Posts Tagged diy
Keeping your branding package within budget
This should also be titled, when DIY (Do-it-yourself) comes in handy.
When it comes to creating the intial collateral package are seven things a typical business needs:
- Branding
- Color scheme for collateral
- Logo
- Presentation template (for PowerPoint, reports, and proposals)
- Web site (everyone needs one today)
- Business cards (everyone needs one today)
- Bio photo
From the investor point of view, if you look professional and very, very simple then you are probably spending your money wisely. There is one caveat: this only works if you are in the initial stages. If you say you have been around for a while, selling a lot of product, but your marketing looks like it was done on a low budget, the investor will still wonder about the credibility.
There is nothing wrong with telling the investor that part of the budget will go to improving the brand image.
In the meantime, how does one approach this?
Web site: look for a prepackaged site that you can fill in elements. These are called templates, and you can get one for under $100.00. You may be able to hire a small firm that can use one of these sites and fill in the elements for you. The prepackaged site should even suggest the typography. The colors used on this package will lead to…
Color scheme for collateral: Use the web site colors.
Business cards: You can use the web site colors, but the problem is to lay it out on a small piece of paper. Instead, use simple black and white and put it together on decent card stock. Definitely use a company like overnightprints.com or Vistaprint.com. They will also have templates for the business cards. Word of advice: two fonts. Use one for text and one fancy font for the company name or logo. Once again, if you are not a professional designer, keep it simple to keep it good.
Presentation template: use the website colors, and a very simple layout. For presentations you can use the templates in PowerPoint. They look good and get the point across without become the point.
Branding: One of the first elements of branding is to be consistent. By using the same color schemes, fonts, themes through the collateral you will develop a brand for your business. It is very basic but consistency works.
Bio photo: In the beginning, unless you are entertainment, this is not that important. You could go to one of those photo places and see if they can take a portrait photo and then provide you a color corrected web and print version. If all they do is provide a portrait photo then do that. A good portrait photo goes a long way. Avoid being too sexy like in a Glamour Shots photograph. You want to look professional.
Logo: Entrepreneurs love to play with this all the time and it can often really hurt them. The simplest logo is either a graphic of the letters of your business name, an image of the name of your business (if it is a noun), or an image that represents the activity that your business performs. Start with the letters as that is the simplest.
Cash considerations are important. When you cannot afford to hire a professional, do not try to be that professional. Instead, use common sense and keep things simple. Find simple solutions and they will work. These can be used to sell your products and services. Investors want to see that money and time is spent wisely and produces results. When you do this, you are much more credible to investors (and potential customers).
Professional vs. DIY
Professionals are called professionals for two reasons. First, they do the job better than most people. Second, other people call them professionals and pay them because of the first reason.
Many people will tell you to “save money” and “do it yourself”. In some instances, this is very sound advice; especially when you have no cash. However, it is often taken too far and becomes counter-productive by destroying credibility and turning away the target audience. The end result looks amateurish and buyers (customers and investors) walk away.
Today, I read on Seth Godin’s blog (see the CONNECTIONS section) his article titled: Why aren’t you (really) good at graphic design?
His premise is this: Today, business professionals are expected to have professional looking presentations and collateral. However, because of today’s “easy” software, instead of hiring someone you can do it yourself. You will not be as good as a professional but you will be “really good” and that is good enough.
I have seen “really good” and usually it is not good enough. The problem with “really good” is that it is purely subjective and often based on the other idea, “I just do not want to spend the cash.” Standards and expectations are lowered by the business owners. The problem is that customers do not lower them and expect professional. The customers go elsewhere.
When I was the marketing director of an animation festival and executive producer for a startup animation studio we saw many portfolios, many artists and graphic designers. There is a big difference between DIY and professional. There are many levels of professional and wide range of prices.
Maybe you cannot afford world-class, but maybe you can afford something. You need to make the right decisions on when to DIY and when to find a qualified person within your budget. When you approach a professional, tell them what you want and your budget. Don’t hide the budget but figure out what you would pay for what you want. If it is not enough, they will tell you. In my expereicne, if the designer does not have a budget they will usually overbid. You keep it under budget by giving them a budget.
Godin identifies the four big things people try to DIY and suggest you can too: PowerPoint presentations, web sites, business cards, and bio photos. It is just not that easy to do all four. Here is my response:
Presentations in Power-Point: Absolutely DIY. Why? The best ones today are simple with no animation. They just look good. You could hire someone to develop a color template and then use that template over and over. This would be branding development (see tomorrow’s post).
Web site: If it is very simple and you are satisfied with out of the box, then by all means go DIY. Otherwise, hire someone with talent. Amateur sites look that way. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye. If your business depends on look and presentation, then you have to spend the time and money on a web site.
Business Cards: If you do a simple black and white design or use one of the online pre-designed cards, then DIY. Otherwise, hire a designer. When it comes to printing them, save yourself a lot of time and trouble and just get them printed. At overnightprints.com you can get 100 double sided color cards (standard size) for $14.95. You can get 1000 for $49.95. It is worth it. If you print them and cut them yourself it will look amateurish. $50 is a sushi dinner for two. Skip one of those and get business cards.
Bio photo: Anyone can take a photograph. Having someone take a good photograph and then knowing how to color correct them well for presenting on the web and in print (which are different from each other) is another story. You could probably take a lot of decent pictures of yourself. It is a challenge for me. If you can take the time to figure out to color correct it then do it; otherwise ask a professional.
Godin missed a few more items that many people also DIY which maybe they should not. I will write more on that topic tomorrow.