Pay Attention to What You Send People

Yesterday I opened my mailbox and fished out a lovely looking tangerine envelope in heavy gauge paper. I opened it to find a cardboard pocket insert inside of which was a leaflet and an odd 5” ruler. The package was intended to market the creative services of a small online design firm targeting small business users in the Phoenix metro area.

I’m not sure where to start with what is wrong with this. One - I own a company that does design, web hosting, ecommerce, etc. so I’m clearly not their target audience. Two, the insert is a glossy 4 panel brochure and the entire backside is blank. Why waste such precious real estate? Three, when I went to the company’s website to see what they had to offer, the site and several of the reference sites were clearly built from templates and the home page shifted all the way to the left side of my browser window when I navigated away from it and back. Clearly not the way to showcase your talents. Four, the content of the mailer actually insinuated that by creating a new and more legible logo for one client, they improved the client’s Google search results.

Bottom line - you can spend a lot of money on creative. Do your research. Find a reputable company that specializes in small business needs and budgets but also creates custom work that reflects the uniqueness of your company. Use your common sense. If a company marketing to you is wasting money, not hitting their target audience, and doing shoddy work on their own website, what kind of results will you expect to get?