Is Now the Time to Market Your Company?
Yes, if your goal is to keep your sales pipeline full and the wheels of profitability churning, this is the time to invest in marketing your company and maximizing your brand equity. While always a good idea, in times such as these, it is absolutely imperative.
There are many ways to strengthen your brand image and keep it front and center for your target audience – something your competitors may be shying away from right now as they tighten their budgets. Lucky you! By simply investing now, you’re already getting more bang for your buck - less competitor noise! Marketing your company doesn’t have to cost a lot, but it does have to be smart. 
The Right Foundation is Key
So, where to start? Well, that depends. It depends on how established your brand identity currently is. For example, how persuasive and relevant your key messages are; and the strength and cohesiveness of your current brand symbols – logo, imagery, metaphors, color palette, font treatments (yes, these things all matter… a lot). Do you fully understand your target market and what they need? Has anything recently changed within your customer base that might require a different approach?
Before you start investing in a specific marketing tactic – a website, brochure, ad, or tradeshow display, for example, it is wise to assess the brand foundation first. When a company’s brand messaging, look and feel are disjointed, the strength of a particular campaign in terms of leaving a positive, lasting impression is diminished. Dollars first invested in a solid brand foundation will ultimately save money in the long run – mainly because once you have it down, it becomes the touchstone that all marketing and interactions come back to. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time. It cuts down on future design work and this saves you money. Not to mention the likelihood of an increased response rate as your strategic, cohesive design and tactics start to resonate with your target audience. Learn more about one of the strongest brands in the market today.
Be Smart in Your Approach
If you’re reading this and thinking “yep, already got that down,” then it’s time to think about some smart ways to maintain market visibility this quarter and into 2009. While a presence on the web is a given for any successful company these days, design for print – brochures, ads, stationery, publications, and displays are still a mainstay for everyday business activity. Both web and print formats support one another creating a more dynamic branding package when used in conjunction.
Printed mass mailings may be important for your business, but, perhaps, an email campaign might also do the trick in getting your message out without the cost of paper and postage. Electronic HTML brochures, when done well, can be beautiful and the response rate statistics are measurable. This might also be the time to better optimize your website for search engines – let them do the work for you in driving traffic to your site. Think about investing in some strategic promotional items to spread some holiday cheer over the next few months while at the same time getting your message out, once again, in a creative way.
We Can Help
Of course, we wouldn’t be writing this article if we didn’t think we could help. We can. King Design is a full-service graphic design and marketing boutique headquartered in Jenkintown, PA, just outside of Philadelphia. We focus on brand strategy, web design, print design, and promotional marketing. Check out our services and portfolio at kingdesignllc.com, then give us a call to discuss how we can partner with you to market your company in order to sustain the health and growth of your business during a time when your competitors may be doing just the opposite.
