Instead, we decided to tell inspiring stories about them and their beautiful work. Iconic Magazine was born! Iconic doesn’t look like an ad, sound “adsy” or put people off as ads sometimes do. In fact, Iconic doesn’t try to sell anything to anyone. It just tells great stories – in pictures and words – about fabulous remodeling jobs done by very cool folks. We produced three issues each in 2022 and 2023, and are continuing into 2024. It’s a gorgeous engaging, online magazine, designed by SBD and created in Issuu, which lets the reader flip through the pages and delivers a physical magazine feel.

Everybody loves stories, especially if they have happy endings. So Iconic’s readership grows and grows, with nearly 17,000 impressions and 5,500 reads as of this writing. More importantly, ARCIFORM receives hot lead calls from readers who “loved what they saw” in the magazine. The stories do more than any ad, social post, email or mail campaign could do – not that we don’t use those tools to market Iconic. And it does it all without ever saying, Call Now! Or, this special deal won’t last! As the old adage goes, Iconic shows, it doesn’t tell. So it fits the bill – it does all the work of “normal” marketing without feeling like marketing. As with the Road Trip, it invites readers to live vicariously in others’ remodeling adventures, and then perhaps take the adventure themselves. With ARCIFORM, of course.

Arciform: Road Trip Campaign

Wed, 07 Feb 2024 03:56:19 GMT

ICONIC Road Stories: How to Market without Marketing

Feb 8, 2024 | by: Peter Herring

That’s how we authored the Road Trip Through Restorations campaign. Running for the whole of 2020 and into 2021, the Road Trip touted the work of ARCIFORM and sister company, Versatile Wood Products, by inviting people to take tours around Portland and Oregon to visit iconic buildings that had been restored by the two companies. The retro design incorporated shots of those buildings with Co-owner Richard De Wolf’s classic 1950 Mercedes 170S Cabriolet A parked in front. We created tour maps with a series of stops, plus historical descriptions of the buildings and the work done by the companies. We also produced a series of retro postcards, one for each site. That was the secret sauce! Participants could return to the ARCIFORM website and send digital copies of these postcards to their friends and family.

SBD’s Classic Marketing Process for Classic Sash & Door

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:31:32 GMT

Sample ads were created for three different brand concepts.

SBD’s Classic Marketing Process for Classic Sash & Door

Classic Sash & Door (CS&D) is an established purveyor and installer of high end windows and doors for the greater Portland area. The company’s strength lay in their team’s deep knowledge of windows and doors combined with their familiarity with the diverse architectural styles of Portland area homes. Their ability to “match and enhance” the look of “your classic” home is a strong unique selling proposition.

CS&D came to us seeking a brand refresh, a new website, and marketing that reached their late GenX to Baby Boomer audience, while also reaching out to their up-and-coming younger target market.

To better understand their market, we began by conducting Voice of the Customer (VOC) interviews with existing customers and prospects, particularly addressing qualified prospects who represented their younger, replacement market. VOC qualitative research allows us to delve deeply into the fears, pains, aspirations, and needs of prospective customers, as well as their preferred search and information-gathering modes. In private, one-on-one interviews, interviewees tell us what kind of experiences they seek, what engenders trust, and the way they like to be spoken to. We combine all of this information into an Insight Report that helps us develop successful strategies, and guides the brand refresh.

Since successful brands thrive on consistency of design look and messaging, we next produced a Brand Guide for CS&D. After a full logo exploration, the client decided to keep their existing logo, which had some local equity. However, it needed an upgrade that, while keeping its vintage look, would contemporize it. We adjusted the copper color to fit their new palette, tightened up and aligned the logo elements, and added their tagline. From there we developed a logo usage guide, a color palette and font usage guide, as well as a copy tone guide to establish keywords and phrases, and “do’s and don’ts” that together make up the tone of voice that best represents For a business that is largely visual, CS&D lacked compelling photographs; we helped establish photo shoot direction, both for showcasing work and for introducing their team.

Logo Exploration

We updated CS&D’s website to a more efficient platform, with a decidedly more contemporary look and feel, as well as optimizing it for mobile. While the older site had few and smaller photos, the new site leads with beautiful shots of windows and doors. A new gallery page shows off the work, while copy on the site extolls the values that VOC research showed prospective customers seek, using attainable keywords that our SEO research uncovered. Rotating customer testimonials came directly from the VOC.

Website Design

To drive traffic to the site, and customers to CS&D, we produced three campaigns, consisting of blogs with corresponding social media posts. Peeps in the Neighborhood helped establish CS&D as a “neighbor among neighbors,” a team of long time Portlanders who live here with their families, and care about yours. Let the Sunshine In celebrated all the things that windows do for our homes and families, from letting the light in to keeping weather and pollution out, to opening up smaller rooms, and bringing the wonder of snow to a small child whose nose is pressed up against the (warm, because it’s double paned) glass. Finally, Keep Portland Classic, leveraged CS&D’s tagline – “Transform Your Classic Home” – by pairing iconic images of Portland with shots of “classic” windows and doors installed by CS&D, establishing them as Portland’s iconic window and door company.

Successful marketing is all in the details. If your brand isn’t performing as well as it could for you, bring it in. Mom and her experienced team can help iron out the details.

ADVENTURE AFOOT

Wed, 21 Jun 2023 21:56:33 GMT

Adventure Afoot at Christiane Millinger Rugs

Christiane Millinger Rugs (CMR) is one of the best, most internationally connected, and most knowledgeable purveyors of widely diverse styles of fine handmade rugs in Portland and the nation. Christiane’s passion for rugs and her extensive knowledge of the history, natural materials, and techniques of hand weaving, plus her personal connections with international weavers and renowned designers, drive the brand.

But the CMR website did not convey this. As well, Christiane said that she was losing sales to other rug sellers in town who were more trendy, though they lacked CMR’s diversity and depth. Also, CMR is the exclusive dealer in the Portland area for several international designers, and this information was downplayed on the site. While the company has walk-in and online business, as well as a small dedicated group of interior designers and architects who bring their clients to CMR, many designers in town turn to other purveyors.

We did initial qualitative research with Voice of the Customer (VoC), one-on-one interviews with a mix of customers and professional designer clients. VoC research tells us, in the customers’ own voices, what triggers their search for rugs, how they search, how aware they are of the product qualities, experiences they seek, and other valuable information that helps us develop strategies and the correct voice and messaging to use in marketing the company.

Adventure Afoot at Christiane Millinger Rugs

Customers and clients alike told us that they loved the knowledge that Christiane brought, including the stories and sense of adventure that attached to the rugs they bought. From designers, we also learned that CMR was not seen to be as "hip" as other purveyors in town. The new website we developed was built on updated technology and improved SEO coding. We chose images, videos, and a copy tone that evokes rich history and adventure. And we highlighted the exclusive lines that CMR carries.

We used the same approach in the initial social posts we created for CMR, creating a template that CMR's in-house staff could follow.

Part of our approach with CMR is to transfer attributes that customers love about Christiane to the brand. This is a good approach for companies that seek growth or to sell and need to transcend the limitations imposed when the founder is the main attractor. So on the new website and in social posts, CMR, the company, becomes knowledgeable, connected, and adventurous—the place to come to find the best curated collection of international fine handmade rugs.

- With the new site, we drove 30k impressions and 502 new website visitors in a two-month period.

- For social, we started with an A/B test to identify market response to creative and copy, which led to 23,327 impressions and 363 new website visitors (link clicks) with an above-average ad ranking and a $200 ad spend.

- In two months, SBD put 53,000+ eyes on the CMR brand and created 865 unique clicks to their website.

The future looks to be a very fulfilling adventure for Christiane Millinger Rugs!

Secrets of How SBDWorksLike a Mother for You REVEALED!

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 16:45:39 GMT

Secrets of How SBD
Works Like a MOTHER for You Revealed !

Dec 21, 2022 | by: Peter Herring

Okay, so that’s a tongue-in-cheek headline. But we wanted to catch your attention, just like we work hard to catch your prospective customers’ attention. Plus, the team at Snow B Designs thought it would be a good idea to let you know the sauce behind how we get results for your company.

Why would we do that?

Well, mom’s all about house rules. And effective marketing has some fairly simple but very consistent rules that it follows. So, just as mom knows that everyone in the household gets along better when they all know the rules, we find it more efficient and effective - and fun - to work with you as a single team achieving a shared goal.

Soccer moms know the rules of soccer. They also know that those rules are particular to the game of soccer and wouldn’t work for, say, badminton. The rules of marketing are similarly determined by our playing field. Our field is the human mind.

How Mom Sees People and Why that Matters to You

Marketing usually gets divided into two categories: B2C (Business to Consumer) and B2B (Business to Business). In truth, though, all marketing - whether you’re marketing high tech SaaS or fashion sass - is actually P2P (People to People). Consumers want one thing. Business executives or procurement agents want another. But they all need something solved and they’re all people. So knowing something about what makes people tick - or purchase - is the foundation of being a good marketer.

Mom knows a lot about people because mom’s main job is managing people and getting them to do things that are good for them. For instance, clean their room, go to school (even when you don’t feel like it) and take a bath. As the people mom manages get bigger and more complex, the things mom motivates them to do get more complex, but the methods are similar.

Here are some of things that mom, and marketers, know about people.

People Aren’t Motivated by Logic

We all like to think we’re mostly logical. We mostly aren’t. Or at least we’re rarely motivated by logic. If people were activated by logic then mom could simply explain to her kids that cleaning their rooms would result in their being able to quickly find the toy that’s lost in the pile - and the kids would hop to and do it. Every mom knows this approach doesn’t work. Ah, but what if cleaning your room leads to a cookie? A special privilege?

Motivating with cookies is similar to how we motivate with an emotional payoff.

People Are Motivated by Emotion

There are three reasons for this. Lions, tigers, and bears. We humans grew up in a world full of them, and if one came running at you it was a bad idea to ponder the situation. It was a good idea to hoist your spear. Or run. Quick action meant you got to have dinner that night, rather than being dinner. To this day human brains’ first assessment of a situation tends to be emotional. - or “prelogical.” We’re wired that way. Based on inherited and learned associations our brains decide “this good” or “that bad” before we think logically about it. Often before we even notice it.

Your prospective customers are drawn to companies, products, and services that they feel they can trust. So trust is the first emotional hurdle we seek to clear. We then look for emotional payoffs that appeal to your prospects. We’ll call those, “warm cookies.” We deliver just out of the oven cookies - with raisins, chocolate chips, or nuts, depending which your market segment likes - in the designs we make, the colors and typefaces we choose, and the targeted copy we write.

Logic Seals the Deal

Don’t get us wrong, logic has an indispensable role in decision-making. But, because the logical parts of our brains came later, it also comes later. After the prelogical part of our brain gives an “All Clear!” you do need to know that that sexy car in the to-die-for color also gets you economically from here to there. Or that the software system from the company you feel has your back will make your company more efficient and save money, as well as, possibly, your job.

How We Make Your Company a Trusted Stranger

Your spouses, kids, friends and dog trust you - if you’ve acted trustworthy. But how do you get people who have never met you to feel as though they trust you? Because that’s exactly what you’re trying to do with your prospective customers. It would be nice if you could just say, “Hey, trust me, I’m trustworthy.” But, trust us, the reaction to that is usually to run the other way. So how do we go about creating a feeling of trustability?

Stranger Appeal Vs Stranger Danger

Say you enter a room full of strangers and you don’t know whom to talk to. Some look intimidating. Then someone across the room catches your eye. Someone you think might be a good listener, easy to talk to, maybe even a future friend. Someone you’re willing to trust enough to approach and break the ice. You may not know why, because your prelogical brain made a lot of split second decisions for you, taking into account his attire, looks, posture, and gestures before giving you the green light.

Now, let’s say that the person entering the room is your prospective customer, and you’re the one hoping to catch her eye. Except that “you” - your company - is your website, your social post or ad, direct mail or email piece. So their first all-important glimpse of you is a marketing message. Two things need to happen for this meeting to occur. First, that website or post needs to stand out from the others and grab their attention in a world full of attention grabbers. Second, it needs to engender a willingness to “pretrust” you enough to email or call you, walk through your door, or order online.

This is what we’re in the business of doing for you. Simply put, our work for you gets your prospects’ attention, engenders trust and motivates action. In Part Two of this blog we’ll break down how we do that.

How Does Mom Know All This?

Mom’s pretty smart, including having a high emotional intelligence quotient, but she wasn’t born knowing your business and your target market. That’s why we start with a brand and market positioning discovery process. If you’re the Acme Widget company, we learn why your widget’s are a better solution for your target market. Or why you’re the nicer widget company. Or...whatever makes you an attractive standout.

We also learn more about your best target market – your most lucrative, and often most enjoyable, customers – by doing qualitative research. That is, we learn more about your customers’ lives, pain points, aspirations, and how to address them in language and designs that motivate action. First we listen to you. After all, you know a lot about your customers. But companies are sometimes too close to their own products and services, a little too wrapped up in the features. So SBD, as an objective agency, talks to your target audience to discover their needs and wants, their emotional drivers, and the way that they like to be talked to.

If You Don’t Have Something Nice to Say...

We all know how this saying ends. But if you’re a company with something to sell, saying nothing at all is simply not an option in today’s crowded marketplace. And we know that marketing can be expensive (although it’s often far more expensive to NOT market). So it’s most cost-effective to create relevant designs and say the right things to the right people - that is, the market segment that’s the best fit for you.

Here's where marketing mom differs from regular mom. Marketing mom will never say “...say nothing at all.” Instead, she says, if you want a mother of a campaign give us a call. And with a little leg work we’ll say a lot of very nice things about your company to just the right prospects.

Our (Covid) Year in Design

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 18:56:26 GMT

Our (covid) Year in Design

As we mumbled behind masks in person, 2020 became the year for digital communications, including websites, which assumed an even greater role as the primary public face for brands – from Mom & Pop sized shops to larger companies. Here are a few of the websites we built or rebuilt this year, along with the brand strategies behind them.

mÖbius home: Website

Owner/Chief Designer Lynn Feinstein + Associate Designer Alexandra Roocroft Debrule craft beautiful eco-interiors for clients, with a twist – often they reimagine the space using existing client furniture, rather than buying all new, or direct DIYers, combining ecology with economy. Their designs are clean and elegant; everything is integral. But their website didn’t exemplify that. So we did what they do: we reimagined the existing site, edited, streamlined, reorganized and arrived at a look that is, yes, elegant and integral. Designers are visual people. So where the existing site was word heavy, we pared down words and added images. We also did photo styling for their spaces, populating them with visual stories that entice. Plus we developed a marketing plan for Mobius.

Glacier Windows: Branding & Website

Glacier Window & Door purveys and installs custom residential windows for design-driven luxury homes throughout the PNW. What sets Glacier apart are the high end lines they vet and carry, the elegant fenestration and portal solutions they arrive at and – above all - the caring, knowledgeable people that comprise their team. We created a website that encapsulates these characteristics, including a crisp, clean architectural look and plenty of images to let their dazzling work speak for itself. We accentuated the caring nature of their team with candid, rich BW photos that stand out from the usual roster of mug shots. And we capped it off by updating their logo, keeping the mountain and glacier, but streamlining them to a precise, professional look that mirrors the exactitude of their work.

gail owen prints: Website

It was a delight to work with Gail, and her art, to create a graceful site that sets off her lovely work with botanical and other PNW nature inspired prints. A fine artist who loves to see art serve a useful purpose, Gail uses 19th Century printing techniques and materials to turn her prints into stunning wallpaper. We love to see websites that work well for their owners, so we created Gail’s to be easily updated by her. Videos provide lilting tours through Gail’s work plus a peak at her techniques. A quick click takes visitors to stores where they can purchase either wallpaper or prints.

Outer wisdom herbals: Website

Outer Wisdom Herbals has been creating fine, organic herbal-based beauty products for 15 years. They needed an elegant site that would complement their mission, quickly introduce their philosophy and products, and then induce customers to buy online or wholesalers to carry their lines. The website for Outer Wisdom Herbals is a great example of how a modest budget site can entice the market with a high end look.

arciform: campaigns

ARCIFORM is Portland’s premier restoration and remodeling firm; Snow B. Designs is their white glove agency. To say that 2020 had its challenges is the understatement of the year, but working with ARCIFORM we rose above them to create some very iconic, clever campaigns that performed well! With the Summer Road Trip through Restoration, 2020, we invited visitors to take a road trip to view the many historical restorations that ARCIFORM has been involved with throughout Oregon, snap a selfie and post it. To market it, we created beautiful post card graphics that hark back to classic travel posters, replete with classic cars parked in front of the properties. The campaign was so successful that ARCIFORM would like to run it year round. The post cards were such a hit that we’re now printing them for mailings to target market neighborhoods. Other campaigns included working with ARCIFORM on webinar workshops. For the Portland Home Styles Workshop we created a coveted logo bug that’s also a certification for graduates of the seminar. The webinar sold out. We also marketed and created iconic graphics for the successful Home Design Workshop Series, and the Architectural Styles of Portland Workshop. Add to all that a consistent campaign of social posts and it was a very full year of challenges overcome!

Versatile Wood Products: campaigns

Versatile Wood Products (VWP) designs and crafts exquisite one-of-a-kind door, window, and cabinetry solutions that exactly meet historical specification while achieving modern performance standards. Their website had not been upgraded in three years, so we did a little restoration work ourselves, improving the look and functionality while keeping their historical brand. To introduce the remodeled site, we developed the Race to Timberline campaign. First we created a vintage set of posters featuring restored properties and owner Richard De Wolf in his own racecar. These eye-catching, old-timey images inspired by vintage car posters cut through the contemporary noise and set a spirit of fun in motion. Participants spun through the website in search of hidden words that might win them two nights at Timberline Lodge. To add to the fun – and interactivity – participants were invited to drive the route past the properties, stop for a nosh, snap selfies and post them to Instagram, tagging VWP. Though VWP is involved in major restorations, they remain a close-knit family-style company; we emphasized that with a family focused campaign. And of course we provide a steady flow of social posts touting their custom works in a unique manner.

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