Heart and Soul

We recently lost a client that we not only enjoyed working with, but a client that we felt had a lot of potential. There was a relatively small budget involved, but we had stretched the numbers as far as we possibly could and we were happy with the results up to that point.

For a day or two after the break-up, I thought a lot about the situation and was frustrated by the questions that kept popping up in my head.
Could we have done something different?
Did we think of the best ideas?
Should we have gone a different route?
Did we enlist the best possible partners for the account?
I went back over the past two months work (that is how long we had been working with the client) and what I came up with is this:
Tarte Advertising put their heart and soul in to that account. Everyone on the account worked very hard. We had really great ideas and I am certain that the plan that was put in place, was the best plan possible for the budget. Also, I am positive that the team that was in place, was the best team for that specific account. I do not feel bad about our work - in fact, I am really proud of everyone that worked with us on this account and the work we all did. Great job team!

We are aware that people's money is very tight right now - including ours! But no matter what the economy looks like or what the client's budget looks like, you can be sure that when you hire Tarte Advertising to work with you on your business, we will give you 100% and we will put our heart and soul in to every project!

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Website Design with Tarte Advertising

A few reasons companies come to Tarte Advertising, Inc. to re-design their website:

• Not happy with the "look & feel" of their current website
• Their former web designer or web design company no longer exists
  
• Their current website doesn't function correctly on all web browsers
• Potential clients cannot find their website because it is not search engine friendly or search engine optimized
• the website is difficult to maintain or changes/updates to their site are not being made in a timely manner
  
• Their current navigation contains dead links or doesn't make sense, etc.

At Tarte Advertising, Inc., the websites we design:

• Are professionally designed
• Are custom-designed - we do not use templates!
  
• Are logically structured & easy to navigate
  
• Look and function the same on all web browsers
• Are designed with expansion in mind
• Are developed to be search engine friendly

Browse our portfolio of website designs - then contact us to get started on your website presence.

PR and your expectations

At Tarte Advertising, we feel that Public Relations is one of the services, that when executed properly, can make great differences to a business's bottom line. However, if expectations are out of line, then the positive can be masked with negativity.

I read a great article not too long ago from Mike Schutlz. I found it to be extremely informative for our business and thought that it had some great points to share on PR and the expectations that you should have. Below is a bit of recap of what Schultz talked about along with my own thoughts/ideas that we have gained over the past few years.

Truly, you can't know what to expect in advance with PR. Sometimes a PR campaign can take off immediately with one release or pitch, and other times it can take upwards of 6 months. You can land a story in the Wall Street Journal or on CNN.com, and not have any leads from it. You can land a small blip in your local paper and generate several sales from it.

However, there are a few things that can help to determine the success, or failure, of a PR campaign.

1. How interesting is your story? This will make a big difference to the media, prospects and buyers. Take a step back and asses how interesting your content really is to people other than you.

2. Are you (or your agency) implementing your PR tactics properly? Are you talking to the right people, sending releases and by-lines to the proper journalists at the right time? Avoiding mistakes is crucial in determining success in your campaign.

3. Are you being realistic with the financial investment of your plan? Many people think that PR is free, but that is not exactly true. It is true that you don't pay for a story in the paper the way you pay for an ad in the paper. However, if you have only given your agency enough to write and distribute one local release, then your chances of gaining something, such as a lead or a sale, are minimal. If you budget enough to put together a strategic plan that will last over a period of time, then success is much greater possibility. Work with your agency to figure out how much is realistic to be investing. If you are doing it yourself, be realistic about the time you need to invest. Your time is money.

4. Have you been working at your campaign for long enough? Stay at it - sometimes it can take a while. Keep in mind that even though you land one or two stories, it doesn't mean you are going to get your next two immediately. Be patient and stick with it.

5. What kind of relationship do you or your agency have with the media? In the PR world, relationships are everything! Realize that journalists at most media outlets are receiving many releases and pitches every day. A good agency or PR pro will know who to contact and how to contact them. How will they know this? Because they have built a relationship with the media and know what they are looking for.

6. When you look at the rest of your marketing efforts, how strong are they? How often are you blogging? Are you sending out regular email newsletters? Is your sales collateral and website up to date? PR typically can't stand alone without other marketing efforts (we believe it goes the other way too - marketing can't work without some PR). Why spend time and money driving traffic to your website when the content is dated and no longer pertains?

7. How strong is your brand? A publication is much more likely to publish a study from Harvard Business School than from Jimbob's Community College. This is something that can take time, especially if you are a small business, but the more you work at it and the more you keep the media informed on what you are doing, the easier this will get.

8. Consider what else is going on in the media at the time of distribution or the event you are promoting. Is there an Election taking place that is filling most pages of the paper? Is someone important coming to town that the media will need to interview? Is the economy in a slump (this is important for right now)? Has the media published a similar story recently? All of these things should be taken in to consideration.

Above all, do not expect to know what is going to happen or how it will all pan out. You have to just jump in with two feet and go for it. PR can, and will, work and knowing what to expect will help you not become frustrated when things don't go the way you thought they would.

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25 Things You MIght Not Know About Tarte Advertising, Inc. (and its owners)

1. It was started in 2006 by two best friends, Audrey Keyes & Jen Casperson.

2. When Tarte opened their doors, they only had one client, Marvin's Organic Gardens.

3. Tarte's first promotion involved baking lemon tart's and hand delivering them to potential clients. People thought they were so good that a few even asked Tarte to quote out making more for them.

4. When Audrey & Jen moved into their first office, before even unpacking everything, they realized that there wasn't going to be enough room and they had to move into a new space that same day.

5. Audrey & Jen both have degrees in Graphic Design. Jen from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Audrey from Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia.

6. Neither Audrey nor Jen had ever truly designed a website before opening Tarte Advertising.

7. The most popular service at Tarte Advertising is website design.

8. Tarte Advertising helped two of their small business clients hit the $1 MIllion in sales in 2008.

9. Tarte Advertising is an all Mac-based office. Every computer in their offices are Macs.

10. On "Bring Your Dog To Work Day" in 2008, there were 2 pugs and 1 mini dauchston in the office having a blast!

11. The name "Tarte" was a name that Jen dreamed one night. It doesn't have any "real" meaning to the word.

12. Audrey has a 4 year old daughter, Ainsley, a husband, Rick, and a 6 year old pug, Sophie. Jen has a boyfriend, Phil, and a 14 year old shitzu, Sophie. They both had their Sophie-dogs before they even knew each other.

13. Audrey always knew she wanted to have her own business. Jen never thought about it before she met Audrey.

14. Tarte Advertising's two favorite statements are "do the right thing" and "be proactive".

15. There is almost always music playing in the offices at Tarte. Sometimes it is Kanye, or Asia, or Britney. Sometimes it might be A Flock of Seagulls. Always a great variety.

16. Jen's favorite part of her job is designing for a client that has given Tarte a blank slate to design with.

17. Audrey's favorite part of her job is brainstorming creative ways to market the client's products/services.

18. You can almost always find Rice Crispy treats in the kitchen at Tarte Advertising.

19. One of the most interesting and unique client's that Tarte has ever worked with is Justin Poole Sculpture. JPS is a mannequin designer and was featured on Dirty Jobs while Tarte was working with them.

20. The newest service that Tarte Advertising is offering is Social Media Management and it is quickly becoming one of the most popular.

21. Tarte changed its branding completely after a year and half in business. It was well worth the time and energy.

22. Tarte offers an incredible internship for college students during the summer. It is a hands-on internship and even includes going on field trips to places like local printers and on photo-shoots.

23. Audrey's younger sister, Whitney, works for Tarte a few days a week.

24. Tarte Advertising has a pool of about 20 different freelance designers all over the country that they work with on various projects.

25. Jen and Audrey both agree that starting Tarte Advertising was one of the best things they have ever done in their life and are very excited for what the future holds for Tarte.

Non-Profit Brochure Design

Jean Cadet's Restavec Foundation is a non-profit agency that provides relief and advocacy for enslaved children (retavecs) in Haiti. Currently, over 300,000 Haitian children live lives of a restavec — the system known as "restavec," a Creole word meaning "stay with" — these children work for wealthier families in exchange for shelter. Restavec children are often physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. They are denied education, are unpaid, undocumented, and unprotected.

Jean Cadet's Restavec Foundation sought the help of Tarte Advertising to develop an engaging brochure that would raise awareness of this atrocity happening just 100 miles off the coast of Miami. For more information about this foundation, and how you can help, visit: www.restavecfreedom.org.