Take 4 Small Steps to Improving Your Marketing

What if I don’t think my marketing needs fixing?

Let’s say you wanted to be able to listen to your music on the go. Would you log on to the internet, find a search engine and look up portable music players? Probably not. More likely, you’d google ‘IPod’ and see what came up. That’s the magic of a world class brand identity – Google isn’t just a search engine anymore, it’s the search engine. If you’re using Yahoo, Altavista, Hotbot (remember that one? I had to think for a couple of minutes to remember the name…) or, for some reason best known to yourself, Bing, then you’re in a minority. The fact that Google provides the best search results is almost incidental – what’s more important is the perception that it’s providing the best search results. If you couldn’t find something on Google you’d assume that it’s not on the internet (or that you’re not searching for it correctly), but if you can’t find it on Bing… well, that’s because Bing’s not a very good search engine isn’t it?

One key reason why Google so comprehensively won the battle of the search engines is that it found something to specialise in (search) and got that right before it expanded into new territories. Equally important, though, was the strength of it’s branding. The Google logo is instantly recognisable, which is a good start, but their branding is stronger than that, as their Christmas marketing campaign for Chrome (the Google Browser – which paves the way for a full blown operating system to take on Windows later this year) shows:

Even if you’d never heard of Chrome, even if you had no idea that Google was anything more than a search engine, you’d know at a glance that this was an ad for the world’s best known search engine. The fact that the logo is relatively small, and tucked away in the bottom left, is pretty much irrelevant – those colours, that expanse of white space, those clean lines and abstract images. It’s Google, it’s got to be Google. Unless your company has the same level of instant brand identity, and has achieved synonymity with the industry in the same way as Google, then there’s room for improvement. Remember that Google had never done a widespread marketing campaign in the real world before – this was exported directly from the internet to the real world in one fell swoop.

1. Building a World Beating Brand.

Ok, Google rhapsody over. Just keep them in mind as the ideal company: as far as marketing goes – that’s what you should be aiming at. Here at Pulse Print we can’t guarantee to make your company a giant on that scale (not just yet, anyway), but we can help you get the best out of your branding. The first step to fixing and optimising your marketing is to define a brand identity for yourself.

It’s surprising how many people who are otherwise excellent at getting the best out of their business just assume that a brand identity is an organic thing. Believe us, it really isn’t. If you want your business identity to stick in people’s minds you need to be setting your messages and your means of communicating them, and you need to be consistently pushing the same buttons to generate a subconscious association between your business and your industry. This consistency is key, so let’s have a think about how you can achieve it:

Colours

Let’s take a look at the Pulse Print logo:

At the risk of sounding like a Marks & Spencers ad, that isn’t just red. That’s Pulse Print red. We’ve got a clearly defined colour palette, with the exact values for reproducing it on screen or in print recorded and written up for everyone in the office to reference. It sounds like such a small detail, but by using exactly the same shade of red on everything to do with Pulse Print we subtly build a brand identity. More importantly, we maintain an image of professionalism and consistency which wouldn’t be conveyed if we just approximated our reds.

The message is this: take care of the details, or the details will take care of you. Whether you’re starting a business from scratch, or you’re reassessing an existing brand, take some time to work out the precise shades that will form your corporate colour palette. You’ll thank yourself for putting in the work later.

Fonts

Again, you need to take some time to sort out your font palette. Most businesses will need a Sans Serif font (one without any wiggly bits on the ends of the letters – best used for logos and headlines in adverts) and a Serif font (one with the wiggly bits – best used for body text in ads) at least:

 

Most fonts (those that don’t ship with an operating system as standard) will cost you money to buy. It might seem like an unnecessary expense – there are places that you can get most fonts for free – but please, please think of buying a font family as an investment in your company. You wouldn’t ask someone to design you an advert and then not pay them, so why would you take a font that someone’s spent hours (days, weeks, in some cases months) perfecting? Make a good choice of fonts and buy them through a reputable website – you’ll sleep easier knowing that you’ve done the right thing!

Your Logo

Logos are a constant source of misery for designers. It’s not enough to send a designer a random file with your logo in it – no matter how good they are, they won’t be able to do anything with it. When you’re deciding on a logo (which we’d recommend you do with a professional graphic designer, even if you do everything else yourself) get it designed as a Vector graphic, preferably using Adobe’s Illustrator, as that’s the industry standard. A vector graphic can be scaled to any size without degrading in quality (check out our article on Pixels, Dots and Print Resolution if you’re not sure why this is important) and should be kept in a safe place on your computer – preferably with over-write protection so that it can’t be accidently ruined. Whenever you have a new project on hand, whether it’s a promotional flyer printing job, a new set of business cards or a high-volume brochure printing job, send your designer a copy of the vector file containing your logo. They’ll be able to use that on any printed or online marketing material, and having it to hand will make both of your lives easier.

Obviously it goes without saying that your logo should incorporate the colour palette you’ve already worked out, as well as the fonts that you’ve bought for your brand. We’ll say it anyway though – we like to be thorough.

Bringing it all together.

So now you have your colours, your fonts and your logos. You’ve essentially got your brand prepared and ready for deployment – well done! The trick now is to make sure that all the elements that combine to make up your brand are properly used, by whomever you choose to do your design work in the future.

The most effective way to do this is to set a branding guideline document, much like the one below:

2. Review Your Existing Marketing Materials.

Now that you’ve sorted out your brand identity, it’s time to look at the marketing materials you’ve already got. The chances are that they’ll be roughly within the guidelines you’ve set (unless you decided to re-think your branding completely, in which case there’s no point in reviewing your existing stuff – just throw it out now), but it’s time to be ruthless about things. The question you have to ask yourself is this: do my marketing materials conform to my new branding guidelines? If the answer is ‘yes’ then fantastic, give yourself a pat on the back, because you’ve managed to keep within branding guidelines before they even existed. If, on the other hand, the answer is either a straight up ‘no’ or a ‘well, sort of’ then you need to start thinking about getting them replaced as soon as possible. The only exception to this rule is marketing materials which are specifically aimed at promoting a limited time offer, or something else out of the ordinary course of business for your company.

You may not need to get rid of everything and start from scratch immediately. If it makes more sense to do a gradual roll-out of your new brand identity (maybe starting with business cards and moving on from there) then that’s ok; just bear in mind that a gradual roll-out won’t be as attention grabbing as a once and for all switch. If you’re going down the path of a gradual roll out (maybe you’ve just got a large batch of catalogues printed and you can’t bring yourself throw them out and start again) then you should set a deadline for the roll out to be complete, and make sure that you stick to it. By setting a deadline, you’ll mitigate against the loss of momentum that is an inevitable drawback of the gradual roll out strategy.

3. Decide how you’re going to use your new branding.

You probably already have a good idea of the marketing strategies which offer good returns for your company. Now’s the time to review and decide whether there are things that you haven’t made the most of yet, or marketing that you’ve been pumping money into, but aren’t seeing good enough returns on anymore. It’s also the time to order new versions of your most successful marketing materials which are in line with your newly defined brand. Here are some ideas:

• If you mainly build your business through personal contacts, you’ll be needing business cards – it might be worth considering something a little off the wall: plastic or metal business cards are neat and help you stand out from the crowd. Check out our inspiration blog on Awesome Business Card Designs for some ideas and get in touch with us to let us know what you’re looking for.
• If you’re at the stage where you’re building through print marketing, whether that’s in the form of posters, small booklets or ads in the local or national press then get in touch and ask about our design and print packages. Whether we’ve conducted your branding exercise or not, we guarantee that we’ll be able to provide you with the most affordable high-quality design and printing package you’ll find.
• If you’re running a business that focuses tightly on a small local area (an estate agent, for example, or a restaurant) it might be worth arranging a flyer mailing drop to houses within your catchment area. It could be a simple booklet with your current menu, or the properties you’re trying to let or sell. It could be a run of business card sized flyers advertising a taxi service. It could be anything, really. As I said, you probably know what’s worked for you in the past, but this is an ideal opportunity for you explore new options and push your new brand out to new clients.

4. Get it planned, get it budgeted, get it done!

It seems so obvious, and maybe it is, but you’re never going to launch a rejuvenation of your brand unless you set time aside to plan it and actually get it done in that time frame. What are your aims? When do you want this roll out to be complete? Have you got the funds to undertake the project, and if not, will you within the time frame you’ve set yourself? These are just a few of the questions you’ll need to answer in order to effect a timely and successful improvement in your marketing strategy. It’s not hard to do, but it does require a little attention and forward planning – the rewards are well worth it, though!

How we can help

You’ll already know that we can help with the design and printing, but did you know that we’re also rather dab hands at branding exercises? get in touch with us by email or phone to find out more about our bespoke branding service!