Budget
You also must determine how much all this is
going to cost. I've never worked with an organization that didn't
care about the cost of a marketing project, but I have worked with
many that did not have a budgeting process (the
projected
budget)
for publishing or a tracking methodology (the actual cost) to
measure these processes.
But, believe it or not, the steps we've
discussed leading up to the publishing of content cost something,
and I
encourage
you and your organization to attach values to the
marketing and publishing cost centers. To do this, you must have
some idea of how many times a year you will publish content, in
what ways, and what the previous year's cost was so you can budget
for this year's costs.
Having a good working relationship with your
print service providers, web developers, or email
partners
is
vital
to the budgeting process. Preplanning will help these service
providers give you a more accurate estimate or quote for
services.
Resources will contribute to the cost of your
project, including
-
Photography
How you secure the images for your work will contribute greatly to
the cost of the project. You can choose to hire a photographer or
use a stock photography service. If you use stock photography, be
sure to check out Adobe Stock Photography. If you collaborate with
a photographer, make sure that you agree upon his services, the
color mode and resolution he will supply, and the file format you
would like. If the photographer wants to
color
correct, question
this. Will he collaborate with your print service provider or web
developer? And just what will he correct for? If both distribution
methods
are involved, it probably doesn't make sense to pay for
this service.
-
Graphic
design
Perhaps you've commissioned a graphic artist to
develop icons for your newsletter/website. If so, you need to
figure out what specifications to give her. Is there a
color
palette
she needs to work from, such as one that includes the
company spot colors? And which fonts should be used? Will she need
to supply the icons for web or print, or both? For more
information, see the section "File Standards," later in this
chapter.
-
Fonts
Do you own the
fonts
you want to use, or will you purchase
new ones for the project? (This is more likely for outside ad
agencies than in-house, but see the Adobe OpenType font library at
http://studio.adobe.com/us/type/main. jsp for more
information.)
-
Web
development
Costs will mostly involve the cost of time but
can also involve the cost of hosting or tracking services as well
as making updates to the site or page if you want to refresh the
content on a regular basis. If you are capturing data from the
site, database development, tracking, and maintenance might be
involved as well.
-
Mail
Your
printed content factors in greatly when budgeting for content
distribution. It is important that you have a working knowledge of
postal regulations and
discounts
available depending on how much
work you want to put into sorting, bar coding, and delivering your
mail. If this is not a function you choose to make available
in-house, consider a mailing service. Depending on your
quantities
,
it can save you significant dollars. Additionally, many mailing
services now offer to warehouse your customer data and maintain
this contact information. (For instance, when a piece of mail or
email comes back as undeliverable, the service updates the database
to maintain its integrity.)
-
Editorial
considerations
Some, such as whether the content will come
from within, have associated costs. You might hire a writer,
technical writer, or translator for your publication. What tool
will he use to create copy? Will he spellcheck his content? Do you
want him to format the text and, if so, will you supply him with
styles that will import correctly into InDesign?
Add the cost of your outside resources, internal
resources, your time, marketing's time, and the distribution costs
to
arrive
at a number for approval.
You must answer all these questions: What is the
message? Who will you send it to? How will you get it there? What's
it going to cost? After you know the answers to these, you can
decide which production methodology is most effective for both
delivery and cost, which leads us to specific production
options.
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