Build your Creative Business through creative content and digital marketing

March 14, 2011

Not very long ago the service website was an extension of a firm’s print collateral. It was little more than an online brochure, presenting basic information about the company. More recently, however, the function of the website has begun to shift from providing general information to generating qualified leads.

This excerpt from Sean McVey’s guest article on the marketing website Valuable Content sums up really well how a high-performing website is now a rival to the traditional golden word-of-mouth referral; a long-built standard for even the small and micro business today.

Adding creative content to a website that implores the reader to re-visit for more tid-bits, is a device being used by successful business websites.

To translate into jargon-free terms, for a creative business and individual, if you want to generate more sales through your website it’s important to allow your visitor to interact with it, maybe download a research article as Sean McVey suggests, or read an guest blog post you’ve submitted.

 

A guest blog submission to Created in Birmingham Website

Another area would be to consider how your professional profile and your overall businesses digital presence feeds into your new website.  When approaching a digital marketing project it’s easier digested by breaking the creative content into three stages;

Analysis and Research: The basis of any time and resources invested in developing a brand, it’s status and digital presence should start with a good foundation of research.

Creative consultancy can help identify where your product sits in the marketplace and how will this be established by a new web design and social media networks. There are going to be key marketing activities, such as tailoring any social media profiles, writing copy that fits each market sector, helping build a stronger identity for your creative business.

Implementation: To fulfil your website’s sales destiny it’s important to produce consistent brand, product and personal messages for business to use in all marketing outputs.

Information can be added to your new beautiful creative website that allows it to be found easier by search engines, identified correctly, and viewed as reputable by it’s visitors.  Adding a social media network to your digital presence, approached with the same creative content strategy, lets you monitor, listen and correspond with your clients, consumers, suppliers and the media.

A business Facebook 'Page' is a good way to communicate about your activities

Monitoring and Measurement: It is important that you can use, monitor and see who is using your new website and digital marketing networks, what areas are popular, where it needs tweeking and identify how well it is running in terms of driving sales.

Even better is to see how the new measures against the old: in conjunction with starting social media activities such as a Twitter account, its possible to measure a return on your investments, where visitors ‘land’ into your site, and how any social networks feed traffic to your site, and in turn how any of this correlates with increased orders.

Creative content for creative business is a mouthful, but as part of consultancy services to creative business, it’s very possible to add value to your web presence and grow your business.

Let me know if I can propose some digital content for your business – Laura K Pollard.


Trend Theme for Interior Design: Homelife

March 11, 2011

 

This trend represents a focus on habitat, leading to design that encourages the user to create their own interior design; the homemaker becomes their own architect.

Products are simple solutions to modern living.

Part of a larger consumer report for creative retail, design and product development industries, this theme is an excerpt from ‘Interior Trends for 2011 and beyond.  A consumer report and 4 Themes for inspiration’ published by Laura Katriina Pollard consultancy for creative business.


A theme concept board by Laura Katriina Pollard

COLOUR: reflect those found in nature: Terracotta, burnished orange, Yellow ochre.

TEXTURE: Natural linens imperfect organic patterns. Wools and furs, unfinished timber. Ceramics are basic, robustly made home accessories that show irregularity and imperfection.

Pallet Chair by Nina Tolstrup

PLACE: interventions of home life and art ‘555 Kubic’ by http://www.urbanscreen.com – ‘How would it be if your house was dreaming?’

 


Image Credits:

Theme 3: Homelife

Colours: RAL reference system, Predictions from Reconnect, Heimtextil.

Texture: ‘Wilderness’ at ‘Reconnect’ Heimtextil 2011, Frankfurt. Laura Pollard.

Texture: ‘Sobriety’ at ‘Reconnect’ Heimtextil 2011, Frankfurt. Laura Pollard.

Product: ‘Plumen’ by Hulger, Photo: Tom Mannion 
http://www.hulger.com/

Product: ‘Vaeterverk’ Teapot by Maaike Roozenburg for Moooi. Contact: www.moooi.com

Product: ‘Stump’ Stool by Ubiquo Studio, Photo: Sahar Tamir www.studioubico.com

Product: MT masking tape, Kamoi Kakoshi Co Ltd, Photo: Laura Pollard 
http://www.masking-tape.jp/en/



Report for Luxury Interiors: trends, themes and design.

March 4, 2011

Trends for Luxury Interiors: Presenting a view of European market luxury trends, in interiors, homewares, furnishings and accessories.

Based on analysis of economics, social change, design consumption and human behaviour a Consumer Report for designers, manufacturers and retailers identifies how the creative industries are tackling the developments in a global consumer society, the talented individuals creating products, providing solutions to an educated luxury market consumer.

The Shows: read about what trend forecasters are saying at International Trade fairs, what’s the basis of their predictions.

The Themes: reflect on 4 themes – Sober Luxury, Mixed Up, Homelife and Utility Revival.  See colour predictions for the coming 2 years; based on 4 identified themes based on analysis of consumer behaviours, and trend forecaster’s predictions.

The Talent: the emerging designers and artists influencing the creative business industries.

Excerpts from the report can be seen on my portfolio pages.

Please get in touch if you’d like to see the whole report.

enquiries@laurakatri.com

Trend Theme: 'Sober Luxury' for Design


Branding for Creative Businesses: a case study of John Evans Interiors

March 2, 2011

Branding, Marketing, Copywriting for Creative Businesses is about tailoring your content to the target market.

Be it a creative business that supplies to consumer or business, it’s a question of using the right language, tone and mix of visual and written content.

In a project I completed for John Evans Interiors, I was asked to create, research, design and write new materials to publicise the practice’s strong style, 30 years of experience and knowledge, to it’s existing clients and new markets.

Marketing Materials for Interior Design

Producing renewed marketing materials was the first task:  identifying the target markets, and subsequently deciding which kind of materials to develop to reach those markets, without spending excessive money on too many different items.

2 printed items were developed: A brochure for prospective clients and interested organisations, and a folded card Leaflet, easy to push into envelopes to send to press, clients, suppliers.

A brochure was developed, to act as a professional profile.  What resulted was a 35 page A4 Spirobound brochure; which pulled together the vast folio of work amassed over the practice’s history.  This is a very professional, heafty document for an Interior Design practice, focused on not just visuals of work but the information to back up the practice’s claims of professional practice.

Resources, services and a large section dealing solely with Working Practices were added; the stages of work a client could expect to go through with their project.  While it can seem a little dry or uninteresting, showing that as a designer or craftsperson, you follow guidelines, codes of conduct and a strategy, really does reinforce a reputation!

Additionally, a smaller A5 trifold leaflet was produced to insert into letters and to be sent out with press releases, christmas cards, project updates and correspondence.

This project is featured on my portfolio page on Behance - click to see more Branding work.

Brochure and Leaflet for John Evans Interiors

Brochure and Leaflet design and copywriting for John Evans Interiors

Digital Content for Design Companies

I have written about this website before and the services I provided, but wanted to share more about the project in the context of copywriting.

For John Evans Interiors, the brief asked for a content managed website, which held a large portfolio of photographs, visualisations and sketches associated with sectors of work, and inidividual projects completed for clients.

The Home Page from http://www.johnevansdesign.com changes every few seconds to another background image

Copywriting for Interior Design

Copywriting was integral and important to the website; not only to describe the visual content to viewers; but to add value to the website’s content, it’s optimisation and attractiveness to search engines.  It was essential the site was designed to be future-proof, with blog RSS feeds, and any social media activities undertaken by the business.

Tailoring the content to the businesses brand meant learning to talk and write like the principle designer, in this case John Evans, I quickly realised that as the design practice was his enterprise, it would be important to use language that he would in normal business life, (a combination of technical, architectural references and direct description).  Injecting creative writing into the mix, gives the website and brand a professional vigour; softening the technical aspects of design to make written content understandable and enjoyable to read.

See more of the website project on my Behance portfolio

A project portfolio page from http://www.johnevansdesign.com


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