Tip #2 to Help You Hire the Right Design Agency: Share Your Budget

“Share the budget, are you nuts?” Sure, most of my prospects don’t actually say that, but that’s what they’re thinking. There are two main reasons why my prospects are reluctant to share their project budget with me:
1. They don’t know what their budget is.
2. They think if they tell me, that’s what I’ll propose…even if we could do the work for less.

I understand the desire to hold budget numbers close to the vest, but I promise you, sharing your budget up front can make the whole design process go so much better. Why? Because if the designer knows what the project goals are and the budget allocated to meet those goals, they can help you think strategically about the best way to approach the project. Often there are ways to design a piece that reduces printing and mailing costs. Most often, we can meet budget requirements by slightly changing the format of the piece. But we can’t make those recommendations if we don’t know how much you can spend. Without accurate budget information, the agency will likely propose something at the high-budget end, meaning you may not be able to hire the agency you really want because their costs are too high when, in fact, they could probably have proposed something to meet your requirements.

Many times, people don’t know what the budget is because they have no idea what to expect in terms of pricing. Most designers will be happy to have a frank conversation with you about that, sharing general project costs on similar work. This will help set your expectations for what you’ll need to budget for the piece you want.

We like to compare project budgets to cars—do you want a Mercedes, a Honda, or a Hyundai? If you want a Mercedes, do you have the budget for one? Knowing the answer to that will help the designer give you a proposal that works for your project. And if they can’t do the work you need for the price you want to pay, you can establish that before they spend the time developing a proposal for you—and you spend the time reviewing proposals that don’t really address your needs.

Xpertcolor Direct Mail

We've been working with Xpertcolor for many, many years. They are simply one of the best printers in the DC area. They're a small shop that does extremely high-calibur work. They're customer service is exceptional, and they proactively make sure the work is done right every time. The only problem is, nobody knows about them.

Xpertcolor came to us to help fix this. We helped them develop a direct mail campaign targeted to graphic designers who are looking for high-quality print, good prices, and great service. This series of 12 postcards plays on the fact that people don't know where they are..."X marks the spot." Each piece includes a postcard of a place in the DC area (some obvious, some obscure) with a bit of trivia about it. Of course, we also talk about the quality Xpert delivers.

They launched the campaign in July of 2008, and have had a terrific response. The purpose was to open the door to an target group that is hard to reach, and the piece has done that. In just the first few months, the campaign paid for itself. And, Xpertcolor is beginning to get the notice they deserve.

Tip #1 to Help You Hire the Right Design Agency: Know your goals

For your marketing efforts to be effective, you must know what you want to accomplish. That may sound obvious, but I estimate that only 25% of my clients can answer that question when I ask it.

The answer doesn’t have to be complicated, but you do need to know whether your goal is to get people to pick up the phone and call you, to get people to go to your web site to register for an event, or something else.

Each of these outcomes requires a different design approach, and may help you decide who you should hire for the job. Discuss them with the designer during the scoping meeting. You’ll get a feeling from the discussion about their ability to design a piece that will help you meet your goals.

Knowing what you want your marketing pieces to do, and including your design team in the strategic thinking about how to accomplish it, will lead to a better finished piece and a good working relationship with your designer.

5 Tips to Help You Hire the Right Design Agency

My days are filled with meeting people and learning about what kind of marketing materials they need. The meetings are interesting and I learn a lot about their organizations and missions. Then I pull out our portfolio to tell my prospects about our services. At about the time I pull out the third sample, I often notice a look of pure terror on their faces.

At first this baffled me because, frankly, I don’t think I’m a particularly frightening person. Then I realized it’s not me, but rather the notion of hiring a design agency that has them quaking in their shoes. I don’t blame them. Paying for something when you aren’t really sure what you’re buying is scary.

Unless they’ve worked in a corporate communications department, many of our clients don’t know what exactly they are buying when they hire a designer. Or, I think more accurately, they don’t know what they should expect from working with the designer.

Relax. Hiring a designer is not really complicated or scary if you know what to look for. The following five tips are guidelines that will help you choose the design agency that is right for you.

1. Know what you want to accomplish with this project and share that goal with the designer.
2. Share your project budget.
3. Look at the agency’s portfolio to make sure they do the kind of work you need.
4. Get a detailed proposal that clearly states what the design costs include, and ask for clarification if there is anything you don’t understand.
5. Map out a schedule.

In the following weeks I’ll post with more detailed explanations of each of these five tips. Feel free to comment or call with questions if you can’t wait!

Greater Reston Arts Center

One of the challenges many of our clients face is figuring out how to convey the feel of their organization and explain everything they do in a very limited space (such as a 4-pg brochure). That was the challenge facing the Great Reston Arts Center when they asked us to develop a brochure for them.

They needed the brochure to do several things: it needed to convey the quality of the programs GRACE offers, it needed to show prospective members the variety of programs (that GRACE is a center for arts education as well as a place to showcase fine arts), and it needed to have the usual information about membership. This was a tall order for a small brochure!

We came up with an Accordion fold brochure that is actually as series of five postcards, each with one word that describes the mission of GRACE. The back has information about the center. The best part, according to the client, was that the brochure fits in a shirt pocket. Prospects liked it too...it gave them a feel for GRACE and what their membership would mean.

Design Tip: Collecting Print Bids

Jar Gon and Design Girl are on a quest to help the marketing community keep design projects on budget and on time. This month, the Terrific Twosome tackle printing costs. . .

Molly Marketer doesn't understand why the three print bids she diligently collected are so different. We suspect two factors at play: the printers specialize in different kinds of jobs and they specified different paper. The paper you choose and the press the job will run on are the two biggest factors in print pricing. Don't go to a printer who specializes in letterhead if you're printing an annual report.

GWU Graduate School of Political Management

How do you get a Gen Y person to choose your graduate program over any other? Wait...the first question is really how do you capture they're attention? Those are questions many graduate schools are facing. Competition is tight, and the school needs to capture the potential students fancy immediately in order to even be considered. For many universities, that means completely changing how they reach out to students.

The George Washington University School of Political Management (GSPM) came to us to redesign their recruitment materials. Together, we help them rethink what students need to know to make a decision to imply. We conducted focus groups with current and potential students, interviewed faculty, and researched competitive programs. The result was a the development of a new tagline: Politics from a New Perspective. We then developed an 8 page brochure that captured the energy of the students and the expertise of the faculty, using photos of actual GSPM students. We created separate brochures for each program, which are inserted in a pocket folder. A die cut window on the overview brochure allows the folder to "change" depending on which program brochure is included.

The result is a versatile piece that prospects can identify with. A bonus is a tremendous savings on mail costs (since the brochure drives prospects to the web site for complete course descriptions and degree requirements).

Feedback from the GSPM Marketing Director: “Two Sisters Creative really partnered with us from start to finish on each concept and project. They have taken the time to understand our audience and create materials that reflect our organization and speak to our audience. They have shown infinite patience and true professionalism through all the ups and downs of developing an identity and implementing creative solutions.”