Wow. I always get a bit nostalgic when a year ends and a new one begins. And as I close out 2007, I thought it only fitting that I revisit the goals I set for myself right here, six months ago, and see what got checked off…and what didn’t (whoops!)

As a reminder, here are the goals I listed in my July 3, 2007 post:

• Spend one hour each day working on marketing my business
• Finish and submit book proposal
• Write a press release regarding this column for Create Magazine’s Fall issue
• Finish bulk of website update
• Begin focusing marketing efforts on my niche areas
• Connect with one prospect per week
• Join my local Chamber of Commerce
• Develop e-newsletter
• Develop and write out my official “process” and put together marketing packets
• Write one press release per month
• Continue with monthly networking group, and add one more networking event per month
• Win a Design Award

Alrighty then. Let’s see what’s been accomplished, what hasn’t, and what will be continued into 2008.

Goal #1: Spend one hour each day working on marketing my business.
Outcome: I’m sorry to say that this has been a tough one to implement into my daily routine. I know how important it is, but sometimes those paying projects come first…or household chores…or family obligations. I will continue to work on this, but will start out smaller – maybe one hour per week.

Goal #2: Finish and submit book proposal.
Outcome: This was a top priority at one time, but has since fallen to the bottom. It’s still something I want to accomplish, but I found myself spread extremely thin the last three months of the year, and I don’t want to over-extend myself with yet another project. I’ll add this to my 2008 goals, but as something to be done during a slow period.

Goal #3: Write a press release regarding this column for Create Magazine’s Fall issue.
Outcome: This goal gets a big, fat check mark. Not only did I write and submit the press release, but I (and the column) got a mention in the Scoop section of Create Magazine Northeast Sept/Oct 2007 issue.

Goal #4: Finish bulk of website update.
Outcome: Don’t get me wrong, there’s still much I want (and need) to do to my website, but I’ve got all the important bits up there. So…maybe I’ll give this one a half of a check mark.

Goal #5: Connect with one prospect per week.
Outcome: I’ll admit I have not been as diligent as I should have been with this one. I have definitely been keeping up with prospects, but not on a weekly basis. I’ll keep this one on my goal list for 2008, though, as I think it’s a very good goal to work towards.

Goal #6: Join my local Chamber of Commerce.
Outcome: I have not yet committed to joining a chamber, but I am involved with my local one, as I hold my monthly networking meetings there. There are several different Chambers I’m considering, though, and I expect to make a decision and join one during the first quarter of 2008.

Goal #7: Develop e-newsletter.
Outcome: Wow. Yet again, another goal that I can’t check off my list. Sheesh! Did I get ANYTHING accomplished this year?!? An e-newsletter just was not a priority these last few months.

Goal #8: Develop and write out my official “process” and put together marketing packets
Outcome: This is not finished, but I have been working on refining my process, and getting it down on paper. I’ve also started working on items to include in my marketing packets – I just need to finish it all and then put it together.

Goal #9: Write one press release per month.
Outcome: FINALLY! A goal I can check off my list! Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of good stuff to write about, so I have been able to get out my press releases pretty regularly.

Goal #10: Continue with monthly networking group, and add one more networking event per month.
Outcome: While I haven’t added one regular monthly event, I’ve been attending a wide variety of networking opportunities, both online and off. I’ve made some very solid connections and will continue this throughout the New Year.

Goal #11: Win a Design award.
Outcome: I am very happy to say that my diligence and hard work has paid off, and in 2007, I was the recipient of not one, but three design awards (two 2007 American Graphic Design Awards, and a Creativity 37 Silver Award.)

Okay. Those were my official goals. While I may not have accomplished as many of them as I would have liked, I have accomplished much that wasn’t on my list:

• Joined a goal accountability group that has really helped keep me on track.
• Joined quarterlife.com as the contributing Graphic Design Expert.
• Went back to school, and got an A-average my first term back.
• Landed several large clients with some really exciting projects.
• Had my work published in numerous Graphic Design compilations.
• Started an online store with items specifically for graphic designers and creative professionals.
• Witnessed my beloved Red Sox 2nd World Series Championship in four years.
• Rooted my New England Patriots on to their best-ever regular season…and hopefully another Super Bowl win. (Okay, I know neither of these last two “accomplishments” are mine, and certainly have nothing to do with my business goals, but as an avid sports fan living in the Boston area, they have definitely been a big part of my year, and deserve mention.)
• Overall, just had one of the best years in a long time, both personally and professionally.

And there you have it. I’m still a ways away from my ultimate goal – getting out of the bedroom – but I’m a lot closer than I was just six months ago. So, what can I say? It’s the end of the year as we know it, and I feel fine…And I’m looking forward to an even better 2008!

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

I’ve written about planning your marketing efforts several times here on BoDo, but now is the time of year when it bears another mention. Without a plan, your marketing … and your business in general … just “happens” to you. That’s a bad idea. With the new year looming, now is the perfect time to put together your goals for 2008 and your strategies to make those goals a reality.

Your plan doesn’t need to be a lengthy tome that rivals War & Peace. It simply needs to be a written set of goals along with the steps needed to reach them.

So, where do you start? A bit of soul searching is likely in order. What do you want to do? What’s your passion? Are you happy with the direction your business has been taking? Or, is a change in order? The thing is, unless you’re doing something you enjoy and can make a decent living doing it, there isn’t much point. As someone once said, “Find something you love doing and you’ll never work another day in your life.”

Goals are what you’re trying to accomplish. The kicker is that they should be realistic and have a timeline attached. If your goals are out there in the Stratosphere, odds are you’ll lose interest or spend way too much time trying to reach the unattainable. The same thing goes for a timeline. Without one, you’ll likely put things off and/or never know if you’re making any progress.

Once you have a goal - let’s say you want to increase billings by 25% - give yourself a reasonable amount of time to reach it. Maybe June 30, 2008 works. With goal in hand, or rather, on paper, break it down into the steps you need to take to reach it. This does a couple of things. First, it organizes your efforts. Things become clear. Each of these steps is something of a “mini-goal.” So, as you get things done, you’ll feel like you’re making progress and that typically encourages one to keep at it.

If you’re trying to increase your billings by 25%, what would you need to do? Maybe it means identifying and reaching a new niche market. Perhaps it means adding new services. Let’s use the former and break it down.

Goal:
Increase billings 25% by June 30, 2006

Action Plans:
Identify a niche that’s under served, yet offers enough prospects to be profitable
Conduct web searches
Check directories at library
Develop a list of 300 qualified prospects

Create initial mailing to generate name awareness
Design piece by January 15, 2008
Get printing and mailing costs
Print piece
Prepare labels
Label, stamp & mail in lots of 25 each week beginning February 1, 2008

Follow up phone calls
5 calls per day to 25 weekly recipients asking for an appointment
Target one appointment per week

Initial meetings
Research prospect, market and potential needs
Gather background info at meeting to further qualify prospect
Ask if I can prepare a proposal
Use tip-sheet as leave behind

Create proposals

Make presentations

Ask for the sale

You may find yourself doing additional tasks, but this should give you the general idea.

What you’ve done here is set up your marketing efforts for several months. And, it’s manageable. You’ll have some time invested in developing your list, but after that, things start to become automatic. You know each week, for 12 weeks, you’ve got to mail your intro piece. Then, the following week all you need to do is make five phone calls each day. Piece of cake.

Plus, each time you drop your stuff into the mailbox, you’ll get those nifty warm fuzzy feelings because you’re doing something to help reach your goals. The phone calls might be a bit tough at first, but hang in there. I guarantee after the first week or so, they’ll be old hat.

Add into the mix some networking events, writing some how-tos and tip sheets, news releases and other marketing and public relations activities and next thing you know, that 25% increase is getting pretty attainable.

Find some handy place to post your goals and action plans. Maybe the refrigerator door, or the bathroom mirror. Find some place where they’ll haunt you.

I use my contact manager/calendar to alert me with what needs to be done and when. Once you start getting busy, it’s easy to put this stuff off. After a bit, you get out of the habit and Mr. Feast or Famine can quickly come a callin.’

And there you have it. Taking a little time now to make your plans and then working those plans in a consistent manner will help ensure 2008 will be the year of you.

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

Following up on the heels of the Marketing Missteps Series, I wanted to revisit misstep number two, “Not having a plan.” In many cases, it’s at the heart of the other nine.

Without a plan, your marketing … and your business in general … just “happens” to you. That’s a bad idea. It’s April, but it’s still not too late to get your strategies together and make your goals a reality.

So, where do you start? A bit of soul searching is likely in order. What do you want to do? What’s your passion? Are you happy with the direction your business has been taking? Or, is a change in order? The thing is, unless you’re doing something you enjoy and make a decent living doing it, there isn’t much point. As someone once said, “Find something you love doing and you’ll never work another day in your life.”

It all starts with your goals. Goals are what you’re trying to accomplish. The kicker is that they should be realistic and have a timeline attached. If your goals are out there in the Stratosphere, odds are you’ll lose interest or spend way too much time trying to reach the unattainable. The same thing goes for a timeline. Without one, you’ll likely put things off and/or never know if you’re making any progress.

Once you have a goal - let’s say you want to increase billings by 25% - give yourself a reasonable amount of time to reach it. With goal in hand, or rather, on paper, break it down into those steps you need to take to reach it. This does a couple of things. First, it organizes your efforts. Things become clear. Second, each of these steps is something of a “mini-goal.” So, as you get things done, you’ll feel like you’re making progress and that typically encourages one to keep at it.

If you’re trying to increase your billings by 25%, what would you need to do? Maybe it means identifying and reaching a new niche market. Perhaps it means adding new services. Let’s use the former and break it down. (Bear with me here. I’m just pulling numbers and dates out of the air)

Goal:
Increase billings 25% by December 31, 2007

Action Plans:

Identify a niche that’s underserved, yet offers enough prospects to be profitable.
Conduct web searches
Check directories at library
Read newspapers and business publications to gather prospects
Develop a list of 300 qualified prospects

Create initial mailing to generate name awareness
Design piece by June 15, 2007
Get printing and mailing costs
Print piece
Prepare labels
Label, stamp & mail in lots of 25 each week beginning July 1, 2007

Follow up phone calls
5 calls per day to 25 weekly recipients asking for an appointment
Target one appointment per week

Initial meetings
Research prospect, market and potential needs
Gather background info at meeting to further qualify prospect
Ask if I can prepare a proposal
Use tip-sheet as leave behind

Create proposals

Make presentations

Ask for the sale

You may find yourself doing additional tasks, but this should give you the general idea.

What you’ve done here is set up your marketing efforts for several months. Plus, it’s manageable. You’ll have some time invested in developing your list, but after that, things start to become automatic. You know each week, for 12 weeks, you’ve got to mail your intro piece. Then, the following week all you need to do is make five phone calls each day. Piece of cake.

Plus, each time you drop your stuff into the mailbox, you’ll get those nifty warm fuzzy feelings because you’re doing something to help reach your goals. The phone calls might be a bit tough at first, but hang in there. I guarantee after the first week, they’ll be old hat.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt