success Archives - Max Louis Creative

Articles Tagged with: success

Why Trello Is The Best Organisation Tool For Your Small Business

Organisation troubles? Small business owners, I have a solution for you…

Trello is one of the best tools to keep small businesses organised. There, I said it! Trello is such a simple way of communicating with others and keeping everything tidy. Regardless of whether you’re a business owner or not, I’m sure you will nod when I say staying organised is a difficult task. With a team to run too, Trello is honestly our godsend and we can’t not tell you about it.

In this blog, I will show you how team MLC use Trello, and why you should definitely be using it for your business!

What is Trello? Feel free to skip this part if you already know about it!

Trello is an online and visual organisation tool. It’s free (with extras at a price) and has everything you need to keep organised. You can have multiple different boards for different purposes. There are boxes which separate into columns, which you can title. For example, you can have columns titled “To Do”, “Doing”, “Done” and “Notes”. Then you can add cards underneath, which are essentially bullet points. Once you’ve added a card, you can embed information inside it such as images, checklists and due dates, which you can also see in a visual calendar within Trello!

So, going back to the example, you can add a due date to something on the “To Do” list and you will get notified when that date arrives. One of the best parts about Trello (in my opinion, anyway!) is that you can then drag and drop this card into the “Done” column once you’ve finished. This is so easy and keeps everything super tidy!

Someone using Trello

How we use Trello and how it helps our organisation!

Personally, I think that THE best thing about Trello is that you can have other members on the board. This means they can add to the board in the same way as you can. This is fantastic for teams to communicate and for team members to talk to their clients, in our case. Here are some examples showing how we use it:

Team Boards

The creative director of MLC, Max, has different boards for every service we provide. So, there’s a Social Media board, a Web Design board etc. and the social media managers are on the first board and then…you get the gist! Just so you can get an idea on how we actually use the boards, here are some quick examples. Someone might have a client who adds requests for social media content to the board. He then gets notified and moves the card into the “In Progress” list and sets himself a due date. Once done, he moves it into the “Completed” list, they get notified and then they can move it into the “Scheduled” section. As a little bonus, using a tool called IFTTT, everytime a post is completed, it automatically keeps track in a spreadsheet, so the amount of social media content created that month is organised. This workflow works super well. All of this saves digging out information from a thread of emails, yep, we’ve all been there!

The managers can also set cards about what they do for each client so that Max can easily oversee their work.

Trello organisation tool

(Ignore the black marks – they are not part of Trello!)

Client-To-Team-Member Boards

This is where I can write about my experience with Trello! I’m Rhianna, a social media manager at MLC, and I use Trello to talk to all of my clients. I have separate boards for each and I have Max as a third member on each board, so that he can stay in the loop! As you can see, for this particular client (who is a lifestyle blogger), I have the following columns….

Trello Organisation for Small Business

For this client, I post to her Instagram, Facebook and Google+ pages. Take a look at the above picture – each title here should be pretty self-explanatory. What is great about the specific columns that I have is that, because I post to her Instagram regularly, she can easily attach pictures onto Trello for me to use (saves emailing them!). She can also tell me about any upcoming competitions/notes about her blogs, so that I can write and schedule posts about them.

If you are looking for unlimited Power-Ups including integrations with Google Hangouts, Google Drive, Dropbox and MailChimp, amongst other features, then maybe you should consider using the Business Class Plan for $9.99 a month per user. This is still such an affordable price and definitely worth considering if these add-ons would benefit you.

How does this help improve our organisation?

In short, here are some quick Trello takeaways…

Makes sure everyone reaches deadlines
Allows easy communication between team members and members to clients
Ensures that the business owner oversees and keeps track of everything
It’s a clear, visual, easy-to-use tool that you can also use out of the office, with their app
Instant notifications if changes are made to the board
Keeps everything neat, tidy and organised!

Let Max do the talking…

I asked Max a couple of questions about why he loves using Trello for MLC. Here’s what he had to say!

What do you love about Trello?

Trello is a general tool, not a to-do list. It’s not just about making sure you don’t forget to mow the lawn, but can actually be a sophisticated work space. Using a little bit of automation, I’m able to automatically have meetings post in a list. Why is that good? It keeps them in one place and notifies me by email and on my phone the day before and an hour before the meeting! We even managed to tie Google Sheets with Trello, to track every time a weekly task is completed, to keep count in a spreadsheet. We have used it for client communication, media uploading, project management…the “list” goes on.

Who would benefit the most from Trello?

I’d recommend it to anyone who spends their working hours on a computer. You can simplify your life with Trello and hand over any mundane admin tasks to automation. It becomes your PA!

Over to you…

What organisation tools do you use? Do you stick to paper notebooks or do you know another online organisation tool that you’d recommend to us? I’d love to hear your thoughts about this organisation tool and whether this blog has convinced you to switch things up and sign up to Trello!

If you already use it, do you use it differently to us? Feel free to check out our other blogs, which are primarily aimed at small business owners. Happy organising!

Top 5 Free Tools to Help Market your Game

In this article, I hope I can provide useful information about tools that greatly increase the effectiveness of your marketing. These tools are also focused on reducing the amount of time spent on marketing.

Marketing is never easy and in order to use these tools effectively, it is important to have the materials and resources in place. These include videos, gifs, trailers, promotional graphics and artwork etc. If you don’t have the time, or want to get these professionally made, be sure to get in touch to see how we can help you.

1. Presskit()

Press Kit Example

dopresskit.com

Firstly, a press kit is a package of information and assets about your game that you can easily send to members of the press. It is a standard way to give everything a blogger may need to write about your game as fast as possible. Creating a press kit can require either web skills or a lot of wasted time. This is where Presskit() comes in.

Just by following a few simple instructions and editing the .XML file, you can have a fantastic looking and detailed press kit up in around an hour. Once it’s done, it’s done and you can send it out to the press!

2. Distribute()

Distribute Example

dodistribute.com

Also from the creators (Vlambeer) of Presskit() is Distribute(). This platform connects your press kit with the press for you and is used to distribute press copies of your game. A member of the press or content creator can sign up and verify their email with the platform. Once logged in, they can request access to a copy of your game. You can see how popular they are and whether they fit into your game genre, then choose to deny or grant access to a copy of the game. This is a vital step to get people talking about your game. What is really great about Distribute() is how well it brings in new content creators, without having to do anything.

3. Hunter.io

Hunter

Hunter.io

This tool goes for all marketing and PR in all industries. This simple app helps you find the contacts you need to get an answer from a company. Sometimes a contact@email or support@email is just not enough. You want something more personal, maybe a member of the team at the company, or just the right email to contact. You first enter the domain name you want to search for into the search bar. Then, in most cases, you will be shown a list of email addresses associated with that domain (not all are necessarily still valid)

4. Discord

I have no doubt that many of you know the app Discord. Many of you may already be using it to its full potential. But for those who are not aware, Discord has become the number one messaging platform for gamers. This is important for 2 reasons. Firstly, it connects you with people who love playing games. Secondly, this will connect you with other game studios and creators, freelancers (contact) and other useful members of the community.

There are huge communities with thousands of gamers, press and content creators and other game studios all looking to engage with you. Make sure to use this tool properly and communicate like a human in these communities. There is no use just posting links to your game, get involved and get talking.

Here are some great servers:

Game Dev Network

Computer Figuur Network

5. Steam Curators

How to find the tool

Steam has a whole plethora of so-called “Curators”. These Steam Curators bring together games all in one place, so gamers can find hidden gems and indies that are worth playing. If you are releasing a title on Steam, you will have access to “Steamworks”. Hidden away on here, you can find a tool to connect your game with hundreds of Steam Curators. I personally have not used this too much and so cannot verify the quality or effectiveness of this tool, but I sure know it is super easy to show off your game to the right people.

Steam-2

I really do hope this has been of some use and you learnt at least 1 new tool to get you going with marketing your game. If you would like advice or just to chat about marketing and your game, be sure to comment below or connect on Twitter, Discord, Facebook or email!

Written by Max Louis
Creative Director at MLC.

Social Media Management Packages – Increase Your Brand Awareness!

Social media management is an incredibly popular service. It allows business owners to relax, while their brand awareness increases and thus the success of their business is soaring!

Here’s one of our blogs, which explains why social media is crucial for business success. This will be a useful read if you’re unsure whether or not to have a social media marketing strategy in place.

So, introducing our new social media management packages (15% off during January)…

Our Social Media Management Packages

Each of our packages are great for different purposes and people. Here’s what each one offers…

Here are more details about the packages.

The Wolf Package is our most affordable option, with Twitter being the only platform used. Therefore, this would be brilliant for start-up businesses who only need updates to be sent out here and there, in order to create initial brand awareness.

The Dolphin Package is the same as the wolf package except it involves 2 platforms, a monthly analysis and custom designed content. This would be great for businesses who are trying to convert customers and engage with the relevant community, again, increasing brand awareness.

The Gorilla Package is the same as the above but puts the social media manager in charge of 3 or 4 of your platforms. This will bring more exposure to your brand and be a great way of getting your business out there to a variety of people. This will create the trust for your brand.

The Whale Package is our most advanced package. This includes everything plus an effort to outreach to relevant profiles and also custom animation video content. This option also involves unlimited posts! This is the best option for businesses who want everyone to know about them! Relevant contacts will be engaged with and better quality content will be posted. This package will lead to much higher engagement, an increase in genuine customers and people trusting and believing in your business. More overall business success!

Here are some more in-depth reasons as to how social media helps your business to succeed.

Why choose us?

Our social media management packages allow for you to have flexibility in choice with what kind of marketing strategy you would prefer. Most services only limit you to one or two specific packages, whereas we offer you 4, all with great benefits.

Our social media service is all about making your profile look amazing. When a social media profile looks more complete, a potential customer is much more likely to trust the company and become a lead.

Furthermore, one of our most important factors that separate us from others is that we offer an admin panel on every package. This enables you and the manager to keep track of reach, engagement and general response from specific posts on different platforms. This is incredibly important and a fantastic way to watch your social media status improve overtime, by seeing what posts work and what posts create the most engagement.

admin panel social media management

Also, our packages are incredibly affordable. We understand that, especially as a start-up, spending money on this service might be difficult. Because we know how important it is to have a great online presence, we have accounted for this in our package prices, to make it easier for you.

Our social media managers have excellent experience, as well as produce amazing results. They make an effort to engage with others in the community, whilst retaining professionalism. They recognise those who engage the most and take steps to hook them in.

From the dolphin package onwards, the social media managers will create custom professional content relevant to you. The content can range depending on needs and budget, but can include:

banners
infographics
post images
custom gifs
video content
animation

Here are some of the people behind our social media management service!

How do I know which package to choose?!

As you can see, each package is different based on the number of platforms used and the effort made by the social media manager to create content/engage with the community.

Depending on the stage of your business, one package will be a better option for you. For example, if you’re just starting out, then it might be better to work your way up the ‘package ladder’ by starting with the wolf package. However, if you’ve started a business and want to go full ham on getting your name out there straight away, then I would recommend going straight to the gorilla package. It really does depend on personal opinion on how you think it will best work for you.

Overall, all of the packages will increase your brand awareness and increase trust from potential customers.

Feel free to contact us if you would like to sign up to one of our monthly packages. Please do share this blog to others, if you know they are looking for affordable and professional social media management.

Art Style Vs Graphics in Game Design Blog Title

Why Art Style Is More Important Than Graphics in Game Design

I will begin this blog with the difference between graphics and art style in games…

Generally, graphics are about the technical elements in the game – the pixels, the quality etc.

Art style is about all of the art in the game – the colours, the lighting, the characters and basically the look of the game.

So, it is clear that people can be easily confused between the two. Now that the definitions have been laid out (and hopefully they make a bit more sense than before), I will explain why it is that, when designing a game, art style is so much more important than graphics.

You might be reading this as a game designer, as a wanna-be game designer or just because you fancy reading a blog! Either way, I will be writing this blog as if you ARE a game designer, to make things easier.

Xbox game controller

First of all, designing a game is a difficult, but also incredibly fun and exciting process. A big part of game design is to determine what art style you are going for. This process is often overlooked; the art style can be a difference between people loving your game and hating it!

Take Minecraft as an example – when Minecraft first came a out, a lot of people (including myself) really didn’t like the look of the game, with the pixelated blocks etc. Essentially, Minecraft ‘had bad graphics’ until people got used to the idea of blocks and the lighting improved – now it’s an “art style”. Once it was labelled as an “art style”, people (again, like myself!) became more accepting to the idea and instead began to appreciate and like the look of the game.

So why are graphics different to art style in game design?

Graphic design in games is important for the look of a game, but it is not the most important aspect. In my view, a great and interesting art style makes a better looking game and thus a more appealing game to play. I would prefer to play, and find it more satisfying to play, a game that has its own unique style, rather than it focussing on being super HD etc. Both of these together would be great, but I truly believe that art style should be the main focus.

Although I appreciate HD graphics, they are not a factor that will make or break a game, for me. Graphics are just not enough to make a game look good.

It’s important to note that graphic design and art style can complement each other in some cases; sometimes an art style isn’t possible without particular graphics having been set out in the first place. Therefore, game designers often ask the question “Do graphics matter then?”. Arguably, yes, but we strongly believe that art style is far more important than graphics, when designing a game, in terms of the player’s viewing pleasure and overall gameplay experience. Having no art style is far worse than not paying attention to graphics in a game.

What’s so good about having an art style in your game?

Having a particular art style sets your game apart from other games. It gives your game its own unique atmosphere and style. After all, you want your game to be as appealing as possible, to as many people as possible!

Games such as Overwatch, Pinstripe and Limbo have a greater emphasis on art style, rather than graphic design. Consequently, when I think about these games, I think of them as being beautiful and memorable experiences that stick with me far more than any 4K, HDR, 60 frames stuff.

Here is a fantastic video which reiterates my points about why art style is so much more important than graphics. Definitely worth a watch!

Mario Kart game

Historically, games like Mario that decided against realistic graphics, still look fantastic today! They realised that trying to be 3D realistic, was an unrealistic goal. Some games decided to use 3D realistic graphics like Lara Croft of the early 2000s. Although it may have been ok at the time, they are unplayable to anyone new to games now. The art style behind the Mario games made it a brilliant experience for the players and the cartoon-style makes the game what it is. It draws people in, if a game has a style that’s different from other games.

Here’s what our artist has to say about this topic…

“There are a lot of games in the industry that aren’t bound to mega hyper realistic graphics and they still appeal to the gamers and some of them are iconic or classics. These games are remembered for their story, music and their art.The art part of every game includes the cold or warm atmosphere, the lighting, the contrasts, the shadows, the colors, everything that gives personality to a place or to a character and both.

Hyper-realistic graphics or 8-bit graphics, doesn’t matter. Every game has its gamer and its art. Games like Mother, Undertale, every Zelda, every Mario, Destiny, Overwatch – they are unique. Their art draws people in, aside from their graphics. The graphics are part of the technology today, but what makes it pretty/realistic/horrific? It’s still the art. Art has been used to make games appealing since the beginning with objects, utensils, places. Art is part of our lives, even in games.”

–Ludmila–

Should you ignore graphics altogether then?

No.

I’m not here to tell you how to design your game. Graphics may be the thing that makes your game…

Think about Call of Duty. Games like this are able to produce fantastic graphics and not worry too much about art style. However, Call of Duty is one of the world’s most expensive games to make, always exceeding $100 million budgets.If you have that much money, then this blog isn’t as important for you. If you don’t – art style is what should be on your mind.However, be careful here – it is not the graphics alone that make the game a success – there are so many other things involved in a game (as I’m sure many of you who are reading this will understand!)

What I am trying to put across is that art style in games can be overlooked, and not seen to be that important. Well, it definitely is!

As an indie game developer, your focus should be on art style instead of graphics. What style can you go for that will set your game apart from others?

Thanks to Unreal Engine 4, graphics are becoming more accessible to indie devs, but never rely on the engine to make the game look good for you.

Pokemon game

How can we help?

I hope this blog has proved to be useful. I feel like there is not enough information online about this area of game design, hence the reason I have written this blog.

Here at Max Louis Creative, we have some phenomenal artists in our team, including pixel art too. They would be so happy to help with your game (especially as our main clients are game developers!).

Here is some information about our art and illustration service, with some examples of our artwork. Let us know if we can help with the art style in your game!

Why It’s Worth Getting Your Website Professionally Made

Why would you choose to have your website professionally made, when there are do-it-yourself options out there?

I’ll tell you why.

Making a website involves a lot more than just making it look pretty; websites are there to convert people into your customers, by persuading them to contact you. Your website is a huge, if not vital, element in this process.

Why is having a good website so important?

As human beings, we automatically judge websites as soon as we see them. Based on what we see, we make a quick assumption about the business and whether we want to use their services/buy their products. We don’t even realise we’re making this decision and it is based purely on what the site looks like! Weird, huh?

Well, not so weird actually. If a website looks disorganised, messy and difficult to use, then why would a person want to choose that business? The association between the bad website and the business has already been made, and so the business is also perceived to possess the same traits as the website.

Naturally, and sadly, we do judge a book by its cover.

A website gives your business a great online presence; not only are you easily accessible to your potential customers, but these people may become your actual customers because of your website. For example, if a website looks professional, the business behind it will come across as professional too.

Ultimately, more customers will come your way and your business will stand out from the crowd. This is what every single business wants!

Here is a great article, which highlights and reiterates my points about the importance of having a great website.

Man on website

So, what’s the difference between the outcome of a DIY website and a professionally made one?

Simple.

There are so many more things that have to be thought about when designing/developing a site. We will list a few now, that may not have even crossed your mind!

Making it user-friendly
- No one wants to find your website difficult to use!

The positioning of pictures/text
- What parts of the page will your site visitors be drawn to?

Deciding the route that visitors will take
- How will your visitors get from one place to another?

Drawing people in
- How will you make your site enticing?

Target audience
- An elderly audience may need to read a larger text size, for example.

Site logistics
- How well does the site come up on Google? Who will host the site? Is there a good amount of call-to-actions? Does it load fast? Is it intuitive?

It is clear that there are so many things to think about, which could be seen as the ‘behind the scenes’ of website creation. There are so many more than the ones we’ve listed, too! You may look at this list and, understandably, think “I can’t do all of that!”. A website developer and designer would be able too, though.

Having a professional website could be a difference that amounts to an enormous number of sales and customers. It is much more likely to convert your page visits into actual customers.

Coding a website

Don’t be fooled…

Generally, people paint web designers/developers in a bad light and try to deter others from hiring one. Why? All sorts of reasons come up, such as…

It costs too much money when there are DIY sites out there to use instead
They aren’t trustworthy because they try to get as much money as possible out of you

WRONG!

Firstly, it can be said that having your website professionally made is very expensive. However, it is a very specialised area and takes time and effort to perfect a website to the customer’s needs, which is why it can cost a lot. Doing it yourself IS DOABLE, but if you do have the budget for it, then I’d definitely recommend you get it done professionally.

Obviously, there is a risk that a web designer may try to fool you into spending way more than you should because they claim to have ‘secret programs’ for design. All sites are mainly made up of HTML, PHP, Javascript and CSS, so if a web developer/designer says that they have anything other than this, then they could be lying to you to get more money from you!

However, this doesn’t make ALL website designers/developers like this. You’d be pretty unlucky to come across someone like this; for the most part, they just want to make your website look the best it can be, with no hidden agenda behind it!

What can we learn from this?

Having somebody make your website means that you can have anything you want on it; web developers can make your website into anything you want. You can completely relax, knowing that someone else is putting time and effort into your website, so you can use this time to focus on other aspects of your business!

Overall, a professionally made website will lead to…

More customers contacting you/buying your products/using your services
A fantastic online presence for your business
Your business coming across very professionally
Your business standing out from the competition
Page visits converting into your customers

This aim of this blog isn’t to make you think that DIY websites aren’t the way to go. In fact, I think that if you have a really low budget, then definitely go for the DIY option. It doesn’t mean that your website will be terrible at all – I just think that if you have the budget for it, it is easier and better to have it done professionally. All in all, a professionally built website does lead to more customers contacting you about what you do and also make you stand out from your competition, but it is not to say that a DIY website wouldn’t be as good.

How can we help you?

To finish this blog, if you have taken these comments on board and have decided that you would actually like to have your website professionally made, then Max Louis Creative offer two routes when it comes to web design/development. Here is the page, telling you more about the service.

ROUTE 1: Have a low budget? MLC’s website designer can create a WordPress site for you. It is easily maintainable and you can set your own theme!

ROUTE 2: MLC’s website developer can build your website completely from scratch. It will be YOUR site, to your taste and exactly how you want it to be.

*USEFUL NOTE: a website designer and website developer are two different things – a website designer decides where things should be placed on the site, in order to get the best out of it, whereas a website developer actually builds the site.*

Why Social Media is Crucial for Business Success

How many times have you heard the comment “social media is such a powerful tool”? Too many times, right?

Then how many times have you heard the comment “social media is such a powerful tool” and thought to yourself “yeah, whatever, I’ve heard that before” and disregarded it? Also too many times.

The truth is, what you’ve been hearing is completely right. Social media really IS one of the best and most crucial tools out there, if you are craving that business success.

However, this blog won’t be covering every single reason why social media is so powerful (we would be here for days!); it will tell you about why YOU need social media to be implemented into YOUR business. A.S.A.P.

So, assuming you’re a business start up and you have spent masses amount of time and effort into perfecting your logo, website and everything else brand-wise. How do you go about showing off this great new brand? You could put leaflets out or put a poster up on your town’s notice board, but you mustn’t neglect social media as a way to advertise your business too.

As you know (unless you’ve been living under a rock), Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are absolutely huge social media platforms, full of an enormous variety of people from all over the world. There is no doubt whatsoever that there are people who are using these platforms, that are looking for something exactly like what your business offers. How are they supposed to find you if you haven’t created any sort of visibility for your brand?

Being a startup, as we’re sure many readers of this will be, it can be difficult to start building trust for your brand, and therefore ensuring that customers believe in your business and want to buy from you. However, if you have a social media platform for your potential customers to refer to, let’s use Facebook for example, then people will be able to see your online engagements with the community. Based on this, potential customers will make a quick and automatic judgement about your business and will immediately decide whether they trust you and want to have what your business offers, whether it’s products or services. They will look at your likes, your interaction with people online and also what you post. All of these elements are a very important part of building that trust.

So, why do you NEED to have social media alongside your business?

It will boost your website’s SEO.
- More traffic to your website = more potential customers = more sales.

You will form business relationships and create a community, which will increase trust/loyalty for your business.
- People will not go for brands that they don’t trust.

Your brand will be much more visible to all types of people around the world.
- You obviously want your name out there, as much as possible!

You will be easily reachable for your potential customers.
- Your customers can find out more about your business and contact you easily.

This website shows some great and useful statistics about how social media has helped businesses enormously.

So, all positives right?…

The only downside to having social media for your business is that it DOES TAKE TIME. It takes a while to build those Likes, Followers, Retweets and Comments. This doesn’t mean that you should constantly persuade people to Follow and Like your pages; let it come naturally by regularly posting a variety of content, which YOU know your target audience will love. The results of this process are so worth it, once you finally have that trusted following.

Remember: Building an online presence and trust into your business = more customers and more sales!

Here is a great post written by Alex Mungo over at Go Mungo SEO on the subject of why social media needs to be at the core of your marketing, no matter the size of your business.

Of course, there are probably understandable reasons as to why you have neglected using social media as part of your business. Our main guess is that you don’t have enough time to dedicate towards your social media platforms. It’s very time-consuming, we get it!

If you have the time to manage your social media, then brilliant. However, as a business owner, it may be a struggle for you to stay on top of it. Well, we definitely understand and we can help you ease that extra pressure, because let’s face it, you already have a lot of pressures as a business owner as it is!

We provide social media marketing services for any kind of business. So of course, if you think that you need the help, then please don’t hesitate to contact us/check out our page. We’d love to help make your business a success!

If you don’t want this service and would prefer to do it yourself, then of course GO FOR IT and we wish you the very best of luck! We hope that this article has helped you realise how important social media is, in order for your business to grow and succeed.