Living Your Marketing Plan

Excerpt from How magazine
November/December 2000
By Ilise Benun

Your creativity is innate. You take it with you everywhere. You live it; that's why you are a designer. But chances are you don't feel that way about the marketing of your design services. You probably consider that a chore, or worse. But what if you could live your marketing the same way you live your creativity?

That's the goal of Design Management Resources: to help their clients live their marketing. "As designers love designing, we love marketing because it is what we do best," says Linda Fisher, president of Connecticut-based DMR, who has provided management, marketing and sales services to consumer product, non-profit and graphic design companies since 1980.

"We begin with the life goals of the principals," says Fisher. "We start with what they love to do. We consider their personality and their life. We ask what they want to design, what kind of client relationships they want, where their talent and expertise flourishes. This becomes the cornerstone of a sound and livable marketing plan.

"The first step is analyzing and researching yourself and your company," says Elinor Selame, a client of DMR , and co-owner of BrandEquity International, a corporate identity and branding consultancy which has been in business over 40 years.

Elinor believes that in order to grow as BEI has, a design firm needs a marketing person or strategic business thinking person. "You either have to be a promoter in addition to a designer, or you hire someone who will do that."

When DMR began working with BEI in 1995, Fisher identified two major weaknesses: First, each member of the marketing team did his or her own tasks well, but they hungered for feedback and accountability, which wasn't being provided. And second, although results showed that BEI had built a solid marketing foundation that produced consistent revenues, there was no actual plan to follow.

As a result, although everyone had "feelings" about which marketing activities were working, but there was no way to analyze exactly where the business was coming from, how profitable it was and where it would come from in the future. "Wouldn't it be wise to know exactly what results each marketing initiative was achieving?"

Step #1: Analysis and Tracking

One of the first things Fisher did was to analyze BEI's business history, addressing key questions such as:

• What industries did BEI serve and what was the profitability by industry?
• How did BEI's clients find them, by which marketing activity?
• Was there repeat business and/or referrals from those clients?
• Did the current reporting system provide timely, actionable data?
• What new industries should they court?

Step #2: Focus on Your Markets

"You don't wait for clients to come to you. Instead, you can choose the clients whom you think need your expertise." That's Elinor Selame's philosophy, a rather radical one in the design industry, where most firms passively take whatever clients come along.

At the same time, she acknowledges it's a field with drawbacks. …. You can't plumb every industry with every marketing tool."

DMR provided assistance in this area as well. "I go in a lot of different directions, so I need someone to say, concentrate on this first, finish this first. Linda is more methodical and detail-oriented than me. With her help, we were able to delve a little deeper into each market and each marketing tool."

Step #3 Create Your Database

A highly qualified prospect database is a natural and direct outgrowth of choosing your target markets. BEI's database consisted of qualified contacts who had received cold letters, heard BEI executives speak, inquired after reading about BEI in trade publications, or been referred by past clients.

"Proper management of the database is essential," says Fisher, "so that when you send out press releases, or reprints of articles, you are not wasting money."

Fisher also asserts that more is not better when it comes to your database; it's quality that counts. Ask yourself these important questions: Does every contact have a direct relationship with you? Do they know what you do? Have you identified the real decision makers and can they afford your services?

Step #4 Choose Your Marketing Tools

In order to live their marketing plan, BrandEquity chose four major marketing tools that appeal to Elinor and her marketing team and work well together: speaking engagements, cold calls and cold letters, publicity and a Web site.

Speaking Engagements

There can be no doubt as to the importance of speaking engagements in the design marketing mix. ….. For their list of targeted industries, Fisher researched, qualified and compiled a list of trade organizations and convention managers.

She then implemented a "one-to-one" strategy, soliciting each contact with cold letters and phone calls, negotiating fees and expenses, and keeping the follow up flowing with a contact management database.

Of course, speaking at conferences isn't the right tool for all designers. But if you're going to use this marketing tool, Selame says it's important to remember that business audiences want to hear about strategy and solutions, not about design.

Yes, you have to make cold calls

DMR research shows that cold calls and cold letters are staple marketing methods of new business development for all visual design firms. "As much as 30% of your business will come from them," says Fisher, who recommends sending out a few letters at a time, then calling to follow up and qualify your prospects.

If you do not follow up when you said you would in the letter you will lose credibility and wasted time and money. She also recommends that the follow up be done by a qualified staff member. "If it is not a priority, the results will likely be failure, plus you may be spreading a negative and unprofessional reputation."

Publicity doesn't find you; you find publicity.

"At first I thought the reporters would call us when they saw our work out in the world," says Selame. "But they didn't, so I learned to call editors and reporters, which is similar to cold calling except that reporters are interested in the past, while clients are interested in the future." DMR has also been instrumental in securing publicity, especially in conjunction with speaking engagements.

By regularly reviewing direction/goals/accountability in their marketing department BEI has learned to move away from some seemingly productive but actually "so so" industries and practices to focus instead on those that truly are worthwhile for BEI.

Since beginning the work with DMR, speaking engagements are getting booked according to management's needs and expectations. Cold letter and call results have been much improved through narrowed focus and intensified follow-up. The Web site has become a valuable sales tool now that marketing people refer target customers to it.

By encouraging principals to focus on their strengths and desires, we are able to identify marketing tools and techniques which fit, make it easier for them to live their marketing plan. These are the tools needed to motivate the entire team willingly and allow for the pursuit of sustained growth and profitability."

Selame says, "We're excited and we love doing this, it's not work. That's living the plan, living the work. We did live the work. It's not nine-to-five. There's so much to do."

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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