| BIG BRAND TECHNIQUES
Finding Your People
Understanding your audience is the beacon that guides the way to strong and effective marketing efforts
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 Every marketing effort -- from a single web page to a brochure system to a business card -- has an audience. Thinking about your audience is the very first step to take when planning a new marketing piece.
What do you know about the people you want to reach?
Remember, they may not be your current client. We create marketing pieces to expand our reach, too. Even though you may know who your typical client is, think about whether you are trying to reach a different group.
Here's an example:
Let's say you are a career coach, and the majority of your clients are women who are in the middle of their lives and need some help reaching a new professional goal. You'd like to expand your market to include men who are in similar situations. What can you do?
Think about your new audience. Ask yourself:
- What's their age range?
- What kind of jobs do they currently hold?
- What is their income level?
- What's their daily life like? (Use your imagination).
- Are they familiar with your product or service, or do they need to be educated about them?
Answer these questions about the group you'd like to reach, and you'll have a clear idea about what you can do to tailor your marketing piece to effectively communicate with them.
In the example above, you might decide that the men you want to reach aren't typical coaching clients, and wouldn't feel comfortable asking for help. You need to educate them about specific benefits they will enjoy from spending time with a coach. Testimonials, numbers and graphs that show results would effectively convince this group. You might need to review your materials to be sure they don't look overly feminine. Pick masculine hues (see Color: Choosing Hues that Reflect your Brand in the previous issue for help with this).
Remember, start a new marketing piece by thinking about your intended audience every time. It will be like a beacon to guide each decision you make in the marketing process.
Thanks for reading. Talk to you in a couple of weeks!
 PAMELA WILSONBig Brand System
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DESIGN SCHOOL
Consistency: My "Secret" Weapon
Many of the people reading this newsletter are here because you took my "Seven Marketing Questions" survey. (Thank you!).
One of the questions I asked was "If you could learn to do one thing to improve your marketing efforts over the next year, what would it be?"
The answers varied, but one subject came up over and over again: creating consistency. Small business owners want to know how to make their marketing look consistent across all forms of media, and over time.
There's a very simple solution to this, and it's called a style guide. The best style guides are short documents that spell out exactly how your logo should be used, what your "official" colors are, and what typefaces you have chosen to represent your company.
The Big Brand System course, which launches in 2010, will help small business owners create their own style guides so they can keep their marketing consistent and professional over time.
 This week I'm working on the style guide for the Big Brand System itself. I want to be sure that the fonts and colors I use three years from now are consistent with the ones I've used from the beginning. I also want to be certain that the brand looks consistent on the web and in print.
Style guides are a "secret" design weapon you can use to keep your marketing consistent. Start by making notes about your colors, typefaces and logo use. Keep them in a format that's easy for you to refer to, and easy to send to any outside vendors you might use to create marketing pieces for your business. Let it be your guide to a consistent look and feel for your marketing now and in the future.
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Next TimeIn the next issue, I'll talk about why it's good to
be a little bossy with your marketing materials by adding a call to
action to everything you do.
Read back issues of the Big Brand System newsletter in the archive.
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What's Bugging You?What's most confusing to you about design and marketing? Send me your question, and I'll cover it in a future issue of the Big Brand System newsletter. Send your question. |
