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

Planning your next steps

Okay, so now you have a set of goals and have begun to develop your strategy. An intro mailing was a start, but you’re hardly finished yet. Add into the mix some networking events, writing some how-tos and tip sheets, news releases along with some other marketing and public relations activities. The next thing you know, that 25% increase is getting pretty attainable.

The trick with planning your activities is finding the ones that fit with your personality. If you end up doing something you dislike, odds are, you won’t be doing it for very long. That’s the kiss of death for your marketing efforts. For instance, I’m a card carryin’ hermit, so networking events aren’t my cup of tea. The ironic part is that I get a kick out of speaking and I can usually land some qualified prospects at my dog and pony shows.

Some folks have a home office. I have an office home. My place looks something like Ground Control to Major Tom. I’ve got two computers on my desk and another one on the floor (that’s not counting to other two in the bedroom and the relics in the garage). Anyway, behind my monitors is a wall. There’s also a window, which is nice. I tend to look out the window and watch, who my neighbor’s young daughters has named, “Sparkles,” our resident squirrel, scurry through the tree. But, there’s also the wall. I print out my goals and action plans and stick ‘em up on that wall. I see them every day as a reminder. 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.

The other thing I do is use my contact manager/calendar to alert me with what needs to be done. Once you start getting busy, it’s easy to put this stuff off. After a bit, you get out of the habit and, the next thing you know, 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 work those plans in a consistent manner will help insure you meet your goals and grow your business.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Placing all your hopes and dreams in one activity

This is one of those missteps I see all to often with designers and, frankly, lots of small businesses. The scenario goes something like this: A designer is starting to get slow with no projects booked down the road and the phone isn’t ringing. Since they were busy, they hadn’t been doing anything marketing-wise and now they’re getting freaked.

So, they decide to whip up a postcard, maybe send out a press release about some outdated news or get back to attending a club meeting or other networking event. The problem is they’re already behind the eight ball.

They put all their hopes in their nifty little postcard or release. They labor over it. Tweak this and that. The have the time now, because there’s no paying work on board. They finally send out their masterpiece or get up the guts to attend a networking thing. They fully expect to be overwhelmed with work from this one little promotional task.

And then nothing happens.

Marketing takes time. It takes several points of contact. If you’re not actively marketing when you’re at your busiest, when the slow time hits, and it will, it can take months to pull things together. Risky business.

It’s important to plan your marketing tasks several months in advance and do as much as you can to put them on autopilot. Have press release templates ready. Sneak in a direct mail design here and there while you’re waiting for approvals or dedicate some mornings, evenings or weekend on a regular basis to work on your marketing so you have several irons in the fire ready to go.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Welcome to BoDo:
The Business of Design online launch

Introducing Marketing Minute

BoDo team member, Neil (nt) Tortorella, will be helping you get your marketing mojo moving through Marketing Minute. A bona fide designasaur, Neil brings with him [gasp!] over 30 years experience in owning a business, graphic design and marketing. Through Tortorella Design, he provides design services, copywriting and marketing consulting.

Neil’s also a regular on the About.com forum as well as founding and management team member of Creative Latitude. His writing has appeared in HOW magazine and on numerous sites across the Internet. Nt is featured in the book, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success, by Jeff Fisher and he has also been featured in Pitney Bowes’ Priorities magazine along with several websites such as ThunderChunky.co.uk and Graphic-Design.com. With his cohort, Cat, he is also featured in “Creatively Self-Employed: How Writers and Artists Deal with Career Ups and Downs!,” by Kristen Fischer, due for publication in early 2007.

The BoDo Team
cat –> nt - jay