www.DesignFirm.com

Excerpt from Contract magazine
August 2000
By Jennifer T. Busch

Does electronic media offer a viable marketing tool for firms that have long placed value on personal relationships to build business?

No one is suggesting that marketing via electronic media should replace traditional marketing strategies, and certainly the building of good, Old-fashioned, personal relationships still goes a long way in securing and retaining clients.

"Traditional marketing strategies have not gone out the window, emphasizes Linda Fisher, president of Thompson, CT based, Design Management Resources, Inc. "A firm still needs a marketing plan, a strategy, and an identity that is shared with the entire team, because every member of the firm is a communicator. But that methodology can be managed and implemented very well over the Internet."

Fisher cautions, however, that while the Internet can be used most effectively for speed, Speed without strategy can be bad for your company."For instance, designers can easily use email to distribute press releases, as long as the target audience is not just a series of faceless names and email addresses."

"Know who your contact is, Fisher says. "You will still need to form one-on-one relationships."

In a recent, informal survey that Design Management Resources conducted of 40 design firms, PowerPoint presentations and web sites were listed as the two most popular technologies currently being integrated into marketing strategies, suggesting that designers are certainly exploring the possibilities of the Internet.

Is there any substantial difference between marketing design services over the Internet versus marketing other types of services over the Internet? How designers need to differentiate themselves from other types of businesses isn't the issue. The issue is how they need to be more like other industries in their marketing strategies.

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Design Management Resources
Post Office Box 423
Thompson, Connecticut 06277 USA
Telephone 860-377-9696
E-mail: Linda@designmanagementresources.com
www.DesignManagementResources.com