Perhaps most notable was that we all felt our success as designers was not due to our proven record of creating beautiful visual solutions for our clients, but to our success at knowing how and where to apply design to achieve a desired result.

Finding a story in the strategy

The visual element is important, but it is always an extension of the message. The message comes from the strategic initiatives giving the message direction and purpose. Because we determine what needs to be said and why, we can craft the very best ways to do so—beautifully.

As we spoke further, we asked one another how we each uncover the message and purpose deep within our client’s strategic goals. The answer: we look for the story. We study our client’s businesses, their market and their customers to find what resonates the loudest and truest. We use that information and our knowledge of human behavior, culture, and marketing to build brands and programs that engage the customers’ attention and encourage them to act.

Great designers have always been expert storytellers. We enthusiastically tell stories with compelling visuals, interesting plots and memorable take-away points. And when we get it just right, we can accomplish all this in a single logo mark.

So what does this mean for design education?

We all wished we could rebuild the program and add courses drawing upon psychology, anthropology and journalism to improve storytelling abilities. We wanted our education to include business, entrepreneurship and marketing training. And we boldly proposed cutting back on technical courses to make room. (Students, if you don’t have a lynda.com account, get one. The on-line training is very good and you’ll build a habit of self-study that you’ll draw upon the rest of your career.)

Great design is invaluable to business success. True, technical skills are critical for implementation and some students will find careers in those arts. But if design as a profession is to remain viable into the next fifty years, degree candidates must learn to flex their muscles in the art of story-finding and storytelling.

Facebook’s latest interior redesign affects business fan pages deeply. Their new timeline page layout attempts to bring story telling into social media, but in Facebook-land the story can get pretty jumbled.

Why is Facebook frustrating small business marketers?

Facebook taught us to read the page from left to right, top to bottom, with the newest entries on top. On our home page feeds, we look to the left, see the profile and read the post accompanying it. The new timeline look alternates wall posts left and right up a center timeline, making entries occasionally appear out-of-order or incongruent. Fix this by forcing features into a position by starring or pinning them. Starring calls attention to the post by doubling its size and expanding the width of your timeline. “Pinning” a post keeps a story or article at the top your timeline. You can also add milestone information in your timeline, filling in missing or incomplete aspects of your story.

Under the cover photo is the information that had been on tabs. The width of the timeline and the space allocated for the native app Photos means that only three other tab panels are viewable “above the fold.” To see more, users must expand the tab panel by clicking a drop-down arrow at the right. Choose your three tab apps carefully — this will be one of the first things users see when interacting with your page on Facebook. If you don’t have extra tabs or apps, your number of “likes” will now be front and center. If you haven’t been making “friend development” a priority you may want to.

Your brand story is further complicated by the boxes on the top right of the timeline detailing friends, recent posts, likes and activity. Those aspects of the Facebook page had been tucked in the sidebar, but now they are prominent. Businesses need to embrace these features to take advantage of this valuable real estate. Keep your content current and encourage fan activity.

But, it’s not all bad

Page administrators will enjoy the new admin panel for Facebook business pages. Through a toggle at the top of the page, it provides a quick overview of the activity on the page and makes it easy to access features like the activity log.

And the page is more open than ever to customized programming. FBML programming is no longer necessary. The new upgrade utilizes iframes allowing programmers to build programs that non-programmers can use to create customized tabs for your Facebook page. If you’re interested, check out Social Page Builder, ShortStack and Pagemodo.

I’m sure we’ll get used to the new format, and Facebook is bound to bring in a few new feature soon that will probably pull the thing together. But for now I’m busy trying to keep my clients from tripping over the couch.

I recently presented a lunch and learn for a South and East Des
Moines chamber member meeting that was so popular I’ve been asked to
write it down. So I thought you might enjoy it, too.

I coach clients everyday about what they could be doing to improve
their marketing. Though there are endless marketing opportunities I see,
they almost always fall within the following five steps to marketing.
Though they’ll seem basic and common-sense, the hard part about
marketing isn’t knowing what to do. It’s doing it. And, doing it well.
Fully. Over and over again!

5 (deceivingly) simple steps to great marketing:

1) Know who you are: Discover what makes you special, interesting, and worth seeking out.
Then determine what makes you relevant to the customer. Why do they
need you, especially at this time? This process is called brand
discernment and development. A strong, well-defined brand is crucial for
the next three steps.

2) Know who you’re going to market to: Unless you sell toilet paper, “everyone” is not your customer.
Determine who the “right” customer is for you. Hint, they probably look
a lot like your best (ie most profitable) customers now. Right
customers understand the value of what you offer and are willing to pay
for it—often! Do your research to find who those people are and where
they live and/or work. The more targeted your prospect list, the more
personalized and effective your marketing will be.

3) Talk to those people: Reach out to those “right” customers.
Talk to them directly. Use snail mail, social media, email, and
personal communication. But remember, if you’re not using their name,
it’s not direct communication. And then use indirect communication to
catch those right customers you may not have meet yet. Be as targeted
as you can be. Even very indirect communication like signage and a
shopping experience can be designed to resonate strongly with a
particular audience. The opportunities in this step are great. Use them
to talk not just about who you are and what you sell, but how you are a
part their life and community.

4) Let them talk back: Be accessible by having several ways for customers to reach out to you.
Be sure they know they’re welcome to email, post on your business
Facebook page, or leave blog comments. Or take your best customers to
lunch and ask them how you’re doing. Hand out feedback cards with a
coupon or even hang an old-fashioned suggestion box. Better yet, do all
of the above. But most importantly, read the comments you receive and
respond to them. Some feedback may be unflattering, so you may want to
have a plan for how you acknowledge criticism.

5) Repeat. All
of it. Go back to the beginning and go through every step. Look at each
with a fresh eye. Is there more you could be doing? Now that you have
some feedback, do you need to make some changes? Is the message right
but not getting through? Are you focusing on the right customer? You’re
not sacrificing new customers at the sake of current ones are you? Are
you talking to them in a way that’s being heard? Are they responding? If
not, why?

Don’t be afraid to try new things. What worked last year may not work
again this year. Study companies you admire. Can you take a page from
their playbook for your own marketing efforts?

Overwhelmed? Let us help you work though these steps and build a
marketing plan that makes the most of your limited resources (and who’s
aren’t limited!). We can help point out opportunities you may have
overlooked and help you with execution, tracking and follow-through. Our
design expertise can craft for you a customer brand experience that is
second to none.

So, know what you’re saying, to whom you’re saying it, say it, and
then let the recipient respond. That’s how marketing has happened since
before MBAs started calling it marketing. It’s still the same, even in
today’s virtual and global business environments. It’s simple to
embrace, but full of excitingly complex options to execute.

I am not an “early adopter.” So, the fact that I’m writing this blog
in a coffee shop hundreds of miles from my office on my first iPad isn’t
that blog worthy. But what is stunning to me is how computing has
blended my work with the rest of my life.

I’ve always been kind of a workaholic. Not that I’m that super
driven, I just respect the muse. I get excited about ideas, inspiring me
to work at odd hours, in odd places.

That’s exactly why I bought my first laptop.
I purchased it just before a business trip to Florida, I remember using
it to organize meeting notes in my room at night and design logos in a
cabana on the beach one afternoon. I felt untethered and free, even
though battery life was no more than three hours and Internet access was
only through Ethernet. I started to work outside the office more and
used the computer to organize my personal as well as business life.
Business and personal computer use was starting to blur.

This new iPad is similarly liberating. I use the app Upad to sketch
and mark up emailed pdfs. I use Pages to take meeting notes and write
copy. Daylight Touch handles my account management and Designsoft tracks
our time. We’re even planning to build an iPhoto version of our
portfolio for it.

In addition I can use my Google Voice account for texting without phone service and FaceTime for meetings.

On the other hand, I already have six new books on my iPad, and I’m
halfway through two. I store my photos on it, and my music. And my
daughter loves to play games on it.

I barely even need my trusty iPhone anymore.
Wait, did I say that? If I don’t have constant access to Facebook,
Twitter, Foursquare and regular texting through my smart phone I start
to sweat. Being without the internet is like being without electricity
these days. When Bin Laden was killed I learned of it, not through
traditional news media, but through Facebook. Social media is my filter
for the world, critical to my business and personal relationships. And I
think it is for a lot of people.

That’s why social media and internet-based communications are so
critical to corporate marketing plans, now. Businesses must be a part of
their customers lives, and those lives are on the web now. If
businesses want word-of-mouth advertising their conversations have to
take place online.

Ten years of toting a computer
I was cleaning and getting ready to recycle some old computers a couple
of weeks ago when I found that old laptop. I was shocked at how heavy
and bulky it was. The screen is nearly the same size as this tablet. And
the hard drive wasn’t much bigger than the memory on this iPad!

It was my first laptop, and ever since I’ve been dragging a computer
around. But I think I’ll keep the old one. It helps remind me of the
freedom I first experienced then and the promise to be able to work
anywhere—even in a coffee shop.

Getting someone to pay for your ideas gets rid of a lot of fuzzy thinking.

- Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media

This month the designers and I are creating posters to sell at a benefit for cycling called ArtCrank.
It’s the second year we’ve participated in this event and it’s always a
good time for a cause we love. But it’s also a challenge.

Thirty designers are chosen to create posters with a cycling theme.
Designers print thirty posters to sell for $30.00 each at an opening night gala
and for a few days following. The benefit group is always a supporter
of cycling and they get a cut of the poster sale. Then the organizer,
ArtCrank, takes a cut and the designer gets the remainder, about $13 per
poster. Thirty posters with a budget of $13 gives each designer $390 to
play with—if we sell all our posters!

Lots of freedom, not much money

Posters can be as large as 20 x 26, which is great, but even archival
inkjet is pricey at that size. Here at Cooper Smith & Company, last
year Robin turned to archival inkjet, Matt self printed with
screen-printing and I relied on traditional offset. My poster was way
over budget, but they sold out opening night. Since it was offset, it
was easy to print a longer run of 75 posters. That allowed me to sell
additional posters following the show. I’ve sold about ten more posters
at full price ($30 or $35 with shipping.) With those proceeds added in,
I’ve more than covered my costs.

But spending a little extra was worth it for me last year. This year
I’m trying screen printing, and I’m still over budget. I’m nervous. This
year, the opening night is on a Thursday instead of a Saturday and it
only hangs for four days. The chances of selling out will be much more
slim.

The cost of love

Two years ago my husband had a serious accident and was nearly killed
while riding a bike. After months of grueling rehabilitation he
relearned to walk and eventually ride a bike. I was enormously grateful
for the cycling community who helped us so much during that difficult
time. It was his desire to get back on a bike that kept him going.

Eight months after his accident I designed Cupid’s Crossbow. Subtitled From the Seat of My Pants to the Bottom of my Heart, it is a very personal representation of my love and gratitude for the bike.

Cupid’s Crossbow – Sally Cooper Smith

This year the bike brings me to a different phase in my life. It has
been a difficult year personally topped off by a long hospitalization (a
persistent spontaneous pneumothorax.) So, titled Better Days, this ArtCrank poster is subtitled The Road Ahead to symbolize my hope for the future.

It is always my belief that when we genuinely share ourselves others
pick up on it. Maybe that’s why last year’s poster Cupid’s Crossbow did
so well even in national design shows, with acceptance in Communication
Arts Design Annual and Creative Quarterly design review.

Will Better Days do as well? I don’t know. But I feel the same kinship with the image that I did with Cupid’s Crossbow. I’ll post a comment to this blog after the show to let you know how it goes.

Freedom is not a license for chaos

ArtCrank places no restrictions on a designer except theme and size.
We have no one to please but ourselves…and a bicycling-friendly
consumer. That’s rare in our world. (Everything Cooper Smith &
Company creates is strategically built to support a discerning client’s
brand and business goals.) For over a month, we design and tweak, then
redesign and critique, then tweak some more. In the end, we rarely feel
like we’re finished, we just run out of time to tweak any more.

	….
Better Days – Sally Cooper Smith	.	Ride DSM – Robin Wasteney
.
	.
Spoke Folk – Matt Dirkx

As we’re working, our thoughts continue to circle back to “will any
one else like this thing enough to pay real money for it?” We believe
great ideas, beautifully produced sell. Art is full of a lot of fuzzy
thinking, but it’s true, getting someone to pay for it, focuses you. For
me, ArtCrank gives me the opportunity to focus on how I’m really
feeling. It is delightful to discover that others feel the same way.