Better together: Content Marketing and SEO

If you find yourself asking whether you should focus more on search engine optimisation (SEO) or content marketing, I’ll help you out by saying the answer is both. While both have their fair share of  benefits, it doesn’t mean one should be cast aside in favour of the other. Instead, they should be considered as two different things that compliment each other to help your business stand out online.

But first, before we see how they can be integrated, let’s take a look at what they mean individually.  

SEO

SEO is a technique that uses keywords to help search engines find and rank your website higher in the search results.
It involves understanding the keywords your audience use in their search process, and placing them in your site to make it more relevant, hence pushing your site up higher in the search rankings.

Content marketing

Content marketing involves understanding what your target audience needs and coming up with content ideas they would be interested in reading. It’s essentially creating content that informs, educates and inspires readers, as opposed to a direct sales pitch.

For a better idea of things, think of content marketing aiming to engage the human reader, whereas SEO aims to “engage” the search engine indexes.

A beautiful blend

Having quality content but without the SEO groundwork can be a waste of your efforts. Unless you have a great content distribution strategy in place, it’s likely your pieces will get lost in the large digital jungle. Likewise, having good SEO but no quality content can result in little repeated visits. Using both tactics together results in optimised content that hooks more visitors and keep them coming back for more.

So how do you go about doing that?

  1. Research relatable keywords to your business
  2. Research the problems your target audience face
  3. Create original content of quality targeted for those problems.
  4. Insert your keywords

TIP: Remember to write for people first and then focus on search engines. Don’t go overboard with your keywords as readers will find it odd and your pieces will lack flow.

Tailor your content

You want your content to be detailed and provide actual solutions for your audience. For example, when you search for ‘best external hard drive’, the top results show reviews, guides and forums – not the actual product pages. Personally, I always like reading discussion sites to help me decide which brand to to buy, and Google is aware of this search behaviour, since it’s reflected in the results.

seo and content marketing

These days, people want information that solves their problem, and not just a sales-orientated product page. Use your keywords sporadically to benefit Google but also to engage your readers – this is key.

Implementing both SEO and content marketing strategies means you’ll be reaping the benefits, and easy-to-find found content that’s worth reading and sharing, keeps people coming back.

Drop us a note at hello@mutant.com.sg and we can help you structure your content marketing campaign.

The battle of the brands: Does controversy work?

In an incredibly dense and competitive marketplace, it’s becoming increasingly hard for brands to really stand out and make an impact. Brands now have to constantly think up of innovative strategies to captivate their audience.

Even if a brand has done everything right, it sometimes just isn’t enough to get great traction. And when all options have been exhausted, controversy may be roped in as a last-ditch attempt to scramble for some buzz.

Granted, some brands like United Colors of Benetton have been controversial from day one. But others like Adidas and Dunkin Donuts have learned the hard way through intense negative public backlash.

So, does controversy actually help or hurt brands?

The positive:
It can help start important conversations.


Global fashion brand, United Colors of Benetton faced criticism for their 2012 “Unhate” campaign. The ads featured world leaders (on opposing sides of religious, political, racial and cultural spectrums) in a lip-lock. An initiative by Benetton, the Unhate campaign’s main aim was to ‘fight against hate and discrimination in all its forms’.

Though it was slammed by the Vatican, the series of ads went on to win the Press Grand Prix at the Cannes Ad Festival, a prestigious award in the advertising industry. It was lauded by press jurors that the ad ‘has heart impact’ and promotes ‘a global debate’.

The ad itself is the epitome of controversy, but what made this a win for Benetton is the effect it had on viewers. The message behind it is something that cannot be ignored.

unhate-brands-controversy

The negative:
It can seriously hurt the brand

 

orangeshackles-adidas-brands

Adidas came under fire shortly after the announcement of a new pair of Jeremy Scott designed sneakers, the ‘JS Roundhouse Mids’. The sneakers featured a pair of orange plastic shackles, which many fans picked up as ‘offensive’ and ‘ignorant’ because of  similarities to shackles worn by slaves in the 19th Century.

Though Jeremy Scott claimed it had nothing to do with the alleged atrocity, Adidas cancelled the release of the shoe, apologising if anyone had been offended by the design.

Adidas may have received great sales from Scott’s outlandish designs in the past, but it just goes to show brands should always do prior research before releasing anything to the public.

When it comes to controversy, the pros and cons must be weighed out before any action is taken. Some brands may perform better with more controversy, but for others, it just doesn’t work out. If a brand’s values don’t align with the consumer, it’s going to get increasingly hard for people to identify with the brand in the long run.

Controversy can be a great exercise for brand building, but it can also hurt and bring about unwanted attention and perceptions which are always tough to change. Play carefully.

If you want to create some hype around your brand, we can help you. Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

A day in the life of … a Mutant Content Manager

Ever wondered what a Mutant Content Manager really does every day?

Between writing blogs, white papers and e-books, and the odd Beyonce-style hair-flip, the content team is responsible for developing quality content for a variety of our clients cross multiple industries.

Check out a snap shot of an average day for our Content Manager, Jane:

Mutant - content manager

 

For on-demand creative content, visit our content platform, Words by Mutant, or drop us a note at hello@mutant.com.sg to discuss a content marketing campaign. We look forward to writing for you soon!

 

What the Trump vs Clinton debate can teach us about live tweeting

Whether you live in Singapore or the United States, the Twitter play-by-play of the Trump Vs Clinton presidential debate had more jabs than a school-wide vaccination. Between the Trump as a Godzilla and the Clinton victory memes, the public craves news and opinion in real time.

Despite rumours that Twitter (the company) isn’t growing, live-tweeting is still an excellent way to share  news about your brand. If you’re attending or hosting an event, updating quotes, pictures, and funny thoughts gives your fans a chance to hear the brand’s voice. Simply check out the flutter of activity on Trump’s  and Clinton’s Twitter accounts over the past 24-hours.

Live tweeting may seem stressful at first, but gaining traction is much easier than you think. Here are our top tips for live-tweeting:

1. Get the whole team involved

The designated tweeter can’t be everywhere at once. Get the attending team on a #livetweets mobile Slack channel and ask them to post quotes or questions to this channel for the designated tweeter to pick up. For consistency, there should only be one designated Tweeter per team to have oversight on the page.

2. Prepare good visuals

Come prepared with some stock images and if you hear a good quote, overlay it on the go with a meme generator or inspirational quote app. Take photos before tweeting to make sure you have something good to pair a post with.

3. Engage with gifs

 Twitter’s gif features are totally underutilised by corporations that have strict brand guidelines. If you’re a small team, run it by a manager and share a gif or align one with your quote or update.

Here’s a funny interpretation of the live debate:

Then there was this:

4. Use one easy hashtag

It should be something easy like your company and the event, i.e. #Mutantatrise.

5. Tag everyone and everything

There is almost no point to putting up a tweet without mentioning a company handle, someone’s handle, or using a hashtag. Twitter is designed to link up people in a community, so don’t be lazy with tags!

6. Trend trends trends

 This is the main thing journalists look for on Twitter. At an event more often or not you’ll hear that some big investor has invested billions in a technology no one is using right now, that might point to a trend. Keep your ear to the ground and ask lots of questions.

7. Find the official hashtag of the event

This is a no brainer,  but you’d be surprised how many people don’t look for this. It’s the number one way to get discovered by a journalist or someone else at the event.

#debatenight was the official hashtag of the debate:

8. Use vines 

Getting a live feed on Twitter isn’t as easy as it is on Facebook. What’s better than a quote? Getting a quote Vined or Periscoped from a notable speaker and uploaded it on Twitter.

9. Pick a good quote

 Pick a quote that is on brand,  offers simple business advice, or even something funny and post it.

Here’s an example from Camp Clinton:

10. Be cool

Save the corporate riff-raff for when you have word count.

Live-tweeting makes your company look on the ball, and most importantly helps your fans know the latest news and trends in the industry. By using a real voice, you’ll be able to connect with your fans.

Need some social media advice ? Contact us at hello@mutant.com.sg

 

Header picture credit: www.thedailydot.com

4 tips on creating news out of thin air

Come on, a reader knows when you’re out of ideas. Every company goes through a phase where there is simply nothing news-worthy to announce, no new products to launch, and no new events to promote – and that’s ok so don’t panic.

It takes lots of resources and large amounts of money to execute new brand initiatives, and many companies simply can’t keep the momentum going for 365 days straight. In saying that, it is important to stay active and current. In today information age, consumers are discovering and taking in so much content every day and can easily forget about you if you’re active enough or relevant to them.  

So how exactly can you keep the fountain of content and news flowing all year around?

Leverage on trending topics

Stay current by looking out for trending topics and find ways to relate them to your business.

IKEA Singapore were very quick to leverage on the Brangelina split. They released this creative Facebook advert on the day the world heard the news. It’s both clever and creative, don’t you think?

IKEA-Brangelina

 

Got data?

If your company is lucky enough to have collected any customer or industry data, now is the time to use it. Better still, if you can link it to a popular event – such as the F1, the Olympics, Easter, Christmas, or even a seasonal change – this will help drive interest and engagement. If you don’t have your own data, you can always create something informative and useful using credible third-party research sources which you can find on the internet.

HOT TIP: Set up a spreadsheet, list out all the relevant events for the year ahead and brainstorm creative brand ideas around these events.

Get your creative juices flowing

Coca-Cola is known for creating great interactive ads that are timely and always pull on people’s heartstrings. They don’t always have a new product to promote, so instead they come up with different interactive initiatives that engage consumers. It has become their way to stay at the forefront of mind even though the product has been around since 1886.

Check out Coke’s First day of College interactive ad.

Share relevant content

You don’t always have to produce your own content. With the help of the internet and different social media platforms, search for articles, videos, blogs, or infographics that are relevant to your business. It’s a good way to keep your pages alive and drive engagement.

Need help creating some newsworthy content? Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

 

When was your last content audit?

Over time you will have accumulated a large library of content. You may have already published it across your website, social media pages or even shared it with the media, but writing and publishing is only two-thirds of the job done. Next, you need to check how effective the content has been and whether it’s performing the way you’d hoped it would through a content audit process.

Content auditing has proven it’s value repeatedly, but many marketers continue to overlook this critical stage. Companies should regularly practice content auditing to ensure that everything they publish is aligned with their overall direction and goals, and that they are getting value for money from their content.

There is no set rule on how often you should assess your content, but I would suggest that you perform an audit when you notice changes in your business. It could be that your site traffic has slowed down, or your blogs aren’t as share-worthy as you’d hoped they would be. After all, time is money and when you don’t see a healthy return from your content, it’s time to audit.

What are the key benefits?
  1. Be able to determine the relevance and value of your content to the business and customers
  2. Businesses can study and understand the traffic generated from each piece
  3. It provides a concrete basis for new marketing strategies
  4. Makes your content library more organised and easier to utilise
What to look for during your audit?
  • Social: Your content’s social media popularity is one metric to review. The more social shares and interactions there are, the more it means you have effectively grab the interest of your audience.
  • Traffic: The effectiveness of your material can be measured by the number of visitors your page attracts each month. It helps assess the month-to-month growth driven by your content strategy.
  • Conversion Rate: Find out who’s clicking through to a landing page after reading your content. This helps determine the relevance and whether readers are interested in more information.

Use your new findings to help you create more relevant and tailored content strategies for your audience. When writing content, always think about your reader. What do they need, and how you can help them solve this problem.  

Need help with your content? Drop a message to hello@mutant.com.sg 

 

Mutant Content Marketing Agency Singapore

Brangelina: The PR Breakdown of a Break-Up

The story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is one of a carefully constructed image. Since day dot, their public relations machine has been churning out stories to present a snapshot of their performances and their personal lives with the widest public appeal.

This is the same for every celebrity. Charlie Sheen is a Hollywood bad boy; Beyonce is “Queen Bee”; Jennifer Lawrence is the dorky girl next door, and Kim Kardashian (no matter what you think of her) is America’s sex tape celebrity-turned marketing genius.

However, when Brad and Angelina first ‘came out’ to the world, their respective images went from Hollywood’s leading man and woman to homewrecker, cheats and liars. You know the story – Brad was married to Jennifer Aniston, and met Jolie while filming Mr and Mrs Smith. Both denied any romance between them, yet it was a matter of days between Brad and Jen announcing their divorce and Brangelina being snapped on the beach together. Our favourite Friend was painted as the sweet, innocent victim while Angelina was the sexy-but-evil ‘other woman’.

(Brad, as the man in this equation, mostly got off scot-free while the media pitted (lol)  #TeamAng and #TeamJen against each other. But that gender narrative is a whole other blog.)

The point is, there is so much that can be learned about creating, managing and framing your public presence from celebrities – especially now that Brangelina is no more. Yep, Angelina filed for divorce on September 15, citing “irreconcilable differences”.  

So let’s take a stroll through the history of their relationship, and follow the PR powerhouse of Brangelina for a few insights into taking control of your own story.

Control your narrative

As celebrities, people are always going to talk about you. In fact, that’s the point (and the job description.) The only problem is that it can be difficult to manage your own story when everyone is in on it – but it’s a great lesson to the rest of us about front-footing any news where and when you can.

As soon as Brad and Ang were photographed together for the first time, their PR machine was quick to turn things around. It didn’t take long for the stories to change from “Homewrecker Angelina!” to “Angelina Jolie – The New Mother Theresa”. A global humanitarian outreach strategy was the perfect antidote to the backlash the Tomb Raider star was facing, placing both her and Brad in strong positions as they helped with relief efforts and won humanitarian awards.

brad pitt, angelina jolie, brangelina, divorce, public relations

The photo that started it all (Credit: US Weekly)

Beyond this, they were experts at linking their growing, global family to the ‘do-good’ narrative they had going. They were healers, humanitarians, adoptive parents of children from third world countries, and were using their power to heal the world. Even Brad’s image benefitted from the strength of the Jolie narrative. He went from being Jolie’s ‘victim’ (or the main villain, depending on which way it was spun) to a “great dad” and humble sidekick to her global humanitarian efforts.

Their story flipped from sex and scandal to one of family and fundraising. Talk about a 180-degree campaign.

Stronger together: A PR portmanteau

It probably took less than a year for Ang and Brad to shed the negativity and become a brand united. They weren’t individual celebrities anymore – they were Brangelina.

brad pitt, angeline jolie, brangelina, face mash up, public relations

The United States of Brangelina (Source: gesichtermix)

Many other celebrities have tried to ride the same mashed-up name train, and failed. It wasn’t that Brangelina had a better ring to it than Bennifer or TomKat – it was that their joint story was stronger, more believable, and unique. Apart, they probably would have done alright for themselves (okay, who are we kidding, they’re millionaires and on-screen royalty – they would have been fine) but together…. they became unstoppable.

Indeed, any story about Ang also became about Brad, and vice versa. When Angelina announced her double mastectomy via an op-ed in the New York Times, Brad also released a statement to say how “heroic” his wife was, cementing their partnership and joint brand. See? Alone? Okay. Together? Better.  

From a PR perspective, two is so often better than one: An entrepreneur who launches a successful business is a great story, but a ‘philanthropreneur’ who also gives millions to solve the world’s problems is an even better one. If your business has a founder with an interesting story, that’s great, but two founders with incredible backstories is front page material.

Staying on-brand, for better or for worse

Even when things go south, it’s important that a brand’s messaging stays on track and all parties involved aren’t thrown to the wolves. Even though Ang and Brad have split up, the news and announcement of their divorce would have likely been no accident. Just because the main players have split doesn’t mean the game stops being played.

It would have been a calculated decision to ‘leak’ the divorce papers at the same time his new film trailer for Allied dropped. In fact, it works in Angelina’s favour, too, as their joint production company, Plan B, depends on the film doing well. At the same time, she gets to be the public front-footer of the divorce news, as the one who filed the papers in the first place.

Plus, Angelina has her lawyer in her corner being on brand by saying that she filed for divorce “for the health of the family”.

Perfect messaging from a well-oiled PR machine – something everyone can learn from.

Looking for strategic help to create, manage and pitch your brand? Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg 

Crisis 101: Picking up the pieces after a social media meltdown

Social media is a very powerful tool many brands use today to tell stories and engage with their audience. With this power also comes great responsibility, and brands need to be accountable for the messages they broadcast – be it positive or negative.

We’ve seen brands like Coca-Cola and Oreo absolutely ace at their social media strategy, and then you have a restaurant like Amy’s Baking Company that seem to have fallen miles from grace. While nobody plans for a social media disaster, what’s more important is how to successfully bounce back if and when it happens.

Keep calm and don’t freak out

It’s anyone’s fair game to say whatever they like about you – particularly on social media. Our first instinct will be to get really defensive and we get it, it’s your brand and you have to protect it. But going on a rant on social media is like listening and watching a person scream through a loud-hailer – it’s annoying and embarrassing and can tarnish the brand you’ve worked so hard to build. Be smart, keep calm and breathe!

Check out this classic social media rant from Tinder.

Never claim you were hacked

It’s 2016 and everyone can see through that lie. It’s obvious you’ve just flopped on social media and running away from your mistakes will only anger the public further and escalate the disaster.

Case in point: Amy’s Baking Company

Example of a social media crisis

Example of a bad response to a social media crisis

 

Think before you react

It’s great that your first reaction is to explain what happened. However, it’s important to stop and think carefully about your response as a social media crisis can easily put you in a state of panic.

Structure your official response, be clear and act quickly as a lot can happen on social media in a very short span of time.

Own up to your mistakes

Nobody’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Instead of staying silent or claiming that you were hacked, turn it around with a sincere apology. Your fans will appreciate the humility.

Here’s how Expedia apologised and engaged with its customers.

Inject some humour

Trying to turn it around with some humour can work wonders and is a creative way to pick up the pieces. However, it is largely dependant on the severity of the situation and if you’ve hit a nerve on a sensitive issue it’s probably best to handle it with utmost austerity.

Here’s how Burger King handled the negative backlash regarding their fries:

Albeit self-deprecating, the humour was appreciated.

Open up the conversation

In moving forward after the apology, brands can react positively by opening up conversations. In response to a huge social media backlash, Dominos set up a Twitter account to discuss what went wrong. The two-sided communication proved to be a success for them as they were honest and transparent.

 

A social media disaster is not the end of the world for your brand – what really matters is how you handle it. Some brands bounce back from the backlash because of their ability to repair the damage, while others never do. Always be prepared and have a backup plan.

Need help with your social media strategy? Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg.

 

How to use visual content

It’s the age of the visual culture which means more visual content. With shortening attention spans, marketers and content creators have to constantly think of new ways to capture our attention. According to an article published by Hubspot this year, coloured visuals increase willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.

You’re definitely on the right track if you’ve been integrating visuals into your content strategy, but when does an image work better over a video?, or a GIF over an image?

Images

With social networks becoming increasingly image-centric, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that brands should be including high-definition images in their marketing mix. Images are visually-captivating and easily shareable.

When should I use images?

Besides images being easily shareable on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Pinterest is another brilliant image-sharing medium with 100 million daily active users. The shift to visual content is clearly emulated here as brands can ‘pin’ beautifully captured images to their ‘boards’.

Tory Burch, an international fashion brand, has had success in marketing their products through images on Pinterest. With almost 200,000 followers, the brand’s images on Pinterest are carefully curated and categorised.

Example of Tory Burch Pinterest success

GIFs

Remember the moving photos in photo-frames and newspapers in the hit movie series, Harry Potter? Well, the brilliant invention of the GIF brought us a step closer to the wizarding world! GIFs are the hybrid between images and videos. They move, of course, but they’re not as lengthy as videos. Because they’re short and have no sound attached to them, GIFs are easy to digest. A GIF typically focuses on a specific moment in a larger picture. GIFs are also cheaper to produce than videos and take up less resources.

When should I use GIFs?

GIFs work best in e-newsletters. They are quirky and provide marketers with the opportunity to draw attention to specific products. Here is an example from an email sent out by NastyGal, an online clothing store, to promote their gift card:

Sample of gift card giveaway from Nasty Gurl

Videos

According to a report published by Cisco, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic by 2017. You don’t need a host site like YouTube to publish videos because you can now post directly to social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. These platforms have become more video-friendly, with Facebook pushing out Facebook 360 and Instagram allowing longer video posts.

When should I use videos?

Videos are great pieces of marketing and allow brands to tell their stories in more comeplling ways. A video is more immersive and offers viewers a more engaging experience. With YouTube amassing 4 billion daily views, your brand’s online reach is endless. Always consider the audience you are trying to reach out to and make sure you get your message across articulately. Creativity is a must! GoPro’s YouTube channel has more than 4 million subscribers. What makes the brand so popular? Their videos are cleverly grouped into several categories that showcase the different uses of its main product. Here is an example:

 

It’s great to integrate images, GIFs and videos into your content marketing strategy but remember not to overdo it. The last thing you want is to overwhelm people and have them flag your content as spam.

Get in touch with us at hello@mutant.com.sg for all your content needs.

Order compelling content

You can’t do everything

This feature is part of a regular series”Getting frank with Joe” giving you a brutally frank, yet realistic look at the business world.

When you run your own business, it’s easy to fall into the trap of believing no one has the same passion and drive that you have. You’ll think other people’s way of doing everything isn’t how you would do it, the quality and attention to detail isn’t at the level you have, and the drive and passion behind it simply isn’t there.

The ironic thing is that you are correct. Your business is your baby and you cannot expect people to have the same investment in it without the emotional and financial input you have had.

But it also doesn’t matter. Seriously, stop complaining and be a solutions person.

Having worked with dozens of startups, this is one factor I regularly see that impacts the long term viability of a company – no matter its market potential.

Focus on growing your business

In a small business it’s easy to oversee all activity and influence everything. That’s cool if you want to stay a small business, but I’m guessing you don’t. If you are spending all your time overseeing everything, you need to ask yourself how effective you can be actually growing your business.

You know what you are good at, so why not focus on that? Get other people to do the other work to free you up.

Different doesn’t mean worse

When you hire someone else to do a job, I guarantee that 95% of the time they won’t do it exactly how you would. You need to get over that. I don’t mean throw quality to the wind, I mean get used to people doing things differently.

It’s better to get something happening, than to kill time and slow your growth doing everything yourself.

If quality drops when you step away, or your staff aren’t performing, then invest your time into training rather than instantly taking over every function. If things don’t improve, fire them, and hire someone better.

Interns are not a growth solution

I’ve seen this a lot and I think it’s worth slotting in here as a standalone point. If you are trying to resource your company by stacking it full of interns, you are going down a dangerous path. Yes they are cheap and enthusiastic, but they are also inexperienced and short-term.

By all means, have your interns to help lighten the load, but don’t treat them as a replacement to hiring experienced, capable professionals.  

Experience is sometimes worth the spend

When you hire for any specialist role, make sure you’re getting someone who knows what they are doing and are experienced in the field. It’s worth the extra money.

If you are tight on finances the argument is the same. It’s better to have someone who is experienced and great working for three days a week, rather than paying the same for a full-time junior who needs constant support and checking.   

Specialists are specialists for a reason

If you are using an agency or have a senior hire, listen to what they say. This doesn’t mean you can’t have input – it means that you don’t ignore their warnings without an extremely good reason.

I’ve seen so many CEOs of all-sized businesses decide they know better and interfere in a process they, quite frankly, have no business getting involved in.

You might have read the newspaper every day for your entire adult life or even been interviewed a couple of times, but it doesn’t mean you know more about the media than the trained specialists you are paying, who have dedicated their working lives to getting results for clients.

I know all of this is easier said than done, but if you invest your time and resources towards making sure the people around you are capable and awesome, the payoff is massive.

Have a question? Why not drop us a note at hello@mutant.com.sg.

 

Your brand sucks: Part 2

If you’ve just joined us, this feature is part of a regular series giving you a brutally frank yet realistic look at the startup world. In ‘Your brand sucks: Part 1” I talked about realising that effective brand communication is key to success. This second part will continue with some more honest truths.

  • You are not Steve Jobs

You just aren’t.

Don’t make subtle comments in meetings about what Steve Jobs’ approach to marketing was. Don’t make sly comments about Steve Jobs’ attention detail when you are ripping apart plans or copy. You just aren’t him!

But don’t worry. You are you, and that’s awesome. You can have your own vision for your brand. Use that to justify your decision making processes instead of having input simply for the sake of having input.

You are building your own empire, and that means there are a whole new set of rules that you decide, and which marketing students in 30 years’ time can marvel at. If you don’t know what the vision is, then that’s also ok. Plenty of amazing leaders have built billion dollar companies by knowing their strengths and collecting the right people around them, who can help them to articulate, communicate or even develop a vision and brand.

  • Don’t go cheap

This makes me want to cry. I see it most often from the types who transition from a bigger corporation into startups. They are used to these things simply happening in the background without understanding it. They usually react to the discovery of cheap offshore outsourcing like they’ve discovered a life hack no one else has ever stumbled across before.

They’ll proudly pull out their branding decks at a first meeting and exclaim how they got it done in Thailand for a few hundred dollars (often followed by a series cocky statements reminding us that our prices need to be dirt cheap, or they’ll simply get that done offshore as well.)  

Firstly, I take this as an insult to me, my colleagues and the craft we’ve spent our working careers learning and developing in. It’s not a great start to any partnership to insult the other person. If you talk to me like this at the beginning, I will simply tell you to go elsewhere. Why would I pour my energy into your brand if I think you’re an arse?

Secondly, the “great deal” you were offered probably sucks. Nine times out of 10 you’ve gotten something I would slap a high school student for submitting. This is particularly true if you’ve just asked them to come up with something without a brief or concept.  

If you fail to see the problem and refuse any input, I’d write you off as a lost cause. No one’s got time for that, and I’d prefer not to associate my agency’s brand associated with you. As a startup you are already up against the odds. Throwing in an amateur, cheap-looking brand and poor strategy just makes your own life so much harder.

Like any rules there are exceptions, and people love to cry out in outrage pointing out the inaccuracies of it all because they can point at a handful of companies it doesn’t apply to.

And to be honest I don’t care. Ignore it and make your business journey 10X harder than it needs to be.

It’s not about spending money, it’s about using your brain.

Need help? Drop me an email at hello@mutant.com.sg.