At Last, Polished Marketing Materials You Can Do Yourself

Are you worried your business image isn’t professional enough, or that it might be scaring away customers?

Let’s face it, if you want your small business to successfully compete with larger and more established companies, you need great looking marketing materials.

But professional designers and ad agencies are expensive: really expensive. And since your company is small, you won’t be a high priority client.

Chances are strong that your marketing materials will be assigned to a junior designer so they can “practice” with your account. You’ll be the one who pays them to gain experience.

You won’t pay just with the checks you’ll write for their expensive invoices. You’ll “pay” by getting stuck with marketing materials that are sub-par and may not even work.

You Care More

No one is more interested in having effective marketing materials to sell your offerings than you, and no one you hire will ever be as invested in your business’s success as you are.

You may have tried to do it yourself in the past. You put together a brochure, or a basic web page. You tried to pick nice typefaces and colors. Maybe you enlisted a family member or friend to make your website, or create a business card.

Somehow, though, the materials don’t look right. You can tell they’re not working, but you don’t know why, and you don’t know what to do about it.

I’m Here to Help

I’m Pamela Wilson, owner of Zurek Design Inc., and the Big Brand System.

I’ve helped small businesses market their products and services for almost 25 years. My work wins awards, but more importantly, it makes customers take action. They place orders, buy tickets and sign themselves up. Those actions mean more to me than any award because they mean my work is helping businesses thrive. That is a great feeling.

Because I have so much experience at this point in my career, my fees are high. My services deliver plenty of value, so I don’t have trouble filling my schedule with projects, but my prices are beyond what many small businesses can afford. This bothers me because I take great satisfaction in helping small business owners be successful, and I want to help as many people as I can.

The Small Business Owners’ Sad Story I Hate to Hear

I’ve heard many versions of this story. Here’s how it plays out:

I meet someone who is starting a business. They are entering a market where they will compete against established companies. They need “everything” – a website; print material; an email newsletter. Everything.

And since they’re just starting out, they don’t really have a budget. In order to spend money on marketing materials, they have to make some money first.

They start asking me questions: can I set up a template they can use? Could I do a basic graphic that they can apply to everything? And, by the way, what’s a good typeface? And can I help pick some colors? Where should they place ads to reach the audience they want to talk to? What kind of copywriting will work for their target market? Can I help write their tagline?

And remember: they have no budget. Most times there is very little I can do to help them.

Great Marketing is Powerful

I feel bad when I can’t help, because I know better than most people the power of great marketing materials to transform a business.

When your marketing materials look good and work well, you’ll find that:

Sales come easily, because your materials communicate the benefits of working with you.
Your business becomes memorable and customers keep coming back to work with you.
You build trust, and that means your business grows.
You are proud to send people to your website, and enjoy handing out your business card and other marketing materials.
It’s easier to sell because you feel great about the quality of the materials you use.
Your competitors start to get worried: who is this company that’s competing for market share so successfully?

Introducing The Big Brand System

The Big Brand System is the only online course that teaches small business owners how to successfully design their own professional-looking marketing materials. Whether you do business online or offline, and whether you sell products or services, the Big Brand System will teach you to create effective marketing materials that get results. The lessons will build your knowledge from the ground up, so you will master the techniques you need to create professional looking marketing materials that work.

As a member of the course, you can get your questions answered on the Big Brand System Forum. I’ll give you the feedback you need so you can master the information you’re learning. I’ll share secrets it has taken me 25 years to learn! Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to interact (and network) with other small business owners who are working to grow their businesses with great marketing, too.

Members will also receive the Big Brand System Member Newsletter, full of tips tailored especially for those learning and using the Big Brand System.

Special Bonus: Professionally Designed Templates

No design skill? No worries. The Big Brand System Templates take the guesswork out of creating a beautiful, consistent style on the web and in print. This special bonus for members includes templates I have created for key marketing materials. Templates are designed in sets, so you’ll get the same design applied to a website header, ad, Twitter background, e-book, business card and much more.

Most templates will be created in OpenOffice, which is free, open-source software. It’s a powerful suite of programs that includes a word processor, drawing program, presentation software and more. OpenOffice is readily available, has great online support and is free, so you won’t have to invest in expensive software.

Once you pick the template design you like, I’ll show you how to modify the templates with your own business name so you can start using them right away.

Print templates (for brochures, business cards, etc.) will be created in Adobe InDesign, which is the industry-standard software for print artwork. InDesign isn’t free, but you’ll get complete files that you can edit yourself if you have it, or take to a printer or designer to edit for you.

Both software programs are cross-platform compatible, so they can be used on Windows and Mac computers.

Here’s What the Big Brand System Course Includes

Every time a new lesson is ready, you’ll receive an email with a link. Lessons will be available 24/7 on the mybigbrandsystem.com website and as PDF documents that you can download and hold onto for reference. Some lessons include video or audio, and some have both! Lesson material is compatible with both Windows and Mac computers.

Lesson-by-lesson details:

The Basics: Lessons 1-10

Design Thinking: Learn a step-by-step approach to developing new business ideas so that you’ll never run out.
Your Target Market: Identify who you want to reach so your marketing hits its target.
Your Big Brand Promise: Create a tagline that sells your business’s benefits with a step-by-step process I’ll show you. We’ll hear from Brian Clark of Copyblogger and Third Tribe Marketing on why focusing on benefits and delivering consistently on your brand promise makes customers take out their wallets and spend.
Copywriting: Discover what your options are for getting great copy for your materials. Learn to find and work with a copywriter, and pick up techniques for using words for maximum marketing impact. Candy Zulkosky, copywriter and owner of WritingBytes.com, will dish about what a good copywriter can do for you, and how to get the most for your money. BONUS 1: An editable Writing Style Guide, where you can record the standard wording you use for your business materials so that your business writing will be consistent in the future. BONUS 2: A PDF version of the classic writing guide The Elements of Style. It’s a searchable electronic guide to good grammar and clear writing, and it’s yours to keep.
Composition: Discover the secret techniques designers use to set up beautiful pages that communicate your message with impact.
Color Theory: Select the most effective colors for your business, and find out an easy technique anyone can use to discover what colors speak to the market you are trying to reach.
White Space: Add sophistication and readability to everything you do as you get the hang of using white space successfully.
Typography: Choose and use the best typeface for your materials, plus get links to the free, open-source typefaces we’ll use in the Big Brand System Templates. You can download and start using them right away!
Grids: Structure and organize your information so it’s clear and compelling with this hidden, but powerful technique.
Hierarchy: Create logical order so your message comes through loud and clear.

The Specifics: Lessons 11-18

Websites that Work: Solutions for creating an easy-to-update business website, and guidelines for choosing a website designer. This is an information-packed lesson with guest appearances by:
=>Lisa Wood of Sprout New Media, website design expert
=>Catherine Caine of BeAwesomeOnline
=>Wendy Cholbi, expert in making technology manageable
BONUS: Webhosting For Newbies, a PDF report that walks you through web hosting options.
Choosing Images: Discover where to find and how to work with images to communicate your business message. Learn what dpi and resolution mean, and how to select images that communicate with impact. Marlene Hielema, professional photographer and owner of ImageMaven.com, will share her knowledge.
Print Material Overview: Get your printed pieces produced using the tips in this lesson. Learn how to find a designer who can customize the Big Brand System print material templates, and discover the surprising tip you can use to get your print templates customized inexpensively (and sometimes free). Learn where to find the best printing prices, to how to talk to printers, and how to look great on paper. Features a guest interview with David Billings, aka “Sparky Firepants.”
E-Books, Special Reports and White Papers: How to set up beautiful PDF documents you can share and sell. Learn a strange but useful technique for presenting information in a long-format PDF and holding your readers’ interest.
Social Media Tips: Shortcuts to making social media work for your business, and how to make your brand cohesive on all the different social media platforms. Features guest information from Andrea Vahl, who’s also known as Grandma Mary, the funniest social media expert around!
Email Marketing: Strategies for email messages that promote your business and keep your brand at the top of your customers’ minds. An overview of the best email marketing services and guidance for choosing the one you’ll find easiest to use.
Marketing Planning: You’ve mastered different marketing elements. Now learn the basics of creating an overall marketing plan to guide your efforts.
Tracking Your Marketing Efforts: Track your marketing to assure you’re investing time and effort where you’ll get the best return. Guest expertise provided by Karyn Greenstreet, small business marketing virtuoso. Get ready to take plenty of notes: Karyn has great tips for making sure your marketing is paying off.

The Software: Lessons 19-23

Installing OpenOffice: Your business doesn’t need to invest hundreds of dollars and months of your time learning to use complex design software. This week’s lesson includes step-by-step instructions and support for getting OpenOffice ready to use on your computer. OpenOffice is powerful (but free) open-source and cross-platform compatible software. Once you have it installed, you’ll be able to modify most of the Big Brand System templates that you’ll gain access to in the coming week!
Choosing and Modifying Templates: It’s time to open the doors to the template warehouse, where you’ll find a wide variety of designs to choose from. You’ll gain access to templates for e-books, website headers, email headers, Twitter backgrounds, YouTube channel backgrounds, and much more. Now that you’ve learned the basics of good design, you can apply this knowledge as you modify the templates to suit your own business. In this lesson you’ll learn how to choose and use the templates you download.
Advanced OpenOffice Techniques: Now that you’ve had a chance to download and try out the templates, we’ll talk about advanced techniques for modifying and customizing documents using OpenOffice.
Using Picnik: Who needs Photoshop? Not you! Crop, re-size and re-touch images once you’ve gone through this lesson for using free online photo editing software called Picnik. This easy-to-use program will save you hundreds of dollars, hours of your time, and you’ll get impressive results.
Template Tips and Tricks: This lesson will cover advanced template techniques so you can make the most of the Big Brand System Templates.

The Summary: Lessons 24-26

Why Consistency is Important: Stacey Cornelius of The Studio Source will contribute her know-how on how to build trust and grow your market share with strong, consistent branding through the years. This lesson will feature an editable graphic style guide you can use to build a reference that’s customized for your business’s marketing materials.
Moving Forward with Your Marketing: This lesson will summarize what we’ve covered, and look ahead to the future.
Charter Members’ Choice: You’ll decide what we’ll cover in the last lesson. Is there a topic you’d like to get more in-depth information on? Something we haven’t covered you’d like to know more about? A special guest you’d like to hear from? Your wish is my command: send in your suggestions, we’ll vote, and I’ll make it happen.

It’s a six-month course, and lessons will be released at an average pace of about one per week. You’ll have plenty of time to read and absorb the information, and do the worksheets. I reserve the right to shift lessons around to best meet the needs of the charter members, and to add to the topics we’ll cover, too. It’s a work in progress, and your contributions will make it great!

The course is set up so that every month you’ll learn ideas and gain skills you can start using immediately to make effective marketing materials for your business.

Here’s a three-minute site tour:
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Charter Pricing and Ongoing Access if Sign Up Now

You’re lucky to be reading this page today. When you sign up now, you’ll get into the Big Brand System course for the lowest price it will ever be. You’ll be a Charter Member, and as part of the first group to take the course, you will have a special benefit. You’ll get ongoing access to the materials and the templates. Pay for six months, and continue to use the Big Brand System materials in months 7, 8, 9 … and on and on.

Over time I will add to the template collections, so ongoing access means more design options to choose from. If you use a template style for a while and are ready for a change, you’ll be able to log on and pick out a new template group to apply to your business. Every time a new group of templates uploads, you’ll be notified so you can pick and choose from the latest crop of design goodies.

If you need to take a break or work through the lessons at a slower pace, the material will be available to you when you have time to resume. This is a self-paced course, so you can work through the information at a speed that works for your schedule.

Over $2,000 In Value

Working with a designer or an agency is expensive, and there are no guarantees you’ll be happy with the final product. Every revision will cost you money, and you may not even own the final artwork when it’s all done.

Doing this work yourself can be costly, too. I recently added up the cost of graphic software, and you would have to spend over $2,000.00 to get the software you’d need to do this work.

After you bought the software, you’d have to learn how to use it. Mastering complex design programs can take years.

You could do this on your own, but it is much easier to learn the information from an experienced guide who knows specific techniques that work for small businesses. You’ll learn just enough to understand the basic concepts and implement them in your materials.

The bonus templates will give you a head start on your marketing materials. Most of the design work has been done: you just need to make them your own. The final result will be yours to keep and use, and you can just open the documents and make revisions whenever needed. Custom-made templates like these would cost you thousands of dollars to have designed. You’ll get them as a bonus when you take the course!

You’ll also build your expertise. The design skills you’ll learn will help you with everything you produce from now on. You can look forward to a lifetime of building on the abilities you’ll develop now, and you’ll get better and more confident with everything you do.

Satisfaction Guaranteed

I’m convinced that the Big Brand System is a quality course for learning design and marketing basics so you can have the satisfaction of marketing materials that work well for your business. Try the course for 30 days. Use the forums and apply what you learn. If you’re not completely satisfied, send a message to me using the contact form on this site, and I’ll issue you a full refund, no questions asked.

Limited to 300 Members

I want the Charter Members of the Big Brand System course to feel personally supported, so I am limiting the first group to 300 members. Once these spots are taken, the doors will close until I open up again in about six months, and the next time I may not offer ongoing access to the course material and the Big Brand System Templates.

As a Charter Member, you’ll get inside the Big Brand System course for the best price ever. The next time I offer this course, the price will be higher.

Your Early Notification List Discount

Charter membership in the Big Brand System online course is $97.00/month, but you are on the Early Notification List and get discounted pricing. For six monthly payments of just $67.00, you’ll get the skills you need, the support you want, and as a Charter Member, you’ll get ongoing access to the materials and the templates.

If you want to improve your marketing materials, take advantage of this offer now. The doors close on July 30, or as soon as the course has 300 members, whichever comes first. Don’t miss this opportunity to improve your marketing now so that you can start enjoying the benefits of effective, professional marketing materials.

Join Today

In The Big Brand System course you’ll learn a marketing system that works. You’ll receive support from me and others in the forum. You’ll get access to thousands of dollars worth of templates you can customize and use everywhere you need to market your business.

To become a Charter Member of the Big Brand System and get started on your online course, click the “Let Me In” button below.

Credit Card Merchant Services

You’ll be taken to a secure shopping cart page. Fill out your billing information, then click the “Submit Order” button.

Next you’ll receive two emails.

The first email subject is “Thank you and Welcome to the Big Brand System Course!” This message will contain all the login information you need for immediate access to the mybigbrandsystem.com site.
The second email subject is “Confirm Your Subscription.” Click on the link in this email to join the mailing list for the Big Brand System Member Newsletter, where you’ll get exclusive information to help you make the most of the course.

Grow Your Business with Great Design and Marketing

Remember, the Big Brand System is the only online course that teaches small business owners how to successfully design their own professional-looking marketing materials.

Charter members pay for six months, and get ongoing access to the course material, supportive forum and customizable template sets, plus a member newsletter that offers helpful marketing tips.

Join today to start growing your business with great design and marketing.

WARNING: There are more people on the Early Notification List than there are available spots in the course. If you want to be a Charter Member, sign up now to secure your spot!

PS: I hope to see you inside the Big Brand System online course. I’m passionate about helping small business owners create effective marketing materials that not only sell their offerings, but make them look established, professional and competitive in the marketplace. Get all the Charter Member benefits today by clicking on the “Let Me In” button now!

Pamela Wilson
BIG BRAND SYSTEM