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.

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.

Why do you exist?

Normally at the end of year I would write a post about getting your marketing plan and budget in shape for the coming year. Not this time. This time I’m going to ask a simple question… Why do you exist? Or, more specifically… Why did you start a business in the first place?

The obvious answer for most is to make a profit selling a product or service. Some may even say it’s to make a profit doing something they are passionate about. But, that’s not really why your business exists. As Simon Sinek describes it in his book Start With Why, why your business exists is “The problem it set forth to solve or the change it wanted to make.” It is not your strategies or your goals, it is your reason for being.

This reason must lie outside the business itself. It must lie in society, because business is a major force in shaping society. No, I’m saying that all businesses must be philanthropic in nature — but wouldn’t that be wonderful — what I’m saying is that your reason for existing as a business is to make an impact on society. This impact may come in the form of helping underprivileged children get shoes on their feet. It may be that you intend to change how the world uses computers. Or it may be something more practical like helping dog owners find a good place to eat. Whatever the case may be, this is the reason that drives your business. this is why you exist.

Why does Catch Light Productions exist? That’s an easy one. We want to help small businesses stop settling for less when it comes to their marketing — to fill the gap between modest budgets and outstanding results. We achieve this by remaining lean and pulling together specialized teams to match the specific needs of each individual client.

So, as the new year approaches take some time to think about why you exist. When you realize your reason for existing, the game changes. Your marketing efforts will seek to fill a valid and well defined need rather than simply persuade a consumer to make a purchase.

Working With A Creative Marketing Firm

Working with a creative marketing firm for the first time often prompts a few concerns. How successful will they be in interpreting your needs? How can they meet those needs most effectively? How can they do it most efficiently? How much will it cost?

Laying The Foundation. The first thing most firms normally do after being assigned a project is to schedule an information-gathering session with you and your key staff. They’re interested not only in scheduling, budget and job specifications, but also in your competition, target audience, and objectives. And they want to know all the features and benefits of your product or service. This will help sharpen the focus and objectives and in turn, ensure that the solution they produce is not only creatively excellent, but strategically targeted.

The Right Ideas. It’s best if you designate only one or two key decision makers at your company to work directly with your marketing firm. This way everyone stays focused on real solutions and are not distracted by too many personal opinions. Expect the creative team to present only two or three initial concepts showing completely different approaches to the project at hand. Many clients ask for five, six, seven or even more concepts, but offering too many solutions up front only complicates things and usually results in a poorly developed marketing piece.

The Schedule. Despite popular misconceptions, good creative work doesn’t normally come in a flash of inspiration. It usually comes from much trial and error. This is why the creative team needs to take the time to consider several approaches, work them through, and revise them. In addition, your marketing firm usually needs to address budgeting, printing, media placement, scheduling, and other issues relevant to the success of the project. All this, plus the need to perform in a businesslike fashion, means that your promptness in providing materials and making approvals is crucial if your deadlines are to be met.

The Budget. All companies, all industries, all products have different marketing needs — and different methods of determining budgets. Introduction of a new company or product requires heavy spending based on anticipated results, while an established business might implement an annual marketing budget based on previous year’s sales. Although your creative marketing firm can’t tell you how much to spend, they can certainly help you maximize the return on your investment. You should leverage this expertise.

There Is No Box

It happened again. A client came to me about doing a new direct mail campaign and said, "We need to start thinking outside the box." The problem is that most people don't really get what outside the box means and they tend to use this phrase either out of frustration of not having an immediate answer to why their marketing efforts have been sub-par, or as a way of covering the fact that they are simply lost and don't know how to approach their marketing needs.

The non-existent box as explained in The Matrix…

Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Boy: Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Thinking outside the box requires a willingness to take new perspectives and to create value in new ways. The problem is that people tend to approach this without looking inside first. The results are generally off-the-wall ideas that get everyone excited but miss the mark and are really little more than a gimmick. So instead, let's try focusing on who we are, where we fit in, and how we relate to our intended audience…

* What is our key opportunity?
* Who is our target audience?
* Where do we want to be?
* How do we get there?
* What is our primary consumer benefit?
* What should the consumer's net impression be?
* What support do we have?
* What are the mandatory facts that we must communicate?
* How do we want the consumer to respond?

Thinking outside the box creates a separation between our brand and our audience. Just as Neo must become one with the spoon, you must become one with your brand. Once you've done that, you begin to realize that there is no box and that your brand can interact freely with your audience. You will development more creative — and more effective — ideas to bend your marketing in the right direction.

Catch Light Productions
http://www.catchlight.com

Download our free Creative Work Plan and become one with your brand today.

The Worst Advertising

It never fails, every time I hit the highway I see a billboard that boldly states…

"Does advertising work? It just did!"

I bet you've seen a similar billboard on your daily commute — proudly displaying it's pointless message in a horrible combination of fonts and colors. It is designed to serve one purpose and that purpose is simply to get everyone's attention. This, my friend, is advertising at it's worst. Why would I suggest that getting attention is bad advertising? Because it congratulates itself on having produced a result, but the result was nothing more than me reading the message. The advertising was in no way relevant to me as a consumer. Getting my attention acheived nothing. The simple fact is that the billboard company would be doing itself a huge favor if they would simply state, "Your message here." with their phone number prominently displayed. This would have addressed a potential prospect's need while providing a call-to-action. Their message does neither.


Just Be Relevant

You can impress your audience with a bold, cutting edge style. You can even wow your audience with a really creative concept. Your ad could show off every incredible feature your product offers and you can have the lowest price in town. But, if your message is not relevant to your target audience, no amount of persuasion is going make it sell.

The first thing you must do is make sure you are talking to the right audience. The second things is to make sure you show them how your product is going to meet their needs or fulfill their desires. For example, help them make or save more money, save them time, allow them to avoid doing stuff they don’t like, help them feel better about themselves. Whatever the case may be, make sure your message is relevant — and your product lives up to your pitch — and you'll be on your way to producing the best advertising ever!

Howard L. Theriot
Catch Light Productions
http://www.catchlight.com

Something Unexpected

In today's highly competitive marketplace, consumers can choose from any number of competing sellers in order to get what they want. When you and your competitors offer the same quality product and rely on low prices, loss leaders, and special incentives to make the sale, the product becomes a mere commodity and price is all that matters. But, when you shift your focus away from the sale and toward the consumer experience, you change the playing field.

Far too often, consumer experiences are delivered short of expectations. With the heavy presence of social media in our lives today, there's big buzz about "engaging" the consumer. But, I don't think too many of us understand what that really means. Doc Searls in writing about “the intention economy”, suggests that buyers find sellers, as opposed to sellers capturing buyers. He also shows us that the seller must earn respect and trust, and that branding is only useful if it is based on truth. Sellers must focus first and foremost on building relationships with buyers. The sale is a by-product of this relationship.

Building successful relationships with consumers means becoming transparent and giving them more than they expect. Now, more than ever, we must be focused on the quality of the consumer experience in addition to the quality of our product and service. Relationship building goes much deeper than simply putting your best face forward. It goes deep into that all important courtship, and it takes a whole lot more than giving flowers and holding hands to grow a beautiful relationship. It takes trust. It takes passion. It takes creativity. It takes honesty.

The average consumer prefers recommendations from family and friends over advertising. And, according to a Forrester research study examining consumer trust with various forms of advertising, consumer opinions posted online scored higher than traditional marketing tactics. Social media has permeated our daily lives to the degree that buying decisions are often based on the recommendations from around the globe instead of merely across the dinner table. This is an opportunity to capitalize on the marketing holy grail: word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, many marketers go wrong by trying to manage word of mouth. You cannot manage word of mouth. You can create the right circumstances to encourage good word of mouth. That's all you can do.

The fact is that consumers can no longer be sold to. Whether you like it or not, they are in control of when and how they buy. They know what's going on in the marketplace and they come to you armed with product reviews and competitive offers. As a marketer, now is the time to reinvent your approach in order to win consumers and meet business goals.

The opportunity is right in front of you and the choice is yours… simply do your job and deliver what you're supposed to deliver, or rise above and beyond the call of duty by delivering something great. Something unexpected.