Whether you’ve already decided to go responsive or you’re still considering a responsive site redesign, there are some things you’ll need to look out for from an SEO standpoint.

Above the fold issues, content strategy, internal links, and mobile specifics can trip you up.

Before we begin, there’s an important distinction between cosmetic and full redesigns. This distinction primarily comes down to one thing: are URLs on your site changing or not. Changing URLs is a game changer and adds a number of steps that you need to take in order to have a successful transition from and old site to a shiny new one.

The following analysis focuses on common issues with cosmetic redesigns, moving from a non-responsive site to a responsive website design

1. Above the Fold Considerations

Homepage Above The Fold Area (Desktop)

This is where it starts to get awkward with the web designers. The thing to keep in mind as project owner broadly, and as a SEO specifically, is to make your wishes known to the designers early in the process, prior and during the wireframe process.

Responsive design, kind of like the blow out, has it’s own style and look, which may at times conflict with some best practices for SEO. One area of conflict is use of above the fold real estate.

Responsive design is visually very much about whitespace and letting different elements breathe. However, elements that are critical to internal linking and user accessibility from the homepage tend to get pushed down under giant banners.

Large banners and sliders, which are so common on responsive sites that come back from web designers, often result in visitors having to scroll down to see links in menus that were easily crawlable before the redesign.

Make sure your main categories are somewhere above the fold on your homepage template. This is critical – especially for an ecommerce site going responsive.

One simple way to fix the issue: find savings to push linked content up. This can be done a number of ways, but some strategies include reducing the size of banners, reducing white space, and adjusting fonts.

Above The Fold Content Issues

Another big responsive issue is getting some non-linked text above the fold. Responsive design is very visual, and content strategy is often set aside (more on this in a moment).

One really big issue at the homepage and category level templates is that there is almost no content above the fold, when you look at the desktop view.

Search engines may be evaluating placement of content on the page. Having content above the fold versus a big block of SEO content just above the footer may be assigned a different value by search engines.

If you have little or no non-linked text above the fold and your prior site did have text above the fold, this is something to note and work on adjusting with your designers.

2. Content Strategy Considerations

There are a number of considerations for content strategy to be aware of for a responsive redesign. Beyond the loss of non-linked text that is common in responsive design, keyword density for specific phrases in non-linked text and links is often lost. This is something that you should spot test for on each of your major templates during your redesign.

One helpful keyword density testing tool is the Side by Side SEO Comparision Tool. The cool thing to note about this tool is that it does a count of one-word, two-word, and three-word keyword phrases on a given page.

Ideally, any one given page that you analyze should have a balance of the following elements, like a fine wine:

• There ought to be a nice balance of short tail and longer tail phrases that include relevant variations and modifiers that are relevant to the page.
• The keyword density would not be disproportionately weighted to any one particular phrase.
• You want to be aware of if your keywords appear as linked or non-linked text on the page.

At each level of your site, there should be a nice balance of the above elements for the number of words you have on a given page, on average. During redesigns, and especially during responsive redesigns, some of this tends to often be stripped out.

To test for this, enter your existing site URL and the staging URL for that page on the new site, and compare. Doing this comparison lets you know if your keyword density balance has been thrown off or if it was poor to begin with and ought to be improved with the redesign.

3. Internal Linking Considerations

Internal linking is a huge consideration during any redesign. Often times, especially with ecommerce responsive redesigns, poor internal linking strategy gets passed on from the old site or beneficial internal linking and menus are removed.

One thing you will notice about old sites is that they are naturally very well internally linked. However, as design practices have changed, now it’s all about minimalism. Your naturally good internal linking may be lost.

With responsive sites, often the categories are internally linked OK, but go a level deeper, to the product level for example, and the internal linking tends to drop drastically. Also, beyond just for upselling and cross selling purposes, having good internal linking here is very important for SEO.

One super simple way to do a check for this is, again using side by Side-by-Side SEO Comparison Tool. When you’re running sample pages for all given template types, make sure to check how many outbound links are on the page for all given template types.

Make sure pages higher in the information architecture are well linked internally. Also make sure lower level pages in the information architecture are well linked to from higher level pages and are well cross linked – this bit is especially important for ecommerce sites.

4. Mobile Considerations

There are fewer mobile considerations for responsive sites, than when supporting a second codebase for a mobile site - which is something like having a mobile version of your site on m.mysite.com. However, the considerations that do exist are almost never followed.

For Google, it is recommended that you use vary server headers in cases where you are serving different HTML on the same URL. Doing this will tell crawlers that the HTML being served on that URL may vary depending on user agent, such a googlebot or googlebot-mobile.

Making this change will help Google serve the proper cache of the page and it will help Google find mobile optimized content on your site faster. Here’s an example:

GET /page-1 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
(...rest of HTTP request headers...)

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Vary: User-Agent
Content-Length: 5710
(... rest of HTTP response headers...)

Prioritizing Responsive Design Specific Considerations

Site redesigns are generally one of the more stressful times for any SEO professional. Depending on if the scope of your redesign is full or just cosmetic, and depending on how many other stakeholders are in on the project, what you can get done will vary.

The responsive design specific issues identified above can be usually taken care of in a good requirements gathering phase of the project and wireframe/mockup part of the project. I’ve had instances where it gets a little tough to marry aesthetic, brand, and SEO requirements using responsive design but by really working closely with the designers and other key stakeholders, you can get what everyone needs in without compromising the great aesthetic appeal that a responsive design offers.

The key, like with any redesign, is to make sure that there are clear SEO requirements at the onset of the project and that you work closely with the team on the project throughout the life cycle of the redesign.

Here are a few additional resources on responsive site redesigns:

• Responsive site redesign…any benefits - This is a pretty interesting thread discussing potential SEO benefits from site redesigns.
• The SEO of Responsive Web Design - Kristina Kledzik, If you’re curious about how responsive design works, this article is a great explanation that shows how responsive web design can create a great experience no matter what device you’re using.
• When Responsive Web Design Is Bad For SEO - Bryson Meunier, This article covers some instances where a responsive website redesign may not be a good idea. This article also provides a neat decision tree to help you make the decision if the move is a good idea for your business.

Google Inc.’s YouTube, the No. 1 video site, on Wednesday publicly talked up the possibility of allowing people who create videos for the site to charge viewers a subscription fee, something it has been discussing privately with video makers and advertisers.

“It’s incredibly important” as a tool to create “additional revenue streams” for makers of Web videos, said Robert Kyncl, a YouTube vice president, at a media roundtable with reporters in Los Angeles. He said that it won’t be easy for video makers to get people to “take out a credit card” before watching a show, but there will be “a lot of experimentation” and, “over time, a lot of people will figure it out.”

However, he added that YouTube had “nothing to announce” in the way of paid subscription channels.

As the rise of advertising dollars to Web video grows more slowly than some industry executives expected and ad rates drop as more ad space becomes available, video content creators are desperately looking for new revenue streams.

Offering a paid subscription channel could work well even for video makers who have “passionate but very narrow audience segments,” said Lucas Watson, head of global sales at YouTube, which on Wednesday said it was being visited by one billion people every month, up from 800 million in late 2011.

The comments come as more big-name celebrities and movie makers begin shooting video that will land on the site. Director Ridley Scott (“Alien,” “Prometheus”) announced earlier this month he will make 12 short Sci-Fi films for Machinima, a network of channels on YouTube. A person familiar with that initiative said Mr. Scott’s work is expected to be part of a YouTube channel that would charge viewers a fee.

This week, Simon Cowell of “American Idol” fame said he is launching a YouTube channel for a show about discovering talented performers.

Meanwhile, some YouTube video creators are finding new revenue streams by selling their content to existing cable networks. Last month Nickelodeon said it would co-develop a half-hour sketch comedy show with AwesomenessTV, a fast-growing YouTube channel run by Brian Robbins, creator of shows such as “Smallville.”

YouTube has been paying cash advances to dozens of video makers to create videos for the site and recently expanded the initiative outside the U.S.

On Wednesday YouTube also brought together advertising agency executives and agency clients to an event at its creative studio in Los Angeles in an attempt to get them excited about spending ad money on the site.

“The presentation was great,” said one attendee, “but we’ll see tomorrow when they give us their prices.”

We all know YouTube is the biggest video sharing site around, but how big is it, exactly, when compared to sites such as Facebook or Twitter? Here’s a hint: YouTube has just hit one billion monthly unique users.

For comparison, Facebook hit that milestone in October 2012. It took the social network eight years to reach one billion active users — almost the exact amount of time as YouTube, which was founded in February 2005. Twitter, which has been around since March 2006, has more than 200 million monthly active users.

The YouTube team gives us a few more comparisons for good measure: “Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube. Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly ten Super Bowl audiences. If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third largest in the world after China and India,” says YouTube on its official blog.

YouTube also gives a more detailed insight on what’s powering this growth in another blog post about Generation C and mobile devices. According to YouTube, Generation C (or Gen C) is a generation that has grown up consuming content “where and when they want”. They watch YouTube on all screens; they constantly switch between devices, they’re deeply engaged with online video and they thrive on community. Finally, they’re curators — they care about finding content that’s important to them.

Gen C, which YouTube considers to be its core audience, now watch just as much YouTube content on smartphones as they do on PCs, and 67% of Gen C watch YouTube on two devices or more, compared to 53% of the general population.

With the rise of smartphones, which have become the dominant force in the mobile phone industry in the last couple of years and show no signs of slowing down, YouTube needn’t worry about maintaining this growth for at least another couple of years.

Google was out demonstrating potential apps for Google Glass today and the first thing that strikes you is just how real time we are becoming.These were all real-time information apps, like we need more of it!

The second, is how misplaced Google’s faith is in Google Glass. It is not about the content. The content is a given. So what is the compelling attraction of Google Glass and why would I leap for it well ahead of an iWatch?

But before answering that, the issue of  real-time.

If I look at the biggest change to my working day it is the probability of getting hijacked on one of the real-time channels – Skype, Facebook IM, Twitter DM, Google chat.

I’m not saying I fear it but it’s a change – people used to phone and a call can be ignored but, when people do the interrupt on social channels it’s kinda hard to say no. And suddenly there they are.

Look as well at how information is shared. It’s not unusual on Forbes for a post to get more Tweets than readers early on in its life.

Google Glass will give you more of this instant information. A demo of a New York Times app showed breaking news from the paper of record, as you would expect, updated hourly – but why not continuously. A Path integration would push a notification when a friend shares a photograph. Other apps had the same real time, instant flavor.

OK, so my first question is, why wear them just to speed up my interaction with information? I have no doubt eventually I have to go down that road but I want to delay it.

For me Glass is important because it frees me from the computer and laptop screen. I have bad posture because I look down all day with my hands and shoulders up. A good ergonomic posture is to look directly ahead but few people do – Google Glass can help.

I may not have to buy another screen and real estate in my office is tight. For office, read hotel room, airplane, underground, and occasionally home. So how big is this new screen I can carry around everywhere – same size as my reading glasses. Small enough to go into my overcoat.

In all these instances if Google can liberate my field of view and give me a portable high resolution screen, I will buy Glass. If it can display information off my  mobile phone, too, all the better.

Thinking back to the iPhone – I was an early buyer – the breakthrough in the design was simple to people my age – a screen we could actually see without squinting.

Google’s suggestion that real time information will be the major selling point is not necessarily wide of the mark. We are being pushed in the direction of instant information, action and response. But I have tools for that. What I don’t have is a ubiquitous display that I can take everywhere and keep in my pocket when I don’t need it.

The history of technology innovation can often be about something as simple as this – miniaturization. Remember when Jobs thought about the iPhone, he said one of Apple’s core skills – gleaned no doubt from Sony which made it a mantra – was miniaturization. That’s why he gave the project a green light.

For me that’s the genius of Glass, right now. A miniaturized display. And that’s why I’d go for Glass and not for the mythical iWatch, a step back to the small screen that the iPhone drew us away from. High res viewing in a case that fits in my pocket. Priceless.

At this morning’s SMX West Keynote with Grady Burnett, Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions for Facebook, Grady said Facebook has no plans or intentions on launching an external search engine to compete with Google or Microsoft Bing.

Grady Burnett explained that Facebook is focused on improving search from within Facebook through Graph Search. Facebook will not be launching a dedicated search engine outside of the Facebook environment.

Here is the question and answer from our live blog coverage on Marketing Land:

DS: Do you ever see Facebook wanting a dedicated search product outside of Facebook? Mentions the past rumors that Facebook might buy Bing from MSFT.

GB: I don’t see that happening. We called it “Graph Search” because we’re focused on letting people search the Facebook graph. So my answer would be no.

Google has reached a settlement which would end the firm’s long-running data harvesting case in the U.S. The company will pay $7 million to settle a case backed up some 38 US states (which ).

The following states will split the cash evenly ($192,000): Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

“Consumers have a right to protect their vital personal and financial information from improper and unwanted use by corporations like Google,” said New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman. “This settlement addresses privacy issues and protects the rights of people whose information was collected without their permission.”

The settlement ends a case against Google that dates back to 2010, when it was revealed that the company’s Street View camera units had been illegally snooping in on local Wi-Fi networks while the vehicles were taking pictures for the service, grabbing passwords and other sensitive data.

At the time, attorneys general in the various U.S. states had expressed concern over Google’s explanation of why it had collected the data and what it intended to do with it.

Google was slapped with similar charges in Europe in 2010. Authorities called on the company to come forward and explain its actions in collecting Wi-Fi data during its maps surveying trips across the EU.

The company said in a statement that it didn’t knowingly gather or profit from the data collection, which was said to be the work of a rogue engineer.

“We work hard to get privacy right at Google. But in this case we didn’t, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue,” the company said. “The project leaders never wanted this data, and didn’t use it or even look at it.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said in 2010 that it would not be pursuing any action against Google as the company did not appear to have retained or utilised the data it had collected.

Are you wondering how to influence potential customers and prospects?

The latest findings from Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report show that “consumers are turning to blogs when looking to make a purchase.”

In fact, blogs rank favorably with consumers for trust, popularity and even influence.

Here are some interesting findings from the Technorati report.

#1: Blogs Influence Consumers’ Purchasing Decisions

The report found that blogs are now the third most influential digital resource (31%) when making overall purchases, behind retail sites (56%) and brand sites (34%).

Consumers said that blogs rank higher than Twitter for shaping their opinions and higher than Facebook for motivating purchasing decisions.

Consumers consider blogs to be trusted sources of information.

Why are blogs so influential? Bloggers tend to be very honest and sincere in their reviews of products and services. They talk about both negative and positive aspects of a brand, and in doing so become a trusted source of information. Trust drives action, and thus consumers look to bloggers before they buy.

You may have heard that recently Robert Scoble (a very influential blogger in the tech industry) announced he was switching to Android because “Apple has slipped.”

Robert has a ton of clout in the tech world, so it’ll be interesting to see how consumers (and techies in particular) respond to his moves.

#2: Consumers Say Smaller Communities Are More Influential

Over half of consumers surveyed agreed that smaller communities have greater influence on a topic than larger ones.

The real value of online communities comes from discussing ideas, sharing information and learning from one another. Rarely does value come from the size of a community.

Most consumers agree that smaller communities have greater influence.

Consumers understand this. But brands often get hung up on acquiring massive communities, sometimes at the expense of user experience.

In fact, brand marketers often pursue popular A-list bloggers to advocate on their behalf, hoping this strategy will help a message go viral and explode the size of their community.

The problem is that while a message blasted by a popular blogger might reach the masses, it doesn’t always produce the desired result. That’s because trust drives action, and popularity doesn’t necessarily translate into trust. It may even be more effective to pursue a less popular blogger who has earned the trust of and subsequent influence over his or her own small community.

If you want to become more influential with your online community, focus on providing value, building strong relationships (with your followers and other trusted bloggers) and offering great content.

#3: Brands Rely More on Facebook to Influence Consumers

Even though brands are devoting only 10% of their total digital marketing budgets to social media, Facebook is clearly the preferred platform, taking 57% of the slice.

Facebook is where the world hangs out and brand marketers know how important it is to be successful on this platform. In fact, the report shows that when metrics from earned media goals for brands were ranked, Facebook likes were at the top.

Brands are increasingly looking to Facebook to influence consumers.

This means that brands aren’t just focusing on Facebook ads. They are also interested in seeing increased activity on their Facebook Pages so much that conversation and engagement strategies have become vital for consumer outreach. The key to influencing consumers on Facebook is sharing content that generates interaction (likes and comments) and draws in more fans.

#4: Top Social Media Influencers Blog for Themselves

According to the survey, 86% of influencers blog. Of these, 88% blog for themselves. Moreover, a majority of influencers (59%) don’t produce much content outside of blogs.

Influencers are more committed to blogs than other digital platforms.

We’ve seen that trust is the currency of influence and that consumers are looking for “trusted digital friends” to give them advice on what to buy and where to go. That’s why bloggers who offer such advice are influential—because consumers trust their guidance.

If you want to grow your influence, the key is to become a trusted source of information in your industry. Provide compelling content on your blog and then amplify it through social media. People will listen and you will become their go-to resource for specific advice.

#5: Brands and Influencers Measure Success Differently

When it comes to gauging the success of their campaigns, brands and influencers think differently. Brands see success as increased activity on Facebook, Twitter and their websites, while influencers rank blog or website page views as the best measure of success.

Influencers regard page views as the best measure of success.

The reason why influencers focus so much on their blogs is because their priority is to deliver prospects to a site where that trust factor can begin to be tapped. For them, success is measured by the number of people reading their content.

You too can build trust by publishing high-quality educational content on your blog and providing calls to action that lead people to a purchase opportunity.

#6: Brands and Influencers Have a Different Understanding of Influence

Brands are always looking for the “right people” to connect with on social media. They believe that effective influencer outreach can help spark valuable word-of-mouth campaigns that increase brand visibility and ultimately drive consumer action.

Personally I doubt that I’ll reach for a Snickers bar every time I get hungry just because Aretha Franklin or Liza Minnelli are advocates for the brand.

Video on Youtube http://youtu.be/vW6ZXHWvaGc

The problem is how brands define influence. The Technorati report says that brands are using comScore or Nielsen rankings to identify influencers, yet these metrics do not represent influencers very well. Meanwhile “real” influencers (those people whom consumers trust and rely upon for advice) are hanging out mostly on their own blogs creating tons of content.

If you’re a brand marketer trying to connect with influencers, remember that having a large social media following doesn’t give you influence, it simply gives you an audience. Try looking for influencers who have very close ties to their communities, or bloggers who are relevant to your brand even if they don’t have worldwide fame.

Some great places to look include Google+ Communities and Boardreader (a search engine for online forums and community boards).

Quick Wrap Up

The biggest takeaway from the Technorati report is that blogging cultivates community, which is where influence is birthed.

Also there’s a lot we can learn from top influencers, such as what kind of content to publish, how top bloggers make money and much more.

So be sure to check out the full report to get deeper insights into developing strong digital marketing strategies.

Summary: Co-founders of several tech startups have some words of wisdom to share with wannabe founders. Some might surprise you.

Building a new tech company from the ground up is incredibly hard. Here are some tips from founders and co-founders who have already scaled that mountain that might help ease the journey for others..

David Mytton, CEO of Server Density (and friends.)

1:  Haste makes waste.  It’s natural to be in a hurry to get product out the door, but take a breath first and really gauge where you are. Slow down when it comes to key decisions, said Dan Belcher, co-founder of Boston-based Stackdriver, a startup focused on monitoring and managing cloud workloads. “Doing things too early is as dangerous as — or even worse than — doing them too late. Think hard about when you start to invest in sales and marketing and when you start forecasting, you need to implement roles and controls.”

Yesware founder and CEO Mathew Bellows

Matthew Bellows, co-founder of Yesware, an email provider for salespeople, agreed. “Don’t sell your product too soon. [That’s a] hard lesson for a salesperson like me to learn but our board was very clear that I shouldn’t start selling the product before the product was getting tons of in-bound interest.”

2: Do everything. This is easy because you’ll have to, but embrace this opportunity to get outside your comfort zone. ”Founders should do every role first before hiring someone to take it over. This helps me understand who I’m hiring, what they should be good at, what they should be doing and how to measure their success,” said David Mytton, founder of Server Density, a London-based provider of server monitoring services

Karl Wirth, co-founder of Apptegic, which helps companies tailor content shown to website users based on who they are and their activities, agrees. “For the first year and a half, I was our only salesperson.” This meant he learned how to cold call prospects, to cull the live ones. And to assess that person’s problem then work overtime to close the deal.”I knew sales would be important — I didn’t expect it to also shape and refine us so profoundly,” he said.

GrabCAD founder Hardi Meybaum.

Hardi Meybaum, co-founder and CEO of GrabCAD, an online marketplace for mechanical engineers, is all over this notion. “You are engineer, then product manager, then sales manager, then you’re raising money, then you hire smarter people than yourself to run product, engineering, sales, and marketing and then you need to lead by trust and great communication,” Meybaum said.

Apptegic founder Karl Wirth.

3: People are your biggest asset. Hire carefully. Mytton feels founders need to hold off on any new hires until things start hurting. “Hiring ahead of demand is the fastest way to burn through money,” he said. But, conversely, founders always need to look for new talent — perhaps for hiring down the road. “You should always be interviewing and always be hiring regardless of your headcount plan,” says Stackdriver co-founder Izzy Azeri. “It’s so hard to find good people and the founder is always the best recruiter.”

4: It’s all about the user, stupid. Ok, that’s harsh. But any startup or older company that loses its focus on the customer and solving a customer problem is toast.

“If you are genuinely helping people work more effectively, you will get pulled into companies,” said Yesware’s Bellows. “The days of selling to the IT department and the office of CIO are coming to an end. Frankly, the days of sales-and-markeing-driven companies are coming to an end.” So, talk to your users and perhaps more importantly, listen to your users.

Cloze co-founders Dan Foody (left) and Alex Cote.

5: Be prepared to fail. Expect it; it’s part of the gig. Dan Foody, co-founder of Cloze, the maker of an iOS app that consolidates a user’s mail and social media messages, said anyone in that line of work should heed Path CEO Dave Morin’s adage that the first version of any mobile app will fail.

Morin’s right, says Foody. ”The real reason is that Apple restricts developers to at most 100 beta test devices for any app. In today’s world that’s not nearly a large enough audience to refine an app (especially a consumer-focused one),” he said.

“You need hundreds to thousands of beta testers. How can you avoid this pitfall?  Build a web app first so you can learn the hard lessons up front with a wide audience without being restricted by platform and store limitations.”

That’s a good micro example, but generally speaking, failure is how we learn. So founders: be prepared to fail. It can be a badge of honor, especially if you learn from the experience.

When we’re searching for a soul mate, we look for someone that’s smart, funny, caring, all that stuff. But most of all? We look for someone that’s dependable. If we’re going to invest our lives in a person, we have to be able to depend on them, right?

Falling in love with a brand isn’t all that different. Brands lure us in with witty slogans and timely discounts, but it’s a brand’s dependability that makes us stick around. Think about it, inbound marketing is all about content and communication that people love. And love is rooted in lots of qualities, including consistency. Customers stay loyal to brands when they feel comfortable and in sync with them — it becomes a relationship. The key to being your leads’ and customers’ soul mate, then, is building a brand they can count on. 

But how? Sure, it may seem like that’s a job for the services and support team, but marketing plays a role in this too … because what’s at the heart of consistency is your brand’s message. All of your communications and marketing assets should tell your brand’s story. These 15 businesses do an excellent job of doing just that — keeping their brand alive, recognizable, and exactly in line with what their adoring audience expects, across all of their marketing assets.

1) GymIt

Fitness centers can be intimidating to the average person. GymIt gets it, and takes intimidation out of the equation by talking to its clientele like real people. The Boston-based gym calls itself “hassle-free” and keeps working out simple. One of the brand’s slogans is “Get In, Work Out” — clean, to-the-point, and clever. To prove that GymIt doesn’t cater to protein-shake, body builder types, its marketing doesn’t take itself too seriously, either. Below are some snapshots of GymIt’s playful copy across social media, merchandise, and their website.

2) Dropbox

The cloud-based file sharing platform, Dropbox, is great at consistent design and personalization across channels. You won’t find any Dropbox communication or platforms without their signature logo — an open, blue box that looks like it was sketched with colored pencil — nearby. This hand-drawn style is behind all of the brand’s designs, whether it’s a fun image on the homepage (top right) or a creative error page (top left). Dropbox’s email marketing aligns with that fun, personalized messaging. See the screenshot below of an email I got confirming my computer has been linked. See how they’ve lured me in with prizes if I read the guide? Well, it totally worked.

3) charity:water

This organization donates 100% of its donations to building water wells in Africa where women and children use yellow jerry cans to carry water back to their villages. charity:water’s logo is a stylized jerry can (bottom left) and not only keeps the branding present across channels, but keeps the issue the charity is helping solve top of mind, as well. While many traditional nonprofits stick to old-school marketing tactics, charity:water recognizes that in order to inspire people to support a cause, you need to have inspired marketing. The organization’s birthday campaign has attracted supporters like Will Smith and Justin Bieber (top left) which charity:water uses to show how nonprofits can be trendy, too. Other trendy events like the annual Charity Ball (bottom right) make this brand a leader in reinventing nonprofit marketing. 

4) Naked Pizza

Naked Pizza. Rawr ;-) But really, it’s a revealing name for an honest brand. This business offers healthier pizza than the average chain by using only all-natural ingredients and a crust packed with grains and probiotics. Naked Pizza’s promise of all-natural is enforced by its refreshing style and tone seen across its marketing assets. Like GymIt, Naked Pizza suggests it doesn’t take itself too seriously and that pizza can be guilt-free and fun. The brand is lovably sarcastic and keeps its design clean and appealing while communicating its delicious message.

5) Wells Fargo

You don’t have to use conversational tones or playful designs to be a lovable brand. Wells Fargo, a leading bank worldwide, keeps its messaging traditional and old-school. In a good way! The brand is committed to its core values, including ethics and putting customers first, and they communicate this consistently through font, colors, layout, and keeping their logo ever-present across channels. Their slogan “Together we’ll go far” inspires copy that is rooted in family and building relationships. 

6) World Wildlife Fund

This organization fights for a great cause with great marketing. The WWF’s style and imagery creates a mood across channels that forces you to reflect for a moment on how we treat our wildlife and ecosystems. Below are three examples of how the brand communicates that same strong message in creative, thought-provoking ways. Their logo, print ad, and interactive piece all have a darkness to them through suggestive messaging or tone because of how serious the issue is.

7) Warby Parker

Warby Parker “creates boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point.” The brand communicates this boutiquey vibe through all its promotions and marketing assets. For example, Warby Parker offers a luxurious touch to prospective customers by sending 5 pairs of glasses to try on for free (top left). Attention to style is also evident across channels: their website (bottom left) is clean and easy to navigate. Even their annual report (bottom right) feels “classically crafted.” The brand calls its style “vintage,” and their Citizen’s Circus event at SXSW in 2012 was dripping with vintage touches from signage to tents. 

8) Lush

The international handmade cosmetics company, Lush, believes in “making effective products from fresh organic fruits and vegetables,” and in “happy people making happy soap.” Lush stores, products, packaging, and employees (top right) all tell that story.

Their commitment to natural, organic ingredients is totally aligned with how they display their products (bottom left); Lush’s soaps, powders, and shampoos sit in their raw form in-store until the cashier wraps the product up once it’s purchased. Foregoing packaging oozes a natural vibe. Products that require packaging, like their face masks (top left), don’t hide the ingredients listing and encourage customers to recycle after use. All packaging also has a sticker on it with the face and name of the employee who packed it. Every piece of marketing collateral at Lush has a personal, no-frills approach. 

9) Boloco

Boston-based burrito company Boloco pays attention to consistency in detail in its online and offline marketing. The brand’s slogan is ‘inspired burritos’ and their menus, flyers, napkins, events, website and other collateral all have a playful, hand-made touch that suggests their business is fueled by more than tortillas and guacamole. Boloco partnered with Life is Good by making a yummy Life is Good burrito with 50 cents of each purchase donated to the company’s charity, Life is Good Playmakers (top right); this partnership fits with Boloco’s inspired brand perfectly. Being Boston local, Boloco keeps its marketing materials true to the region with their Boston landmark inspired gift cards (bottom left). And the company’s mobile app (right), keeps branding present by using their playful signature font. No matter the marketing channel, we go loco for Boloco’s consistency. 

10) Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts promotes its brand throughout the city and under its own roof with such finesse in their execution, that the brand’s presence is always incredibly recognizable, yet still subtle. All MFA Boston marketing assets are easy to connect to the source. The brand sticks to a two or three tone color palette on all collateral, with red being the MFA’s signature color. Below are examples of their use of color, as well as their consistently minimalist design on an employee’s apron, outdoor banners, their website, and a brochure. With a museum full of colorful exhibitions and impressive canvases, the MFA keeps its own branding simple but strong.

11) Intercom

Intercom is a web-based customer service platform. “Treating customers with respect will always be good for business,” they say. “And we believe that making customers jump through hoops to try to get help is incredibly disrespectful.” Looking at Intercom’s various forms of communication and marketing tactics, it’s visually apparent how much they don’t want their customers to “jump through hoops.” The brand presents information in a clear, comprehensive way by using imagery instead of written explanations. After all, a picture says a thousand words. Intercom introduces its company with photos (top right), communicates its contact information with maps (bottom left), suggests the ease of the interface with screenshots (top right), and compliments blog content with valuable graphs and design (bottom right). Enticing me with visuals definitely takes hoops out of the equation.

12) Innocent Drinks

Innocent Drinks is a playful smoothie and juice brand from England that keeps its innocent reputation strong with marketing that will make you feel like a kid again. Their meta description reads: “hello, we’re innocent and we’re here to make it easy for people to do themselves some good (whilst making it taste nice too).” How cute is that? Below are examples of more lovable approaches to branding like their Facebook game (top left), product images (bottom left), and inventive website navigation for the brand’s annual event, Fruitstock. Innocent Drinks stays true to its personality in its tone and creative execution.

13) Zendesk

Zendesk is a cloud-based customer service software system that has built a charming brand through a funny mascot and sleek, bright design. An unusually jolly buddha is the company’s friendly icon, found on marketing assets from billboards (top right) to the website (top left). Why buddha? Well, being “zen” means you’re at peace, and buddhas embody that feeling. It’s important to communicate a consistent brand image to the world, but Zendesk recognizes that consistency comes from within as well. Their office has a large mural of the happy buddha on the wall (bottom) to keep the feeling strong within company walls, as well as outside. The brand’s signature green is used consistently across channels and compliments the uplifting buddha character.  

14) Lululemon Athletica

Sportswear brands often promise that their products will make you a better athlete, but the process and hard work it takes to get there is sometimes forgotten. Lululemon Athletica, a yoga and sportswear brand, keeps the act of working out alive across its assets. The brand hosts free yoga classes in its stores, as well as public outdoor classes. Their confirmation email (top left) for joining their mailing list is a large image of a woman doing yoga, and the brand’s Twitter profile (top right) displays yoga mats waiting to be rolled out. The brand designs yoga clothing and gear, so why skip to the gratification of doing it when you can cultivate a feeling around the process? 

15) ZocDoc

ZocDoc is an online service for finding and booking appointments with physicians in your area. The brand aims to improve access to healthcare, and they communicate the ease of their process with cartoon mascots across all their marketing communication channels. After all, cartoons make us feel like a kid again, and boy, were things easy when we were kids. See ZocDoc’s charming spokesman below on Twitter, Facebook, and on the website’s personal account page. 

Now that’s soul mate material, right? A lot of these brands use playful creative and conversational tones, while others prefer more serious, thought-provoking approaches. Whatever the tone, be sure to keep it consistent across all channels to give your customers a brand they can count on.