Next Level - Strategic Marketing Specialists

The Concept of Logos is Dated

In the not too distant past, businesses established their name in a memorable way, thanks in part to a logo.

The logo showcased a business name by creating memorable “art” that helped people recognize the the company whenever they saw it.

The problem was whenever the logo was viewed, buyer’s still wondered what the business actually did.

A new breed of business identity device has replaced the logo and it’s called a meme.

The word meme is a term borrowed from the world of genetics and means, “A unit of identification.”

In marketing a business, the meme differs from a logo in that it utilizes words, the company name and an image or graphic to create a memorable sales message.

Meme's give buyers an immediate frame of reference of what the business does. An example would be how a heart, as a meme, projects the idea of love.

The end result is, a complete sales message is delivered every time the meme is viewed.

When taken into sales situations, you’ll find greater receptiveness from your buyers and quicker qualifying, which ultimately leads to more sales closings.

You’ll also have a way to inspire greater word of mouth marketing from viewers of your meme.

The secret to a meme’s success is to make sure that you are telling a complete story, at a glance, which inspires your buyers to say "Tell me more about that."

- Bill Gluth

Ignorance Isn't Bliss When It Comes to Advertising - What You Don't Know that's Hurting Your Small Business' Success

Rick is a good friend and a client of mine. He owns a plumbing and air conditioning, as he has for the past 20 years. Rick expressed to me that every year he spends more and more money on his ads and every year they generate less response: when he called me he was frustrated and uncertain what to do about it. This guy’s at his wit’s end, and if you’re reading this article perhaps you feel the same way.

Here Is What’s Been Happening:
The advertising publication (AP), which could be a newspaper, magazine, trade journal or other publication), attempts to get as many businesses to advertise with them. That’s THEIR objective. The more they bring in, the more they make. Now if you were placing an ad, you’d want low competition (so you’re ad stands out), but the AP wants MORE competition so they make more money – this is a huge conflict of interest. The AP does not have your best interests at heart.

In response to all of this competition, the sales reps at the AP advise you that if you want to get the most out of your ad you need to make it bigger and you need to ad colors.

This isn’t always true; in fact if you keep reading you’ll find out it’s often not true.

Of course, the more colors you have and the bigger the ad, the more they charge you. If you hear, “You see, the bigger the ad, the more business you’ll bring in”, your B.S. monitor should go off. Remember, the more the sales rep charges you the more she/he makes, and the more the AP makes. At this point it’s probably sinking in that the sales reps don’t necessarily have your best interests at heart, does it?

This is like a price war, and the casualties are the small business owners: every year businesses are told they need to spend more on their bigger, more colorful ads in order to generate the same number of calls and sales as they did last year. The business owners, who are confused and frustrated, end up paying more and raising the bar, so every year the price goes up. This is the vicious cycle my client Rick has been trapped in, again, you might feel this way too.

What About the “Free” Graphic Design That AP’s Offer –
This Is a Great Benefit, Right?
Goodness no. In fact, Rick told me that the process was a nightmare, and he’s just one of thousands. Remember that one of the main objectives of marketing and advertising is to help you stand out from the crowd. Keep in mind the AP doesn’t care if you stand out or if you get a great return on your investment – only that you buy a bigger and more colorful ad.

To offset the bigger ad they are charging you for, AP’s offer you a token “gift” in return so the cost doesn’t seem so unreasonable. What they do is pay inexpensive production graphic artists to turn out your ad as fast as possible – like an assembly line. In the end the AP will pay about $25-$125 to have your ad designed, compare that to the hike he/she charged you for the ad. Doesn’t sound like such a good deal does it?

Over the years, several business owners who initially thought this was a first-rate deal claimed, “I had to spend several frustrating hours telling their artist every little thing…it was almost like I was designing the ad myself and he was just pushing buttons”. In the end the business owners didn’t get the ad that they wanted, they didn’t get the results they wanted, and many of them are still steamed at the whole situation.

What’s the Solution?
Well, our business owner, Rick has been around the block before and he’s a smart guy. He got tired of dumping money into a bigger ad he got clever and started to focus on quality and not quantity.

Instead of looking like every other advertisement in the phonebook, Rick decides to invest his money in having a better, more effective ad designed – smart move

Hmm, better over bigger, can that work? Absolutely.

Make sure you understand this, it’s important: what you say in your ad and how you say it is significantly more important than the size of the ad. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your ad can only bring in more calls and customers if you make it bigger and more colorful.

In developing any sort of advertising for your business, start by working with someone who has YOUR best interests at heart. As we’ve already discovered, this probably isn’t the AP or the sales rep that’s working for them. Instead, hire a designer who has a track record of designing effective ads that always make her/his clients money.

Make sure you only work with a business savvy strategic/design firm that has a proven track record of success, has written and audio testimonials, and make sure they stand behind the work they do.

- Jeremy Tuber

 

Advertising - Everyone's Doing It, But Nobody’s Doing It Right; How About Your Small Business?

Are you advertising right now in a publication?
If you are, how’s it working for you?

Did you ever notice that most business ads:

• Look all the same as everyone else’s
• Provide no real reason to choose their company over a competitor
• Use tired, overused phrases that customers don’t believe or care about, like, “We’ve got great service”, or “been around since 1776”.
• Don’t give the prospect a call to action – something that specifically tells them “Do this now!”
• Neglect to focus on what their customers REALLY want

So why don’t more small businesses, including your competitors stop wasting money on poor-performing ?

It’s simple; business owners have been fooled into thinking that the main reason why their ad didn’t get any action was that no one reads the publication.

Wrong! The leading reason why ads don’t work is that they don’t have a consistent, powerful marketing message that compels people to act.

Let’s say that your ad generates an average of 30 calls per year, which translates into 18 sales. Your figures might be more than that, maybe less. Have you ever wondered if your current results could be better than they are?

If I was working for you, here are a couple of things I’d discuss with you before we invested a penny on advertising. If you like what I have in here, and you’re tired of wasting money on ads that don’t work, give me a call and let’s talk about how to stop working for your ads and start having them work for you.

What to watch out for:

• Advertising does cost more money than time over other prospect building options like networking
• There are a lot of publications out there that are more than happy to take your money; you want to make sure the publication you’re considering is read often by the people you sell to.
• Avoid guessing. Unless you’re a marketing expert you’ll want to hire a business savvy designer to create your ad. The number of ineffective ads typically outnumbers the good ones 10-1.

I would recommend you advertise if:

• Your ideal target market often use magazines or the yellow pages to find vendors like you.
• The people you sell (your ideal target market) to like to read
• You are committed to running the advertisement over a reasonable period of time
• You’re going to do it right - you want to work with someone to develop a unique, compelling ad, and you are willing to invest in getting your ad designed by an expert.
• You don’t like to, or don’t have the time to write articles
• You are committed to tracking the ads results (your designer should be able to help you with this)
• You are competing against ineffective, boring ads (this is usually the case)
• You need sales quickly; you don’t have the time or don’t like to network
• You need more customers, you need more sales
• You’ve got a good sales process to convert prospects to customers once they’ve decided to call you
• You want to better customers that are more in line with who you really want to work with

- Jeremy Tuber

30-Days is Plenty of Time to Build a Compelling Brand

Next Level Strategic Marketing Specialists, is built on a compelling promise.

We will build a compelling sales and marketing story as well as a finishead brand image in 30-days or less.

That means marketing narrative (brand story) and logo/MEME (brand image) all created in one month or less.

To the untrained eye this may not look all that impressive. The fact is, companies struggle with creating a brand for months and months the majority of the time.

Why did we pick 30-days as our promise benchmark?

First of all, business owners expressed frustration at having to wait several months for their marketing strategy and branding package to be done. This happens many times because strategy and design are handled by two separate businesses.

While business owners were waiting, sales were slipping out the door.

Through experience of doing these projects we found that 30- days is an ideal amount of time to build a solid foundation and brand identity if you are following a consistent plan of action.

The reason brand development takes longer is the companies doing the work are not leading the process. They are allowing the client, who has limited experience in doing this type of project, drive the development cycle, which leads to slow progress.

Let’s face it, the sooner you are able to implement a new brand strategy the sooner you’ll be able to start recapturing the ROI you deserve.
 
 How does the Next Level process work?
 
Because we’ve done this work frequently the steps to accomplish the result we’re looking for are codified and streamlined for quick and effective results.

Next Level combines story (marketing narrative) with look and feel (brand image creation) all under one roof, so cohesion and cooperation between strategy and design is achieved. 

Everyone is on the same page and understands the core objectives right from the start.

Having worked with hundreds of businesses over the years helps us get good at these processes. Practice makes perfect is the mantra here.

- Bill Gluth and Jeremy Tuber

Your Greatest Business Challenge

Everyone faces challenges in their business, everyday. Sales, staff, time, planning, management, accounting, growth, marketing, strategic direction; the list can go on and on.

Of all the challenges small business people face the one that rests at the core of most problems is consistency.

What can you do now to become more consistent?

1. Get a plan together and follow it every day. Make sure it realistically reflects your available time and business goals.

2. Do one small thing every day to grow your business and revenues.

3. Take sales seriously. The most successful companies agree that a direct sales effort is the # 1 way to generate more revenue.

Try the 3-ideas mentioned this week and see what you think. You have consistency and greater revenues to gain. And stress, fear, doubt and worry to lose.

We believe that small business is the future of the American Economy. So, we enjoy creating new values that will help you overcome obstacles in your path.

- Bill Gluth

4-Things Your Web Site “Could” Do for Your Business

Web sites are so much more than mere brochures. When set up properly, your companies Web site can be a huge help to your sales effort.

Here are the 4-things your Web site “could” do for your business.

1. Generate sales leads – By offering free information in the form of case studies or special reports, in exchange for contact information, you have obtained a warm prospect.

2. Develop an opt-in marketing list – By providing value on a consistent basis, you can develop a list of interested people, who have given you permission to talk to them.

3. Create a direct response sale. Millions of dollars are generated annually by selling a product on the Internet. Information based products work well in this area.

4. Become an expert - Report on trends that people care about in your industry as a way to establish your reputation as an expert.

Now ask yourself these two important questions:

What is the purpose of my Web site?

What outcome do you want to have happen when a visitor comes to your site?

If you don’t have  a good answer to these two questions, your Web site will remain a brochure that few people read.

- Bill Gluth

Why Your Best Marketing Fails

There is one major reason the majority of marketing fails. That reason is because the marketing effort never gets completed. It never gets off the ground.

Good intentions are one thing. Getting your marketing on the street is another.

Here’s the formula to follow:

1. Understand your target audience

2. Pick just one target.

3. Make your communication to that niche personal and relevant.

4. Ask permission to send your marketing message. Permission makes personal and relevant messages anticipated, leading to higher acceptance.

5. Follow up your message with an offer to buy.

When marketing is put on a back burner, sales suffer. In extreme cases, businesses fail. All because marketing never got done.

- Bill Gluth

Here's Where Sales People Fall Down -- HARD!

Recently, I was sourcing vendors for a client company who has a rather large project to complete. Each vendor wants to make the sale, obviously.

2 out of 4 vendors took the "Get the group together and I'll sell ya at a meeting!" approach.

Bad idea.

A better idea is to ask one simple question. "Tell me how you go about making a decision like this when selecting a vendor."

You are not going to make a sale until you tell me:

What I need to know about you. Trust

What you're going to do for me that puts money in my pocket. Interest

Who have you done this for before and how well did it work. Credibility

What's in it for me. Projected ROI

All packaged in a way the company I'm working with wants to see this information.

Without interest, trust  credibility and a reasonable ROI there is no sale. Trying to jump over me to get to someone you think has more authority is a huge mistake ...

... unless you understand exactly how the decision will be made.

- Bill Gluth

Create or Deliver; the Dichotomy of Value

Value is the benefit a business provides to a buyer. In the best case, a buyer desires the value and money is exchanged based on the benefit the buyer receives.

There is a significant separation between creating and delivering, which differs widely and contradicts each other.

Creating value happens when a product or service is developed to fill an established need in the market place.

Value can also be delivered and not created first. The best example is a job.

You go to work, fill the requirements of an established position, and go home for the day. The next day you come back and repeat the same patterns as every other day.

In this case, you are delivering a value by doing a good job. That is why people who are in jobs often feel they have reached a dead end.

They are not able to play and create, so they often feel less valued and as a result, frustrated.

- Bill Gluth

Thinking about Trying to Design Your Own Brand? Make Sure You Avoid these Common Graphic Design Gaffes

When looking at a web site, business card, brochure or logo, have you ever thought; "I really like the way that looks", but you didn't know why you liked it? You probably said, "There's just something about it." Well, that, "something about it" is what separates mediocre designers from experienced talented ones – the talented ones know what that something is.

Designers…true branding experts know there's a reason, a science behind why some business cards, web sites or logos look better and are more effective than others. It's not luck; it's research and it's knowledge. Sure, you might like a different style than the guy down the street, by as a whole, business people respond to good design when they see it. 

Most business professionals have a rough idea of what good design looks like; they just don't know why it looks good, this might describe you as well. Going though this quick article will give you a better understanding why some marketing materials just look better than others, it will help avoid some common design gaffes that inexperienced artists or "business owners turned designers" typically make.

Armed with this new knowledge, you'll have a greater understanding on how good or not so good your marketing materials are, and you can make some appropriate improvements.

Typography.
No, this isn't the one that has to do with maps. Typography is concerned with the style, arrangement, or appearance of typeset matter. Our normal language it's referring to the way letters, words, sentences and paragraphs interrelate to each other and with the overall layout of a design. Have you ever thought, "This brochure is hard to read", "Why are there so many odd gaps between letters?", or "Why is there so much space between the lines?" – that's typography. Interestingly enough, typography is rarely if ever noticed unless it's handled badly. If you've hired an expert designer, you'll never really notice the typography at all, you'll just say, "Wow, that looks good!"

Fonts, Fonts Everywhere.
Staying along the typography theme, there are hundreds of font styles to choose from today, just as there are hundreds of types of candy, but that doesn't mean you should jam them all into your design, or your mouth! I guess the thought is, if one font is good, than 2 should be better – you know the rest: this is dangerous logic. Including a kaleidoscope of different fonts, colors and sizes is something you want to avoid. Designers affectionately refer to layouts like this as "clown barf". Avoid fonts being the focus of your design; fonts are typically work best in a support role rather than the main focus. A good rule of thumb is to keep the number of fonts you use to under 3 (preferably under 2).

Keep in mind that the fonts you choose should support your content and your message rather than take away from it. Lastly, make sure you test your fonts on your target audience ahead of time to make sure the font(s) you chose are easy to read.

Clip Art.
Ahhh, nothing in modern design and desktop publishing has been so helpful but so hurtful as clip art. Clip art is a lot like dynamite; it's a good thing in the hands of an expert, if you're not, you might consider leaving it alone. When used in usually a subordinate role in the overall design, clip art can work well. A couple of quick final thoughts on clip art: if your intended message and image are professionalism and credibility, I implore you, no, I beg you, please steer clear of hokey, cartoon clip art. Between cheesy clip art and no clip art – take no clip art. You can have an effective, interesting layout with no graphics at all. With clip art - use where appropriate, use sparingly and use with caution.

Hey, Look What This Button Does!
If you've got a newer computer of any kind it probably came with some desktop publishing or graphics software. Invariably, you're going to start playing with all of the different effects (in Photoshop many are called filters) you can do to text, pictures and graphics.

You know: beveling, embossing, making objects glow, adding a drop shadow, all sorts of goofy things. All of these effects are great, but much like clip art, you want to use them sparingly and when appropriate.

To get the most out of these effects here's something you always want to keep in mind; effects are great for adding a little spice to your layout, just a pinch. You can give your audience a slightly different look to a picture or section by applying an effect – just something a little different. When catch yourself adding effects just because you think they look cool, stop, count to ten and slowly pull your hand away from the mouse button. 

Hopefully, this post will help you avoid some easy to spot, design gaffes. You might even be able to spot them in your competition's advertisements and promotional materials.

When it comes to your business, choosing who does your design is a big decision; whether it's you, the guy at Kinko's, or a professional. Remember, your reputation and your company's image, so be careful and choose wisely.

If you don't have marketing collateral materials that you're proud to put your company's name and reputation on, don't put your name on it and don't send it out.

We all make a direct connection between the quality of the design/layout and the company that it's featuring. One shouldn't have any affect on the other, but they do, that's just the way humans are. I do it, you do it and I promise you that your customers do it as well. So it's critical to understand that your business card, your web site and all of your other marketing materials all make an immediately statement about how committed you are to quality to the world.

What does your marketing and design say about your business' level of quality?

- Jeremy Tuber