There has always been much debate about logos for online business. Many people feel it is unnecessary an expense that one does not need to incur. To me nothing could be further from the truth. Competing online has some inherent problems that brick and mortar stores do not have. For one our address is not something easy to get in front of commuters. Let's say you sell crafts in a brick and mortar store, your customers will remember your geographical location. They might not your exact address, but they will know your street, or the general location of your store. Or sometimes they see you on their commute. They might forget your store name, but they have something to draw on find you again. Your store was in Southeast, or around 90th street, or it was called something like 'Crafter's Market', they would have a basis from which to begin a Yellow Pages scan.
For online customers finding your site again may be more difficult. Typing in crafting into the Yahoo search bar, may or may not make your website easy to re-locate. It may just bring up all your more established competitors, the ones that can afford huge PPC ad campaigns, because they also have a brick and mortar store located in southeast, that people know about. If your website has a logo it automatically makes your site more memorable the next time a customer wants to find you. Even if they have to search again they will not be as likely to settle on the first crafters website they land on. If they had a positive experience with your site, they will look for it again. A logo placed on the left side of the header gives your site an immediate feel that customers will look for again.
A logo brands you, true it will not help customers re-locate you on the web, but it will make you memorable. It shows you have more invested then a spare room full of inventory and a few free hours here and there to invest in your business. Even if that is exactly what you are, or especially if that is exactly what you are, you need something to make you look established, at first glance on your website, have a header with your logo.
Make the investment. A logo can be placed in your eBay marketing campaign. A logo will appear on your invoice, on your newsletter you include with your invoice, and on your business card. For every average sale your customer should see your logo no fewer than ten times. Even if they only buy one item, they will be going through at least four web pages. Then they should see it, on the e-mail confirmation of the order, the e-mail confirmation on the shipping, and three times when the order itself arrives. Also if possible on any packaging, bare minimum ten times to brand this pleasant shopping experience with your company, that may or may not be a room with some inventory in it.
If you are gifted at graphic design, you have really no excuse not to have one. If you are like me and can barely draw a stick person, you really have no excuse not to have one. Thanks to readily available software, graphic artists can come up your custom logo for prices that ten years ago were unheard of. Just Click here for logo designers on eBay
Some things to think about when commissioning a logo:
Avoid trendy, unless you are selling to teens, or selling the latest product that will be out of vogue within a year, or you plan only to be in business a year, do not go with anything that will date the time your logo was created.
Try for timeless. Timeless logos, ones that could have been created decades ago, evoke stability; your customers want to know you are going to be there next year, or even next month.
Try to have the logo evoke feelings that your product give. If you are selling crafts, what do you want your customers to get out of your products? Relaxation? Fulfillment? A sense of accomplishment? How about if you are selling weight loss products? Think it through, including the colors, the shapes, etc. Look at competitors, what do you like and not like about their logo? Put some thought and time into this process, this is one thing you want right the first time.
Keep it simple. Your logo needs to be flexible, for all sorts of uses. Not only the ones mentioned above, but although it will be placed on clothing, decals, magazine ads etc. The less detail the cheaper and easier this becomes.
Communicate with your designer; do not settle for a logo that is not exactly right. Be specific as possible and have as much information as possible ready before hand. This makes it faster for your designer and cheaper for you. Before hiring a designer look at their work, find someone whose work is as close as possible to your ideas. The closer to the same page you are on at the get go, the simpler the process.
Once you have the logo, use it, use it, and use it. Make sure your customers know what it is with their first purchase. You want to be identifiable especially in a crowded market. And you want that shopping experience to be memorable, for the money nothing helps accomplish that like a custom logo.
