visuals, visuals, visuals

It must be important if it is repeated 3 times. You could have the best product or service in the world but if people cannot picture it or somehow identify with it then you will have one heck of a time trying to sell it. We are a culture that wants to the “kick the tires” before we drive it off the lot.

TIP: In other words, show off your product and/or service to the world in the best possible light. Like it has been stated before, this does not mean to show absolutely everything, it just means that in order to hook people in to actually see your product or service for what it is, you need to let give people a taste of it through good photography or other visuals.

Generally speaking, the first thing people notice in a marketing piece is a photo/design/colors/layout and the second thing they notice is what it actually says. Both components of the marketing piece are equally important but the visuals will either cause the viewer to pause long enough to read the text or, if ineffective, will cause the marketing to not be noticed at all.

-jeremy

service marketing is not a monologue

There is often a tendency within business to want to tell the public everything about itself or tell the public what to think. While this might actually be the way to go for some product-oriented marketing, let me give an analogy of what this might do for service-oriented marketing.

Imagine that your public viewing audience is another person that you are meeting for the first time at a party. The easiest way to cause a person at a party to NOT ask any questions about you would be just tell them everything there possibly is to know about you immediately. Not only is this slightly uncomfortable, it does not invite the person to engage you in a conversation.

TIP: Especially within the service-oriented business world, the goal of marketing is to be a catalyst to engage your potential clients in a dialogue in order to gain the trust of that potential client. It is usually only after trust has been established that a potential client moves to become an actual client. Trust comes from interaction or conversation and marketing is the opening line of that conversation.

-jeremy

Happy Pioneers Day!

When my wife and I first moved to Utah a couple of years ago we were planning on going out for a nice dinner for our anniversary. Little did we know that there would be parades and fireworks galore in our honor.

As it turns out, the fireworks and celebrations were actually for something called Pioneer Day. If you aren’t from Utah, you probably have no idea what this is. If you are from Utah, you probably wonder why this is bigger than the 4th and New Year’s Eve combined. Anyways, this is a Utah holiday celebrating the permanent settlement of Salt Lake City and people love to celebrate that in a big way around here. It actually is quite fun but my dog Winston isn’t a huge fan of the explosions above our house. Here are a couple of fireworks photos from my driveway.

-jeremy

denver

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Southwest Counseling Associates in Denver, CO which I believe is the largest non-profit firm in Colorado that just focuses on counseling. With a wide variety of expertise that they offer, i really hope that more people seek out help from organizations like this one in order to help them with issues that they are dealing with. Counseling should not have any negative connotations because, in reality, we all are dealing with things in our lives that just need to be discussed with someone.

Wold Creative Group is assisting Southwest Counseling Associates with a new website in order to help further their reach and effectiveness within the greater Denver area. This is a project that we are really excited about because of the potential for Wold Creative to help a cause that can help others. Here is a photo of the cabin-like entrance of SCA.

-jeremy

marketing your brand

For most marketing initiatives there are a couple possible positive results. The most obvious positive result is that the marketing campaign directly translates to sales. The less obvious result is that the campaign establishes your brand within your market.

TIP: When going after sales with your marketing campaigns, do not lose sight of your brand. An AD might translate to some immediate sales, but a consistently established brand will translate to on-going sales and something that an AD alone cannot give…the public’s trust of your brand. If you look at the long-term reward for your marketing initiatives then your return on initiatives will grow exponentially with each campaign.

-jeremy

st. john's

a beautiful church and school in California, St. John’s is growing and needs our help. Taking on a building project in California is quite a task, especially for a non-profit. In this case, Wold Creative Group is going be helping the church and the school to update their online presence to help communicate with a broader audience and help them to truly be the center point of the new community development that they are building in.

With the addition of an online donation section, not only will they be able to receive their normal donation from patrons but also additional support that will be specific to the building fund.

-jeremy

california

Whilst in California to meet with a client, I have the privilege of staying with some good friends in the Sacramento area. Their house is adjacent to a vast field that begs the passerby to stop and gaze in silence. This morning at 6:30am the clouds were like stained glass windows that the sun majestically illuminated in a warm glow.

-jeremy

BabyBam photo shoot

BabyBam Collection is a luxury baby apparel line that utilizes bamboo, yes bamboo, as its main ingredient within the fabric. Let me tell you, bamboo is one of the most versatile things out there if it can do well at being my hardwood floor as well as be one of the softest fabrics that I have ever felt. Oh, and did i mention that it is renewable and, hence, environmentally friendly. Is there anything that bamboo can't do?!? I'm just waiting for a bamboo-powered Prius to come on the market.

-jeremy

print vs. web

OK, so I could write a book about this and still not fully resolve this debate but the short answer is “preb”, my lame attempt to combine both print and web into one word. If you think that just online marketing or just print marketing is what your business needs, then you are absolutely looking at this the wrong way and potentially missing some potential customers.

TIP: do not look at marketing and advertising through a particular medium (print, web, environmental, tv, radio, etc.), look at marketing through all appropriate mediums. This is what the industry calls a “media mix” where the campaign and your company’s messaging is the most important piece of the puzzle rather than the particular medium.

A simple example of this would be if you were promoting a “special” at your store and you decided to send direct mail, ran online ads on appropriate sites and each of these ads (print and online) directed people to your website that highlights the “special” on the homepage. This is just one small example how thinking across media boundaries can exponentially increase the efficacy of a marketing campaign.

-jeremy

google yourself

We have all typed our own names in at some point to see what comes up in a search engine. OK, maybe I’m the only one, but anyways, it is interesting to try this with your business as well. First type in your business name to see what comes up and then try searching by the services you provide.

If you have a hard time finding your business online through typing in what it is you do, most likely potential clients are having the same issue. This issue of being “found” within web searches is often referred to as SEO (search engine optimization). Both the design of your site (that’s where we come in) and the placement of your website’s URL on other sites (we can help there too) determine how easy it is for people to find you online. We will be discussing this in more detail soon, but here is the first tip that every business, particularly businesses that are just starting, should do to help their online exposure.

TIP: Put your URL (www.yourname.com) on as many reputable free sites as you can. This would include local/national listings of businesses, associations, business networks, partner companies…etc. If these websites are credible, not only will putting a link on their site help you through direct links from that site, it will also increase your listing within the search engines.

-jeremy

Happy 4th!

If you are working today, you shouldn't be. Get out there and enjoy what this day is all about...cooked meat over open flames, igniting small colorful fire hazards and celebrating that we don’t have a monarch.

Happy 4th!

-jeremy

stand apart

We live in a culture where we are bombarded by messages. Every product or service has their logo stamped on what they do, commercials remind us to buy things that we never knew we needed and the consumer is in the middle of it all. In such a competitive market for the consumer’s attention, how do you stand apart?

Simplicity and uniqueness are a good place to start. Focus on a simple, easy to understand message that highlights your unique characteristics as a business. It is OK to not tell the public everything there is to know about your business from the beginning. Giving too much info will cause the heart of what you do to be lost within the sea of messages. I made a quick grahpic, below, to highlight how this sort of marketing can be utilized.

-jeremy

welcome to Wold Creative's new blog!

This blog is intended to be a free marketing/design/business resource that will be updated weekly with tips, ideas and suggestions to help hone your business' marketing. Sure, there might also be an occasional bit of fun as well but don't let that stop you from bookmarking this page.

There have been many exciting things happening with clients throughout California, Utah and Colorado and therefore this blog will also be a way to share success stories. In other words, this could be a great resource to see what is working in today's market.

On a side note, if you live in Utah, you should check out Red Butte Gardens by the U (see pic below). If you don't live in Utah, you should move here.

-jeremy