I’ve been gaining interest in learning more about how to better market business’s websites. Thought I would start with books I can find at the library first, after all they are free! I came across “Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites” by Kevin Potts. It was a quick read because most of the information in the book was just review. But he did have a few quotes I liked on how he could explain situations to someone that does not have to know much about web design.

Avoiding Corporate speak - about writing better copy for the web

Imaging walking into a pastry shop, asking for a Boston cream doughnut, and getting the following response from the shopkeeper: “That particular confection, with its falsely historical nomenclature of alternate-desert elements and synergistic relationship with first light beverages…” You would probably leave. As you walked down the street looking for a Dunkin’ Donuts, you’d wonder how that bakery ever stayed in business.

The goal of copy should be to open dialog with your target audience with plain language to not intimidate them.

Reading Level
I thought it was interesting that most TV shows are written at an eighth-grade reading level to appeal to everyone. “TV is written by professionals who know how to speak to a board demographic in a common language.” It is common to assume your audience is more educated than they really are. People do not want to think too hard when reading, especially on the web where it’s easy to just click somewhere else.

Corporate Blogging
I did not realize how popular corporate blogging has become, he recommended a few books and websites on the issue:

Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care

buisinessblogconsulting.com - Advice, tips and best practices for corporate blogs

Technorati.com - Recognized hub of all things blogging; tracks millions of blogs

RSS for the website
There can be multiple RSS feeds on a website, which I did not think about before. Places where a RSS fed could be helpful would be on the careers page, corporate news, e-commerce (promotions, sales, new additions), support, and of course the blog. Keeping readers completely up to date will only generate more and more sales.

I started reading another Sitepoint book, Online Marketing Inside Out. I always enjoy reading books and emails from Sitepoint.

Click to download an excerpt from the book “Online Marketing Inside Out” by Brandon Eley & Shayne Tilley.

Press Releases

I was intrigued to learn about press releases (on page 8). I wouldn’t have thought to send out press releases, I thought it was just a thing of the past. In the book it states, “Start now! You simply cannot write too many press releases.” There are many different opportunities to send out a press release, a new service/product to announce, case study on how you helped a client, won an award, customer testimonials, and many more. Adding hyperlinks, photos, audio, video and buttons to social media facilities will further take advantage of it being online and further attracting the audience.

Modern Monitoring of Press Coverage (page 27)

When other people are writing about your company, you would want to know about it right? Monitoring what is said on the web is like keyword research, things to consider tracking are: company name, key employees’ names and phrases you want to rank well in. You can use RSS feeds, Technorati (blog search engine), Google Alerts, Trackur (social media monitoring), Twitterverse (type a word and you’ll see every time it’s been mentioned) and many more mentioned in the book to monitor online press coverage.

To learn more about online marketing you will have to purchase the book on Sitepoint.

Continuing on my review of The Graphic Design Business Book on information on proposals, clients, and pricing. I will start with proposals, Ted writes, “The most important factor in the success of a design project is the bid process.” Most clients will request for a proposal (RFP), a good proposal is made up of four parts. 1. Capabilities statement - Why your company is best suited, history and past experience. 2. Project overview - What you perceive to be the scope of the work (show some thinking on your part.) 3. Technical. 4. Cost - It’s a good idea of specify exactly how many concepts the client will get to cover your butt. On writing proposals, I thought this was an insightful and very true quote, “Write in a way that comes naturally. Omit needless words. Do not overstate. Do not explain too much. Do not inject opinion. Be clear.”

Talk in ways that the clients can understand, talk the talk. Read the business press, you should be comfortable discussing return on investments. Read the Wall Street Journal at least weekly, it is written very well and you’re be learning the lingo quicker than you think. Clients sometimes need hand-holding, pamper your clients, make them think they’re always number one. Keeping clients is important for returning business, three ways to lose a client are: printing messes up, typo (hire a proofreader for large projects), the client is not satisfied with the work.

Down to the costs. Every designer knows there will always be changes! If changes were not included in the original quote and the client requests changes, do them and yourself a favor, send the client a memo before they get the bill - explain that the work is additional and was not anticipated in the contract. You can also make it clear that the changes were not included in the original quote, but as a courtesy, they won’t be charged for the costs. However, any additional changes thereafter will need to be billed.

How do you configure your hourly rate can feel like a guessing game. Here is an easy comprehendable formula: First figure out your billable hours - 52 weeks x 40 hours = 2,080. You’ll need a vacation eventually, subtract 80. Allow for five days of sick time, subtract 40. Don’t forget our seven legal holidays, subtract 60, you’re now at 1,900 billable hours. Now no designer is in anyway billable for an actual forty hours a week. Time-consuming tasks such as running errands, backing up your system, cleaning up for a client visit can quickly add up to about an hour a day, subtract a painful 230 for downtime. Now we’re at 1670 of possible billable hours. An average salary for a graphic designer runs around $45,000 a year, divide by 1670, and get an hourly rate of $27. But remember, this rate does not cover expenses, most design firms have expenses averaging at 31% of the total. Multiply it to cover the overhead, and you’ll get $8 more an hour, equaling it to $35 an hour. We haven’t made allowances here for slow periods, a common percentage of profit is 15-25 percent. Let’s pick 20 percent, adding $7, making it $42 an hour. You must also incorporate experience into the equation, so starting at $42 an hour might be beneneath some designers’ expertise.

Hope you learned something from The Graphic Design Business Book. I would encourage you to purchase this book and read it cover to cover to learn more. There are also full contracts and forms on copyrights, taxes and lawsuits in the book.

Teaming up with eleven of the design industry’s leading experts, Ted Crawford shows beginning and seasoned professionals everything they need to know to start and run a successful business in the book, The Graphic Design Business Book. Never judge a book by it’s cover will definitely apply here, don’t let the poorly designed cover fool you!

I always enjoy purchasing new books to get further educated on my career in graphic design. But with being laid-off my budget doesn’t really allow for that. So I thought I’d give the library a try and see what they had. Most of them were a tad outdated, but I was lucky to find this insightful book to learn more about the business side of graphic design. I wanted so share some of the things that I learned from this book.

In Chapter 8, Bringing in clients, Ted talks about how you have to think about what the client wants to hear,

You call clients to see if you can help. So think “How can I help you?” instead of “Do you want to buy?”

Your purpose is to help them with their communication problem, solving problems is a valuable service and a worthwhile endeavor.

So where can you find clients? A good place to start is ad agencies and design studios to offer design, production, photographic enhancement for their overflow projects. Along with publishers and printers for getting artwork printer ready, typesetting and production. Look for potential business everywhere you go. You may be at the doctor’s office and having a hard time understanding a procedure, think could he use a brochure to explain it clearer? Someone writes down contact information for you, could they use a business card? Or if you’re handed a poorly designed business card could a newly designed card increase their business? Ted states, “You’re not selling a service so much as you’re solving communication problems… Businesses all want to improve their visibility and profitability.” Getting leads and networking to find new clients is a good way to start.

Promoting yourself to get new business is essential. It can take on many forms, a web site, creative directories, sending out mailers or brochures, mailing lists, and pro-bono work. With a mailer you could state, “I got you to notice this direct-mail piece and consider hiring me. I could help you be noticed by your prospective clients.” I would put in examples with descriptions, along with testimonials.

I will continue my book review onto the next post with information on proposals, clients, and pricing. I would definitely recommend purchasing The Graphic Design Business Book by Tad Crawford.