This is a question that we are getting more and more these days considering the tightening of the construction market and economy as a whole that has gone on for the last couple years.

The first part of the answer is that you should have been focused on marketing before the economy started to tighten because marketing takes both consistent effort and time to show results.

When I look at the financial performance of our clients including critical indicators such as backlog, the ones that are doing very well right now are the ones that have always had and currently have a strong focus on marketing.  The ones that are having difficulties are the ones where culturally their organizations were more focused on “doing work” during the booming economy rather than marketing.

OK – so regardless of where your company or the economy is at, you should be focused on marketing your business every day.

“Good marketing enhances your ability to say ‘NO’ to bad customers.”

Taking things in order first you need to decide on a few things before you even start to design your marketing package:

1. Strategy – Target Market: Before you start doing anything in regards to marketing, you should figure out generally who you should target and with what services.  It is important to look for markets where money is still flowing – marketing to the production residential builders today is probably not a good idea!  Good markets to look at involve some type of service/repair – in good times and especially in bad money gets spent to maintain existing facilities or infrastructure.
2. Differentiating Factor: After deciding what potential markets are out there with the most potential, take a hard look at your company.  You need to decide where you have a differentiating factor that sets you apart from the competition.  This may be experience, specialized equipment, key personnel or relationships.  It is very important that you are honest with yourself at this point about what truly makes your company different.

Where target markets and your differentiating factors have the most overlap is your “Marketing Sweet Spot,” and this is what you should build your marketing material around.

What comes next is what is called “Marketing Collateral,” which is the generic description for the various brochures, website and other materials that you use to market your business.  In this post, we are just going to focus on the elements that make up that package, not on an entire marketing plan.

Company Overview Brochure: Typically this comes in the form of an 11X17 half-folded brochure that provides a big picture look at the whole company.  It may include things like mission statements, vision, core values, brief history, overview of markets, etc.  It will work as the center piece for your marketing.

Company Information: This can be a 1-4 page insert sheet that provides basic information such as insurance, surety, contact information, etc.  It would answer most of the standard questions required to pre-qualify your company with a new client.  Part of this may be the insurance cert forms.

Project List: This should be a nicely formatted list that contains all the basics about projects your company has completed.  The information should include project name, size, client and a short 2-3 sentence description of the work noting anything key including finishing ahead of schedule or use of an innovative use of new construction technology.  You may want to maintain different lists for different project types so that your marketing package can be targeted to a specific market.

References: A simple one-page list relevant to a specific market that contains some selected quotes and reference contact information will be very effective.  This is more effective than trying to attach dozens of reference letters.  Get the letters, but summarize them into a single consistently formatted sheet.

Resources: If applicable to a particular market you are going after, you may want (or need) to produce a listing of the resources you have available including heavy equipment, software, accounting systems, project management and field crews.

Project “Sell Sheets:” These are individual sheets designed around a particular project that are heavy with pictures and provide more details about the project than the project list.  These are used as backup to augment the marketing package.  Once a template is designed, these can be built pretty easily to showcase individual projects.

Key Personnel – Professional Résumés: Building a professional résumé marketing piece that showcases the experience of all the key project personnel is very powerful.  These should be maintained for all personnel from superintendent through the senior management.  Your people and their collective experience is a key differentiating factor.

Intro Letter: Design a template of an introduction letter that can be easily modified when sending this marketing package.

Website: Your website should have at a minimum all the elements outlined above except formatted for the web.

Every element of this marketing package should focus on your differentiating factors and your target market.  No matter how great your marketing looks in one area, it may be totally ineffective in another.

Another thing to remember is that you need to simply be “Good enough” when it comes to building this package.  After a certain point, brochures don’t get shinier and résumés don’t get any better.  Set a strict time limit to producing this collateral in a first draft format and make the commitment to getting it out there.

In future topics I will cover actually putting this package into use – remember that the best marketing materials won’t do anything for your business unless you are getting them in the hands of potential clients.

There are several proven techniques for generating sales leads:

• Networking
• Advertising (TV/print/Web)
• Telemarketing and teleprospecting
• Direct mail, fax or e-mail marketing campaigns
• Web sites and search engine optimization
• Buying a sales lead list

Generating sales leads traditionally begins with networking. This is as simple as contacting your friends, family, former coworkers and existing clients and asking if they know anyone who may be interested in your product or service. These referrals are also called sales tips.
Besides networking, trade shows are excellent opportunities for business-to-business (B2B) networking. By setting up a table at a trade show, you can collect contact information from dozens of potential buyers and business partners.

Web advertising is fast becoming the most powerful way to generate sales leads. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, in the week of September 24-30, 2007, Web surfers clicked on over 53 billion online ads selling everything from financial services to cars to travel . These ads often lead to short surveys or contact forms that can be accessed in real-time by sales representatives. More on real-time and opt-in sales leads later.
Telemarketing and teleprospecting are two similar but distinct methods of generating sales leads. Companies contract the services of a telemarketing firm that employs operators who read from a prepared script. Operators sell a product or service directly to the public over the phone. Telemarketing, unfortunately, has a terrible reputation for being a nuisance (calling during dinner hours, offering products that have nothing to do with the potential client, et cetera) and has led to the creation of the National Do Not Call Registry.
Teleprospecting, on the other hand, is a B2B sales technique that employs trained operators — either in-house or from a third-party teleprospecting company — to contact targeted business prospects. In teleprospecting, the callers don’t talk from a script. Instead, they familiarize themselves enough with the product or service to be able to gauge the client’s interest. If a client wants to know more, the teleprospector refers the client to a salesman.
The quickest way to assemble hundreds or thousands of sales leads is to buy a sales lead list. There are dozens of direct marketing companies who collect and sell specialty lists for certain business and consumer sectors. The advantage of these lists is that a salesman can get instant access to thousands of names and numbers for a few hundred dollars. The disadvantage is that all these names are unqualified leads, meaning they haven’t been analyzed individually to see whether or not they’re a good match for the salesman’s specific product or service.

There is no better time than now for marketers to prove their value by demonstrating the revenue-generating potential of their department.

The knee-jerk response to shrinking sales is to focus on growth through customer acquisition. But experience has taught us that concentrating on understanding and keeping the customers you’ve got is the strongest strategy in battling churn.

Understand your customers
As Marketers begin to tighten their belts they must look at their customers in a new light. That means understand what customers expect. What is most important to them during a slowdown. And most important show your value. Don’t assume your previous customer insights and projects will hold stable. As economic challenges change consumer views dramatically change as well. Focus research investments more on customer behavior and tracking tools and less on branding. Create and disseminate engaging and relevant messages based on a solid understanding of customers’ preferences, needs and behaviors.

Concentrate on current customers
During a slowdown, it is smart to generate more value from current customers than to pursue new ones. In tough economic conditions, customers also feel vulnerable and are more likely to stay with a company than make a switch.

When people are worried about spending, increasing relevant engagement is more likely to generate sales than simply highlighting a brand. Engaging appropriately with customers during a slowdown and helping them through their own difficult situations will build stronger relationships. Capitalize on the trust and goodwill that you’ve created with existing customers and find ways to help them navigate the slowdown. That’s a strategy that will build both business and loyalty.

Analyze and segment
Customer profiling, clustering and value models are essential to identifying which customers spend the most, learning how to lift sales and detecting high-value customers showing signs of diminishing value. New behaviors are sure to emerge during a slowdown. Proactively assess and respond to them.

Marketers should focus on the improvement of the analytic battery of customer profiling, segmentation and modeling — not just analytics and insights, but also the ability to deploy effective targeted and relevant communications. This includes more sophisticated campaign planning, data management, creative execution and campaign management capabilities.

Knowing who to market to is often overlooked when marketers are forced to focus on just wrestling up enough resources to market to anyone, period. However, by focusing on these steps for gaining better customer understanding—along with those we will discuss in future articles—marketers can demonstrate their value as an asset with the potential to help any business ride out even the lowest of economic tides.

Unsuccessful direct mail campaigns can be largely attributed to not understanding the entire picture. Let me give you a few suggestions:

1. Develop a primary offer
The primary reason direct mail for consulting services fails is the lack of a specific offer. Do not end a letter with “Looking forward to working with you” or “I will call in a week or two” is certain to depress response to almost zero. If you tell people you will call them, they then have no incentive to call you first.
 
It’s far better to identify the next step in the sales process and then tell the reader to take it. Most consultants want the mailing to result in an initial meeting with the prospective client. Therefore, the letter might offer a “free, no-obligation initial consultation.”

Being more specific about the nature of this exploratory session and attaching a benefit to it will increase response. For example: “We will analyze your current insurance coverage at no cost and make suggestions that will reduce your annual premiums by 10 percent – or more.”

2. Develop a secondary offer
The primary offer will attract those prospects that are most eager to do business today or in the near future. However, this represents only a small fraction of the potential market. Therefore, a secondary offer is needed to attract those prospects who are not ready to meet right now but may have a need in three, six or 12 months.

This secondary offer is usually a free booklet, special report, brochure, fact sheet or other printed information the reader can send for by calling or mailing back a postpaid business reply card. I usually stress the primary offer in the body copy of my letter and the secondary offer in the P.S. For example: “P.S. To receive a free report explaining our four-step Market Planning Process, complete and mail the reply card today.”

Typically, from 50 to 90 percent of those who respond request the free information (secondary offer) rather than a face-to-face meeting (primary offer). Calling those who request the free booklet only and “selling” them on the benefits of a free consultation will reveal that 10 to 25 percent of the booklet requesters have genuine interest and can be talked into a meeting.

 3. Encourage both phone and mail response
Always include a business reply card in mailings; its absence can depress response to almost zero. Some consultants feel that using a business reply card in a personalized mailing aimed at executive prospects is somehow unprofessional. This is nonsense. Stress that the reader can respond either by mailing the reply card or calling. To encourage telephone response, mention the phone number in the letter copy, even if it appears on the letterhead. Omitting either one of these two basic response options (mail or Telephone), will depress response.

4. Establish credibility
Prospects want to deal with consultants who are experts in their field. Here are some techniques that can build this sense of credibility into the direct-mail package:

• Enclose an article you have written that deals with the topic of the consulting service being sold. This will help convince the prospect of your expertise. 
• Enclose a recent article written about you. This establishes that you are a recognized authority.
• Mention some of your clients – especially well known names in the prospect’s industry. If this would cause the prospect to worry about confidentiality, mention that you have obtained permission to list the names. 
• Enclose copies of letters of referral written for you by your clients. Testimonials are extremely effective; they make prospects feel comfortable and confident in your ability to serve them successfully. 
• Include associations you are a part of including the Better Business Bureau.
• Create a separate brochure that answers any questions the prospect might have about your service and lists your credentials. This kind of “full disclosure” alleviates anxiety and creates the impression that you are reliable and professional in your dealings. 
• Include your photo on the brochure, unless you think your appearance is a negative (e.g., you are extremely young looking or odd in grooming or dress). A photo gives prospects the feeling that they know you before they even meets or talk with you.

5. Use other promotion techniques to build your reputation
Direct mail is effective for generating immediate leads, but it is not the primary tool for enhancing credibility. To build a professional reputation, you must engage in an ongoing program of self-marketing that includes such activities as: writing articles, writing books, newsletter publishing, speaking engagements, public relations, teaching, seminars, networking, and being active in industry organizations and local business clubs.

6. Other Great Ideas
Other ideas for your direct mail campaign is using variable data and targeting your mailers to more specific regions or lists. Their are plenty of list services that you can use and tailor the area of your mailer campaign. Also frequency and adding a Personalized URL (PURL) can give you instant statistics and information about the ROI and response rate of the campaign.

Performing these activities will lead to a higher response to direct mail because the recipient will have already heard of you when he receives your letter. Without these ancillary marketing activities, your name will be unknown, and response rates will be significantly lower.

Hope this helps. If you need any direct mail design or services give me a call and I would be happy to help.

Dave Bollard

With what is going on in the economy right now I have good news and bad news. The good news is you will have fewer competitors next year because many of your competitors will be out of business. The bad news is you might be one of those out of business.

In a local newspaper yesterday the headline said, “Businesses Are Struggling.” In that same paper next to the headline I saw a full-page ad for a local appliance store. I’ll bet money that this business will be around next year. Why? Because that business is advertising more aggressively than its competition.

The importance of advertising and promotion is crucial in a down economy. Unfortunately many entrepreneurs listen to their accountant’s advice and cut back on advertising and promotion. That’s the worst thing you can do. When times get tough, be smart, be frugal and promote your business more, not less.

Promotion is a six-week cycle. That means if I promote today, business increases six weeks later. Many businesses violate the six-week cycle. They promote for, say, four weeks, and because nothing happens, they stop. Two weeks later, there’s a sudden increase in business. For four weeks, business remains strong. Then, just as suddenly, business drops off, because six weeks earlier, the business had stopped promoting.

Lesson one is to never stop promoting: Promote whether the economy is strong or weak; promote even when you may not have the money. If you have no money, stand on a street corner at lunchtime with a sign hanging around your neck promoting your product or service. Not only will you meet new customers, but you might also save money on lunch, lose some weight and get a suntan.

Obviously, it takes more than just promotion to do well. To be successful, a business also requires strong fundamentals and a desirable product or service. During tough economic times, though, even some good businesses fail; some businesses shrink and others grow. When a business closes, its customers migrate to the business that fights hard and stays open. Businesses that promote while others cut their ad budgets have a better chance of getting bigger . . . even if the economy is shrinking.

One example of social networking being used for business purposes is LinkedIn.com, which aims to interconnect professionals. It claims to have more than 20 million registered users from 150 different industries. Professional networking sites function as online meeting places for business and industry professionals. Other sites are bringing this model for niche business professional networking.

Virtual communities for business allow individuals to be accessible. People establish their real identity in a verifiable place. These individuals then interact with each other or within groups that share common business interests and goals. They can also post their own user generated content in the form of blogs, pictures, slide shows and videos. Like a social network, the consumer essentially becomes the publisher.

The traditional way to interact is face-to-face. Interactive technology makes it possible for people to network with their peers from anywhere, at anytime in an online environment. Professional network services attract, aggregate and assemble large business-focused audiences by creating informative and interactive meeting places.

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. 

Social networking websites is being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommended systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America,  Nexopia (mostly in Canada); Bebo, Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Tagged and Skyrock in parts of Europe; Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America; and Friendster, Orkut, and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Watch social networking emerge into a main marketing method for the future. With the youth and digital age of people social networking is the new word of mouth marketing format.

After searching the Internet for the answer and looking at site after site I have come to the conclusion that there is no perfect route. Many established graphic web designers from Digital Web Magazine have stated in a thread, “Formally Educated or Self-Taught?”, that most of them consider them selves self-taught designers. Before anyone despair, consider this. Most of these designers are established working men and women, meaning that they are from the generation that have developed the field of graphic web design. They were the one who created the careers that we are now interested in. Like all pioneers, there were no guilds to what to do.

But that is not the case anymore. After some research, some schools have come up that  offer courses in graphic web design. The Art Institute (There is now one in Utah) has over 40 campus location across the United States, including an on-line division. Yes, it’s true that The Art Institute can be seen as a trade or technical school and not as good as a four year university, but if it has what you need, and more importantly, what you want then that shouldn’t matter.

But it isn’t just The Art Institute that has graphic web design programs. Both the University of Washington and Washington State University have programs that have bachelors degrees. The University of Washington offers a course call Digital Arts and Experimental Media, or DXArts. At Washington State Universityy students can study in the field of Digital Technology and Culture. They both offer students a wide range of courses to choose from. Students looking into anything from 3D animation, photography to graphic web design have a good chance of finding what they need to do what they want.

The field of graphic web design is still young and it’s true that while there are still many things that will need to be self-taught, there are still many reasons a degree in a field that is related to graphic web design is important. Not only does it give you an edge over others it allows you to get some insight to what is meand to be in this field. In the end it gives you more choice, security, and directions to go in.

Sources:  Digital Web Magazine, The Art Institute, University of Washington, Washington State University

A phrase you hear often—design is in the details. With design, paying attention to small details—and focusing on “what isn’t right”—will take a design from “close” to “outstanding” and beyond.

When I attend meetings in which designers present their designs, (typically the first round of comps) for the first time. Most of the time, the presenting designer shows a rough product on the screen, and they usually believe the design is 90-100% done. But to the detail-savvy designer, the work is only 50-70% there. You can see the groundwork, foundation, and feel of the design in front of you, but you know it’s just not finished.

The goal of embracing details is to get you to think critically and present the best possible design you can—right from round one. In essence, you want your design to be ready for a real client presentation. So how do you take a design to 100%? You need to achieve polish, ridding the client’s mind of any doubt that the design is unfinished. It’s all too common for designers to feel rushed: you’re under deadline, you’re under pressure. But if you care about your craft and your ideas, you’ll take the extra time, perhaps working late into the night, as we all have, and add the touches that you know will make your work really shine. You know that feeling you get when you think, “Oh, I knew I should have tried that”? Do it the first time it comes to mind. Don’t let someone in your design review bring up an idea you thought of first.

I find myself thinking about designs I’m working on at odd periods of the day—in the shower, making dinner, or walking to the corner store. Small, quiet moments are when I have breakthroughs and solve problems. These are the times when the right details will appear. This isn’t often billable time, but it’s a good exercise to think about a design before attempting it. I imagine the look, the feel, and the details. I relish the details.

Detail work isn’t easy. It takes time, inspiration, and imagination. It is however, very good practice—it allows you to cultivate a critical eye to help yourself and your fellow designer. Relish the details and your designs will be phenomenal.

EPS format supports Lab, CMYK, RGB, Indexed Color, Duotone, Grayscale, and Bitmap color modes, and does not support alpha channels. EPS does support clipping paths. Desktop Color Separations (DCS) format, a version of the standard EPS format, lets you save color separations of CMYK images. To print EPS files, you must use a PostScript printer.

GIF: Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is the file format commonly used to display indexed-color graphics and images in hypertext markup language (HTML) documents over the World Wide Web and other online services. GIF is an LZW-compressed format designed to minimize file size and electronic transfer time. GIF format preserves transparency in indexed-color images; however, it does not support alpha channels. 

JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format is commonly used to display photographs and other continuous-tone images in hypertext markup language (HTML) documents over the World Wide Web and other online services. JPEG format supports CMYK, RGB, and Grayscale color modes, and does not support alpha channels. Unlike GIF format, JPEG retains all color information in an RGB image but compresses file size by selectively discarding data. 

A JPEG image is automatically decompressed when opened. A higher level of compression results in lower image quality, and a lower level of compression results in better image quality. In most cases, the Maximum quality option produces a result indistinguishable from the original. 

PCX: PCX format is commonly used by IBM PC-compatible computers. Most PC software supports version 5 of PCX format. A standard VGA color palette is used with version 3 files, which do not support custom color palettes. 

PCX format supports RGB, Indexed Color, Grayscale, and Bitmap color modes, and does not support alpha channels. PCX supports the RLE compression method. Images can have a bit depth of 1, 4, 8, or 24.

PDF: Portable Document Format (PDF) is a flexible, cross-platform, cross-application file format. Based on the PostScript imaging model, PDF files accurately display and preserve fonts, page layouts, and both vector and bitmap graphics. In addition, PDF files can contain electronic document search and navigation features such as electronic links.

PDF files are created using applications like Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Illustrator, and can contain multiple pages and images.

PICT File: PICT format is widely used among Mac OS graphics and page-layout applications as an intermediary file format for transferring images between applications. PICT format supports RGB images with a single alpha channel, and indexed-color, grayscale, and Bitmap-mode images without alpha channels. PICT format is especially effective at compressing images with large areas of solid color. This compression can be dramatic for alpha channels with their large areas of white and black. 

When saving an RGB image in PICT format, you can choose either a 16-bit or 32-bit pixel resolution. For a grayscale image, you can choose from 2, 4, or 8 bits per pixel. In Mac OS with QuickTime installed, four JPEG compression options are available.

PICT Resource: (Mac OS) A PICT resource is a PICT file contained in a Mac OS file’s resource fork–for example, an application’s splash screen or the contents of the Scrapbook. PICT Resource format supports RGB images with a single alpha channel, and indexed-color, grayscale, and Bitmap-mode images without alpha channels.

Pixar: The Pixar format is designed specifically for high-end graphics applications, such as those used for rendering three-dimensional images and animation. Pixar format supports RGB and grayscale images with a single alpha channel.

PNG: Developed as a patent-free alternative to GIF, Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format is used for lossless compression and for display of images on the World Wide Web. Unlike GIF, PNG supports 24-bit images and produces background transparency without jagged edges; however, some Web browsers do not support PNG images. PNG format supports RGB, indexed-color, grayscale, and Bitmap-mode images without alpha channels. PNG preserves transparency in grayscale and RGB images.

PSD: Native Adobe Photoshop file format. The industry standard bitmap graphics program.

Targa: TGA (Targa®) format is designed for systems using the Truevision® video board and is commonly supported by MS-DOS color applications. Targa format supports 16-bit RGB images (5 bits x 3 color channels, plus one unused bit), 24-bit RGB images (8 bits x 3 color channels), and 32-bit RGB images (8 bits x 3 color channels plus a single 8-bit alpha channel). Targa format also supports indexed-color and grayscale images without alpha channels. When saving an RGB image in this format, you can choose a pixel depth and select RLE encoding to compress the image. 

TIFF: Tagged-Image File Format (TIFF) is used to exchange files between applications and computer platforms. TIFF is a flexible bitmap image format supported by virtually all paint, image-editing, and page-layout applications. Also, virtually all desktop scanners can produce TIFF images.

TIFF format supports CMYK, RGB, Lab, indexed-color, and grayscale images with alpha channels and Bitmap-mode images without alpha channels.
]]> http://davebollard.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/file-formats-graphic-design/feed/ 1 davebollard http://davebollard.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/logo-helping-or-hurting-your-business/ http://davebollard.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/logo-helping-or-hurting-your-business/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:34:11 +0000 davebollard http://davebollard.wordpress.com/?p=65 ]]> Is Your Logo Helping or Hurting Your Business?

The quality of your logo design can mean the difference between success or failure. It can be that simple! Trademarks and Logos make up the most international language in the world. An excellent logo design can cross many barriers and provide your organization with a means of delivering to your customers an unequivocal and uniform message.

Every successful company has its own “personality,” and just as human personalities are complex, so too is your company’s personality. A successful logo is a means of condensing a complex reality into a single, simple statement, one that can be controlled, modified, developed and matured over time. Your logo needs to be much more than just a distinguishing mark for your company. It must be an indication of quality, value, and reliability.

Does your logo do these things successfully?:

Identify – your company, product, or service.

Differentiate – it from the mass of other similar companies.

Communicate – information as to your products value and quality.

Add value – by causing you to provide a quality service in order to maintain your company’s reputation.

Represent - potentially valuable assets. When people see your logo design, can they tell by the design that your product or service is of high quality.

If your logo design doesn’t do these things, then you might need to update it, possibly seeking professional advice. Give me a call I can help.