Competition
is tough…
get BRANDWISE!

Over the last 11 years that I have run my business, I have learned a lot of things. One of the big lessons I was reintroduced to in the last year or so is taking risks. Jumping out into the unknown and trying something new can be pretty scary especially if it is going to cost a bundle if you fail.

As I think about this and think about some clients and prospects I have talked to over the years, we all want the same thing SUCCESS. None of us want to fail, but I ask you this– what items are holding you back from reaching success? Many people have asked me– what ROI are we going to get on our marketing? Although I pride myself and my company on offer the highest return on investment I can possibly get for my clients, it is hard to pin down an exact figure and even harder to guarantee.

So I am hear to tell you that even in the worse business (and life) mistakes I have made, I have learned a lot. I am now able to look at these tough times and find the positive gems and use them to move me to the next phase in business or life. What we need to do is not be so fearful of fear. Just get out there and take a big risk that gets the blood pumping, your heart or stomach jumping and see what you get from it.

Honestly, I have come out better on the other side even in the tough times. But when things work, when they really work it is amazing how this risk can truly change you or your business. I made a huge leap of faith with this new thing called Inbound Marketing last year. Today it is the #1 thing we sell above all other forms of marketing. Partly because it works if you do the work (it is a lot of work, but worth every ounce of sweat you put into it), and partly because it is the best marketing for tracking the results that we always strive to reach with our clients.

We have recently taken on a new risk and we will let you know how it works out over the next few months or years. After talking with a friend and fellow business owner it struck me how often we hold ourselves back by fear to make a leap into the unknown.

That being said…

What big risk is waiting for you or holding you back?

What risks have you taken and what has been your experience both good and bad?

Please share them below in the comment section. I bet this could be a very interesting conversation.

Today I read an interesting article that a friend shared with me. This article titled Getting Noticed on a Shoestring Budget was published by Fox Business News.

Basically the gist of the story was trying to, again answer the age old question. How can we best afford to market our company with our limited funds.

The interview was with Jaclyn Smith, co-owner of Anzie, a fine jewelry company (by the way, this is not "THE" Jaclyn Smith of Charlie's Angels the famed TV series). Although I love seeing small businesses succeed, I felt this article was dated and misleading to the small business community.

Jaclyn sells jewelry and has been in business for about 11 years, roughly as long as I have been running my business. Over this time Jaclyn has found that one of the best ways for her to get exposure to her company has been either by PR or by doing celebrity "Gifting". So if you are able to get a photo of a celebrity wearing your jewelry you will get a ton of exposure right? Hmmm, well the question I raise is what if you are a plumber? Will a celebrity allow you to take a photo of them while they are on the toilet? It would get you some great exposure for sure. Heck, the grocery store trash rags might give you enough money that you may not have to ever work again.

The other option they mentioned was PR. Although PR might work well for some companies I do not know that all small businesses are doing big newsworthy things enough to get picked up on a regular basis. If the company has someone that can write articles, it might be wiser to publish these articles on your blog instead of trying to get picked up in a newspaper or magazine.

So basically this jeweler was spending $3,000 to $15,000 to go to one celebrity event. This would lead me to believe that she was spending somewhere in the range to $6,000 to $30,000 per year since one event probably does not carry you through the whole year. It doesn't matter whether she does 2 events a year or 1 event and some PR, she is still spending in this range.

So here is the real deal for all small businesses.
We have done plenty forms of (outbound) marketing - PR, Advertising, Direct Mail, Trade Shows, Networking, Sponsorships, etc., etc. What we have found is that there is a good chance $6,000 to $30,000 annually might be accurate numbers to really market your small business successfully, but celebrity gifting and PR are not the best solutions for all businesses.

So what do we recommend?

Here are the items that are needed to reach real small business success on a budget:

1. A solid company name - keep it short and sweet, make sure it says what you do or something about the company, see if it is protectable by getting it trademarked, make sure it is easy to spell, read and say and that you can find a domain name for it (go here to search for domain names- WebCents branded domain names). To learn more on naming read Brand Development - What does your name say about you?
2. Get a professional customized Logo Design - if you are serious about business then make sure everytime someone sees your company logo they know how professional your comapny is. Don't just spend $200 at the cheepest place online, hire a professional. Professional Logo Design samples can be viewed here.
3. Build an Inbound Marketing Website - inbound marketing is online marketing that gets customers finding you instead of you trying to find them. This is done through the development of remarkable content on your blog and then promotign that content through email and social media sites. Make sure this system has a way to convert web visitors into sales leads and lastly can prove the results through analytics software. To see samples of website designs using inbound marketing click this link.

If you do not have any of these items, and start shopping for them, you could still walk away within the budget mentioned above. Keep in mind once you have a solid name and a professional logo design, these are once and done expenses (investments). Then each year there after, commit to the inbound marketing strategy for 2-3 years and then start adding other forms of marketing to help build brand reputation and awareness. The inbound marketing is the key to long-term success for the small business who wants to level the playing field and compete with the Coke's, Microsoft's and Nike's of the world. Your small budget goes a long way into taking some of the big dogs marketshare.

Don't believe us?
Check out what other small companies are saying.

"Many of the old tried and true methods of marketing are no longer effective. Marketers should not rely on a single approach or depend only on outbound methods anymore. If you run a small business and don't have a big marketing budget Inbound Marketing opens up new and better avenues to reach potential clients and markets unlike any outbound methods ever could."

Chuck Jones
Head of Sales and Marketing
Synergy Broadcast

"Since we started Inbound Marketing with HubSpot we have seen a huge increase in our conversion rates and closing deals faster than we can inspect the cars. With expert services like Brandwise on the job you don't have to search and beg for leads anymore. They just come to visit. You can then truly build it and they will come."

Steven Paul
Owner
Test Drive Technologies

It seems like this Fox News article was unable to handle my full response so I thought I would continue it on our blog. Click here to read Fox News' article Getting noticed on a Shoestring Budget.

Here are our thoughts and the full comment we tried to add to their blog article.

BRANDWISE comment starts here:

I found this to be an interesting article. Being a company that works on building strong brands through marketing strategy and graphic design. The funny thing is hearing how much PR is promoted on a news channels website article. It makes me wonder, hmmm, do they really invest heavily in PR or was this promoted by Fox to get this company some free coverage. You know, maybe like giving your product away for free if you promote it to your sphere of influence similar to giving your jewelry away to celebrities and snapping a photo.

The sad thing about this is this article does not speak to volumes of companies. How does a plumber do a free give away to a celebrity? I would say free give aways may not be the best solution. Are the celebrities really supporting and promoting your product or have they just thought this is nice why not wear a new jewel for this event and then never touch it again.

PR is an ok industry, but in my eyes it is changing since the newspaper business is struggling. The efforts might be better spent using that PR persons time helping you write a few blog articles. We have done nearly every form of marketing - networking, advertising, direct mail, trade shows, PR and to be honest with you this is all very expensive and becoming less and less effective. We have found that Inbound Marketing is the new way for small businesses to level the playing field and compete with the big dogs in your industry.

What is inbound marketing you may ask? Well, Inbound Marketing is a online marketing system that helps clients and prospects find you. It is similar to the Yellow Pages of the pre-2000's. If your parent or grandparents had a problem, where did they turn? The Yellow Pages, right? Well, when you have a problem, where do you turn? Google for the most part right? So basically if you are not in Google, Bing or Yahoo, you are unknown to the world.

Hiring a professional to help you develop a strong Inbound Marketing system may cost several thousand dollars a year, but it will be the best money ever spent. How do I know? Well, not just because we sell this service, but because we use it for our own company for the last 14+ months. In that time we have established ourselves as an expert in our industry and have gotten more leads in 12 months than we had gotten in the previous 10 years of having a website.

The first step is getting found, you do this by having a static website w/ all your company, product detail and contact info. Then you move on to adding a blog hosted on your website (not wordpress or other blog company hosted). Then you blog on a regular basis 1-5 times a week using keywords people would use to find you. Then you promote this remarkable content through social media sites like linkedin, twitter and facebook.

Step two is conversion so once you have a ton of traffic coming to your site you need to covert the web visitors to sales leads. This can be done through landing pages, lead management and lead nurturing.

Step three measure your results. This is done with the proper analytics tools (example: google analytics which is free but maybe not the best tool for this system, but something is better than nothing). Then you monitor your results over time to show what is and isn't working. Obviously once you know what is working you do a lot more of that and keep testing other things to see what might work better.

I would be willing to bet that if I put this same system up against the system of PR and free jewelry give aways that Jaclyn Smith is using, she would be amazed at the results and speed at which she is getting known and climbing the success ladder. Heck maybe this is something Fox Business News would like to do a story on. Have two companies take 6 months or a year and see who has got the best exposure and business growth in that time.

If you would like to run a great article for the business community, this might be it. We could do monthly progress reports to share the whole experience with the readers.

If you would like to learn more about Inbound Marketing check out our blog at Brandwise Branding Blog. Or if someone at Fox would like to talk to someone at Brandwise about this article idea, you can get our contact info on our website.

Good luck small business and don't settle for big expensive forms of marketing. Start asking for proof and hard numbers of what you advertising budget is going to do.

It is funny how often we are approached by people looking for design jobs or internships that are un-prepared to talk serious about their needs or wants.

So often we get someone calling or stopping into our office and saying, I want a job, do you have a job for me?

Ok, so here is the problem. I do not know you. You have not stated what kind of a job you are looking for, you just asked for a job. So does that mean you want to clean my toilets, clean and dust? If so, what do you charge, I'm tired of doing these chores as owner.

The point here is this the first thing you must do is go in or call with a purpose.

Define how you are going to solve the businesses problems, not your unemployment issues.

Tell me what you are looking for and how you can help out - "I'm a designer and I am looking for a design position where I can help you manage your current work flow and help you pitch new business". Not I want a job, do you have a job?

Next, it blows me away how many of the people that don't have a resume, business card or portfolio to show. Very few people get hired on the spot from a cold call or unannounced walk-in. If you are a designer, why do you not have these items ready to go. I had someone walk in the other day and had no business card or resume. How am I supposed to get back in touch with you if I like you? Well, I'm not going to because in my world everything revolves around a business card, they are easy to file and should have all the info to reach you when we make our decision.

So if you are searching for a job and want to just stop by, good for you. This is ballsy and shows initiative. But if you do not have samples of your work, a resume or a business card you lost every chance you just had. Designers if you are unemployed and looking for work design a business card and get them printed even a cheaply printed card from Vista-Print will do great strides to move the conversation forward.

Next think through the process a little more. The first thing a firm is going to ask is "Can I see your work?". If you do not have a digital online portfolio do not even call looking for a job. Create your own website to make the strongest impression, but at very least go to some service like LinkedIn and add their portfolio feature under applications or just create a wordpress blog or something for free to get samples of your work out there.

A resume is important, but your work speaks volumes about you and your style. If you are a new designer and do not have that much experience then fake it. Start grabbing the yellow pages or look online for bad logos, websites or ads and then recreate them and show before and after images in your portfolio. This at least shows you have drive and are a go getter.

Calling a design firm and telling them that you want a design position and that you have a resume and a pdf portfolio or online portfolio will very quickly put you ahead of all the other designers that "want a job".

What these young or inexperienced designers don't realize is they are in business for themselves right now and on 100% commission based sales. If they can't sell themselves they are useless to themselves and to the design firms they call on.

For those job/intern seeking designers, I hope this helps you rethink your job search efforts. By applying the tips mentioned above you will get taken more seriously and get your foot in the door. From there you need to learn how to sell yourself and your work. I'll leave that for another article.

Must have items for job seeking designers:

• Portfolio - online, pdf or in a case
• Resume & Cover Letter
• Business Cards
• Other Items to help: LinkedIn profile, other social media accounts where you talk about design

Good Luck all you job seeking designers!

As some of you may know I head up an few Inbound Marketing Groups that meet once a month. A basic entry level group and a more advanced group. One of the things we are going to discuss next month is successful blogging techniques. I can give my two cents, but I thought it would be better if I tap into other expert bloggers.

So here is what I am thinking:

1. Ask top bloggers to share their best tips on blogging
   
   
2. Do a poll to ask your thoughts on some of the top tips then refine this list
   
   
3. Take best 7 tips and develop a presentation to be shared with my Inbound Marketing Groups and also on Slideshare and promoted to all our "Fans", "Followers" & "other connections"
   
   
4. I am thinking this might create a few blog articles on the topic of best blogging techniques that I will write and share with you and also mention anyone who is used in the articles or the presentation and include your twitter account and blog address for recommended reading to our followers.

Ideas/Tips that might be helpful-

• How to write articles quickly
• How to use top 10 lists effectively
• How to get comments
• How to interact with your blog readers
• How to get people to subscribe to your blog
• How to market or promote articles/blog
  
• etc., etc.

Please make a comment below or click the button below to add more detailed tips by using the Bloggers Unite Tip Form on the next page. Make sure to add all your contact info so that if your info becomes the top tips used, we can give you credit and also promote your blog and twitter account.

Thanks for all your help!

Also, please go vote for the top blog tips submitted.

So I got a tweet from a Brandwise twitter follower. They thought we might like to review the opportunity to design a logo for Spud Webb.

Apparently Spud Webb went to a cheep logo design site to request a bid for a logo. From my understanding any designer can submit their logo and get some great exposure and all of $300 for their work.

Wow, you mean a professional basketball player is willing to let go of $300 for a logo. I bet that is really cutting into Spud's annual income. I bet he has been saving up for years to be able to afford this expense luxury item.

Ok obviously you can see why I am laying this on pretty thick. Because I figured my comment would be monitored and there was a good chance Mycroburst would not post this comment, I thought I needed to share it with all my readers. I hope you find this enlightening, entertaining and maybe even upsetting. I wonder if I could hire a home builder to build my new home, I got $300 bucks what more could you want? I'll give you exposure on my company web site so it is obviously a win-win right?

Comment starts here:

"I must say one of my twitter followers passed this on to me to review. All I can say is does this organization and Spud Webb also support child labor and sweat shops?

As a professional in the branding industry I find it repulsive that someone who makes a decent living would ask someone to work for so little. Hey Spud, I’m starting a new basketball team, join it and you can be our number one player and you will get paid $50 a year!

Basically let’s say you find designers that are willing to do this because they have no self worth. Yes they may get some exposure and never see a cent of the millions this logo will help produce. Think of the Air Jordan logo, how much money has that made for Nike and Michael Jordan? Boatloads, right? I bet Erin Patton one of the men responsible for the Air Jordan brand success didn’t get paid $300.

When are business people going to show respect to the design community?

And hey designers – WISE UP!

If you are a professional than you need to get paid like one. You bring a ton of value to the brand if you are talented.

Starting prices for logos should be 10 fold, but for a celebrity national or global brand try starting at 100+ fold.

To see what a professional logo looks like and to hire a professional to develop your logo go here – http://www.getbrandwise.com/portfolio/logos/

We are the logo slam dunk champions!"

Keep in mind we are not trying to slander anyone, just educate the public on the true value of a logo and brand building.

Good Luck Spud!

Over the years we have seen a lot of things change in the creative industry of advertising and branding. One of the big things recently was how photos were used.

We just ran in to an old client of our having a problem with their photos. It seems like a photohouse is asking them to see a receipt of some images they used. Sadly we were not able to help them out and fix their problem since we were not the agency that purchased the images in question. I did however feel bad for the current marketing director who realized how poor record keeping can really do a number on a company. She was calling every agency the company has worked with which I am betting it a pretty big number.

Any how after doing research I found out that the images that were in question were Rights Managed images.

Here is the definition Wikepedia give for Rights Managed:

• Rights Managed refers to a type of contract between two entities (the licensor and licensee), that is employed when licensing the rights to use content such as photographs. The term Rights Managed means that the seller of the license is specifically giving permission to the buyer to use the content in a certain way. This typically includes restrictions on the length of time, the medium, the size, the format and the location of use. The more flexible, or beneficial rights one purchases, the more expensive the license.

You see you can only use these images as your agreement states. So let's say in this situation with my past client that a design firm bought some right managed photos for a print marketing campaign- maybe a press kit. Then let's say that the company stopped working with this design firm. It would not unheard of for a company to request all the files from the design firm so that the new head of marketing and new design firm could use some of the files they bought.

*As a side not keep in mind the all working digital files copyrights are owned my the design company and they do not have to share these files with the client- obviously sometimes it is best just to pass along these files, but only in rare situations.

Now let's say the new marketing people have a big stack of folders and CD's with all kinds of files. It would be very easy for future designers to get these files and just start using them on their web site or trade show collateral. This would be breaking the law and the photohouses have every right to come down on you if you break this law.

Today there are a lot of ways to get your photos-

• Custom Photography - this is a great way to go if you need product shots or want to build your brand through unique images. Photographers have several different ways of working so you need to read their contract to see if this is the best solution for your needs.
  
  
• Rights Managed - limited use and bought through a photohouse and great for custom branded companies that get full usage for a certain time. In this case no one else can use this image to promote their company. The usage of these images however can get quite expensive especially if you want exclusivity.
  
  
• Royalty Free - this is typically photos on a CD or bought individually online. These images can be used for anything once they are bought. You pay one price and can use the image however you want and in whatever medium you want. Use it for print project, on your web site or whatever, but keep in mind anyone can buy the same image and use it for whatever they want as well. This can water down your brand so be cautious and look for obscure or hard to find RF images for your best bet.
  
  
• Creative Commons - again, you have to read the fine print and make sure you are following the rules for the images you use. These images however can be free and downloaded from Flickr.com or other web sites. The great thing is you just have to give the photographer credit to use some of these photos so this makes a great way to add photos to your blog without having to pay an arm and a leg especially if you blog several times a week.
  
  
• Lastly Stolen Missused Photos - this is illegal use of image you find online and use for commercial purposes. The owners of these photos can come after you when you misuse any of the above mentioned photos or just other random image found online or elsewhere. Stay away from these issues by understanding what kind of images you have and what rules you need to follow for usage of those images.