The characteristics you should be after:

• Simple - Follow solid basic design principles, such as proportion and symmetry, coherent fonts and matching colors​
• Versatile - Your logo will eventually end up on different mediums, and it must work well in all kinds of situations
• Relevant - Represent the company
• Memorable - Be unique

If you follow these principles, people should be able to look at your logo from a distance and know which company it's from. The best trademarks end up cemented into the minds of individuals worldwide.

Some examples of great logos:

• Twitter - the small flying blue bird makes an instinctive correlation to tweeting
  
  
• Mini - the mini "wings" logo is simple and easily recognizable
  
  
• Canon - the font of the logo simple and is tweaked with only a slight tilt
  
  

It is very important to remember that your logo should be consistently displayed wherever your company promotes itself.

• Web Fonts - E.g. At SSW we use Open Sans
• Print Fonts - E.g. At SSW we use Segoe UI
• Websites
  View SSW Web References as an example of good branding instructions for websites
  
• Newsletters
  
• Email signatures
  
• Business Cards
• Flyers, catalogues and other promotional printing
  
• Products
• Office façade and interior decor
  
• Events
• Documents, invoices and proposals
  
• Employees
  
• Cars
  
• Others, like coffee mugs, plastic bags etc
  

You should help designers to find stuff in your Intranet:

Figure: Good Example - Keep things together in your Intranet

Figure: Good Example - Although​ the SSW logo was completely redesigned, you can easily recognize it's the same company because the logo concept didn't change

Long Signature

Use the complete "long signature" when sending a new email to a client.

This is created in HTML and goes well on emails with Word used as the email editor. Include some product advertising and rotate on a monthly basis to coincide with what's on your homepage and monthly newsletter. It should have the com pany colors somewhere.

Figure: A great long signature

Short Signature

Use the "short signature" when replying to a client's email. 

It just includes your name, phone number and URL. 

Mobile Signature

Use the "mobile signature" when using you iPhone/Windows Phone/Android.

When you send emails via mobile, always include the "Sent from my iPhone/BlackBerry/Mobile Device" signature.

This means the recipient of the email knows you are writing on the fly and won't be as upset if you make little spelling mistakes or use acronyms.

Figure: Let people know you are using a mobile device. You hope they will be more forgiving of minor typo's or acronyms.

No Signature

Use a really short signature (your first name or initials) or no signature at all in internal emails as people already know who you are.

Note #1: Use the short signature as your default in Outlook Web Access.
Note #2: You can see Ulysses using this rule in practice, along with other best practices, on this short demonstration video.

More Information

How to set it up in Outlook

1. Open Microsoft Outlook and go File | Options
2. Click the "Mail" tab as seen below
3. Click on "Signatures..." and add in your signatures

Figure: How to add a signature in Outlook

How to set it up in OWA

1. Open OWA (e.g. http://mail.northwind.com/owa)
2. Click "Options" on the top right side.
   
3. Go Settings | Mail and make following changes:
   

Figure: Add your 'E-Mail Signature' and save

Warning: Unfortunately you need to setup up your signature in Outlook and OWA. There is no way to share this. 

Tip: You can automatically have your Outlook signature changed on sign-in via a script. ​See https://github.com/SSWConsulting/LoginScript.

​Here are some of the basics of our software:

• Company logo on footer and credits
• Product logo on top of main screens (the different software and products logos should be consistent with each other)
• Consistent colors and fonts throughout the whole application

​The setup and software icon for your applications should also be branded.​

If you have many products, keep them consistent.​​

Figure: Good Example - Consistent product logos

What this highlights is a company's ability to successfully partner their brand with events that their target market either attend or watch. Though on a much smaller scale, every business should apply this same principle. So we say if you're going to hold any events that are geared towards your target market - like a user group, make sure there's some branding at the event. Here are some examples of how we brand our user group:

• You should have a promotional sign
• Any presentations should use a standard template
• You should use branded plastic bags
• Evaluation forms should have clear branding

When it comes to branding events, you need to remember that it's often the little things that make the biggest difference. That evaluation form or gift bag that you gave out to someone at one of your events could land in the hands of one of your biggest clients in the future, so be diligent and consistent.​

​​​To get more cars, you can reward employees to brand their personal cars.​​

​​

​​​      Figure: ​​​​Bad Example​​ as the car looks bad

      Figure: Good Example​​​​​ - cool car

​​​​​​​​

Figure: Good Example - Uly wearing the SSW shirt

Where ever your employees gather in large numbers, ensure they come branded.

​​​

Figure: SSW plastic bag 

It's recommended that you use a standard message like this:

"Hi, you've reached Adam Cogan from SSW. If you can leave your name, number and a short message I'll get back to you as soon as I can, thanks!"

Here's an example of how it should sound.​

Give your clients branded Travel Mugs and Sports Water Bottles as a way of saying thanks to our clients for engaging our services. We also use them for ourselves in the office to protect our own computers. The minimal outlay for these items can literally save you thousands and could potentially start earning you money too.

Figure: Use the "Link" button in your profile "edit mode" to include the URLs for the main services your provide

​

Figure: Bad example - Profile with no links

Figure: Good example - Profile with links to main services provided