EC Creative Solutions Blog

When is the last time you clicked on a banner ad? I know it’s been a while for me … honestly, I hate clicking on them. As a designer, I make a lot of them, and whenever I do, I usually try to be as inviting and non-offensive as possible. No dancing babies, no neon flashing, no “whack-a-mole” …

But even with the best designed banner ad in the world (I’ve yet to win that ribbon, but I’m still trying), to many people, it’s still just noise.

That’s why you can’t rely only on banner ads and e-mail broadcasts. These things, while necessary and potentially effective with the right design and placement, need to be just a part of your overall marketing campaign. Talking with Mark Madsen from WannaNetwork.com, I really felt like I’ve been missing the boat on some of these new media opportunities. Not just social networking, but blogging. This is one of the reasons why I am now starting this blog … it will serve many purposes.

• First of all, I hope it will add a little value to the readers (all four of you - hi grandma!)
• It’s an opportunity to publicly answer questions that some of you may have
• It can be a great tool to network and link up with other sites, enhancing search engine standings
• As far as marketing, it’s a great way to get out my messages. Chances are, if you’ve read this far, you’ll finish the post.
• And finally, it fulfills my narcissistic desire to be heard.

There is still a lot that I will need to learn about how to maximize my blogging efforts … and one of those things will be staying on topic.

So … back to banner ads. Sure, they can work, but don’t rely on them to do the job all alone. Keep on looking for the new opportunities to reach out and connect with your potential clients. With change comes opportunity (jeez, I sound like Barack Obama over here) and through trial and error, I hope to jump on this chance to reach out and connect. Without dancing babies.

My 2-year-old daughter doesn’t like fruit salad. Peaches in particular. She refuses to even try them. I don’t know if it is because she already knows that she likes strawberries, but she doesn’t know what she’s missing out on because she isn’t trying them.

I bring this up because right now, I am taking my first bite of a peach. And even though it tastes a little different, and I’m just learning the ways to do it, this blog is my first foray into a technology that was previously in the shadows for me. And though I knew it was available and that it is a great tool for connecting with people and providing a service, I always found excuses to delay it. Too much work to do (well, lots, but not “too much”). Setting up a database is too tough (not true). Not enough to write about (that’s silly - I’ve always been a writer). So … no more excuses … here I am!

SO … I want to take this as an opportunity to introduce myself and to share a little about what I bring to the table (like peaches!)

I own a small marketing company in San Antonio, TX, and focus on graphic design, web design, marketing and copywriting. Many of my clients are in the financial and credit services industry, but I’m definitely not limited to those fields. I worked for about 10 years in corporate marketing as the senior creative marketing manager for GreenPoint Mortgage. Then when the mortgage crisis hit, Capital One (the parent company) closed GreenPoint. I took this as an opportunity to start my own company - something that I had been thinking of doing for a long time. It’s a little intimidating to do something this drastic, since I have a family to support.

But I heeded the old axiom that “if you leap, the net will appear.” I chose to ignore “don’t let go of one vine until you are holding the next one.”

So here I am, eight months later, and I am happy to report that the net DID appear. EC Creative Solutions has been servicing a wide variety of clients, developing Web sites, logos, banner ads and providing many other services. But no, I don’t do windows, or mow lawns (unless my wife asks me to).

Since this is my first post, I can’t promise a set schedule, but I will do my best to provide a service, blogging about graphic design, Web design, marketing, copywriting, and anything else that comes to mind. Like fruit salad.