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If you come back from Christmas and need cheering up we usually turn to Images or Video. It’s the most accessible and common way to engage with your peers! This radio clip may change your mind. Go on have a laugh!

“I’m a small business with a small budget, why should I spend money to create a brand? Isn’t that sort of thing just for the big boys with big money and bigger competitors?”

On the contrary, branding is a vital ingredient to attract customers and keep customers. Without a meaningful brand, no one will know who you are, or more importantly, what you stand for, and will have nothing to buy into?

Branding is so much more than just a logo, it is a valuable marketing tool designed to represent you and to be your shop window.
The way your business is perceived can be the difference between success and failure. It’s way beyond a company slogan or corporate colour, it’s more of a persona, the face of your company, clearly and consistently communicating to your audience, your intent and the benefits working with a business like yours.

In this blog, we will give you tips to take into account when creating your brand, and explain the importance of branding in a little more detail.

1. Do I really need a brand?

Brand helps potential audiences understand more about your company and if you’re likely to be right for them. It will influence their first impression form the basis of the way you will interact going forwards. It will also play a part in their likelihood to use you again. For this reason, you need to make sure you have a strong brand, which represents you in a positive light. If you are a very small business it’s likely to be a reflection of your personality or business ethos. If you’re a large business the brand may be driven by unforeseen factors: Stakeholders, Corporate agreement (franchise), management, competition, market forces.

Most brands have one of six key elements:

• Word only
• The addition of a mark
• Emphasis of the experience
• Emphasis of product
• Emaphasis of scope
• Something evocative

Whatever your size, with a brand in place, it will be easier for you to remain focused on your objectives, and it’s the driver for communicating what you do and how, in a consistent way.

2. How do I define my brand?

Imagine your company is a person, what kind of personality do they have?

What do they look like?

What do they ‘sound’ like – Simple, straight talking? Warm and friendly? Knowledgeable and innovative?
How would they stand out in a room full of people?
What are the distinctive features that make them memorable – for the right reasons?

Using this analogy will help you understand how you interact with your potential or existing customers/clients.
Essentially your brand needs to be a visual summary of what they want you to be to them, tailor it so that it is and you will increase the likelihood of them using you, again and again.

3. Sounds simple – I can do it myself and save money.

By going it alone you may save money, but you risk giving the wrong message to your clients by creating the wrong image. Hiring rtfacts may add to costs initially but will certainly earn you money in the long run. Our experience and expertise will add professionalism to your brand and innovative ways to attract customers/clients will be used.

4. Do they really need to know that?

The answer is most likely yes. It is important to brief the designer with as much information as possible as this will heavily influence the end result of your brand and outcome.

    •    Who are you
    •    Who are your customers
    •    Who are your competitors
    •    What you do
    •    What do your competitors do well
    •    What do your competitors do badly
    •    What’s your background
    •    What you want to achieve
    •    How do you want to be perceived
    •    What your target market is looking for

To compliment the above information a recent rtfacts brief sited the following reasons for a brand refresh:

    •    We are now a business with a stock market value of £xxxx millions
    •    Our operations have expanded in both breadth and depth
    •    Our capabilities, reputation and market profile have increased considerably
    •    We are about to move to a high profile and very new headquarters

Visually we need to be Simple, professional, modern, understated elegance, financially secure and strong.

Emotionally we need to have Integrity, Expertise, Professionalism, Enduring, Entrepreneurialism.

You also need to think about how you plan to use your brand. We will then make sure the look and feel works across all mediums – New and Old, from stationery to brochures or website to digital signage.

5. These are a few of my favourite things

When it comes to the look and feel of you brand, let rtfacts guide you with colour, typography and photography. Always keep your target market in mind and what will appeal to them rather than what appeals to you personally. Often clients get too caught up in their own likes and dislikes and forget about the main objectives of the brand.

6. Why a brand voice and what does it say?

Creating a unique personality for your customers/clients to connect with will set you apart from your competitors and keep you at the forefront of their minds the next time they need your product/services. It will also help you attract the right kind of customers/clients.
Your brand voice will communicate what makes you better than the rest, how you serve your customers/clients, your customer benefits, product quality/value, and your unique selling point (e.g. eco friendly, value for money, or homemade).

7. So where do we go from here?

Keep a high profile, use your brand consistently as a constant reminder to your customers/clients. Ensure all staff emails contain a signature with your logo, company slogan and a link to your website. Leave your business card with anyone of interest.

In short, always present your brand professionally and make sure the use of your brand always adheres to the brand guidelines across all media, to avoid confusion.

Finally don’t forget to stick to your brand promise. Keeping your word will keep customers/clients happy and will prompt them to spread the word.

If you are looking to create a new brand or are in need of a brand refresh, don’t hesitate to contact us today, we will be happy to discuss what we can do for you over tea or coffee.

Call us on 07831700081

or email design@rtfacts.co.uk

rtfacts now have an in-house Shopify expert, (YES as well as PPC, SEO, GDN, Photography), so if you’re taking your business online, Sit back, relax and let us put your shop online and your business on the map. If you’ve started but lost the will to finish and need someone to hold your hand through the tricky bits, we can do that too. Just give us a call and get ready to fill that piggy bank!

I love direct mail. I love email too! But which is best?

In this article we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of e-mail marketing and direct mail marketing:

There are many ways a business can communicate with prospects, clients and partners. But selling your products/services is a complex subject. Who hasn’t had a mail chimp email? (Opt in email is incredibly popular), but we all get tonnes of post too.

Benefits of email marketing

• Great for a shoe string budget. Unwanted emails are on the up. Who cares if response rates are low when costs are so low? Reaching a large population from a brought in mailing list or your own Opt in list is worth a go. A properly written email campaign, thoughtfully designed and laid out would get a better response but have a go. Done well you have little to lose.
  
• The need for speed. Creating emails is quick and relatively easy. If you have templates set up, you’re building a strong ‘corporate style’, but more importantly you are ready to move at the drop of a hat. If something happens and you react quickly, you can have a targeted and relevant email on their PC or Mac in seconds. Responses can come thick and fast and almost as immediately if they like what you’ve sent? e.g. Sending your companies anti Virus product message the day Talk Talk servers are hacked is the opportunists pleasure and mega quick marketing.
  
• Research is the mother of invention. Getting an instant answer to your question can dictate which offer you make. Asking the same question in a different way, or a different call to action can effect the way prospect respond. Test test test and then use the answers to get the best results.
  
• “You’re interested in our widget, OK download our brochure!” The best emails are usually the tip of the iceberg. If the prospect likes the cut of your gib, e.g. download our turning pages brochure, white paper, logo resource, or offer they can have it instantly. With analytics, you will know they’ve downloaded and can follow up with a relevant sales call. Response rates can be transforming for large and small dynamic businesses.
  
• Animation. Animated gifs can now make marketing emails exciting and surprising without effecting their ability to get through filters. This is a great development and response rates are very positive.
  
• Personalised. email marketing can be very personalised and talking to prospects as an individual by name has real impact.

Disadvantages of email marketing

• Spamalot. Unsolicited mail is the bane of our lives. Most email is poorly written, badly designed and instantly trashed. As a result most people filter out their spam emails so they can access personal emails more easily in their inbox. Sending marketing emails too often will most certainly put you at risk of being classed as junk or the recipient opting to unsubscribe from your mailing list.
  
• Tip of the iceberg. Most people these days are either checking email on the go or multi-tasking such as watching TV while browsing their phones, so  chances of them  spending more than 5 minutes checking their inbox are slim. The overall message in your email campaign has to be short and sweet and to the point or the prospect will be lost to emails of more importance or interest.
  
• Dull, dull dull. Text only emails suck! (Unless you’re an Abbot, Bernbach or Ogilvy.) When designing an email there are certain principles to consider for it to get the turnaround you are looking for. Call to actions need to be laid out clearly, and repetition is a good tactic as people on touch screens are prone to scrolling at high speeds! Well designed emails with images or animation are a job for a designer resulting in added costs.
  
• Your emails are useless, if your email list is unqualified. A quality list is worth its weight in gold. Generating your own list isn’t as tough as it used to be and quality email ‘Opt in’ lists are available if you know where to get them. Buyer beware – there are 100’s more rubbish brokers than great ones

The benefits of Direct Mail Marketing

• emails are good but Direct mail is great. Junk mail or spam? Neither is a very complimentary soundbite about your hard work but, SPAM gets most people’s bile rising. Opening post is usually a calmer experience, people are less likely to be in a rush and if its funny, clever, well written or interesting and designed well, prospects seem to feel less ‘pressurised’.
  
• More than words. Getting over a lot of information with direct mail marketing is easier, and something physical can become a desk presence, something that’s hard to ignore, or an item to file, ready to refer back to later.
  
• Love, passion, desire. If the piece is well researched and well designed and written, you can get over a whole lot more than you can with email marketing. Texture, smell, physical size, material and printing methods, can enhance a message or offer to exquisite levels. Simple and stylish also works in direct mail.
  
• Personalised. Direct mail can and should be very personalised. Talking to prospects as an individual by name has real impact.

Disadvantages of Direct Mail

• Money money money. Direct mail can be very costly, It’s the only down side. Add post to a large database of prospects and we can be talking telephone numbers. Creative input is clearly key, but again costs lots of money comparatively. The more innovative and time consuming the production, the higher the cost but while the apparent cost of direct mail is much higher, the return on investment is often much much higher too.

So, which is best and what should I love?

The above isn’t exhaustive by a long stretch, email marketing and direct mail marketing both have their place and both can deliver results for your business. If your business has money and a marketing budget, using both methods wisely, together, can give you instant market information and a proven channel to market.

As a business we have no preference, I think ‘touchy feely’ still has advantages. If we could do ‘touchy feely’ emails – Now that would really be something. Until then, our best advice is – get costs for both marketing methods, test by email, refine and qualify by email and then direct mail the hell out of them.

If you have a campaign project you need help or advise with don’t hesitate to contact us today, we will be happy to discuss what we can do for you over tea or coffee.

Call us on 07831700081
or email design@rtfacts.co.uk

and more importantly, how do they keep getting away with it?

Well, in this case, the fingers are chocolate

and rtfacts keep doing it because their clients love rebranded chocolate!

Let’s wait for the Tobleronegate fallout before we wrap them I suppose!

Chocolate fingers make a coffee break great.

We have left many a chocolate wrap at a client meetings/exhibitions/expos and conferences.

and they have always gone down extremely well.

We can do everything OR, you are welcome to buy your own chocolate bars and we can simply design and print the sleeve. It’s a safe way to present your message as the wrap comes off and all the food info is always there, on the original wrapper. 

If you add your own offer to the sleeve it’s kept by the recipient until web access is available, or an opportunity to redeem the offer arises. – Clever.

Why not give your team/clients the finger and see how much they like it

Dacorum Digest – Award winner!

Established resident’s magazine for Dacorum Borough Council

After a re-design by rtfacts back in Autumn 2015, Dacorum Digest was shortlisted for the CIPR awards 2016 (Chartered Institute of Public Relations), and won GOLD!

The objectives of the magazine are to keep residents informed with a lively and forward looking schedule of content, that is of interest to all communities and age groups in the borough. The publication was merited for the look and feel, and for its clear messaging, in a readable and user-friendly style that was well liked by its audience. 

Doubly pleasing for rtfacts as the first digest we designed (Back in 2004) was also an award winner and held up as an example to all other councils of how a community Newsletter should look. History repeating itself!

I found a framed trade ad in the basement produced for Drewsen special papers MANY years ago! Worth Sharing.

Watermarked stationery was quite a big deal in those days and ‘Individual by Drewsen’ made this possible in quantities that 

previously would only have been possible for the largest of businesses. I saw some fantastic examples that had been made and we did some beautiful literature to show these off to their best advantage. Sadly as a fast moving small business i have no idea what the results of all this hard work was? No sooner was it done than we were moving onto the next thing. Happy Days.

rtfacts have always supplied promotional items for clients, but many clients didn’t know that rtfacts….

also brand goods you already own. And we can print on just about anything!

The most obvious examples are clients T-Shirts,  Jackets and Polos that they simply want their logo on.

We have also printed and engraved clients pens, penknives and bottle openers.

Last year we printed a paving slab with an image of the clients dog – it sits over the mantle (did you see what i did there) and makes quite a conversation piece!

Take a look at a selection of promo items we’ve supplied to our clients, and some new items available.

If you have your own product/s to be personalised (pencil to a concrete slab, door or cupboard) and need it printed, engraved or marked in any way,  just give us a call.

07831700081