Launching a marketing campaign can create some challenging questions for the busy small business owner. Should you take out a print ad or use direct mail? What about in-store signs? How can I reach the most customers in the least expensive way? Working with an experienced agency can make finding the answers a lot easier. However, hiring a branding agency can be financially unfeasible for some businesses. Whether you are developing a marketing plan on your own or working with an agency, here are three questions worth knowing the answers to before you begin:??

1. What is Your Message? Be clear about the message you are trying to?communicate to your customers. Clear communication starts by knowing the overall message of your company and your brand. What makes your brand unique? What defines your company? What corporate or brand values do you want to communicate to your customers? With this thinking in mind, find a specific theme to create a unique and appealing promotional package that connects your company’s values to those of your customers. ?

2. How Will Customers Encounter This Message? Once you have defined your message, you must convey it to consumers. The best way to deliver a brand's message is by making use of multiple marketing platforms such as print, online, retail, social media and even verbal communications. For this to be successful, it's important that you design a campaign that is clear and effective. However, it’s also important that the campaign be consistent across the different marketing platforms. Even the way your employees and sales staff members talk about your company should reflect the language appearing in print and online. ?

3. How can you get both short-term benefits (sales) and long-term?benefits (brand building) from your promotional campaign? The goal of?a promotional effort should be balanced between immediate and long-term corporate goals. Immediate aims of a campaign should include gains in your business, namely, acquiring new customers, making sales, and getting noticed. However, successful marketing should also build up the overall reputation and awareness of your company over time. A good promotional campaign will balance these two objectives by simultaneously introducing a new customer to the brand and reinforcing current customers' experience with the brand. Using consistent messages delivered across multiple platforms can help achieve both short- and long-term goals.

The more prepared you can be going into the development of a promotional campaign, the more work you are likely to save yourself down the road and the more effective your campaign is likely to be.

Marcos Chavez, Principal and Creative Director at TODA a New York City boutique agency that provides a multidisciplinary approach which includes brand identity, print, packaging, interactive, web, product, space and exhibit design. Watch Marcos and lead designer, Dory Pogers, give first-hand branding advice to OPEN Cardmember, Mocada Museum, in our special web series, Project RE:Brand.   

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