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In this issue:

Get Selling! Terrific seminar coming to Lansing Oct 15!
FREE drinks!

Case Study: marketing saved a firm from collapse.

Advertising is 100% tax deductible!

Resources to Download

Marketing Projects: Planning & Pricing: Request our helpful guide

How to Hire a Creative Supplier

How to Get Great Work from a Creative Supplier

For all current marketing tips and resources visit our website!

Tria Design & Mktg
3303 W. Saginaw
Suite C3
Lansing, MI 48917

517.886.9708
Toll Free: 888.485.7268

 

Sales seminar you should not miss!
Dr. James A. Eckert, PhD. is the featured speaker at
the Lansing Ad Club, Wednesday, Oct 15th

Relationship Building 101

We are often told that people buy from their friends. But all too often we end up as that long lost friend who has been meaning to call. Why? Because we have too little time to do the relationship building activities that are necessary to grow a business relationship from the transaction level to the friend level. Additionally, we forget to apply a systematic approach to our relationship building, instead choosing to just let the friendship happen.

Dr. Eckert’s presentation will review a four-step method for building the web of connections necessary for you to have successful relationships with your key customers. You will learn about a short list of practical, high impact tips on how to build successful business relationships. And in the end, it will be YOU who is happy that people buy from their friends!

Please join us at the Holiday Inn West on Wednesday, October 14th as we welcome Dr. James A. Eckert, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sales & Marketing at Western Michigan University, Haworth College of Business and the Owner/President of PartnerBuilding.
Lansing Ad Club's General Membership Meeting
Wednesday, Oct. 15, Holiday Inn West, Saginaw Hwy, Lansing
Networking, 5:30 pm, Dinner, 6:30 pm, Speaker, 7 pm
Members—FREE, Guests—$35

If you attend this meeting as a result of this e-mail, drinks are FREE on Tria!* E-mail Ann Siegle to sign up for this special opportunity. In addition, we will make sure you will have the chance to personally interact with Dr. Eckert during the evening.

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From the Wall St. Journal:
One small firm's response to a challenging economy that nearly drove their company under–and how marketing saved their firm from collapse: August 19 issue, Small Business Section. Case study by Paulette Thomas.

The Problem: family owned help-wanted advertising firm trying to claw it's way out of the economic trough.

Bell Advertising Service in Pittsburgh has helped clients since the late 1970s, designing and placing help wanted ads for their clients.

Like everyone else, they experienced a slowdown as the economy ground down in 2000. They faced laying off employees, and a severe cash crunch that kept getting worse.

The solution: to reevaluate their approach from the ground up. They signed on with PowerLink, a local organization that forms panels of advisors for women-owned businesses.

The panel asked them "who are your clients?" They had never examined their client base in detail (this is one of the questions you know we asked you in our initial needs analysis here at Tria). The company found out that they had large multinationals that valued the fact that they were woman-owned, so they completed the arduous process of becoming a certified-women-owned business and getting the word out to their clients.

They also pared expenses. But most importantly they took a look at being more 'hard sell' - something they had never done. They imparted sales tasks to everyone in their firm. Graphic designers call current clients and follow up on leads. They used their own data to create a weekly e-newsletter. Each week they've shown an uptick in revenue.

The lesson: retool your business in a down economy, analyze your customers and deliver what THEY want, and market, market, market!

From The Week, October 3, 2003:
The index of leading economic indicators increased 0.4 percent in August, up 2.5 percentage points from the March low. The Nasdaq is up 70% from it's October 2002 lows, and the Dow is up 30% from it's October 2002 lows.

Why does Mid Michigan (and Michigan in general) lag behind the rest of the economy? Anecdotal evidence suggests we're just NOW feeling a slow down (except in technology, where you're already feeling recovery), because of Michigan's heavy reliance on durable goods manufacturing (and tourism) as bases for industry. These typically do not slow down until the latter half of the recession, so we go into one later and come out later. Technology leads, so folks in tech firms should be ramping up.

See our March 2003 e-mail on "growing your marketing," an organic approach to planning ahead. If you're in technology you should be acting on these items now.

If you don't have this saved, click here to receive a PDF copy of it.

***
Check out the October issue of the Greater Lansing Business Monthly. Tria is one of seven women-owned firms featured in this upcoming issue. Seven firms were culled from a group of more than 50, to be interviewed and photographed by the GLBM. Lansing's most widely-read business publication features 7 firms from various industries and profiles their success. If you would like a copy of the GLBM article, please contact Ann Siegle by clicking here.

Tria Design & Marketing is 100% women owned, founded by partners Linda Brennan, Tina Block and Ann Siegle. All three of us were self employed for a decade before founding Tria, and in total, we have more than 55 years of combined design expertise.

***
Lansing is a great place to live!
Check out the September issue of the Regional Vision Chamber of Commerce magazine. Partner Ann Siegle is quoted in the article as loving Lansing. Having lived in South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) for more than six years, Ann knows all too well that paradise isn't necessarily a climate. Lansing offers big-city amenities at a small town price. Commutes in popular cities regularly exceed 1.5 hours. Having spent a fair amount of time on the Los Angeles freeway system as well, Ann can attest that the grass is NOT greener in paradise–just more congested.

We love Lansing, we make our business and homes in the region. We want to help your business succeed–we patronize local businesses, vendors and clients because together we all win.

***
How can you get all this press coverage for your firm? We keep our noteworthy events in front of the major business publications via press releases. They've begun to call us because they’re hearing buzz about Tria. You can put this into practice yourself. If you're in need of public relations help, we can put you in touch with some pros that we work with. Just ask us!

The NEW Tria web site is up. Our new Tria web site is up and running. You can view our fabulous new interactive portfolio, designed and programmed by Tria's Flash genius, Troy Miller. Also, on the site, you can request copies of our Tria Resource materials (if you do not want to get them in the Tria Resource Binder format), and receive them in pdf format. Visit us at http://www.TriaDesignFirm.com

If you’d like to receive our Resource Binder, specially customized for your needs, just ask !

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Quick Tip to Remember:
All marketing and advertising expenses are 100% tax deductible, AND they help you sell more to your existing and future customers. October is an ideal time to gear up for the holiday marketing season. So, stop giving valuable profits to Uncle Sam to spend foolishly, and instead, use them to build your business this year.

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If you like this newsletter and think a colleague or friend would like it, just use the "send to a friend" button at the bottom.

Don’t forget, every month we give you great downloadable resources, like "Why Hire a Creative Supplier," "How to get Great Work out of your Creative Supplier," and our famous "Marketing Projects: Planning & Pricing Guide" which helps you schedule and budget print and web projects. The first two are from an independent Boston advisory company. The third we've developed over a decade or more of working on projects with clients.

Thinking of design & marketing night & day,
Your friends at Tria,

Linda, Ann and Tina

If you want more information on these articles or anything else related to design or marketing, please e-mail us at info@triadesignfirm.com

* one drink per client, please. The new law is a blood alcohol of .08!