3 things you should know before calling your designer

It’s easy to get caught up in a new marketing idea that has oodles of potential all wrapped up in a nice campaign. It can be tempting want to pick up the phone or head right on over to your designer to see what these ideas will look like – whether it’s a brochure, website, ad campaign, packaging or any other type of marketing materials. The danger in jumping right into the design phase though, is that you’re skipping over the most important part of your marketing strategy. You know, the STRATEGY part.

So before you interrupt your designer from his or her morning cappuccino and cartoons, it’s a good idea to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Here’s three things you should know that are imperative to any piece of brand collateral:

1. Know your buyer personas

I can’t stress this one enough. In order to create any sort of campaign that is going to attract people to your brand, you’ll need to understand who those people are and even better yet, who you want them to be. These people are your buyer personas. Start painting a clear picture of who these people are. What is their demographic information? What are their pain points? What do they value most? We’ve recently published this post on buyer personas and the reasons why they are so important. Every piece of marketing content and every marketing decision you make should be filtered through these buyer personas. If your idea isn’t directed to at least one of your personas, then why are you doing it?

2. Know your brand

It may seem like knowing yourself before others should be number one on this list – but really, only after you understand your audience can you start to really shape your brand. Remember, it’s the people who interact with you who are going to dictate whether you are successful or not, so it’s important to stay true to the brand and be intentional with your marketing.

3. Understand every buyer’s journey

Too many businesses don’t take enough time to understand the path that every buyer takes to becoming a paying customer. In order to advance any new leads that are to come from your new marketing ideas through your sales funnel, you’re going to need to know the steps they’re going to take as they make a purchasing decision. Remember that not everyone who interacts with your brand is ready to take a human life for the chance to throw fistfuls of money at you on the spot.