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.

Guest Blog Partnership Program

We mention it all the time, as a marketing agency we want to see others that we work with succeed when it comes to their business marketing. It’s not just something we say, it’s something we truly believe in.

This is why we have created a new Guest Blog Partnership Program! We are excited to give business owners and colleagues that we know a forum to write about and thoroughly discuss a variety of aspects about their business. The new Guest Blog Partnership Program, gives local businesses an opportunity to spread the good word about their business, no matter what industry they are in.

The program will cost only fifteen dollars per month (with a one-year contract.) This partnership agreement will include your business logo/link to your business website here on this blog page. Essentially, your business will be a sponsor of this blog page. It also includes the option to add one written blog per month about your business to this page, that will be posted here by a 77 Design Co team member. We will then share your blogs onto our social media outlets. To improve results, we encourage other business owners that are also in the program to do the same. The goal here is to create a sphere of local business owners that can cross-promote one another that will increase engagement and awareness of each others business. We believe this is a fantastic opportunity for any business owner without a blog outlet and the rate is very affordable.

The price of fifteen dollars per month simply covers the time we’ll have involved with posting and sharing of the blogs. Feel free to contact us for more info. We look forward to working with your business too!  

         

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.