Marketing consists of many, many things like branding, advertisement, publicity, website, word-of-mouth referrals, even your how you handle your customer service! All of them are important, but the most important thing is how they interact and complement each other to deliver your customer a unique and delightful experience.[This is the first of 3 articles highlighting the importance of marketing and advertisement in new businesses]

First of all, we hope that before you opened the doors of your new business you researched a little bit, and have a clear idea of who your ideal client is. If you have not done this already I urge you to go grab a piece of paper, turn off your computer and your phone and think about how is your ideal client, and why is that this ideal client will buy from you. (and how).

This is were you want to get, right?

I talk to new business owners very often. and I am always surprised by how, unless they started their business with a huge capital, new businesses owners think they cannot afford any kind of advertisement/marketing.  They think they should not  spend a lot of money in having a professional designer do their new business logo and website, or in things like getting a clear brand. This is a huge mistake. New businesses lack the steady stream of income that a customer base provides, also, unless they open in a great, but I mean great location, they will remain unknown to their target market unless they go out there and get the word out (a.k.a do some marketing). This is an essential task for any new business: to attract and maintain new customers until a sustainable customer base is obtained.

However, very often I hear things like “I just started, so I cannot advertise” or “I just opened my new business, money is scarce, so I cannot do any marketing, but when things get better I will.”

In my point of view this is complete madness! Yes, I understand that you have to be careful with cash and that a good accountant and book keeping will definitely help but imagine for a second that you have a leg injury that prevents you from walking unless you go to rehab. One day you wake up and think to yourself “I don’t go to rehab because I cannot walk, but once I can walk I will go to rehab.” Now, if you are lucky, you will let time pass and maybe your leg will get better so you could walk but if you are not, then you will stay in that position for a very, very long time, if not, ever.

Very often people will see advertisements and/or marketing as an expense rather than as an investment. They don’t see advertisement as a way of attracting new business, or they simply don’t want to take the risk of spending money and never see it back. Think about, yes money is scarce but if you spend $500 on a marketing campaign that will eventually bring $1,500 back, wouldn’t that be a worthy risk to take?

It is very important that if you decide to do some kind of advertisement you must try to find ways to measure the effectiveness of different marketing mediums, such as giving coupons or discounts for specific marketing campaigns, creating specific landing pages for the online ad with your local newspaper, and so on. This will help you identify which efforts are really paying out and which ones are not.

A voice of warning; there are some marketing campaigns and mediums that work, and others that do not work for your market. Very often you learn this by experience, by learning from your customers, by listening to them, what is that they like, where is that they learn about the things they need (your products/services). It may be worth it to spend a bit more, and get help from a professional who will do two things for you: Will work with you to understand your market better, and maximize the odds of your marketing campaign, and second, will do the work for you, so you can focus on other aspects of your business to continue growing your business.

Now don’t think that just because you published an ad on the newspaper or you bought the biggest banner on the highway that your phone will not stop ringing or people will flock your office/store. It is unlikely to be the case, but you will start to position your business and to have some presence. (We will talk more about this in the second part of this series. Stay tuned!)

Comicmercial - Phrustrations

This fall we are trying to do more advertising in different publications. We have come up with an idea, and we are calling it phrustrations. Phrustrations is just a way for us to share some of the stories that we have heard from our customers over the years about what their situation was, and the frustrations they suffered while running their business regarding web design, graphic design, marketing, advertising, and other services we offer.

So we are taking those stories, adding some humor to it, and running them as what I would call a “comicmercial” . Our idea is to run at least 6 of them and see how their work. I am not saying this comicmercials are new, but they are certainly a different way to advertise, but as usual in marketing “different” often implies risk. The risks that I can see right off the bat are the following:

• People who are not interested in comics won’t even glance at your ad.
• Even with a strong/clear call to action, people may still confuse them with a regular comic strip.
• People may think you and your company are childish or foolish.

As I said is something we are trying to see if it works. If they don’t make the phone ring at least we hope we would have made some people smile.

You can pick up a copy of this week’s El Paso Inc and see it by yourself on the 5th page.

What do you think? Will they work?

Think twice before you ask your cousin to do your logo

The image of your business is very important and, as the saying goes “First impressions always count”, the same is true for your logo and business image. People will make assumptions about your business just by looking at your logo, website, brochure, etc. Remember that a logo is more than just a pretty picture. It is a message you are sending to your prospective clients about how the world is set to see your business, and it should make your company memorable and recognizable. An amateur logo design may cost you way more than you feared so: here are some reasons why.

1. Your business may look unstable and not professional. As a result, clients may feel insecure and unconfident about doing business with you. Would you do business with some company if you were not sure whether they would still be doing business by the end of the week?
2. Your amateur logo/image may confuse people about who you are as a business. Unprofessional and incoherent marketing materials send mixed signals to your prospective clients, and even make them think they are getting marketing materials from different companies. They may also think that you don’t care about the way your business looks and therefore the quality of your work.
3. It can make you look as a very small business. What do you think about those free VistaPrint or template-based business cards? If your business cannot afford its own business cards and/or marketing materials and it has to go for the free or cheap ones, it may be understood that you are not getting business through the door, and that you cannot perform or meet what it is required.
4. It may just go completely wrong. We’ve all seen logos go just completely wrong. Just type “Logos gone wrong” into your favorite internet search engine. If something like this happens to your business reputation, the amount of time and money that you will spend “fixing” your image will be way more than it would have been to get a professional logo design in first place.

These are just a few reasons why you should get a professional to create a custom logo for your business. Instead of spending hours thinking about what to do and figuring out how to do it, you should spend your time running your business and creating your more important asset: a client base.

If you have never designed a logo, a website, business cards, or other marketing material, and it is not part of the services your business will be offering, please don’t start now. It would be like pulling your own wisdom teeth without being a dentist, or trying to repair your car without being a mechanic. Statistics show that half of new businesses fail in the five first years. Experts say that a common reason is sloppy and ineffective marketing. You will spend an awful amount of time learning how to do it and getting it right, instead of getting more clients.

Not convinced about your current logo? or do you need a new logo and marketing materials? Contact us so we can help you grow your business.