OfficePort Chicago is pleased to present:
You’ve Got The Look: Branding and PR for Small Business
OfficePort Chicago, 9 W. Washington, just west of State. 6-9 pm.

REGISTER HERE

Emily Lonigro, founder of design firm LimeRed Studio and co-founder of The Web Farm, and Sally O’Dowd, founder of Sally On Media, an integrated marketing company, will discuss how small-business owners can get recognized for what they do best.

Drawing from her Small-Business Branding Tool Kit, Emily will review the steps that businesspeople should take when planning a branding strategy, website, logo, and color palate. Sally will discuss ways to develop your company’s unique story, messaging and newsworthy content (twitter-worthy, too). Join us for this interactive, visual session–and get ready to spread the news about your company in 2010!

Attendees will learn how to:

• identify the visuals and logo that tell their company story
• identify a color palate
• think in terms of their clients’ success, and how to express that visually
• develop the basics of a PR plan and identify what’s newsworthy
• develop a unique brand positioning and messaging
• integrate search and site optimization into PR campaigns

Emily has a degree in journalism and mass communication from Drake University and has spent the last 10 years designing for brands such as Clinique, Pepperidge Farm, Campbell’s Soup, and Discover Card. LimeRed Studio, the company Emily founded in 2004, specializes in online and offline branding and design for small businesses. She is also co-founder of The Web Farm, a consulting firm that specializes in analytics, user testing, social media and branding.

Sally has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has 17 years of communications and marketing experience. Prior to opening Sally On Media, Sally was global PR director at Razorfish, one of the largest digital ad agencies in the world. She has also worked with numerous Chicago start-ups and enterprises. twitter @sallyodowd.

• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later

Trust me, this can get messy. You’re going to have way more responses than you know what to do with. What I like to do is advertise with a list of three project-related questions or requirements. If the responder doesn’t address any one of those, then they’re out.

Regardless of how thorough you are with your search, talking to a creative person for the first time can be downright intimidating. A lot of times it goes like this:

You: Hi, I’m from Company, Inc. I saw your ad on Craigslist/My friend said you were great/I’m calling out of the blue and I really need a website. How much do you think that would cost?

Creative Person: Um. Well… (mutes the phone and laughs/rolls her eyes) that depends. What do you want it to do?

You: (thinking: isn’t that your job – to tell me what it should do?) I just need something simple to get myself online.

CP: (already frustrated) A website can be anywhere from $500 to $25,000. I mean, it really depends on your content. Do you have a wireframe? (Designy language ensues.)

You: (sigh)

I’ve been on both ends of this conversation and it’s equally frustrating for both sides. One way to alleviate some of the creative pain is to get your thoughts together before you even talk to or email anyone. What I’m suggesting is writing a creative brief. It’s a shortened, less time-intensive version of an RFP (Request for Proposal).

A creative brief is a one- or two-page statement of work that you can use to request proposals, compare estimates, and make sure you are comparing apples to apples when choosing a firm or freelancer. The components are:

* objectives,
* project description,
* specific elements,
* deliverables,
* timeline,
* who supplies what, and
* any other information you can think of that is relevant to the job. Make it brief and make it informative.

I wrote you a starter brief – access it here.

• Digg this post
• Recommend on Facebook
• Buzz it up
• Share with Stumblers
• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post
• Tell a friend
• Print for later