Sometimes you need an outside ad agency or design firm to produce your marketing materials.

This article will give you some pointers on when you need to go outside.

Sometimes you can produce marketing materials with your in-house graphic designers or desktop publishers.

This article will give you some guidelines on when you should stay inside.

If your organization is dependent on ads, sales brochures, or corporate literature for its success, it makes sense to establish a budget to hire an outside professional. In-house desktop publishers may lack the experience or training.

If your organization is dependent on successfully branding products, services, or the company itself, you do need to go outside. See our article on branding.

How do you know if your advertising and marketing budget is right for your company? Tradition prescribes two percent of gross sales. Alf Nucifora of Nucifora Consulting Group, suggests two to five percent of gross sales; or, if you are a startup, closer to five percent of projected sales. Says Nucifora, "You have to load the gun for repetitive firing."

If you decide to handle creative inside, ask Daddy Desktop how we can consult and help at 704.542.3375.

Or view our article on our basic services.

It will define your creative strategy.

Agencies often handle the whole package — print ads, TV, radio, brochures. They employ a variety of media, and are the best choice for deciding which medium or combination of media is best for you.

DR shops accomplish this through direct response advertising, and are specialists in this creative, yet rules-oriented discipline. "Direct" is the only medium that accepts bottom-line accountability for results.

Direct media include ads, radio, television, mail, telemarketing and perhaps e-mail. These media demand swift response.

Direct writer Ivan Levison says, "Use some of the time-tested techniques mastered in the world of direct marketing."

Do you know what the best-read part of a direct mail package is? Direct response experts know the art and science of writing the letter, designing the envelope, creating the offer, measuring results.

Commitment is needed because direct response operates using a series of continuous tests called "control" mailings. One theory advocates sending the same mailer three times, because the third will be far more effective than the first two combined. Jay Conrad Levinson, the original "guerrilla marketer," says: "Direct mail is the least expensive method of marketing on a per-sale basis."

Go outside and use a
design firm or freelance creative consultant if your main need is an annual report, company trademark, product packaging, or 4-color marketing literature.

These design projects often require experience, finesse, subtlety in typography and paper selection, refined printing, that only a dedicated pro can provide.

In-house DTPers are often primarily computer techs, not creative sophisticates of the sort you need. Do not confuse their technical skills with the ability to write and design effective marketing communications materials.

If
you're small and want to be taken seriously,
you're growing and want to look important.
The work of a trained, experienced professional designer will enhance the public image of your company.

If you make a speech, introduce a new product, land a big client, win an award — a PR consultant will get that hot news into the right media.

They will write a release, organize a party, get you exposure.

But do not ask them to write ads.

Nucifora says, "In terms of affordability, efficiency and effectiveness, [PR is] one of the best communications weapons available to any business."

In "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding," Al and Laura Ries (dad and daughter) advocate PR as the primary tool of brand building. (We're not as sure as they are.)

Read Guerrilla P.R., by Michael Levine.

Modest print pieces like a brochure, sales sheet, newsletter, small space ad, can be readily handled inside. It costs little, gives you total control.

Do avoid starting headline or body copy with the word "We." Focus on user benefit.

Do not try to do radio, TV, or multimedia in-house.

The danger to doing creative work in-house:

You are the creative resource who creates the ideas.
You are at the same time the client who applies objective business standards to evaluating those ideas.

Bye-bye cool objectivity.

What’s more important? Having fun creating ideas? Or objectively evaluating someone else’s ideas to build your business?

You can split the difference by doing the work in-house and calling in Daddy Desktop to consult, to be a totally objective consultant who will make creative suggestions.

When I was a kid drawing Superman holding a plane aloft with one hand, I had to show someone my work. Often Mom said my art was stilted — which meant I had to draw it over.

Since you probably won't ask your mother about the work, ask a candid friend, staffer, or outside consultant.

Do not tell them you did the work or they'll just pat you on the back.

Do not ask if they like the work.

Do ask: "Would you shop in this store?" "Might you buy this product?" "Would you hire this catering service?" "Would you order from this catalog?" Then you'll get the truth. (We learned this from an old book by Ernest Dichter.)

Desktop publishing tools make it possible for people who "can't draw a straight line" to create halfway decent print materials.

If you do decide to stay in-house, you have two excellent choices:

1. Hire a full-time in-house professional designer.

One with a few years real-world experience, with solid desktop publishing skills, a go-getter. He or she will need executive direction — a time investment from you. You will need patience, plus budget for modest salary, art supplies, computers, and software. Or:

2. Join the crowd — the millions of other management people and small business owners who do the work themselves.

Many startups and companies with budget constraints produce marketing materials in-house.

And let Daddy Desktop consult and help.

Beware: managers doing desktop publishing may leave their regular work undone — this, too is a cost.

You need to schedule time to learn software and make tech support calls; to write, design, revise, work with a printer and service bureau. Sometimes you save a few dollars and waste expensive time you make up
on the weekend (yecch).

Whether you hire an outside creative resource, or just walk down the hall and hand the project to someone
in-house — you absolutely positively have to act like a client, to provide facts and set measurable goals.

Then, when your creative suppliers present their solutions to you, insist that they justify their creative work in terms of its ability to meet your business objectives.

Or consult with Daddy Desktop. 704.542.3375.