Save yourself money with the right logo.  By that I do not mean all of the marketing fluff that comes with trying to sell you logo design, or branding, or whatever other term is thrown out these days when it comes to a logo.  What I mean is how that logo or brand is delivered to you, the client.

The best example I can provide is when I was working on a project for a local company.  This project was one which involved sponsors who would email their logos to have included in the final piece.  Without fail, I ran into many issues, and as you might expect, I received just about every file type known to man, many of which were unusable.  For those that were somewhat usable, they still required work.  It took work to extract them from a format that could not be used.  In one case, I was provided a Word document as a hi-res logo.  When I explained the format that was needed, I was told that the company did not have that.  Yet I had seen uncountable advertisements (including billboards) for this company.  Someone, somewhere had to have it! The sad thing was that the hi-res files that others had to create never made their way back to the company.

So that meant more work. And what happens when your designer works?  Yup, you pay for it. And if you do not correct the problem at hand, you will continue to pay for it until it is fixed.

If you have a brand, you should have that brand saved digitally in a variety of popularly requested and used formats.  If your logo requires a specific typeface, you should have that handy as well.  Many designers (and I am guilty of this, too) will throw out file types when some clients might not necessarily know what they are referring to. Here are some of the more popular file types:

• EPS:  An EPS file is probably the most important one to have.  Since it is a vector file, it can be scaled large without sacrificing quality. With the EPS file, any designer could convert it to the format they need without spending any extra time in doing so.
• AI: The AI file is the native Adobe Illustrator file which contains editable and unflattened content.  This file, like the EPS file, can be scaled but also allows the designer to make changes.
• PSD: This is the native Adobe Photoshop file.  Similar to the AI file, it usually contains editable content.
• TIFF: A TIFF file is another type of flattened image.
• PDF: Depending on how your image was saved as a PDF, it could still contain vector data and a hi-res image could be used from it.

Formats to frustrate your designer:

• PUB: Microsoft Publisher files, while they do have uses, are not suited for hi-resolution printing.  So if your job is going to press and you have a Publisher file, it will have to be reworked.  A logo inside of a Publisher file may have to be recreated at hi-res.
• DOC: Microsoft Word documents are similar to Publisher.
• Web-sized: Typically, a GIF or JPG saved from the web, or for the web, are not easily used.

So what would I recommend?  Take a look at the files you have and create a brand pack containing an EPS, PSD, and PDF if you have them.  If you do not have any of these, it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all to have someone create this for you. If you have specific uses for your brand (i.e. It cannot be placed on a certain color background) then having that usage document handy, along with the logo files and typefaces will make your designer happy.

And with a happy designer, they are not spending extra time formatting your logo and actually working on your project.  That saves time.  That saves money.

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.

“When I get 5,000 followers, I am giving away a prize.”

I have seen something similar to this several times over.  Having more followers means spreading your message even further, extending your virtual reach.  Let’s say you have 5,000 followers and then have 1,000 of them retweet that message.  Think about how drastically different your impact is.  So it makes sense to seek as many followers as possible.

But to what end?

Let’s say that you reached your goal.  You have selected some prize or something worth giving away and now have 8,000 followers.  You can easily sift through the followers and pick someone to give the prize  to.  In the process, you have now basically built a mailing list at the cost of whatever the prize was.  But what is going to be done with this new found fame?  Is it going to be used to tell 8,000 people that there is nothing on TV or that your yard needs mowing?

Do you have a plan?

One great example that I stumbled upon was the marketing plan executed by Papa John’s Pizza.  There is a contest running giving away free pizza for a year.  By “passing the pie” you could be selected to receive free pizza.  In order to qualify you have to register on their site, passthepieatlanta.com, and then pass along the message via Twitter or Facebook.  Granted, this does not require you to follow them on Twitter, but it does rapidly send out the message.

From my perspective, this is extremely effective marketing for the following reasons:

1. This is done at a very low cost to Papa John’s.  The costs for them are the free pizza and whatever employee hours were spent with the website, tracking, etc.
2. They now have a great mailing list, Twitter trend & following, and Facebook group.  This “database” is perfect for them because by filling it out, they have information from people that they know are interested in their pizza.  Why else fill it out, right? This was done without purchasing a mailing list, using direct mail, etc.
3. Others are now aware of their social media presence that were not previously aware and should they follow Papa John’s, they can now receive news and updates.

Another example is a local illustrative designer, Scott Thigpen.  According to Scott, he is running a contest where he will give away three custom prints.  The guy has skills and I have no doubt that the recipients of the prints will be very pleased.  I found out about the contest a couple of different ways, which to me shows planning on Scott’s part to get the word out.  I read about it via an email blast, read it on Twitter, as well as Facebook.  So it is clear Scott thought out the delivery of this contest and what it could do for his potential marketing reach.

All notifications point back to his blog here, which is also tied to his site.  Great way to get people back to your site, reading about you, your services, and viewing your portfolio.  On top of that, they get a chance to win something for nothing.  Well, probably should not say “nothing”, especially since part of the contest requires posting on Facebook as well as Twitter.  This will help Scott’s online presence and notify others of the fabulous service he is capable of providing.  I would be interested to hear from him about the percentage increase in subscribers and how that translates to an increase in business.

Lastly, I recently won a Twitter contest help by Artistic Photo Canvas. I won a $50 gift certificate for their printing services.  In a way I was shocked because I had to do very little to win.  What I found was a new worthwhile Twitter feed to follow, but more importantly to their company, I was made aware of who they are and what they do.  Prior to the Twitter contest, I had not heard of them.  I would venture a guess that others who participated, or even just read the Tweets from others, were made aware of APC that were not previously aware.  All of that from $50.  Imagine the cost of a printed mailer and the low return rate?  Imagine direct calls, email blasts, or other previously used marketing methods that may or may not have worked.  I guess the simple fact that I have posted something on Twitter about them and now included them in this blog post could tell you something, right? Twitter is a powerful venue but the real power is in harnessing that to your benefit.  I cannot wait to pick out a canvas print and it comes at a great time as we are opening a photography studio, which means these services are even more important to me and my own clients.

Summary

If you are planning on using a contest to boost your Twitter following, or other social media presence, have some type of plan.  Figure out what you are going to do with the data.  Think about the information you are putting out and what value is carried with it.  Do not waste the potential, because the potential is too great to be wasted.  It reminds me of a great quote, and I really wish I knew who said it so that I could give proper credit, but here it is: “Knowledge is not power.  The use of knowledge is power.”

How are you using what you know?

By the way, if you are not already following me, you should be twitter.com/dubtastic because you never know when I might start up my own contest!