The Real Social Network, In-Person Gatherings

September 20th, 2010 | Posted in art, Blog | No Comments
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This past weekend I was reminded about what it means to physically go to openings and see friends and acquaintances there.

We all love Facebook because it gives us various opportunities. We connect with friends from high school, with colleagues we know from school and work experiences, and make new “friends” with people we’ve just met. But do these people know anything about us? What our passions or our beliefs are? What we do to pay the bills or our causes.

Yesterday, I visited a gallery, Fish With Braids, with a friend. It’s a small venue with powerful art by whomever they’re showing at the time. We were greeted warmly, by name, which is always such a welcome surprise these days.

Then we went across the street to the event, Ladies On the Mic at Made With Love in Jersey City. Again greeted warmly (by name) by artists, actors and musicians and it was a marvelous and crowded happening. We met some new people, but in-person!

It’s a wonderful reminder that making new friends the old-fashioned way, in-person is still the best way. You not only meet, but can have a real conversation, for a while, and learn quite a bit about each other.

Online that’s not going to happen.

This friday is a cabaret opening and I’m going to try to be there. Not just for the music but because we have a close-knit community and the more we hang with our friends, the more of their friends we meet and the more fun we have.

Jersey City Studio Tour Banner 2010

Coming up is the Jersey City Studio Tour and I’m thrilled about the opening at Grace Church on Friday, October 1. Also coming is the Hoboken Arts & Music Festival. Both of these Fall events give me to opportunity to visit friends, meet new people, see great art, hear great music and have fun in-person!

How Do Businesses Compete Against Well Known Brands?

September 17th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, marketing, Uncategorized | No Comments
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Companies pitch to us via TV, radio, internet (social media and email campaign blasts) and print campaigns in newspapers and magazines. I’ve been thinking about how one company can rise above or set themselves apart, and gain new customers.

Each business is an original with their own idea of how they want to look to the world. They’re special, their products or services are the coolest, but how do they compete with other businesses who become known to the public as the role model or the one who’s doing it best?

In my own business of branding for my clients, many times I think about how best to create for them so they will look better, cooler, professional and how to set them to a higher standard. This way they can compete with whatever company is at the top of the industry. Now of course, look and feel can’t do it alone, there must be substance. If you’re competing with office products, they have to be better and you have to be clear about why; if you are a financial advisor, then you must show why you know what you know and why we should trust you with our money.

But what if one company is so globally well known and everybody wants their products or services? Say you invented a new sneaker product line and now you want to compete with “Nike’s” brand. What to do?

First if you’re new to the industry there has to be something really unique about your line, that will make customers want them. Anyone can create a new product and want to sell it, but you have to be realistic in your goals.

You have to start by researching your competition, learning about how they operate if you can, so you can create a business plan of action. Get your family and friends to start buzz about you. Social media can really help. You can send a few samples out to marketing and industry reviewers and start getting publicity. All it takes is the right publicity in the right place and your off. You could also get a celebrity to endorse your product and that’s golden. But which celebrity and why? Look into who would support your efforts.

Remember that you’ve got to have “a gimmick.” Otherwise, you fade into all the other businesses doing the same thing. But that “gimmick” has got to be relative to your business. Example: I just love Toms Shoes, not just because the styling is lovely and they’re comfortable, but because for every pair of shoes he sells, he donates a pair to a child without. That’s a great cause and it makes him stand out because of the wonderful thing he’s doing for needy children.

Each new client that comes to me is so different from the previous and that brings challenges everyday. I just love this industry!

Top Ten Simple Things To Boost Your Web Presence

September 8th, 2010 | Posted in Blog, marketing | No Comments
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I’ve been listening to my clients and much of what I hear is that everyone wants a better return on investment when it comes to the time they spend on their business. I understand! As a small business owner I’ve built various platforms to show what I can do to help business owners. With assorted websites and blogs covering different areas and studying Google Analytics for each, running ads through Google and Facebook, I see what works and what doesn’t.

Last night I attended a members’ monthly meeting with the organization, Savor The Success and by listening to the guest speaker, Francine LaMarr, interviewed by Angela Jia Kim, I learned more about how to help people and was inspired to share some simple tips for business owners out there who are ready boost their print marketing and online presence.

Here’s my Top Ten Simple Things To Boost Your Web Presence.

1- Since Facebook is the most searched website across the planet with millions of users, be sure you have a company page. Include details, images, links, video links and post something everyday if possible. Also remember, it’s okay to write about your company on your company page, but your personal profile page should always be social.

2- More people search for someone online than through any paper phone book, so be sure your company is listed on both Google Maps and Yahoo Local. Get clients to write reviews which will help your placement. Add details about your company.

3- Be sure that your website is sending a very clear message, not only about what you do or are offering, but how it relates to the user. How will your product or service help someone? Think of the user sitting at the computer and they’ve opened your site, what is that first page saying to them. Is there too much going on and they don’t know what to read or click on? Clean, simple, direct.

4- Make sure that you are using the meta tag “description” within the code to it’s fullest. Write as many details as you can about what you offer and what you can do to help someone. If your selling products, details about what they are, do, who they’re for, and more!

5- Be sure that your content is informative and/or helpful. If you are selling a product, write as many details about that product that will help someone know if they want it or not. If you just put an image and a price, but not enough information, the consumer might click away and visit another product site. If you’re blogging, teach them something, and they might just forward the link to a friend. BONUS TIP: DON’T UPLOAD IMAGES TO FACEBOOK OR YOUR WEBSITE/BLOG DIRECT FROM YOUR CAMERA, WITH SOME AMBIGUOUS NUMBER! Name your images as you would name a page on your site, and NO SPACES BETWEEN THE WORDS!

6- Since this site is about branding, and I’ve come to realize so many don’t know what “branding” is or why they need it, here goes. I just wrote about simple, clean, direct design and sending a clear message. Branding is all about bringing that message to the print and web marketing you need. Your “logo” and “tagline” along with the color palette, type of photography, graphic materials and website or blog design, all needs to have continuity and style and look like they all belong to the same family. If your business card, brochure and website are all different, then you’re sending mixed signals and you’re confusing people. Branding is the follow through from a-z for everything your company needs to look professional and be successful. (ex: In preparing a branding guide for a client, I would include some of the following, logo usage for print and web, colors used, both pantone flat colors and web palette colors, types of photographs or illustrations that are appropriate, sizes and usage for graphic elements, details about their new website…)

7- Many people ask friends for recommendations, so be sure your friends know what you do. You’d be surprised how many friends don’t know exactly what you do. (I have a client who originally hired me to help them with their website, but had no idea of my past experience in book design. I happened to see his posting about writing a new book, and wrote to him. He didn’t know or had forgotten my overall experience.) Most times a person is searching online for something specific, and when they get the results to that query, may not have time to look around. Don’t be afraid to take a few minutes and enlighten.

8 – Start an online newsletter. You can send it out once a week, month or bi-monthly. I suggest once a month. This is an easy way to keep your friends and/or clients informed about what you’ve been up to, what your selling or featuring. You don’t need to attach anything, once created within the email marketing company’s template structure, it goes to the email list you created, and since the end users have the option to opt-in or opt-out, the email isn’t bouncing.

9 – Be sure to link up your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Once you’ve done this, what you post in one spot, gets automatically posted on the other two. This saves quite a bit of time. I even linked up the NY Times with my Twitter account and can easily post articles.

and lastly…

10 – Remember, we can’t do everything. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and don’t assume everything costs more than you can afford. In a down economy, everybody is reaching for the same goals. To be successful!

Is Haggling for Professional Services the New Way of Doing Business in 2010

September 2nd, 2010 | Posted in Blog, marketing | No Comments
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We all want the best value we can get at the most economical price. I know from my own experience, working with other professional services, I try to find this when I can. When I contact someone for technical programming, writing services, or anything else, I ask for an estimate. I might even ask two different people for quotes, so I can get the best person or company for the assignment as well as the best price. It’s also a good way to compare and know the true value as well as what they will provide. Once I receive the estimates though, I don’t usually haggle, it is what it is, and because I’m a small business owner, I assume the professional has given me their best pricing.

However, what about when we’re dealing with clients directly. In this struggling economy clients seem to always say, that’s a bit more than I wanted to pay and can it be this? Of course there are always the clients who seem to respect the business and just accept the estimate without questioning the pricing, especially if I’m giving them my best prices.

So how do we feel when a client asks if the price can be lowered? Should we think they don’t respect our craft? In most cases I’d have to say that it’s always the fact that they just don’t understand the work involved. I mean they came to us because they respected the work we do and our professionalism. So why haggle for a slight reduction?

In most professions when someone is hired and the price is quoted we don’t haggle, so why is it all right in the design industry? 

There are online job posting sites like Elance or Guru, where a client has stipulated exactly what they want to pay and whether it’s $150 or $1500 for a logo, at least you know how they feel about the profession up front and can choose to either do the assignment or not. The difference here is that there is a barrier set up, and we’re bidding like many others, so the client gets multiple responses, offers, experience and capabilities and then chooses.

If you want to work for someone  and they try to get the price lower, how do you approach this without offending the client and ruining the relationship? I’d say it’s always going to depend on how much we’re talking about.

If you quoted $500 and they ask if it can be $400, I’d say it’s not that much less and will depend on exactly how complicated the assignment is. You may have to explain a bit more about what’s involved and why you quoted that price and once they understand they may agree to your original price. If however there’s a huge gap, you quoted $1500 and they can only spend $500, there may be no compromise and you must walk away.

Then of course there’s the client who you take the time to meet with, listen to them talk about their marketing goals and how they see themselves and their company. You’re going to help brand their company just the right way, you’ve outlined in person what you think they need. After the meeting, you take the time to write up your detailed estimates. And? They never call or email you again. This really troubles me because you’ve given them your best pricing, written the estimate a la carte, so they can pick what they want the most. So the question is, did they think it was all too much and they never dreamed it would cost so much, or are they respectful and wouldn’t think to call to haggle.

Now of course we hate when we don’t hear back from a potential client, but I’ll admit I’d rather not hear back and know that they were respectful, than someone calling to get my pricing lower. I know it means I didn’t gain that new client, but how can a good relationship between two professionals start if I feel belittled from the beginning?

I suppose the answer is knowing when haggling is appropriate and when it isn’t. If I want a new TV, I might look at different stores and online and go for where I see the best price, but once in that store, it is what it is and the retailer isn’t going to give me a better deal. It should be the same for professionals, no matter what industry.