If you’ve followed the news, you know the economy here in the US is slowing down. The housing market is tanked, foreclosures are skyrocketing and the credit belt is tightening. As a matter of fact, I just read that foreclosures were up a whopping 79% in 2007 over 2006. Yikes! Plus this is an election year and that usually means companies cut back on marketing until they see who will be hanging out in the Oval Office for the next four years.

So, what does this mean to you and your business? It means a couple of things. First, if you haven’t been aggressively marketing your practice, you’re already behind the eight ball. Second, you’d better start educating your clients about what to do to help insure their success in a slow economy.

Research has shown, over and over, that the successful companies are the ones who maintain, or better increase, their marketing activities during slow times. Typically, one of the first things to be cut during a slump is marketing. So, while the competition is cutting back and losing market presence, the ones who step things up are the ones who increase their visibility. Plus, because of this increased visibility, they’re poised to be in a much better position when things start to recover. Often, they can overtake a top gun who cut their budget. This goes for both your clients and your practice.

But, for many indy designers, marketing dollars are already hard to come by. So, it’s time to used brains instead of bucks and savvy instead of spending.

Here’s a few ideas to help get you through the tough times.

1. Build your list
It’s always best to build your own list, rather than renting one. When you build your own, you do the research and learn a lot more about your prospects’ companies than just a name, addresses and maybe a phone number. When you know about your prospects, it’s easier to tailor your message to address common problems and challenges.

2. Use your list
This is a no-brainer, but if you don’t use your list, all that time building it was a waste. It’s always nice to mail out a snazzy 4-color piece or a slick promo package like the ones that grace the pages of HOW Magazine’s Self Promotion Annual. But, if times are slow, consider a well-written letter of introduction along with your business card. You can do the jazzy thing later when the wampum’s flowing in.

Be sure to follow up by phone. This is the critical area where lots of folks fail. Without follow up plan, even the cost of some paper and stamps are often squandered.

Another tactic is burning CDs with your promo instead of having it printed. It’s a bit more expensive than a simple letter, but, since you can create them on demand, it’s less than a printed piece.

3. Focus on industries less effected by a slow down
Think about what people are always going to need when things are slow. For instance, if you now focus on construction and housing, you might start promoting to the healthcare market. People are always going to need medical care.

4. Expand your horizons
If it’s looking like your local area may not be able to sustain you during a sluggish period, it’s time to start thinking about expanding regionally or even nationally.

Back in the day, I used to fly hither and yon for meetings, press checks and such. Now, via the Internet, I can work with remote client as easy as if they’re next door. Sometimes, it’s even easier.

5. Get some press
If you’re getting slow, consider using this time to put together your press kit. Send it out to your local media and also trade magazines within your niche.

Look for things that you can put a newsy spin on and write a release. Have you joined a committee for some community or nonprofit project? Offering any new services? Maybe you just completed a project that would make a good case study for an industry publication.

6. Get back in touch with former clients
Pick up the phone and renew some old connections. Maybe get together for lunch or just coffee. Learn what they’ve been up to. Find ways to keep in touch. How about an e-newsletter or occasionally emailing them some useful links to articles, sites and such? Become a resource.

7. Dialing for dollars
If you’re slow, you can do a few things – Play some mindless Solitaire, watch Oprah or pick up the phone. Cold/warm calling is a numbers game, but it’s still one of the quickest ways to nab some new business.

8. Get active
Join and get active in some community groups and/or business organizations. Get on a committee or two. Or, better yet, chair them. This will increase your visibility and get your name around. Working on committees also lets others see how you work.

9. Suggest project ideas to your clients
If you’re on top of your clients’ businesses, and you should be, find ideas that will help them out. Perhaps they have a new product or service that could use a brochure or news release. Maybe their site is stale and needs a lift.

10. Upsell at every opportunity
So, you’ve got a gig. Great. Maybe it’s a brochure for a new product. Could they also use an ad? Perhaps you’re doing a menu. Your client might also need table tents to feature the new entrees.

For instance, one of my clients called me in for some marketing consulting. We hashed some things around and I suggested news release about a particularly successful joint venture. I wrote the release. Upgrade number one. The release was picked up by a trade publication. It was my client’s first press mention. They were pleased as punch and it generated some inquiries from new prospects.

On the heels of that success, I suggested they do a press kit and shoot it off to their [small] media list. Upgrade number two. We sent out the kit to the six editors on their list. That resulted in two feature stories and one invitation for my client to submit a feature. Guess who writes that? Upgrade number three.

The feature stories resulted in several new inquires and customers. The new customers included companies in Asia – an entirely new market for them.

When you’re upselling, though, it’s important to keep in mind sound ethics. Don’t try to sell them something that they don’t need and won’t help them. You might get the gig but lose the client when it fails.

So, at the end of the day, or better, at the beginning, think of ways to maximize your marketing efforts without breaking the bank. Zig when your competition zags. Get visible. When the economic turnaround happens, you’ll be positioned to reel in the big fish.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Confession: I didn’t start networking because I’d heard it was the newest fad in self-promotion, or because I was looking to increase my business. Nope. I started networking because I’d just had a baby, and those once-a-week networking lunches gave me an excuse to get out of the house, and get some much-needed adult conversation.

So…once a week, I’d get dressed up nice in my post-maternity outfit (which, by the way, looked an awful lot like my actual maternity outfits!), and go spend 90 minutes eating good food and talking about grown-up stuff…with a little business talk thrown in for good measure.

See, because my main priority was something other than business, I didn’t have to wear my salesperson hat. Instead, I focused on learning about the members of the group, and building relationships with them. And wouldn’t ya know it? Over time, as the people in the group got to know me, I began getting business. It was then that I realized the remarkable power behind building a professional network, and that to make networking WORK, I had to build relationships!

Since that first networking experience way back when, I’ve gone from a reluctant networker to an avid networker, and now I even run my own monthly networking group. For me, networking is not – and has never been – about selling…otherwise it would be called “net-selling” or “sell-working” (both of which evoke images of over-aggressive used-car salesmen types.) Maybe a more apt term would be “relationship working,” or better yet, “relationship building,” because ultimately that’s what successful networkers are doing: building a network of professionals with whom they have a relationship or connection with.

So the next time someone mentions networking, or invites you to an event, leave your salesperson hat at home. Go meet some people, be yourself and have fun! Eventually, what you do for a living will come up…but by that time, they’ll already love you, and will be more than happy to start sending business your way!

Join me next time, as I continue my journey Out of the Bedroom,
Tamar Wallace | Principal, TAMAR Graphics

I’m back from the holiday hiatus. Well, okay, it wasn’t a real hiatus. It was too much holiday and I got plain ‘ole lazy. Bad, nt! Bad!

Here’s a little story for y’all. My son wrestles for his high school team and also plays football. He’s pretty good at them, too. But that’s another story. Back in the Fall, I get a call from the mother of my son and former Mrs. T. Seems she was recruiting donations for the school’s Booster Club auction.

Aside from skiing, I wasn’t much into sports in high school, so I didn’t have a clue what a Booster Club did. But, being the nice guy I am and wanting to support my son, I donated a small website. I also whipped up a nifty little poster to display on the auction table along with a holder for some business cards. As it turned out, this was one of, if not the most, pricey things in the auction.

Am I altruistic, or what?

Okay … confession time. Sure, I wanted to help out the Booster Club. But, I also knew there would be a lot of business owners and corporate types at the auction. I figured it would be a good way to get the name out there. I also figured some local insurance agency, travel agent or the likes would win the bid.

Boy, was I wrong.

About a week after the auction, the phone rings. It was the guy who made the top bid. We talked for a bit and set up a meeting … at the swankiest, high roller country club in the area. The Fates had smiled on me. He owns seven companies and needed to consolidate a variety of sites into one. He also needs a capabilities brochure and some other literature, along with marketing consulting.

Cha ching! A small donation on my part not only got some dough for the Booster Club, it parlayed itself into several fairly large projects.

The moral of the story is that doing a good thing can often have a big pay back. Plus, looking out for more unconventional marketing opportunities can help separate you from the pack.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

If I had a dime for every designer gave up on their marketing efforts just before a client was ready to sign on the dotted line, I’d be lounging on a warm, sunny beach, sipping umbrella-adorned drinks.

The story goes something like this. A designer decides to do, say, a postcard mailing. The have their nifty cards designed and printed up. Let’s say it’s a series of four cards. They mail out the first and wait. Nobody calls. The next one goes out. They check the phone to make sure it’s still working. On to number three and four. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Not even a peep from a prospect. So, our designer decides that postcards don’t work and gives up.

There’s a couple of fairly obvious problems here. First, the designer didn’t make follow up phone calls. If you mail anything - a postcard, letter of introduction, brochure, etc. - and don’t follow up, you’re pretty much throwing your marketing money away. Second, doing a four postcard mailing isn’t enough in most cases. Sure, you might luck out and hit a prospect at the right time with the right offer. But, research shows that it takes several points of contact before a sales is closed. The National Sales Executive Association, in the US, did a study that found 80% of sales are made during the 5th-12th contact. Here are statistics from their survey findings:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact

3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact

5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact

10% of sales are made on the 4th contact

80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact

What this means is that you’ll need to have a system in place to reach your prospect from several angles. Those can be an intro letter, a direct mail piece with a specific offer and a strong call to action, a phone call and perhaps setting up a lunch meeting. Lather, rinse repeat.

It also means not putting all your marketing eggs into one basket. At any given time, you should have several marketing, promotional and public relations activities going. Over time, review what’s working and what’s not. Toss the bad ones and try something new, but only after you’ve given the activity a reasonable amount of time to bring in some results.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

A New Online Seminar Series with Ilise Benun and Peleg Top of Marketing Mentor
Is your design business on a feast-or-famine cycle—you’re either way too busy or you’re waiting for clients to call? Attend HOW’s new Webinar Series, presented by Marketing Mentor, and you’ll learn proven marketing and pricing secrets that will bring your ideal clients directly to your door, boost your bottom line and let you sleep peacefully.

Join us on October 18 for the second in HOW’s Marketing & Pricing Webinar Series: How to Create Your Own Marketing Machine: the Five Best Marketing Tools for Your Design Business. You’ll learn how to build your own Marketing Machine to avoid the Feast or Famine Syndrome and create an ongoing stream of new prospects and clients willing to pay you what you’re worth.

How To Create Your Marketing Machine
Thursday, October 18, 2007
4:00 ET/1:00 PT
$69
Presented by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top, Marketing Mentor

Are you overwhelmed by too many marketing tools? Do you know which ones work best? In what order? To which market? Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a machine you could turn on to do your marketing for you?

Well, there is. It’s your very own Marketing Machine, and in this webinar you’ll learn how to build and maintain it.

What You’ll Learn
• How to keep your pipeline full and get you the clients and the projects you want.
• Which marketing tools are the most effective — and least expensive
• How often you should be in touch with your prospects without being a pest
• How to get past the gatekeeper to your real prospects
• Does cold calling really work?
• Does anyone read email anymore?

All attendees also get copies of the presentation materials plus easy-to-follow Marketing Mentor worksheets designed to help you zero in on your target market and build your client roster. And, you’ll have 12-month access to the Webinar, should you want to watch it again as a refresher course.

More info here: http://www.howdesign.com/webinars/index.asp

About HOW’s Marketing & Pricing Webinar Series
HOW’s new Marketing & Pricing Webinar Series, presented by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top, co-founders of Marketing Mentor, is a series of online seminars for designers. You’ll learn how to develop lucrative business relationships, how to value and price your work so you don’t lose money, and how to create an ongoing stream of new prospects and clients willing to pay you what you’re worth.

Here’s The Complete Schedule
September 27: Get Rich in a Niche: Find and Reach Your Ideal Clients
October 18: Create Your Marketing Machine: Five Best Marketing Tools for your Design Business
November 15: What Should I Charge? Smart Pricing Strategies for Designers
December 13: Proposals 101: The Essentials for Writing and Presenting Proposals

Even if you missed one, you can still access the Webinar materials and audio.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

If you’re like many creatives out there, at one point or another, you’ve probably thought something along these lines – “Gee, my work is a lot better than Joe Blow, Inc., yet it seems they’re always packed up with projects and I’m dying over here.”

The truth be told, simply having a lot of talent isn’t enough to keep a business afloat. You might be the best designer to come along in years, but if nobody knows about you the phone’s not going to ring. Odds are, what separates your business from one like Joe Blow, Inc. is thought-out marketing.

It’s important to note that marketing isn’t sales. Lots of folks seem to get them confused. Marketing is about warming relationships up for the sales effort. It’s about communicating your story, your value, what makes you different and how you can fill the needs of your clients. Sales is about getting with the prospect and closing the deal. That’s the short version, anyway.

Here are a few tips to get your marketing plan moving.

1. Do a SWOT Analysis
Sounding a bit technical? Nah. A SWOT Analysis is nothing more than writing down your strengths - what you’re good at, what assets you have and such. Next comes your weakness - stuff you stink at, lack of dough, lousy local economy, etc. “O” is for opportunities - things that you can use to your advantage like a new service offering, partnering with other complementary services, a new market niche, etc. Finally, what are the things that threaten your business? This might be Joe Blow, Inc. pumping up their marketing efforts, undercapitalization, etc.

Putting some time into preparing a rigorously honest SWOT Analysis can help give you a crystal clear picture of where you’re at and what needs to be done.

2. Set realistic goals and write them down
Without a goal or set of goals, you can’t gauge your business and you’ll most likely find yourself floundering, getting nowhere fast. Where do you want to be? How much money would you like to earn? How many new clients and how much revenue must you generate to get there?

The trick with goals is making them realistic. Setting a goal to make a million bucks next month probably isn’t going to happen. Gaining three new clients next month just might. By setting small, reachable goals, you’ll feel like you’re making progress. That’s often enough to get you fired up to do more. Each small goal leads to larger ones. The next thing you know, you’re business is solid and growing.

It’s important to write your goals down. It helps to focus them. I also recommend taping them to your monitor or wall – someplace where you can see them all the time. It will help to keep you on track.

3. Create plans for action
Just setting goals isn’t worth a hill of beans if you don’t make plans to reach them. Take your first goal and break it up into those steps needed to attain it.

For instance, let’s take the example above of gaining three new clients next month. To reach that goal, first you’ll need to identify qualified prospects. Where will you find them? Maybe the phone book, a chamber membership list, hitting the reference books at the library and searching on the web. How will you qualify them? Do they buy the kind of stuff you’re selling? Can they pay for it? Qualifying your prospects is important. It will save you lots of time by avoiding chasing after ones that aren’t a good fit for your business.

Next, what methods will you use to promote you practice to them? What’s your follow up method and so forth.

4. Be consistent
This is often one of the biggest problem areas. What typically happens is you do a few marketing activities, you get busy and then you stop marketing. When the work’s all done, you’re scrambling again to find more gigs. You may have heard this referred to as “feast or famine syndrome.”

The most important time to aggressively market your practice is when you’re the busiest. It helps to insure you stay busy. That means devoting a certain amount of time each day, or at least each week, to marketing and promoting your practice.

For instance, each morning go through a few business forums and make some helpful posts. Or maybe set aside an hour to make some phone calls or emails to check in with a few existing clients and prospects you’ve been wooing. Sure, it might be tough to get started, but after a while it becomes a habit.

It’s a good idea to translate your planning onto a marketing calendar. I set mine up so it alerts me when I need to do something. You can find lots of calendar and contact manager options out there. Leave nothing to chance. Odds are you’ll forget. After you put your planning together, move it to the calendar noting daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual activities.

5. Create multiple points of contact
Marketing is sort of synergistic. Several tasks work together to create an effect that’s greater than the sum individual parts. Sending out a bunch of postcards once isn’t as effective as sending the postcards, making follow up calls, whipping up some press releases for relevant media and joining (and getting involved in) a trade organization that matches your target market.

6. Specialize
Yeah, yeah … I know. Specialization freaks you out because you don’t want to be pigeonholed and lose potential gigs. Guess what? Too late. Your clients have already put you in a little box stamped, “Print designer,” “Web guy,” or “Package designer” Why not use that to your advantage?

You simply can’t be all things to all people, nor should you try. It’s better to be a master at one or two things than utterly mediocre at several. Beyond that, telling a client you can do everything is likely to put up a red flag in their mind. “How the heck can they do all that and be good at it?”

7. Define what business you’re really in
You might think of yourself as a graphic designer, but is that what you’re really selling? Odds are what you’re really selling is a solution to a problem – a way for your client to enter a new market, generate more inquiries, etc. Design is the way that solution is expressed. Maybe you do web programming. Are you selling code? Or are you selling a better way for your client and their customers to hook up via the net?

The point here is to think about what value you bring to the table. What’s your offer? Defining and clearly communicating that message will help to separate you from the pack.

8. Be descriptive about what you do
When somebody asks you what you do, what’s your answer? “I’m a graphic designer,” is typical. You can do better and help to differentiate yourself from every other designer out there.

The thing is, prospects want to know what’s in it for them. I usually say something like, “I help businesses and communicate better with their audience.” Whoever I’m talking to will usually responds with, “Really? So, how do you do that?” Bingo! I’m in. Now I can engage the person in a conversation about the value of our graphic design and marketing services.

9. Do a survey
This is an easy way to keep in touch with your current and past clients and maybe generate some testimonials to boot. Whip up some multiple choice questions about their views on your business.

I try to add in a bit of humor and I also include an instant lottery ticket in with the survey. I’ve had a couple of clients win some dough which is always good for the relationship. Clients either fax them back or mail them in the self-addressed, stamped envelope I provide.

Survey results can be used as marketing ammo in the form of testimonials. Be sure to call the client first to ask if you can use the their comments. You can usually pick up a few more during that conversation.

Results can also be used to give credence to your services. Things like, “9 out of 10 Odell Advertising / Marketing, Inc. clients believe working with them is more fun than going to the dentist.” You get the idea.

10. Become a resource for your clients
Becoming a resource means keeping a lookout for things that will help your clients and prospects do their job better and/or make them look good to their boss. Come across an online article about best practices in one of your client’s industries? Shoot them off a link. Perhaps you read an article that would be helpful. Tear it out of the magazine and mail it to them. Maybe one of your clients could benefit from the product or service another one of your clients offers. Hook them up.

In the end, marketing is all about having a well-thought out plan and being consistent with your message and implementation. Your marketing doesn’t need to dig deep into your pockets, but it does require creatively, savvy and a solid way to differentiate you from everybody else out there. It also requires you to be utterly honest with yourself in where you’re at and where you can realistically be in a few months and a few years.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

If you’ve been following the Marketing Minute, you likely know that in my spare time I’m the Senior Account Manager with Odell Advertising/Marketing, Inc. “Senior Account Manager” is a fancy way of saying I’m a suit … a sales guy … a rainmaker. Although I still keep my fingers in the creative end of things, a big part of my job is getting new business. And, I’m happy to report, I’m rather pleased at the way things have been going.

As you might have guessed, one of the first things I did when I started with the firm was getting in touch with my existing Tortorella Design clients to let them know what was up. That was an easy inflow of “new” clients for Odell. If you keep your clients happy, attend to their needs and do good work, they’ll usually follow you wherever you go.

Next, I started contacting clients I hadn’t worked with in a while. Several of them came onboard the Odell ship, as well. But I didn’t hear back from one.

In the day, I had done quite a bit of work for this client – ads, trade show stuff, brochures, identity design and such. I got along with my main contact quite well and he seemed pretty happy. I was concerned why he hadn’t emailed me back. The last we had talked, a few years earlier, things weren’t gong so well for the company and they didn’t have any dough to spend on marketing. That’s kind of a bad idea, but that’s another post.

I could have stopped there and given up the [contact] ghost. Lots of designers do. I could have figured that he just wasn’t interested, they were using another shop, yada, yada, yada.

After emailing him twice, I picked up the phone. “Hi, this is Neil with Odell Advertising in North Canton. Is Joe Contact available?” “Sorry, Joe’s not with the company anymore.” Ah ha!, me thinks. “Who would be the person to speak with about your marketing and promotion?” “That would be Jack Deep-Pockets. He’s not in right now. Would you like his voice mail?” “Thanks. That would be great.”

So, I left a voicemail telling him who I was. A few years back, they renamed the company to be one of their main product names. I had done the logo for the product. I figured this was a good angle. “Hi Jack, this is Neil Tortorella with Odell Advertising up in North Canton. I’m the guy who designed your company logo several years back. I’d like to talk with you about your marketing and promotion plans for the remainder of 2007 and into 2008. You can reach me at …”

And that was that.

Our office opens at 8:30 AM. I tend to get there around 7:15 - 7:30 AM. Okay … I’m an overachiever. So sue me. The next morning around 7:30, the phone rings. It’s the president of the company I had called the day before. It seems they’d been looking for me, but when my previous contact left, so did my contact info. We set up a meeting.

Since then, this client has turned into, arguably, my biggest client at Odell. We’re doing trade show displays and support materials, ads all over the place, photo shoots, etc. Today they emailed needing us to design a system of product logos. Cha ching!

And all this is a result of simply keeping in touch.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

In my last Marketing Minute, I wrote about tactics that involve an investment of time, talent and brains, rather than cash. Here’s the flip side. Maybe you hit the lottery or had a great night at the casino. Perhaps dear, old and obscenely rich, Uncle Waldo kicked off and left you a tidy sum. Either way, you’ve found some marketing moolah. Now you’re wondering where to drop that marketing dough before it burns a hole in your pocket. You’re in luck. Here’s a list of marketing activities that small businesses see as being the bee’s knees:

• Community relations – 55%
• Website – 47%
• PR/Media coverage – 31%
• Direct mail – 26%
• Yellow pages – 23%
• E-mail marketing – 21%
• Newspaper ads – 21%
• Search engine keywords – 18%
• Telephone marketing – 10%
• Outdoor advertising – 10%
• Print coupons – 6%
• Magazine advertising – 6%
• Radio advertising – 6%
• Web banner advertising – 5%

Source: Entrepreneur Magazine, August, 2005 / Interland

From this research, it appears that developing a program centered around community and public relations, reinforced with a solid website, is just the ticket.

So, get yourself a site, if you don’t already have one. Build it so it’s informative and useful to your audience. Consider adding some helpful tips, how-tos, articles, white papers and such. Think about what kind of information would be of aid to your audience. Put them first and the rest will follow.

Next, get involved in your community. Join a group or two that does good things for your hamlet or metropolis. Fork out some cash and join a business club or two. But, don’t simply join and just sit there … or worse, don’t show up at all. Yup, I’ve seen it happen all too often. People join a club with the best of intentions and they get busy, or are so slow they can’t afford the price of lunch, or they get just plain ‘ole lazy and stop going to meetings and events. The trick with a business club is to get involved and do stuff. Getting active in organizations helps to get you on the radar screen and you’ll have those nice warm fuzzy feelings from being such a nice person. Also, you might consider donating some design time to a worthy cause that’s close to your heart.

Plus, joining a group or two or doing a pro bono gig can give you some ammo for your public relations efforts. For instance, if you chair a committee, write a press release about it. Maybe you did a nifty poster or other piece for a nonprofit. Fire up your word processor du jour and get the news out.

Speaking of your public relations efforts, consider creating a press kit and shooting it out to your media list. To build your list, look through a copy of the Standard Rate & Data (SRDS). You can find one at your local library. The SRDS is the hefty book media buyers use to do their buying thing. It lists loads of information about consumer and trade publications and there’s also a version that covers newspapers. The Web is another source. Don’t forget trade organizations. They often produce newsletters or magazines and also post newsy stuff on their sites. After you have your press kit, keep up the good work by writing a steady stream of news releases and articles. Your first few attempts may not be published, but once an editor sees that you’re a consistent and a reliable source, they’ll start to print your nouns, verbs and even the occasional adjective.

Weighing in at 26%, direct mail’s another good tactic to round out your marketing efforts. Consider creating a postcard, letter of introduction or other mailer as one more touch point. If you choose to do a mailing, don’t forget to follow up by phone. That’s important. You might have a great mailer, but without a follow up strategy, you won’t pull as much as you could. Folks get busy and forget about you and your meritorious mail. What works for me is mailing in small groups of 20 - 25 or so and then making calls about a week after I’ve mailed the pieces. It doesn’t take too much time and it’s manageable. The following week, I repeat the process. Lately, I’ve been mailing out a brief, somewhat humorous, letter of introduction with a fax back form where folks can indicate their level of interest. It’s simply another point of contact and I still do the follow up calls.

Check around with other [noncompetitive] designers, photographers and writers to see how Yellow Page listings and ads work for them. I used to run a Yellow Pages ad, but never picked up a client as a result. I did, however, get loads and loads of calls from people looking for a job or selling aluminum siding. That said, I do know several creatives who get a fair amount of inquiries and work from them.

Ironically, even though designers often create print ads, they aren’t usually a good option to generate prospects. Print ads (newspaper, magazine, etc.) are a good vehicle for products or services that have a solid offer, such as discounts. But for designers, they’re costly and don’t provide a decent pay back in most cases. However, if you have a good niche industry that you serve, it might be worth it to pop an ad into a trade association newsletter or magazine, as a test, for name recognition. You might consider an offer of a complementary design review or a free white paper or report. If it works for you, great, but, odds are a well-placed news release or article will be better to help to position you as an expert.

At the end of the day, be frugal and smart. Spent your money on sensible vehicles that will give you the biggest bang for your hard-earned buck.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt