Bad Business-Don’t Do It

Bad business, don’t do it! Don’t be that business owner others talk about…negatively.

by Email Marketing Girl.

We’re generally an upbeat, optimistic crew here at double 7’s, but sometimes we see (or unfortunately at times deal with) bad business. Focusing on the negative is NOT what we do. We help businesses get better through positive marketing tactics and reputation.

Rob Hoffman at the Narcisi Winery.
Be positive. Be on time.
Oh, we’re sure you’ve seen it too!

We all know them. We’ve all dealt with them, bad business owners. Maybe they aren’t aware of it. Perhaps, inexperience leads them into making poor business decisions. Likewise, cash flow could be an issue.

There’s an array of situations that this topic could cover. However, we’ll just discuss a few things we have seen from our own marketing experiences. Consequently, we hope this blog will help SOMEONE out to avoid making bad business choices. Further, we also hope this will allow consumers (all of us) to be aware of what to look for.

Follow up! Communication is key!

First one I can think off the top of my head is not having a good lead system. Show up when you say you will. If someone calls you about an inquiry for your services, make sure you call them back! We all understand people are busy but you should reach out within 24 hours. A 24 hour response should be a maximum time frame. At least say, we have received your request. We are gathering some information and will reach out to you shortly. 

Have a client meeting? Don’t show up late. I think that is pretty self explanatory, especially if this client is paying you money for your services. 

77 Design Co business card, keyboard, and flash drive.
Call, email, or text if you are late or have to cancel. Customers appreciate this!


Don’t bite off what you can’t chew. If someone wants a certain service that you don’t feel comfortable with doing, or you do not have the necessary resources for, make sure you are up front with the client. Either you lower your overall price or do not do that service. That is to say, refer them to someone who can. You do not want to put your name on subpar work. 

Don’t overcharge or change pricing without first notifying your customer. Talk to them first about an unforeseen situation/cost on a project. This happened to one of us last year on a home project. Needless to say we were not thrilled with how it was handled. Subsequently, we reviewed this local business negatively on several platforms. They have yet to respond to the review, and did nothing to remedy the situation. Bad business, don’t do it!

There’s that word again, CONSISTENCY!

Make sure your brand is consistent. You need flyers, cards, emails, a website, brochures, etc., all branded with your logo and colors. Consistent brand identifiability is key. If this is something you do not have currently, find a print shop or marketing professional that can help you with this. Branding is huge!

Be social, NOT socially unacceptable!

Above all, behave on your social media channels. That is to say, don’t get involved in political debates, foul language, controversial topics, or bad mouth competition. Definitely don’t be posting drunken photos and videos while you are out. If your personal page can be tied to your business, make sure its also acceptable content. All of the above are things we’ve seen in the past by business owners, and recommend NOT DOING.

For example, post fun, informative, and creative information. Sure, everyone likes to have fun once in a while and this can add personality to you and your business. Most noteworthy, make sure what you share and post is clean and inoffensive.

Reviews

Finally, online reviews. Reputation is everything in business. If you get a bad review on Yelp, or Google (to name a few) don’t ignore it. Respond kindly and accordingly. Explain a little about the situation and what you may have tried to do to right the wrong. DO NOT get mad and respond in anger. Be courteous in your response. Believe us when we say potential customers will see these reviews if they are thinking of using you, and many will appreciate your amiable response to the review.

77 Design Co gray and orange logo

Analyze. Create. Achieve.


 

Marketing with a Small Budget

Email marketing Girl here. Hola, and Happy New Year! How do you market your business with a small budget?
When you think of small budget, let’s start real small…like free. Therefore, what are some marketing tools that are free? Social media, email marketing, networking, blogging, webinars, ebooks, etc.

Email Marketing Girl with dog Image 2
Email Marketing Girl and pup.

Numero uno. Social media.
If you are a business, you need social media. One of the first things people do when they research are Google and most likely Facebook. Depending on the company and demographic, it could be Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or some others. Be consistent on social media. Engage people on social media. Be proactive instead of just reactive on social media. By proactive, for example, I mean look for the audience you wish to make business with. Likewise, look up hashtags and follow those people who are liking or posting those awesome pictures you wish were your content. (Consequently, learn from those cool profiles).
Email marketing.
There are a bunch of free email marketing tools out there that can do some cool stuff. Most popular from my experience, would be Mailchimp. However, all you have to do is go back to your friend Google and type in free email marketing and do some research on what best fits your needs.

email button on keyboard.
Web mail computer keyboard button for business contact concept. Email envelope icon key in blue color.

Networking.
I know, talking to people can be scary. That is to say, if you find yourself at a free marketing happy hour, talk the talk! Have your elevator pitch ready and go into it with a positive attitude. Even if you don’t get a sale or a client right there, you have planted a seed. Continue to follow up and make a relationship. Certainly, networking can be a powerful way to grow your company.
Blogging.
Like what I am doing now? Yep! Have a landscaping business? Blog about the newest trends you are seeing for the summer. What about some fun tips for your garden? I mean, that sounds interesting to me!
Free downloadable resources.
There is so much free stuff on the internet. If you don’t know much about SEO, download a free ebook about it or register for a one hour webinar on it. Likewise, it’s the same thing with literally anything marketing. Like I’ve said before, just Google.
There are a lot of free marketing things and resources you can get away with to start off your strategy. Have any questions? Reach out!
Analyze. Create. Achieve.
77Design Co logo and business cards.

Client Interview with a Marketing Coordinator

Hi all,

Recently, while on a product photography shoot, we conducted a quick Q&A interview with a recurring customer. Chelsea is a marketing/sales coordinator for a local company we’ve worked with frequently over the last few years. A great company making fantastic one of a kind products. We candidly asked her what she likes about her role and some general marketing questions.

What’s your role in marketing?

Chelsea: “So, I’m the sales and marketing coordinator here. I help coordinate trade shows. I help with photographic shoots, and I also manage a product line with our company. It’s really exciting because we’ve gained some new customers recently. We have a trade show in Pittsburgh and then one in New York in a few weeks too.”

What’s the hardest thing about marketing?

Chelsea: “Umm, so, probably finding out what people will like. Trying to grab their attention. Seeing what gets peoples attention and why they’d want our product. Since we have a new product line, I’m trying to find out what’s going to make them want our products over our competition. Learning about what sets our products apart. There’s other products that are similar, well, more simplified versions, but ours are unique and I have to show that.”

If you had to put a number on it. What percentage about marketing, do you think,  is related to creativity?

Chelsea: “Wow!…Honestly? A LOT! You have to be creative. I would say, wow, 70-80% really.  Even if you are writing a simple email blast you have to have it creative. What’s going to make them NOT want to delete your email? Finding that creative niche, that attention grabbing moment is super important!”

How important are the images, or photography, to your marketing plans?

Chelsea: “Oh my!” Extremely important. So, yes. Crucial! You have to show our products in many ways, even in lifestyle settings. For example, we even found that we had older product photos and once we had new photos taken by you guys, we sold them! I mean we sold many older products that weren’t selling once we had new images of them. They were updated, better focused, and started selling a lot better.”

Image of camera lenses signifying photography.

That’s fantastic!

Chelsea: “Yea! Honestly. We’ve found that really high quality pictures are really really important!”

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned about marketing in your time here?

Chelsea: “Wow, I’ve learned a LOT. So, I came right out of college and I had no idea hardly what I was doing. College isn’t real world, it’s all like books, studying, book knowledge, and tests. It was hard at first. For instance, you take the concepts that you learn in school and apply it to your work in the real world. Getting a customers attention, like I first said, is probably the biggest thing.”

 

So, in conclusion, if your local business has a need for updated photography, design work, or a new website…drop us a line! 77 Design Co is here to help you grow your business and increase sales the only way we know how… through creative visual marketing!

77 Design Co logo

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

 

 

A Brief History of Halloween!

Halloween is here! It’s one of our favorite days of the year!
Why do we dress up? What’s trick or treating all about? Why do we carve pumpkins? Have you ever wondered why Halloween started and what traditions continued through the years, changed or have been phased out? Read further to find out more.
Jack O Lantern Gif
History
So, Halloween technically began as the festival of Samhain. Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the “darker half” or winter as we know it. The festival takes places October 31 – November 1.  Celts believed that on the night before the new year (November 1), the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred or thin. Scary stuff! Most importantly, they would have big parties or feasts and dress in costumes because they believed it would scare away the ghosts and spirits. Do you see the correlation?
Consequently, we then get to America, where we traditionalize everything and make carving pumpkins and trick or treating super popular.  Meanwhile, let’s talk about trick or treating. So, young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors. Subsequently, it then trickled down to young children dressing up and getting candy from neighbors.
Did you know?  One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.
So, do you carve pumpkins? Do you go the traditional scary route or do something fun and different? Are you the type of person that will hand out candy to little kids or keep the light off?
Speaking of modifying traditions, there are parents that have a basket of candy for kids, and a basket of beer for the parents that go around with them. In conclusion, that is a modern twist on a tradition that we can get down with!
Costumes?
What’s the coolest costumes you have? Send us photos and we’ll share them on social media!

Rob Hoffman and Halloween costume
77 Design Co owner, Rob Hoffman and his Halloween costume.

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

Building a Marketing Base

This blog will feature tips on how to build a marketing base for your business. Even if you haven’t done ANY marketing, here’s a few things to get you started.

Marketing Tiles image with 77 Design Co business card.

Who?

First, you need to know who your customer base is. Who are you marketing to? Where? Age? What’s their interests? For example, try to segment your customers based on who you’ve already sold to. Take notes and come up with an average at the very least. Tough to do with limited info, but necessary. 

If you don’t have these numbers, use a simple chart or even tally marks on a pad to get more specific. Use guesstimates if you need to. This will certainly get you a start.

Where?

Now take those numbers (even if it’s a small average from 10-20 customers) and determine where to put the marketing dollars. Yes, most importantly, you should have SOME marketing dollars set aside.

Are they on Facebook, Instagram, or mostly LinkedIn? Would billboards or signage in certain locations help? How about a direct mail campaign sent directly to businesses or homeowners? How’d your previous customers find you? Through your website, Google, or another online source?

Consequently, this will narrow down your best approach to get moving. As a result, you’ll learn quicker what works and what doesn’t as much.

How?

So, how are you going to implement your plan of action? This is the most difficult part. It will take time, patience, and some serious creative efforts to get the word out about your company.

If you aren’t very creative savvy, look to enlist those you know and trust that are. Get their thoughts about the look and aesthetics of your signage, social media pages and posts, or marketing materials. In addition, it’s very important that whatever strategy you plan to implement looks not just good, but GREAT! Marketing is all about visuals and attracting the eye to your message.

pen, keyboard, and flash drive image in inverted black and white color.

To clarify, we’ve said it before, an attractive image or design is key here. According to multiple eye tracking studies all over the Internet, the eye moves to an attractive image/design around 60,000-80,000 faster than just text.

Once an established base is determined, and where to market, the pieces or posts need to be interesting and visually appealing. How do you do this? Again, the difficult part. Billions of dollars per year are spent on creative marketing and advertising. There’s a good reason for it. It works!

Take the best quality photographs or video possible. Hire out if needed. Design materials, signage, or supporting charts/tables/infographics to make them interesting. Hire out if needed. In addition, if you hire a solid marketing team, or employee with an extensive creative background, they will (should) be able to convey that message visually.

Stay Level Headed.

Often times there may be a difference of opinion on the creative. Don’t get discouraged. For instance, you may have differences on an image or color. This is normal. However, stay true to your brand. Work together to come to a happy middle ground on how the creative side of things should look and feel, and as a result you’ll start to see the fruits of your labor.

So, in conclusion, by following these steps on a large or small scale you’ll begin to build a solid marketing base that will better your business. However, if you need advice we’re here to help.

77 Design Co gray and orange logo

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

 

 

What’s the Best Things About Email Marketing?

What’s the best things about email marketing?

by Email Marketing Girl

Email Marketing Girl Image 5

Personalize!
You can personalize content. Send customers emails about what they actually want to see. Let’s give you an example.
You are an 18 year old male vegan. Typically, you shop at a local grocery store every Monday, getting fruits and veggies and some household necessities.
<Insert phone buzz> you get an email from that grocery store with “ON SALE – steaks and baby food” uhhhh – not the content that person wants to see. At least I wouldn’t think so. Therefore, change it up. Create a custom email for specific types of customers who you want to get a specific message to. As a result, you’ll notice an engagement increase and subsequently sales as well.
Instant!
It’s instant. People love last minute deals or coupons. Getting an email for a coupon to a store I always shop at is a great feeling. Yes! I will now order that shirt I have been eyeing up for weeks.
However, without that email, it was out of sight out of mind.

Side view of laptop with e-mail interface on blurry background. Email marketing concept.
Email Marketing can work!

Reach.
Email can help you reach a mass amount of customers. Calling all your customers takes time. Email: one click and it’s out the door to everyone.
This form of marketing is affordable. Traditional marketing like TV ads can be costly. If you are a small business, those ideas are out the door. For instance, if you have a smaller budget set aside, an email marketing plan could be a game changer. So, a small business can thrive with the right email marketing strategy!
On the other hand, email marketing is a numbers game. That is to say, like anything there are always pros and cons. Any form of marketing though, may take a little while to become fruitful. Patience is necessary when applying any marketing strategy.
However, it’s still one of the top forms of communication. All businesses should have an email marketing plan in place, and if you don’t, give us a call.
77 Design Co logo
Analyze. Create. Achieve.