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Looked after properly, your client database can be one of your most valuable assets, and one of your most powerful marketing tools. It can be essential when it comes to fostering relationships with your existing customers, expanding your business with repeat sales, and keeping track of new leads and potential clients.

Given all these wonderful possibilities, it is vital that you don't let your client database waste away, gathering mothballs in the corner. Regardless of whether you use it for eNewsletters, event invitations, or for addressing Christmas cards, it's vital that your client database is always as up to date as possible, and contains relevant, specific notes.

Keep Your Information Simple

One of the best ways to ensure that you keep your client database up to date is to make it simple to manage, right from the word go. Avoid including unnecessary information when you first establish your database. The more information fields you have to complete and update, the more likely it is that you won’t. For instance, if you haven’t had a fax machine for the last ten years, chances are, you don’t really need to include a field for fax numbers.

Standardise. Standardise. Standardise.

Another tip for setting up your database; make sure that you standardise the all the information it will contain. Establish standard rules and regulations around the formatting of data. For instance, will names be listed as Fred Jones, F. Smith or Smith, Fred? Will phone numbers be expressed as 02 9876 5432 or (02) 9876 5432? These tiny differences may seem insignificant, but they can make a big difference, particularly when it comes to duplicate entries.

Restrict User Access

Depending on how big your company is, restricting user access can make life much easier. If all of your 250 employees can edit the information included within your database, there is simply no way to control accuracy. Instead, make updating data the responsibility of just a handful of people. While all your employees should be able to access the information contained within the database, they shouldn’t all be able to change that information.

Capture Social Media Contact Details

If you haven’t already considered it, then think about capturing social media contact details. With the ever-growing use of social media as a mainstream communication channel, this type of information can be invaluable. So, configure your database to capture Facebook page URLs, Twitter handles, Google+ profile pages, and LinkedIn addresses. That way, next time you are about to email a client, you can take a quick look at their social media accounts, and congratulate them on any recent announcements.

Communicate Regularly

There’s no point in having a client database, and making sure all of the data included within is up-to-date, if you don’t use it. So, make sure that you stay in touch with the clients listed in your database, even if it’s just the occasional friendly message or advice article. Sharing something for nothing can win over the trust of potential leads much more quickly than a hard sell. Invite the people included in your database to touch base with you, or your employees, with their questions and queries. Staying in touch keeps you top of mind, and more likely to win work.

Avoid Constant Selling

While we’re on the topic of touching base with your clients, avoid selling to the contacts in your database all the time. The hard sell gets really old, really fast, particularly these days when people are so commercially savvy. Instead, send your database useful information that informs, educates or entertains.

Undertake Regular Audits

If you want to be 100% certain that your database is chock full of relevant content, then you should undertake regular audits. We suggest doing this at least twice a year. Take the time to filter through, and double check, all the information contained within your database. And, always add a note to every entry indicating the date on which it was last updated. This will save any double-ups. On average, a neglected database is likely to become worthless within three years, particularly given the higher rates of employment turnover these days. So, regular database audits could be an investment that is worth your while in the long run.

Hire a Professional

If all else fails, or if you really don’t have time to go through and manually check every record in your database, then it might be time to call in the professionals. There are plenty of professional data cleaning companies out there; a quick Google search will return plenty of results.

If you’re a small business owner or operator, then chances are you’ve had to work with some sort of a designer along the way. Maybe a web designer? Or a graphic designer? Regardless of what sort of designer it may be, the road to design success may have been somewhat rocky. Miscommunication, or misunderstandings about project scope are common complaints when it comes to relationships with designers.

So, to help you overcome these issues in the future, we thought we’d put together some advice on how to get the most out of your web designer or graphic designer. Our tips and tricks should help keep both you, and your designer, happy and help ensure an optimum outcome for all parties involved.

1. Do Your Research

Before you even think about picking up the phone and engaging the services of a designer, do your research. The more research you do ahead of time, the smoother the design process will be. Pinpoint the sort of designs that you like. Have a few website examples, logos, and graphics that you like on-hand. The list doesn’t have to be too extensive (after all, your designer will come to the party armed with some creative genius). But, if you can provide a starting point for your designer, then the first draft of your designs are much more likely to capture your brand essence and personality. Another tip (when it comes to research) is to peruse your designer’s portfolio. Make sure that there is a few designs included that match the look and feel you’re after. And then highlight these to your designer during your design brief.

2. Be Realistic About Price

Once you have decided upon your designer, it is always a good idea to ask for a ballpark estimate. Once you get this estimate, you need to be realistic about what it is that you are expecting to be delivered. You simply aren’t going to receive a high-end, custom hand-drawn $1,500 logo if you’re only will to pay $150. More is always possible, but it just means that you have to be willing to pay for the service. Everyone’s time is valuable.

3. Have Some Idea of What it is that You Want

As mentioned in our first tip, if you have a little bit of an idea of what you want before you hire a designer, then it will save you both money and time in the long run. Generally speaking, the more versions, and the more edits that a designer has to make, the more expensive the project will be.  

4. Agree on the Scope of the Project

If it’s not 100% clear at the outset of the project, then make sure that the project scope is agreed upon as early as possible. Make sure that you know what’s included in the quote, including the number of revisions. Agree upon the delivery date. Know who is responsible for which outputs. Work out a contingency plan if delivery dates are missed. Clarify the payment terms and turnaround times. Make sure that you are both on the same page from the beginning; it will save disagreements and issues down the track.

5. Expect to Pay More if You Change Your Mind

If you get halfway through the project, and then decide that you’re not 100% happy, or that you’d really prefer something completely different, then unfortunately, you do need to expect to have to pay more. While most designers, including the team here at Gloss, are keen to provide exceptional customer service, we have invested time and money and do need to be compensated.

6. Provide Constructive, Specific Feedback

If there is something that you’re not keen on, let your designer know. But, as much as possible, try to pinpoint exactly what it is that you don’t like. Feedback like, “It needs to pop more”, or “I thought it would have more wow factor” is really difficult for designers to work with. Instead, try feedback like, “I don’t like the colour – it’s a bit too dark” or “It looks a bit crowded, can we introduce some more white space”. Your designer will love you for it!

7. If Your Designer is Great, Share the Love Around

As small business owners and operators, we all know that word-of-mouth is the best possible advertising around. So, if you are super happy with your design job, then make sure you recommend your designer to all your friends, colleagues, and family members. You never know, you might even get a discount next time around.

If you’re a small, or even a medium, business owner, chances are that at some point you’ve wondered whether you really need to have a Style Guide. Given that your team is quite small, and you approve all marketing collateral yourself, you might think that you simply have no need for one.

Before you move the whole Style Guide thing into the too hard basket, ask yourself the following questions. Do you have a logo? Do you use certain colours? Are there particular branding elements or words that you avoid at all costs? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it’s probably time to put pen to paper and develop your style guide.

What is a Style Guide?

A Style Guide is one single source of all information that is related to your brand. Think of it like the blueprint, the master plan for your brand. It should be the go-to manual when it comes to your brand, and all of the communications and marketing material that your brand produces.

All of your employees should have access to, and should follow, the content contained within your Style Guide. This way, the consistency of your brand is maintained. And, brand consistency fosters brand strength. Think about any of the world’s largest brands. They are always, 100% consistent. There’s Cadbury’s unmistakable shade of purple. McDonald’s distinctive red with the yellow arches. Nike’s swoosh. Apple’s apple. They are instantly recognizable, all around the world, because they are always the same.

A Style Guide formalises this consistency. It provides guidance to all employees, which can be especially helpful if your company is spread out across multiple offices, states, or even countries. A Style Guide can be invaluable if you outsource graphic design or marketing work to external contractors. By perusing just one simple document, your contractors know exactly what they can and cannot do when it comes to your brand. Similarly, if you have a change of employees within your marketing department, a Style Guide will help ensure ongoing consistency, regardless of who is sitting in the chair.

What Should I Include in My Style Guide?

So, have we got you over the line? Are you ready to put pen to paper and create your comprehensive brand Style Guide? If you are, here a few tips on the type of content that you should cover:

• Brand Message: it’s always a good idea to open your Style Guide with an overview of your brand message. What exactly is it that your brand stands for? What are the values most important to your brand? What are your mission, and your vision, for your brand?
• Logo Treatment and Usage: your logo is arguably the most important element of your brand. So, make sure that you take measures to protect its integrity. Your Style Guide should include various treatments of your logo (black and white, monochrome, grey scale, horizontal, vertical) and where and how these variations are acceptable for use. It should include minimum size restrictions, as well as any requisite surrounding white space.
• Tagline: if your company has a tagline, include a dedicated section for it. Outline how, and when, it can be used.
• Brand Colours: make sure you have a section on the colours that can be used in any company collateral. Generally, these will be the colours of your logo. It is best practice to include all colour types (CMYK, Pantone, and RGB). If you have secondary colours (that perhaps aren’t featured in your logo), then include these as well.
• Typography: if there are particular fonts that you prefer to use, then slot them right on in. Keep in mind that you may have different fonts for different applications; the range of fonts available in graphic design software packages (such as InDesign) far outstrip those available in Microsoft’s products. So, make sure that you cover all bases.
• Templates: if you have pre-approved company templates, then include all of these (along with usage instructions) in your Style Guide. Templates could include (but are in no way limited to) letterheads, report templates, PowerPoint presentations, email signatures, other stationery, and business cards.
• Tone of Voice: it useful to include an overview of the tone of voice that you want used in all marketing and communications material. Do you want your brand’s voice to sound like that of a trusted friend? A polished professional? A technical guru?
• Language Styles: including a section on language styles can help iron out any wrinkles when it comes to content creation. In your language style section, you should include elements such as spelling, punctuation, numbers, abbreviations, and capitalization.
• Target Audience: if you really want to dig a little bit deeper, you can even include a section on your brand’s target audience. Provide a description and a persona for whom it is that you are trying to reach with all your marketing and communications material.

Examples of Brilliant Style Guides

Apple i-Tunes: http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/resources/iTunesIdentityGuidelines.pdf

Skype: http://issuu.com/bondo/docs/skype_brand_book_-_look

Adobe: http://brandcenterdl.adobe.com/Corpmktg/Brandmktg/Campaign_Assets/guidelines/corporate/corporate_brand_guidelines.pdf

If all this sounds a bit daunting, or a bit restrictive, just remember, nothing is set in stone. Style Guides are always evolving, always changing. Even at the world’s biggest brands. Be prepared to develop your Style Guide as your brand develops. By developing your brand, your keep loyal customer on-board: they don’t want to see your brand stagnate. For instance, ANZ (one of Australia’s top four brands) launches a brand refresh every two years, changing and updating their logo and branding so that it stays on trend. If it’s good enough for ANZ, then it’s good enough for us!