The 6 components of a scalable style guide that you need for communicating your brand’s unique identity and business goals.   A style guide is often seen as little more than a reference tool designers or design teams use when creating assets. As a document, or set of documents, the guidelines and standards of visual design elements, such as typography, color, iconography, buttons, forms, and grid systems provide countless design efficiencies. That being said, people often overlook the key elements of a style guide that ensure scalability.  Over the years, we have found that our clients typically take one of two approaches to their style guides – the “document-as-you-go” method, and the “built-it-before-it-comes” method. Needless to say, one of those methods creates more problems than they solve. Here at Amp Agency, our approach is the latter of the two. This is because the challenge with creating style guidelines only when you are in need of elements is that it often overlooks other existing visual elements. This leaves designers and consumers of your brand unsure of the essence and consistency of your visual language. By taking the time to develop these guides, you decouple design decisions from real-time/urgent needs and obligations that often result in “good enough for now” solutions that cannot scale.  Another reason we feel that a well developed style guide is an invaluable tool to have in your marketing toolkit is that it provides a foundation for business growth. Modern rapid business growth strategy is completed through acquisitions, mergers, and partner affiliations. When integrating with other established entities, it is important to know the details of your organization's brand and brand values, in order to clearly identify the similarities and differences with your new partners. This provides the integrating groups common guidelines to communicate around and through, and they allow consumers to feel grounded when interacting with you afterwards.  The 6 Components of a Scalable Style Guide Typography: The typography section of a style guide should include font families, font weights, and font sizes. It should also provide guidance on when and how to use each font family and weight. For example, a style guide might specify that headings should use a bold sans-serif font while body text should use a lighter serif font. The typography section should also include information on line height, letter spacing, and other typographic details. Color: The color section of a style guide should include a color palette and guidance on when and how to use each color. It should also provide guidance on color combinations and contrast. The color palette should be selected to reflect the client's brand identity and should be consistent across all design elements. Iconography: The iconography section of a style guide should include guidelines on when and how to use icons. It should also provide guidance on the visual style of the icons, such as their size, shape, and color. The icons should be consistent with the client's brand identity and should be used sparingly to avoid visual clutter. Buttons: The buttons section of a style guide should include guidance on the visual style of buttons, such as their size, shape, and color. It should also provide guidance on when and how to use buttons in the design. For example, a style guide might specify that buttons should be used for primary calls to action, while links should be used for secondary calls to action. Forms: The forms section of a style guide should include guidance on the visual style of forms, such as their size, shape, and color. It should also provide guidance on how to style form elements, such as input fields, checkboxes, and radio buttons. The forms should be consistent with the client's brand identity and should be designed to be easy to use and understand. Grid Systems: The grid systems section of a style guide should include guidance on how to create layouts using a grid system. It should provide guidance on the number of columns, the width of each column, and the spacing between columns. The grid system should be designed to be flexible enough to accommodate a range of design elements while still maintaining consistency across all layouts. Here at Amp Agency, we know your brand identity is unique and deserves a custom style guide that reflects your individuality. Comprehensive style guides provide your designers and design teams clear guidelines and standards for each design element to ensure consistency, and they preserve your brand's equity as you grow your business.  To learn more about Amp Agency’s UX Consulting & Design services, and optimize your brand’s equity, please reach out to us via our Contact Us form. Additionally, you can read about our entire suite of Experience Design and Website Development capabilities on our Services page.

In our continuing series of examining Google Search Trends to gain insights into the top keywords queried in the USA, we present our findings for April 2023. Every day, we capture the top three keyword phrases in terms of search volume as reported by Google Trends (US Only). Each term has an estimated query volume attached to it, which we also record. The number scale tops out at 10,000,000+ with a lower limit of 200,000+ (sometimes 100,000+). After the conclusion of the month, we look at the phrases we collected along with their volumes to get an understanding of what drove queries for the month. It Must Be The Showers As the season of Spring to its full bloom in the US, the search volume across the whole month appeared…down. We weren’t sure if Google Trends had revised the way it reported the number of queries per day or what, but the month seems lackluster in the topics that were queried and in the volume of searches. Through it all, we captured the top 3 phrases every day and have them here to review. From cable news anchors losing their jobs to boxing matches that dominated an entire day to NBA playoff action, we have the keywords that make sense of what was happening last month. Here is our take on what was reported by Google Trends. April 27th Was The Day To Search There were no phrases that were queried over ten million times last month. The most popular phrases only made the five million query count and they both were reported on the 27th. Jerry Springer - 4/27/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries NFL Draft - 4/27/2023 - 5,000,000+ queries Jerry Springer passed away on that day and news spread, driving search activity.  Unrelated, the NFL held the first night of its annual draft and it piqued the interest of fans wanting to learn more about the event. Were We Not Entertained? Here’s a list of phrases that are related to the world of Entertainment. CMT Awards 2023 - 4/2/2023 - 200,000+ queries Star Wars - 4/7/2023 - 100,000+ queries Taylor Swift - 4/8/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Millie Bobby Brown Jake Bongiovi - 4/11/2023 - 100,000+ queries Love is Blind live reunion - 4/16/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries In terms of shows, the CMT Awards found its way into the daily top 3 as it typically does every year. More popular than the Country Music Awards was the topic of the Love Is Blind Reunion show. We’re not sure if people wanted to know more about the show or why it didn’t air during its planned time. Technical difficulties do lead to increased search volume. The other three items show that people are still interested in Star Wars as news was announced at the Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 convention. Relationship news rounds out the other phrases as Taylor Swift split from Joe Alwyn and Millie Bobby Brown and Jake Bongiovi got engaged. The Holiday Query The one big holiday in April didn’t garner that much query volume for Google Search. Happy Easter - 4/9/2023 - 500,000+ queries Looking at the Doodles page, there was no Easter Google Doodle for 2023 which is a big factor in the lack of holiday phrases since many Doodles are connected to queries.  Not so much for last month. Earth Day got a Doodle but it didn’t impact search queries.  The Met Gala At the end of the month, the annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City was held and the theme this year was a tribute to the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, who passed away on February 19, 2019 Karl Lagerfeld - 4/30/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Met Gala 2023 - 4/30/2023 - 500,000+ queries This event has made our report before so we pulled the chart for the past 5 years on this topic: The chart shows the highest popularity in 2019.  Looking at the trend, the interest in the Met Gala this year was down as compared to the 2021 and 2022 event. Cable News Anchors Not that the networks coordinated with each other, but two well-known cable news anchors parted ways from their employer. Tucker Carlson - 4/24/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries Don Lemon - 4/24/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries In terms of search volume, Mr. Carlson’s name was the winner and his departure shakes up the prime time schedule for Fox News. Political Queries One could argue that our last section could have been included here but we’re separating it.  Here are the phrases that were searched most that were tied to US politics Donald Trump - 4/3/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Trump - 4/3/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Wisconsin Supreme Court election - 4/4/2023 - 500,000+ queries Chicago mayoral election - 4/4/2023 - 200,000+ queries Tennessee - 4/6/2023 - 200,000+ queries Although the volumes do not compare to what we saw in November 2020, it does show that elections and current/past elected officials drive people to search for information. Business Items Moving on, we saw two queries that are connected to two different companies with two different trajectories. SpaceX - 4/20/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Bed Bath and Beyond - 4/23/2023 - 500,000+ queries SpaceX launched its Starship rocket on the 20th for a test flight but it exploded before stage separation. Bed Bath and Beyond announced that it is closing stores after filing for bankruptcy on the 23rd.  NCAA Tournament March Madness finishes up in April, naturally. Here are the phrases related to the final games of the Men’s and Women’s college basketball tournament. UConn vs Miami - 4/1/2023 - 100,000+ queries LSU women's basketball - 4/2/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Angel Reese Caitlin Clark - 4/2/2023 - 500,000+ queries March Madness - 4/3/2023 - 500,000+ queries It’s a bit odd that we didn’t see more queries for UConn as they won the Men’s tournament. We think Donald Trump’s indictment may have overshadowed that championship’s winner. Masters The Masters Tournament held in Augusta, Georgia drove searches over a few days in the first week of April. Masters - 4/6/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Viktor Hovland - 4/6/2023 - 200,000+ queries Jon Rahm - 4/9/2023 - 500,000+ queries For the big golf tournaments, we tend to see keywords related to the leaderboard or names of the golfers who win. Jon Rahm gets that honor this year. Boxing From time to time, Boxing matches get top billing in Google’s Daily Trends report.  Here’s one from last month that took over the top three spots on the 21st and the top spot on the 22nd. Ryan Garcia vs Tank - 4/21/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Tank vs Garcia fight - 4/21/2023 - 500,000+ queries Tank vs Garcia - 4/21/2023 - 500,000+ queries Ryan Garcia - 4/22/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries This fight got a lot of attention because it was a bout of two undefeated fighters, billed as It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This.  Even though Gervonta “Tank” Davis won the fight by KO, it was Ryan Garcia’s name that got the most queries.  The AMP team sees this phenomenon where the team or individual that gets defeated is searched for more. The queries could be motivated by the need to understand why the loss occurred. Oh, and because we predicted that UFC would show up in the April 2023 report in the March 2023 report, here’s the proof that it happened. UFC - 4/8/2023 - 500,000+ queries The NBA Has Our Full Attention With the regular season coming to a close and the playoffs starting last month, NBA-related keyword phrases made up a large portion of the data we collected for this report.  Check out the timeline from April 2023: Lakers - 4/4/2023 - 200,000+ queries Dallas Mavericks - 4/7/2023 - 100,000+ queries Rudy Gobert - 4/8/2023 - 200,000+ queries Lakers - 4/11/2023 - 500,000+ queries Miami Heat - 4/11/2023 - 100,000+ queries Bulls - 4/12/2023 - 200,000+ queries Bulls - 4/14/2023 - 200,000+ queries Timberwolves - 4/14/2023 - 100,000+ queries Warriors - 4/15/2023 - 500,000+ queries Celtics - 4/15/2023 - 200,000+ queries Lakers - 4/16/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Warriors - 4/17/2023 - 500,000+ queries Draymond Green - 4/17/2023 - 200,000+ queries Suns - 4/18/2023 - 200,000+ queries Lakers - 4/19/2023 - 500,000+ queries Warriors - 4/20/2023 - 500,000+ queries 76ers - 4/20/2023 - 200,000+ queries Lakers - 4/22/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Bucks - 4/22/2023 - 200,000+ queries Warriors - 4/23/2023 - 500,000+ queries Celtics - 4/23/2023 - 200,000+ queries Lakers - 4/25/2023 - 500,000+ queries Lakers vs Grizzlies - 4/25/2023 - 200,000+ queries Warriors - 4/26/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Miami Heat - 4/26/2023 - 500,000+ queries Lakers - 4/28/2023 - 2,000,000+ queries LeBron James - 4/28/2023 - 200,000+ queries Suns - 4/29/2023 - 500,000+ queries Warriors vs Kings - 4/29/2023 - 200,000+ queries You can see the list is mostly composed of team names.  Did your team make the list? The Most Popular Sport Even though the NBA had its time in April, the NFL is the most searched for American Professional Sports league.  Besides the top query of the draft on the 27th, here are the other NFL related keywords. Aaron Rodgers - 4/24/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Will Levis - 4/27/2023 - 1,000,000+ queries Will Levis Draft - 4/28/2023 - 200,000+ queries Aaron Rodgers joining the New York Jets and the curious case of Will Levis’ draft day(s) made the most searched terms on April 27-28th. Boston Marathon Looking back at the last 4 years of collecting daily trending keywords, the Boston Marathon has never made our list. This year is different. Boston Marathon 2023 - 4/15/2023 - 200,000+ queries Boston Marathon 2023 - 4/17/2023 - 500,000+ queries The 15th marked the 10 year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing and on the 17th, the race was run in all its glory. See who the winners were. NHL Last but not least, the NHL started their playoffs in April 2023 and there were two team names that made our list. Kraken - 4/29/2023 - 100,000+ queries Bruins - 4/30/2023 - 500,000+ queries Sorry, Boston fans. The team came up short yet again. Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, we utilize search trends data for all of our clients and we invite you to learn more about our SEO services.

Haven't we all been in this situation - you're trying to have a conversation with someone, but they keep talking about themselves? Somewhat masterfully, this person always steers the conversation back in their direction. Someone might even come to mind as you're reading this! This lack of connection can remind us how these conversations miss depth and meaning and can leave us feeling disconnected. Healthy relationships are based on mutual engagement, where both parties are empathetic and continually learn from one another. In short, the relationship is a two-way street. While this behavior might be easy to notice in our personal lives, it's common for it to go unnoticed in professional settings. It's often masked in the form of a disconnected Zoom meeting solely focused on services, capabilities, or products that are just missing the mark on the real benefits to the client. To truly connect with customers, we must get to the heart of the matter, uncover what motivates them personally, and focus on the benefits of our offerings. This is the crux of the features versus benefits conversation. Confusing your services and products as benefits is a well-intentioned habit we can all fall into. However, a potential consequence of this habit is that you miss meaningful connections by concentrating solely on the services or capabilities of your product offering. When we remember clients are interested in how your service can help them specifically, we can uncover the benefit behind the offer and understand what motivates them personally. The WIIFM ("What's In It For Me?") formula has always been a powerful tool to help unlock critical insights from value-adding and benefit-centered conversations.  Having an empathetic, benefit-focused approach allows us to understand the needs and priorities of our clients and tailor our conversations accordingly. Reframing the client's needs within the context of benefits is essential to create a stronger connection to cultivate both trust and loyalty. You can demonstrate how your services will meet their needs by emphasizing this. For example, if you're marketing an innovative software solution, you could highlight its ease of use, ability to save time, and how it ultimately increases your team's productivity. By course-correcting your conversations in this way, you're prioritizing the value-adding benefits over the alternative: a tunnel vision conversation focused solely on the characteristics and facets of the software.  When examining your product offering, it may feel like a Catch-22 - and that your capabilities are the features. However, by looking closer, you can bring the benefits your organization offers to the forefront in crucial ways. For example, creating a user experience that maps how your customers shop for your product can be an invaluable benefit-adding tool.  The recent partnership between iRobot and AMP's Tech team is an excellent example. iRobot and AMP partnered to develop a marketing intelligence platform that uncovered significant, noteworthy advantages and benefits for iRobot's valued customers. AMP provided iRobot customers with an understanding of the capabilities and differences between their variousmodels so they could make better purchasing decisions. The platform features three main components: an in-store application, a consumer quiz, and a comparison chart that allow users to interact with the product and receive tailored recommendations in a matter of minutes.  A vital feature of the platform is an interactive product showcase that leads customers through a quiz about how they'd like a vacuum to operate, shows them how the technology works, and makes specific product recommendations based on their input. The standout benefit the platform provides for iRobot is valuable insights for future campaigns and sales analysis by consolidating customer data and enabling ongoing engagement. The overall benefits for both the customer and iRobot are also clear. Customers can quickly and easily understand product capabilities and differentiators and receive intelligent AI-driven recommendations tailored to their specific needs. This speaks directly to their consumer's personal "why" and WIIFM "What's In It For Me?" value, which in this case could be ease of use or convenience, to name a few. The platform also provides an excellent user experience that empowers customers to purchase immediately after completion. In addition, the platform enables iRobot to gather data from across the globe through physical, tablet-based retail experiences, embeddable web experiences, CRM data tools, and social engagement tools. Using this collected data, iRobot is able to provide ongoing customer engagement and sales analysis to its customers to improve future campaigns and increase sales.   The iRobot case study demonstrates that AMP’s efforts went beyond creating a simple in-store product matching tool and consumer quiz. The final product provided customers with the value-adding benefits of informed decisions, trust, convenience, personalization, and efficiency. By empowering customers to make quick and easy decisions through these benefit insights, iRobot saw an increase in sales and engagement both domestically and internationally.  At AMP, we understand that delivering value to clients and their respective customers is much more than providing trendy designs and snappy load times. Our tech and UX teams prioritize benefits by crafting digital experiences and solutions tailored to every brand's needs and business goals. This empathetic and personalized approach enables AMP’s team to initiate new business opportunities as equally engaging partnerships from the onset. As much as providing outstanding digital experiences, we also strive to create unmatched customer-centric relationships. Our dedication to creating value through empathy ensures that clients feel both seen and heard in the solutions we provide.  With over 25 years of experience, AMP’s technology teams are highly skilled in creating user-friendly and elegant designs for even the most complex platforms all the while building experiences and digital solutions based on targeting  customers’ needs in mind.  Elements like responsive design and fast load times then become table stakes. The iRobot case study showcases the benefits of the technical solution that met iRobot's business needs and surpassed expectations on delivered results. This is just one example of how prioritizing customer-centric connections makes sense for the long run.  We believe that empathy is the key to not only building successful brands but also to creating deep and meaningful relationships that extend beyond projects and deadlines. It's not just a marketing or sales strategy - It's a necessary shift in mindset to connect with people on a deeper level. In doing so, we can directly speak to the benefits related to clients' personal ‘why’ and WIIFM. At our core- this belief in empathy drives all we do. We're not just here to design beautiful websites and seamless digital experiences (which we love and do well!); we're here to create products that mean something, resonate with our clients on a personal level and make a difference. Authenticity always attracts; we know this in our personal lives, and now we have to put it into practice in our zoom calls! By using this benefit-focused approach, you can continue to build trust, loyalty, and lasting relationships for years to come. SOURCES:  https://clutch.co/web-designers/resources/top-6-website-features-people-value https://www.searchenginejournal.com/features-vs-benefits-content-marketing/331221/#close https://www.sfappworks.com/blogs/enterprise-web-development https://www.zyxware.com/article/6453/enterprise-web-development-everything-you-need-to-know https://www.liberty.edu/web-services/blog/feature-vs-benefit-driven-copy/ https://www.yesware.com/blog/feature-benefit-selling/ https://proechosolutions.com/customers-buy-benefits-not-products/ https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/features-vs-benefits-messaging-ht