Why you DON’T want to use graphic design templates

Neal, a cool, young internet saavy speaker and author, is thinking about some new business cards. “Do you have templates at your printing company,” he asked, striking up a conversation at a recent O.C. marketing event.

“The problem with graphic design templates, is that they’re just that: templates,” I responded. They make your business look like every other business. And that’s deadly for your marketing, be it in print or on the web.

If your marketing looks like it was “cut and pasted” from another company, that’s a clear message: You don’t have your own story to tell. So you just borrowed someone else’s.

Marketer Seth Godin says it well: “There is no roadmap.” If you’re in business, you’re in the marketing business. That means you have to create your own map. You get to define the customer, and the business model. And of course you must design the ad, brochure or business card that communicates that model.

No, I don’t have templates, and I promise I never will. BTW, Neal appears to be quite an accomplished LinkedIn artist. You can find him here.

Dale Carnegie Invented Social Media

Don’t think Social Media is important to your business? Think again:

13 Ways to Steal an iPad (Marketing Secret)

Something like a half million Apple iPads have been sold to date. It’s a remarkable number, considering that many people have yet to see an iPad, and many more have no idea of why they would even want one.

In this post, marketer Seth Godin generously shares a baker’s dozen of ideas on how to incorporate Apple’s ongoing success into your own marketing.

At the heart of it all, today’s marketing bears little resemblance to the largely superficial approach of yesteryear. Instead it asks us to dig deeply into our own talents, and to be more generous with our customers.

Today’s marketer is learning to give up some control, and let her best customers spread the word virally.

Today’s marketer must find clarity in what he stands for, for only in this clarity will the customer be clear.

Today’s marketer isn’t afraid to make some noise, take a chance and constantly create new art. Yes, there’s great art in business.

Why did a half million people spend $300 Million on iPads? The answer to that question belongs in your own company.

Marketing: The Love Story

Would you choose your mate based on looks alone? So why make a major decision about marketing your company based on superficial external appearances?

Here’s an actual quote from a direct marketing agency: “Postcards take your business or services and products to a new level.” That’s like saying you should marry a redhead if you want to be happy.

I’ll make a bold generalization here: Any marketing that starts from the externals, is destined to be short lived and ineffective.

Here’s how to spot great (and conversely) poor marketing: The best marketing starts with a memorable message, conveyed and understood in a memorable way. It’s a conversation and a connection. It’s organic in conception, and with patience it naturally blossoms into an elegant, well designed form.

The average marketing project is designed exactly backwards. It’s starts with looks, and then squeezes in the message as an afterthought. That’s superficial. So when someone tells you to “fill up your your pipeline with qualified leads” using a canned program or a preformatted template, you might want to put your hand firmly over your wallet.

Talk to anyone who is in a successful long term relationship. It’s work, at times hard work. This is not something you want to rush into. It requires thought, devotion and dedication over time. It’s an act of love. Just like great marketing.

The Perfect Website

Well of course, it doesn’t exist.

Still, too many sites seem to miss the mark; they’re stuck in old world thinking about marketing and advertising. They focus their engergy on promoting a brand, or product benefits. Yes, people still do buy the brand, but using a website to promote a brand misses the point.

The brand message rings a little hollow in the wake of Enron and AIG. People want to know who they’re really dealing with. Is your website a window into the soul of your organization? Or is it a billboard designed to fit into a 19 inch montor?

If you’re in a small business or professional practice, your website is a huge opportunity, done right. You can spend your energy trying to look like a mega corporation. Or then again, you can let your website (and the rest of your marketing) give your customers a taste of what it’s really like to do business with you. You can freely share your expertise in the perfect medium. After all, the web was designed from the ground up for the exchange of information.

Big or small, there’s really no downside to being generous, even with “proprietary” information. Doing so establishes credibility and maximizes exposure. It generates good will in a way that an advertising message cannot. Anyway, people expect free information, freely given, on the web. Bucking that trend will be an uphill battle.

The perfect website doesn’t have to be pretty, though that doesn’t hurt. Instead, it should be fresh and vibrant, dymamic to the needs of the moment. It should be easy to maintain and practical. No need to hire a programmer on a daily basis, please. A great site is clear and consise in style, avoiding the burden of clutter.

A perfect site is one that you will continually perfect. You’ll be adding content, checking traffic, and search results on a regular basis. In short, if your site is gathering dust, it’s destined to be a dud in your marketing mix.

Finally, the perfect site compliments the rest of your marketing, in print, and in the real world. It requires your energy and creativity on an ongoing basis.

The perfect website: the moment it’s done it’s time to start over.