What Do We Do?

Graphic design. Commercial and product photography. Branding. Printed marketing materials (flyers, cards, brochures, books, EDDM’s etc.) Web design. Social media and social media training. These are some of the things we proudly handle at 77 Design Co.

In our endless everyday travels, during networking events, or even discussions with friends and family, we often get the question about what we do here at 77. Other than running our asses off and fielding calls/texts/emails most of the time, we actually do do a LOT of work behind the scenes. In addition to finding the best ways to market a particular business and bring it a personality, we go out of our way to actually find referrals for those we work with as well. We challenge any reader to find another marketing agency that is as hands on as we are with our customers and that will go above and beyond to actually refer work to your business as well!

An initial consultation meeting with us would include questions about what you believe differentiates your company from others in the same field, and a whole lot of listening. Marketing a business requires a great deal of understanding on how it is run, who your customers are (or who you may think they are,) what areas you service, how long you have been in business, and other key aspects important to creating the correct marketing campaign. We have to understand what makes your business tick from the inside and out. Below are just some of the services we provide and a brief description of each:

Graphic Design-ever pick up an obviously poorly designed looking flyer that someone hands out? It makes you want to toss it immediately. The message is lost. We take time to create an aesthetic piece that people will want to read and look at…this is key to both standing out and converting potential customers. Any handout should also be branded to look and feel like other parts of your business.

Commercial and Product Photography-Image is everything in advertising! Having a crisp, well focused and creative image can also get your print, web and social media pages to stand out and attract customers. A creative team photo or eye catching shot of your product will get peoples eyes dancing. Ask any graphic or web designer you know, one of the first things they will tell you they need is great imagery.

Branding-Probably one of the most important things you can do for your company is to brand it effectively. Branding is a symbol or an identifiable feel that is cohesive through every feature of your business. A certain logo, color, font, image, or other design is always visible. The website, print materials, social media pages, or signs all have the same or similar look to them. This helps create brand identity. Our “77” is everywhere we can get it!

Printed Marketing Materials-This goes hand in hand with graphic design, photography, and branding. We have created some killer brochures, cards, and booklets for company’s that we are proud of. We also work with suppliers that use some of the finest inks and paper stocks that can really get these to pop. It may be worth a few extra bucks every now and again to print your materials using a textured paper or an intricate ink that will really create a WOW factor. Creative and interactive mailers can also be a superb way to touch customers.

Web Design-The online face of your business. Creating websites is a large portion of what we do and also one of the most time consuming. Add all of the elements above (minus the print) and you can really have a distinct website that looks and feels unlike any others in your industry. It needs to be user friendly also.

Social Media and Social Media Training-A small piece of the marketing pie for some, for others…HUGE! Depending on your industry, social media marketing can either attract the occasional customer or really bring in a large part of your business. We currently have a client that claims 50% of his business comes from the Facebook posts and ads we do for them. That is a significant chunk! If running a full social media campaign is not in the budget for you, we have a training program available to teach your staff how, why, when, and for what reason to consistently post.

So, thats some of the stuff we do on a daily basis. There’s much more and way too much to list here in this blog, but we hope this provides some information about 77 and what we do!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

A Blog About Blogs-77 Design Co

Welcome to the 77 Design Co blog once again. This weeks blog is about…blogs!

You may ask, What is a blog? How do blogs help my marketing efforts? What’s the point of a blog? What can spending all that time writing a blog do to help my business? These are all valid questions and questions we’ll answer them here shortly.

Let’s start with the basics. The Dictionary definition of a blog is, “a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.” There you go. A blog is a simple means of communicating something about your business, product, hobby, interest, or any topic of your choice. You may want to write about something relevant in your industry. Perhaps, you may choose the topic of baseball and write a short personal blog about that sport. It can be any topic. It can be any length. Make it yours, just try to make it informative and accurate…especially if you are blogging about a business.

Now let’s get into the nitty gritty a little more. How can it help marketing efforts? Well, a blog can help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization,) it can add credibility to your company, it can be used to market a sale or discount you are offering, or maybe a new product/service. A blog can help in any way you want it to. Promote your blog on social media and see if customers react. Ask customers what they’d like to read about that’s related to your business.

What’s the point of a blog? It can have a very crucial point. Or, no point at all. It can be something that you can direct customers to. It could be about something such as a particular law or legality for a law firm’s blog. Maybe a new product is coming out in the gas well industry. A manufacturer may want to discuss that with their customers through a blog. The point of a blog can be as important or as ridiculous as you want it to be. Again, if you are in business and blogging, make it accurate and informative.

What can spending all that time writing a blog do to help your business? Hmm, let’s see here. You can become an authority in your profession! If you know something and you know it well, share it with others. Write about problems you see and deal with on a daily basis, then give suggestions on the best ways to avoid these problems. If you market your blog properly, customers will thank you for the helpful information. You may also be able to influence a reader into choosing you instead of a competitor. Give insightful information about whatever topic you choose and be the person or business of influence!

Here are a few tips for blogging.

1. Add images, short videos, or a cool design. Not just any old out of focus, uninteresting image or video but damn good looking stuff! The human eye picks up on images 50,000-60,000 times faster than ordinary text. This will keep readers moving along and interested in what you have to say. Keep the blog fresh and the images looking sharp. If you need a hand with this, hire a professional photographer/videographer/graphic designer…or give us a ring!

2. Use terms that are relevant to your industry. Terms or short phrases will immediately attract attention to your blog topic. Plus that will also help with SEO.

3. Be professional and courteous. Write professionally and don’t slander or smear others or your competition in a blog. If you do it better, just say why and leave it at that.

4. Be consistent. Make a schedule of when to blog and stick to it. It takes a while for others to find your blog or gain interest in it, and nothing is better than consistency at helping with this. You should blog to your website AT LEAST monthly, if not daily or even weekly.

Now, get writing and get sharing your blogs with the world! It can be a tremendous help to your business if properly written. For any questions or any help to get started…our numbers and emails are right below.

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

Color: What Signals Are You Sending to Customers?

As a marketing firm dedicated to helping business owners succeed, we wanted to create an informative blog based on how the public may perceive what you are putting out to them. This blog article will deal specifically with the marketable color of your business. You may ask yourself, “what does the color of my business have to do with anything, and what is it?”

Well, frankly, it’s the persona you present to the public through the color scheme choices on any of your marketing materials AND it has a LOT to do with your image. Color dictates how potential customers feel, react, and associate with your business upon seeing your logo, website, social media pages, or other materials. There’s a lot of psychological mumbo jumbo to it and plenty of research studies have been done on the topic. Don’t believe us? Google it yourself and see.

Lets take a quick look at some examples of color as well as the positive and negative emotion/image they present:

Red: Red colors often evoke passion, power, love, speed, energy, and if used correctly can create a strong subliminal call to action. The color red can also induce feelings of anger, increased heart rate, anxiety, warning, and aggressiveness. Other things we notice as we march through life and look around us, is that our brains pick up that red is almost always associated with sex, incorrect test answers, and domination.

Blue: Blue is often the favorite choice of color by many people in studies. There are many positives, but also a few negatives with blue. Blue is one of the safest colors to use in business as it represents honesty, relaxation, calmness, spirituality, and peace. On the opposite side of the spectrum, blue can also trigger depression, frigidity, sadness, and superstition. Think of blue skies, the blue sea, winter, water, and openness to better understand how blue works.

Green: What do you immediately relate to the color green? Yep…environment! Green is associated with growth, nature, admiration, vitality, and harmony. The color green if used too much can also lead to feelings of greed (think money here), fear, apprehension, envy, and materialism. Green is a great choice for businesses relating to science and nature, as long as its not overused.

Black: Oh, black, you mysterious classy gentleman of leisure! Black creates a huge range of emotion when used in business. It can create an aura of secrecy,  authority, sophistication, strength, negativity, and protection. Black is across the board on an emotional level of it’s own and should probably be used sparingly so you don’t come off to customers as too controlling or secretive. It is also the main choice of todays youth, probably having something to do with rebellion or ambition. When you think of black, think of tuxedos, darkness, space, fear, classiness, respect…the list goes on.

Yellow: Bright, joyous, serene, optimistic, fun, and warm. Yellow seems to have it all when used as a primary business color. However, as with all of the colors there’s always negatives associated with it too. Yellow can make you feel impatient, cowardly, anxious, and unstable. We relate everyday to yellow through yellow traffic lights, (don’t lie, you want to get through it as fast as you can too) the sun, fast foods, and caution.

Orange: Ah, a supporting color of yours truly, 77 Design Co. Orange is adventurous, valuable, warm, optimistic, creative, and enthusiastic. Too much orange though can leave us feeling cheap, pessimistic, aggressive, and angry with certain shades. Orange is a color associated with food and kitchens for some unknown reason…something we also love at 77!

White: The last color we’ll discuss is white. Now white is all of the colors combined equally, but it stands alone from the others. It represents openness, cleanliness, modernity, purity, and simplicity. White can become boring, empty, distracting, and too sterile if there is too much. Humans associate white with religion (when we think of walking into those pearly bright white gates at the end of life) voids, surgical rooms, and large bright corporate board rooms.

There are many other colors obviously to choose from and of course, all of the above mentioned colors give off different vibes and emotional responses when they are presented in different tones. A light blue will invoke a differing response versus a dark blue, for example. A solid mid red color will leave people with a different impression than a light pinkish-red would. These are all things to seriously consider if you are rebranding, starting up, or making any changes to marketing materials.

If you need any help figuring out what colors to use, or would just like to hear our opinions on what colors to use for what, drop us a line. We are here to help!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.