FREE BAIT!

Yesterday, I played hookie and spent the day on Smith Island, Maryland. This is a true island off of the lower Eastern Shore, accessible by ferry from Crisfield. The island is home to residents that made their living crabbing and oystering on the Chespeake Bay. The island’s economy has suffered due to the regulations placed on this industry as well as the depletion of the crab and oyster population in the bay.

Some marketing-savvy folks realized that something needed to be done to boost the economy and keep this treasure of a community thriving. The island has so many assets including miles of marsh with trails for kayaking, beautiful scenery, a rich history and a very delicious dessert: the nine layer cake that defies gravity and your waistline.

It was a team effort. One team set out to make the Smith Island Layer Cake the Maryland state dessert. Hundreds of cakes were baked and thousands of slices were passed out in Annapolis to encourage the state legislature to make it official. And it was, which meant tons of media coverage locally, nationally and internationally which probably added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars of airtime. Restaurants are now featuring the state dessert on the menu from DC to Ocean City. This is the value of creating buzz.

While state senators were sampling Smith Island cake, another team was tackling trails for paddling on the island. The dessert got the island name out but people needed something besides sweet treats to come here.  Nature enthusiasts on the shore knew that Smith Island was a great place to kayak and with eco tourism on the up and up, they wanted to get the word out that Smith Island is the perfect paddling destination. Trails were marked and maps were created and printed in a waterproof brochure. The efforts were supported by several organizations that are dedicated to creating eco tourism opportunities while preserving natural assets.

Websites in support of these efforts were developed including www.visitsmithisland.com and www.paddlesmithisland.com. And, yesterday all of this came together with the grand opening of the water trails and ceremony for the cake. It was amazing to see all of the efforts of the people involved and hopefully this will pay off for the islanders who are probably a little miffed by all the buzz. All of those cake bakers have quickly took on a little celebrity status.

I have to tell you that if you need a short getaway where you can truly relax and take in the scenery, this is the perfect spot. Your cell phone doesn’t even work there which to me is a huge plus. This is the simple life of which many of us could use a therapeutic dose. Have I mentioned the crab cakes?

Congratulations to Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experiences, the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the volunteers that put this all together. Smith Island is now on the map as a Maryland destination not to be missed.

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This is one of my favorite times of year in Ocean City, Maryland. Every day, you see summer unfold before you. A morning walk on the boardwalk yields a glimpse into the way that the resort polishes up for its expected summer guests. The fences that hold back beach erosion in the winter are removed to make way for boarded walkways to the beach. Lifeguard stands and umbrella boxes appear ready for work and shops and concessions are waking up from hibernation.

This summer brings a level of concern among resort area business owners. The threat of recession, skyrocketing gas prices and the real estate collapse has put a level of doubt in minds as to what to expect in profits.

This is where creative marketing needs to be implemented. While Ocean City still advertises that its “more fun here,” other area resorts are taking measures to point out their budget friendly assets. Virginia Beach encourages visitors to spend their economic stimulus checks with area hotels offering packages that come right under the expected refund a typical family can expect. Avoiding airline delays and overpriced tickets is another benefit of vacationing close to home. Cheaper gas prices on the shore compared to the city are another plus of visiting.

Using the Web is a smart way of spreading this news. It is cheaper, always updateable and widely used by travelers. I am seeing a major jump in Web marketing efforts this year because people are realizing that it casts a wide net without a lot of advertising dollars at stake.

We all know that Americans feel entitled to their vacations so presenting them reasons to move forward with summer getaway plans shouldn’t be a tough sell. I would advise business owners to come together to develop packages that will appeal to hesitant vacationers. Offer incentives and spread the word on the Web. Summer 2008 may very well suprise us.

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This is a little lecture on business protocol and practicing good business protocol lends itself to good public relations for your small business.

As a graphic designer, I meet lots of competition from all facets: ad agencies, other freelance designers, companies that sell web templates, even Staples. All of us are clamoring for the same projects with a multitude of different offerings and pricing plans.

Pricing in my industry runs the gamut. There is no real benchmark and sometimes as you sit down to write a proposal, you have no idea how to price it because it is hard to tell how your competition will be pricing their work. I also feel that it would be tough to be in a prospective client’s position. If three proposals sit before you, do you take the lowest to save money and get what you pay for or does the highest guarantee a quality job?

I always try to submit a comprehensive proposal with a fair price for a high quality of work. With me, you get someone who works with you, returns your phone calls and stays on deadline. Simple concepts, but not everyone applies those same practices.

When I sit down to write a proposal, I take time to evaluate the project and predict the future of how it will play out. I spend time on it and time is money. That is why, I don’t think its much to ask for the recipient of the proposal to let me know if they are going to pass on using my services. Its not going to upset me or sink my business, instead, it frees me up to pursue other projects that I may have held back on to keep my schedule open for the possibility of moving ahead with said project.

I think it is good business practice to be forthright and honest. Let people know why you are passing on their proposal. It is not a bad thing. The feedback is valuable in developing future proposals and certainly is a courteous offering for our time. By keeping the relationship positive and honest, that person or their company may be there for you should the company you select not work out - which, by the way, happens a lot.

When one door closes, another opens. So please, let us know if you aren’t planning to come in. It frees up space for a new visitor.

All the best and don’t forget to vote!

AMW

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When you think of a brand, you may think of Nike or Nabisco, Apple or Microsoft. Brands are all around us. We can identify them by their name, their logo, their image and their product. Apple is cool and hip, Microsoft is serious and intellectual, Nike is power, etc. These are all ways we identify brands or products.

As a small business owner, you may be selling a product or service, but you may not think of yourself, your product or your service as a brand. I would recommend for you to start doing so because brands communicate to the customer. Brands create awareness, recognition, customer loyalty - ask any Apple owner - we are very loyal to that brand.

According to Alina Wheeler in Designing Brand Identity:
“Compelling brand identity presents any company, any size, anywhere with an immediately recognizable, distinctive, professional image that positions it for success. An identity helps manage the perception of a company and differentiates it from its competitors.”

All small business owners and employees are pressed for time. Creating a brand can be overwhelming so breaking it down in small, easy steps will make it a little more digestible. Let’s roll up our sleeves and start with creating a foundation on which we will build your brand.

• Conduct research on your competition.
If you have been in business for a long time you may have conducted research on your competition as well as your target market in the business plan stage, but during a branding initiative, it is a good time to revisit. Much changes over time and your competitors several years ago may have shifted. You may be facing a whole new onslaught of competition. Maybe you used to only compete locally but now that physical boundaries are blurred by the Internet and your competition could live on the other side of the world.

If you are starting up, you need to go through a competitor analysis as part of developing a business plan. Find out how the competition is perceived by their customers. What makes your offerings different or better? How do you wish to communicate those differences?

• Know your customer.
Are they urban or suburban, tech geeks or not technically savvy, are they tourists or locals, are they senior citizens or tweens?
Know who your customer is or who the potentially could be. You want them to embrace your brand. People gravitate to people with like interests so you want them to spread their loyalty to your brand, so create one that speaks to them.

For example, I have friends who own a fitness center. Every time you go there, they have predetermined workouts ready for you. These workouts are hard, but they are ideal because they are short—you are usually out within thirty minutes. Their typical customers tend to be people over thirty who work or have kids in school and have lost interest in wandering around a gym for an hour. They want to work and feel motivated and they are willing to invest a little more money than the typical monthly gym fee to feel a sense of accomplishment and for the one-on-one service. So they bread down to men and women, ages 30-50, financially stable, suburban professionals that live within a 5-mile radius of the facility and value exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

If you have been in business a while, think about your current customers—who are they and how can you position yourself to get more of them. Talk to your customers and find out what they like about your company and what they associate with your offerings. Your customers are your best resources.

• Compile a unique selling proposition.
Now that you have researched your competitors and became one with your customers, whether existing or potential, you will create your unique selling proposition. In a few sentences, describe your offerings and think about what separates you from your competitor. Are you more efficient, less expensive or do you offer a higher quality product or service? Marinate on this statement and most importantly, make sure everyone on your team agrees with it and believes it.

These are good first steps to getting your brand developed. Next week, we will develop a plan of attack to get the tools you need to start communicating your brand.

All the best!

Wheeler, Alina. Designing Brand Identity. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

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Like anything, marketing your business should be well planned out. Starting with a plan and logical steps is imperative to marketing in a smart and budget-minded way. Marketing takes money, but with some creativity and a good road map - you can spend wisely and not waste you hard earned dollars.

Many of my clients will put an ad here or there whenever a good deal comes up. While taking advantage of good deals is a good thing, it is also wasting money to place an ad in a publication that may not hit your target market.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to give you steps to creating and implementing a solid marketing program from developing solid branding to creating marketing materials that work together to spread your message.

If you don’t really have a marketing plan of attack, please read these posts. Too many small business owners avoid marketing or brush it off as unnecessary. Do you think Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and other corporate giants think marketing is unnecessary? They didn’t start off as corporate giants. Don’t underestimate the potential of your bottom line and its relationship with your marketing plan.

Check back later this week for the first installment. Got questions? Email me - I am happy to help.
All the best!

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Its that time of year where we begin thinking resolutions. Whether its weight loss, balancing your checkbook (my resolution every year) or promising to clean out your garage, the possible life improvements that people plan to make on January 1st are usually abundant.

But what are your business resolutions? How about updating your website?

Websites are just amazing little marketing gifts. With proper attention and regular care, they can be your most cost effective and most successful form of marketing. Problem is, many small businesses find that theirs has been collecting dust on the Internet for the last year. Yes, maybe its time to take off that offer that expired in October of 2004.

The thing with the world of web design is that the expectation of what to find on a website changes from year to year. The days of the brochure website are over - people are looking for more than just information - they want to visit websites that do stuff.

So how can you take advantage of this trend? Here are some thoughts:

• Consider freshening up your design. If you had your site created a few years ago, its likely to need a little makeover to make it look current. Why is this important? Like bell bottoms and bee hive hairdos, a website design can become dated and you likely don’t want to send that message to your customer.
• Add a blog. This is a great way to keep your content fresh. Blogs are cheap, simple to use and a good way to show your credibility. Not sure if anyone will read your blog? The search engines do and that can help your customer find you faster.
• Add a video. Do a demo of your product or just a short intro to your website. A video on your site is cheaper that purchasing broadcast airtime. Video creates emotion - its adds a dimension to your business that print just can’t.
• Make a resolution to update your site on a monthly basis. No matter what, schedule regular content updates. This helps you manage your visitor’s impression of your business. It lets them know you are there.

When all is said and done, your website shouldn’t be a nuisance to you, it should work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Small steps in keeping it updated should make your marketing life simpler in the long run. And maybe it will be a resolution you can keep.

All the best!

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Is print advertising dead? Clients often ask me if print advertising is effective particularly in weekly publications with shorter shelf lives. There have been many efforts made to track the return on investment on a print ad from $2 off coupons to the old “mention this ad” trick. Clients often tell me that they placed an ad in the local rag and didn’t get a response.

What it comes down to is that print advertising isn’t going to drive the masses through your doors, but it helps create awareness of your product or service. Don’t think you are going to place a quarter page ad and people are going to line up to give to fling their money at you, unless, of course, you are giving something away for free—like flatscreens or cars.

It usually never registers with people how they heard about you or what brings them to your business. Also, the younger Baby Boomers and the Gen X & Y crowd aren’t big into the coupon cutting because, quite honestly, $2 off really is worth the time to cut the coupon much less remembering where you put it.

If a print ad is designed and placed strategically and repeatedly, it generates awareness. Awareness means you are on the radar of your potential customer which is laying the foundation for the possibility that she will do business with you. Staying in the back of the heads of customers is the return on your advertising investment—its up to you to close the deal.

Here are 5 strategies that may improve your results from a print ad:

• Place regularly. One time isn’t going to cut it. You get a price break if you place for an extended amount of time. Can’t do it every week? Then place every other. Give it six weeks at least to start generating awareness.

• Keep your spot. Pick a position and stay there. This is effective if you have changing information like weekly specials. Your customer will know where to look for your information.

• Split it up. Instead of a half page, run two quarters and place them in the front and back sections. I don’t advise splitting a full page - you can’t beat that impact.

• Keep it simple. I cannot tell you enough how a simple message and clean design with good amounts of white space will be a million times more effective than an ad all jammed up with text. Just because you are buying space doesn’t mean that every centimeter needs an element. The eye will gloss over a busy ad which defeats your purpose.

• Say it with me…KEEP IT CONSISTENT! This goes back to my “Consistency is Key” post. If you are placing in multiple publications or for several weeks in one, make sure your messaging is consistent. That includes logo, tagline, color scheme, fonts, etc. Consitency is important right down to the way your print your phone number - is it 555.555.5555 or 555-555-5555?

These are my ideas for making print ads work for your advantage. They have worked with many of my clients. Weekly local newspapers are budget friendly and lay the foundation for any B2C advertising plan. Just have a strategy and have realistic expectations.

All the best!

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For my DIY friends out there armed with Microsoft Publisher and the best intentions, there are some things we graphic designers know that you may not. Now I am not at liberty to divulge all of our secrets because, after all, we need to eat and pay bills (not to mention the hefty art school student loans), but here’s a quick tidbit if want to make sure your next DIY brochure isn’t a dead giveaway:

Watch your typeface (aka font) choices.

Check out this video for more information:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1RqdZCo6vkI

What other fonts should you stay away from? Here are my top icky and overused typefaces:

• Sand (used it once and regretted it forever)

• Mistral

• Apple Chancery and Lucida Calligraphy (somewhat similar in design, both offensive especially in body copy)

• Papyrus (pretty in theory but so blatantly overused)

• Bradley Hand ITC (kind of like Comic Sans, abused a lot by Microsoftians)

Have a font you hate or mad that I hate your favorite font? Let me know! Post a comment.

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I just wanted to send mad props (yes I said “mad props”) to my treasured client and dear friends at Southern Delaware Tourism for their brand new website.

The website captures the spirit of Web 2.0 with interactivity and a clean interface with a CMS for inhouse updates. Good job to Scott Thomas and Aubrey Manzo and the folks at Inclind in Georgetown, DE. The design is bright and inviting. I particularly like the look and functionality of the events calendar. Events are a big part of tourism revenue so it is smart to put that front and center (well really top and left) on the home page.

Anyway, I like to point out good work when I see it and this one gets an “A.”

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The last five years have been glorious. All my 30+ friends that own houses were living large and loving it. Gucci purses, weekly spa treatments and lavish vacations.

It is very reminiscent of the mid-90’s when all my friends were working at AOL and planning to retire on stock options at 30.

And here we are facing a recession. Our houses aren’t such cash receptacles that they were two years ago. I know - I have two and can’t seem to unload either.

Many businesses, large and small, are quick to cut marketing budgets in these times. Luckily, small business owners are a little more flexible in budget adjusments than corporations.

According to Terry Brock, Marketing and Technology Coach, “Tough times have a lot of benefits for those that have that indomitable spirit to succeed. What many don’t realize is that tough times create enormous opportunities for those willing to seize the moment.” (http://www.terrybrock.com)

Be creative in your marketing. Its likely your competition is setting out to cut their budgets as well. Take advantage of that opportunity to shine.

Here are some money saving tips to staying on top:

• Negotiate ad rates. For print publications, you can pick up remnant ads which is unfilled space that crops up before they go to press.

• Create targeted campaigns. Really define your target audience and work on campaigns to reach them directly and creatively so you are not spending willy nilly without a defined message.

• Create word of mouth opportunities and incentives for existing customers to bring in potential customers. Make your customers your sales team.

• Send emails. You can email tips, helpful resources or discounts. Email blasts are cheap and people sign up for them if they think they are going to get something free.

• Provide great customer service. I can already tell you that you can beat your competition on this one. Customer service is severely lacking these days and creating a positive customer experience will win you business. Period.

Even if you are feeling the pinch of tough financial times, don’t let on that you are. Stay on top of things and keep your customers happy. This, too, will pass.

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