How consistent are you?  How often do you have to see a specific message before it sinks in and sticks? If you have the answers to those questions, then I have one more question for you: how are you applying that to your marketing?

It can take many client touches and marketing messages before a client will bite.  You have to be consistent with your message, product, service, and also how you present yourself to your potential clients.

Here is a great example.  A while back I went to eat at a steakhouse in downtown Atlanta and had an amazing experience.  The service, food, and overall environment was above and beyond, exceeding all expectations.  For a designer, it was nice to see all of the attention to details placed into the menu as well as the interior décor.  Before leaving I picked up a business card from the hostess area to check out their website once I got home.  When I was able to visit their website I had to do a double-take as I was certain I had mistyped the address and landed on another site by mistake.  Surely the company that spent untold amounts of money toward their physical location had not neglected their online presence to the degree that I was seeing!  It was almost as if I was looking at a site that belonged to another company. For this restaurant, they were lucky in that I found their website after a wonderful experience.  I would have easily gone back because I knew them to be top notch.  However, if I had been searching online and found their website, I might have been so tempted.  Yes, there was that much of a difference.

I had been paid a compliment recently regarding some design work I had completed for a company.  It was noted that the website, blog, business card, ads, email marketing, and other creative efforts all carried the same look and feel, i.e. the company brand.  That made me feel great!  No matter how a client found that company they would be getting the same message visually.

So I have to ask again, how consistent are you?

When someone visits your store, is the look of your location consistent with your website?  Is the ad that they saw in a magazine similar to your website and your store?  If someone were to find your blog apart from your website, store, or business card, would they immediately associate it with your business? Did you get your business cards for free from an online special even though they do not represent your company look and feel? Are you using a free blogging site with an appearance vastly different than your company website?

You see, it is not merely enough to have a website, blog, and other advertising.  It all needs to be consistent so that when clients and potential clients see the messages you are putting out there, they can all tie it in together as coming from the same source.   Your website and blog need to have a unified theme.  The advertising you do, whether on television or print need to carry that same theme. How confusing is it to see an advertisement that looks one way, a blog that looks another, and a website that looks different than everything else?  You might as well be going the other direction!

In summary, when working with your designer, establish a branding strategy and campaign.  Go beyond a logo design.  Think about the overall visual message you are delivering to your client. Prepare color themes, mood boards, and above all, imagine you were the one looking at the marketing material and had to make a decision whether to buy or not.