Do Your Homework!

back-to-future I can't tell you how many potential clients have come to us out of frustration with another firm or we've created a proposal, and ultimately weren't chosen as the design firm for the project. Months later we were then re-approached by the very same client that learned their lesson with a bargain basement website company.

Budget, budget, budget

Yes we know it's a huge factor, but before you choose a company to work with consider a few crucial things.

Proof is in the Puddin'

What in the heck does their body of work look like? ... Continue Reading

Less Stress. Peace of Mind. Priceless.

jackspaces2 About 36 hours before hosting a holiday party for almost 40 people from my business group Million Dollar Ladies, my hot water heater sprang a leak — of course, perfect timing right? When your hot water heater leaks there's no patching it up, you have to do a complete replacement.

Luckily, one of the members of the group is the owner of a plumbing company that does superior work and was someone I trusted. So I called them and they came to my rescue replacing the unit in a just a ... Continue Reading

WIFItising

spinal-tap WIFItising — Dancing the fine line between clevah and stupid.

I came across this interesting way of advertising that in a big picture sense boils down to thinking outside of the box and how many traditional advertisers should start thinking.

Creative marketing tactics picks up old ideas, dusts them off and presents them in a new way that often generates a new found interest just because of the unique approach. You might call this particular idea a form of Guerrilla marketing.

WIFItising is something that has become popular in coffee houses ... Continue Reading

Zero Effort Equals Zero Awareness

field-of-dreams Build it and they will come.

Well it use to be that way way back in Web 1.0 days when the internet was in it's infancy. This is no longer the case. Between the need for SEO, blogging and social media, a lot more time and energy go into being found on the internet.

When it comes to marketing your business online, it does take effort, PERIOD.

That sentence should be our entire blog entry for the week, but we'll expand on that idea.

If you don't have time for business awareness ... Continue Reading

3 Red Flag Indicators You've Been Punk'd By Your Design Firm

punkd There are many warning signs when it comes to spotting a rogue design firm.

We've heard of horror story after horror story and stepping back to take it all in there are a few commonalities that seem to come up more often than not.

Below are some key red flag indicators to help you realize if you've been or are in the process of being punk'd by your current design firm.

MIA

Your design firm all of the sudden has gone missing in action right in the middle or within the final stretch ... Continue Reading

But I Love Comic Sans & Hot Pink

jakesweetshoppeDesigning "just because" is no way to develop solid design. If you are a designer or someone in the business you already know this.

There are times though when clients are adamant about something that has to be in the design, not necessarily for a good reason, just because they like the "idea" of it, not because it has any real meaning or validity. This will often put a wrench in the creativity process but it's something everyone of us has had to deal with from time to time.

Consultation throughout the project ... Continue Reading

Water Torture Marketing

houdiniOk so it's really called drip marketing, I also refer to it as "overtising." We've found that a lot of companies are actually overdoing eMarketing efforts to the point where it becomes annoying to the end user.

Personally, we believe once a week to your customer base is excessive (Godiva are you listening?), every two weeks is doible.

We like to send our eMarketing out quarterly or occasionally if we just want to put out an additional touch out to them we'll create a unique piece certain times throughout the year ... Continue Reading

Is It Too Late to Market in This Economy?

not-too-lateSo you did it, you thought by not marketing your company on the web or with traditional marketing collateral that you'd save huge bucks. You probably did. How much did you lose though because your name wasn't out there or you didn't polish your current marketing pieces up taking advantage of the economic situation? In most cases you'll have to work harder to get that same sale that was approved last year in a third of the time, fine.

Hitting the pavement to drum up business requires more than a ... Continue Reading

Can Website Photo Thieves Be Stopped?

MIThe short answer is no. No they can't. If they want something of yours they can get it or know someone that can.

This comes up quite often actually with our clients and we tell them the same thing. Sure there are deterrents which I'll describe below however that's all they are.

Here's a great story for you:

After a year or so telling our client that you can't lock down your photos so no one steals them, they came to me one day and said: "Rob, I know you said ... Continue Reading

Getting to "no" You

no-you

Being choosy in a declining market can be tough, this just doesn't go for the design field but really any market. When you first build your business you take on any work you can to get the ball rolling, to get the clients in the door and do what you can to establish community rapport.

As your business builds, you start to release "C & D" clients so you can focus on your "A & B" clients. In this market however, just getting people to commit to a project can take ... Continue Reading
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