THE CHALLENGE: GREAT WORK ON A BUDGET

There are many ways to design and produce great marketing materials on a limited budget. Partnering with a designer who has your company's budget and interests at heart can be a real asset. A good designer can take a simple project with a reasonable budget and make it sing. So what are some good tricks of the trade that you can use right now? Here's my list:

Printing:

1. Digital printing. If you have a small quantity (usually under 2,000) or a small budget, digital printing can be a great alternative to costlier traditional (offset) printing. Another bonus of digital printing? Its always full color! I recently worked with a client who had gorgeous but expensive three-color, double-sided business cards. By switching their business cards to digital printing we were able to radically reduce their printing costs, produce cards in quantities that were appropriate for each employee's needs, and have cards delivered in under a week.
2. On-line printing. On-line printing has exploded over the last few years. Many companies offer quality printing with a variety of paper stocks, finishes and production options at greatly reduced rates. But do your research! Just because a website offers great prices, doesn't mean that you will be getting the best quality or service. 48HourPrint.com is an on-line printer I have worked with over the last few years. They have good customer service and quality printing. The down-side? You won't get a paper proof - PDF only, and they require a minimum quantity of 500 for most orders.
3. Gang things together. If you are working with a traditional printer, consider maximizing your yield. A good printer or designer will help you arrange your print job to produce the most product with the least waste. If you're printing a brochure and have another project that can run in the same colors and paper stock, your printer may be able to help you run both at the same time. Or, if you have extra space on the sheet, consider running some thank-you notes, bookmarks or other small projects along the edges. You're already paying for the paper and the ink – get the most for your money.

Marketing

1. Email marketing. An email newsletter can be a great way to keep in touch with customers, donors or the community at large. Many services offer great plans for creating emails, maintaining lists and organizing communications; including Constant Contact and Emma. Both require a monthly subscription fee, dependent on your list size and organization type. If you want to test the waters before committing to a monthly payment, both offer trial periods as well. Other services like MailChimp allow you to use the service for free under certain conditions. What ever method you choose, keep a couple of things in mind:
   - Keep it short
   - Make it relevant
   - Don't send too often
   Shameless self promotion: If you're interested in starting an email newsletter, I might be able to help. Whether you just want some assistance designing a template, or you want to hand the management of the program off to someone else, I offer services for both ends of the scale.
2. Blog it. Want a less structured way to communicate with your audience? A blog might be a good choice - IF you are willing to put in the time. A successful blog needs to be updated frequently with new content. Leave it too long, and you may find your readers stop coming back. Services like Blogger offer free blog space that can be linked back to your website, or for a more custom look you can work with a product like WordPress, which offers customizable blogging software.
3. Facebook. Like blogs, Facebook requires time and effort to work effectively. Its important to keep your organization's Facebook page updated and on the radar. Facebook can be a great viral marketing tool as well - if I become a fan of your organization all my "friends" will see that I am a fan, and (hopefully) look into the organization.
4. Direct mail. If you have a mailing list of customers, maybe its time to use it! A direct mail piece can be effective and affordable if done right. The printing options mentioned above can give you some flexibility, or you can go even more DIY. Does your non-profit have a great volunteer force? A good designer can help you create a mailing piece that is eye-catching and can be printed on your office printer, then get those volunteers to work stuffing envelopes! You'd be surprised at the impact a brightly colored envelope (coordinating with your brand of course!) can make in a stack of otherwise boring mail.

One last tip: when working with a designer, let them know up-front that you have a tight budget, and what it is. With that information, a good designer will work with you to help control costs, and create something that suits your need and budget.

Links to check out:

• Seth Godwin's blog is an excellent resource for marketing knowledge
• Michael Katz offers a fabulous email newsletter about...email newsletters. His website is chock-full of useful information.
• Looking for some press? Check out Help A Reporter Out (HARO). Reporters looking for sources post here - you can respond to requests that match your expertise.
  

Design Matters—Especially Now

With all the challenges facing small businesses and non-profits in the current economy, I know it can be hard to justify spending on marketing and design, but it is important to be visible and stay on your customer's radar. If you've been putting off updating your website or sending out a new direct mail piece, now may be a good time to do it.

Good design and marketing can help your business stand out, which is essential for success in this economy. Updating your design can be as simple as bringing more consistency to your email newsletter, or as complex as launching a new brand identity. Even small and simple things will help you stand out from the pack.

My husband and I recently bought our first house. Since moving in, we have been bombarded by a constant stream of mail from local organizations offering us discounts, promotions, and advice. I am surprised at how poor the quality of most of these communications has been. Some of them have even neglected to state the name of the company anywhere on the postcard! Even if I wanted to give that company business, I don't know who they are. Companies with a coherent design and message, that is targeted to my needs as a new homeowner stand out from the rest, and are much more likely to get my business.

Consider these two directions for a charity e-newsletter (disclaimer: this is not a real organization):



Which of these charities would you want to donate to, or volunteer for? Admittedly I stacked the deck a little in this example, but with even a small investment of time and money you can get your brand positive attention. You want your customer to open and read the direct mail piece, or to forward your email newsletter to friends, not just throw it out.

There are two elements that are important to a successful brand — whether your company is the local charity, or a global firm:

1) Know your audience.
Who is your client base? What do they do? What age ranges are they in? Why do they use your product or service? What other things are they interested in? All these questions will help you learn how to speak to them effectively. To use my own example above, if one of your audiences is first-time home owners, who are they and what are they interested in? What sorts of deals, discounts, or information will get them motivated? Once you know these things you can craft materials that will speak directly to your audience.

2) Be consistent!
Consistent use of your brand is one of the most important tools for marketing success. Even if you're not crazy about your company's logo, corporate colors, font, etc...use them (at least until your company is ready to make a change). It will help you build a unified image, and give your organization a more professional appearance. Coca Cola is an excellent example of how to use branding well, and consistently. Just looking at regular Coke, all their marketing—from TV and print ads to vending machines—has a consistent and unified image. The ads may differ, the machines may change, but I bet that if I say "Coke" to you, some of the first things you think of will be red, the iconic Coke bottle, and maybe a tagline. That is a consistent and well designed brand.

What happens when these two principles aren't followed? A fragmented and confusing brand — or worse, a customer revolt. I'm sure many people have noticed the new Tropicana orange juice packaging that has been on store shelves lately. The change to the Tropicana logo and OJ carton has touched off a firestorm of debate. Within the design community, this sort of debate isn't too unusual. What makes Tropicana's story so interesting is the backlash of protest by Tropicana consumers. There has been such an out-cry from angry customers that Tropicana made the decision to return to their original packaging, abandoning the new design almost completely. By failing to understand what their customers wanted, Tropicana made a costly mistake—both monetarily, and it terms of customer loyalty and appreciation.

So take a few minutes to look over your materials and see if they present a unified image, or consider what sort of out-reach you can make to your audience. There are so many options out there for inexpensive marketing pieces. If you want some feedback, I offer a free half-hour review of existing materials. Send me an email, and we can set up a time to talk about your branding, what challenges you face, and what might be good to do going forward.

Layers Magazine

I recently had the opportunity to contribute a design to the Design Makeover column in Layers Magazine. Here's the result:



Working with Layers was a great experience, and I was so glad to be able to participate. Here is the final logo design, and business card that I created:



Sadly, the column is not posted on their website, but if you have a chance to pick up a copy, check it out!

Ok, so I fell off the wagon...

Of blogging that is. But, I'm back, and I am going to try it again! Here's hoping I make it at least to April this time...

Anyway, for my first new blog post, I'd like to share this wonderful talk by author Elizabeth Gilbert on art and genius from the TED conference: