Have you ever stared into the steely eyes of a business decision-maker and seen an emotionless machine beneath the skin? Wake up. It was just a bad dream.

If your business sells to consumers, you know that emotion plays a big part in the decision to buy. As humans, we unconsciously rely on past experience to give us a "gut feeling" about a product or service. We can't always explain why we love it, or love it more than the alternatives. We just love it. 

For most buying decisions, most people avoid doing the rational thing: research and compare factual data, carefully weigh the pros and cons of multiple options. When we do force ourselves to slow down and investigate, we often delay any decision or decide we don't really need that thing anyway.

If your business sells to other businesses, none of that applies, right? Wrong. Stereotypes about business decision-makers being emotionless, calculating, fact-based, bottom-liners are misleading. Research shows B2B buyers are actual humans. Their instinct is to buy emotionally based on the value they expect to derive personally from making a good decision. See chart below.

The big difference between buying as a consumer and buying for a business is that the business buyer also must justify his or her unconscious emotional decision with logic and reason. Bosses and colleagues affected by the decision will demand to know the value for the business, backed up by facts, figures and expected return on investment. 

B2B sales training experts like Scott Messer of Sales Evolution have been teaching this forever. But despite the obvious fact that marketers and salespeople are targeting the same human buyers, many B2B marketers focus their websites and promotions entirely on attempts to "prove" the superior value of their solution to the business.

Successful B2B marketers aren't thinking only about how they can help the customer's bottom line. They are also thinking about all that is on the line, personally, for the human decision-maker. Consider:

It's Valentine's Day, marketers. Spend your working hours today feeling the love for business decision-makers. Tomorrow, take a fresh look at your marketing. Are you communicating to potential buyers that choosing your solution will be personally valuable to them? Learn how to create an emotional connection between customers and your B2B brand from CEB Global . Learn more on the subject of emotional buying from Psychology Today and Kapost.

How Emotion Influences B2B Buying

Business Value 48% wanted to buy a new solution but didn't speak up for fear of risks 74% of B2B customers see a business value Just 14% of B2B buyers perceive a real difference in supplier offerings Only 31% of B2B customers think B2B brands provide a personal value

Personal Value Personal value has 2X as much impact as business value does 68% of B2B buyers who see a personal value will pay a higher price Only 8.5% of buyers who see NO personal value will pay a higher price  71% of buyers who see a personal value will purchase a product

Have a marketing challenge? Call Kim Landry at 484-829-0021 or email kiml@hollistercreative.com.

Do you Raise your Voice when Speaking selected words? No, people don't do that, except perhaps when Preaching from a Pulpit. But too many people Do randomly Capitalize words For No Reason.

We all learned in grade school English class that a capital letter should be used to indicate a proper noun, to begin a sentence and to begin a complete sentence that follows a colon.

Later, when we learned the norms of email and social media, we knew to avoid using ALL CAPS because it was the typed equivalent of shouting.

Yet here we are at the corner of Crazy Capitalization and Grammar Street. We're seeing random caps on websites, on social media, in marketing materials and advertisements. We assume it is an attempt to attract More Attention to a Company, product or service. 

But to us it just looks gimmicky. Read this ad text from Wile E. Coyote's favorite fictional company, Acme Rocket-Powered Products: "Acme's new Rocket Powered roller skates are Guaranteed to help You catch Roadrunners."

The silliness of the random capitalization makes it hard to take the company seriously. (Okay, maybe the silliness of our example contributed a little. Meep-meep!) The ad text could have used bold, italic or bold-italic type to emphasize selected words without mangling grammar rules.

When writing for marketing, PR or advertising:

DO follow the rules of grammar. Correctness lends credibility to your company, product or service. You can bend the rules from time to time, providing you know what the rule is and why you are choosing not to follow it in a particular instance.

DON'T resort to silly gimmicks. If you do, customers and prospects will question the truth and sincerity of the message - and by extension, the company behind it. Trust is crucial in business. Gimmicks are associated with trickery, schemes and ploys.

DO be clever if you're also clear. Using proper grammar doesn't have to make your message sound all buttoned up and stuffy. Grab attention by being funny, outrageous and clever - up to, but not past, the point where clarity suffers.

Need help with writing or editing content for your website, blog, email newsletter or brochure? Call Kim Landry at 484-829-0021 or email kiml@hollistercreative.com.

	If we were tweeting about this ad's use of color typography, we would say: Sad! Terrible! Disgraceful! No more!

From the dawn of movable type 1,000 years ago, typography has involved the artful selection of fonts, sizes, weights, line length and spacing. As for colors, the choices were black, black and black.

The four-color process technique emerged just over 100 years ago, making full-color printing available, if only to those who could afford it.

A mere 25 years ago, digital technology brought us widely affordable color printing. Not only that, but a whole new world opened up for sharing text and images in color: the World Wide Web.

In the hands of professional designers, color has amplified the power of good typography. In the hands of unskilled amateurs, there have been unintended consequences, from merely unreadable text to some eye-crossing, stomach-churning designs.

To guide you in the effective and aesthetically pleasing combination of typography and color, here are some DOs & DON'Ts.

DO make black your default for text. Body text is your most important typography decision because interested readers will consume a lot of it. On a white or light background, you can never go wrong with classic black text. It presents the sharpest contrast, making it the easiest to read. If you're going for a softer look, try using a medium-dark gray. 

DO use color for display type. Color adds emphasis in headlines, subheads and callouts/quotes. It is a great way to express the hierarchy of information in your design and to break up large blocks of black body text. Used sparingly, color will make display text pop, helping readers quickly scan the text on a page and guiding the readers' eyes through the content in a logical way.

DO use color backgrounds to grab attention. Assuming most of the background in your design is white, color backgrounds behind small areas of text are visually arresting. This is great for prompting reader response to actionable content such as clickable buttons and call-to-action boxes. Black text on a light color background or white text on a dark background works best.

DON'T layer color type over a color background. Actually, this can be done effectively. But it is so often done poorly that we feel safer saying don't do it at all. The worst combinations of typography and color feature light/bright text on a light/bright background, or text and background in dark colors of the same hue.

DON'T overload a page with color. When everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized. The viewer can't tell how to navigate the page or figure out what is important. You know what viewers do in those situations? They turn the page or click away.

QUIZ: You know the type ... or do you?

Among the most typecast actors of all time are Jennifer Aniston and Michael Cera; she as a lovelorn rom-com lead, he as an awkward indie teen.

Browse our blog to get more design tips.

Need help designing your social media pages, website or brochure? Call Kim Landry at 484-829-0021 or email kiml@hollistercreative.com.

CCI Consulting now has a responsive website with an optimized user experience on every size screen. Click image to visit website.

Client's Challenge
For nearly 30 years, CCI Consulting has been solving the talent challenges facing company leaders. The largest independent human resources consulting firm in the Mid-Atlantic, CCI helps companies fill critical executive roles, improve the performance of key individuals and teams, assist with outplacement and implement best practices in HR.

CCI's expert consultants are able to deliver strategies, solutions and services for all stages of the employee life cycle because they deeply understand the relationships among leaders and employees in ever-changing companies.  Their goal is to optimize the talent in a client company.

In many of the companies it serves, CCI begins that process by optimizing the employee experience. So it's not surprising that when turning their attention to improving their company website, CCI leaders could see that the user experience was less than optimal.

They reached out to Hollister Creative for a user experience (UX) makeover. 

Client Comment
"We value the team at Hollister Creative because they are easy to work with, they worked hard to get to know us and they do great work. The Hollister team has helped us to refine and align our branding efforts by creating a consistent look to both our suite of collateral materials and our website. Their expertise in graphic design and layout, coupled with their fresh perspective on messaging and content positioning, has helped CCI improve both brand awareness and brand equity. Outsourcing our marketing efforts has helped us to improve quality while enabling us to refocus our efforts on supporting clients and growing our practice."

If you are facing a challenge to improve website usability, here are three suggestions:

Click to view more Case Studies with Tips.

To talk with us about your challenge, call 484.829.0021 or email Kim Landry at 

kiml@hollistercreative.com.

Valentine's Day fills our hearts with love, so we went looking for new ways to share it with our newsletter fans. Not surprisingly, we couldn't resist the Heart Morph Coffee Mug, which not only expresses love but does it with pixels and imagination! Fill the mug with your favorite hot beverage and watch the warmth turn the heart from black to red before your very eyes. It's a heartwarming gift for yourself or your special Valentine. And if that person is a graphic designer, it's a pixelated plus!

Want to win this item? Email us a request! Three subscribers who have not won a giveaway item in six months will be randomly selected to receive one.