From our marketing partners Kleimann Communication Group — You’ve spent time and money designing a new communication piece to convey important information to your consumers. The question you need to answer now is― does it work? Often organizations spend time and energy making sure their information looks good while ignoring whether it works: can consumers understand it? Use it? Act upon it? The only way to answer these questions is through consumer testing. Read their insights in this article >> KleimannComm_article
Archive for May, 2010
Creating good consumer relationships by developing usable and understandable communication
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010Does it make sense to jump on the social media bandwagon?
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010The short answer is yes. But the more complicated answer that gets into “why” and “how” is just beginning to unfold here at Graves Fowler. Setting up a page on Flickr, Twitter and Facebook takes almost no time. Making these tools a valuable part of an organization’s marketing and outreach is more complicated. Here are a few things we’ve learned so far.
1. Take social media seriously. This isn’t a fad that will go away. While the tools may change, this kind of communication is only going to become more important all the time. I recently heard at the Social Media Summit that mobile applications today are where the Internet was in the late 1990s, and they are poised to have just as much impact.
2. Social media is part of smart marketing strategy. The key word here is “strategy.” Almost anyone can set up a Twitter page and start using it. But making it a valuable tool in your overall marketing mix is more complicated. With the right planning and execution, however, you can set goals and expect measurable results.
3. Social media doesn’t manage itself. It’s less expensive and more labor intensive than other kinds of marketing. Social media is social. It’s relevant only when there is active, two-way communication that finds current and potential supporters or customers and builds a relationship with them. That takes dedicated daily time.
So come on board. Get a feel for how the social media sites work on a small-scale personal level, then get serious and let the marketing folks put it to work for you.
Thank yous for the Big Draw
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010Recently Mariann Seriff, our Creative Director, spent the day with a classroom full of elementary school students trying to explain just what we do. (See her blog entry “The Big Draw” for the full story.) She came back glowing, and apparently the kids had the same response. Their thank you notes were a treat to receive.
Cindy Fowler is the editor of Smart Thinking / Great Design. Her insights and practical approaches come from over 35 years in marketing design, many miles on a bicycle and life as a fearless babyboomer in the world of social media.