Guest Blogpost by Laura Wallace, Owner and Creative Director, Worx Graphic Design, based in Hagerstown MD. Laura is a branding expert, author and speaker.
The most challenging part of creating a campaign is developing a finalized concept and creating the momentum behind it. Add that on top of busy schedules and multiple clients which makes creating a campaign for your own firm seem like the hardest thing in the world to do.
There’s an age old saying that “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” Whatever you’re awesome at, chances are you’re the last person to perform those abilities for yourself. As designers, it can be a challenge to carve out the time to create the strategic marketing plan or branding campaign to emphasize our skills. When was the last time your company updated the portfolio on your website, created a social campaign or freshened up your print collateral? If you’ve done it recently, I applaud you. If you haven’t, you’re not alone.
At our firm, we’ve found that if we treat our business like a client, we increase our ability to take an idea from the sketchbook to full implementation. Blocking in regular meetings, delegating tasks, assigning actions and setting deadlines helps to keep the team focused with the needed momentum to complete the project.
So you have an idea for a campaign to promote your company. Where do you start? The best way to start is by using the tried and true methods that you use for your clients and apply them to yourself. Some question to ask yourself and your team include:
• Which team members fit the brief best?
• What product or service do you want to emphasize?
• Who is your target audience?
• What are your goals?
Once you identify the above, the next steps are to put action behind the plan:
• Set a timeline – when do you want to start and end your campaign?
• Set a production schedule – based on the campaign start, when does the creative process need to begin?
• Choose a distribution method(s) – What location do you want to market? Do you want to use social, print, outdoor, etc?
• Decide on frequency – how often will this campaign run on those various platforms?
• Set a goal – How will you measure success? What do you wish to accomplish with this campaign?
Carving out time for your firms marketing can be a challenge but it is necessary to grow your business. By scheduling regular team meetings, setting mutual goals and respectful deadlines, it can be successfully accomplished and celebrated!
