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Today I had a “learnable moment” about email marketing, and thought I’d share because it speaks to D&A Design’s philosophy on this media (email).
I was hard at work when the email tone sounded, and after a few minutes I checked to see what the email tone was about.
It was an email sent by an organization I follow and have signed up to be part of their updates. I quickly opened it and was immediately ticked off that I had stopped work for that email.
The disappointment was due to: A.) it was a poorly written hard sales pitch from an organization I normally respect, and B.) it was an all-text email with no engaging or interesting visuals whatsoever.
Point being, this organization is using their email marketing without thinking about who they’re talking to, and at what time the emails are being sent out.
Let’s face it – most of us are productive small business owners, managers, or contributors who like what we do, and we don’t want to be tapped on our e-shoulder for a hard sales pitch at 1:15 pm on a Thursday. Sales should be born out of relationships, not from poorly written, poorly executed, and poorly timed emails.
If the emails continue I will have my email address removed, and that is sad to think about because the emails are normally informative offerings of useful information that lead me to conclude I might need or want to purchase something from this company.
D&A Design believes that email marketing is part of a business’ conversation with the people they serve, and we learned this by experience.
Earlier in 2009 we experimented with one of the big providers of email marketing with our “Refresh & Engage” promotion. In the planning stages of that email campaign we really tried to figure out a way to sell, but not sell. The solution we arrived at was to start every email with information that hopefully was engaging. We surrounded the content with interesting visuals and used the formulas for best practices in email marketing that we have been trained to utilize.
After the information and need was established we offered a soft sell approach: Here’s what we’re offering, get in touch if it sounds like something you need. We tried to keep the tone at a level where it wouldn’t be pushy or obnoxious. What’s more, every email we sent out had a different slant to it, with a different offer.
The results were far better than we expected – big ROI for what we put into it. Better than the ROI, though, was that we put to practice what our convictions told us was appropriate, and I am happy to say that since that campaign we have designed and launched about a dozen email campaigns for different clients.
This may border on the line of preachy, yet it is important to realize that the emails we send out are speaking about and on behalf of our brand – perhaps as much or more than our web site and stationery. Let’s be careful and thoughtful with email marketing, and respect the time of we’re sending to.
We just read a fascinating post this morning over at Cincinnati’s Business Courier about Procter & Gamble’s “radical change-up” in an article called “In radical change-up, P&G streamlines how it promotes brands.“
Here’s a pull-quote that we found especially interesting:
The brand leader captains a team of people from the various firms and, in conjunction with P&G, they develop a brand message that can be implemented across the various media.
The line was interesting because it is exactly the thinking D&A Design has deployed for our clients from our beginning several years ago. Rather than become a niche design firm specializing in one particular media such as web, interactive, packaging or traditional print, we opted to take an approach that many of our peers did not think would work. We believed (and still believe to this day) that design is design, no matter the media. We simply design for the media we’re asked to design for, and then work with the best vendors when it comes to production.
A good example of this is our work with Dinovite. D&A Design works in tandem with Dinovite on all of their product brand identities. Once a brand identity is complete we then work on the consumer packaging for that brand, and the packaging can be anything from simple labels for rigid containers, squeeze tubes for liquid product, form-seal film for bags (think: vending machine potato chips bags), or some other structure in need of consistent branding. We work with the best vendor – printers, web coders/developers, packaging structural mfgs. – that produces each of these very different packaging needs.
Our work continues when the packaging is complete because the same brand consistency needs to be carried over to marketing. D&A Design works with Dinovite’s web vendors to create supporting graphics for sales and promotions. We create branded graphics that are used for broadcast email campaigns, as well as the occasional sell sheet. We create the branded graphics that are used to literally sell the products on the e-commerce web site. In some cases we even create the branded materials needed for events such as trade show booth graphics and apparel. All of this work is done in tandem with the very best vendors, allowing designers to be really good at design, and vendors to be really good at production. The biggest benefit, however, is consistency and cost efficiency. Just as the article pointed out, in the past businesses like P&G – and even much smaller businesses – outsourced their web site to a firm that only did web work; their packaging to a packaging firm; print work to a print firm. D&A Design saw the inefficiency of working this way when we formed our business model, and the benefits our clients continue to enjoy (and talk about!) is our measure for how well this philosophy is working. In short: So far, so good.
Point is, P&G’s new, “radical” approach is the approach D&A Design has found success for our clients. We certainly didn’t invent this process, but out of all the different ways to handle design and banding work, we find that the businesses we serve simply want one design source that can handle their design and branding needs. D&A Design is certainly not a trend-setter, but it is nice to read that the world’s largest consumer goods maker has arrived at the same conclusions we have.
We met Na & Associates through a mutual contact, and soon began talking about the goals and aspirations this Blue Ash, Ohio CPA was aiming for. It became clear that one of the first and most appropriate things to do is give their existing brand identity a refresher.
Not reinvent itself, not start-from-scratch, but simply refresh it – make it look new, fresh, bold, and the face of the new efforts Na & Associates had planned to implement.
The main element of the existing brand identity was the seal. Within the seal of the previous logo held all of the wording, crammed in quite tightly, and repeated several times over in order to fill the space.
D&A Design began by taking “Na & Associates” out of the seal, and creating a visual hierarchy so that the new brand identity had balance and maintained strength.
After several intial options were presented, and a few rounds of changes after, we arrived at the new logo above, and are now applying it piece by piece to print and web. While we did not create Na & Associates’ website, we do have on the radar a few changes coming that will give this new logo a place of belonging to all of the points where clients and prospects see it.
It has been nearly a month since we posted, but for good reason…
Summer 2008 has been very productive for D&A Design, as we are enjoying new collaborations, and helping create measurable ROI for existing relationships.
- We are working on a new website and sales collateral for Eastgate Graphics, a rigid packaging decorator, commercial ink supplier, and graphics/pre-press services supplier. Like so many businesses who are constantly growing and thriving, their website has not been a focus of attention for a while. D&A Design began working with Eastgate Graphics when Eastgate was tapped to be the supplier for a separate packaging project for a shared client. After working for a short period of time together, Eastgate Graphics asked us to redesign their website and a set of downloadable brochures that further explain their services. Launch is expected September 2008.
- D&A Design also began collaborating with TSG/Empire USA, a retail grocery food broker and strategic marketer of food purchasing data (among other things). We are redesigning their website, and doing so in tandem with their web development source (coding, etc.) to create a skin for the site that works with the content management system (CMS) they will implement to deploy and populate the site. We are collaborating with TSG/Empire for design direction and new branding, and then working with their development source to make sure the CMS skin we provide aligns seamlessly with their work-flow.
- A stone and masonry business we met at the Cincinnati Home & Garden Show, The Stone Source, has asked us to breathe life into a logo design they sketched out on a scrap of paper, which we are happy to do. We provided them with exactly what they asked us to do, and then also supplied one of our ideas at no additional charge – just to show another way of looking at their brand that they might not have thought of. When this is finished they will have seen their idea come to life, and we’ll supply them with all the various file formats and color configurations so that they can easily get their brand on every point of touch their customers experience.
- A new consumer packaging project with The Printing Plant has once again allowed us to tap one of our very talented illustrators and designers. We are working on both the consumer packaging and product development for this project, all while keeping an open dialogue with The Printing Plant’s production folks to make sure what we create goes into production with no snags. We can’t say too much about this project just yet, but when it is ready for consumers we know it will be a hit!
- Soon a new website will launch for Epcom International, a company working with law enforcement and security resources to help them get the equipment they need to do their jobs. Since Dan (D&A’s co-owner) has a brother in law enforcement – K9, specifically – this project is especially interesting, as he feels he can “talk shop” with his brother (though not really).
- The summer has seen the emergence of a very successful email marketing campaign for Dinovite, and the results continue to be measurably profitable! We work with Knowledge Marketing for the email blasting, and they are one of the most helpful suppliers we have ever worked with. As a result of the ease-of-use for the email design and development, coupled with the strategies developed by our client, and tasteful timing of emails, the bottom-line is that our work is (and continues to be) profitable for Dinovite.
- We helped develop a brochure and insert for Bear Creek Capital’s Kenwood Town Place development. D&A Design handled both design and production for this project, managing the design, production schedule, printing, quality assurance, and delivery of the brochure and insert.
- We are in the early stages of designing and developing the 2009 Ross County – Chillicothe, Ohio CVB Visitor’s Guide. This year we are opting to manage the entire project, rather than using a publisher. We decided on this direction due in part to the commoditization of commercial printing, and our years of experience working on these kinds of projects. So far we have worked with a paper source on the booklet size and page-count, paginated the 2009 guide, and met with the CVB Marketing Committee for approval of direction. We also determined the number of ads, sizes, and cost for each ad so that the guide can be self-funded. RFQs for printing go out next week, and then design begins – which will not be too complex since we have built this brand from the ground up. More info to come as it delvelops – we really are tackling a lot on this!
- Later this month we will launch an update to d-a-design.com, showcasing some of the work mentioned above, as well as new photos of new consumer packaging projects! Check in soon!
A few other projects are at hand that we will write about soon. Until then, please check back for a slew of new photos of more of our consumer packaging work that was made public last week! It will be a bit of show-and-tell.
I recently set a new record for a “work day.”
I started working around 9am, took a few breaks throughout the day, and then had Moe’s Southwest Grill with friends in the evening (my favorite!). I came back around 10pm, and dove into the project at hand: Logo concepts.
I continued working until 3:15am, most of which was on developing the logo concepts. When I work on a logo, it is an all-consuming process.
Logos are the most challenging project any designer takes on due to the grand importance of what a logo does. In a very small space rests many dimensions of professionalism and essence of the business. But logos are also one of my favorite projects. It’s taken some time to develop a process, but now that I have, I love the challenge
My process starts – after I’ve talked with the client – by simmering. I have to let the idea simmer in my head for a least a full day, preferably more. The idea simmers while I go about doing other things. Sometimes my best ideas for a logo come while at a grocery store, in the shower, or in the middle of the night. While simmering, I also research the competition – make sure the ideas I’m thinking of haven’t been taken already.
I then get inspired – go to stores, go to a few logo web sites, etc. for inspiration. Then I do some pencils while next to my Mac, going back and forth. This evolves into a full-blown Mac design process, and I churn out as many ideas as I can think of.
I try to work fast and loose, and once I have a group of ideas working I decide what is crap and what is worth pursuing. This goes on and on and on for a few hours until I feel I have 3-6 strong contenders.
The first round of ideas are created in black-and-white. I’ve lost too much time and good ideas to introducing color too early. There will always be someone who doesn’t like an idea because the green is too minty, or not grassy enough. I chose not to work in color until we have the structure of the logo done.
This process can be as short as a few hours, or as long as days or weeks. Since logos are so very important, I feel the time is justified, and I am always adjusting my process to account for better ways or budget limitations.
One other thing I do when I feel I have 3-6 good ideas is show my close friends and family. I try to show my ideas cold, and to people who know absolutely nothing about what the idea is. This has proved very helpful for a lot of logos. Sometimes we designers can work too close to our projects, and fresh eyes are always a remedy.
So this is the general structure to how I create a logo. I am constantly tweaking this process, trying to gain the most efficiencies. I will try to post some WIP ideas after a logo is approved as this blog grows to give visuals on how a logo – or other projects – are developed.
- dan
