2013 Marketing Trends

We are vastly approaching the new year and with a new year comes new marketing trends.  As a Chicago Marketing Company we have seen many trends come and go.  We have also noticed some trends emerging over the past few years and feel it is safe to say there will be a lot of continuing and emerging marketing trends for 2013.  For Marketing Monday this week we wanted to sit down and discuss the trends that we believe will be popular for 2013:  

1- Devotion to website strategies: Your website should no longer be a static, online brochure with information that hasn’t been updated in a decade.  If you haven't updated your website in the past decade, make 2013 the year of website changes.  We aren't just saying this because we are a Chicago Web Design company either!  Website strategies will be all the rage in 2013.  Complete website overhauls will take on great important in 2013 as the demand for dynamic content combined with user friendly CMS systems is only making it easier to edit and control websites.  Today’s target audiences are looking for consistent, fresh information. 

2- Content remains king: I know, we’re always talking about content, but in 2013 content will continue to remain king.  Organic SEO strategies, blogs and social media profiles require a constant flow of information that is audience specific and truly engaging, so focus a majority of your efforts on creating great content in 2013.   

3- Create powerful integrated marketing campaigns:  The merging of marketing, PR, creative design, and sales will be essential in 2013.  Together, the integrated marketing approach will give companies the opportunity to reach their total target audience in a multitude of ways. 

4- Social media will only continue to grow: Through 2013 social media will only continue to grow and evolve.  We suspect that companies that were not engaging in social media prior to 2013 will start to see its advantages, especially with so many different social media sites available for use out there.  Social media is definitely a vital part of the overall mix and worth utilizing since it provides such a simple way to get yourself and your brand directly in front of your target audience. 

5- A boom in mobile solutions: Mobile solutions and campaigns centered around the use of mobile technology will be hugely popular in 2013.  Savvy marketers will continue to find ways to reach this large base of consumers. Responsive web design will be considered a must versus being labeled a luxury as more and more consumers turn to their phones to gather information and surf the web.

What marketing trends do you anticipate being popular for 2013?  Feel free to leave us a comment below or contact us.  

"Marketing Monday"-- Marketing Strategies to Utilize

In honor of “Marketing Monday” (what we’re dubbing it) we want to discuss effective marketing strategies that will help transform your business from marketing apprentice to marketing maven.  No matter what type of business you run the importance of marketing is universal.  Are you in need of a new marketing strategy to implement into you current or future marketing plans?  Consider the following marketing strategies:

1- Keep your network growing: You should always be in the process of building up your network.  That is a plate your should never stop spinning.  Ask some of your business contacts or close friends to introduce you to people that they think you should get to know to help you expand your business.  Forming relationships with new contacts will greatly help you expand your horizons and get some potential customers.

2- Enter a business award competition:  Entering a business award competition is a great way to establish your business’s credibility and strengthen your reputation.  If your business ends up winning an award that could really boost your reputation within your industry and with the audience you are hoping to attract.  Competitions could get costly, but winning an award could prove completely worth it.  If you are concerned about the quality of your entry you could hire someone to prepare your entry for you.  Winning an award gives you plenty of press opportunities and really, it's worth the effort for the potential buzz.  

3- Look into local chambers:  Become the expert in your field and share what you know with others.  Teach seminars throughout your local Chamber of Commerce.  Your business will receive promotion and marketing solely because of the event itself.  Being affiliated with the Chamber will also give you and your business some added credibility.  

4- Guest blogging:  Outside of writing your own company’s blog, consider becoming a guest blogger for other blogs that are closely related to your area of expertise.  Offer to write a guest post in exchange for a link and/or byline.  This will help to establish your credibility and will help get you and your business's name out there.  

5- Create follow up cards: A follow up card is a great way to reach out to potential clients.  An old-fashioned hand-written card or even an e-card is a great way to say thank you and to pursue doing business with someone.  It’s a personal effort that helps you and your business stick out and be remembered by clients. 

Trust us, we’ve got plenty more marketing tips to give out.  Check back with us next Monday for some more “Marketing Monday” talk.  Questions or comments on this blog?  Leave them below or feel free to contact us.  

Unique QR Codes

You’ve probably seen them all over the place, those little black and white patterned boxes all over advertisements, also known as QR codes. Over the last few years QR codes have become big in the world of marketing meets technology. Now most people can easily identify QR codes and know how to use them. As a marketing company that’s always on the cutting edge of technology, we believe QR codes are a great way to promote your company and market new ideas creatively. Not a big fan of the black and white look?  Don’t be turned off by their looks, because there are many different ways to personalize your QR codes.

Personalizing QR codes can make viewers more interested and intrigued to start scanning.  Adding color to your codes can make your company stand out amongst the crowd, especially with so many companies using the standard black and white code generator.  You can use the ability to create personalized QR codes to your advantage when designing an advertising piece.  Magazine ads, business cards, catalogs or brochures all make for great places to stick the special color code.  Utilize your company’s color palette and design concepts for your QR code. If you are creating a QR code for your website, you can easily create a complementing code generated with the colors of your company or logo. This new ability is great for graphic designers and marketers to utilize creative, interactive designs.

While your business cards usually only contain a small amount of basic information, a QR code can take a viewer to a page filled with endless amounts of information.  QR codes are a great way to call attention to a promotion your company is doing, a sale your company is having, an event your company is throwing and more.  If you place a QR code on a business card, you can add more than double the amount of information without making your design look cluttered.  You can stick to keeping the bare basics on your card, but have all the extra information be contained in the link attached to the QR code.  

With the new colorful QR generator not only can you create multi-colored codes, but you can also combine them with images.  The opportunities are now endless and there are many different creative ways to present your QR codes. Below are some of our favorites:  

Have any questions about QR codes?  Just drop us a comment or contact us.  

The Positive Side of Negative Space

White space, often known as negative space might just be what your design needs. Many designers in Chicago have noticed that clients and even other designers seem to believe that they need to cover every inch of their design with text and images.  When creating a logo, advertisement, illustration, etc. take a step back and look at it from a different perspective.  Adding white space might just be the element you need to make a good design, great.

Marketing companies understand that you and your company want to stand out from the thousands of other advertisements an average person sees everyday. Overpowering a design with images and text will not grab their attention, it might have the opposite effect and actually, it can make them shy away or dislike the design or ad.  

At first glance, the lack of white space creates a cluttered and distracted look. When a viewer first sees your design, you don’t want to turn them off.  First impressions are key.  Overpowered, busy designs may be perceived as difficult to read or even too difficult to understand.  People don’t want to have to try and understand your design.  They want to understand what the ad or design is trying to convey almost immediately.  Strive to create a design that can be understood at first glance.  Utilize the white space in your design.  The more white space you have in your design, the more opportunities it gives you to create a heading and feature the text making the design legible and easily understood by viewers.

If there is one thing designers in Chicago know, it is attention to detail. As graphic designers, we understand that you want to create a powerful design concept with a big message and statement. Often times the lack of white space is caused by too much content for the given space.  Do not try and overpower your viewer with too much information, stick to what is essential.  The point of marketing and creating designs is to attract customers and make them want to learn more about who your company is and what you have to offer.   

Remember, there is a positive side of negative space.  Looking for more tips on utilizing white space?  Leave a comment below or contact us.  

Guerilla Marketing Campaigns that Rocked

As a Chicago Marketing Company, we love a great guerilla marketing campaign when we see one.  After working with a client who was looking for top-notch guerilla marketing tactics to implement to help sell her book, we were inspired by incredible guerilla marketing campaigns that were done in the past.  Here are a couple awesome guerilla marketing campaigns:

Renaming Halfway, Oregon to Half.com, Oregon for an entire year:

This is perhaps one of the "stranger" guerilla marketing tactics we've seen.  Even as a creative marketing company, this one surprised us.  In 1999, half.com asked the small pacific town of Halfway, Oregon to change its name to half.com, Oregon.  The town accepted unofficially and was given $110,000, 20 new computers for its schools and other undisclosed items.  At the town's borders passersby saw "America's First Dot-Com City."  The website got what it wanted, more traffic and the town had a very interesting story to tell.

IKEA at the beach:

IKEA decided to celebrate the birthday of one its most popular bookshelving units by setting one up at popular Australian Beach known as Bondi Beach.  The bookshelving unit was fully stocked with literary classics and summer-based books.  Beach-goers were delighted to see the bookshelving unit stocked with new reading options rather than the ones they brought with them.  IKEA also gave the option to donate to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation.  This guerilla marketing tactic received a lot of positive press for a one-day-only stunt!

Pandas in Paris:

By 2008, studies showed that there was only 1,600 wild pandas left in the world.  The World Wildlife Foundation decided to raise some awareness in a big way.  They created hand-made, papier mache pandas and placed them all around various locations in Paris.  While the pictures from this guerilla marketing tactic were striking, it left a last impression on those who saw it.  Viewer realized rather quickly that what they were seeing were the last pandas left on earth.  The campaign had a huge emotional impact and is still talked about years later.

Red Bull pit crew:

Red Bull, known in the industry for successful guerilla marketing, executed a marketing stunt right in Times Square, NYC with a Nascar-style pit stop.  Getting attention from New Yorkers is already a struggle competing with billboards, street signs and overall crowded streets, but Red Bull's street session was a huge success.

Oscar Mayer Wienermobile (The classic) 

Perhaps the most classic of the bunch, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile started driving down the road in the 1930s, catching the attention of drivers everywhere.  The Wienermobile, driven by "Little Oscar," would visit stores, schools, orphanages, and children's hospitals and also participated in parades and festivals.  What a perfect guerilla marketing tactic!  It is original and is still in existence today.  The mobile also has it's own blog.  The Wienermobile still catches the same attention it did in the 30s.   

Have more guerrilla marketing tactics you want to share with us?  Leave us a comment below or contact us.