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Jun 03

Websites and typography

By Design, Web No Comments

In the days when all marketing materials were off-line, one of the fundamental questions when starting a new project was the use of typography. Did the client/brand have an existing font or fonts, what was the hierarchy etc etc?

In an era of digital marketing, where the concerns are all about web safe fonts, should typography still play such an important role in graphic and web design? At DLK Partners we believe the answer to this question absolutely yes – 100%.

So why do we believe this?

With 96% of the internet being made up of written content, it is hardly surprising how that written content is portrayed plays a vital role in the success of your digital presence.

Clarity

It is widely acknowledged that it takes seven seconds for someone visiting a website, for the first time, to make a decision whether to stay or move. If your website has poor typography and the viewer sees a mass of confused information, you are probably going to lose them. However, if your site has excellent typography, then the visitor will be able to engage with your site, as the typography will have created a hierarchy of information by gathering relevant pieces of information together in their appropriate hierarchy.

Good typography will allow your potential client to find the information they are looking for quickly and efficiently.

Engagement

As we have already mentioned, bad typography can affect web traffic, so there is no point in spending time and effort on SEO in order to drive traffic to your site, only to turn viewers off the moment they land on your site. If content on a web site is king, then typography should be the next in line to the throne. A well-composed typographic page engages your audience, and will encourage visitors to read what is being said. A mixture of headings, highlighted text and emboldened sentences can help lift your website off the page – in a way that a good actor can read a few lines and it comes alive, whereas someone reading the same few lines in a monotone voice is a great cure for insomnia.

Guiding the visitor

It is possible through good typography to influence how a visitor reacts and reads your website. A talented designer can use their skills to direct the reader through a website in a controlled manner and hence allow the message being conveyed to be understood and assimilated with ease. If everything on the page has the same impact the reader will be confused and not know where to look; likewise if too many techniques are involved then the page turns into ‘visual noise’ with everything screaming at the reader.

Should you think your website is in need of some excellent typography, please contact David Liney on 020 7394 3785

May 07

social media is not for me

By Marketing, Social media, Web No Comments

It’s a common refrain we often hear from our B2B clients. We also get told “ Facebook and Twitter are OK for your hotel clients, but nobody in our business is into all this sort of thing.”

Recently DLK Partners became the ‘in-house marketing department’ for fresh produce traders Rush Group. One of the remits was to increase their exposure in the marketplace, not only to attract new customers but also new growers. We had previously worked with the Group and had designed and built their original website. However after five years, the site was looking a little tired and out of date.

We created a proposal that would provide them with a new responsive website and to run their social media campaign. Initially Rush was dubious about what social media could do for them. They stated that the fresh produce industry, especially the vegetable sector, was not into digital marketing, and that it would all be a waste of time and money. However they decided to take DLK Partners’ advice and in their words “give social media a go”, and the good news is that nine months on from the initial tweet and posting, Rush has become a convert to social media.

So how did this happen?

Industry Knowledge

DLK Partners has immersed themselves into the fresh produce industry; in order to give them the level of understanding that is required to carry out an effective social media programme. This continuing education process enables DLK to post/tweet etc., on the Group’s behalf, without having to double check everything with their client and thus waste valuable time.

Quality not Quantity

There is a school of thought which states that your social media campaign can only be quantified successful by how many followers/likes you have. If you are a celebrity or a populist brand this might be true, but if you are a niche B2B company, this could not be further from the truth. Admittedly, if you only have a tiny following you are not going to make much of an impact, but a following of 100+ targeted and relevant companies and individuals can make a real impact on your business. With such numbers in your social media circle, it allows you to carry out meaningful business discussions, rather than have your marketing diluted by people who just make up the numbers.

Content

Content is king, whether on your blog/news feed or your social media channels. There is no point in coming to the social media arena if you have got nothing to say. What you say is of course completely up to you, but DLK Partners believes that in a B2B environment, any comments that are too personal (to the person not the business) is a bit of a waste of time. Content should always try to be as relevant and current as possible, social media is a fast moving medium and commenting on something a month after it has happened just makes you look out of touch.

Proactive vs Reactive

Social media content, generally speaking, can be divided into two distinct categories: Proactive and Reactive. A good balance of these is important for on-going success; proactive posts are ideal for strategic marketing and brand building, whereas reactive posts are ideal for raising your profile and keeping your company at front of mind. To ensure Rush Group’s social media campaign keeps on the right track, DLK Partners plans the Group’s proactive presence on a monthly basis and then continually monitors the appropriate channels for reactive opportunities and activities.

The combination of all these five points has turned a company that felt social media was useful but not for them, into a company who values and respects this marketing medium as they have seen, first hand, the tangible benefits it has brought their company.

If you think your business could benefit from a targeted social media campaign, please contact DLK Partners today.

Apr 11

Cross-fertilisation helps potato sales grow

By Copywriting, Marketing, Web No Comments

Here at DLK Partners we do like a challenge…

Our client Rush Group, top potato traders, enlisted our help and then at our first meeting told us that they didn’t know what we could do for them, as the vegetable industry doesn’t do marketing!

To prove or disprove this point, we took an early morning trip down to New Covent Garden Market in Vauxhall to investigate further. Walking through all the market stalls, it seemed, unsurprisingly that Rush Group were right, the vegetable traders were real ‘stick in the muds’ when it came to any form of promotional marketing. However, the fruit stalls were bursting with all types of marketing items – posters, flags, leaflets – you name it, they had it on their stalls. When we discussed this with Rush Group, they agreed that the vegetable industry was stuck in the dark ages and that of course had to change.

DLK Partners do not believe in each industry having its own marketing and design rules – in fact we believe the more creative and strategic cross-fertilisation you can engage in, the better the results. Therefore we approached the humble potato, in particular the new French variety Amandine, from a distinctly lifestyle point of view.

Rush Group were keen to raise the profile of this luxurious tuber, as outside specialist circles it was relatively unknown, and they had a load sitting in cold storage they were keen to shift them.  Our first task was to brand Amandine potatoes as something desirable, special and high quality. We did this by playing on the ‘French’ aspect of the potato, by using the country’s national colours and traditional Art Nouveau style typeface as the basis for the Amandine identity, alongside some specially commissioned photographs and the strapline – ‘The superior French salad potato’. In fact we treated this potato as we would do any of the other luxury items and services we work with on a daily basis.

The next task was to find the hook – something to create some energy and interest. The solution – run a competition to find the best original recipe that used Amandines as its main ingredient. We created a promotional pack that would be handed out via the wholesalers to their end customers, which included small shops, restaurants, old people homes and hotels. This pack included, sample recipes, posters and an information leaflet, all encouraging people to post their original recipes on Rush Group’s website, with the best recipe winning a cookery course at one of London’s top cookery schools.

The campaign is still running, but from all the positive feedback we are getting, Rush Group’s Amandine campaign is certainly causing a stir, as rules have been broken and lines have been crossed – but all in a good way of course.

Being the first to do something is both exciting and daunting, but we believe that it should not be used as a reason for not doing it. Luckily for DLK Partners, our client agreed with us and backed our marketing initiatives all the way and was prepared to look at their business from a new angle.