It’s a cut-throat world out there and as competing businesses clamber for ever wiser customers, you should be focussed on calving out a competitive edge for yourself. A company has achieved a successful visual presence when their customers can find them when and where they are looking and more importantly, when their customers can understand them.

Graphic design is often misunderstood and seen as an unnecessary cost. Many businesses severely underutilise the power of visual design. But one thing is for sure, design led businesses stand out from the crowd. Successful businesses of any size are embracing design, using it as a strategic resource to strengthen their products and services in order to achieve profitable growth.

Visual design should not be seen as a cost. If a company is achieving a successful visual market presence, design is not money down the drain. Rather, a strong visual presence gives your customers a compelling reason to buy from you and not your competitors.

Before any potential client walks through your door, your visual identity is a representation of your company. It can make you look fun or serious, large or small, traditional or forward thinking, professional or unprofessional. You need to strike a chord with your target audience. Customers know what they want. The question is, can you successfully communicate to them that you know what they want and that you have it?

Here are a few things to think about:
What does your logo say about your company?
What impression does your company literature give your potential customer?
You target audience is on the web, are you?
If you are on the web, is your website pulling customers in or turning them away? Why?
Can your customers find you and can they understand what you offer?

The media is full of one story – Government cuts. NHS cuts. City council cuts. All sorts of cuts! In times like these your marketing budget may feel like a luxury and history shows that in an economic downturn, the top of the list of cuts for businesses is marketing. But cut your marketing budget at your peril. Here’s why:

We live in a competitive environment. Brands are competing for attention like never before. Cut your marketing budget and your impact on your target audience will reduce significantly, if not die out because you’ll be swallowed by competitive.

It takes seven touches to move from being unknown into conscious awareness. Let’s use the example of Swirl Printers.

1. Potential client stumbles across the Swirl website from a Google search. They opt in to their e-newsletter. 2. They later receive the Swirl e-newsletter. 3. Then they see a Swirl advert. 4. At a networking event potential client meets a Swirl representative. Potential client takes a Swirl leaflet promo. 5. Potential client comes across the Swirl leaflet promo a few days later and places it in a draw for safe keeping. 6. Another Swirl e-newsletter reminds them of the leaflet promo in the drawer. 7. They visit the website and can quickly find further information on the promo (reinforcing the leaflet). The telephone number is easy to spot and they take action.

Without a marketing budget Swirl Printers would not have had the website, e-newsletter, advert, the representative at the networking event or the leaflet promo.

The seven touch theory also relates to the process of increasing brand awareness. Through those seven touches, Swirl Printers increased their brand awareness to their potential customer. Educating your target audience about your brand takes place through a similar progression of drip fed communications. You’ve got to speak to your target audience frequently so they do not forget your brand.

In a downturn marketing it is even more important than it was before! It is now more than ever that you want to attract customers. Therefore you need to communicate. Since many people stop marketing in a down turn, if you keep it up, or even increase it, you will be at an advantage.

I’m not talking about a million pound budget! I’m suggesting you cover the basics and do it well. You need a simple but effective website that is up to date; some information you can give out on request such as a promo leaflet, booklet or e-mailable PDF; exposure in the form of adverts or articles in relevant magazines, on or off-line; and if your target audience is other businesses then keep networking.

And then there’s the free stuff. They demand some of your time but they do wonders to raise your profile if you add value and are consistent. Use Twitter; blog regularly; get on LinkedIn; write and post articles and press releases; and, offer to speak at relevant events.

These are just a few hints and tips. Don’t follow the trend of cuts, cuts and more cuts. Rather invest in your marketing wisely. What are your thoughts on this topic?

Looking for long term success in your marketing and communications? Then aim to develop and build a lasting relationship with your designer. This relationship should be a partnership where there is rapport and cooperation, resulting in your designer becoming the missing link between your business and your target audience.

1. Find a good designer and stick with them. If you flit from one service provider to the next, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to achieve a consistent message or strong brand. If you work with the right person though, the partnership approach, which should include strategy planning, will quickly get you moving in the right direction.

2. Be open with your designer. Share information about where your business is right now, where you’d like it to be and why. Be honest. A good designer won’t judge you.

3. Share your ideas about what you want them to provide you with. You might not be a designer but you do know your business and industry very well so your ideas are valid.

4. Tell your designer about your competition. Together you can look at what your competition is doing well and what they are failing at. This is an element of market research and this level of market awareness will help you and your designer do everything better than the competition!

5. Be clear about your company image and personality. Discuss the image you are going for and work with your designer to communicate a clear brand style.

6. Give your designer a budget. Most people think that if they share a budget then this gives the designer an excuse to blow it. On the contrary, a budget ensures the designer can come back to you with a realistic plan of action. With a figure in mind they should come back with a proposal that clearly shows what you are getting for your money and what any variations will give you. This way you can decide whether to spend a little more for a lot more value or not. This makes the entire process much more efficient. If you work together on a long term basis then you can work out a yearly communications strategy and budget.

7. Trust them. This is probably the most important element. A quality designer will be a professional in their field, recommending only what is best for you, your business and your long term goals. Do you question your doctor? Or your accountant? You concentrate on running your business and leave your designer to get the results you need on the communications front.

The right designer will know how to ask all the right questions to they can get all the details they need to produce quality communications. With all this information at hand your designer will be able to make sensible, relevant and dynamic suggestions and recommendations. As a partnership you and your designer will have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, putting you in a good position to measure the success of various communication projects. Are their any other tips anyone else can share?

The 40-60 second round at networking events – what do you say? One thing I often say is, ‘We connect businesses with their target audience through engaging communication…’ So what exactly is communication? Here are some tips to help you think about different aspects of successful communication. Here we go!

C is for clarity: Go for transparency in your message. Simple and precise will go further than over complex.
O is for open: Don’t try and be what you are not. If you have a good product or service then there is an audience out there for you. You’ve just got to attract their attention.
M is for magic: Think about how you can enchant your target audience. Magic is exciting.
M is for mystery: An element of ambiguity that makes people look twice is good. But remember not to go too far so your message becomes unclear.
U is for unique: A distinctive approach is essential. Be different.
N is for navigation: Help your audience navigate their way through your message with a clear hierarchy of information.
I for inspire: Motivate and enthuse people and they are more likely to act on your message.
C is for conversation: Get people talking about your message and your brand.
A is for attention: Grab it. As much of it as you can.
T is for truth: There is nothing more provoking than an authentic message.
I is for inviting: Appeal. Allure. Engage. Be magnetic.
O is for obscure: Do the opposite. Obscurity creates doubt. Avoid it.
N is for no noise: Stick to one main message and don’t try and say everything at once.

And one more thing. Give yourself an A if you end every piece of information with a call to ACTION! Ask your audience to do something. Be clear about what you want them to do next. So to follow my own advice (!) please comment and let us know your thoughts. And if you are struggling to engage your audience with your communications then get in touch!

1. Arrive just after 9pm.
2. We eventually find fans after a five minute search in roughly the right area.
3. There is one fan left in a rather abused looking box.
4. We opt to lug it around as it is the last fan – well Mr D lugs it around.
5. Arrive at salad counter.
6. No large salad bowls – in fact there are only small salad bowls.
7. No staff on the entire delicatessen isle.
8. Mr D leaves me waiting (battered fan box at feet) while he attempts to find invisible staff.
9. Mr D tracks down 2 staff members who are chatting amongst themselves.
10. Mr D asks for help and explains what he needs.
11. One staff member just says, “Sorry can’t help you.”
12. Surprised and a little taken aback Mr D looks at other staff member.
13. Second more helpful staff member musters a weak, “I’ll try.”
14. More helpful staff member walks very slowly towards salad counter.
15. More helpful staff member shuffles around behind salad counter for about three minutes…
16. More helpful staff member mumbles in frustration to herself.
17. More helpful staff member can only find medium salad bowls.
18. More helpful staff member, “Sorry medium’s all we’ve got”.
19. “That will have to do says,” says Mr D, “Thanks anyway.”
20. We opt for the self service till as we only have two items.
21. Fan is unrecognised at till. I am ready to scream at this point. I just want to get home!
22. Four attempts of frazzled self service staff member to get the fan through the till.
23. This fiasco lasts about eight minutes.
24. Defeated we suggest we use the main till area to the frazzled staff members relief.
25. Mr D and I now realise that 75% of tills are shut including the less than ten item isles.
26. Frustrated we have to queue behind massive trolley lady.
27. Wait ten minutes.
28. Eventually get out of the horrible shop 35 long minutes after our arrival.
29. “Shouldn’t have bothered,” says Mr D looking at me. “Hope the salad’s worth it!”
30. “I won’t come back here in a rush!” I say to Mr D.

My point? This experience made me feel unworthy and unimportant as a customer. One fan and a salad are probably worthless to them but I’m sure they’d be interested in my weekly shop for the next ten years. An average shop of £120 a week over my next ten years of life equates to £62,400 after all. But I certainly won’t be doing my weekly shop at this food store! This experience confirmed to me that our philosophy must be right – everything we do in our business is aimed at establishing long term relationships with our customers and nothing important to a customer is unimportant to us. What’s your customer service philosophy?

I haven’t blogged for ages. Yet I have a website with the blog as the front page. That is appalling, embarrassing and I know it does not give off the right signals. I have been less consistent on Twitter. I know I should do X, Y and Z but I’m just not getting round to it.

I know exactly what I should be doing but the reality is I’m just doing my best to make sure my group of clients are well taken care of and investing time into my businesses. I’m currently business building and I’m in the design business and it takes time, it’s not something you can put on a speedy conveyor belt. I could take on more clients (I need to take on more clients) but right now I’m investing a lot of time into my own businesses – this one and the Best of Zambia which we launch a brand new website for this month. I want to make sure that what clients I do take on we can deliver to. My whole team is working six days a week, 12+ hours a day, investing time because we believe in our vision. The honest, crazy truth is our biggest challenge is time, or lack of it. The crazy part is we all have the same amount of time and I can’t control the amount we all get. Argh!

So that’s the news from us – we’re completely and utterly out of time! So what do I do about it? And what are you doing better than me? Because everyone else out there seems a lot more in control of time than I?! How do you handle this time problem that plants all sorts of negative emotions like fear and worry in us? I’ll leave it open to the floor? Any tips will be gladly taken on board.