This is one of the top things other entrepreneurs ask me for advice on. My top tips are:

• Try prospects out on a project or two before committing.
• Define the need/position first, then find the right person.
• Personality and ‘fit’ into culture is as important as skill.
• Be open to them doing things differently then you and let them shine.

Try People as Freelancers Before Hiring

My very first hire was Art Director Lisa, who is still with me today. I absolutely could not have built the company without her. I was fortunate to work on a project with her old boss and friend of mine Mondo Lulu, and got to know her through him. Then, as he started scaling back she began freelancing for me. I knew her design style, her work ethic, that her strengths complemented mine, and that we got along like old friends. My only hesitation hiring her full-time was sustaining her pay. When I had the need with a large project and knew I could keep her busy for three months I asked her to come full time – that was six years ago.

Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to try most people out on a contract basis before making a commitment. Not just to see the quality of their work, but to get a taste of their working style and personality. If it doesn’t work out, it’s tough on both sides, so this is a really great way to try each other on for size.

What Kind of Help Do You Really Need?

My second hire was a newborn designer, and a big mistake. I was still doing all the admin work myself and felt I didn’t have enough time to do all that and my design work. I thought I needed another designer and the recent grad was cheap. I found I still didn’t have time to get anything done and was also now babysitting this kid. So, I let him go and hired an administrative person. Pamela was a God-send. This was my first pure overhead employee – unlike Lisa who generated revenue. But, Pamela took the work I liked least off my shoulders, did it better than me and freed me up to do what I was really good at and made good money for.

Besides hiring for the wrong role, it’s also a mistake to hammer a job around someone you ‘like’. I now determine what roles we really need to fill against goals for the company, then create detailed job descriptions around them to use in my search.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Culture You’ve Built

Our team recently did a colours test with our business consultants, Your Planning Partners. Seven out of 10 came in as blue or the ‘Relationship Way’ first. We varied on what came second (Action, Organized, Logical), and that was reflected in skills and roles. What it told me was the team strongly embodied the Rapport values of being laid-back, friendly, relationship-oriented, client-focussed and a close family that got us our name. This culture started with me, gained momentum with early people like Lisa, and continues today in the people we attract. Skills in relation to the role you’re filling are incredibly important, but if a really talented person doesn’t fit our friendly, collaborative culture they don’t belong at Rapport.

It’s important to have more than one of you meet with prospects. From a practical standpoint, I had Senior Web Developer Noel, do initial interviews with junior web developer prospects to make sure he had the skills needed. Then I met the recommended finalists to make sure they fit in and talk money. We added the ‘social interview’ with new guy Nick, where he joined the crew for drinks to get everyone’s feel for him. We are a very social bunch, and it’s a very big deal day after day if someone just doesn’t fit in socially. I think I’ll continue that tradition.

Define Your Values, Be Open to New Things

There is always more than one way to skin a cat. I find this most evident with web developers as their logical nature means they always question the way the other guy did it. But, it’s the same with design, processes and which way the toilet paper goes on. It’s important to define the standards expected for the end result as well as the practical processes that run the business, than make these consistent across the board. However, you’ve hired people to complement what you do, let them. This may mean everything from different journeys to great design, to suggestions that improve workflow.

We’ve defined our vision, mission and values, which I share with the company repeatedly. Resulting details include things like design and web standards, or the project management process we’ve developed. The key is sharing it with the whole team, getting their input, then giving them flexibility within to do their thing.

This makes for a much stronger and more dedicated team than if I insisted everything was done my way.

Not big budgets, budgets set for impact

Some may argue that B2B companies often have a limited number of organizations that they can sell (or market) to, so they don’t require big budgets. Versus companies that are selling to the masses, it is true B2B marketers don’t require big budgets. However, the argument here is not for creating big budgets, but for allocating budgets that are big enough to allow your organization to “out shout” the competition. To stay in the prospects mind so that, when the time comes to purchase, your firm is high on the list of potential vendors. Ideally, to be looked at as being different and better than the competition, so in any pitch or bid situation, you come from a position of strength.

In categories that have only a handful of customers that may buy from them, the marketing plan and recommended spend is going to look a lot different than for companies that have hundreds or even thousands of prospects.

What is the right amount for a marketing budget?

So how does one decide what the appropriate spending levels are? A common approach is to look at the competition and figure out what they do and how much they spend, and to make sure you invest similar amounts and do more impactful things.Another approach is to put together a detailed marketing plan. If you do not have the right resources internally, outsourcing a plan can be a great way to bring rigor to the process, and to look at the possibilities from a fresh perspective. A good marketing consultant should be able to take your experience and industry knowledge, combine that with information about your market, your prospects and techniques that have worked in similar industries, and provide you with a disciplined plan that will deliver against your objectives. B2B marketers often lack the discipline to do a plan and execute it faithfully, let alone measure the results. No wonder spending levels are low!

The wrong way to go about setting the budget is to either base it on what was spent the year before, (unless that budget was set based on the methods described above) or what you think you can afford. Unlike rent or other expenses that are necessary evils, marketing should be looked at as a “spend to get” approach. If you are strategic, your marketing spending should pay back, sometimes many times the original spend.

Be aware

Incidentally, the organizations with the fewest prospects can often have marketing budgets that are much bigger than you would think. Marketing budgets that allow for sales to take decision makers on high-end trips, play regular golf games or go out to events on a regular basis.  Don’t get caught thinking the playing field is level without getting a full perspective on the decision making process from the customer’s viewpoint.

However, a more advanced way to help keep them separate is to go in with a plan and share it with all company participants. Give them the tools and training they need to be successful in this new arena.

Don’t Just Dive-in – Social Media is a Marketing Tool

I’m often heard to say that using a social media platform is just like any other marketing tool. Before jumping in you should figure out who your target is, where to find them (Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn?) and what they’re looking for from a company like you. You would use this information to strategize on the best way to communicate with them and use your marketing tools effectively.

Are you using social media to raise awareness, educate about your service or industry or stay in touch with existing customers? What are they doing there? What’s their pain?

Social Media and Your Brand

Also like any other marketing tool, you’d need to hold it up to your brand and consider it in relation to everything else you use, like your website, brochures, etc. Chances are you’ve developed a look, a voice, a style, and specific marketing objectives. Though social media is often more of a personal approach, corporate brand should apply here too.

Your Social Media Marketing Plan

Your plans for social media should include:

1. Where you should focus efforts (Twitter?)
2. What you should do there (ie: discussions on LinkedIn)
3. What you should talk about, your angle
4. How it fits in with other efforts
5. What are the objectives and guidelines for our participants (ie: no personal political comments)
   

   

With this basic plan in place it will be much easier to keep business separate from personal.

Educate Your Team

Just as you provide brochures and help prepare presentations, give your people the guidance they need to represent your company using social media. Remember that if you’re asking your professionals to be active like blogging, they may not be aware of brand guidelines at all and need briefing. It doesn’t hurt to do a little awareness education with other employees as well so they know what you’re doing and a little guidance as to what you’d prefer they did or didn’t do with their personal accounts. You can’t control their personal accounts but it doesn’t hurt to say ‘because our message is ____, we’d prefer if you didn’t mention ____.’

Next to your actual sales force and your own undeniable powers of persuasiveness, web sites, corporate brochures and identity kits should be among your hardest working marketing tools.
In order to make sure you’re maximizing the power of these tools, we have put together a checklist of attributes which no self-respecting corporate identity package should be without.

1. Synergy With Your Company’s Overall Image.

This synergy is the key to building awareness of your company as a brand. Everything should look like everything else, because that’s what makes you look professional.

2. A Strong Essential Message.

This is the promise you make to your potential customers or clients, and it’s one of the most important pillars upon which your communications is built.

3. An appealing Look & Positive Feel…

that’s both ‘in character’ and inviting to read. People read things that look appealing and interesting. Anything else, they tend to ignore.

4. Obvious Corporate Identification.

It’s all the rage in the design world to play down logos. But that’s how most readers end up missing them.

5. Bad English Ain’t Good.

Bad grammar is running rampant in communications these days. Bad grammar can make you look like a not-so-bright, and therefore not-so-trustworthy company.

6. First Person Focus.

Never talk about your company in the third person. If you do, people will think you’re weird. Talking about your company in the first person naturally personalizes the communication and makes it more inviting for the prospect to read.

7. Simplicity. Simplicity. Simplicity…

in the use of supporting language and graphics. Remember, you know more about your business than anyone you are talking to. Showing respect for what they don’t know will always be rewarded.

8. A Positive Selling Attitude Throughout.

This is all about keeping the tone and manner of your communications positive, upbeat and on point, and one of the most important keys to stimulating response.

9. Testimonial & Case Study Support.

Your satisfied customers are, bar none, your best salespersons. Anything that quantifies results is going to be more meaningful to your readers than abstract notions or platitudes. You’ll be surprised how powerful these underused selling techniques can be.

10. Concrete Reasons Why The Prospect Should Be Doing Business With You.

Too many companies fill their communications with reasons why they are so great, but they seldom turn it around and give their prospects a real sense of what’s in it for them.

We encourage clients to run their creative by an advisory board or, even better, ideal clients at exactly the stage our client did. However, if you simply say “what do you think,” the question is too open-ended. Here are some tips on how to get the most useful input.

This applies to anything from logos, to web design to any kind of content.

Give Them Some Background

Tell them who the audience is, how it will be used and what you were trying to achieve. For example, it’s going to a specific audience like financial controllers in large corporations (very different than the head of HR at a smaller company). It will be handed out at a tradeshow and you’re hoping to get meetings out of it. Also, tell them what specific result you are after, if applicable, like getting them to call directly versus sign-up through your website.

It helps to give a bit of background on your discussions with the creative team involved as well, like what led to the format or approach taken This may eliminate a lot of questions that can have you second-guessing yourself. Like ‘why didn’t you just do a tri-fold brochure’? You could pre-empt it by saying ‘we discussed doing a tri-fold brochure but realized it would be inserted into large folders and we also wanted to email it so…’

Consider sharing some of the market research that was done to help put it in context, like ‘client interviews indicated what’s most important to them is ______’

Create a List of Specific Questions

What about the piece is important to you – that a certain message get across? That people take a specific action at the end? That it builds a feeling of trust and stability or makes people feel warm and fuzzy? Use this as a guideline to come up with specific questions. Like, ‘did it make you feel warm and fuzzy?’ Same goes for concerns you have – ‘or did it seem too corporate’.

Also think about what you are sure of and don’t intend to change when framing questions. If you definitely like the design but are not sure about the colour, ask them specifically ‘what do you think of the colour?’ Tell them what message you are trying to convey and ask them if they get that from the design or copy. If not what did they get from it?

Broad Questions Are Okay

‘If you had one impression from this piece what was it?’

However, you may want to have follow-up questions ready. If you want it to convey that your services are delivered quickly because of the technology you’ve developed, and they got that, you could ask something like ‘but does it make our service sound cheap because it’s so fast?’

Make the Most of Your Community

Asking for feedback from people who represent your ideal clients or peers you trust for business advice is a great idea. Just prepare for it and know you may get some conflicting input. Don’t be reluctant to ask – most people feel privileged that you value their opinion.

Social media provides additional ways to get objective, anonymous and/or professional feedback. You can ask for feedback via the major channels like Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are also great places, both free, like Get Satisfaction or User Voice and professional/paid like EntreBahn (full version coming soon)

PS. It’s a great way to get a little social media exposure too.

Then What?

The best thing to do is gather the feedback and go over it with your creative team, who should be completely open to that. We’d discuss each bit, hold it against the creative brief and objectives, decide what’s important and what’s not, and make some executive decisions.

Now you have to be careful when you research anything on the web, because it is the great equalizer when it comes to information, and it’s really hard to separate the political agendas from the honest information, especially with issues like this. But like anything in life, if you dig around enough, you will start to see patterns of opinion.

Rather than bore you with the longer version of the results I found, I have distilled this research down to what I call “The 10 Commandments of Marketing To Women.”

What you will hopefully find as you read through it is that there is a high level of interconnectivity between all of these characteristics, which is not something you can always observe in men.

Here they are, in my opinion, the 10 most important things to keep in mind when marketing to women.

1. Women Are Focused On Connections: They look for similarities as opposed to points of difference. They focus on creating cooperation, good relationships and ways to help each other.
2. Women Trust Common Experience, as opposed to men who tend to put more faith in authority. The reason for this is that men think vertically as in hierarchies whereas women tend to think laterally as in common ground or level playing fields, where everyone can benefit.
3. Women Prefer Win/Win Situations, as opposed to men who think win/lose. That is not to say they are less competitive than men, just competitive in a different way.
4. Women Plan Ahead To Avoid Negative Outcomes. As a result women tend to be better long term thinkers and planners.
5. Women Put More Time And Research Into Their Decisions. This means that if you are marketing to them, you are obliged to do a very thorough job of communicating information to them, as they will take it all into account.
6. Women Are More Loyal To Those With Whom They Do Business. This has to do with the fact that women are simply much more confident in their decisions, whereas with men, not so much.
7. Women Refer More Often Than Men. This is an adjunct to 6. It’s a lot easier for women to be good and frequent referrers, because they are more confident in the decisions they make in the first place and because it is more in their communal nature to recommend products and services they are happy with to others.
8. Women Are Much More No-Nonsense Than Men. If a woman has an objection to something, she will tell you about it and expect you to address it immediately. She is a big believer in testimonials, as opposed to marketing hyperbole because she has highly developed B/S meter.
9. Women Prefer Stories Not Facts. To women, stories are more memorable than features and benefits. She will relate stronger to stories involving people’s experiences with your product or service. This makes an emotional connection that can motivate them to take action. This means that things like testimonials and product reviews are something they will take a good deal of interest in.
10. Women Believe That Quantity Is Not Quality. Women tend to look at just about everything in their lives from a qualitative perspective. Quality of life. Quality of service. Quality of products. Quality of experience.

An Wisened Man’s Perspective

Now being a man writing this post naturally puts me at a disadvantage. Because on the one hand, you could look at the aforementioned things to keep in mind when marketing to women and think, well OK, that’s the man’s point of view.

But then I would have to politely correct you because the sources I used to derive this list all come from blogs and web sites that are run by women. Just wanted to clarify that point.

Now if you’re a woman out there reading this, very little here is going to come as a surprise. But if you’re a man, most of this is quite a revelation…at least it was to me. It might be worth reading a couple of times, and seeing if there aren’t some things we men could do to be more like women. Maybe then the world would be less of a ‘dog eat dog’ place than it is now.

Sometimes they just fly in out of the blue, hitting you when you least expect it. At other times it can be the result of a brainstorming with other people, which, depending on the people, can be real labour or a ton of fun.

A few of the key qualities that most creative people have in common are a  natural and abiding curiosity about what motivates people and a strong interest in the popular culture: ie new products, new services and new cultural phenomena.

But the most important quality that any creative person can possess is salesmanship.

Inspiration VS Realization

While it’s true that anybody can get a great idea, not everyone is capable of actually filling that blank page and bringing their ideas to life in a way that will actually stimulate the audience to buy or, at the very least, find out more about the product or service being offered.

This process often requires a couple of people: a writer who can express the idea and make it easily understood in words and a designer or art director who can enhance that idea and make it into something that the audience will really want to embrace. The chemistry between the writer and the designer needs to be on the same wavelength, otherwise the creative process will end up being stilted and often times ineffectual.

In addition to being compatible with each other, the art director and the writer must also have a good feel for each other’s craft. Because while good art directors are not often good writers, they know good writing when they read it and the same holds true for writers and design.

A Relatively New Phenomenon

The art director/writer team concept in communications is actually a relatively new one and can be traced back to the beginning of the modern era of communications in the early 1960s when an art director named Helmut Krone and a writer named Bill Bernbach started working together in an equal partnership on the Volkswagen business.

Before that time, the writer was the boss and the designer was basically a tool for the writer to use. In fact they were actually called ‘wrists’. However as the development of modern communications progressed, design grew in importance, a balance between these two disciplines became both necessary and desirable.

Choosing The Right People For The Project

In our shop, there are a multitude of creative talents available for any given  project. Putting the right talent with the right project is an art in itself. Different writers have different styles: some are more comfortable writing speeches and presentations than advertising, brochures, web sites or TV scripts. Art directors are the same: some are extremely good at advertising, some are good at publications and others skilled in the e-market, but very few can do it all.

In order for us to maximize results for a client we make it our business to work  with a diverse range of talented and experienced creative people and from this pool, choose the creative talent that is best for the project. This in turn, can maximize the ROI because the people we choose have a greater understanding of what is required and get to the heart of the project faster and more effectively.

Is It Good To Specialize In One Area?

Again it depends on who you are. There are a number of areas such as pharmaceuticals and certain types of technology, where specialized skills can
really be a benefit. The downside of specialization is the number of conflicts of interest that you can potentially run into, which can limited your growth potential.

At Rapport, we choose to be more diverse in the kinds of businesses we work on. This may have a lot to do with the fact that we have a number of people in our sphere who are highly experienced in a wide range of communications areas and business sectors.

But more importantly it has to do with the fact that we are all true creative people and as such embrace the challenge of facing the blank page and filling it with strong, focused ideas that help our clients build their businesses.

Because as a very wise and successful advertising man named Chester Bowles once said, “It’s Only Creative, If It Sells.”

I showed my book to anyone who’d see me, and one day someone who liked what he saw but didn’t need help referred me to a friend of his called Neil. I called Neil, he asked me to come right away and stay the afternoon if he liked me. He liked me, I stayed, he had me back a couple more days. Then he made a proposal – if I was there and available to him (and only paid) as he needed me I could use the space and equipment for free to start my own business. I actually said no and did a short stint at a large agency, but left after only a week because I just didn’t fit there.

I went back to Neil and never looked back.

It was an awakening. I discovered a whole other side to myself. I was completely addicted to being independent and in control. It didn’t make me feel free to sleep in and work when I wanted like one might think, it made me wake up even earlier with no alarm clock. Although I really struggled financially my first year, I felt like I had more than when fully employed. May sound a little odd, but I was just happier.

It started with freelance work for Neil, then also some for a former colleague who’d started her own shop, then I got my first client. I was very lucky to have Neil’s advice and guidance early on. The value of learning from others’ experience is something I recognized and have used throughout my years in business.

Unfortunately Neil’s work started falling off and he didn’t know how to get more. We both became frustrated and spent too much time in dark booth at Betty’s (145 King St E).

The folks at Betty’s knew we were great but…

Then, I had my second awakening – no one was going to find us at Betty’s. I literally stepped out into the sunshine and looked for places to meet prospects. I discovered networking with CAWEE (member for five years and serial board member) amongst others. I even started co-hosting a networking event which I found I loved. I had no idea that I was such an extrovert and loved meeting people. I had also discovered a great new peer group, who were not only in the same boat as I, but had the same underlying drive and guts that made us entrepreneurs.

The rest is history.

As Neil’s business faded away I began getting more and more of my own clients. Networking and relationship-building was a natural for me and soon momentum took over. As far as making the leap from worker bee to running a business, I was lucky to be eased into everything. I eventually had to lease a computer, then start paying for a phone, then some internet, then some rent. Eventually Neil left and I took over the whole space. I didn’t take out any loans, write a business plan or invest in swanky office space, I just leapt and figured it out. I didn’t set out to build what I have today, but I took the opportunities I recognized, was compelled to move forward, to build. I learned as I went. Life had thrown me a detour and I found something even better.

Stay tuned for lesson 1: Hiring.

BTW, Neil is doing much better, is much happier now running the studio at a large organization.

‘So where do I start’ he asks. I said besides hiring us to develop a concise brand positioning + character, then creating logos, taglines and a few initial pieces around which we can write guidelines….

Start by looking at what’s working now and what isn’t.

You can start by looking literally at metrics – ex: this email got much more response than the other version. However, I also recommend asking members or the target audience to review different pieces and share which item’s design and language resonates most with them and why. The why is important so you can start to identify specific characteristics. Maybe the graphics are really impactful, the headlines are compelling, etc.

Then, ask them to tell you the opposite – which they were least attracted to and why. Perhaps the colours remind them of something negative and the copy is too long-winded and technical.

Use this as a checklist.

Review all your pieces with a checklist of these basic characteristics and note opportunities to make changes more towards the well-received characteristics and recognize use of the disliked ones. It may be simple changes to copy, or adding small elements like ‘we always have a watermark of the logo icon in the background.’ These things are the start of proper guidelines what you can write up and encourage or insist your own team follows. Good branding gets to the root of the values and culture of the company, so encourage all your people to become the company’s brand stewards.

How do you maintain brand character once you’ve defined it?

Of course, this was the next question. I showed him how we use our Rapport Marketing Map as a tool to help us do that for ourselves and our clients.

You plot out all your marketing tools around a central goal (your pre-sale action step), then imagine someone who’s not familiar with your company enters at any point, say they’ve been forwarded your newsletter. This probably has at least one link to your website. If they go from the newsletter to the website, what is the experience like, is it consistent? Is it the same kind of language? The same logo, colours and other brand elements? Where might they go from there? Maybe there’s brochures or sell sheets to download. Do they carry the brand character, the look and language?

When you look at your existing tools this way you will spot big and small things to change that can really strengthen that path, but also have a guideline or reminder when you add in something new.

Allow for brand evolution.

Companies are constantly evolving, and therefore so must your brand. Just keep it under control. Look at it regularly, you may need to make small changes, or one day a giant paradigm shift. However, use the Rapport Marketing Map to ensure you aren’t making changes on a whim, or because it fits the need of the day better.

I wrote no, it should be considered as part of an overall marketing plan. However, if you’ve done your research as Terri suggested in her post Social Media: How Much of it is Hype? and found that your target audience is huge into it, then yes, it should be one of the stronger factors in web strategy. With the Rapport Marketing Map, we talk about the journey people take moving from one marketing tool to the next (ie: when they look at your business card then go to your website, do they see the same colours and logo?) and how to keep them moving along that path, towards your pre-sale action step. If you think about going from, say Twitter to your website, there may be opportunities top make that transition more meaningful.

What happens when people go from your Twitter page to your website?

Imagine that the first place someone finds you is LinkedIn and read your profile. They liked your style and click-through to your website. What’s the experience like? What opportunities are there to create a continuation and encourage they travel further through your marketing map? For example, some people create special landing or squeeze pages, depending on where they come from that ties the two together. I saw one that said ‘welcome fellow Tweeters… here’s how I want to use Twitter… etc.’ One Twitter user sends a very friendly ‘thanks for the follow message’ to new followers that invites them to take a fun, interesting, no strings attached quiz, getting people to her website.

Depending on how your target audience uses social media may change the approach to content writing for your website, or the bells and whistles you add. Those big into it appreciate brevity, a more casual and human approach to writing. They also expect lots of interaction, like blogs and polls, etc.

Don’t forget that the website’s main function will always be a place prospects come to learn more about your company and it’s services, so I wouldn’t rush to turn it into it’s own social media platform. I’ve been to sites that look like the home page of LinkedIn or Facebook. Though fun that they let people post things on their home page (like a notice board), it was major overload and it took me way too long to find out what they did and who their customers were. Visitors should always be able to find out basic information about you there, which will also make the site good for visitors who don’t use social media or didn’t find you that way.