Don’t lie to your customers!

Bad news travels fast. If you can’t deliver what was promised in your communications, you can bet that your customers will let their friends know about it. So if you can’t live up to the claims made in your marketing communications, change your claims. Truth in advertising is a rule for success in any business.

Inconsistent and ineffective corporate identity

Using a piece of clip art with your company name printed in a standard font just won’t deliver the impact a professionally designed logo does. And, of course, corporate identity programs involve more than just a logo, which, though important, is just your company signature. A successful program involves researching your industry, your company, and your competitors, and developing a unique value proposition for your company, its products, and services. The result is a distinctive, relevant and easily identified corporate identity that conveys your company’s vision, values, prominence, and personality.

Having a ‘cheap and cheerful’ web site

A web site is your web advertisement for your business. It’s got to sell your company and its products and services to people with very short attention spans: prospects will surf to a competitor’s site in seconds flat if they don’t immediately see that you can meet a burning need. In today’s marketplace, your web site should be the cornerstone of your marketing strategy. It’s where marketing communications start and end. You should put a sound marketing strategy in place before site development begins; and when your site is going up, make sure that all your messaging integrates seamlessly with your branding and business processes.