You are trying to save resources and graphic design seems like something you, a team member or a marketing / communications professional can do.

You’ve worked hard to make your dream a reality. Of course, you want to ensure it is recognizable. The first rule of thumb? Build trust in your brand.

Building that trust requires a connection with your target audience. To achieve it, your creative execution must be constantly consistent. It is crucial to get it right.

Here are four tips:

• Know what you need before you begin. Define your brand pillars to create a strong foundation. What is your brand vision, personality, positioning and affiliation?
• Next, have a creative professional define brand colors, fonts and creative execution guidelines. Mind the brand.
• Don’t settle. There are many programs that allow anyone to try their hand at graphic design. Use caution. Layout, font and colors are just a few of the key elements of graphic design.
• Take your time. If you choose to DIY your brand creation, understand it will be a time-consuming process to get it right. Take the time necessary to not only learn what you want, but what you need. Learn the art of design.

Experience pays. In the end, it will save you time and money to hire a professional graphic designer. They have the programs and experience to communicate your brand. They will give you the exact guidelines to follow to easily remain consistent and help distinguish your brand from the competition.

Own it. Once you have chosen your brand architecture and standards, own them. Use them religiously. Don’t use your logo in one color scheme on one social media post, then alter it for another. Instead of a random mixture of colors, know and use complementary colors. Keep all of your design elements consistent – Every. Single. Time.

There is value in creative and graphic design. Be consistent and follow brand guidelines. If you don’t have consistency, you won’t build connection. Without them, you may as well do nothing at all.

In conclusion, have a partner or team with the experience and know-how to help you stay consistent. We’re ready to rock when you are.

A popular phrase in the marketing world states, “always be one step ahead of your competition.” But, how do you accomplish that? Develop a competitive analysis.

Why are your competitors outranking you? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their marketing strategies? All of these questions are answered through a competitor analysis.

What is a competitive analysis?

A competitive analysis identifies and evaluates your competitors in comparison to your business. More specifically, your analysis should include the following:

• Identifying your competitors and highlighting those that pose the biggest challenge
• Researching information about your competitors
  • i.e. pricing, financials, marketing campaigns and social media, company history, their marketed demographic, and locations they cover
• Evaluating their strategies
  • Determine their strengths and weaknesses to your brand’s

Why do competitive analysis?

Competitive research is crucial to your success as a business because it helps you create better marketing strategies. Moreover, it allows you to make educated decisions about your strategy and guarantees you can create competitive advantages. A competitive analysis gives you the ability to quickly identify industry trends and adapt to other marketing campaigns. As a result, all of these enable you to stay ahead of your competitors.

Conclusion

It cannot be a one-time thing. In short, frequently completing a competitor analysis gives your business the advantage to outsmart the competition. 

Cost-Efficient

Flyers are one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your business. Rather than renovating your website or paying for advertising space, flyers can be mass-produced on a modest budget.

Tangible

Customers like having something they can put their hands on. With today’s internet flooded with online advertising, coming across a high quality and printed flyer is a delightful surprise. The flyers’ extra thickness allows the flyer to be placed into any mailbox neatly. Even when falling to the floor, a flyer remains solid and presentable to pick up.

Because flyers are palpable and tangible, they have a significant effect on the audience just upon the first initial glance. Customers are more likely to read an advertisement that can be held and touched than an online one. This makes your choice of marketing stand out from the rest.

Eye-catching

In addition to flyers being cost-efficient and tangible, the design of your flyers makes all the difference. There are very few limitations to flyer advertising. They enable you to get creative. Therefore, you can employ unique designs while ensuring your intended message expresses clearly.

Imagine walking into your favorite coffee shop and seeing a colorful, stunning flyer posted right at eye level while waiting for your drink. You’d probably notice it. Visualize shopping at an outdoor mall and seeing a stunning flyer as you walk to the next store. You might stop and have a brief look.

Creates face-to-face connections

The biggest reason why flyers are effective in marketing is that you are creating face-to-face connections with your potential customers. This is especially important when distributing flyers by hand. Having in-person interactions make people feel valuable and much more likely to take an interest in what you have to say. Unlike advertisement emails, people are not in a hurry to trash it, which automatically ups the chances of your flyer being read.

Conclusion

Flyers might appear to be an old and ancient way to promote a business, but they always have proven effective in marketing. They are one of the most affordable ways to market your business. They are tangible, causing more people to give your advertisement a second thought. Through its limitless design, they catch your eye when you’re out and about and going to your everyday locations. And lastly, flyers create face-to-face connections adding a personal touch to your message. Businesses still rely on flyers for these reasons and more, proving that they do work and are likely to stay for many years in the future.

Today it is Lea Ann Allen’s turn to rock the porch with her Rocker Spotlight interview!

What is the biggest misconception about marketing today?

Marketing is not something you set and forget. It’s an on-going process. Brand-building is like planting a garden and then watering, weeding, fertilizing and trimming it constantly to help it grow.

What advice would you give to someone struggling with creating a brand identity? 

Take a look at your brand’s competitors and peers. What are they doing? Now, how are you doing it different? Show that. Tell that story.

One of the biggest lessons you’ve learned throughout your career?

Who you work with is more important than everything else in your career.

What does good marketing look like?

Good marketing makes a brand look like a person you’d want to be friends with.

If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would it be?

I am where I want to be.

If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead who would it be?

I go to dinner every night in my home with my husband and I wouldn’t choose anyone else, anywhere else.

If you could describe yourself in three words what would they be?

Resourceful. Analytical. Empathetic.

What is your favorite thing about FPM?

FPM values people. Really demonstratively values them.

Tell me about a major milestone in your life?

I worked 3 jobs simultaneously to put my son thru Columbia University with zero debt.

In what ways does the team at FPM have aligned values?

FPM team members respect each other’s individual lives, in everything they do.

How would you describe the culture at FPM?

Agile. Supportive. Enthusiastic.

How does FPM differentiate itself from other marketing companies?

FPM did not have to pivot their business model because of the pandemic, they’ve been a virtual team since their inception – making them ideal partners for understanding what the future world of work looks like now.

Fun fact?

I might have the largest yacht rock record collection in Dallas?

Thanks for tuning in to another week of Rocker Spotlight questions featuring Lea Ann Allen and her rocking time on the porch!

In times of uncertainty, it can be easy to focus on the negatives. Economic downturn, job loss, and our loved ones getting sick are certainly reasons to be feeling distraught. While these feelings are normal, an important shift in our thinking is crucial to survive this fork-in-the-road and come back stronger than ever. There are positives of the pandemic that should be accounted for, and I am here to highlight these for you!

Positive #1: Experiencing and appreciating the little things

Now that we are all on house arrest, it gives us the opportunity to get outside more. Maybe you are getting to know your neighbors and even family members better. Yay for lawn happy hours! This positive of the pandemic has instilled in us a better sense of localism. It also helps us realize how interconnected we are and (hopefully) allows us to recover a sense of society.

Positive #2: We are more in touch with our networks!

A perfect example of this is my family’s weekly Zoom call. Before COVID, I wouldn’t hear from or see my family in Dallas for months at a time. This crisis has opened a new channel of communication for my family and allowed us to check up on each other frequently. We all have technology to thank for this!

Positive #3: Surprising effects on climate change

Another positive effect COVID-10 has had is fewer carbon emissions, potentially saving around 300 MILLION tons of carbon emissions per year. Not to mention all the other awesome benefits such as work/life balance and decreased traffic congestion! Air quality has improved in areas of lockdown, and carbon emissions are down in China. From February 3^rd to March 1^st they experienced a 25% decrease in emissions.

Positive #4: Our responses to future pandemics should improve

Our current situation has exposed shortcomings all around, including test kit accessibility and a faster global response. Taking what we have learned from this pandemic, there is all the more reason to be more prepared in the future.

Positive #5: It has encouraged altruism

Celebrities and athletes have made considerable donations to those taking a hit by the pandemic, and that is just naming a few. Some major health insurers have also promised to cover care and testing related to COVID-19. Our client Faith Family Academy has approached the the situation with immediacy, and teachers have made generous food donations for their students, as well as other restaurants such as Cane’s!

Overall, we don’t want to dismiss your normal and expected feelings of despair during difficult times. However, we also need to shed light on the positive opportunity the pandemic has presented us. Let’s turn a new leaf and embrace these positives today!

We can be creative because we can’t all have Burger King’s Valentine’s Day marketing budget. Creativity and resourcefulness and love abound. Use your existing marketing channels and / or tools to show your smitten.

Each year, Valentine’s Day is celebrated with love ones sharing cards, flowers, candy or gifts. Some mark the day with a Galentine’s Day celebrating, toasting the joys of female friendship. Others toast to being single.

The Chief Rocker’s family is particularly fond of this holiday. For instance, think rose pedals in the hallway, balloons in the kitchen, special breakfast and candy and little gifts for the kiddos. In other words, face throwing a kiss emoji.

Valentine’s Day is a few short days away.

We welcome our clients and advocates sharing their Valentine’s Day traditions with us by commenting on this post, emailing us or leaving comments on our social media posts. Hey, tweet them to us! Heart emoji.

Creative Marketing Love

1. Utilize email marketing. Begin with a charming subject line. Include emojis. Make sure your message is delightful and apropos.
2. Endear your social media followers with creative content. Branded tiles with a lovely message. Run a contest for best love story, love-themed poem, etc. Create a video. Use relevant hashtags where appropriate. Check out this Twitter hashtag tool.
3. Add some tenderness to your website. Blog about Valentine’s Day with relatable to your clients, industry or overall business. Add a popup with a charming message. Change your header to be Valentine-themed.

Here’s another creative idea.

Next year, consider sending an inventive Valentine card to your team, client and advocates. We know people that can help you with this from concept to production.

We heart the one from Corps Team Dallas this year.

Above all, be ours?

Marketing misconceptions happen. We are so grateful that our clients partner with us so we may help them know what is reality in the marketing world to make a difference in their businesses’ topline.

We work with amazing CEOs and business leaders. They are forward-thinking, move at light speed and want to make s*^! happen for their businesses. There are moments though that make us cringe and then we have to either just bust out loud or ask them to stand up and dance it out before we bring them back to reality.

4 Marketing Misconceptions by CEOs & Business Leaders

1. Your one person Marketing Manager or Marketing Director can do it all. When you are able to start building a marketing team, that rocks. But, please be real. Your marketing person should be responsible for setting a strategy and plan, but, ODL, they need help to execute it all.
2. A marketing calendar is a plan. Nopey. No. You can do a lot of things but if they are not on strategy, not focused on the goals, not delivering your targeted messages, you are wasting your time and resources. Go deep or go home. Fewer deeper is especially important for small businesses and startups.
3. Media relations alone will not deliver the results you need. There are many tools in the marketing toolbox. Media relations is an effective one, but it cannot stand alone. Editorial is fab but one well placed story isn’t going to drive the topline.
4. You are a Creative Director. CEOs and business leaders are brilliant people. They are driven, they are talented, they are creative. But there is more that goes into a logo, an ad, etc., then just your thoughts of beautiful images on a page. Know your brand architecture, define your brand standards, refer back to your marketing plan, and, for the love of Pete, fill out a creative brief and let the creatives do what they do.

Marketing misconceptions happen. The best business leaders share their thoughts and adapt to constructive criticism.

Be open to dispelling marketing misconceptions. That’s when the business magic will happen. That’s music to our ears.