Blog Layout

5 Cheap Moves Your Brand Can’t Afford

Dan Gershenson • Jan 05, 2012

There’s savvy spending and then there’s cutting corners you don’t need to make at the risk of looking shabby in front of others. Avoid these moves to prevent yourself from making a really cheap first impression.

1) The non-company e-mail address

When I see someone with the email address of @aol.com, @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc., I have to wonder. It’s perfectly fine to have personal email accounts with something outside of your company name, but it’s not OK in a company email. Do you do this in your spare time? And even if you do, do you want to give that appearance?

No. You don’t. It’s not expensive to get an email with your company name, tagline or some variation. Reserve one and start using it. Now.

2) The off-the-shelf logo

I can appreciate budget-consciousness. But you can differentiate without spending a fortune.

When you buy clip art or off-the-shelf logos from a company, you’re defeating your brand’s ability to stand out before you get out of the gate. It’s important to strive for a look that feels original, not like other brands you’ve seen. You don’t get the attributes of that other brand by association. You look like you wish you were them instead of who you are. Not a good move.

Consider working with a logo designer you can sit down with who has been referred to you from someone you trust. You know – a human being. Not a website that doesn’t understand your goals. When you’re upfront about your budget, you might find some flexibility on their end. Especially if you can be flexible in terms of number of logo options you get.

3) The dime-a-dozen business cards

While your business card may not tell the whole story of you, there’s no reason to go cheap on it. If you give out a card that has a unique texture, shape, embossing and hear them say, “Wow, cool card,” you’re laying the groundwork for a solid first impression – no small thing.

I’ll bet you don’t get that kind of response when you order 5,000 business cards for $50. If you’re getting a whole lot for a little, there’s a reason for it. So you’ll have your cards, which I suppose is better than absolutely nothing, but the opportunity to impress won’t happen. Better to invest more in your business card than less.

4) The static direct mail “explosion”

Oh good! That printer is offering you thousands of direct mail postcards for next to nothing.

But wait.

Are you opening a club or trying to establish a solid personal brand? Before you blanket the world with 5,000 direct mail pieces/flyers, consider this: If it’s a non-personalized piece (or a “static” piece), you may get a response that is less than 1%. So let’s say that takes you down to about 50 pieces that won’t get immediately thrown away. Then let’s say that you chose a broad list of addresses to mail to rather than something targeted around your ideal customer. That takes you down to about 10 pieces.

But among those 10, there are a bunch of variables – timing, budget, competing options and more. All before you’ve taken a first meeting.

This is where the “What have I got to lose?” mentality can take over where numbers and percentages are played, but don’t let it. What you’ve risked is the opportunity to form a first impression that’s customized, such as what printers can now do with personalized printing, even a web address on the piece that sends the recipient to a special landing page. These are the tactics worth spending more on, including list development, which leads us to…

5) The list of “anybodys” in your database

A lot of companies can promise you a list of prospect names for purchase, but be careful. All are not alike. The cheapest might not be offering you the best quality based on your specific criteria, such as a collection of names. How many of those names have been “scrubbed” or updated? And even if they are, are they the right names you’re trying to reach?

Your customer database can be your lifeblood and the less input you have on creating that database, the more you’re leaving to chance. And that’s hampering your efforts early on. When you cut corners by purchasing a list without knowing this information, you’ll not only hurt yourself with a less-than-ideal list, but you’ll also be impacting the things you use that list for.

Wow, the cost of being cheap sure can get expensive, can’t it?

Dan's Chicago CMO Blog

By Dan Gershenson 22 Jul, 2022
Do a search for your name, your company name, your product or service names. Whatever you find on page one in the Google SERPs amounts to a significant collage of how your brand is seen in the wild today. See, it doesn’t matter if your best client tells their best friend you are the most […] The post Page One on Google Is Your New Business Card appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 15 Jul, 2022
For local businesses, ranking your business in Google My Business (the Google maps 3-pack) can be the difference between thriving and merely surviving. All Google products evolve as they find ways to make search better and, let’s face it, make more money from that fact. There are a handful of factors that Google uses to […] The post Google My Business: The Key to Ranking Your Local Business appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 08 Jul, 2022
Look, if you’re a local business, meaning most or all of your business comes from customers living in your community, you must get very serious about local SEO. Don’t worry, ranking locally for the kinds of things your prospects are looking for isn’t rocket science, but it does take a serious commitment to a handful […] The post The Local SEO Playbook – Your Guide to Local Rankings appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 02 Jul, 2022
The conversation was going well. We felt like we were connecting at the same level. The prospect had gotten to know me and appeared to feel great about my understanding of his process, goals, etc. Then came the question. I’ve received it many times before. “Do you have any experience in our industry?” Years ago, […] The post “Do You Have Experience In Our Industry? No? Cool.” appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 24 Jun, 2022
“The Client Is Always Right,” they say proudly. Nah. If the client is a soul-sucking, verbally abusive monster who makes you feel less than dirt, they’re not right. They’re Energy Vampires and you need to kill them. Not literally, of course. I mean fire them. Tell them to exit, stage left, out of your life […] The post Defeating The Energy Vampires appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 17 Jun, 2022
First, watch this short video on “How To Hire A Marketing Consultant,” from John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. We think it’ll share a great point of view on ten things you should be looking for in a marketing consultant so you can start your search off right.  To John’s points, we’d like to expand on […] The post Ready To Hire A Marketing Consultant? Here’s 10 Things To Look For. appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 10 Jun, 2022
I recently came across a firm that claims supreme expertise in brand strategy, content, graphic design, web development, SEO, advertising, public relations, video and business operations. Oh really. Is that all? Some web development firms say they are also experts in SEO. Fair enough. But oh, by the way, they also do content and graphic […] The post Agencies Offering Too Many Side Dishes With The Meal appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 03 Jun, 2022
Big or small, traditionally focused or digitally focused, only one kind of agency will be left standing in the future: The nimble one. There is a grim future for agencies that have a process that looks like so: Writer and designer team get Creative Brief. Writer and designer concept, concept, concept, concept, concept… Eureka! They […] The post The Future Favors The Nimble Agency appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 27 May, 2022
There’s a popular excuse that many agencies make for themselves when it comes to developing their own brand that has to do with “the cobbler’s shoes” and basically how we’re all like a shoemaker who makes shoes for every customer except his own children. I should know. I used to make this excuse myself. But […] The post You’re Ignoring This Client The Most. appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
By Dan Gershenson 30 May, 2017
There’s a Facebook community I was recently excited to join, led by one of of the people in our industry I truly respect. Within two weeks, I found I had to leave it. It wasn’t largely the group leader’s fault. It was the people who killed it from within. Why? The entire mission of the […] The post Carnival Barking and Rapid Fire Posting Chaos: Improving Online Communities From Within appeared first on Caliber Brand Strategy + Content Marketing.
More Posts
Share by: