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What Happens in Vegas…

Posted on June 9, 2011 by kghart

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I Wanna Make an Amazing Sandwich

Posted on May 22, 2011 by kghart

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past several years you will have noticed a considerable increase in the the use of Social Media marketing channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and others by all types of businesses. As with any new and innovative idea or technology there are always those individuals who immediately jump on the bandwagon and begin touting themselves as “experts”. Do a Twitter search for “social media expert” or “guru” and you’ll see what I mean.

Peter Shankman wrote a recent blog post presenting his reasons for not hiring a “Social Media Expert”, which I found very compelling. As someone who is in the initial stages of starting a firm that wants to assist small business owners in their own social media marketing efforts Peter’s article provides a litmus test for which I can gauge my own branding and marketing efforts.

I love the following quotes:

“Being an expert in Social Media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge.”

”IT’S ABOUT GENERATING REVENUE THROUGH SOLID MARKETING AND STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE, JUST LIKE IT’S BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.”

As I build my own business I have the perfect opportunity to practice what I preach by making sure that my own social media marketing efforts generate revenue and serve my customers by providing transparent, relevant, and brief content that will, in turn, help them to move their marketing and customer service efforts to higher levels with resulting increases in revenue.

May I take your order?

Posted in Marketing, Social Media | Tagged branding, Marketing, Social Media | Leave a comment

Ready! Fire! Aim!

Posted on May 18, 2011 by kghart

The story is told of a young boy who receives a bow and arrow set for his birthday and immediately goes out to his yard to give it a try. A few minutes later his Father comes out to see how he is doing and is surprised to see several targets with an arrow dead in the center of the bulls-eye. Amazed the Father askes his son how he managed to shoot so well. “It’s easy” said the boy. “First I shoot the arrow. Then wherever it lands I draw a circle around it!” A lot of small business owners use this same, Ready! Fire! Aim! approach when it comes to marketing.

In order to effectively communicate your marketing message you must first know who it is you are trying to reach. Single Moms? College Students? Married Female Professionals between the ages of 18 – 24 without children? The more specifically you can target your message the better Return On Investment (ROI) you’ll realize from your marketing efforts.

Advertising Age recently released the following infographic showing the breakdown of users on the most popular social sites. This information can be very valuable for the small business owner trying to determine where to invest in social media marketing.

For example, 69.3% of female Facebook users indicate an interest in cooking. Therefore, it would be wise for companies that specialize in appliances, cookware, recipes or cooking instruction to target a portion of their marketing efforts on Facebook.

What ways are you gathering information in order to better target your audience?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing | Tagged Advertising, Data, Marketing | Leave a comment

Make it Bleed

Posted on May 11, 2011 by kghart

I’ve worked in the printing industry off and on for the last twenty-five years and like every industry or profession we have our own lingo which, I’ll admit, can be confusing to the uninitiated. One word I find myself using and explaining on an almost daily basis is “Bleed”. The term “bleed” refers to text or images on a printed page that run to the edge of the printed sheet. If you look at a printed piece and it has a white border around the edges it does not “bleed”. Unfortunately, many young designers today are designing for the web or electronic media and don’t understand how to properly setup their files to “bleed” for print media.

The image to the left shows the basic design parameters that need to be considered when designing a document to bleed. These same guidelines apply whether you’re designing a business card, flyer, postcard, brochure, poster, magazine or other document.

The image below shows a business card layout. Notice how the image extends past the trim line.

Extending the background image past the trim line ensures that, when the cards are trimmed, there is no white showing on the edge of the cards. No matter how accurate of a trimmer is used or how skilled the operator, if the artwork isn’t setup to bleed there’s always a chance of white edges being left on the document.

When it comes to setting up a document to bleed not all software programs are alike.

InDesign
If you are using InDesign the bleed area can be specified when creating a new document. Simply enter .125 in the Margins and Bleed fields of the New Document window. InDesign will create margin and bleed guides similar to the guides in the first diagram above. Just make sure to “use document bleed settings” under the Marks and Bleeds settings when exporting to a PDF.

PhotoShop
If you are using PhotoShop to design your document you’ll need to set your margins and bleeds manually. Just remember to set your document size 1/4″ larger on both dimensions when starting a new document. You’ll then need to set guidelines in the document indicating the trim line and safety zone so that you’ll know how to place you’re design elements on the page.

Providing your print provider with files properly setup to bleed will save you and your print provider time and ensure the final printed piece will turn out as expected.