The Critical Path

As the final installment in our five-part series on creating effective marketing projects we’re going to focus on how a project should come together efficiently and effectively. In a perfect world you would initiate a project by accepting a written quote and submitting your creative brief, and the workflow would go something like this…

Step 1: Initial concepts are presented for your review.

Step 2: You consult with the designer to discuss the direction that should be taken from here, or possibly request an alternate concept.

Step 3: A revised or new design is submitted for your review and should be right on target based on your previous feedback.

Step 4: The chosen design is analyzed to determine how effectively it meets your defined goals. Final revisions are made, if needed.

Step 5: You proof the job for accuracy and the designer makes any required corrections, which you then approve.

Step 6: Thee job is checked for technical quality and sent to production.

Step 7: Your campaign goes public and you start raking in the customers.

Seriously, it could happen.

Image Is (almost) Everything

Photos and illustrations can work wonders to successfully convey your message to your audience. Unfortunately, images tend to also be a huge stumbling block for many people in producing effective marketing materials. For our fourth installment in our five-part series on creating effective marketing projects we’ll explore a few of the most common problems with images and how to avoid them.

Image Quality
The single biggest problem we encounter with client supplied images is poor quality. The biggest offenders are: glare caused by direct flash, low resolution image files, and poor composition. All three of these issues can be easily overcome by simply hiring professional photographer — and yes, that is a shameless plug. However, if photography fees are not in your budget there are simple things you can do to overcome these three common pitfalls…

Flash Glare: Do not under any circumstances use the built-in flash unit on your camera. Instead, use natural sunlight either through a window or go outdoors. As much as you should avoid flash glare, you should also avoid harsh sunlight. The very best general purpose lighting is outdoors on an overcast day. Another option is to filter harsh sunlight through a thin white sheet or white plexiglass.

Low Resolution: Images intended for publishing online only need to be 72 dpi at the actual size they will be used, while images intended for print must be at least 300 ppi at the intended output size. If you shoot your own photos or hire a photographer, be sure to use at the highest available resolution on the camera. This way, even if your immediate purpose is a website, you will have the high resolution images should you need them for printed materials later. If the image is low resolution because you downloaded it from the web, there really isn’t anything you can do to salvage it. But then again, if you downloaded it from the web, you probably shouldn’t be using it in the first place.

Poor Composition: This is a really tough issue to tackle as there are so many factors that make up a good composition — how your subjects are positioned in relation to each other, how they are positioned in relation to the framing of the scene, your position in relation to the subject, and the focal length of lens on your camera. The simple truth is that good composition takes education, a keen eye, and lots of practice. When in doubt, use a normal lens to avoid distortion and photograph your subject from a 3/4 isometric view with the entire subject inside the frame.

There are plenty of online tutorials that will help you make better photographs…

Taking Professional Photos Without A Professional

Beginner & Amateur Photography Tips

Simple Posing Tips For Better People Pictures

Image Appropriateness
Not all images are photographs. In fact, illustration can often be significantly more effective in telling your story or even demonstrating technical details of your product. Show your product in use — you can utilize images to show off product benefits and convey a reason to buy. If humor is appropriate for your message, then your image should be as funny as the headline. Your images can be instructional in that they might be used to answer common misconceptions about your product or enforce a strength your product has over the competition. But, just like your written copy, your images should be honest — never deceptive.

Image Licensing
While copyright laws can be pretty overwhelming, addressing licensing issues is actually quite straightforward: if you do not own the image or have a written release from the creator, you should not use it. Period.

What About Stock Images?
Stock is fine. When purchased from a reputable stock agency, you easily overcome obstacles #1 (quality) and #2 (licensing). However, given the nature of stock, it is almost certain that someone else will use the same image at some point, so you are definitely giving up any claim to uniqueness. Another downside to stock images is that it can be difficult to find images that are truly appropriate to your needs and that will allow you to maintain consistent style as you require more images in the future.

Every ad does not need a fancy illustration or a powerful photograph, but when yours does, don’t sell yourself short. Do right by your images and they’ll do right by you.

Design is about telling a story. It’s a story that — if told well — will engage consumers, build your brand, and sell your products. But it is difficult to produce effective design without first putting your story into words. Which brings us to the topic of copywriting as the third installment in our five-part series on effective marketing projects.

While we often focus on visuals when planning our marketing projects, we should really consider shifting our initial focus to writing good copy. After all, the visual design grabs attention and guides the reader, but it’s the words that usually make the sale. It could even be argued that a really well written headline needs no visuals at all.

When we write ad copy we convey a personality and set a tone. We also set expectations. When potential customers visit your website or skim over your magazine ad, they can’t really size you up as they could had they met you in person. The words you choose and the tone you set when writing ad copy must project and support your brand personality while building trust. It must also remain consistent across all media in order maintain that trust.

Don’t rely on vague statements like, “Dedicated to the very best customer service”. Anyone can say that. It doesn’t give your audience any useful information and it doesn’t do anything to build trust or support your unique brand position. Instead, try setting yourself apart with a statement that your competition honestly cannot make. This is key to giving any potential customer a reason to buy from you and not the other guy. Consider the line made famous by Bounty paper towels, “The quicker picker-upper.” Clever yes, but also relevant and easy to remember. The message was supported with demonstration of the product doing what it does best — soaking up spills. This tagline, combined with visual support, gave Bounty a huge advantage over their competition.

Should you write your own copy? If you happened to be a smart, talented writer, more power to you! But, don’t write your own copy just to save money. If writing is not your forte, you could very well do more harm than good. Consider hiring a professional writer. In addition to the technical skills a professional writer possesses, you’ll also benefit from the fresh perspective someone outside the company will bring to the assignment.

Words, working in harmony with design, are the foundation of effective marketing communications. Don’t settle for just getting the word out, make a real effort and say it like you mean it!

The Conceptual Framework

With the second installment of our five-part series about getting the most from your design and advertising projects, I’d like to address a topic we see many small business owners repeatedly overlooking in their marketing efforts: campaign concept.

When we discuss creativity, we often define it in terms of talent, originality, fashion, trends, and award winning innovation. For the sake of the bottom-line however, we must think differently. Creativity should be redefined as an original way to sell a product or communicate an idea. When we simply follow trends, we are resorting to a form of hit-and-run marketing without any real substance. When we shift our focus towards defining and conveying a genuine message, we can produce great campaigns that move merchandise while building a strong brand.

According to studies described by a recent article in Newsweek, American creativity is declining. We believe it. We're often faced with clients coming to us and wanting to mimic something cool they saw in a magazine or on a website. The intention is generally to put their own spin on the idea and either make an attempt at a hard sell or just hope their prospects think it’s as cool as they think it is. There are a number of problems with this approach, but the biggest is that it simply does not address the client’s specific business needs.
Relevance Sells Better Than Persuasion

People do not want to be sold to, but they love to buy things. Taking the time to do the research and defining your opportunities is the first step in developing a real campaign concept. Does this mean you have to beat yourself up trying to develop the most creative campaign known to man? Of course not. But, you do have to develop a memorable concept that enforces your competitive advantage and brings your message home to the only people who really matter — your customers.

Want to know the three easy steps for creating an effective campaign concept? Well, there aren’t any. But there are three steps that take a bit of effort… and you really should follow them:

1. Determine every distinct advantage you have over your competition.
2. Focus on the strongest one.
3. Write a creative work plan to define where you are, where you want to be, and how best to get there.

At this point you’ve laid the groundwork for developing a real concept that will achieve a real goal. Now, during the creative process be critical but non-judgemental, record every idea, and try not to overlook the obvious. Implement any number of methods for idea generation — mind mapping, group brainstorming sessions, or hiring a professional creative team — but always stick to the criteria as defined in your creative work plan. You’re sure to end up with a solid concept that will give you more bang for your advertising buck and contribute to your long-term success.

The killer tip: Use creativity to make an emotional connection with your customers while maintaining a message that appeals to their rational thinking.

Advertising Design: Planning For Success

This is the first in a five part series to help you, as a marketer, get the most from your design and advertising projects. The following information, advice, and tips are compiled from 22 years experience dealing with the best and worst habits of a wide variety of clients on an even wider variety of projects.

Getting started on your next marketing project shouldn’t mean staring at a blank page wondering where to start. It also shouldn’t mean jumping on the latest hot trend — you don’t need to be on Facebook if it doesn’t fit into a real strategy. Smart marketers do their homework and create a strategic plan. This means developing a strategy for the project at hand that meshes with the strategy of your brand overall. It’s all about research and decisions and it’s far too much to cover here. We strongly recommend the Principles of Marketing Tutorials from KnowThis.com to get you off on the right foot.

Once all the legwork is done, you'll be in a position to determine a realistic budget that covers all of the following project phases…

• Creative Concept development, copywriting, graphic design, photography, etc.
• Production Printing, videography, web development, etc.
• Media/Delivery Broadcast, print, outdoor, online, direct mail, guerrilla, etc.

Next, you should plot a timeline for getting things done and be prepared to stick to it. Including reasonable time for all of the above phases will save you from unnecessary rush charges and the risk missing deadlines — media deadlines often do not budge and missing them can be costly. Even being generally unorganized will likely create the need for additional administrative tasks, resulting in additional billable time and delays in production. Smart time management goes hand-in-hand with smart planning.

Finally, you need to put the general scope of your project on paper. Using our Creative Work Plan is a great way to point your project in the right direction from the get-go. This worksheet will force you to focus on substance and avoid the pitfalls of thinking in terms of colors and fonts.

That’s the planning stage in a nutshell: Doing research & making decisions, allocating time & money, and planning for creative execution will ensure you start your project well armed and ready to conquer.

Our next article will cover project workflow — specifically the Critical Path.

The Less You Know…

Good graphic design is about building and maintaining the right image for your business. It’s an integral part of brand building and it’s vital to the success of your advertising. On the same token, our success as a design firm lies in your satisfaction as our valued client.

There was a time when clients hired graphic designers — more commonly referred to as commercial artists back in the day — to develop a concept, work out the design, and produce the final visuals. The client simply provided the scope of work and made decisions. However, with today’s technological advancements, many clients have gotten their hands dirty in software like Photoshop and played around with fonts to some degree. Because of this, the notion of design as a specialized skillset has been greatly diminished. Even so, design today remains as it always has been — a process of problem solving and the execution of business-driven solutions.

When a skilled designer positions your logo in a certain manner on the page, she does so for reason. When she selects a particular font, she does so for a reason. Designers utilize white space for a reason. Designers select certain color combinations for a reason. The reason in all of these cases is to communicate effectively and to maintain brand integrity for the benefit of your business. A good designer can back up his aesthetic choices with fact and theory. It’s also true that any designer you hire will bring his own style and experience to your project and not every designer is a good match for every project. When you make the decision to hire a specific designer, his individual style should play a huge part in why you hire him. Keep this in mind throughout the design process and remain aware that this is the style you chose and this is the style that you are going to get. A good client sets personal taste aside and focuses on making sound business decisions. A good designer gets past technology and implements sound design principles.

The old adage that someone knows “just enough to be dangerous” really holds true in this age of blurred lines between computer graphics and smart design. The worst thing that you, as the client, can do is to dictate aesthetic things like fonts and colors and positioning. The less you know about such things, the better off you will be in turning out a successful design project.

Resolutions In Focus

Scour the Internet this time of year and you’ll find post after post offering guidance on New Year’s resolutions for marketers and entrepreneurs. The typical ideas usually fall into the realms of budgeting, customer relations, branding, strategies and SEO and social media. Some of these suggestions can get pretty specific about setting goals. I’d like to be a little more vague this year.

I’d like to suggest that your number one resolution for this year should be to get focused. Focus on what you do best and delegate the rest. This means investing all of your time in the things that you can do better than anyone else. Are you the founder of a company with an innovative product? Perhaps your time should be spent almost entirely on product development. Does your strength lie in crunching numbers? You should be focused on budgeting and fiscal planning. Or maybe you’re a top notch people person? You should be leading the sales force or out in the field rubbing elbows with consumers. Whatever the case may be, the thing you do best is the thing you should focus on doing.

Focus also means to stop stretching yourself thin with tasks that someone else could do better. Delegating the tasks that are not your specialty will help you get everything done more efficiently and more effectively. This could mean giving your administrative staff more responsibilities or hiring a personal assistant if your are self-employed. It might also mean hiring more specialists for your staff and farming out more work to independent contractors or partnering with specialty firms.

Being focused will result in being more efficient and, in turn, more productive. More productivity always helps the bottom line.