Missing a Piece of your Marketing Puzzle

Missing a piece of your marketing puzzle?
It’s not a stretch to say the marketplace today is tough, and you need to stand out from the clutter… What if the factor that made you memorable was something NEGATIVE? Is that a good thing or bad?

As Creative Director for OutRight Communications, I’m always on the lookout for something that catches my eye. On the hunt for a new DVD yesterday, I was flipping through a bin of movies, and came upon one that instantly caught my eye – but not in a good way.

The DVD cover had a large photo of the face of a woman, perhaps taken from a video still of the movie, zoomed in so close it was horribly fuzzy! I grimaced in slight shock and considered… Perhaps the storyline of the movie was fantastic, the actors were top-notch, and the cinematography awe-inspiring. But I would never discover any of this, because of the cover. Because of a bad cover image, I didn’t buy the DVD.

It made me realize this: It’s important to carefully consider how your image is perceived by the public, especially an important element that leads DIRECTLY to sales and the success of your business.

In contrast, if the company who produced the DVD had hired OutRight Communications to design the cover, we would have used a high-quality photo that represented the quality of the production which would in turn attract the consumer to pick up the DVD thus increasing the likelihood of a purchase. At OutRight Communications, we will expertly guide you through any aspect of design, writing and marketing, so you’re ready to get the top-notch results you’re looking for. We ensure you have all the pieces of your puzzle – it’s what we do.
Tanya Kapko

You can view our design samples in our portfolio here:
http://outrightcommunications.com/designportfolio.html

How to Create your own Holiday Greeting cards

This season you may have thought about the people in your life who you don't get to see often enough, but mean just as much to you as your coworkers, or informal acquaintances. Why spend money on Hallmark during these difficult economic times? You don't necessarily have to be a creative genius to do it yourself. Why not try making your own holiday cards this year?



Here are some tips on how to make your cards as special as they can be.

1. Don't be a perfectionist.
These cards are hand-made and coming straight from a loved one. That already makes them pretty special. With some help from our list of resources, you can be confident that no one is going to laugh at your crude attempts to draw Santa Claus - unless comedy is your goal!

2. Pick a theme
Maybe it's 'family' or maybe it's a religious theme. Whatever it is, try to continue your theme throughout the whole card. Don't try to include every snapshot or every Christmas symbol, or your cards will look cluttered.
Also, you don't necessarily have to use Christmas themes - a theme based on shared interests will mean your cards stay out on the mantelpiece longer!

3. Go Outside
Take your digital camera or camera phone and snap some shots of where you live. Round up the kids and put them in the foreground. Let distant family members see what they're missing.

4. Use some of these sites to help make your cards


Go to DaFont and pick out a cool typeface - it's free!
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=601

One of the coolest Flash sites on the web is ScrapBlog - where you can create and share online scrapbooks using pre-generated templates and your own graphics.
http://www.scrapblog.com/
You can also print your cards straight from ScrapBlog.

Get some cool holiday icons for spicing up your holiday wishes.
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=601

Note: these resources are all free, but don't go stealing other people's images without permission! That will definitely put you on Santa's naughty list.

5. Keep it short and sweet
A common holiday tradition is to write about family activities and the current status of each family member. If you're a particularly skilled writer there's no harm in filling a page, but no one will feel like you're Scrooge if you keep it to just a few cheerful lines of plain prose.

6. Print on decent photo paper.
A package of glossy paper will only set you back a few dollars for the average Christmas card run. You should be able to fit a couple of cards on one page - look for the 'pages per sheet'option in your printer options dialogue. You can try 2up or 4up per page.

7. Invest in a paper-cutter.
These run the gamut from very small plastic zips to large wooden blocks with giant cleavers. Whatever your budget, a paper cutter will help you to trim down your cards to the right envelope size and avoid that hasty 'folded sheet of letter paper' look. Watch your fingers!

Creating your own holiday cards is a fun activity that will improve your computer skills, and can be done as a family.

From all of us at OutRight Communications
have a Happy Holiday season!

Why Publicity shouldn't be Overlooked

Why is publicity the last thing businesses think of when planning their marketing strategies?

Is it because they don’t really know what publicity is?

Publicity is vital for all businesses and should never be an afterthought.

Consider what publicity can do for your company:

- it builds credibility

- it generates interest and gets the word out to the public

- it makes you the expert in your industry

- it creates a buzz and name recognition

- it’s inexpensive for massive exposure of your product or service

With all these bonuses-, how can you NOT afford to make publicity a part of your marketing strategy?

At OutRight Communications, one of the forms of publicity we use consists of booking our clients on radio, TV and getting coverage in magazine and newspapers. Check out a sample of the coverage we've obtained for our clients here and call us to see what we can do for you:

http://www.outrightcommunications.com/services-pressreleases.html

Marketing Plans- Why they will Save You Money

Have you ever written a marketing plan for your business? And if so, how often do you refer to it?

A marketing plan is a road map for determining the best way to get the word out about your business. They allow you to analyze your target audience, research your competition (and the need for capitalizing on a niche market), show monthly business expenditures, follow timelines and budgets for marketing initiatives, and how to execute the tactics you have in place. After writing a marketing plan, it's easy to see how to leverage your marketing investment with all that you're doing for your business.

Since we specialize in marketing plan development and implementation, we have noticed that many businesses lack solid marketing plans that it's sometimes quite difficult for owners to grow their operations because their objectives and goals are not clearly outlined. All their ideas and plans for their business are in their head, not on paper. Without a comprehensive plan, nothing is thought out and you're basically coasting month to month making impulse decisions. How can you launch a successful campaign if nothing is written down, researched, or planned?

For ultimate business success, be sure to review your plan every 3 months and add to it as needed. Determine how your business has progressed in the past few months and assess whether the items you outlined initially are still applicable. Consider distributing your marketing plan to all the members of your team so they can share in the business vision and mission. If they can visualize your business alongside you, your plans can be realized more easily.

The Tighter the Grip, the Looser the Perspective

Many businesses have the idea that growing larger is a measure of success. Yet to do that requires that they loosen their control over their company, and many people are reluctant to do so, because they are worried that giving their ‘baby’ to someone else will result in chaos.

This is simply not the case.

It’s so beneficial to step outside of your business and invite new energy and gain a fresh perspective from someone else. You still have control – after all you are the person hiring for the best fit. Are you going to hire the lowest skilled person to help your business grow? I hope not, or you have other problems to address!

The facts are, you can’t expand your business without welcoming change, be it with new staff, machinery, technology, marketing strategies, advertising opportunities or networking events.So loosen the grip on your business and grow!!!

Hosting an Event- Why Should you want one?

Hosting an event is an opportunity to meet new clients, re-unite current clients with each other, inform an audience about your new products, and gain media coverage for your business.
Recently, Outright Communications hosted the event Sinful Secrets for Business & Books at Chapters on Calgary Trail. It was successful in that it provided information for the audience, generated traffic for the location, and provided business leads for the company.
But when thinking about hosting an event there are many factors you need to consider.
You need to make sure your entire team is on board with all the planning – because they are vital to its success. Planning an event can take months, not weeks and you need to make sure your team is up to the challenge, and also that your budget will allow for incidentals. It’s rare that event can be pulled off without one or two glitches!

Here are some tips if you want to get the word out about your company.

Before the Event
First steps to a successful event include thinking about:
Specific goals that you want to achieve

• Why you are having an event?
• Who are your intended attendees?
• What methods of promotion will you use?
• How large of an event/location do you want?
• How will the audience benefit? What can you offer?
• How will you structure the event? How long are the speaking presentations? What props will you need- projectors, power point or other forms of visuals?
• Will the date conflict with other events- and do you have enough time to put everything into place?

Getting the Word Out:
What’s the point of going through the trouble hosting an event if no one shows up? Your company suffers and your credibility flies out the window. The following tips will help to ensure that you aren’t left talking to an empty room.

1. Seek out sponsors who align with your business. They can send out your company and event information including brochures and Event posters to their client base. Make sure you’ve chosen people who suit your target audience.
2. Have brochures, business cards, product samples and gift certificates to encourage people to visit your business after the event.
3. Collect marketing collateral from your sponsors to be used for prize giveaways.
4. Have a draw for prizes and gift certificates that incorporate your sponsors and your business.
5. Have ballots that allow the participants to receive more information about your company or future events- by way of email address or phone number.
6. Post your event on Facebook, Blog, your website, your sponsors’ website and their Blogs.
7. Send a media invitation to all your local media.
8. Place your event information onto all the local free event listings on line, in print, and on television.
9. Hand out postcards to everyone you meet and have them available at the location you are hosting the event at. Give them out at networking events and to all your clients so that they can spread the word.
10. Invite a client to participate in the event- this shows that you have even more credibility in your business- a real person who has benefited from your expertise.

After the Event

1. Follow up with the sponsors and location thanking them for participating and telling them the results of the event, and that you hope there will be future opportunities to work with them on other presentations.
2. Have your company sit down and do a post mortem to analyze the event- did you achieve the goals you set out to achieve? What would you change for next time?
3. Follow up on any business leads and include offering them specials on products or services to encourage them to work with you.
4. Take a breath and plan your next one!

In saying that, Outright Communications would like to thank all those that attended their first event- we had a great time and hope you did too.
As a post event special, we are currently offering $50.00 off the purchase of a media kit writing and design package. A Media kit is a necessary component for business building, attracting media coverage, and increases your chance of being on radio and TV! It also assists reporters in the guest selection process. Click here for details:http://www.outrightcommunications.com/media-kit-offer.html

Sinful Secrets Event

Please join us at this amazing event to benefit the Love Of Reading Fund for needy schools.
Bringing Business owners and Authors together can be a mutually benefical collaboration, and what better way to open the doors to new ideas than by hosting an event to discuss ways to save money and make sales without making the usual mistakes. You’ll benefit from years of insider information on the inner workings of publicity, advertising, design, and publishing by speaking with those in the biz. Helpful tips, reading resources and business direction are all being offered at this free event. Special guest will be Dr. Larry Ohlhauser the author of the Healthy CEO. Presentations will be held at 2:00pm-3:00pm with 10% off all book purchases being donated to the Love of Reading fund until 6:00pm.