Creative Tips #12: Do I Look Okay?

We're moving toward a big-corporation technique that any business can use to make their communications to clients and prospective clients more effective. Next week we're going to get into it in some depth, but right now let's look at what you decided as a result of last week's review of your own letters, forms and promotional flyers.

In case you missed it, I suggested writing down five adjectives that you would want people to use to describe your quality of service or product, a one-sentence description of your product, and a one-sentence description of your ideal customer. With those things all firmly in mind the idea was to then look at the stuff you send out, from the viewpoint of that ideal customer.

Maybe everything seems right on the money, maybe not so much. Either way, here's the next step.

Does this paragraph make me look fat?

The problem with anything you create for yourself is that it's almost impossible to be objective about it. Remember how happy you were about that great idea, killer headline or elegantly worded bit of copy? That warm, fuzzy memory intrudes every time you look at that flyer or introductory letter or whatever it is. You don't see it—you see your rose-colored memory of it.

Designers and copy writers run into this all the time. It's a professional hazard that we have to handle successfully or die. So, here's a trick of the design trade that will help you see that presentation as it is, not as you wanted it to be when you first thought it up.

Find some similar pieces other companies have done, that speak to you the way you want your material to speak to your intended audience, then analyze them and compare them to your own material in detail.

Too technical? No! If you've been following these newsletters you've already built up a considerable "visual vocabulary." You know about spacing, fonts, typewriter habits that have to be avoided—things that 90% of business owners (including your competitors!) don't know to look for and so don't even see. This is an enormous help in analyzing why something works or doesn't.

The key word here is "detail." If you have a letter from Jones and Co. that just seems to reek of reliability, professionalism, playfulness, or whatever the quality is that you want to convey, look for all the things that help to communicate that message.

First look at the overall piece without reading the words. Does that layout have something special about it that grabbed you attention? How about the white space (margins, space between paragraphs and around headlines or graphics), line spacing, typeface(s) and colors?

Now get in closer. Do things line up or not? Is the text conservative or whimsical? Are the sentences and paragraphs short or long? Notice everything that helps get that message across, and just as important notice everything that doesn't, like distracting elements, awkward spacing, or cheap-looking graphics.

As you go, keep a list of the things you see. After a while this sort of thing will become second nature, and you won't need your list so much, but for now it will help.

Go ahead. Don't mind me; I'll just hang loose here while you work on it.

...

Done? Okay, now compare Jones and Co.'s piece with your own. Armed with your list, you'll be able to see your own work from a completely fresh perspective.

I guarantee that you will see some things that you can improve, and there will be opportunities to pat yourself on the back. For sure, the next letter, flyer, estimate or proposal you send out is going to be better than the last one.

Developing a style

One thing you will notice when you deal with your bank, Fed Ex, Triple-A or any large organization is that everything you receive from them is recognizably from that specific company. It's not, not, NOT just the logo! Every large corporation has a definite, easy-to-recognize style, and it's not accidental. In fact, it's very carefully planned.

A common misconception that leads many business owners astray is the idea that the company name and the logo are all you need to "brand" your company communications. That is horribly, and very expensively wrong. Next time, we're going to discover the secret sauce that powers corporate identity, and show you why a good logo (which is vitally important) is only the beginning.

Bonus Tip

Way back in #1 of these Creative Tips I advised you to stay away from the defaults provided by your word processor. One reason is the defaults aren't very good looking. Another is that they make your communications look generic: not a desirable state of affairs. Microsoft and other companies go to great lengths to provide you with automated ways to spiff up your documents. That's a good thing—but only up to a point.

Whether it's the installed templates in Office 95 and later, or the new "Themes" supplied with Office 2007, realize that if you use them just as they are you will look like the thousands of other businesses using the same templates. I guarantee that what looks good to you will look good to at least 100,000 other people in your state. They'll use that same template and they'll all look the same to their clients and potential clients. Oops.

So by all means start with a template or a theme, but then change it to something that fits your business, your personality, more exactly. Save that as a new template and use that in the future. All these Tips you've saved will help, or you can go to the blog page and review them from there. If you do, I promise you that you will end up with something that looks good and looks different. And that's two Good Things.

Happy typesetting,

Alan Gilbertson
Creative Director
G&G Creative

The Creative Tips newsletter is published by G&G Creative, Tujunga, CA. More at www.gngcreative.com or on the blog.

G&G Creative specializes in graphic design, photography and copy writing for print and the web.

Copyright © 2009 Alan Gilbertson. All Rights Reserved.