From the Desk
To those who are keen about effective business/marketing communication
First issue of
Bulletin received inspiring feedbacks. Special thanks to those special readers for making the novel efforts of Write Right a huge success.
Starting from this issue Write Right is presenting you - "Exploring Basics", a series of guide articles covering
A to Z about every Marketing Communication tool. The series begins with 'All Elements Together - Brochures or Catalogs'. The initiative is to answer the evergrowing doubts in the minds of our readers and clients who have repeatedly expressed a need of such material. To prepare this, designers and writers in the studio of Write Right were at bottle-necks.
Bulletin is a platform for Designers, Writers, and other professionals in advertising and marketing domain. Readers are invited to contribute ideas, inputs or any worth material that can get published in Bulletin.
All about a Business communication
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Quote to Remember
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
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Exploring Basics - All Elements together - Brochure/Catalog
Every brochure/catalog is an exceptional marketing tool intended to persuade your customers to finally do business with you.
Some facts about Brochures/Catalogs before we proceed :
successful when paired with niche marketing strategy
preferred to check the market acceptance of product or service
easy to alter, less cost compared to maintaining a sales force
less expensive
better place to provide detailed information
Planning for a brochure is a very important part of the complete process. It is preferred even to plan about every element that goes inside the brochure including design, content, and literally everything. Brochures are effective if it is highly customized, the design, content, graphics, visuals, logo, packaging, and all other things must be professional and targeted.
Important Brochure Design Elements :
When we think of creating a brochure the first thing hitting our minds is the front and back cover, product placements, photographs or graphics relevant to the industry and many more.
Cover page :
Should be visually attractive
Should feature Company name, Logo, Punch line if any
Should have attractive graphics, good colors matching the color of logo
No too much information
Selecting a front cover page image is a crucial job, experts should only do this. In case you are selling sporting goods, the image preferred on your cover page is an image that better represents your product or service to the customer. Using a persuasive image increases chances for the customer to empathize with the your product.
Back Cover :
No too much information
Best place to feature new products or services
Never forget to include complete contact information – postal address, mail ids, contact numbers, websites, blog url, etc…
Best places to even put testimonials, clientele
To an effective brochure backside cover page is as important as the front page itself. Many people have the habit of reading the brochures from the last page.
Inside Pages :
Inside left pages are good places to highlight important information. This page catches the eye of the reader once he opens the inside page.
Upper Right-hand corner :
Also called as ‘sweet spot’ or ‘serious spot’ the right hand top corner is a two-page spread. Generally this place is used to mention the company information, vision, mission statements or highlights or achievements of the brand. This is also a place to push your most sellable business identity.
Type faces :
We make a brochure or catalog for people to read it. If your brochure is not readable then even carefully drafted product descriptions will never generate sales for you.
Some tips to make your Brochure readable :
Use not more than 3 typefaces
Using types smaller than 8 pnt is very risky
Vary types by using different colors, size, by making them bold, italics etc…
Don’t think of underlining or capitalizing
Using too many typefaces irritates customer eye and disturbs him to read.
What is the brand image you want to carry?
I remember an adventure sportz company making its brochure with a different hook of its own. They started including small adventurous stories. The result was there was a raise in sale of the bags and other accessories, and also the customers were always eager to receive the next issue of the brochure. This is very important as it clearly distinguishes your brand in the market from the competition.
Consider to :
Find special thing which you can include in the brochure which identifies and entertains your customer
Create a consistent design theme, so the reader gets familiar with your brochure
The packaging of the brochure should carry all your branding tools like – logo, color, punchline, or any other brand characterization
How to use the product images?
In case if your idea is to highlight a single product, then remember group photos never draw attention to individual products. When products are being photographed try to picture it with a white background to give a floating effect
Should you place Order Forms in brochure?
Misconception with the people is Order forms are for website and not for brochures. But research shows that an order form with the brochure is handy as it makes the customer work out details.
Remember - Forms are important t o even communicate policies, terms of sale, return policy etc…
Printing decides the effectiveness of the brochures -
As discussed earlier - it is advised to decide the format, color combinations, number of pages, paper on which the printing has to be done, final binding and other crucial things before designing or developing the catalog. All these factors affect the cost of printing.
Some most economical catalog formats
standard full-size (8 3/8" x 10 7/8")
slim jim (6 1/8" x 11 1/2")
digest-size (5 3/8" x 8 3/8")
Unique formats of brochures are always attractive and accepted in the market. Be cautious about the printing charges.
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Every business is different and carries a distinct value.
Websites not only provide global reach, they not only help you increase sales, websites carry much more potential. Below mentioned is a list of points indicating why every different business should have a website.
To establish a brand presence
To network
To make business information available
To serve customers
To heighten public interest
To release time sensitive materials
To sell products/services
To publish pictures, sounds, films
To reach highly desirable demographic market
To answer frequently asked questions
To stay in contact with sales people
To open international markets
To create a 24hr service and market presence instrument
To make changing information available quickly
To allow feedback from customers
To test market new services and products
To reach media
To reach diverse, specific and specialized markets
To serve local market
Source – different sources
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Ways to generate article topic ideas
People writing articles frequently experience times they just don’t know what to write about. This block is very common to many of the best writers, however there are 5 quick tricks that can help -
1. Today’s news can help you get some ideas – Today’s newspaper or a busy website such as Yahoo or Excite is good to generate ideas. The concise information available here makes a writer think and are extremely useful for generating topic ideas.
2. Articles from others can get you some ideas – Finding an article relevant to your subject is not a big deal. There are websites, article directories, forums, and even print magazines that provide you all articles needed. It doesn’t really matter where you are reading but reading others helps you generate a wider angle sometimes a different angle, and also a bit of motivation.
3. Message Boards, Discussion lists, Newsgroups are places to look out for ideas – Following a message boards, discussion lists or newsgroups is always helpful. Because they are the places to get most recent updates, instant feedbacks/opinions, also the questions, answers, advices are only few things that you can find here which surely generated great new article ideas.
4. Wait! Your archive also helps you get article ideas – Skim through the list of articles written by you. Many a times we see what we wrote a month or even year ago in a new light as we learn and grow. I have seen writers rewriting the existing content with a new angle, and update it to the present day market.
5. Subscribe to a news release service – Join a few news release services, particularly those that email you the press releases regularly. This is also a great source of inspiration and learning as you read your industry counterpart. Some news services also allow you to reprint the content at no charge.
How can we forget quotes? Quotes often generate quite a bit of thought, realization or just plain emotional response — all of which are great building blocks for creating articles of your own.
Writing articles can seem agonizing when you just don’t know what to write about. There’s no reason to waste time and energy agonizing though, just keep this list around and refer back to it whenever you’re in a pinch for ideas!
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Website Designing trends - 2010
Forget using images of Smiling business people, puzzles, globes, light bulbs, or anyother gears. They are all outdated and present web surfer demands much more
2010 trend begins with SIMPLICITY
Subtle gradients
Shadows to emboss
Desktop-like user interfaces
Clean illustrations
One page websites
Minimalistic - less is more
Letter Press
Typography
Big - Types, Headers, Footers, Images, Call to action words or images
2010 web designing trend leads you to -
Simplicity, Invisible Complexity, Big & Bold, Art & Creativity, The bigger Picture
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14 must know reasons why you need a logo and marketing materials
14 reasons you need a Logo and Marketing Materials
1. To look bigger and established
2. To increase the chance of earning venture capital or of selling a business
3. To attract more clients
4. To brand yourself
5. To convey that you are reputable
6. To give clients a sense of stability
7. To be more memorable
8. To explain your company name
9. To endear your company name to your clients
10. To explain an unusual line of business
11. To differentiate from the competition
12. To stand out in your field
13. To comply with expectations
14. To show your commitments
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Discussion of the Issue - Why is a Photoshop designed website so desirable?
Photo Shop adds graphical advantage to your website. Images of your website can be edited according to your requirement. This means that if any mistake is made by you it can be corrected by one click. This advantage of Photo Shop helps you to extend your creativeness
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Success Story – Avileen
Summary :
Complete Branding and Marketing solutions covering wide area of Print, Internet and Retail forms of Communication.
About Client :
Avileen is an E-assistant to any busy professional. Avileen maintains and markets the profiles of Individuals who are in need of Job, Matrimony or Property. Avillen registers your profile in best sites, search for suiting opportunities and also updates you.
Challenge :
Create a customized yet creative home page, marketing solutions, that are profitable and increases the registration to the site.
Challenges :
Create website homepage and marketing creatives that further redefine the brand name
4 reasons why client opted Write Right :
- Innovative & customized Solutions
- Flexible project management
- Market Analysis
- Quality Standards & Quality Assurance
Solution :
Write Right created a common theme, branding colors and a clear creative strategy before initiating the project. Branding colors were set keeping homepage in mind. And Marketing Collaterals were designed keeping contemporary advertising and marketing trends in mind.
The Website :
We understood the requirement and thought that the client is offering nothing but three flavors of the fruit. Avileen offers three diverse service needs. The website homepage further set the Brand Standards.
The outcome was :
Red color of the fruit Brands for the Matrimony section of the site.
Green color of the fruit Brands for the Property section of the site.
Orange color of the fruit Brands for the Job section of the site.
The Ad :
Avileen aimed at marketing its services very aggressively. Hence we made the Advertisements to each category, we designed Ads that were clear, creative and interest provoking. The usage of visuals and concepts were also very attractive and carried call-for-action words.
The Classifieds :
The E-mailers :
E-mailers are very targeted marketing tools. Used properly, these marketing tools offer great quality traffic to the site. Avileen E-mailers at the best of creativity.
The Brand in the Market is recognized as |
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Customer Testimonial :
"I hired the services of Write Right to create various marketing collaterals for our newly launched portal. The job required extensive creative work as it covered collaterals like Mailers, Flyers, Classifieds, Print-Ads & Banner Ads across diverse services of Matrimony, Jobs & Properties.
Write Right grasped my requirements quickly and in no time were able to put my expectations & their creativity on paper. I especially liked the way our interactions took place. At all point in time I believed that work progressed well on my assignment and I was always in the loop at every iteration.
Highly satisfied with the output, I assigned Write Right to create the home-page for my portal which got me accolades from various quarters.
We would continue to work with Write Right and would as well recommend them to friends and business associates."
Kakwani Vikas
Founder & CEO
Avileen.com
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