Leaving a Lasting Impression

In this visually motivated market, leaving a positive, lasting impression is key to generating consumer interest in a company. Here are some reasons why it pays to properly invest in the promotion of one's business.

A successful business doesn't just rely on location, location, location anymore. Visual promotions like business cards, a web site, logo and advertisements represent your company in your absence, long after your face to face meeting with a potential client has faded into memory. They can virtually speak volumes on the quality of service and product you are promoting to provide.

Take business cards as an example. They are the most popular and widely used promotional collateral in the business world—nearly everyone has one. Often to cut a few corners in the budget, entrepreneurs repeatedly make an even more costly decision to forego hiring an experienced professional who understands how to tailor an attractive and effective look for their company. By utilizing inexpensive pre-fabricated cards or by leaving design execution in inexperienced hands who create pretty pictures instead of potent brands, a valuable, prominently visible, promotional resource meant to generate consumer interest fails to attract new business outside of referrals. What started out as an opportunity to save a few bucks may have unwittingly ended in missing out on potential clients that they never even knew they had.

Here's a fun little exercise. Pull out your business card and take an objective, impersonal look at it. Picture yourself as a customer who knows little to nothing about your company. There isn't a shopper alive that doesn't want to be sure that they're investing their hard earned cash in a quality service or product. Your card should not only contain the required contact information, it should also aesthetically emote this commitment through your brand and it's design layout as a reaffirmation of this guarantee—potential clients should psychologically feel confident that you can deliver. So, does your card exude this quality assurance of service you hope to provide, or will they pass yours up in favor of a competitor?

Feel free to take the same little exercise with the rest of your promotional collateral, or even your business' logo identity. Take the extra step and compare it to cards, ads or other collateral that you like. Whether it will ultimately end up being "fun" or not, depends on how effective you feel the current state of your brand marketing is.

Projecting professionalism through one's web site should be equally important. It leaves as indelible an imprint on unique visitors as a business card would. As with any marketing promotion, it's there to provide the viewer with pertinent information—range of services, product line, contact information and an image gallery. However, the site's interface should also pique a visitor's curiosity enough to make them want to learn more about what you might have to offer, or to ideally bookmark it as a resource or reference.

A web design layout that doesn't quite align with one's brand goals, even one that has all of the necessary information, might inadvertently leave an undesirable imprint to a potential client. That could lead to wondering "what could have been"—even with all the right information it may very well receive a decent amount of traffic, however if it's creative and functional potential were reached it could have accomplished so much more.

Effective design isn't just about making something attractive looking, it's about making it attractive to the right people and through optimum channels. It's one earmark in leaving a lasting impression which in turn strengthens a brand. Accomplishing that end isn't simply a matter of picking any random professional to do the job, either. A Creative or firm should also be able to visually understand how to forge an indelible connection between brand and consumer.

You've invested a great deal into the success of your business, it only makes sense to ensure that every facet of your company is working towards leaving the best, lasting impression to make that ultimate goal a reality.

Two Little Hands image by Dagmar Jeffrey.
Storefront image and web site still source: Peabody Gallery.
All rights reserved.

Forum Anecdotal Nuggets: Calling it Quits

Most, if not all of us have come close to throwing the creative towel at one point or another during our career or studies. When our dreams fail to neatly fall into place once we wake up, should we heed our inner voice and pack it all in?

In one such case, a college senior posted a project for a review, not expecting the lukewarm reception it received. Although the critiques weren't necessarily cutting, the responses were enough for the student to seriously reconsider her major.

The fact of the matter is, if you don't have a paying design gig or haven't been exposed to real work in some way (as an intern for example), it doesn't matter if you're valedictorian in your class, you're still "starting out" in this business. Even then, professionals still receive their fair share of "surprise" critiques now and again.

Designers naturally tend to put out a bit of themselves into every piece they create—it's what defines our individual style. However, those outside the field, whom we call "clients" and toil to satisfy seldom appreciate that, nor really care so long as they're happy with the end results. More often than not, their less constructive observations are partially motivated by two factors: time and getting the most out of their investment.

As unpleasant as it may be, don't become too unraveled from a negative forum critique. If you do then perhaps you should question whether this business is right for you. It won't get any easier once you enter the market. I've seen women AND men reduced to tears when their talent was openly challenged. This industry can be as merciless as it is rewarding—you need to develop some thick skin and learn to not only roll with the punches, but glean the constructive critiques from the negative to improve and grow.

That said, I still had to applaud the original poster for putting her project up for scrutiny in a public forum. Rather than be satisfied with only her school's resources, she (perhaps unwittingly) took the direction of her career into her own hands to improve upon her skills. She stepped outside of the bubble—quite admirable. Many folks are afraid to publically subject themselves to any negative feedback and become defensive when they do. That sort of trepidation will more than likely stunt their growth in the long run. I can guarantee that even though the comments were an eye opener for this student, if she doesn't give up she won't regret her decision.

University design programs not with standing, there are plenty of completely self-taught designers who's work kick ass because they took matters into their own hands, supplemented their studies by buying books on various design principles, or joined respected creative forums for guidance and improvement, among other things. They took action.

You're likely going to discover on your own, should you remain in this biz, that design is a life-long learning process. We ALL continue to be students—our goal is to always continue to improve our game, whether it's on our own or through other means. Perhaps, camaraderie aside, that's why we join forums to begin with.

Overall, I think it's safe to say that the forum critiques—whether they are curt or coddling—are generally meant in the spirit of helping one to learn, grow and improve. However the reality is that in this alpha driven industry, with so many deadlines and big money clients breathing down your neck, you will likely run into a situation where the responses will reflect the same caliber of harsh observations one is subjected to in the professional arena. The trick is to keep an open mind, read between the lines, work to apply the helpful suggestions and ditch the rest.

If, after all is said and done, you still feel like quitting after a lackluster review or three instead of re-applying yourself, then perhaps you do need to rethink your career path after all.

Resolution Revolution 2008

If only.

Well, let's review a bit, shall we? Last year, my resolution watch word was "attainable." For that reason I only created about five business goals that I felt I could relatively keep. So, here we are a year later...how did I fare...or as is the case, where did I go wrong?

2007 Resolution 1:

Increase Profit. Didn't see that one coming, did you? But it isn't enough to make a general declaration as though the intuition to accomplish this will mystically materialize. Chris Gee of Cube Interactive, LLC and ringleader of The Prepared Mind suggests arriving at a target amount you want to make in a specific time period (in my case, how much I want to earn in one year) and working backwards. Forming a plan this way seems less like an uphill struggle when strategizing a means towards your lofty objective.

Although my profit did increase, I still didn't hit my goal. So, what happened? I started at the end, but didn't work out a detailed enough plan to take me there. Or it could have been that my aspirations were a bit too ambitious. Either way, I didn't realistically factor the time that was needed to research and reach certain benchmarks, particularly when last minute projects or personal emergencies popped up. My plan looked pretty good on paper, but fell apart in practice.

How to resolve the resolution: More research. Others reached their fiscal goals, so can I. And with a year's worth of data from the past year to use as a comparison, I should ideally be able to devise a more effective attack plan that will either bring me closer to hitting this year's goals or surpass them. It's good to dream.

2007 Resolution 2:

Launch a Self Promotional Campaign. I've fussed and balked long enough, it's time to heed the clarion call for action. Part of the reason, well, most of the reason why I still don't have a website or a stationery system with my redesigned logo is that I'm too anal, I feel as though I can always come up with a better solution and end up changing strategies. In short, I'm my worst client—EVER.

Not surprisingly, I'm still my own worst client. Unlike my other (real) paying clients, I ended up putting my business marketing projects on the back burner for real work more often than not. An effective strategy is only good if I stick to the deadlines I place on it. If I don't treat myself like a real client, the obvious result will occur.

How to resolve the resolution: I still had a solid game plan, however I have to stick to my agenda and not set my work aside whenever a paying project or "life" compromises it. I have to think of it in this perspective: if I don't promote my business, I won't get any new business and won't reach my year's financial goals. What I'm going to do is schedule a consistent block of time during the week (Thursdays between 6 and 8pm for example) to specifically dedicate towards the growth of my business.

2007 Resolution 3:

Get Fresh Blood. In order to reach my lofty profit goals, I need new clients. For this, as I stated in the previous resolution, I've been driving and walking around town taking down company names that are in sore need of a re-brand, visiting "noteworthy" yet poorly designed sites and developing a good promotional campaign that targets their needs. In all of these cases, I took a page from J.P. Morgan and "followed the money."

Well, if I only had that gosh darn promotional collateral that I kept putting off in the previous resolution this one could have worked. And in truth I didn't participate in the start-up forums as much as I should have. To be quite honest, I was indulging myself in all the wrong forums.

How to resolve the resolution: It's still a good idea to create a custom mailing list, but like a well oiled machine, all aspects of my business model have to be in place and running. So for this to have a chance I need to prioritize some of my other resolutions. Regarding the start-up forums, I'm going to pick at least two and slot time every week to hob nob with the locals. Considering that I am already an active participant in so many other groups, I think two is a nice number to get my feet wet.

2007 Resolution 4:

Launch Website. Oy, what a headache this has been. The fact of the matter is that I wasn't really satisfied with any of my concepts.

It's still a headache, but I finally decided to move in a direction that ties into my overall branding agenda. Although I don't have a "complete" site, I did put up an interim page with redirections to a portfolio of featured projects (which will soon be moved to another, more private location) and my web log.

How to resolve the resolution: There are two ways to go about this, either whizz or get off the pot. Realistically dedicate time to learn Flash and/or Dreamweaver (to start) or outsource the coding. It's that simple. Times are such that I can't afford not to have my site up—people seem to be using it as a benchmark of professionalism (how many times have you been asked if you have a web site?). Regardless of whether the bulk of my work comes via referrals, if I want to generate consumer interest from other sources, then I have to have one up.

2007 Resolution 5:

Enter Industry Design Competitions. NO, not spec run "contests." Here's the major distinction between the two.

Actually one I kept, so huzzah for me! So nothing to resolve except to continue to enter this year. Time will only tell if it will prove a beneficial promotional tool. Even if it doesn't, it certainly can't hurt to add the title of "Award Winning Designer."

Conclusion:
Rather than create new goals for this year, I'm going to try to keep to the ones I formulated in 2007. The only difference is this year, I'm going to try slightly different approaches, both in my plan and in my perspective, to stick to them...or well, most of them. I don't mind taking baby steps so long as I continue moving forward.

Janfirst illustration ©2008 Dagmar Jeffrey. All rights reserved.