In this article and accompanying videos, I’m going to walk you through how to get free logo design, upload the logos onto your landing page, upload the logos onto your website, and create your first social media banners with your logo.
This is Part 2 in our Guide to Starting Your Business Online. If you haven’t already, you should strongly consider viewing Part 1 of the series before continuing on.
If you’re this far in the series, you already know:
- How to buy a Google domain
- How to set up a Bluehost account
- How to launch a WordPress site
- How to create an Instapage landing page
- How to pass the landing page to your WordPress account
- How to make the website live
Strong work. That’s a lot to get done in one session.
Now we’re going to attack logo design and social media branding.
What is a logo?
According to Marty Neumeier in his book, The Brand Gap, a logo(trademark) is, “a name and/or symbol that indicates a source of goods or services and prevents confusion in the marketplace; a legally predictable form of intellectual property.”
More generally speaking, a logo is what you’re going to use on your website, social media accounts, and content to let people know who is responsible for the site, account or content.
Why do you need a logo?
- You want people to know who you are
- Create a visual representation of your business for people
This may seem obvious, but making it easier for people to recognize your work, allows you to capture mindshare and recognition for your efforts.
What is social media branding?
Social media branding is the conscious development cultivation of the feeling viewers associate with your social media profiles and your business.
Huh?
It’s actually straightforward. Just ask yourself the following questions.
- Who is are you trying to serve?
- What is the purpose of your social media accounts?
- What does success look like?
Use those answers to decide how you begin branding your business on social media. Pay special attention to the tone, voice, image filters, and target audience.
Why do you need it?
Consistency in the presentation of your content is critical in developing trust. As shown by recent research published by Che et al, trust plays an integral role in purchasing decisions.
What we’re going to cover in the article:
- How to create a free logo and favicon with Hatchful
- How to add your logo & favicon to an Instapage landing page
- How to upload all of your logos to your WordPress site
- How to upload your logos into Canva
- How to create your social media banners and headers using Canva
Let’s get to it…..
How to create a free logo
The fastest, easiest, and free-est option I have found for free logo design is Hatchful. There are plenty of other options out there, like Tailor Brands, Canva, Emblem.io, and dozens of others.
Hatchful has the least spammy user experience. The site also doesn’t attempt to deceive you and ask you for payment after you’ve created the design, as many other sites will.
So, how do we actually make the logo with Hatchful?
It’s incredibly easy. Here are the steps:
- Go to hatchful.shopify.com
- Click the big blue “Get Started” button
- Choose up to 3 business sector in which your business operates (ex: fashion)
- Click the big blue “Next” button at the top right part of the page
- Choose up to 3 options for the visual style you want to represent your business
- Click the big blue “Next” button at the top right part of the page
- Add your business name and slogan (slogan is optional)
- Click the big blue “Next” button at the top right part of the page
- Select what you want to put your logo on (ex: social media, business cards)
- Click the big blue “Next” button at the top right part of the page
- Click on the design you like most
- Change name and slogan if necessary
- Click on “Fonts” in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen
- Select the font you like most
- Click on “Colors” in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen
- Select the color you like most
- Click on “Layouts” in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen
- Select the layout you like most, black or white
- Click the big blue “Next” button at the top right part of the page
- Click the big blue “Download” button in the middle of the page
- Enter the email where you would like all the free logo designs sent
- Click the big blue “Download Logo” button in the modal
- All of the logos you selected will be delivered in a zip file to the email address you entered
You’re done… Celebrate! You just made the logo for your business!
Now that you’ve celebrated, it’s time to move on to the next step. Let’s add your logo to your landing page.
How to add a logo to your Instapage landing page
In Part 1 of this series we created an Instapage account and made our first landing page. In this step, we’re going to take the logos we just made and upload them to our landing page.
Here are the steps you need to take to accomplish this task:
1. Go to instapage.com & login
2. Select your landing page on the dashboard
3. Once your landing page loads, click the current logo and select “Change Image”
4. Open your email from Hatchful with your logos and attached download the file (These are your brand assets)
5. Extract the logo design files from the .zip file
6. For importing the files into Instapage, you have a few choices
- Drag and drop the files into the browser with Instapage open
- Click on the big blue “Import” button at the top right of the “Images” modal and select the files from your computer OR place the files online somewhere and enter the URL
7. Import 2 files into Instapage
- logo_transparent.png
- favicon.png
8. Roll your mouse over the logo_transparent.png image and click “Insert”
9. Adjust the logo image cropping until the entire logo is visible
10. Click “Done”
11. Now click on the “Settings” button and select “SEO” from the drop-down menu
12. On the far right, under the label “Favicon” click “Upload Icon”
13. Roll your mouse over the favicon.png image and click “Insert”
14. Check that both images are uploaded
15. Click anywhere on your landing page to exit the SEO menu
16. Press the big yellow “Update” button at the top right of the page
Congrats, AGAIN! You finished another step and you are now closer to having a completed website with cohesive branding across your website and social media!
Now let’s move on to the step in the process and upload your logos to your WordPress website.
How to upload your logos to your WordPress site
- Go to your WordPress website URL with ‘/wp-admin/’ added to the end. (ex: yourwebsite.com/wp-admin) This will take you to a sign-in screen.
- Enter your Username or email address and your password and press “Log In”
- Click “Instapage” in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen
- Select the “Add Page” tab
- Under the “Add Page” tab, set “Landing Page” selector to the name of your Instapage landing page
- Set the “Page Type” selector to “Landing Page” or “Home Page”
- If you set the “Page Type” to “Landing Page” you’ll need to set the URL ending for the landing page address (ex: yourwebsite.com/landing)
- Press the big blue “Publish” button at the bottom left of the “Add Page” tab
- When the page reloads, you should be under the “List Pages” tab. Click on your landing page URL.
- After your landing page loads, check that your logo and favicon were updated with your new logo designs
- Click “Media” in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen
- Once the page loads, drag and drop your logo.png, logo_transparent.png, and favicon.png into the browser screen. This will take a minute or two to load.
You’ve completed another hurtle! Congratulations!
And…
We’re on to the next step.
How to create your social media banners and headers with Canva
- Go to canva.com
- Create an account or sign-in
- Type “Youtube channel art” in the search bar near the top of the page
- Select the template you like the most
- Click “Use This Template”
- Select “Uploads” in the navigation bar on the left of the page
- Press “Upload Image” and find your logo_transparent.png, logo.png, and any other logos from the Hatchful files you’d like to use
- Edit the background image as necessary
- Edit text boxes and text as necessary
- Edit colors and filters as necessary
- Edit elements as necessary
- Press the download button at top of the screen next to the “Publish” button
- Select PNG as the file type and press “Download”
- After the download has completed, press resize at the top left of the page
- Select Facebook Cover, Twitter Header, LinkedIn Banner, and any other sizes you think you might need
- Each size image will likely require some minor adjustments, so make the necessary adjustments and then download each
Review
If you followed along and finished these tasks, great job! If not, at least now you have an idea of what you need to do.
In this, Part 2, of our Guide to Starting Your Business Online, we covered several steps needed to build consistent visual branding across social media and your website.
In Part 3 of Guide to Starting Your Business Online we’ll tackle the implementation and use of Hotjar to better understand what people want from your site.
THANK YOU for reading and until next time, keep hustling!
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4 comments
Hey Mike,
I was looking for a free tool to make an impressive logo for my website. Thanks for sharing this amazing tool along with a step-by-step process. I will surely try it.