M a r k e t i n g  t i p
Planning the design of your marketing should not be left solely to your designer

It's an easy trap to fall into - letting graphic designers own the entire design process. The problem is that the design of your marketing pieces and Web sites will not be as effective if you do not participate in the design planning. Effective marketing design requires strategy and conceptual thinking based on intimate knowledge of your target audience and your goals. Designers rarely know those two things as well as you do.

This pitfall is especially true if you do not retain design expertise on your staff. If you use freelancers, agencies or other out-sourced design resources, odds are they know little more about your company than your billing address. If you have in-house design talent, the situation is usually better. But what you must remember is that they are not on the front lines every day hearing what you hear and saying what you say. Most companies are smart about using front-line knowledge in the text of their marketing tactics, but stop short of carrying it through to their design, opting instead for telling the graphic designer to "show a bulldozer, use our logo, and make it look good." What you end up with is marketing that may look good, but the design does not add to the persuasiveness of the piece or Web site.

Fortunately, there are a number of design planning steps you can do to collaborate with designers to create marketing collateral with design-that-sells. After you have given them the more basic direction, such as "show a bulldozer and use our logo," these steps will help your designer use their skills of converting concepts into deliverables. By understanding the full story and scope of the projects, a good designer will develop the appropriate look-and-feel of the marketing piece, such as colors, images, image treatments, tone, attitude, typography and more. Sit down or have a conference call with your graphic designer and discuss the items below...

• Let's imagine a person who represents a good cross-section of our target audience. What is that person wearing? In what setting do you imagine them?
• What else is going on in the lives of our target audience? What do they dream about and what do they fear?
• How do our best customers describe our company? How do our target customers describe our competition? How can we best show why we are the better option?
• What are the biggest sales obstacles we have to overcome? How do we most effectively overcome those obstacles? Now, what do those solutions look like?
• After seeing this marketing piece, how do we want the customer to feel about our company and products? (Sophisticated, down-to-earth, price competitive, customer-centric, exclusive, etc.)
• What emotional response do we want to evoke in our target audience? How can we show that emotional response? (Hope, security, financial success, fear, peace-of-mind, etc.)
• What will make our marketing piece look substantially different and better than everyone else's pieces? Why will this piece get the attention of our target audience?

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