Forgetting that even though you’re a Graphic Designer, you’re really in the business of marketing … for both your practice and your clients.

To wrap up this series, I wanted to leave you with this thought: Even though you’re a designer, your real business is marketing. You need to market and promote your practice just as well as you do it for your clients … maybe even better.

Marketing softens up prospects for sales. Sales brings new business. New business is the life blood of a Graphic Design business. Consider that the typical client/designer relationship lasts roughly three years. The sales curve can take 6 to 8 months and often longer … a lot longer. If you’re not always marketing, you’re already behind.

Marketing isn’t just a mailer here and there. It’s not just the occasional news release or networking event. It’s all those, but done on a systematic, consistent basis and on a regular schedule.

Beyond this, marketing is everything you do. Every touch point forms your image … your brand … in the minds of your audience. It’s how your marketing materials look and what they say. It’s how you answer the phone. It’s your office interior design and even how you dress. Every point of contact with your audience builds on the next.

Take the time needed to craft your marketing to send a clear, consistent message that’s flawlessly implemented. That’s what will help insure the phone’s always ringing and you’ll get to the place where you’re able to work with the clients you want and do the work you love, while getting paid what you’re worth.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Not leveraging the power of your business and personal network

Akin to having a referral generation system for clients and associates, look to your broader network for referrals. It’s said that every person knows roughly 200 other people. Each of those 200 know 200 more. Do the math. That’s a whole lot of people. Tie that together with the concept of six degrees of separation and, with a bit of work, you may be able to get an introduction to Mr. Big at Conglom-O Corp. who you’ve been wanting to work with for a long time.

Be sure to clearly communicate to your friends, neighbors and even … ugh … family what it is you do, the value you bring to the table and that if they happen to know of someone who would benefit from your services, you’d appreciate a referral. For your personal network, when you get a referral, maybe send them a restaurant gift certificate, a gift card or something similar as a thank you. The same goes for your business associates and clients. A nice, appropriate thank you makes an impression and may help to get the referral machine primed.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Not marketing to current clients

If you take the time to look over your project roster for a decent period of time, you’ll likely see the 80/20 Rule in action. The 80/20 Rule is one of those weird things that keeps showing up in things. It means that if you’re like most service businesses, 80% of your work comes from 20% of your clients. These folks can be prime pickings. They know you. They like you, or they wouldn’t have sent you all that work.

But, they may not know all the services you offer. Clients like to pigeonhole designers – “Oh, she’s a catalog designer.” “He’s a web guy.” “That firm does annual reports.” Pigeonholing isn’t a bad thing. It helps to focus our marketing and our niche. But, you probably are capable of doing more for your clients than they may think. You need to tell them.

Another side to this is that if you work for a larger client, they often have other departments and/or divisions where you can promote your offerings. For instance, one of my clients was a Fortune 500 and I worked closely with one department for several months. They liked me and my work. When the P.R. department needed help with a project that their regular firm couldn’t handle, my departmental client referred me. P.R. referred me to yet another department and also referred me to the President of the company for his special projects. My marketing techniques? Personal contact, lunch meetings to talk about what was happening in their department and such. Becoming an information resource and simply asking for referrals was also key.

Larger companies can offer big opportunities, but be careful. Try to not let any one client represent more than 30% of your total revenue. That can be dangerous if the relationship sours.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Not having a referral system in place

Referrals are a staple in generating new business for designers. At least they should be. Referrals are usually pre-sold. People trust what they hear from friends and associates. But, allowing referrals to “happen” to you isn’t effective. You can do better.

Having a referral system in place will help to insure that you maximize on potential opportunities and are always at the top of your clients’ and associates’ minds. The latter group is often overlooked and just as important, if not more so, than your clients. More on that in a minute. Let’s talk clients first.

The best time to approach a client for a referral is at the end of a [successful] project. Your client’s a happy camper. So, simply make it a point to always ask if they have business associates who could also benefit from your services. Don’t forget to ask if you can use their name when you contact the prospect.

As for your business associates, suppliers and vendors, consider getting together for mutual referring. I tend to get a lot of work this way. Designers work with complementary, but not competitive businesses such as photographers, writers, illustrators, printers, programmers, etc. When you’re mapping out a gig, ask your client if they have a photographer. If not refer your associate. The photographer, let say, is shooting new products for a catalog. He or she asks their client who the designer is. They say, “Well, we haven’t selected one yet.” Although this is a bit of a backward approach on the client’s part, it’s a prime opportunity for the shooter to refer you. Everybody wins … including the client. You and the photographer (or writer, etc.) know each other and have probably worked together in the past. That can be a shot in the arm toward a successful project.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Nervous rabbit syndrome

Our previous post talked about the danger of focusing on one marketing task. It’s opposite is just as bad and often a whole lot more expensive. I call it “The Nervous Rabbit Syndrome.”

In the summer, I’ll sit on my deck and look out over the backyard. There’s a small family of rabbits out there who like to munch on clover for dinner. There’s also the neighbor’s cat often on the prowl and hawks in search of a tasty morsel. When the rabbits catch wind, quick as they can, they scurry here and dart there in a mad dash for safe territory. I see a lot of designers acting the same way.

They need work, so they send out a direct mail piece but don’t get any results. So they send out a release or buy an ad. No soap. They scrap those and try some cold calling. Nothing. That gets tanked and they try something else. After a pretty short time, they’ve sunk a boat load of dough into what they think is marketing with nothing to show for their hard earned cash.

As I’ve mentioned, marketing takes time. It takes multiple impressions to gain access into your prospects’ minds. Choose your activities wisely. Then give each one enough time to work, or be sure it’s not working. If not, then try something else. Over time, you’ll find those activities that work for you and your niche.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Not understanding your audience

Following up on our previous post about specializing and finding your niche, when designers take on what ever comes in the door, the learning curve is steep. To do a good job, you need to spend time … often a lot of time … learning about your new client’s industry, target market and competition. Without a keen knowledge of what’s what, design is in danger of eroding into simple decoration.

When you have a niche, you learn all you can about the industry, the major players, common challenges, what’s working and what’s not and more. That helps you to be a better designer, but also to become a valued resource for your clients. You can anticipate potential problems and offer up solutions (read: you begin to generate project ideas instead of waiting for your client to call).

Plus, demonstrating a sharp knowledge about a prospect’s industry will gain respect and help you develop potent, on-target proposals that close deals.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Not focusing on a niche or specialty

When one tries to be all things to all people (clients), one often ends up being nothing to everybody. Generalists may thrive in small markets and also when business is booming. However, when the economy slows down, and it will, clients aren’t as footloose and fancy free. They go looking for specialists. It’s reassuring to them to know the designer working on their project understands their business, industry, market and competition.

Plus, focusing on a niche – a particular industry or industries, geographic area or type of project (i.e. annual reports) is a huge help in identifying qualified prospects and successfully reaching them. Also, by choosing a niche that small enough, yet profitable, it’s loads easier to rise above the pack and get firmly rooted on your prospects’ radar screens.

For more about developing your marketing plan, check out my e-book, Marketing Tune-Up: A Turnkey Guide For Creating & Implementing Your Marketing Plan.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt

Not having a plan

Without some sort of plan of action, you’ll never know if you’re achieving your goals. Your marketing plan doesn’t need to be a lengthy tome. It needs to be a straight forward document that addresses, at least, the following:

• Your goals – What you’re trying to achieve with your marketing efforts.
• Your differentiating factor – What makes you different, truly different, than the other guys. This is critical to gain visibility and avoid “me too” marketing (the same stuff everybody else is saying).
• Your niche – This is a description of the audience you want to reach.
• Your method, tactics and techniques – Describe what you plan to do such as direct mail, networking, entering awards, press releases, etc. Ideally, a marketing calendar should be created to keep you on task.
• Your budget – How much can you afford for each marketing activity.

For more about developing your marketing plan, check out my e-book, Marketing Tune-Up: A Turnkey Guide For Creating & Implementing Your Marketing Plan.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt