Tag: make more money for business

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“Do Today What Others Won’t So I Can Accomplish What Others Can’t.”

Marketing sometimes requires going above and beyond to ensure your customers’ success.
“Do today what others won’t so I can accomplish what others can’t.”
I want to open this weeks blog with that statement. It’s a paraphrased quote by the NFL great Wide Receiver, Jerry Rice. Sounds like self help Mumbo jumbo…
Maybe it is…
Maybe we all need more of it, and just maybe we need to look at how we think.
Earlier this week I was at my daughters’ elementary school band concert trying to rein comfortable during a two hour elementary school band concert in a blue velour auditorium chair, with something reminding me of cine-a-muck sticking to the bottom of my shoes. Two notes in and three clarinet squeaks later my phone gives off its startling ANSWER ME NOW buzz buzz buzz in my pocket, and scores me a dirty look from Sally Sue’s mom next to me who is holding a single stem rose for her daughter’s broadway performance in the 4th grade band concert. I ignore the buzz, Sally Sue’s mom, and actually almost forget about the call until intermission. It’s almost 7pm on a Tuesday, so I’m not thinking customer call…
During intermission I remember to check my voicemail. The call was from a good client of ours explaining that they just were picked up by a large distributor and need to have two brand new products photographed, edited, and prepared for a 2019 catalog…with a deadline only two weeks away! While I’m excited about the call and them putting additional trust in us to market their products – Two weeks?!
My head: BUT WE’RE DAYS AWAY FROM CHRISTMAS AND WE HAVE A FULL PRODUCTION SCHEDULE THAT TAKES US CLEAR INTO 2019!
I immediately call Bobby who is at Kung-Fu with his son. I explain the voicemail and he responds back to me:
“WE’RE DAYS AWAY FROM CHRISTMAS AND WE HAVE A FULL SCHEDULE THAT TAKES US INTO 2019!”
We then put our heads together, figure out a game plan, and change some appointments on our schedules to accommodate our customer. We arrange for the shots to be done that coming Thursday, the only possible time and date we could make it work.
We communicate back to the client and explain that we’ll be there 9am on Thursday. I brought the coffee, lights, backdrop and Bobby brought the camera and talent. We got it done, and more importantly we got it done right.
We could’ve said, “I’m sorry. We have a full schedule.” Or, “Christmas is right around the corner” as we are both planning for some time off. Even another response could have been, “We don’t have the man power right now.” Or… we could’ve charged double.
We didn’t do any of those things. In fact, we charged the very lowest base for our time, which may have actually been the most inexpensive job we’ve ever done. We coordinated, reviewed priorities, changed plans, and got it done – with Christmas coming and all. Our customer now has the images they need for a catalog that could be a HUGE account win for them!
I realize that we didn’t do anything that special here, but we didn’t put ourselves first. Perhaps, especially this time of year, we can all do something that could help others. We are committed to helping our customers grow their business. So many marketing firms and other companies would have said “No.  our schedule is full.” Or “no, that’s additional and not part of our contract.” But that’s not part of our culture.
Our culture is to help others succeed. We want to see growth, prosperity, long term success, and relationships vs no’s and additional fees.
So the next time you’re faced with a what to do situation –  think of this:
“Do today what others won’t so I can accomplish what others can’t.”
Ask yourself “what will I do today that others won’t” and then go one step more. It will bring you great satisfaction and a far greater reward than you could imagine. Merry Christmas!
Written by- Rob Hoffman.
Analyze. Create. Achieve.

 

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77 Design Co-Out on the Town

As a small business marketing agency, sometimes we tend to spend way too much time behind the computer building logos, doing invoicing, helping to create brands, websites, editing photos, or doing other graphic design work. Anyone who’s an entrepreneur knows how much there is to do behind the scenes, and it’s not always glamorous stuff. Every now and again though, we do get out and about. This was one of those weeks.

We started this past week off by attending the SCORE Westmoreland County, PA Christmas luncheon at the Fred Rogers Center in Latrobe, PA. As new SCORE members ourselves, it was great to meet all of the local mentors, clients, and others affiliated with SCORE. For those that don’t know, SCORE is a national organization that helps to guide and assist current and prospective business owners towards success. If you’ve got an idea to start a business, this is one of the first organizations to get ahold of. The mentors selflessly volunteer their time, resources, and experiences to help improve, or get your business off the ground…at no charge! We love being a part of this organization and appreciated the invitation to the luncheon.

 

Next, we had the honor of instructing a local Catholic church’s staff with our own proprietary Social Media Training program. We sat with the Monsignor and his team for a few hours and taught them best practices, why, how, and when to make posts so that they can hopefully increase their parishes social media engagement. This was a great training and a few in the room were already pretty familiar with social media, so it made our training much more effective. Everyone in attendance asked great questions and had fantastic input throughout the training. We had a lot of fun explaining the benefits and practices of social media to them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2019 is going to be a HUGE year for 77 Design Co as there are already many big projects on the books. We look forward to the challenges of helping local businesses and organizations prosper and grow!

 

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

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4 Magnetic Way$ to Make More Money by Marketing in 2019

Entrepreneurs-It’s that time of the year again, and some business owners may be planning their marketing efforts for 2019. Top business owners know their goals, and more often than not one of those goals is to increase sales and reach more customers. If this isn’t in your plans, you potentially risk your business slowly fading into oblivion. Even if you are really busy, there should always be future plans for when the business decelerates because at some point…it will. Peter Drucker once said, “Business has only two functions-marketing and innovation.”

 

One of your best ways to reach new customers is by implementing an effective and solid marketing plan. This could be through 1 or 2 specific tactics or utilizing dozens of separate marketing and advertising outlets. Ultimately, it’s up to you (or your staff) to decide what works best with your budget and what produces the best results. We’ll add that these 4 plans are just the tip of the iceberg on what all you can do for your business when it comes to marketing. There are a host of other advertising and marketing actions you can take to get the most bang for your buck. Really, there’s almost limitless possibilities to what you can do for your business. The following are pretty popular though. Let’s take a look at some ways you can make more money by marketing your company better.

1- Social Media.

Yep, social media, deal with it! Whether you like it or not, social media is a huge marketable platform and it looks like it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future. The trick is to take advantage of it, separate yourself, and stay ahead of your competition by creating an attractive and wide social media presence. How do you do this? Consistency.

Consistently posting to one or more of your social media outlets will ensure that you are ever changing. You can keep customers and potential customers up to date with industry news, products or services you offer, and engage them with what you do. Show your audience what makes your business different by consistently posting great photos and videos, articles, blogs, or even creating humorous posts. There are a few outlets that you can direct your time, energy, or money to and that could be Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter. You will have to work a little to see which attracts the most interest best for your business. Inconsistency or substandard posting will actually hurt your presence.    

2- Website.

The company website should be constantly updated. Whether that is by adding images/videos, blogs, new content, offers, or just updating information about the business. It’s not really a marketing tool per say but it does give you that online presence that is almost certainly required in todays world of business. Google will drop the business listing for sites that sit stagnant and you always want to try and reach the pinnacle of page 1, if possible, so your business is more easily found. Besides, you owe it to your customers and the colleagues that you work with to keep your online presence fresh and professional looking. You don’t want that site looking and feeling like it’s from the 1990’s.

3- Direct Mail.

A direct mail campaign can be extremely beneficial to touching new customers and getting in front of past customers again. It can also be a horrid waste of money. It all depends on the look and feel of the mail piece, and the sale or call to action that is offered. Statistics show millennials actually enjoy direct mail when it is directly addressed to them. If this is a demographic you are trying to reach, you may want to set a budget aside and look into creating a fantastic mailer campaign that could seriously boost sales. Again, make sure the mailers are designed properly, have some eye-popping photographs, and present your offer in the best possible manner. Here’s a Forbes article by Steven Pulcinella from Forbes Communications Council and some stats from the United States Postal Service that discuss this.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/09/14/direct-marketing-is-thriving-in-millennial-mailboxes-heres-how-to-make-the-most-of-it/#2fc029286238

 

https://www.uspsdelivers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Still_Relevant-A_Look_At_How_Millennials_Respond_To_Direct_Mail.pdf

 

4- Strategy.

This is more of an all-encompassing plan. Where are you going to put your hard-earned monies? How much are you going to budget? What sources will you use (billboards, mailers, social media, hand out flyers, networking etc) when you coordinate your marketing efforts? How is every printed piece or digital version going to look overall? We highly suggest contacting a reputable marketing firm when planning such a process. If they are good they will be able to help brand you correctly and implement creative ideas when strategizing.

  

If you need any help planning for 2019, drop  77 Design Co a line. We’ll be happy to help with a free marketing analysis.

 

Analyze. Create. Achieve.  

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Apple Pie Anyone? Happy Thanksgiving from 77

Owning and managing a marketing agency can be stressful at times. It requires a lot of running around, meetings, expelling of a lot creative energy, fixing problems, and confirming that clients are happy with the work. Hell, most business owners understand this pretty well. This week though gives us all a chance to recharge and take a small break. Our own Holly Saville shares a great pie recipe on this weeks blog:

 

This time of year we are busy running around, catching up on errands, and hustling around for the holidays season to come. We are working hard to afford all the right gifts for our kids and family members and all the extras for everyone else. But for a small moment during this time a year we ACTUALLY GET TO SIT DOWN, relax, and be thankful for what we have. So take a break, enjoy the holiday and snag your mama’s best recipe! EAT, DRINK & RELAX. “Back to work” will be just around the corner. Happy Thanksgiving from all us at 77 Design Co. Enjoy a piece of pie on us!

Shhh….My mama’s Secret Apple Pie Recipe!

The Best Apple Pie:

6-8 BIG Tart Apples (or more if you want more apples)
Peel, Slice and Core Apples

1 cup of sugar
2 TBSP flour
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
Dash of Ground Nutmeg
Mix with Apples and drizzle 2 TBSP of melted butter over the apple mix.
(you can uses a bit more butter or sugar to your taste…)

Pie Shell:
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of salt
2/3 cup shortening
5-7 TBSP COLD (colder the better) water

Add Flour and salt to bowl then shortening
mix until lumpy, then add the COLD water.
Mix until dough like.
Split the dough to make a top and bottom crust.

Roll out crust with a rolling pin.
Make sure the bottom crust is bigger than top crust.
Place bottom crust in pan and fill with apple mix.
Put top crust on, seal edges with a fork
Brush some milk on top crust, sprinkle with sugar.
Poke a couple of air holes in the top crust

Bake at 400 degrees for about 50-60 minutes.

Best scent you’ll ever have in your house….You’re Welcome!

Sincerely,

Holly Saville

Analyze. Create. Achieve.