Friday, October 23, 2009

Without Direction, We'd All Get Lost - Especially in Marketing

Can you imagine getting ready to take a several-day long road trip and not taking along a map or GPS? You may eventually get there, but without direction, the trip is going to take much longer and you may never even reach your destination.Now imagine you are going to buy a house. You find a real estate agent and tell them you want to buy a three bedroom house, but that’s it. Without giving the agent further direction (i.e. location, lot size, type of home, etc.), the agent is going to have a hard time finding what you are looking for (if they will be able to at all) and it will take much longer. Most people understand this and wouldn’t send an agent out without giving them direction.The same principle applies when creating marketing materials, graphic design projects and web sites. The project can take several days, even weeks, but without direction from the client; the project will take much longer and may not end up being exactly what the client had envisioned. Just as directions are important when you are traveling, important to give to your real estate agent and important to give to any other person you hire to assist you in your personal life or business, directions are vital when hiring someone to assist you with your marketing projects. Directions save you time and money.It’s not realistic to tell your graphic or web designer, “I sell cookies, please make me a cookie logo and a web site about cookies.” Then expect to have a fabulous logo and web site three days later. To get exactly what you are looking for, you’ll need to supply some direction. For example, how many pages do you need your web site to be? Will you need hosting? Are you planning to sell your cookies from your web site? Do you want your logo to have a more contemporary look or something more traditional? Are there any colors you want to use or avoid using?No matter how talented or qualified your marketing professional is, no one can create your perfect marketing materials without a little direction from you. Try to have an idea of what you want to accomplish with your marketing project, what you like or don’t like, what your budget is, etc. prior to hiring someone. It will definitely save you time and money in the long run!