Monday, November 8, 2010

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Marketing Plan


I just took an online class to learn how to design websites using Dreamweaver. The class was fast paced, but by the end of it I really understood how to design pages using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)… which was my goal. Of course I was given all of the graphics and banners and logos to use and everything just went together so nicely as I plowed through all of the exercises! Pages didn’t blow up because the wrong sized photo was used. Everything was nice and tidy.

Ok, so now to apply all that knowledge to my own site…

It immediately became obvious that I knew how to build the pages, but I needed graphics for the site. What should I use as my banner? What colors? What about a logo? The light bulb went off that I really needed to back up a little and develop my “brand”.

What is a brand? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competition’s offering.

Defining your brand is like a journey of self-discovery. It can be difficult, time-consuming and uncomfortable. It requires, at the very least, answers to the questions below:
• What is your mission?
• What are the benefits and features of your products?
• What do your customers and prospects already think of your company?
• What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

So I have a good idea of my target market. And my product is defined. What I desire now is a consistent image so that my clients recognize me. My starting point was choosing the colors for the website.

My good friend Mickey gave me this link several months ago:
http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/
So I played for hours and my color scheme is done. It's based on those wonderful sunsets here in Tucson.
Have a go at it. It’s fun!