Tag Archive: marketing

1. Stay Hungry, Stay Ahead!

   November 3, 2009 12:33 pm Leave a Comment

   Know how to make a cat a better hunter? Stop feeding it. Give a cat its fill and find him playing with the mice! Time and time again it’s a marketer’s pet peeve to observe a business totally succeed on a comfortable plateau – which to some may be the goal – while watching new opportunities lazily come and go. Another name for plateau is flat line.

   It’s a funny thing that happens when a business is chugging along. Projects and product is moving, work comes walking through the door rather than chasing it – we’re on cruise control baby! Believe it or not there are perils in this situation, the difference between becoming a fat cat or a hungry hunter!

   Don’t get me wrong, I might be mistaken calling it a “fat cat syndrome”, that would imply the person sits back, and prints money… not quite! A fat cat can also be someone so busy that they’ve quite chasing new business, the thing that guarantees a bright future! Why would I work on new business when I’m so busy with current business?!

   I admit, I struggle with this myself! Luckily I’m reminded by annual slow periods that I have to prepare for. Working 12hrs a day is no excuse, you have time for the minimum you have to do, and it all comes down to a few things:

   Reply to your email regularly.
   It’s odd, but when I contact a busy business and I get a timely response I’m flattered! Don’t let your customer base think they are imposing on you for some of your time – give it to them! The best system is to clear your inbox in the morning, concentrate in the afternoon – whatever works!

   Value past clients as much as future clients
   Like any commodity, it’s easy to devalue your client commodity as its abundance goes up – it doesn’t work that way! If a client asks for advice after you’ve closed the project, give it to them. If a problem turns up with your product, drop everything and fix it! So many businesses take their clients for granted and think they could almost stand to lose a few! A free service to your client has huge value to your future business!

   Make lists!
   Sounds silly, but I can’t live without them, especially while we are concerned with the little things! My lists are broken up into two categories, “large projects” and “small tasks”. This is where finding time for the little things comes together. You have to take a break from any big job you do, the key is to jump to the small tasks between the large ones. By the end of the day you’ll be amazed at all you’ve accomplished! (According to my wife my list of the little things isn’t long enough 🙂

   Force it
   Sometimes you have to say “I don’t have time for this but it has got to be done”. What you paused will always get done. Do you think I have time for enewsletters?! Ha ha!

   So, stay hungry and stay ahead! You may be comfortable cornering the market now, but someone is looking to take it away – so stay on top of things! Paranoia will take you far!

2. Advertise for FREE!

   October 16, 2009 3:53 pm Leave a Comment

   Hope your short week after a long weekend wasn’t too short… was a little for Reaxion! 🙂

   You’ll find a lot of what I pass on is food for thought – designers and marketers have a lot of thoughts! You never know when they’ll come in handy!

   A few weeks ago I mentioned a bang for your buck strategy is to direct your advertising to your core past customers rather than a shotgun public advertising campaign. Now twist that idea around and look at YOUR suppliers! Do they have a stake in your success? Any of them fall over themselves to schmooze you for next year’s account? Now you have someone to help pay your ad bill!

   So how does this work? A tried and true user of this method is our local chamber of commerce. At least once a month they mail 800+ newsletters and give the option for members to insert a brochure into the same envelope for a fee MUCH MORE REASONABLE than a Canada Post direct mailing. The chamber pays for their distribution and advertisers penetrate their chamber members’ offices- win win!

   So how do you implement this? Well, I won’t dissect any possible politics involved, for instance, you don’t want an advertiser duplicating or providing your service, but if you have a “links” section on your site you might have your call list.

   What’s a good advertising medium? Start with your website. If any of my hosted clients charged only $10 PER MONTH for an ad, the annual hosting budget would be covered! Add a couple bucks and you can put in for the company Christmas party!

   Think of this idea every time you advertise to the public, you might be able to do it for free!

3. The first post….

   May 27, 2009 5:18 pm Leave a Comment

   Well here it is, the first post to the blog I created nearly a year ago… any designer worth his salt is generally too busy to put their own site first. I would agree – my clients have much better sites than I do!

   This is the intro, hopefully the mission statment of my ongoing blog and the personal side of Reaxiongraphics.com. I found out right away a typical website is too limited to give a complete view of an experienced, full service designer / company. The span of experience I’ve gained over the past decade is just too extensive! I’ve already decided an ongoing thread will be “What a designer does” – while some readers may find my ability to help get a new website off the ground uninteresting, a few may jump up and down to know I can  get their logo on balloons for the next conference… it happens! 🙂

   Oh yeah, I love my emoticons, you’ll have to get used to it! ;P

   Ahh yeah, and my opinions, I think anyone who knows me would probably agree I can spew a few. No, I’m no political debater, but I think I know what I know and will let you know what I know! Ha ha, how about that? My personal view on life in general is knowledge, of all sorts is useful, if not in business, then in conversation… and that can lead to business! I’m just as passionate about the small, more mundane aspects of design and marketing because I believe the large issues are built upon the small ones, and an overiew of them all puts you in control. Bottom line? Knowledge is power.

   I’m sure the “Reaxion Reaction” will sprout more than one section, but a few sure bets will be Business and Marketing (probably for small business), Designing for Designers, and basic updates about Reaxion Graphics.

   Other than that, I look forward to posting between projects and inspiration!

   Scott Kasprick
   Reaxion Graphics