Brand Secrets Revealed: Web Design, PR, and the User Experience

Jeffro (00:03.867)
Welcome back to Digital Dominance. Today, we’re diving into the intersection of branding, web experience, and PR. And why getting all three right is critical for businesses who are looking to stand out and stay relevant. My guest is Mike Falco, CEO of Meritus Media, a branding and digital marketing expert with a background in fine art and design, which is pretty cool. Over the years, Mike has worked on high profile campaigns for major brands, designing everything from movie posters and sports catalogs to large scale advertising and editorial publications.

He now helps businesses build strong brand identities, optimize their web presence, and leverage PR for visibility and credibility. So today we’re going to be unpacking why great design isn’t just about aesthetics, how PR fits into your digital strategy, and how to create a web experience that actually converts customers. It’s a lot of stuff, but I think we’ll have fun. Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Falkow (00:51.352)
Thanks, thanks for having me.

Jeffro (00:53.285)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, a lot of businesses treat branding, web design, and PR as separate things, but I know you see them as deeply connected. So can you explain how they work together and why businesses might want to think holistically about their digital presence with all these things?

Mike Falkow (01:08.95)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like you say, a lot of companies or brands tend to think of them in silos. And, you know, you’ve got like, your logo over here, and then your messaging over here. And then you have, you know, a media relations person over here, and it’s all very kind of siloed out, but it all starts with branding. And so it should all be a consistent message, and it should all be cohesive, and it should all be a consistent front facing thing to your audience really, because the way that you communicate to your audience should be consistent and it should be in line with the messaging and the core values of the brand, whether it’s design, whether it’s a press release, you know, all of the above, they should all be working hand in hand.

Jeffro (01:58.502)
Yeah, because it can cause a of a disjointed feeling when you’re a customer and you’re interacting with a brand. But then this kind of feels like a curve ball if it doesn’t match with what you’re seeing over here.

Mike Falkow (02:11.232)
Yeah, it’s, you know, to give you an example of a design thing, right? So if you look at any piece of art, and there’s something just a little bit off, like a line is slightly not straight, or whatever the case may be, right? Now, as a a viewer, you might not put your finger on exactly what it is that’s causing that emotional reaction in you that but it’s just slightly out of alignment, slightly out of agreement with the rest of the piece.

In a similar way, you could have a social media team working on, you know, the social media strategy, but they then the left hand’s not talking to the right hand. So you don’t have like a, any kind of branding Bible or anything informing the social media team. And so it’s a little bit more of a, a bigger scale, but it’s the same concept where there’s that line is just slightly off. And from an audience perspective, You look at it and you go, like, I don’t know quite what it is that doesn’t resonate with me, but it’s something right. And it might be so deeply subconscious that they don’t even know, but then they just kind of move on to the next thing. But if you, if you look at the great brands that are working all of these departments together, whether it’s design PR or anything, all of the above, right. There’s a very clear communication. And it all starts with the branding, like I said.

Jeffro (03:40.901)
So you mentioned a brand Bible and obviously that’s a helpful starting point so people know colors, the feel and the tone of the brand and things like that. But I would imagine you need kind of something a little bit more than that to make sure it stays consistent, especially if we are talking about the PR team versus the graphic design team and stuff. in your experience, what’s kind of the secret to creating a brand identity that actually stays consistent and resonates with people?

Mike Falkow (04:08.606)
Yeah, well, consistency really comes down to your guidelines, right? So that’s your rules going forward of like, okay, don’t use these kinds of images, use these kinds of images, don’t use this, you know, typeface, etc. And then, but it, it’s a lot more holistic for an actual brand Bible versus just like a logo guidelines book or something. You know, you could have like a two or three page document that goes like, don’t use these colors, use this typeface and don’t have like clutter around this amount of space around your logo. That’s your very baseline guidelines for a logo. then from a branding Bible perspective, that’s where it really gets into like, these are the core values of this brand. This is what we’re trying to communicate outward to the audience. And, and so that’s where it starts to really get into the the minutia of how do we communicate? What is it? What is our message? And that then filters into the kinds of images you pick, the kinds of, you know, your color palette and all the rest. And that’s where like, consistency equals trust, right? So because it equates to competence, it equates to reliability, all of these things that we have stacked in our mind of if something is consistent, it equals this and so if it’s slightly not consistent, then you go not even consciously like they’re obviously not reliable, you know, some version of that. Right. So as long as it’s all in line with itself and in agreement with itself, then you can communicate outwards.

Jeffro (05:51.232)
So yeah, get as detailed as possible in those branding guidelines and that’s going to serve you pretty well. I can imagine in some scenarios though, you might want a person to be the one to bless it, but that also at the same time creates a bottleneck. So when would you think that would be appropriate to have someone sitting there like the Kevin Feige of your business saying, yes, this is good or no, we can’t do it that way.

Mike Falkow (06:14.23)
Well, I mean, there’s two schools of thought on that, right? There’s, there’s a decision by committee and then hiring people who are good at their jobs to do their job. So at some point you have to trust that if you have a design professional or a branding professional that they do know what they’re doing. And obviously it’s going to go back and forth and there’s going to be notes and there’s going to be suggestions and whatnot in the actual creation process. But at some point someone does have to make a decision.

Jeffro (06:23.747)
Yeah.

Mike Falkow (06:42.862)
And unless you like a Samsung or one of these big corporations that only do decisions by committee and then, you know, you’re adding months and months to your actual process.

Jeffro (06:55.972)
probably not worth it for most small businesses. All right, well, let’s move on to talking about the website specifically. So with this in mind, you you want to define your brand and your guidelines and everything. I think most business owners know they need a website, but they don’t think much about the actual experience of using it. And so this, of course, can be informed by the branding guidelines, what you want people to feel, the type of tone, but if you didn’t, you know, think about that when you gave your info to the graphic designer, that’s not going to come through. So what are some of the biggest mistakes you see businesses making? with their web design.

Mike Falkow (07:27.086)
Well, I, the thing that I see a lot is that not a lot of thought went into the reverse point of view. So it, and, this, this happens a lot in marketing and advertising as well, which is like, we are this and we are this, and this is what we do. there are, and it’s like, it’s all talking about yourself. And it doesn’t for a minute take into consideration the audience’s point of view where it is like, you know, when when you’re on a sales call, the two biggest questions you should ask are what are your problems? What are your goals? And how’s that going for you, right? So then you can understand how you fit into the the the predicament that this person is in. So similarly, with the web experience, you have to stop and take a look at the reverse point of view of like, what, what is this experience like for a viewer for for a user like you know, you know, have you ever done any painting? So you know, that thing of like, you think you’re finished, but then you got to walk away and then look at it fresh again. It’s a similar concept, right? You have to look at it from a new set of eyes and you have to almost survey it to some degree and go, let’s try and punch holes in this. Let’s try and red team it a little bit and see where the flaws are.

Jeffro (08:31.778)
Yeah

Mike Falkow (08:51.224)
that would stop this customer journey getting to where we want them to go. Like ultimately we want them to either get to a contact form. We want them to buy a product, whatever it is, right? But if there’s a, longer the runway to that, the more opportunities there are to fail. And if you haven’t taken into account what the person is experiencing on the other end, then you’re just going to be going, Hey, Hey, this is what I have to say. This is what I have to say. And then you don’t for a moment, consider what they might be experiencing or thinking.

Jeffro (09:24.416)
Yeah, and in your experience, what’s the best way to do that? should you do a focus group? Because sometimes we’re in our own heads. We think we might know our customer, but maybe we have something wrong. So how do we validate what we’re thinking and doing with reality?

Mike Falkow (09:43.682)
Well, there’s a couple of ways to do that. One, you know, if you’re a, if you’re a one person operation, you could always call a friend and just go, Hey, what do you think of this? And don’t give them any instructions. Just see, see how their, experiences is like, I got stuck on this about page and then I got irritated and I closed the website. Like that’s, that’s worth taking note. Right. or you, you could get a group of people and do like a mini survey and go, what’s, what’s the biggest thing that’s common amongst all of these people that they have a gripe about. And so you can sort of start to gather information that way. There’s another way to do it, which is, and this is where SEO comes into play, where if you’re not taking into account what people are actually searching for, and if you’re not taking into account any kind of audience listening tool, to see what the sentiment is and what the subjects are that they’re actually interested in surrounding the services and products that you’re providing, then you might be missing the boat a little bit because those tools provide invaluable information. Like they could provide something that you wouldn’t think of otherwise. Like you say, you know, we think we know our audience. We think we know our products and services, but I’ll give you almost a silly example. There’s a company that makes rifle scopes, right? And so we did an audience listening project for them. And it turns out that there was a whole market of birdwatchers who loved their products and they had no idea. And so they were missing this giant segment of the market, which was to promote to these birdwatchers because they have a good product that has nothing to do with rifles that these people like. It’s just the quality of the scope was something along those lines. Right? So it could open up a whole new avenue of communication to your audience.

Jeffro (11:40.161)
That’s fascinating and that’s a great example. that also kind of reminded me of another topic we brought up like PR, right? Because that’s a way to get in front of a lot of different people and new people. But I think a lot of smaller businesses and service businesses think that PR is just for big brands because we might default to thinking of like publicity stunts, which is not the only form of PR. But you you argue that every business can benefit from PR. So what are some strategies that a small business can use to boost their credibility and attract clients with PR?

Mike Falkow (12:10.38)
Yeah. Well, I mean, PR breaks down into multiple disciplines. Really this media relations, there’s, you know, publicity is, you know, all kinds, there’s all versions of that. Right. So, a small business writing a blog, for example, like keeping your website updated, posting, articles on your LinkedIn newsletter, like things like that, that sort of blur the line between digital marketing and PR because if you look at PR, it’s it’s relations with the public, it’s public relations. And so you’re communicating out and it’s really about making good works well known. That’s really the the baseline definition of PR, right? So so you can you can let that be known of like, hey, we’re doing cool stuff, we have useful information. And like if you’re a supplements company, and you’re like, talking about the health benefits of going for a run in the morning.

Like that’s useful on a Facebook page or a LinkedIn article or something like that. And then all falls under the category of PR.

Jeffro (13:15.53)
Yeah. Well, and another thing to consider in today’s digital economy is that stuff lives a lot longer than it used to. So if you did an event, it was more of a flash in the pan. Maybe it ran in the newspaper and then people forgot about it a week later. But now you can publish a blog post that stays up for years or a video that gets traffic on YouTube for a long time. And so that kind of can inform your PR efforts and the content marketing efforts for long-term growth as opposed to just little stuff here and there.

Mike Falkow (13:45.484)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you do an event and 50 people show up. That’s 50 people that you reach. You do a YouTube video that reaches a thousand people, you know, in beans for beans.

Jeffro (13:57.844)
Well, why wouldn’t you, right? If you’re putting in the same amount of effort, might as well get the long-term return on that effort.

Mike Falkow (14:06.196)
Yeah, that’s right. Exactly. That’s exactly right. So with, with all of these opportunities and platforms, podcasts, you know, this is a great example. Like, let’s be honest, I’m doing this because I want to get in front of people who I wouldn’t be in front of otherwise, aside from wanting to have an interesting conversation with a new friend in you, right? So networking and getting in front of people like that, that all counts. That’s all under that same category, right? So

Jeffro (14:33.94)
Yeah, and I think, go ahead.

Mike Falkow (14:34.954)
Like if you’re a small company and you do flowers, like do a podcast about flowers. Why not? That’s going to live forever on the internet.

Jeffro (14:44.104)
Yeah, and I was just going to tie this back to the whole brand Bible approach, because once you’ve defined what you’re about and what you want to be known for, how you interact with the world, that can inform the type of content you create. I think a lot of people just are trying to hop on trends and stuff to go viral, but that’s not really serving you, especially not in the long term if you don’t know what your core is. But if you understand that, then that’s going to say, okay, well, if I want to do this, then I should make this type of video or this type of blog post, et cetera.

Mike Falkow (15:12.406)
Yeah, and that goes back to leading leading versus following, right? If you if you’re always chasing trends. I mean, there’s something to be said for news jacking, which is a PR tactic where you go, okay, so this thing is happening in the news or like this this national day and somehow ties with us. So we can sort of news jack that and do a press release about that. That’s worthwhile doing. But if you really understand your core values as a brand and what your messaging is, and you have some kind of messaging architecture that you go, okay, this is, this is how we are communicating broadly with the public. Then hashtags and trends are irrelevant. Like you, you stay on course, you go, we, do this one thing and we do it well. And here’s an example of it and here’s some useful and you just keep doing that. And the people who are interested in those things will find you.

Jeffro (16:02.335)
So here’s a question for small business owners who maybe don’t have a big budget, but they want to do some PR and there’s a whole range of options out there in terms of professional branding and PR agencies that can be really expensive versus the freelancers doing it over here. How do you gauge the level of quality or who knows what they’re actually doing so that you will see a positive ROI or at least, know, benefit to your branding that you won’t have to go back later and redo everything.

Mike Falkow (16:31.766)
Yeah, well, in terms of branding, I think it’s it’s worth being introspective about it and going, does this does this brand represents what we provide, whether it be a service or a product, right? And so look at that and go, could it be improved? Okay, can we afford a big agency? That’s a yes or no question, right?

do we have an in-house designer? Can we, can we work on this in the sidelines or in the wings? Like as we continue our day-to-day business, that there’s a lot of things that can be done. And obviously doing something is better than doing nothing. Same goes for like, you know, there’s, there’s press release services out there that cost not a lot of money. You can put a press release out, you can, you can get some, media coverage. can start a medium blog. There’s, there’s a lot of things that don’t cost you anything at all other than sweat equity and time, right? So, and all of these things are worthwhile, like sitting in a corner waiting for people to come to you is not going to result in a lot of ROI, but communicating outwards and like getting your message out there, you know, being active on your Facebook profile, on your Facebook page, on your Instagram, if you have a tick tock like this, there’s a lot of outlets to promote and, to engage with your audience. And I think all of it is beneficial and especially for, for a small business that doesn’t have like, you know, a hundred thousand dollar marketing budget or PR budget every year.

Jeffro (18:08.913)
Yeah, and another thing I was thinking about is you want to make sure that it’s not just a transactional thing. Like if you’re going to bring somebody in to help you and rather than you saying, hey, I want you to run this ad for me, like they could turn around and like, okay, sure, done. But that’s different than saying, okay, here’s our brand guidelines. This is what we’re about. Help me communicate this to the world, right? And they’re going to help actually come up with the creatives and review stuff to see if it’s in alignment with that. And that kind of becomes your North Star, which guides.

Mike Falkow (18:21.261)
Mm-hmm.

Jeffro (18:38.587)
your efforts, regardless of who you hire, right? You can always refer back to it.

Mike Falkow (18:41.176)
That’s exactly right. Yeah, that’s exactly right. we, we like to think of ourselves as a creative ally rather than a contractor or a vendor, right? Like the companies that we work with, we’re like, yeah, we’re, really into the things that you’re doing and we like them. And so we’d love to be your ally in that and come up with creative ideas to coo to communicate outwards. So, the transactional thing is yeah.

I’ve done jobs in the past that were like that and none of them were fulfilling. And usually the juice is not worth the squeeze.

Jeffro (19:20.253)
Yeah, but yeah, I’ve had that experience as well with websites and once in a while I’ll help like with a technical issue or something and If they understand that I can be more than and help them with their brand and website then great It becomes a relationship but there are those people with the mentality of like I just need to fix this thing and then bye See ya never talk again Okay. All right

Mike Falkow (19:42.062)
Yeah, well, that’s fine too. You provide a service and you, you you provide some help, you know, the, if the intent is to help, that’s a good intent. You know, I have a buddy who, talks about wherever he goes, he tries to leave a pool of improvement, whether it be in a social interaction or a professional engagement, you know, I love that. think that’s a really cool outlook.

Jeffro (20:08.74)
Yeah. And that’s also a good lens to look at your business, right? The marketing you’re putting out there, the services you’re providing, the fulfillment, the nurturing, like all of this. Am I leaving behind positive interactions that my customers are going to like and tell people about, leave positive reviews, or are they just getting the service and couldn’t care less if they switched to the next guy tomorrow, right?

Mike Falkow (20:31.958)
Right. Yeah, exactly. And that also goes goes back to like, trust and reliability and all of those things that all plays into it. Like you could you could buy an ice cream from any ice cream vendor. But if you like the person who’s selling it to you, who takes the time to talk to you and ask you about your day, like you’re gonna go that extra block to buy the ice cream from that guy when he’s in town.

Jeffro (20:52.263)
Yeah, definitely. All right, well, I think this has been really interesting. Hopefully people listening at home have taken lots of notes on this because this is one of those things like you’ve got to sit back and take the time to do this. I know we’ve talked about branding, how it’s important on other episodes too. And I think a lot of owners just kind of gloss over like, yeah, yeah, you we’ve got the logo. We did that. But they’re so caught up in the day to day or getting the next client that they don’t actually spend the time to really define the core values and the mission of their business and how they want to show up in the world. this is just a reminder guys, take that time and do it. And if you have trouble doing it, hire someone, find a creative ally like Mike to help guide you through that if you really need help and you get stuck.

Mike Falkow (21:39.586)
Totally agree.

Jeffro (21:41.243)
Yeah. Well, I appreciate you joining me today, Mike. Thank you for sharing your experience and your insights. Guys, we will have links in the show notes for Mike if you want to connect with him. Last question for you, Mike, if a business is starting from scratch, you know, maybe they’re launching a new service or rebranding. What should be their first priority when it comes to branding and design?

Mike Falkow (22:00.812)
well, design sort of is informed by your, your branding concepts, right? So I, if, if you can hire a branding expert, do it. it’ll help you in the long run and it’ll inform everything that you do from there on out. Like that is your concrete foundation. so getting into the, into the sort of nuts and bolts of how to do that.

I mean, it, that’s like asking me how long is a piece of string. It’s, it’s a tough question to answer. So, you know, it depends on, it depends on the brand. It depends on what it is that they do. depends on, know, like whether they’re a sports team or whether they’re a mom and pop cookie shop, you know, like it, and for that matter, there could be two cookie shops and have completely different like directions that they want to go in. One wants to nurture a community. One wants to sell cookies and that’s it. Like.

those brandings will come out very differently based on that intention. So I think looking at that for yourself as a small business owner would be the start.

Jeffro (23:13.868)
I fully agree. Well, thanks again, Mike, for being here. Thanks to all you guys for listening. If you found this episode helpful, please leave a review on iTunes or Spotify. Now get out there, work on your next promotion, figure out your branding, and I’ll see you next time. Take care.

Mike Falkow (23:26.392)
Thanks.