It’s Marketing Monday for Dragon Tech Writing. We were considering what to post and just couldn’t seem to find our focus. Then, we found this little gem that offered some advice about stepping outside of marketing just product and services. The article suggests that you, or we in this case, also market the business. We have decided to give this a try over the next week or two.
For now, enjoy the article. The Puzzle Your Marketing Should Be Able to Solve
DragonTech Writing
Taking the mystery out of documentation
DragonTech Writing is a technical writing firm specializing in documenting software and processes, creating resumes and training materials, and formatting and editing for e-publishing.
Why Hire Us?
1. Software documentation can discover problems within the software before being released and gives customers a learning experience that minimizes frustration.
2. Process documentation can discover problems and in many cases find a solution. Solutions allow an organization to grow their employee and customer satisfaction.
3. Resumes market your skills and abilities with concise text making your resume clean and precise.
4.Training materials can prevent employee confusion about performance and encourages employee communication with management.
5. Formatting and editing for e-publishing gives readers a polished product that they would recommend to others.
6. We deliver the product you need then we move to our next customer while you manage your business.
When we first started this business, we printed up fliers to hand out to potential customers and clients. We created something quick and did not revisit it until almost six months later. Here is the original, keep in mind it is two fliers on one page, DragonTechone page flier
It has all the pertinent information such as business name, services, blog address, names, contact information, etc. However, it is a jumbled mess. There is no organization for a reader’s eyes to follow. There was no thought what so ever put into this flier; other then to get our name out quickly. This is a mistake that most businesses make, including ours.
Anything that has your businesses name, logo, or information needs to be carefully planned, discussed, and executed to make sure that it reflects your business and the audience you are targeting. It could be as simple as a flier or as complex as a website. The point is you have about 3 seconds to catch your audience’s attention before they move on to the next business.
This flier is part of our marketing campaign to introduce us to professionals and businesses that may need our services and it does not show who we are or the services that we offer. We quickly came up with a layout and design that reflected what we could do for other professionals and businesses. Here is the new flier, still two fliers on one page, DragonTech Writing, Flier. Can you spot the differences?
This flier has the exact same information as the first with some tweaks. It catches the eye and is organized for our audience to scan it quickly. Our business name and logo are now separated from the information by stylistic elements. Okay, it is just a line but it still allows a reader to zoom in on the business name. The second line lets the audience know that they are done reading. It also tells us where to cut the flier so we don’t accidentally cut out information.
This is the flier we should have started with to market our company. This is what we can do for you or your company, point out the flaws in your documentation then create a design and templates that represent your business accurately.
I met with my partner, Neil, and we revisited the mission statement that I had created. This is what I had created:
DragonTech Writing is a contract technical writing service that provides documentation in the following areas software, process, business, marketing, and portfolios (resumes/cover letters) for companies and individuals. Our mission is to provide companies and individuals with documents that are clear, concise, and useable for their customers, clients, or perspective employers.
While he did like it, he felt that it could be stronger. Keep in mind that he has experience writing mission statements for non-profit organizations.
Our mission is to provide local businesses, individuals, and entrepreneurs with clear and concise business documents (such as resumes, cover-letters, business and marketing plans, instruction and operations manuals, portfolios, etc.) as well as instructions on how to use those documents. We will also aid businesses in documenting processes, hardware, and software.
What he did is he put the people and places that we are targeting first; whereas, I put the types of document first. Basically, that is our market people or businesses who need help with documentation. Our market is not documents, they are not going to make conscious decisions to hire us.
He then stated that we will provide these companies with clear and concise business documents and created a list in parenthesis that clearly shows what we offer. We offer a wide range of services that will continue to grow as our business develops. The parenthesis state here is what we have so far but we are not limiting ourselves and we will offer instructions for the use of these documents if needed.
I will admit I was upset at first; its that ego thing that gets in the way from time to time. In the end, I quickly realized that his mission statement wasn’t better than mine. They both state the exact same thing but his is stronger and targeted for our market.
I am starting to write the company goals for DragonTech Writing and have realized that we need a mission statement also known as a 60 second commercial. This statement needs to say who we are, what we offer, and tie into our company goals. Here is my first attempt at a mission statement:
DragonTech Writing is a contract technical writing service that provides documentation in the following areas software, process, business, marketing, and portfolios (resumes/cover letters) for companies and individuals. Our mission is to provide companies and individuals with documents that are clear, concise, and useable for their customers, clients, or perspective employers.
I think that sums it up for now. I am sure there is something I can add or take away, any thoughts?
By
Melinda Anderson
I just finished a free slide show called Marketing 101: The Fundamentals by SBDC Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. It had a lot of information that seems extremely useful; especially, since I am going to run the marketing side of the business. However, it had information that I just didn’t understand and probably won’t until I actually start working on our marketing plan.
A marketing plan says this is our product or service, this is how much we charge for our product or service, this is our target audience, this is how we are going to reach our target audience, this is how much we are going to spend to reach our target audience. For example, My husband, Jason, has started a painting company with his friend, Darin, A & M Coatings. Their service is painting and or staining walls, floors, ceilings, etc. Their basic fee is $2.20 a square foot. Their target audience is business owners, contractors, and home owners. They spent maybe a total of $20 to print out business cards from home. They then drove around, looked for buildings that were being built, and talked to the contractors or business owner’s. After about one week, they put in about 10 different bids and got 6 of them.
My partner, Neil, has talked to people at various different career fairs. We have our business cards and flyers that we hand out to anyone and everyone. We have a blog page and a Facebook page. We are both on Linked In and members of various different groups. We also do not have any work coming in.
The slide show mentioned taking doing polls and surveys to find out what consumers want or need in regards to your business, products, or services. Both of us, Neil and myself, are technical writers. Neil specializes in process documentation and instructional design. I specialize in documenting software, writing service bulletins, and creating layouts. We are also adding services such as business plans and resumes just to kinda give us a kick start. Here’s the question, anyone can answer, what kind of marketing ads or promotions would like to see from us?
DragonTech Writing 