If I am doing my job, everything a client does that their customers and prospects see should be an echo of everything else…a consistent message, a consistent look, and a consistent voice.

Echoes say the same thing. Think of it. When you stand at the edge of a canyon and yell, “Hello!” what comes back? Gibberish? Of course not! You yell, “Hello!” and a bunch of “Hellos” come back to you. So when we do branding, we don’t have dozens of confusing messages… that turns into marketing gibberish.

That doesn’t mean, of course, everything we produce in the world of branding, marketing, and advertising is exactly the same. My usefulness would expire pretty quickly if that were the case. But in the world of echoes, some are loud and clear while others are distant and soft…but they are still echoes. All of your messages, regardless of media, should echo each other, either loudly or softly, but echoes none-the-less.

Echoes have the same voice. Your business should have a “voice” that comes through on your website, social media, advertising, collateral, even in-store signage. That “voice” is a very subtle but important part of your long-term branding and can be difficult to achieve, and is frequently overlooked. That’s why it’s a good idea to find a good writer to write most of your stuff. Different writers typically write with different voices…unless they are really top professionals who can copy the voice of another writer.

Businesses who bid out their work to different writers for different projects are making a mistake. Find a good writer. Use him or her for most everything you do. It’s another way to make the “echo” factor work for you. In most cases, the same thinking applies to graphic designers. They all have a unique style or look. And the longer they work for you, the more they become part of your “look.” They can make subtle or major changes without compromising your brand look. As with writers, why would you keep changing artists? Marketing gibberish.

Remember the echo factor. It will help keep you on track.

I have worked with a similar phenomena in a healthcare network. Each department wanted its own logo and branding, which hurt the greater, and more important, effort of branding the organization as a whole.

It can happen to almost any company or organization. So, it’s very important for some individual to have responsibility for keeping all marketing and branding efforts pulling together.

Since my primary role for my small business clients is brand development and brand management, I have always emphasized the look as well as the content of a website. Saying the right things in the context of nice design is extremely important to me for any marketing communications including websites. So when I found Elegant WordPress Themes, it was love at first sight. That is, I knew that I could now do the websites I wanted to do using a premier theme.

Let me rewind just for a moment. WordPress is an awesome platform for a website. To use home construction analogy, it is the solid foundation for the home. A WordPress theme adds the walls and the rest of the structure so that you can then add the paint, flooring, and decor to make it yours. A good premiere WordPress theme is an excellent way for a non-techie to pull together an outstanding website.

A word of caution. DO NOT use a free theme. There is accountability that goes along with producing premium themes that will serve you well. Plus, technical support is usually available and is often needed.

I first learned about Elegant WordPress Themes during some online WordPress training I took through VAClassroom.com. There are some very good professional WordPress theme developers including Woo Themes, Studio Press, Elegant Themes and others. No doubt they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Studio Press, for example, prides itself on its Genesis Framework. And, from what I can tell, it could very well be the best out there. If I become dissatisfied with Elegant Themes for some reason, or if they fail to meet a theme need that I have , Studio Press or possibly Woo Themes will most likely get my business.

The use of WordPress themes does not mean simple drag and drop site building. Be prepared to spend some time learning about WordPress and the nuances of your premium theme provider of choice. One good reason for staying with one line of WordPress themes is that all of their themes have similarities, and you will be in familiar territory for each new site, no matter the specific theme.

The major Plus of Elegant WordPress Themes is in the name.

What I really like about Elegant Themes is pretty straightforward: they are elegant. They have a designer’s touch… and that is extremely important to me, considering that I’m in the branding business and not the business of generating websites. It’s also nice that they are very reasonably priced. If you are responsible for building numerous websites, you can join Elegant Themes and access all of their themes for a very nominal yearly fee.

The weaknesses of Elegant WordPress Themes

• There are “bugs” that you will have to work out through the tech support forums. Each theme has its own forum. It would be nice if everything would go together as it should, but so far that hasn’t happened for me. You most likely will have to deal with the support group to get the site to do everything its supposed to do.
• You will still have to modify some code to get everything exactly the way you want it. My biggest pet peeve is that I have to change the footer code to change the footer information. I wish they had a user friendly way to do that on their Professional Theme Options panel. It would be a welcome upgrade because everyone wants to change the footer. Good news is that the support people are cool and very helpful.

So far, the strengths far outweigh the minor problems. Elegant WordPress Themes are not for everyone or every project. But for most small businesses that want a certain measure of elegance in their branding, they will be very hard to beat.

I have preached that all websites have three major (and separate) components: 1) Content, 2) Design and 3) Technical. A good site needs all three to be done well. However, keeping fresh and relevant content on a site is so important these days, that content management became a necessity. No longer could we wait for the “web guy” to update our site. But content management systems allowing non-web people to make changes were pricey and out of the reach of many small businesses.

I’m not sure of the history, but somewhere along the line, people decided that WordPress, although designed for bloggers, would make a suitable content management system. In other words, if you sold widgets and weren’t interested in a blog, you could build your site using WordPress and just not use the blog feature. Eventually, web designers started picking up on this and WordPress has become an industry standard for web construction.

Nevertheless, WordPress still seemed rather “techie” for me, at least in the beginning. Just downloading it seemed liked more than I wanted to tackle. Remember, I’m the creative type and the tech side of things has never been a strength or an interest.

But I’m here to tell you, WordPress is absolutely awesome. They have made many changes just in the past few years, and now it is relatively “user friendly.” It isn’t as easy as drag and drop, and it isn’t “idiot proof,” but it is very doable for the average non-techie creative person like me if you are willing to invest some time in learning how to work with it.

Like all software of all time, my abilities just scratch the surface of what can actually be done. Even Word, which I’ve used since the beginning, I only have a limited knowledge base…just enough to do what I need to do. It is way more powerful of a program than I have ever experienced. The same with WordPress.

It wasn’t long ago that I firmly believed that the technical part of building a website had to be left to the technical gurus. And although, believe me, we still need the tech wizards, WordPress allows those of us who are more into content and branding to actually build websites without knowing (or caring about) HTML code. Yes, there is still some coding that one needs to know to do highly customized designs, even on WordPress, and there are many people out there who can do it…but now… now we (the creatives and branders) can at least get in the game. Instead of the tech people having to do everything, we can build it, brand it, and get their help as needed.

There are thousands of premium WordPress themes available… the only way to go unless you are one of those tech people. You can find one that will accommodate almost anything you want to do. And don’t listen to those who will tell you that to use a WordPress “template” or “theme” looks cheesy. That is absolutely not true anymore.

WordPress and a premium theme are somewhat analogous to the foundation and structure of a new house. You get to pick the flooring and paint and decorate it the way you want, but you can’t change the floor plan. If you want something extraordinary in your house, you will have to custom build it. Same with a website. If you need an extremely custom site for some reason, you will have to have it custom built. And, like the house, you will pay for it. But there are very few small businesses that need that much customization. In fact, a lot of very sophisticated web developers are using WordPress.

I’m referring, of course, to WordPress.org not WordPress.com. If you want a blog  without any commercial interest at all, WordPress.com is probably the way to go. I have a personal blog on a WordPress.com site… it really is virtually idiot proof. However, there are many commercial limitations, so if you are going to build a site for a business, then I strongly recommend WordPress.org. It is FREE software. It will be very helpful  if you use a web host that is WordPress friendly (Bluehost, HostGator are two examples).

For now, just let me say that I am a former skeptic who now really, really endorses WordPress. In a future post, I’ll talk about my choice of themes.