Professionally designed marketing pieces create a positive image for your business and speak to a standard of excellence while helping to develop customer confidence in the ability of the company to delivery on services promised. Credibility and trust are the cornerstones on which to build lasting customer relationships. 

Take a moment to check over your marketing materials.  Do they continue to create credibility for your company or are they dated and need some sprucing up.?  Start building credibility with your customers through quality marketing and watch your business grow.

Organization –Take some time to organize your thoughts and assemble some ideas on what you want the final project to look like before you meet with a graphic designer. What colors, images and themes do you want to include in the project?  What is the message you want to send to your audience?  Who will write the copy and do the photography?  Good organization will reduce the amount of time and money spent to create your project.

Good Communication – Develop good communication at the onset of the project to ensure you are working with the right graphic designer for you. Good communication is key to any working relationship but without this important element, precious resources can be used ineffectively.  Does the graphic designer understand your business and your goals? Will your graphic designer keep you informed through all stages of the project so you know what to expect for deadlines, costs, and the final product?  Good communication minimizes frustration for both you and designer and paves the way to a successful conclusion.

Work Style – When working with or selecting a graphic designer, learn how they operate their business.  What are their policies and procedures, billing practices and expectations?  Does their style mesh with your style?  Does your graphic designer provide you a written agreement before starting a project so expectations and responsibilities for both parties are full explained before the project starts?  Understanding the work style of the graphic designer you select can avoid misunderstandings and pave the way to a productive working relationship.

I hope these tips are helpful and provide you the framework for your next successful creative project.

ONT 

When I started in the creative industry many years ago, I was a typesetter and quickly became an expert in matching, selecting and using different fonts to best deliver my client’s message to their customer.  Bold, Italic, size, color and spacing all play a part in font usage within a design and add (or detract) from the message.

Fonts generally come in three classes: serif (Roman), san serif and script.  A serif is the little “cap” that is often at the top or bottom of letters and are used in Times Roman and Garamond.  San serif fonts have no “cap” and are clean simple fonts like Arial, Optima, and Futura. Script fonts have a handwritten quality to them and evoke emotion.  Because of the difference in size between the capital letters and the lower case letters, script fonts often need to be sized larger than serif and san serif fonts in order to be readable.  There are, of course, some fonts that are in a class all by themselves.  Times Roman and Arial fonts featured above are the same point size.

Another important consideration with font usage is readability and legibility.  A font may be readable and very attractive but not necessarily legible.  Most copy is written using legible fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Times Roman, Tahoma, and Verdana.   When designing an ad, for instance, the heading may be an eye-catching font to grab the readers attention while the body copy will most likely use a very legibile font to deliver the message. For more information on readability and legibility, see It’s About Legibility article from Fonts.com. The two fonts shown here are Occidential and Tahoma and are the same point size.

To further explain my point, take the Calamity Jane font used for the “F” in the word “font” at the beginning of this article.  It’s very classic serif lines are combined with a whimsical curly top to create a unique style. I’ve used the same font in this artwork incorporated into WhataGreatEvent.biz website.  This is an example of a readable but not legible font.  Imagine what this ad would look like if I’d used san serif text?  The ad wouldn’t look nearly as elegant or interesting. 

Another very relevant use of fonts is in the design of logos. Fonts can be combined, distorted, spaced, condensed, colored, outlined, shadowed and used very creatively to develop a unique brand identity.  This particular logo uses Helvetica and  Myriad Pro to create a distinct look that has a strong presence online or in a printed piece.   The Helvetica font is very legible and was selected to create name recognition for this Portland, Maine real estate broker. The decorative “M” is used to grab the viewers attention and continue the name recognition goals of the overall design. 

There are literally thousands of fonts on the market, many of which can be viewed on Fonts.com. When you have a few minutes, take a cruise about the fonts library … then put your creative juices to work by moving your current artwork to the next level with use of a great font!

Over the years I’ve seen many wonderfully designed ads  ….. and some not so lovely ads ….. the “homegrown” variety.  We’ve all seen them and wondered “what were they thinking when they put this together?” 

To help you avoid a advertising pitfalls, I’ve put together a few tips together when creating an effective ad for both print or internet mediums.

1. Pick Your Target Market – When planning your ad, keep your target audience in mind.  Not everyone will be interested in what you have to offer but some of the population will be.  Know your potential customers and gear your ad toward your target market.  If you haven’t created an accurate profile of your potential customer, then start this process by talking to a market research professional.  Their research and comments may surprise you.

Keep Your Message Simple – Get right to the point with your message.  People are very busy these days and don’t have time to figure out what you’re trying to say.  Make it easy for them to understand your message by clearly stating it. If you are using a clever headline, make sure your audience will not be confused.  Run your sample ad by other people to get their impressions.  If they don’t get your message, your potential customers may not get it either.

Compelling Graphics- Make your ad visually interesting to capture the reader’s attention.  Readers are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of visual materials each day, all day.  Use an attractive photograph, a carefully crafted design or humor that most people can understand to grab the reader’s attention.

Branding – Does your ad continue your brand? Did you include your company logo?  Every once in a while I go to a website listed on a marketing piece and left wondering if I was at the correct website.  A branding disconnect between the marketing piece and the web site left me feel confused.  Remember, “confused people don’t buy” so be consistent with your branding in all your marketing.

Call to Action – A simple “Give us a call for more information”,  “Check our website” or “Look for us on Facebook” is all that is needed.  Ask your potential customers to do something.  The idea is to start a conversation with them.

Consider Placement – When designing your ad, consider where the reader will see it.  If its a printed ad, will it be on the back cover or somewhere inside the magazine.  If an online ad, will it be featured on the homepage as a banner ad or in another location on the site.  Gear your ad design and content to its location and potential readership.

Contact Information – Don’t forget your contact information and address.  Every once in a while I come across an ad that doesn’t include contact information or it is difficult to find within the ad.  Make it simple for your reader to locate and contact you.  If it is too hard for your potential customer to locate and call you, they may not call.

Keep it Professional – Does your ad give your reader the impression that your business provides professional, quality services and products?  We are all keeping a close watch on our wallet these days but cutting corners in the quality of your advertising can hurt your image.  A well designed, professional quality ad speaks volumes about the quality of the advertiser and focuses a positive light on your business.

I hope these tips were helpful and inspire you to carefully plan your advertising.

Marketing is somewhat the same way. Effective marketing reaches its target where they are  ~ and all customers are not found in the same place.

For instance, if you were planning an evening out with friends and wanted to know what events were scheduled for that evening, where would you find that information? You might check the local visitor’s bureau, newspaper, radio, online listings, social media, other sources. If your friends were also looking for Friday night activities, chances are they would check some of the same places you did but also some you hadn’t thought of checking. You and your circle of friends would be looking for the same information at different locations or channels.

On the flipside, if you owned a restaurant and wanted to tell a certain audience about a band playing at your establishment, where would you advertise (market) yourself so your audience will see the ad? audience looks for information in the same place, doesn’t it make sense to marketing your restaurant using different marketing channels or venues? Multiple marketing channels include magazine advertising, social media, online ads and websites, email marketing, signs, direct mail, business cards, and many more outlets.

For our restaurant, we may want to use these channels: newspaper event listing, social media, flyers, website, email marketing, local online bulletin boards or text messages to our regular customers.

Getting back to our original question, are marketing channels and TV channels alike? Yes, they are! Learn your target market so you know where they look for information. Plan your marketing thoughtfully using a variety of media outlets so no matter what “channel” your customers use to get their information, your company’s message is where they will find it.