Services & Requests
In order for the office to determine if your marketing project should be handled by our staff or in conjunction with one of our external vendors, please be prepared to provide our office with information which describes the scope of your project. We will need the following information:
- Will we be editing your initial copy or do you need us to draft text from scratch?
- Does your project require new design work or photography?
- What format will best suit your objectives—brochure, booklet, other?
- What is your overall budget? Even though many of our services are offered free-of-charge, we will need to know how you plan to pay for the materials or cost of hiring an outside vendor, if necessary, to accomplish the project.
- When do you need delivery? This last question is a key one, as the creative and production process can take anywhere from a week to a month or more. (See our sample time estimates below.)
Sample Time Estimates
- Brochure/booklet: 6-8 weeks
- Invitation/program: 4-6 weeks prior to desired mailing date
- Bulletin/viewbook; reprints: 2-3 weeks; new design: 3-4 months
- Webpage: 2-3 weeks for cleanup/redesign of a small site; 4-5 for a new site​ of a small site
- Electronic Communication: 2 weeks
Development
After initial meetings to discuss project size and scope, MarCom will work with you, our internal clients, to develop content, copy, images, target audience, and message. As part of this process, MarCom will review and approve ALL copy and images to ensure consistency with school-wide brand standards.
Proofing
Once copy is prepared and approved by MarCom, it will be put into production. A printing proof will be provided to you, and you or a designee from your department will be required to proofread the project FOR ERRORS ONLY. You should be looking for consistency of style, as well as factual and typographic errors. No other changes to copy will be made at this point unless approved by MarCom.
In addition, you should be looking for general consistency of formatting such as space between paragraphs, line spacing, and alignment. You should mark all corrections using common proofreading marks. We recommend you have at least three people proof your document for errors before it returning it to MarCom for final approval. You will be allowed one round of proofing to ensure projects remain on time ​and on budget.
Delivery
After projects are approved, MarCom will act as the contact between you and the printer and/or vendor to arrange for delivery of materials, whether they are electronic, or are scheduled to arrive on campus, or to a specified third-party vendor for mailing.