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Spring is a time of renewal, when the cold chill of winter finally subsides and the landscape outside begins to blossom. It brings about the hope of new life, and that perhaps maybe—just maybe—this year the Royals might have a chance at winning a pennant. Spring also happens to be the time of year when many of our clients launch new sales initiatives, whether introducing a new product or service, or simply looking to enhance their brand.

 

Like the seasons, some of the thinking about marketing tactics used for promoting products and services have come full circle. For example, before the proliferation of email marketing, customers used to be bombarded with direct mail postcards and offers in their mailbox; only now those same “junk” messages are ending up in inboxes, where they are quickly ignored and deleted.

 

Generate buzz and excitement.
Customers like to feel special and unique. Choosing a select group of target customers and offering them a limited trial of your product or service at a reduced rate, or for free, can help generate buzz and excitement for the brand. People who receive “free” stuff usually will tell their friends, either by word-of-mouth, or online through blogs and social media.

 

While I would normally advise against the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter for corporate clients (B2B), they can be effective when used to promote B2C brands such as consumer packaged goods or retail products. Identifying the loyal fans whom will sing your praises to their entire network of friends and followers (Seth Godin refers to them as “brand advocates;” Malcolm Gladwell calls them “connectors”), and targeting a message that is relevant to their needs, can help increase sales and brand awareness.

 

Get the word out.
Creating a new web site “landing” page, posting a new article on the site blog, or updating your company’s portfolio to build brand awareness is not enough. Unlike in the movie “Field of Dreams” with Kevin Costner, the idea that “If you build it, they will come” does not apply to online marketing strategy—emails and “eBlasts” have become so ubiquitous that most customers simply ignore and delete them before opening and reading them.

 

A more effective way to get someone’s attention is to develop a highly targeted direct mail campaign consisting of uniquely sized, shaped, or constructed print collateral. Being selective about who you will send these print pieces to is important—instead of buying a generic mailing list with thousands of names and addresses (a shotgun approach to marketing), select a specific target audience who are most likely to not only buy, but who will care about your brand. A few hundred key decision makers—receiving a few highly relevant messages that address their pain points—are more likely to call, email, or visit your company’s website.

 

Generate Goodwill and Public Interest.
Ultimately the success of your new product or service offering will depend on the perceptions you create for the brand. Making customers feel valued and important helps generate these positive perceptions.

 

Developing case studies to create associations between the audience and the brand, so they can see themselves using the product or service in a similar situation, generates interest. One way to do this is to feature reviews from some of your current or best customers, and have them provide a testimonial or story about the quality of the brand. Including these case studies in printed collateral such as newsletters, sales sheets within sales kits, and on the web and within eNewsletters make your brand more believable and relevant to prospective customers.

 

Issuing press releases to local media outlets about how the brand can solve common problems or change people’s lives, can generate interest in your product or service. These short, one-page releases (the most successful are human-interest ones) can also be posted online at web sites that generate news feeds for all different kinds of media.

 

Conclusion
As your company prepares to launch its new product or service, these are some of the tactics that can help kick start the new initiative. Printed collateral not only complements an online strategy, it is essential to and enhances the effectiveness of it. When used as a part of an overall marketing strategy, relevant and targeted communications that generate excitement about the brand, get the word out to those who care, and generate goodwill among them can help “spring”-board your company’s new idea or product.

 

By: Ryan Hembree, Principal, Brand & Creative Strategy

As the crystal ball drops on December 31st marking the start of a new year, people around the world pause to reflect and to make resolutions. Within the business realm, owners, executives, and marketing professionals do the same—by clearing out their budgets, closing out their books, and preparing for new sales initiatives. Now is the perfect time to make your resolutions for the New Year, especially when it comes to sales and business growth. So what are the most common resolutions made, and how can you apply them to your marketing initiatives?

 

Resolution #1: SPEND MORE TIME WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

You should consider customers your family, because they are the ones who support your product or service offering. Taking a proactive approach to promoting your brand should be a priority, and reaching out to customers on a monthly basis is paramount. Keeping in touch with them on a regular basis is as easy as sending out print or email newsletters, cards thanking them for their continued business, or post cards/mailers announcing recent success stories or informing them of new product offerings.

Resolution #2: GET ORGANIZED

The best way to organize your marketing initiatives is to develop an annual marketing calendar. Certain times of the year call for different types of promotions with different marketing messages that are tailored to customer needs—you wouldn’t try to sell ice cream in the winter, nor would you try to sell firewood in the summer. And just like the seasons, marketing calendars are cyclical. Most of our clients tend to develop new print sales collateral in the first quarter of the year to promote new sales initiatives or products. The second quarter usually sees an uptick in the development of new logos and identity packages, while the third and fourth quarters are dedicated to launching new web sites (often to promote the new brand identity we have developed).

 

Resolution #3: STAY FIT

Regular exercise is the best way to increase energy and stay fit, however, most people give up on this resolution (and those fancy gym memberships) by February 1st. In business, sticking with this resolution requires more than simply “making a commitment” to do more selling or promoting your brand: it requires action by adhering to the marketing calendar you create (see #2, above). When sales are going well, or everyone is busy with client projects, it is easy to forget about or ignore your marketing plan—however, getting into a healthy and sustainable routine of continually marketing your product or service is essential to the success of your brand.

 

Resolution #4: STOP BAD HABITS

Change is hard, especially when it comes to marketing strategies. Many businesses don’t realize that just because a tactic has worked in the past doesn’t always mean that it will work in the future. This can lead to spending money needlessly on

 

ineffective and expensive marketing initiatives, such as Yellow Pages ads or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists. There has been a lot of press and campaigning for Social Media marketing—however, a recent IBM Digital Analytics Benchmarks Social Summary report found that social media was only responsible for one third of 1% (0.34%) of Black Friday online sales, and less than one half of 1% (0.41%) of Cyber Monday online sales. Avoid these marketing budget black holes by finding out the best way to communicate with your customers, and how to make your messaging relevant to them.

 

Resolution #5: LEARN SOMETHING NEW

Businesses should always be on the lookout for new trends within the market, new ways of serving their customers, and new competitors who may pose a threat. Sending a survey to existing and former customers is a great way to find out how you are doing: are you providing them the level of service they desire? Is there something else that you could be doing to make their lives easier, thus providing more value to your offerings?

 

Resolution #6: HELP OTHERS

Community outreach, charitable giving, and pro bono work, besides being the right thing to do, is a great way to build goodwill and apositive perception of your company. Target stores donate 5% of their profits to the communities in which their stores are located. Starbucks created their “Indivisible Blend” and bracelets to help raise money to create jobs during the recent economic crisis and downturn. Showing customers and employees that you care about more than the firm’s bottom line motivates them to become advocates for the brand. Be sure to communicate through press releases or newsletter articles about how you are helping contribute to the community.

 

Resolution #7: TAKE A TRIP

Traveling to where your customers are can help you keep many of the resolutions listed above. For example, observing them as they make buying decisions (if in retail) or when they use a product or service, can help you learn more about their needs. Attending tradeshows allows for personal interaction with potential and existing customers, keeping you top of mind for future purchases. It is also easier to scope out the competition while at tradeshows, and learn more about how to better communicate with your target market.

 

Marketing is a year round activity that is essential to business growth and increasing sales. Creating realistic goals and planning, as well as follow through, will help your product or service offering be successful in the coming year. Have you figured out what your brand’s new year’s resolutions will be?

 

By: Ryan Hembree, Principal, Brand & Creative Strategy

An often neglected, yet critical component of any marketing strategy is the creation of content that clearly communicates your product or brand’s message. Customer perceptions, sales and revenue, and ultimately, profitability, are all driven by the first impressions and message delivered through collateral and your online presence. Relevant content, in the form of written words and imagery, are just as important as design in creating an effective brand.

 

Copywriting and photography are highly specialized capabilities that have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. A lot of design and marketing firms do not have these specific resources in-house, so we recommend and bring in outside talent to help. While this means additional budget is necessary, the solutions are more relevant and effective. Trying to save money by “doing it yourself” often leads to mixed results and frustration for everyone.

 

The Benefits of Using a Professional Copywriter

 

As an objective third-party, not privy to the inner workings of your company or brand, copywriters offer an outside perspective on marketing. Since they are not directly affiliated with the brand, they are able to elicit more honest feedback from customers, employees and vendors—invaluable insight that can help improve your product or service offering. They ask probing questions that get to the core of your brand and the benefits it provides; not just what management and employees think, but rather what your customers believe to be true.

 

Copywriters offer refined and eloquent prose to your marketing message. They distill messages into clear, concise, and understandable language that is more meaningful and relevant to customers. This content is often more search engine friendly (if for your brand’s online presence), grammatically correct, and stylistically consistent. Professional copywriters turn ideas into written words that provoke action from customers.

 

The Benefits of Using Professional Photography

 

Stock imagery, photo-sharing web sites, and Google “images” have all contributed to the diminishing perception of the value of using commercial photography. Using the Internet, or snapping a quick image with one of the many available smartphones or high-res digital cameras, allows almost anyone to consider themselves a photographer. It should be no surprise, then, that many companies do not want to commission a professional photographer for their marketing or branding projects.

 

While it may be cheaper to find free or low-cost imagery online or to “do it yourself,” there are several reasons why this is not an ideal way to build a unique, professional and relevant brand image. Besides being blurry, poorly lit, and low quality, pulling images off of Google, Flickr or other photo sharing web sites can land you in legal hot water, as usage rights are not clearly defined. Even though images from stock photo web sites are “royalty free” with a small fee, they are often generic-looking in that anyone can use them…it’s not unusual for us to come across competitors of our clients who use the same photography in their marketing collateral.

 

The only way to get truly original and compelling images that engage customers is to hire a professional photographer. They use the proper equipment, lighting, and composition techniques to bring your product or brand to life. And when you factor in the potential cost of searching through thousands of images online, using a professional photographer to capture and create the “exact” 3-4 images you need is actually more budget friendly.

 

Don’t try to do everything yourself.

 

The benefits of using outside professionals, such as copywriters and photographers, can far exceed their cost—in terms of time saved, quality of finished product, and overall effectiveness of a project. Just because you ‘can,’ or are capable of doing something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. In the end, you might not be as happy with the results, and neither will your customers. When it comes to writing and photography, it’s sometimes best to leave that to the professionals.

 

By; Ryan Hembree, Principal | Brand and Creative Strategy

Web sites—like all fresh produce, cheese, meat or milk—have expiration dates. Usually these other items will start to smell bad to warn of their impending demise, but how can one tell if a brand’s web presence is starting to become a little stale? Determining a web site’s expiration date is not as complicated as one might think.

If it has been a couple of years since the last update, or there is still a counter on the bottom of the homepage, it is probably time for a new web site. As one of the first impressions of your brand, the web site must remain fresh and relevant to prospects and clients alike. Too often, however, marketers have Ron Popeil’s “set it and forget it” attitude about their site—once launched, they neglect this powerful marketing tool.

 

Humans are wired to detect visual stimulation and change–that’s why marketers change product packaging of your favorite brands every six months, often to signify a “New” or “Improved” formula, size, or offering. Your brand also consists of packaged products or services, and updating the graphics, navigation and content of your web site signals change, evolution and continued relevance.

 

Besides becoming visually “dated,” older web sites can fall behind the technology curve as well. The ways in which people access and consume information has changed—smart phones and tablets have become increasing popular for business and leisurely browsing. Given that the majority of these devices are Apple’s iPods, iPads, and iPhones, it is important that web sites use CSS, responsive design principles, and HTML5 for video instead of Flash (which won’t display on these iOS devices).

 

Finally, updating a brand’s web site also increases web traffic. It gives customers a reason to check out your web presence, generating excitement and word-of-mouth marketing. While you’re at it, be sure to sign up for Google Analytics… it’s free, and the code that is added will allow you to track which web pages are being viewed the most, for how long, and where visitors are coming from. Using this information, it is possible to further refine the brand’s messaging and become even more relevant to the target audience.

 

All marketing materials have a useful lifespan. For web sites, no more than 2–3 years should elapse between major updates to the content, messaging and visuals. Is your web presence in danger of expiring soon?

 

By: Ryan Hembree, Principal | Brand and Creative Strategy, Indicia Design, Inc.

Intellectual property (IP for short) and copyrights can be particularly tricky issues that companies and brands must navigate as part of their relationship with a creative services firm. For example, when projects are completed, clients may receive logo files, printed brochures or a web site. But do they really own the rights to those files, or are they just leasing them?

 

Usage rights, such as ownership of intellectual property and copyrights, are typically defined in the “terms and conditions” of a contract or proposal for design services, and are meant to protect the design firm or agency. Sometimes, however, these stipulations are not in alignment with client needs. To help clear up some of the confusion about this issue, let’s examine what rights companies and their brands are entitled to, especially after paying in full for a given project.

 

Rights that you should be granted when you pay for creative work

 

Unethical creative firms might try to sell “limited” rights to produce a certain number of brochures, or use the web site for a certain period of time, after which you must pay them more money for the continued usage. This used to be typical of certain types of creative professionals, such as photographers and illustrators, (digital competition has all but eliminated this practice). Remember having to pay outrageous prices for photographic prints, since the rights to the film negatives were “owned” by the photographer?

 

Make sure the usage rights purchased are “exclusive” and “full” or “unlimited,” meaning that only your company or brand has the right to reproduce the artwork any way it sees fit. It goes without saying that all logos, business systems (stationery), and sales collateral should be granted full and unlimited usage rights. You are also entitled to request a copy of all final digital files for the piece, no matter what it is.

 

What you don’t get just because you pay for creative work

 

Usage rights are a means in which creative firms protect their initial concepts and ideas so that preliminary work cannot simply be taken to another firm for execution and reproduction. Companies typically buy the usage rights to ONE of the ideas or concepts that is developed to solve a creative challenge—not all of the ideas. These preliminary ideas might include handwritten notes generated during the Discovery Meeting, to sketches on the back of a napkin.

 

This same principle applies even if during the course of a project third party services are used. Copywriters will take copious amounts of notes, and many ideas end up in the waste bin before relevant content is ever developed. For photographers, there are several “outtakes” that are created before capturing the perfect, staged image (and in some cases these can be more appropriate for the project).

 

Rights that are negotiable with regard to creative work

 

With certain branding projects, however, it may be important that clients retain all usage rights to concepts and ideas generated for a project, such as when developing a new product for the market. A non-disclosure and/or confidentiality agreement is signed prior to work beginning, and then all concepts become the property of the client.

 

Photographers might agree to give all digital images to a client to help them build a digital library. These are in addition to the final, retouched photographs. Or, an illustrator may agree to develop all concepts presented for an additional charge. Unless reasonable fees or prior arrangements have been made, clients should not expect to receive the unlimited and full usage rights to preliminary work, and it remains the property of the creative firm.

 

When it comes to intellectual property and your brand, don’t make assumptions that you are getting everything you think you are paying for. If a brand manager or marketing director is unsure of what usage rights they are being granted once a project is paid for, ask the creative firm for an explanation, and get it in writing. Most firms are receptive and amenable to granting additional rights—especially if it means retaining a long-term client.

 

By: Ryan Hembree, Principal | Creative and Brand Strategy