Blame the economy, but everyone is trying to cut corners.

Lately, I’ve come across any number of examples of DIY graphics and marketing materials. This is a trend that will only end up biting the creators in the butt. By pinching pennies and doing a poor job, these people are diminishing their brand, angering their customers, and utterly failing to promote their business in a positive light.

Repeat after me: “I am not a graphic artist.”

Now, say it again. “I am not a graphic artist.”

Just because you give someone a hammer and some nails doesn’t mean that person can build a house you’d want to live in. Graphics are the same way. Power to the people be praised, but just because a free or inexpensive software tool can be used by anyone with a mouse and a frontal lobe doesn’t mean that effective marketing materials are going to spring forth.

Bottom line: leave the graphics to the professionals and your customers will turn toward you, not away from you.

Email marketing is a particlarly nasty black hole for customer goodwill. I present to you Exhibit A:

Now, this is a classic, textbook example of what not to do in an email marketing campaign. Let’s go through the mistakes made here one by one.

1. Using a non-company domain for your email address
Although it’s blurred out in the example above, the person sent this from a GMail address. Just as any business using an AOL address in days past, nothing says amateur like a business email that doesn’t use your domain.

2. The “To” Field – A mine field of customer anger and resentment
This person put 74 recipient addresses in the TO field. Being a gross breach of email etiquitte, it’s a sure-fire way to anger your potential customers. Under no circumstances should you use someone’s email address if they did not explicitly concent to receive marketing communications from you. And under no circumstances should you violate the person’s privacy by exposing their address for all to see.

3. “Fun With Fonts” – An effective way to communicate with 1st graders
In the history of branding and marketing, no adult customer has ever responded positively to the use of all-caps (it’s perceived as SHOUTING), mutliple exclaimation marks (we’re not in grade school any more), comic sans (or any “cute” font), verbose copy, or the use of the full spectrum of colors within a single sentence. So, unless you are communicating with a 1st grader, understand that typography is an art best left to professionals. When used well, it guides the eye to key communication points without distracting from the overall message, compliments your branding, and conveys a sense of intelligence and sphistication. When used poorly…well, you can see for yourself in the example above.

4. “Do-it-yourself” Graphics – Microsoft Templates do not equate to Professional Graphics
Yes, software packages put a lot of power in your hands. Microsoft Word and Publisher have a number of great templates. These are great if you’re putting together a “Lost Dog” flyer or a garage sale sign. They aren’t so great for your marketing materials. Using them immediately tips your hand that you designed it yourself. The customer immediately thinks things like “cheap” and “cheesy,” not things like “sophisticated” and “professional.” Why would they take your business seriously?

5. (Not pictured) Send from Yourself – How to get black-flagged in one easy step
This is a real consideration: if you send a mass emailing from your personal address, or even the one you use for your business communications–or even one from your company’s domain–and you risk getting your address, or worse, your server, black listed by all the major ISPs. This actually happened to a client of mine and it took a ton of work and weeks of time to repair the damage.

So let’s recap:

Marketing matters. Graphic design matters. Use of professional, third-party email marketing tools (I recommend MailChimp, personally) matters. Leave these to the professionals and resist the urge to do it yourself. Failing to heed this advice will only anger your customers, burn your company’s goodwill, and fail to increase sales. For all intents and purposes, the damage is permanent, so just don’t even think about it.

Resources:

MailChimp Email Marketing Resource Center (free)

Constant Contact Email Marketing Learning Center (free)

One critical piece of business software on any Mac is Office 2004. The reason this is so critical is that two versions of office on the two platforms have been completely interoperable since 2004. With the introduction of Office 2007 on the PC and its new and highly-touted XML-based file format, many Mac users are wondering what the impact will be on this critical interoperability. The short story is that Mac Office 2004 users will not be able to open files saved to the new format…yet. In the short term, Microsoft is advising that Mac users request that PC users save to the older 2004 file format until Microsoft releases their file conversion tool.

According to Microsoft’s head of the Mac Business Unit, converters are on their way:

We’re building file-format converters that will allow Mac users to access Office Open XML Format following the general availability of the 2007 Office system at the end of January. We will release a public beta version of the converters in the spring of 2007, and final versions of the converters will ship six to eight weeks after Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is available. For now, we recommend that Mac users advise their friends and colleagues using the 2007 Office system to save their documents as a “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure the documents can be easily shared across platforms. [bold, mine]

According to Sheridan Jones, a Group Marketing Manager in the Mac BU, the converters are “expected late March/early April.” Stay tuned.