i-tees

Over the past year and a half, the percentage of new clients and new projects coming in, is down by 20%, so using email marketing and social media is more important than ever.

First I want to explain how to use LinkedIn.com to it’s advantage.

You start by creating a profile and loading it up with all the important details, such as, links to your personal or company website and/or blog, the various companies you’ve worked for, and the organizations you belong to. Then you might want to search for people you know, clients you currently have, friends who may be able to help you, and co-workers from previous companies. Then you might do a search on companies or target job descriptions, such as Art Directors or Creative Directors in a 25 mile radius. You can invite them to connect, by sending them a message, and be sure to personalize it by complimenting them on their work or why you’re contacting them.

Another wonderful feature on LinkedIn is the groups. I belong to many groups, some are green, sustainability, green-thinking, Nature Conservancy, National Geographic Society, Non-Profit Network, and some are graphic design or marketing and advertising groups. There are groups for music and entertainment, Apple, mac, and alumni for the schools you attended. You can search in groups for whatever interests you, and request to join. In each of these groups, there are hundreds or thousands of members. So if you post a discussion or a job, you have the potential to reach so many people at once. For example, I just posted a job description that I was looking for new clients and projects and by posting it within each group I belong to, who knows how many might read it. I’ve also posted discussions, and sometimes depending on just the right topic or headline, you can send hundreds of people to read your post and that’s also a wonderful way for people to get to know you.

Once you are a member of a group, you can also participate in a discussion posted by another member, and when you comment, all the people following that discussion can see your comment and it becomes another way for people to know who you are. You can also connect with people who are within your group, by selecting them and marking the group you both have in common.

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Facebook is another great way to get your name, company, or cause out there. In addition to having a person profile, so you can chat with friends and family, you can create company pages and invite people to become fans of your company. You can have as many company pages as you have companies, but only one profile page is allowed.

My cause with Mary Jo Rhodes, Frogs Are Green, has both a Facebook company page, so we can keep people informed of our latest news, products and posts, and a cause page. Until we become a non-profit organization (which we hope to establish in 2010) we’ve designated that donations go to Amphibian Ark.

I also have company pages on Facebook to help promote Susan Newman Design Inc., i-Tees, and Web Design NJNY.

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Twitter is a fascinating addition to social media. It’s amazing how you can keep up to date on a topic around the world instantly. Most news items that I see on Twitter, aren’t even on the TV news yet. I remember when that plane made an emergency landing on the Hudson River and I saw that news clip on Twitter. I ran into the living room to watch the TV news and it didn’t come on until at least 1/2 hour later. Then of course it dominated the news.

You can also customize your Twitter design by altering the background picture and the style colors of the page. I have two Twitter accounts, one for my design company which is @sndinc and one for all things “green” including the Frogs Are Green blog, @greeninnature.

It’s also wonderful now that you can hook up your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts together. So a posting on one, will automatically be seen on the other two.

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For the past few years, I have been emailing out a newsletter to my client base, as well as potential clients. I use Constant Contact and find this is a valuable resource. I have also used it for various clients who’s websites I’ve designed and maintain. When you’re a designer and constantly competing against so many, across so many industries, I find that you must keep people informed on what you’re latest projects are. Even if you designed a few book covers for someone, it doesn’t mean he/she may not be interested in seeing your website design. They may know someone who is looking and it helps to refresh their memory of you, when they may be assigning work.

I would say that so long as you don’t send it out too often, you’re going to keep these people watching and clicking. To see some of my clients newsletters, click here, and to read mine, click here and be sure to sign up if interested!

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The recent earthquake crisis in Haiti, really showed us the power of social media. The fact that people could post messages and pictures when trying to locate loved ones, was so resourceful. For those of us here in the USA and others around the world, being able to follow news reporters for the latest details, or organizations for updates helped us all feel connected.

Today, we cannot survive without these tools.

I was just catching up on the Hoboken Reporter and noticed an article, so I just had to help publicize. A brother-sister duo, Katie Welles and Hart Welles, have organized an arts & music festival to be held on Friday, February 5, 2010, 7-11 pm at Grace Van Vorst Church on Erie Street.

The festival will include music, art and other activities to bring awareness to “green” issues and organizations. The proceeds from the festival will go partially to the Friends of Liberty State Park, to plant more trees in the park, and to American Forests, a Washington D.C. based non-profit organization for tree preservation.

Students from different schools are participating, McNair, St. Peter’s Prep, and the Jersey City Public School Visual and Performing Arts program.

Various people and local businesses are sponsoring the event, such as Hudson County Executive, Tom DeGise and Rev, Nick Lannon. I have just written to them both to see if Frogs Are Green can be a sponsor also.

For more information about the event, click here.

In my last post, I wanted to highlight that in many cases I’ve seen websites and print marketing done by individuals and small companies without hiring a professional designer. In various group discussions on LinkedIn, artists from all over are commenting with their experiences. In these comments, some artists have brought up a few very important points, which I’m going to pass on now.

As designers, many times, friends and family ask us to “help them out” with a project. Depending on who this is and the scope of the project, we may decide to help. One artist reported that after creating various materials for a friend and gratis of course, the friend didn’t use any of them and instead got a family member who just happened to have a computer and “Word” & “Photoshop” to create something.

Now, I suppose the big question here is, why wouldn’t you use the materials created by the professional designer, and instead use the amateurish piece by the family member. Instead of using a professional printing company, it was printed out on their home printer. The end result did not look professional. Secondly, wouldn’t the friend realize how rude that was, after asking the professional to invest time and effort in the project.

In addition, they have said that it always seems to be the non-paying, non-profit clients who they’re “helping out” who send the most changes or edits. It’s interesting how when someone has to pay, they understand the rules a bit better.

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Clients change their look and their logos. As artists we understand this, we do as well. I had changed my company logo a few times over the years, until I settled on the (sndi) I have now and the current color palette. I also previously wrote about how I changed this (i-tees) site into a blog, and I’m sure at some point, I’ll change the look again.

One thing an artist just reminded me of,  is when you’ve created a wonderful website for someone and they seemed to be very happy with it… then a short time later it has been replaced with a totally different design. The most important part to remember, is not to be too disappointed. With the web, this is bound to happen, hopefully not often, but face it, it will. I suppose what bothers us most, is that it happened and the client didn’t tell us or come back to us for the new design. We wonder about whether they really liked the original or just said they did, so they’d have the site up, (urgency again, content over design and style) who knows? I always wonder about this. I remember a magazine site I did a few years ago, and about one year later there was a new site up. It didn’t really have any new features, or e-commerce, it just had a different look.

It’s also important to realize that if they do create a new website with new features, they may not realize you can do what they want. Always be sure that your clients know about all your capabilities. I have a current client who’s website I update and he never knew I designed books, good thing I mentioned this, and was able to design his book cover.

What you need to do, is check all the links you’re featuring on your portfolio website, perhaps once a month. I sometimes forget to do this, but will this week. You don’t want to have an image or link up and a potential client goes to see it, and it’s a different site. I’ve also had sites disappear or go down for one reason or another. So be sure to update your portfolio and site often.

For the most part, over the years, I have had good experiences working with non-profit organizations and first-time clients. I do however think this depends on the type of company. Some of them have been theatrical companies, and since we know that the “arts” funding and budgets have been slashed, I’m always willing to help them when I can.

Since the Spring of this year and the launch of my blog with Mary Jo Rhodes, Frogs Are Green, more non-profit agencies have been coming my way. I’ve been writing estimates for different types of companies, from theatrical companies to environmental agencies and  charitable organizations. The assignments range from blog or website design, to brochures, signage and print marketing.

From my experiences, both good and bad, I want to share a few tips to keep in mind when working with non-profits or first-time clients.

1- Just because a company is a non-profit, it doesn’t mean they don’t have the money to pay you. Make sure to write an estimate, get a signed contract, and a partial payment up front. This way if they cannot find the funds for the balance, at least you were paid something. You should always divide up the payments, so there are milestones. You also have the option of a suing if you’ve got the documents in writing and signed, and the client didn’t pay.

2- You believe in their cause and that’s why you’re working with them, but don’t let them take advantage of you, by having you revise over and over. Make sure the amount of “rounds” were written in your estimate and/or contract, so both parties know what to expect. Make sure the client knows that if the scope of the project changes, the price goes up.

3- Make sure that you know who you’re working with. If a certain person hired you, but then all of a sudden you seem to be taking corrections or working with a bunch of different people. Stop. Talk to the person who hired you, have them field all opinions and have that person write or call you.

4- Make sure that the client only has low resolution files, and once all payments are made, you give over the final files or high resolution work. I know this can be difficult, because many clients won’t pay the balance till they know they have the files, but it’s important to at least attempt this. Now, I’m not saying this should always be done, only with first-time clients. Too many times a client takes the work and you do not get the balance, or hear from them again.

5- I suggest a bit a research on the first-time client. Look them up on Google, who are they?, learn about their company. Make sure you know who you’re working with.

6- Some clients have day jobs and work on their company or non-profit on off hours. May sure they’re not calling you on those off hours. When you work all day and want to relax in the evening, you don’t want clients calling to discuss projects.

7- Design may be subjective, but our business is no different than any other. If you hire someone to paint your house, and after they’re finished you decide you don’t like the color, do you think the painter will not expect payment? What if you decide now you want him/her to start over with a new color, don’t you think they’ll expect to be paid more? So, why in the design profession does it seem acceptable, if someone isn’t happy with the result, they can walk away without keeping up their end of the agreement? A perfect example of this practice would be an online job search listings website, where a client can hire you and put a payment into escrow. I will never agree to this because as I just stated they can withdraw if unsatisfied, or they might be satisfied and planning to use the concepts without your knowledge. Escrow agreements are a terrible idea and quite one-sided.

8- My policy is a simple one. If you want to know what I would design for you, and you alone, you must hire me to find out. And absolutely no free sketches! Let me repeat that, never give away your ideas for free, unless you’re truly compelled to do something! My years of experience and portfolio should speak for the quality of what someone would get. If there aren’t enough design examples in my portfolio, for you to know what you would get from me, then you’re probably not a client I want to work with.

9- Knowing when to walk away. Sometimes with all good intentions an assignment gets out of hand. Recently, I was engaged to revise something for an individual. With each round of revisions made, I received, in the mail, a printout with a ton of additional corrections. After completing my third and final round, the client gave me some new guidelines on the project, and if I were to go to a fourth round, with these new guidelines, I was going to have to start over. Instead of asking for more compensation, I chose to walk away. The whole experience did not go well, and I knew it was never going to end. I made the smart decision in this case.

10- I want say a little about mutual respect. I work very hard for my clients, and I’m very thankful for each client I gain. I treat them with respect and will always do all that I can. By respecting my clients and gaining their respect in return, I’m fortunate to have a lot of repeat business. I’m proud that so many of the websites I’ve designed are still online, year after year. Whenever my clients need something they know they can count on me.

You’ve done all the work, created something of value, and the client isn’t fulfilling their end of this agreement. This is always going to be different for each individual and assignment. I have had and heard my share of complaints. Sometimes, you’ll go to court and sometimes you’ll just be upset and let it go. We have to determine each case as it comes along, but if we can remember to be careful, and protect ourselves, this business will always go better for us.