Who do you engage and what do they do?
To a small business, marketing can mean anything. Unfortunately Small business owners don’t always have a true understanding of what it means. They lump all the skills together and don’t know where to start. They always have a contact, a jack of all trades, even someone’s friend who is studying at university and does a bit of Photoshop on the side and may not necessarily have a qualification or even industry experience for that matter.
Different industries require different solutions. As a business owner you might only know one aspect of marketing such as a website or newsletters, but a marketer might be able to expand your thinking to consider other great marketing channels such public relations campaigns or integrating your newsletter with your social media, or even creating a video to go viral.
So here’s a quick guide as to the different professions involved and when to engage them.
Designer
Let’s just say you know your target market, you know what your brand promise is, and you’re clear that a brochure is what you want. Then a designer can help you bring this to life. If you are creating a brochure then you need to be clear about this and understand why you’re doing it when you engage a designer. If you don’t, then you need to go back and see a Marketer who will help you explore the who’s and why’s further.
In the example attached, BMR provide business coaching services for the trade industry and have approached the Furnishing Industry Association of Australia (FIAA) with the hope of forming a mutually beneficial partnership. In this case BMR provide free business health checks to members of the FIAA with the aim of signing business owners onto a 12-month business coaching contract. It’s a great concept that has mutual benefits. The FIAA retains their members because the specialised coaching provided by BMR has a 100% success rate if followed through to completion. Plus BMR is commercially satisfied as well.
So once you’re clear about the purpose of what you need then a designer can really bring it to life. A designer can create something that reflects your brand essence and the market you are promoting to. They’ll explore fonts, images and diagrams that truly reflect who your customers are. It’s really a functional project that reinforces their brand message. It’s not just about making things look pretty (important point!) – it’s about bringing your brand to life and speaking directly to your customers from a visual perspective.
Getting the brief right - Getting a brief from a marketing person means you get the brief correct straight away. They know what the designer wants and it saves a heck of lot of time and money. Often people do not understand the core message they want or need to portray. A marketer would solve this problem. So it’s best to go through a marketer first to get some guidance for any creative projects.
Marketer
They decide what market a product or service will be sold to, and how it will be positioned amongst competitors to help it stand out from the crowd, and what offers and incentives to use to help overcome buyers inertia. They also help you budget so can plan communications effectively – things like copywriting, designing, printing etc.
A marketer also chooses the message to send to a market. Whether to say “We’re the lowest cost car rental service in town” or “We sell the only Lamborghini’s in Melbourne CMD” is a marketing decision. The first message will appeal to members of the market who care about price. The second message will appeal to customers who care about … Lamborghini’s. Once you’re clear on the message then you engage a copywriter.
Copywriter
A copywriter writes the text that will appear on a web site, brochure or advertisement. The copy must accurately represent what makes a product or service unique that speak directly to the target market, and also persuade the reader to take action. In the brochure (above) we ask the reader to take up a free business health check, and the writer uses case studies, short sentences, bullet points to make it easily digestible for the reader and absorb information.
The text must also be clear and well written and easy to digest using bulleted sentences, case studies, etc. That’s a writing skill. Also a website “about us” page may require a marketing perspective, while a product sales landing page might require a sales perspective. Don’t assume the same person can write both kinds of copy. Also, don’t assume that a good salesperson or marketer can write good copy. They’re separate skills.
“For most projects, the Marketer comes first, then the copywriter, then the designer.”
Craig Pethebridge
Not sure where to start?
Contact us today on 0422 908 396 or send us an email at mel@enganagraphics.com.au to find out how your business can benefit with a marketing consultation.
We can also collectively develop a very refined and polished design brief so that the designer or copywriter can create fantastic branded communications that are right on the mark from the outset.
