Marketing Materials Design Process
I have developed a 5-step process for creating marketing materials that help you to connect with your best clients:
1. Define your Brand and Design your Logo. These two steps should be completed before you move in to designing your marketing kit.
Your business's Brand Definition will inform the choice of marketing materials to design and the design process as well.
Your logo will appear on all of your marketing pieces, and will influence the overall look of the materials and of your Visual Vocabulary. So, it needs to be designed and finalized before beginning design of the marketing pieces.
2. Evaluate your marketing needs. What marketing materials are right for you? How will you distribute the materials? Do you need to be able to edit the materials yourself, and customize them for your clients? Or will the materials be professionally printed and delivered to you? Would creating materials digitally, in the form of Word documents or online marketing pieces, be more affordable for you to produce?
These are just some of the questions that must be answered at this stage, to determine which sorts of marketing materials will be most appropriate for your business and for your target audience.
3. Get copy from you (or I can refer you to a talented copy writer. I can advise you on the type of text that would be most effective for your marketing piece, and even help you outline it. But, I'm not a copy writer, so I don't create text myself.
The added benefit of you creating your own text is that by writing your text, you'll have another opportunity to show more of your personality to your best customers—and that will allow you to connect with them on another level.
4. Designing your materials. Once the above 3 steps are completed, we launch into the design process. All of the marketing materials I design go through a similar design process:
 | Step 1: Evaluation. I look at any existing materials you may have (including your website, your stationery kit, and any temporary marketing materials you may have designed, so that I can evaluate your existing Visual Vocabulary and bring consistency through to the new pieces.
Step 2: Sketching. I create 2-3 sketches of the new marketing piece, using different Visual Vocabulary elements, and submit these to you as a PDF.
Step 3: Feedback. You give me your feedback and thoughts on the designs. This process allows you to inject your personal tastes and knowledge of your best customers' preferences into the process. Feedback is usually done in an email or short phone call.
Step 4: Revision. I revise the designs based on the feedback. Up to 2 rounds of feedback/design are often included in the process (though this may be trimmed to 1 round to reduce your costs slightly). Additional rounds are available, and are typically charged at the hourly rate.
Step 5: Finalization. I finalize the files, and prepare them for printing (either professionally or on your computer).
Step 6: Print Management. If you're getting your designs printed professionally, I can help you find a vendor, get quotes, get the files to the printer and have them delivered to your doorstep.
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5. Using your materials! Once you have your completed materials in-hand, don't forget to get them out of your office and into your customers' hands. Marketing can only be effective if it goes out to the customer.
This process ensures that we develop well-thought-out marketing materials that will be effective for your business and appeal to your target clients.
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