Marketing & Gardening-A Comparable Explanation

In Western Pa, spring is right around the corner. We couldn’t be happier about this! This weeks blog post will discuss some similarities between marketing and gardening.

Much like your garden, a business requires constant attention, maintenance, and care to result in good growth. We all want healthy, bountiful vegetables or fruits from our gardens and your business should be looked at in the same way. Due to a variety of reasons, there are many similarities to both that may be overlooked.

Attention: We must pay attention to everything about our business because troubles can occur if we don’t. Exactly like a garden, things can spiral out of control. The weeds can take over and almost always this results in a depletion of growth. Customers can get upset due to a lack of response, something an employee did, or a bad estimate. Just to name a few. Getting great reviews from your clientele base is essential. Stay on top of things. Paying attention to potential problems and ‘weeding the garden’ are crucial in order to succeed with both.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maintenance: New customers come from a range of different places. For example, word of mouth may be the main tool you use, but perhaps you started promoting your business on social media or another outlet. Customers that find you elsewhere will expect a certain level of maintenance on your platforms. They want to see and read about your business. Consistent upkeep is essential so things stay fresh. Rarely does a business thrive on social media by letting things get stagnant. Marketing and finding new leads for your business consistently is similar to watering or adding nutrients to a garden. Therefore, maintenance must be exercised regularly.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Care:  Care certainly wraps up both of the above. If your business “has been doing it this way for so long’ it may be time for a change. When you do make a change take great care in how you do it because nobody wants to spend more than they have to without the desired results. Like a garden, you should rotate. You can’t continuously plant the same seeds and plants in the same areas year after year without changing things a bit. This will hinder growth. Care will ensure that your garden stays healthy.

 

In conclusion, plant the seeds (marketing) of your business garden. Pay attention to everything happening. Maintain customer relationships, and grow new ones. Care for the new things you are trying. Then, watch your profits and business garden grow!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.   

   

Entrepreneurs-How Hectic Is Your Life?

As entrepreneurs and owners of a marketing firm, living life in the fast lane isn’t just a saying…it’s a way of life. Success requires an immense amount of work. Sometimes, we operate at a speed that we were previously unaware even existed. Our fuel? Coffee (hence the Mr. Coffee Head image.)

Run here. Run there. Do this. Do that. Call this person. Email that one, and so on. At 77 Design Co, failure is not an option and in order to continue to grow we have to be on the move pretty much non-stop. We’re sure many other entrepreneurs can sympathize with this too.

Some of the things that require our constant attention are; checking in on clients, contacting new prospective clients, production work on social media accounts and websites, photography editing, business meetings, fielding calls/emails from customers, and of course, kid’s activities. Usually the kids stuff takes place after hours (if that is really a thing) but during the day it’s all business. Hell, during the evening there’s a ton of business work done too! It almost never ends. However, we have adapted to this maniacal lifestyle. We have learned to embrace it. As the saying goes, it’s better to be busy than not at all.

So, what do we do to de-stress when we are all continuously rushing around to make ends meet or grow our company? What do you do?

At 77, there’s a few things we like to do to slow down and relax. A few of the pastimes we collectively do to unwind include, guitar playing, martial arts training, fishing, listening to music, and occasionally attending art exhibitions. There’s also a few sports we enjoy to watch or attend. We enjoy cooking, craft beers, wine, bourbon, Porsche’s and Corvette’s.

We’d love to hear from you about the daily scrambling that you face too. How do the other entrepreneurs out there relax?

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

What Do You Want to Know About Marketing Your Business?

As a local marketing firm, we are constantly seeking input from business owners that we work with, because we want to know! We want to know what issues you face on a day to day basis regarding your business.

Is it finding the best social media reach due to the ever changing algorithms? Maybe, you struggle with getting your website found online? 77 Design Co hears problems from customers regularly about failed marketing attempts, or more specifically failed web design. The overall design of your website may be a problem you’d like to know more about.

A ton of money can go into a marketing strategy and not produce the intended results. What we do to improve this, is meet with the business owner(s) and truly learn as much as possible about their business and competition, then assess a solution. Working together with someone you trust, and crafting the best message you want to get out can help produce tremendous results.

Speaking of competition, maybe that is an issue you face? If your competition is succeeding in something and you are not, what can we do to improve that? Is your competition pounding money into a market that you can’t compete in? We’ll work that out…and help you do it better!

Providing free initial marketing consultations is something we do on a daily basis at 77 Design Co. Feel free to leave a comment or shoot us an email regarding the problems and pain points you face with your business’s marketing. Let’s find a niche for your business and exploit the best way to draw attention to you. We’ll work together with you and your staff to resolve these and other issues, then truly design a marketing/advertising strategy that will work for your budget and produce new customers. We look forward to hearing from you! Let’s make this year better than last!

Analyze. Create. Achieve.