Websites – are they like clocks?

There are two different kinds of web designers. In spite of those who combine these traits and would therefore be classed as a ’super web designer’ (a rare breed), most lesser mortals are usually one of the following: either a web designer or a web programmer.

What’s the difference?  Well, let’s look at it through an antique clock.

You go to an antique fair and you see this fabulous travelling clock. It’s just the right size for your mantel-piece, made up with walnut veneer for the case and decorated with gold plating on the hands and face. The beautiful paintings inside just add to the finish.  Wonderful.  But just one thing, it doesn’t work.

So you take it to a specialised clock-maker. They look at it carefully all over and agree to mend the mechanism.  The carefully clean all the cogs, springs and internal workings and they discover that not only does it keep time, but it has a chime with quarters and an alarm. To make it work they had to replace some new cogs, re-balance the weights and adjust the tiny hammers, all in keeping within the clock’s original design.

The web designers are like the craftsmen who created the clock’s face and case, with it’s beautiful workmanship and sumptuous materials - what you see and appreciate.  The web programmers are like the clock restorers, who reinstalled the internal workings, made the clock keep perfect time and woke up it’s delicate click and enchanting chime - what you hear and understand.

A website is like a beautiful travelling clock which needs to have both sets of web experts to bring out its true qualities, to educate, enthrall, entertain and encourage its readers to understand its contents and therefore your business.

What’s my part in this?  Well, watch this space because I am looking to combine my web design (the clock face) with a web programmer (the cogs and springs) to create the wonderful websites especially for you!

The Diverse Customer and the Postcard

If you read my post on referral postcards, you can have a chance to view what I mean by visiting my postcards page in my website. This idea has also been adapted into a feedback form (also shown) to gain more marketing knowledge about what your customers really want.

As there are many kinds of potential customers out there, does your product or service cater for all of them? Could it be adapted slightly for each kind of target market? Read my blog post Do you have just one kind of customer? which examines the fact that a single product could be marketed and packaged in a variety of ways towards a wide range of customers, yet still, underneath it all, be the same product.

I would like to take that concept and use it within a postcard format. Why not compose a series of postcards that reflect your customer selection? Each could be adapted to aim at each specific customer, sporting the different aspect that they are attracted to, while spelling out the benefits that reflect how your product/service could best satisfy their needs.

If you haven’t done a market analysis of your customer base, now is a great time to start.  Have fun thinking of the different kinds of people who could potentially buy your product or service. What are their characteristics, their specialities, their preferred choices, their lifestyles, and most of all, their needs? Can you locate a gap in their lives that your product or service could fill?

Now look at what your business is about.  Could you adapt the visual impact of your product or service to fit the range of customers out there?  That’s what products such as washing powder and services such as car insurance have done. Create a number of styles that match your potential customers and get some postcards done to reflect it – pink and fluffy for the girls and fast and shiny for the boys are stereotyped characteristics, but you could be far more subtle in your approach when even just a small change in the headline and the use of another colour could do the trick.

Alternatively, you could just break down your product or service into its component parts, and create a postcard to represent each of them. This will allow the customer to understand your business and what it does in small, bite-sized chunks, or to select the areas that they are most interested in. Present them appropriately in a layered stand, or in a matching corporate folder to hold them all together.

Food for Thoughtful Branding

Today I attended an excellent seminar on ‘The Power of Branding’ by Karen Skidmore of CanDoCanBe. One of the exercises we had to think about was to compare our business with a supermarket product, so I thought of a cake. A high quality, freshly baked, extremely delicious carrot cake you would buy for a special occasion, such as to impress your rich Aunt Agatha who was coming to tea and you wanted to keep yourself in her good books.

Here are the questions with my answers:

Where in the store would you be found?
In the bakery section amongst the daily fresh produce.

What is displayed next to you?
Lots of different cakes, all competing for presentation, flavour and taste.

What kind of other brands would be around you?
Speciality cakes produced for particular occasions to create a good impression, and other kinds of baked products of various descriptions and quality.

What special offers would your provide?
A plate of small portions for free tasting aimed at passer-bys to entice them to buy the whole cake.

What makes you stand out on the shelf?
My presentation within the chilled counter, displayed appropriately on a stemmed stand. As well as my taste and flavour I would rely on my colour and moistness of my slices embellished by scrumptious looking icing and decoration, but not too much as ‘less is more’.

What price tag would you have?
Middle of the road, but with quality that is extremely good value.

What other items would your buyer have in their trolley?
Nice teas and fancy biscuits, fresh and organic produce, healthy and environmentally friendly foods and fair-trade items; I would like someone who understands good food.

What other aspects or description would you have?
I would need to look tempting, especially next to the double chocolate fudge cake, and would rely on a good salesperson who has a passion for healthy cakes and fully understands my ingredients.

What product would you be and what would be your answers to these questions?

Practical Postcard Potentials

If you had read my post last week about postcards, you would see how they could be used for multiple mailshots.  It is worth considering that it takes at least six approaches (or attacks) to make an impression (or impact) on your prospective customer, ranging from ‘I can’t be bothered with this’ right up to ‘that’s amazing, this would really work’. Give it a go, write your story-board and start the ball rolling.

This week I’m going to offer another postcard possibility. We all know that a good way to get clients is through referrals. But asking for them is always difficult (we’re not as confident as we should be), so having some sort of paper prop would be helpful.

When you’ve completed a project with your client, and it’s gone well, they’ve paid up and there’s good feelings all around, this is the chance to get some more out of them. Along with your compliment slip thanking them for their payment, include a postcard asking them for three referrals (giving them spaces to write their details) and, maybe on the other side, a space for a testimonial from your satisfied customer. Make it attractive and easy to use, emblazon it with your logo, strapline, corporate image or whatever, and don’t forget to include a very attractive incentive, both for your customer and his referrals, to get your feedback delivered to you.

Alternatively, you could adapt your referrals postcard to get your satisfied client to send it out to his contacts as a referral for you, providing him with a space to write his comments, and highlighting the special offer both he and his referrals will get for working with you.  Provide him with more than one, making sure it is easy and quick to complete, to get maximum benefits.

And follow all this up with a phone call or a 1-2-1 to see if he received, read, appreciated and acted on your referrals postcard.  It’s easier when there is something to talk about rather than coping with cold thin air.

Don’t divorce yourself from design

My friend Annie O’Neill (The Divorce Coach) took advantage today to have a free health check on her paper publicity.  She had produced three A5 four page leaflets, one which covered everything, and two others that concentrated on specific areas.

I advised her to have a large, relevant headline and her name and website address clearly on the front page.  This is so that the reader immediately understood what the leaflet was about, and even if they didn’t open it, they knew who the author was and how to find them on the web.

Inside I suggested the text should be put into columns. This is because quick reading benefits from shorter lines, especially as the leaflets were to provide information purposefully for fast scanning to see if it is relevant to the reader.  Sometimes putting benefits into bullet points is applicable here to facilitate the scanning process.

All the images should be relevant and colourful to draw attention to themselves.  Sometimes the pictures say as much as the words (as well as their captions which are also as important) and good quality in both content and presentation provide that professional edge for a good impression.

If your budget allows, getting your leaflets properly printed certainly contributes towards your public image.  But if you are unable to do this, make sure of the quality of the paper, the clearness of the font (typeface), the crispness of the printer’s performance and the colour control to ensure a better publication.

Don’t forget, if you want to know more, or to book your own health check, go ask Alice!

Postcard Pointers for Pertinent Promotions

This is my version of the subject on postcards mentioned a few posts ago:

Take another look at the humble postcard. Size A6, although appears small, is actually quite versatile (and fits nicely into a C6 envelope if necessary), and even though it’s dimensions restrict the amount of content you can fit on it, there is no reason why you should stick to only one at a time.

Set up a series of postcards as part of a promotional exercise. Think of a story you would like to share with your prospective customers, or isolate valuable items or points you would like to tell them about. Put together a coherent message in separate episodes using a connective theme, target your audience, decide on a timeframe, chose which day they will receive your postcards, and remember to get them professionally designed and printed.

You will make it easier for your target market to cope by sending out your mail-shot in manageable bite-sized amounts, because at the end of your campaign you will need to call each recipient to ask them if they have received your postcards, find out what they thought of them, ask if they struck a chord with their business and whether they interested in what you are offering.  Restrict your mail-outs to a small number at a time to make the follow-up a little easier and less daunting.

Using this slow trickle of reminding advertising will give your potential customers a chance to remember you, especially if the theme is clever, relevant, amusing or eye-catching.  When you do make contact, remember to listen carefully to their answers and take their lead to arrange a meeting with them to discuss their part in your campaign.

What to include in your postcard

The beauty of the postcard is that it can be used in so many ways.  Both sides can be filled with information, or one side only with a picture that is relevant, coercive, stimulating, funny, different or influential. The other face could be designed like a postcard with separate areas for the message and address.  If you’re doing a long-term campaign remember ‘more is less’, especially if your message is thought-provoking, contains an incentive-laden cliff-hanger, or maybe includes a series of clues to culminate in the final issue.

An excellent headline is vital to draw attention to your reader.  Make it short and snappy, rememberable by being amusing, using gimmicks like alliteration or playing on a colloquial phrase, or posed in a question leading to an affirmative answer relevant to your purpose. A sub-heading or catch-phrase will help emphasise it further, or even explain or support particularly ‘clever’ examples.

Advertise your solution to your customers’ pain by highlighting your business benefits, arranged in a scanable format with jargon-free, simply digestible words. Add a time-induced call to action, laced with gifts or incentives, to keep the momentum going.  And make sure your contact details are always highly visible, just in case they don’t want to wait until the end of your campaign.

Presentation is always important, as good quality and well designed publicity reflects well on the professionalism of your company. Care should be taken on the materials used, colours and fonts for modern and noticeable effect, and layout for efficient use of space. If you want to know more, then just go ask Alice!

Don’t assume your audience can mindread

Reading through my son’s school newsletter, which is full of the headteacher crowing about the school’s achievements, one particular entry had us totally perplexed. It was quite a full but garbled account of the school getting to the finals and what a hard time the boys had getting there.  Great, but did they win? And what sport or event was it?

These two rather important items of information were completely omitted from the report.  Remember to be very clear with all the information from the beginning, including the date, subject, full names of those involved, any particular details associated with them, as well as the outcome with all flags flying.  You may be involved with the incident, but your audience isn’t, so unless you explain everything in detail, they will be unable to share your success with you.

Translation please

Found this video through joining up with Twitter (I am getting technical here!):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a0qMe7Z3EYg

Enjoy. If you understand it, could you give me a translation? I think it’s full of really good stuff.

A comment record

In my last post I got 9 comments - actually it’s a dialogue between me and another graphic designer. Read them if you want to know more about desktop publishing versus graphic design…

Desktop publishing versus graphic design

What is Desktop Publishing?

Desktop Publishing (DTP) is the placing and positioning of text and graphics on the page to produce paper publications such as newsletters, magazines, brochures, books, etc.  It can be adapted to create other paper publicity such as leaflets, flyers, postcards, networking material, business stationery, adverts, cards, posters, signs and other visual communication.

How is it different from graphic design?

Graphic design uses art and creative forces to combine shapes, colours, text, pictures, imagination, fashion and other images to produce new graphics and art, such as graphics, logos, illustration, concepts and design. It conjures up something new specifically for the client. The design is then used to create paper or web marketing material.

Whereas DTP takes the designed graphics, logos, illustrations and concepts to combine it with text, layout and other materials onto the page.  Desktop publishers excel in arranging the material available in the most efficient, effective and attractive method ready for the printing process.  It is mainly paper based, but other media can be used and explored, such as plastics, clothing or whatever.

So in a nutshell, graphic design creates design, desktop publishing takes that design and puts it into a paper format!