Back Stage with Dr Jack

THE POETRY OF SUCCESS

2011-10-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

I thought we would re-launch our blog with the following poem. It actually won an award at a current leads group meeting.

Who do you know that may be called boss
Terms like Google and Blogger leave them at a loss
Remember a time when only birds had to tweet
Now it’s a daily essential if you plan to compete
Time and money are precious
Competition is grand
Tell them about TCDG’s Studio Guy
Protector of their brand
He’ll design a campaign full of website and print
Digital media channels that make the clients sprint
To the door, on the phone
Business will explode
Followers will triple from the new QR code
Their new flyers will shine
Their billboards will stop traffic
Their brand is now recognized because we reached their demographics
Brand, Story, Media
Are the secret key
Along with Studio Guy, the Marketing Guru of TCDG.

Everything is (or should be) part of your Brand

2011-07-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

We recently moved into new facilities. Everyone knows that a move can be both exciting and tiring. It is after the move, when everything finally settles down, that you can take a deep breath and look around.

What do you see? Does your new location say what you want it to say - from its locale to the outside of the building, to the entry, to your actual space? Does it add to your brand? If not something is wrong. Your work space MUST tell your story. It must represent to your employees, clients, vendors, friends, and even walk in visitors who you are and what do you stand for. It should tell them what to expect. It should be part of your brand.

For example, a simple thing as a crooked picture may be interpreted as you do not pay attention to details or a dirty floor may send the message that you do sloppy work - even running out of toilet paper (do not laugh) may say you do not plan properly.
There are two easy questions to ask yourself, your employees, and clients
1. Are you proud of your work space and excited about people coming to visit?
2. Are your visitors happy to come to your office/studio?

We have had several clients say “We know what they do but you know we just enjoy being here”. We often have clients ask if they can use our meeting room and story boarding room for their company meetings. Not because they are elaborate but because of the atmosphere. This is an example of our facilities being part of and building our brand.
So take some time today, look around and make sure your surroundings are adding to your brand.

So we were correct – big deal

2011-01-06T11:53:00.000-08:00

About 9 years ago (I believe the Studios just celebrated it’s 9th anniversary)we started evangelizing Corporate Story Telling and why having a story and telling it is so important. Everyone who heard the message would say that they agreed and they could see why not telling their story could harm an organization. But like my last blog stated – Einstein’s definition of insanity “ keep on doing what you are doing and hope that the outcome changes.“

So many organizations just have not incorporated telling their story in their internal and external communications.

In the last blog, we also talked about correcting weaknesses this new year. If you are not incorporating telling your story in all you do including your brand, put it on top of your list. Over the past 12 months, we have heard more and more of successful companies openly talking about not only their story, but wanting to hear their clients/customers stories.

Nine years ago, we were correct in building our services around telling your story. Sometimes it just takes a while for a good idea to take root. Story telling is no longer a “cool” idea, it is a necessity. Thus this weakness becomes an even more critical one.

I am going to suggest to Denise, our Studio President that maybe our next ezine newsletter be about corporate story telling (even though we did one several years ago). It is no longer just our recommendation. It is an accepted practice for effective communications. Remember Marketing is just education your clients in your Story, Employee training is educating them in your story and reporting is educating your stakeholders in your story.

New Day, New Week, New Month, New Year Blah Blah Blah!

2011-01-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

So it is a new year and time to re-energize yourself and your organization. This is the year that is going to be better than last year. This is the year that the organization is going to make its mark on the industry. This is the year that the new, big contract is going to be won - blah , , , blah . . . blah. We have all heard this and probably all said these same words to ourselves and staff each year.
You know Einstein's definition of insanity - repeating the same thing hoping for a different result. So I have a suggestion. Instead of making all those promises of the great things we have planned - take a different approach - and NO it is not being negative.
Look at your weaknesses. This should be the year that you will not repeat them. This is the year that those weaknesses will turn into strengths. So often we do not want to hear about our weaknesses. That is negative and depressing.

Rule #1: Celebrate if you have weaknesses. Be upset if you do not have any. Weaknesses mean that it can get better. No weaknesses mean this is the best it is ever going to get.
Rule #2: You cannot manage or grow your organization without having some sense of reality. Knowing reality may appear to be at first scary. It is actually “freeing”. It frees you to come up with solutions that can have possibilities of actually working. You have a better handle on success managing the known, not managing a fantasy.
So write down those weaknesses, embrace them, and start making meaningful improvements. A new year with old weaknesses being improved upon - now that is something you can work on.

The Sounds of the Season

2010-11-08T08:45:00.000-08:00

I was surfing through the music channels on our cable TV and came across a channel – “Sounds of the Season”. Wondering what one considered to be the season we are in, I selected the channel - 24hour/7 days a week - Christmas and Season Holiday music. No this blog is not about starting the season so early. What came to mind was – it is that time of year again. Part of the season, besides our various religious celebrations, is the welcoming in of a new year.

Except for retailers trying to maximize “Christmas Shopping” sales, this a great “season” to prepare for the next year. For many small companies, January 1st is also the beginning of a new fiscal year.

Take the next weeks and make your own “sounds of the season”.
• Great time for an annual off-site planning meeting
• Take the time to develop a meaningful operating plan for next year. Remember if you cannot measure something, you cannot manage it.
• Budgets are tight but spend this time celebrating your successes over the past year with your staff, employees, and clients. It may be as simple as celebrating that you survived one more year.
• Make sure that you are ready to enter the new year with the proper marketing and advertising plan in place. Even with tight budgets, some “gurus” say that you should be budgeting at a minimum 10% for marketing and advertising.
• This is an excellent time to review and audit all your collateral. Does it tell the correct story about your company.
• Are you ready to properly launch that new product and/or service? Use this time to finalize all your marketing, advertising, and sales material.
• Review your website! Does it need to be updated, refreshed, and does it properly tell your story?
• Finally it is a good time to catch your breath and recreate (re-create), re-energize to face the upcoming year.

You know what is better than customers or clients?

2010-11-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Advocates! Without going into much detail, this past weekend, after 2.5 years of formation, I was ordained a sub-deacon in the Maronite Catholic Church. Looking out into the congregation, there were many faces of friends and family. During the reception afterward, I realized that several of those in attendance were advocates of the Studio. These are past and present people that hire the studio to do creative work for them. No, they are not customers nor clients! They go beyond that. Advocates are clients who not only engage you for your services, but actively encourage and support your organization. If they are an advocate, it means that you also actively encourage and support their organization.

Advocates are your best sales people. They trust you and know you will always do good by them. It is a relationship that where going the extra mile is a given. For the studio we continually “plus” whatever we do.

We at the studio are fortunate to have a large percentage of our long term clients being advocates. We thank them for their support and trust in the studio. We continue our brand promise to always go the extra mile.

So you think you need a new website . . .

2010-10-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a visit from a social friend who had called and asked: “Youz guys do web sites – right?” Yes, we do. So they came in and said that their existing web site was over 10 years old, needed to be updated, and was not working (not functionally but marketing wise). After viewing the web site, they were correct in all three areas.
The conversion was longer than planned. Once they accepted that their web site is one, if not the most important, branding channel for their company, they realized that updating their existing website is more than updating photos, staff members bios, or client lists. These are extremely important but updating does not stop there.

The web has been around long enough that we now know where a visitor spends most of their time (eyes-wise), gender differences, and age differences in web layout. You can age a site by simple things as location of navigation buttons and information presentation flow. In short when re-doing your website, implement a new design – a new look that better reflects your brand.

“Our existing website does not work!” What you are really saying is that your website is not telling your story. Initially websites were just an electronic “yellow pages” ad. No longer true – they must tell your story if not your competitors’ sites are telling their stories loud and clear. So do not just update content. Perform a complete content analysis: what should be said, in what format, how much. Today’s websites are simple, clean, crisp, and minimal text. Also remember the web is still a visual media.
Finally realize and accept that your website does not stand-alone. Viewers expect your site to be collaborative and personal. Also such things as social media and new media (blogs, ezines, podcasts) channels are all used hand-in-hand to distribute your site outward and bring people to the site.

In summary – when considering to update an aged website, remember three key words:
• Design
• Story
• Media Channels

Social Media Private Line or Party Line

2010-10-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

I am probably showing my age, but I remember when I was a young, the phones had what was known as party lines. Even though you had a unique telephone number, other numbers would utilize the same line. So you could pick up the phone and hear someone else’s telephone conversation. You had to be careful what you said or the gossip mill would use your conversation to your detriment. It was not until we had private lines could one be more open in what was said. Of course wiretapping can get around that.

I mention this because there are similar cautions one must take when posting on social media channels. Realize every electronic posting you make is there literally forever. You may post something today, very innocently, and it can be held against you 5, 10, or whatever years from now. Of course we must warn friends and family of these dangers but it also applies to business postings. Make sure you have everyone who posts to your social media channels know that something innocently posted now can be used against you in the future. Unlike a phone call that is not recorded, social media postings do not go away.

Does this mean you should not use social media for businesses. Of course not, but it does mean like any other business tool, if not used properly, it can hurt your organization more than it can help.

Open to New Life

2010-10-19T11:15:00.000-07:00

On October 7th, Studio Guy got a new cousin – Charles Richard. Baby and Mom are doing fine. Some want to call him Chuck and some want to call him Charlie so Studio Dog came up with a compromise - Chucklie.

It is always amazing to see the wonders of new life. Especially when it is your 14th grandchild. With the arrival of a new life, the question can be asked: How open are we to new life? This question is not limited to just new human life. It can also be applied to the life of our organization. Just how open are each of us to new life in our company? Or is it seen as change – a four-letter word.

Chucklie’s arrival has an impact to the life of the studio. He represents new ideas, new futures, new adventures, and new challenges.

Are we ready to face the same in our company? Are we willing to take on the challenges of change and bring new life to our organizations? It will mean new ways of looking at things and trying out new ideas, going beyond our comfort zone (including our approach to external and internal communications).

The only thing I can say is that without being open to new life, you will not enjoy the pleasure of experiencing new growth.

It is important that you believe

2010-01-25T11:33:00.000-08:00

There is a real sense of hope in the air. Every client and professional associate we talk to has one common comment – "2010 has to be better than 2009". As I had mentioned in a previous blog, “2009 to 2010 – from hell to well”. But just hoping is not enough. We must have trust in your organization that 2010 will be better. Just hoping will not make it happen.
It reminds me of a story I heard this weekend. It seems that there was this community and they were experiencing a severe drought. They requested that their pastor pray for rain. So he said that the next week there would be a prayer service for rain. Everyone came to pray for rain.
The pastor started his homily with the statement ”there will be no rain”. Someone from the back of the church cried out – “You told us to come a pray and we have”. The pastor responded – “Yes, but you do not believe that it will rain. No one came with an umbrella or raincoats, etc.”
The message behind the story is very simple – for 2010 to be a great year we must all start acting that way. What are you doing differently to make it a good year? Or are you just sitting back – hoping it will be true.

Are you communicating or dialoging?

2010-01-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

In today’s world, we hear so much about being a good presenter and speaker. There are workshops and organizations that are dedicated to presentation skills and public speaking. There are books and lists of what words to use for a given situation. We often are told that this includes our body language and how the right body language helps one better deliver their message.

This is all well and good and I truly believe in learning these skills. This is especially true for corporate storytellers – the art and skill of telling your story. What follows is not a BUT - it is an AND

With all this emphasis on our speaking and presenting, we so often ignore the “as equal to” part of communications – listening. Yes listening ( not hearing – there is a difference!). We must stop talking and listen to what are clients are really saying ( a want expressed as a need or a need expressed as a want). We need to listen to what our professional associates and fellow workers are saying. We need to quit our self-talk to listen to the creative message that lies within us. For some of us, this means including listening besides asking in our prayers.

As designers, as a nation, as a society - we need to re-learn the art of listening. Here at the studio, one of our beliefs is: “Communications is telling. Dialogue is sharing.” Let’s start dialoguing with each other.

2009 to 2010 - From Hell to Well

2010-01-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

Last blog I mentioned that I was getting ready for the studios’s follow-up planning session as it related to our personal and corporation SWOT analysis. First it was not as painful (personally) as I thought. It was very constructive and helpful. What was made clear is that it is important to have weaknesses and to know them – it is the best way to improve.

This got me thinking about the New Year 2010. 2009 for so many of us was a “mess”. In so many ways, it can only get better. So I guess you can say 2009 had a lot of weaknesses. It is a good way to get prepared for a much better 2010. Look at 2009 and as a year - what were its weaknesses as they related to you and your organizations. Included should be opportunities lost and threats not prepared for. Next create strategies to take your strength and opportunities for 2010 and come up with ways (strategies) to do better.

The first thing is to write down the following on a card and keep it in front of you:

2009 to 2010 – From Hell to Well

What is needed takes courage

2010-01-05T14:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to a new calendar year. It may not be the start of your fiscal year, but it is still a time of new beginning and change. So often we start January with new goals and a commitment to achieve those goals and we do not take time to review ways to improve ourselves (personally and as an organization).

During Christmas week, the studio held our yearly planning and off-site. This year we spent time doing a traditional organizational SWOT and personal strengths and weaknesses. Going back to known processes was very helpful. I strongly suggest if you have not performed a SWOT analysis, do one.

To prepare for the off-site, each studio member had to present what they thought was their own strengths and weaknesses. This was difficult but more difficult part is the next step. This will occur this afternoon. After reviewing each strength and weakness, each member gets to comment on my strengths and weaknesses and how I can improve. Just what I need, people telling me what is wrong with me and how I can be better.

This is not going to be easy. But if I remember that it is important to have weaknesses. That means one can get better. If no weaknesses, then one must ask “Is this all there is?”

So to improve myself and the studio as an organization, I will go into this afternoon’s meeting with an open mind and a resolve to listen. (By the way, did I tell you that being able to do this is one of my weaknesses?)

Bloggers read this – it is the law!

2009-12-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

On Dec 1, the FTC regulations regarding aspects of social media went into effect. First of all this is a good thing (not that regulations are good). It demonstrates that the era of social media has not only arrived but is a main part of business marketing and communications.

The FTC ruling is entitled “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”. The ruling is mainly directed to online media and specifically blogging. The aim of the ruling is to provide consumer protection that is found in traditional advertising media.

Some aspects of the ruling:
• Full disclosure by bloggers, on their blog posts, when they are either receiving compensation or free products by organizations whose products or services are discussed in the blog posting.
• If a company or advertising agency provides a blogger or other online commenter with incentives the online comments will be treated legally as endorsements
• If you provide incentives to a community of “preferred users” who blog about your product or service, you may be liable for any misleading statements made by the blogger
• For customer organizations, if one of your employees receives an evaluation sample and lets say free tickets to a Magic game and the employee evaluates the sample product as one of your employees, you may be liable for any statement (positive or negative) made by the employee.

A best practice guideline is to now treat company-initiated social media and blog posts as official corporate communications. Thus it becomes imperative that all social media marketing activities of an organization come together under one policy.
Thus Social Media, previously unregulated, now is regulated.

Marketing vs Technology

2009-12-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

As we move from recession to transition, one of the areas that is changing is the type of market research and analysis that is conducted. It used to be one of the following two major categories:
• Technology driven
• Market driven

Computer and high tech companies are examples of technology driven. These companies based their marketing plans on what was/is the latest technology. Once the technology is replaced, the marketing program becomes unraveled. Product R&D drives the market.
Market driven is driven by market characteristics such as demographics and/or psychographics. Once the demographics change, the marketing approach must also change.

What works for baby-boomers will probably not work for Gen-X or Gen-Y.In the transition world, the most important thing is to address what customers want. The main point to remember is that customers do not really know what they want. What they are really looking for are better ways to solve their problems. The challenge thus becomes being able to understand the customers and their problems in depth. We must continually work on ways of making life easier for our customers. This may occur because of luck or detailed marketing research. The how is less important than the end result.

It is a Great Time to be Small

2009-11-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

The reality is that we will not be in this recession forever. We are moving from recession to transition. Yes, clients are still buying but they are buying differently. After full economic recovery, they will continue to buy differently. Thus every organization and company needs to develop responses and solutions to address this transition.
Even the larger companies will have to change and this is great news for smaller companies. Large organizations have organizational structures that are slow to move and change. Their bureaucracy prohibits the types of changes that will be required. An example is when it comes to advertising. Previously advertisers and marketers measured ad campaigns by the amount of exposure. Social marketing channels have changed that. What we need to offer our clients (no matter the industry) are metrics to measure not exposure but effectiveness.
We must realize that the digital world is no longer a specialty but rather a competency that must exist throughout all elements of an organization. So my advice to small business owners and managers of larger organizations – as a ‘60s popular song lyrics read “for the times they are a changing”. That is a good thing if you start today moving from recession to transition just like your clients purchasing patterns.

Look Smart, Act Smart, Be Smart

2009-11-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

One of strongest selling points for an organization, especially when providing professional services, is to have current and potential clients believe you are “smart”. This does not mean that you act as a “wise-guy” rather you are known for good ideas, professional knowledge, and willingness to share your insights. We call this Knowledge Perception.

There are several ways to build Knowledge Perception:
• Give seminars, workshops, and presentations – always be open to “speak” to people. Act as a subject-matter-expert (SME).
• Write books, e-books, and white papers – get your name and your organization’s name in print
• Electronic magazines and newsletters (e-zines). Provide helpful and relevant information to your audience.

We strongly suggest that you consider e-zines as part of your sales and marketing leads generation. Develop Knowledge Perception as part of your brand awareness.

What are you colored blind?

2009-11-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

When working with clients, especially when it comes to brand and branding, we emphasis the importance of color (quick lesson: if 80% of all purchase decisions are emotional and 60% of emotion is created by color then. . .). Yet color is often a great source of frustration for both the designer and the client. This is especially true when the client wants you to match a color from some printed material (they do not have the color code (PMS, CMYK, RGB, etc.) and are judging if you have isolated the correct print color by viewing it from their lab top. Or they are trying to view using their in-house, free ink-jet printer of 4 years ago and are thinking that you are just stupid because it does not look green to them – it looks grey. You think that they are crazy and must be color blind.

It does not work. Stop right there. The two parties will never agree and if you do wait until you print. It will look even worst (did not even mention coated or uncoated.)

Designer – color is important. Take time to instruct your client on the science of color, Explain what the various color codes are, and why at times there is not a direct match between PMS CMYK and RGB. Explain what are web safe colors and their benefits. Warn them to never do final approval for print via a monitor.

Clients – Color is important. If you selected a professional studio/agency they know what they are talking about. Invest time in learning color management. Trust them. If not, you are just causing problems for the professional you hired and for yourself. Remember the most effective color probably is not your favorite color. We are trying to sell not select a color swatch for painting your house.

One final note: more than 15% of the population has some type of color blindness, but that is not the type of color blindness I am talking about. Color is important to the sales and marketing process. Take time and learn about color and color management – do not be blind to color.

Touching the Infinite

2009-11-11T09:00:00.001-08:00

One thing good about blogging, is that your blog can and should be personal. Your blog should also be at times controversial. Well today I enter both arenas.

Yesterday, the studio took an employee motivation day and went to the Business Motivation Seminar at the convention center. There were over 7,000 attendees just at the convention venue. Do not know how many were at the Arena downtown. NO I am not going to comment on the program or the speakers (my favorite was Laura Bush). The organizers of the seminar said that their surveys indicated attendees were looking for more topics on spirituality and personal finance.

I was pleasantly surprised that most, if not all speakers continually referenced the need to include God in what we do. This got me thinking. God is the creator of all things. Our industry often uses the word create or creative such as creative graphic design. Not that we are playing God (even though there are some out there who border on thinking they are God). There is something in us designers who try to tap into that spark of creativity given to us as a gift from God. We, on/in various forms of media try to create stories, ideas, communications, and yes even beauty. As designers we try to “create” beauty and balance that we see all around us. As designers, everything we see is looked upon from a view point that was given to us as a gift from God. We strive to touch the infinite knowing that we never can. As St. Theresa once said, "God in the blinking of an eye can create an infinite number of new realities (new designs)".

I thank God for my gifts and talents in participating in the creative process, even if it is, in terms of eternity, just a grain of sand.

Get rid of some of the hot air

2009-11-05T07:55:00.000-08:00

We often say that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is sometimes misinterpreted as visualization can replace words. This is so – not true! When marketing and selling, words are extremely important. Designers must work hand-in-hand with copywriters. Words are necessary tools to motivate and persuade your audience. Words are still a storyteller’s strongest tool. This is such an important subject that copywriting will be the theme topic for our upcoming monthly e-zine “Studio Buzz”.

I will leave you with just one of the many skills, good copywriters must have – elimination of wordy expressions! Marketing and sales collateral must be focused and on topic. The shorter the available copy space, the more challenging the task. Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was a masterpiece. The President was able to say more in his short speech than the speaker before him did in an hour and a half oration.

So here are just some examples of phrases that amount to little more than “dead wood” Most can be trimmed to a single word.

Instead of: At the present time, use now
Instead of:At this point in time, use now
Instead of:As of this date, use now
Instead of:At that time, use then
Instead of:At that point in time, use then
Instead of:During the time that, use when, during
Instead of:At which time, use when, during
Instead of:On the occasion of, use when, during
Instead of:Subsequent to, use after
Instead of:In the event that, use if
Instead of:After very careful consideration, use after considering
Instead of:Make inquiry regarding, use inquire

These are some of the many examples that demonstrate avoiding wordy expressions.

Are you design savvy?

2009-11-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

A couple issues back of our studios’s e-zine “Studio Buzz” we talked about the importance of design. We also stated that since customers/clients so often make buying decisions based on emotions, successful organizations recognize that their human assets need to be design savvy. It is no longer function over form but it is now form over function. So how do you become design savvy? First of all, remember that design is about usefulness and affect not about contemplation and what you like. Design needs to communicate a message or concept.

Design savvy needs to start with the designer. As designers, often the people who make the final approval of our design(s) are not visually trained. They operate in the world of budgets and market share increase. Words and logical thought are their tools. They really cannot tell if a design is good or not. They then often revert to what they like. They need and often time want to be convinced.

Designers must be able to and prepared to sell their design with words. As designers we must assure our clients that the design has merit and supports their marketing strategy – the perfect solution to their problem.

So what does this have to do with becoming design savvy? First when reviewing designs, try to separate what may work with what you like. There is no room for egos when it comes to being design savvy. Second, make your designer present as part of the design review the following three things:
• What objectives they were attempting to address
• What assumptions they used in their design
• Verbally explain how the design achieves the objectives within the assumption set

And designers remember one thing: ultimately your job exists only to help your clients achieve their objectives and they nearly always have the last word.

Sometimes it is all worth it

2009-10-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

The creative process is not easy. It is not just sitting down and this inspiration comes over you – voila a masterpiece. For design it is even more difficult. Art is very personal and meant for contemplation. Design is meant to be useful and to communicate. Designers must constantly remember that their goal is to meet the client’s needs. So often you are convinced that it is the perfect design, the president walks in to see it (after being approved by the marketing department), one hour from the media dead line, and the president hates it. For those not in marketing and advertisement, this scenario may not seem real – Believe me it is real!
Then you have yesterday. Having worked several weeks, and many long brainstorming sessions, we completed the concept phase of a totally new marketing and advertising approach for a national bio-mass energy company. The concepts were somewhat “edgy” but would be very effective. We went in, presented the 10 different communications channels that would be designed. There was silence in the room (oh boy that must have been a bomb, we were thinking). The chairman looked up with the biggest smile on his face and said “Love it – different and that is what we need”! It is moments like this that makes our industry truly enjoyable and satisfying.

Always Keep Them Surprised!

2009-10-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

We are working with one of our clients on a major re-launch of their system of web sites (actually 5 different sites supporting each other). Over the past couple of years we have developed a strong sense of trust and respect for each other.

In large projects like this, sound business practice is to not find yourself in the erroneous belief that whatever the client asks for you perform the work for free. “Out of spec” merits engineering change orders. But you can also fall into the trap of “nickel and diming” the client to death. Balancing these two extremes is important but at times difficult. The more we respect our clients and they respect the studios, the easier it is to find the right balance. Both each have to be fair – and in today’s economy fairness often times goes out the window.

With all this said the done, we at the studio constantly remind ourselves that our success has been and will continue to be built on “always striving to exceed client expectation”. This mantra can be heard in the truly successful studios and agencies

If it helps – think of it as a bird’s nest!

2009-10-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

As we work with our clients to establish channels of communications for advertising and marketing, social media always comes up. Yes, everywhere you turn there is some start-up offering a free seminar in social media and how they use it.

Many clients when first exposed to social media channels, either have a blank look or an expression of “I dare you to try that craziness here”. Such reactions usually come from the baby-boomer age cohort. As a baby-boomer, I fully understand. On the surface, it makes no sense. It is one of those things, the game-crazed younger people do. Within the studio, I was the last to have a “FaceBook” account. The real story is: one lunch time when I was out of the studio, Studio Guy et al set up my FaceBook link.

This was my mindset until I heard the following story:

Often times we see birds with twigs, strings, and pieces of trash in their beaks. How often we would ask “What will they use that “crap” for? Until we see the beautiful nest they build. That is exactly the same with social media. Maybe that is why they call some postings “tweets” in Twitter!

Every time there is some type of social media posting about your company/organization, it adds to building your nest. So my advice to you who are still resisting trying these communications channels, is the same advice I got from others at the studio – “Get over it and just do it”! Go “tweet”.

You just cannot get around it!

2009-10-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

We believe in the power of a brand and that branding is one of the most important assets an organization possesses. Every organization needs a brand. So often, we find organizations having survived their first five years of start-up, having built no name recognition or client loyalty - just two of the benefits of branding. We repeatedly remind clients going through the brand development process that their brand is more than just an icon or graphic, so much more than just a logo.

Creating your brand elements should be the result of a process. If not the results are personal opinions. Even worst, they just concentrate on a graphic element and actually get lost in the design. They quickly move from design to art. The process gets thrown out of the window. Branding degenerates into what family and friends like – so much for what will work in the market.

I have come to the conclusion that even though everyone needs a brand and should be branding, some organizations and/or founders are just ready for a brand. We have actually included interviewing and screening prospects, who are interested in branding as part of our marketing processes. Both process and product are required for success. Some people are just not ready or understand that principle.

Meet Our New Studio Member

2009-08-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

It has been a week or so since I last blogged. Have been busy getting our new studio staff member settled and “trained” in our ways. He comes to us from Iowa. It has been a real joy having our new member. Everyone who has visited the studio is extremely impressed by him. A photo of our new addition – Studio Dog is included in this blog. Studio Dog’s alter-ego is played by Toby who is a Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier. So you are all invited to come to the studio and meet Studio Dog.

Design Wins Again

2009-07-27T08:37:00.001-07:00

We often repeat the phrase: Design is a necessity not a decoration. And last week’s business news validated that expression.

Apple Computer, in the mist of one of our worst recessions, posted their best non-holiday quarter ever. If you stop and think about it – Apple grew when everything else was shrinking.

I wonder why? Even though they have always been known for quality they are definitely not the cheapest. They also do not dominate the installed computer base. Some may say it is the iphone and ipod. Those two products do go along way in explaining Apple’s success. But during the same period of time, they also sold millions of desk and lap tops.

You see, Apple understood and understands the power of Design. They came to the realization that consumers are more interested in how it looks versus how it works. Design has become an integral part of Apple equipment. It is not just some “white-wash” to make you think that they are interested in design.

Design is a strategic component of Apple not just some passing tactic for quick- short-term success. You need to just walk pass an Apple store and everything screams – DESIGN.

The lesson learned? You must make design part of your culture, part of your strategic growth. Your staff must become design savvy in their thinking and approach to business growth. You just need to look to Apple for validation.

Are you making the proper investments?

2009-07-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

One of the real sad results of today’s economy is how we look at making important business investments. True, “cash my be king” but that does not mean we throw away our business savvy when it comes to business decisions.

An example is your business’ web site. It is one of the most important investments you can/will make for your business. It is the focus of expanding your brand. It is the first place someone will go to validate your organization or be introduced to your products and services. Your web site is one of your most important first-impressions maker. And yet so many business owners and managers are selecting their web sites for the wrong reasons. Let’s take an example out of our personal lives. Our cars and houses are probably two of the most important investments we will make. Now, if you have a family of five and have your main car a two-seater – wrong investment. You are just going to have to return the two-seater and get the right car – the investment.

Or take your logo. A logo is one of several important elements of your brand – and branding is extremely important. Going to get some modernized clip art because it is cheap or quick is the wrong investment. Just hope you are not making your other business decisions with the same short sightedness.

It is hard to fathom!

2009-07-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, our household watched the annual showing of the musical 1776. I am not commenting on the quality of the musical or the accuracy of the story line. Just call me sentimental, but the founding of the USA is a powerful story. A story of men from different geographic areas and different view points coming together for the common good. Everyone of them probably had a hidden agenda that eventually they were able to overcome.

It is hard to fathom what that group of men had to endure for the sake of founding our country. America and the world are much different now and yet the principles that not on relative values but ethical absolutes. A principle is only a principle when it is difficult to follow.

This is suppose to be a blog for creative design. Our founding fathers were truly exceptional designers – designers of something as grand as freedom – now that is some genre.

After watching the DVD, I still feel honored and proud to be an American. I need that yearly reminder to have the courage and belief to say “God bless America”.

It is more then just being considerate - Design for Accessibility

2009-06-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

Many visitors to your web site may have certain physical challenges. Accessibility refers to web designs that remain accessible despite any physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities, work constraints, or technological barriers. Many web sites are image and media intensive that may not lend itself to adaptive devices such as screen readers, voice browsers, and Braille translators.
Building more accessible content does not mean you have to delete complex and/or rich media sites. Or by offering a text-only based site alternative.

The W3C supports and encourages a accessibility program (www.w3.org/WAI/. This site provides guidelines and standards to build ore accessible web content. Some tips you will find at this site:

Images and animation – use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual
Multimedia – Provide captioning and transcripts of audio ad descriptions of video
Hypertext links – Use text that makes sense when read out of context.
Page organization – Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS layout and style where possible.
Scripts, applets, and plug-ins – provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible
Tables – make line-by-line reading sensible and summarize
Validity – check design ad validate code using validators from W3C.
For physically challenged visitors validate site by using Bobby (www.cast.org/bobby) -recently sold to IBM or similar web-based tools offered by W3C for checking accessibility guidelines.

GENDER – Women consumers

2009-06-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

So often we consider age when profiling and crafting the write visual communication message. That is why my last three blogs covered the three major age groups of Baby Boomer, Gen-X and Gen-Y. Did you know that Women represent 51.2 percent of the population and they influence or buy 80 percent of products sold?

Women want products, ads, and businesses that are without comparisons to a man’s world. Markets have proven time and time again that the primary thing that women want,, as people and as consumers, is relationships. Women prefer personal one-on-one networking as a way of finding solutions to business problems and this is often how they discover products as consumers.

Women are largely holistic in their approach to relationships; meaning that they are less likely than men to compartmentalize a brand or company solely according to what it has to offer them in a specific situation.

They want to feel a deeper, more layered connection.

Five key elements of women as consumers:

Respect: women are well-informed. They research products well before buying. They read ingredients much more closely than men to make sure there are no harmful elements, and they are very careful about their decisions. Acknowledge that they are intelligent and informed, and they will respect your brand.
Individuality: Women are playing multiple roles today and do not want to be talked to from only one, narrow perspective. They are feminine, powerful, nurturing moms and caregivers, independent, sexy, smart, and so on. Recognize their diversity as much as possible and resist any and all temptation to stereotype.
Stress relief; In numerous studies stress has been shown to be women’s number one enemy. Women today feel overwhelmed by taking an equal role as breadwinner and primary nurturer to the family. 43% of women feel frustrated in trying to balance their work with parenting. Offer solutions, or at least understanding, of the tensions that prey on them
Connection: Women base most of their decision making on emotions as opposed to rational elements. Studies have shown that they don’t like reading lists of numbers, specs,
Relationship: Women want dialogue, not just a transaction. Women are looking for brands to trust and will often remain extremely loyal to a brand that has built on their trust consistently – even beyond price. Part of the relationship a woman has with a brand has to do with that brand representing some-thing important to her in her life. Brands that take a sincere stand for something and demonstrate it in real, concrete terms will do well with women.

Women and the web:
Women’s primary online activities are:

Gathering information: (business/career/family/shopping/health/travel/computer)
Sending and receiving email
Chatting

Women tend to go online for a specific purpose and men are more likely to be surfers or browsers.

Contents or helpful tips are more valuable to women than games.

Respect: Women use the web to conduct research of products, services, and companies in order to make informed decisions.
Individuality: Women are using the web to reinforce their sense of themselves as multidimentional people.
Stress relief: The major reason women sop online is convenience. Also a good source for a little relaxation and self-gratification.
Connection: Easy to navigate information and content that is highly relevant to women in a way that fosters a sense of community.
Relationship: Women use the web to help themselves and their families.

Generation Y: Coming Right at You (at Warp Speed) This presently is the youngest of the consumer age cohorts.

2009-06-19T05:39:00.000-07:00

Although still evolving, this generation’s emotional palette and passions are entirely unique.
They are going faster and doing more than any previous generation.
Activities that absorb them fully do it through demanding and concisely packed content.
When trying to reach this generation, advertising needs to be brief and sans fluff.
Never talk down to this generation as kids. They have developed responsibility and awareness early in life.
Most not underestimate the sophistication of this generation.
Demonstrates an unprecedented sensitivity to global issues, such as poverty, war, environmentalism, as well as race, gender, or sexual orientation discrimination issues.
They hold civic responsibility in high regard and whereas their Boomer parents fought to topple society, today’s youth would rather fix it up.
The internet may not, despite the hype, necessarily be the foremost venue of the Generation Y’s consumer demands. But because of the internet they can freely and independently of their parents develop their own tastes.
Generation Y enjoys using the Internet as a social space. However, until now they have shown a dislike for shopping on the Internet.
This generation craves a more direct interactivity and sensory experience in marketing.
For this generation, ten seconds is often too long. Their desire for immediate gratification is frustrated by the delays of slow-loading web pages and week long shipping waits.
Promotional events are gaining popularity in marketing this generation.
This generation will tell us what they want, goal is to listen.

Gen X to Gen excel: No Slacking Here

2009-06-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

We continue our discussions on the various characteristics of age cohort groupings that should be included in any design element.

Take-control, independent-minded, pragmatic mentality which aided by a booming economy has effectively shed all resemblance of a decade old image of slackers.
In the process of building careers, buying houses, and preparing to people them with god-knows-what generation.
Conservative and sensible in all matters pecuniary.
Gen eXcel is exercising maturity and prudence.
As a generation, they are averse to divorce.
Homes are considered a symbol of their individuality, rather than their status symbols.
Predominately they are looking for a particular look and that look can be provided by a multitude of brands.
They have sharp and discriminating taste that freely adapts and subverts existing fashions and brands while meeting hip fashions and individualizing. In other words, your basic postmodern portrait.
They saw job security and corporate loyalty fly out the window, they are the workers most likely to leave the company they are with if they receive a better job offer.
They are unwilling to sacrifice their personal lives on the corporate altar.
They favor work that offers variety and enhances their own skill set while allowing them to learn.
They are entrepreneurial and want to direct themselves.
They yen for teamwork and are accustomed to collaboration and enjoy being part of a team.
Being told what to do damages their morale, but being allowed to find their own solution and make their own mistakes is very rewarding to them.
They are equally accustomed to working for male and female bosses and show diminished concern for gender issues in the workplace.
Businesses must provide accurate depictions in their media – appeal to the eXcels’ individuality and their aspirations.
Humor, particularly sarcasm, is a favorite of theirs.
Anything irreverent has good shot at stirring their sympathies and maybe their loyalties. An amusing story with a great punch line and a good laugh is one way to do it. Offbeat, slightly off-color humor is often advised.
Campaigns that target the eXcels should strongly consider nontraditional approaches.
They have abandoned the typical hierarchical mentality in favor of equality – in other words, they expect others, even their bosses, to treat them as equals.
They describe the Internet as a means of escape and mental stimulation, as well as a way of gathering specialized information.
They are the first generation that said “What’s in it for me?”
Their rules:
Is it Hip/Cool? Is it Original? Is it Flashy? Is it New?, Is it Creative? Is it my Community? Is it Me?, Is it Sexy? Can I see myself in the message?, Is it Honest?, Is it Fun?, Is it Interactive? Is it Cynical? Does It Show I have Style? Is it Humorous? Is it Real?
Does it show I am one smart, brave, bad-ass success?!
The Xers have managed to usher in the “alternative” to everything.
Unbelievably smart, they are savvy and pragmatic and exchange information as bargaining chips.
They refuse to adhere to any road map and can turn on a dime to acquire a new strategy or skill set to win with.

What's your cohort?

2009-06-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

There are three major age cohorts or groups that must be taken into account when developing branding and corporate identity solution. They are:

Baby Boomers born 1946 – 64
Gen Xers born 1965 – 76
Generation Y born 1977 – 94

These three population segments simply don’t speak the same language. Baby Boomers respond to cues of achievement, status, and performance, while Gen Xers value imagination, creativity, and relationships, and Gen Y responds to fun, interactivity, and experience. It is important that we understand these differences and assist our clients with such understanding. This critical to maintaining our own brand promise of cost-effective, message-effective, and products they are proud of. In the next series of blogs, I will address the different groupings.The following consist of sound bites and statements about the Baby Boomers

Aging Baby Boomers: Not Your Typical Grandma and Grandpa

This generation finds itself presented with a new obstacle, unlike anything it has ever encountered before: LAF – Life after Forty. Boomers will confront this change with vigor and finesse, co-opting the meaning of maturity and retirement and fitting it to their generation’s idiosyncrasies.
Comprise eighty-one million people, 30% of the population and 55% of the US discretionary income.
Will not bend to the strains of age. Instead they will revitalize and reshape what it means to be mature.
Boomers are not getting older; they are reaching a youthful maturity. They can look forward to indulging in the three big benefits of maturity: wisdom, health, and status and can buy their way out of most of the drawbacks of maturity.
Anxiously indulging in treats with connotations of youth and adventure that reaffirm their youthfulness and energy.
Competitive careers, demanding families, and a slew of medical advances have kept this group remarkably fit.
By denying their age they are more apt to undertake ambitious projects such as starting a new company or vacationing in rugged terrain. Their Peter Pan “never grow up” mentality constitutes an empowering attitude.
Boomers are ready to indulge in pricey pleasure purchases.
Products that present themselves as panic purchases, catering to Boomers fleeing the fates, will flop.
Products that take into account universal design principles will meet with success. Universal design principles take into account the needs of all consumers, whether they’re seventeen or seventy.
Branding is about comfort, reassurance, and solutions for this group. Attempts to scare consumers into buying their products no longer works. Today’s brands romance the consumer and demonstrate understanding.
Comfort has also become a priority for many Boomers.
Marketing campaigns that emphasize physical and psychological benefits are more successful than those that focus on the problem being solved.
Brands must develop much more sensitivity to the symbolic values surrounding their product and image that are open to constant repositioning or embellishment.
Even as they begin to downshift, Boomers will maintain remarkably active lifestyles.
Understanding both these sides of Boomers – the desire to escape and downshift while remaining active – is vital for 21st century business. Products and promotions must sensibly cater to both halves of this mentality

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword

2009-06-08T07:25:00.000-07:00

In the studio’s May e-zine, we discussed the importance of print material. There is one aspect of print (hard copy) media that we did not address - one that is extremely important. It is the hand-written note. We have become so email oriented that we have forgotten this powerful tool. The hand written thank you note or invitation says one thing – You are important enough for me to take time out, compose a message and personally write it. I am not talking about a typewritten note – a human hand written message or note.

The sales courses talk about constantly keeping in touch with your prospects and clients. This is so true. Large amounts of communications coupled with the cost of paper, envelope and postage makes emails so cost-effective and they are so convenient.

Take a birthday card. There is the convenient electronic card you can send. It is convenient and low-cost. It is often entertaining with rich media. At least it says I did not forget. But too much email cards can make us “sloppy”. It is even easier to post something on your FaceBook wallpaper. Again, at least I did not forget.

But a personal card says you are really special:
• I remembered
• Took the time to pick out a card
• Wrote a message on the card
• You are important enough for that extra cost and time of mailing

With the card, I can also keep it and refer to it many times. My wife had this tradition that she would keep the Christmas and holiday cards we would receive. She would then during the year, take one card out of the collection to remind her of the sender and pray for them during the day. Keeping in your save box e-cards or emails is not quit the same thing.

We ask our new awards how they found out about the studio and why they selected us. Several times we were told it was because they received a hand written thank you card after we had met them.

By the way, poor penmanship is not an acceptable excuse. So buy that pack of thank you notes or cards and take the time to think of a message, personally write it out, and send it.

More Important Than Ever

2009-06-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a long-standing client of the studio called. The first thing he said was “Kudos to you”. I know we had not just provided a deliverable, so I asked why the kudos. The client said because we answered the phone. “Kudos for answering the phone?” I asked. Well it seems that the client has been calling his other vendors and they have not been answering the phone.
I guess in today’s economic environment, every other call you make or receive is trying to collect money. You can easily see why the phone can become a source of pain. But these situations will get better as the economy gets better. Being available to your clients is not a short-term practice. It should be along-term habit. Make sure you answer the phone especially if it is one of your clients or prospects. You can always use caller-id to identify telemarketers. Answering the phone also includes returning phone calls.

Today’s consumers have the following characteristics. They are:
• Angry
• Cynical
• Time Starved
• Don’t care about the how only the results for them
• Measure their level of being impoverished not by amount of money but by connectivity.

If they cannot get in touch with you, they will feel impoverished. At times this can be troublesome for it creates a high level of psychological noise but not being able to reach you will make them uncomfortable. Our clients on the whole are more demanding. This is true not just for the graphics design industry but for all industries.

Even product oriented businesses find themselves in the service industry. Taking orders, processing orders, delivery instructions, etc are all service-oriented processes.
It is not just a matter of performing at your present level, but constantly raising the bar. So start today by answering the phone, or returning that call and do it with a smile.

Can you really afford to hire an amateur?

2009-05-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

If you think it is expensive to hire a professional, imagine the REAL cost of hiring an amateur?

As Kermit would say – “It is not easy being green”, it is very similar for design firms – “it is not easy being in the business”. One of the difficulties is that in some aspects the cost-of-entry appears low. If you say that I have a computer, some graphic programs, templates, and html editors, I am a designer. I guess this is somewhat true.

The fallacy is where or when do you start considering the cost-of-entry when it comes to creative talent and visual communications skills. So often this is both an art and a science. The past 10 years have seen too many false or instant solutions.

“I have Word so I must be a writer” or
“I got Publisher with my computer – I am now a graphic layout person” or
“I can use PhotoShop – I am a graphics designer” or
“I got Homepage or can use one of the free web template services – I am a web designer” or
“I bought the book built my own website – of course I can build yours”

You must be kidding me!
. . . and it is hard to fight this lack of logic or knowledge until it is too late – “My collateral/web site is not helping my organization to grow” Well what do you expect.

This whole scenario really becomes disastrous when applied to your website. Remember websites are not just electronic yellow pages anymore. They are the first place one goes to find out about you and be introduced to your products/services. I do not care what you are offering this is still true. Your first impression will make or break you – don’t care if you are selling products, introducing your Church services, or running for political office.
For your web site you MUST consider three domains:

Look/design “ugliness does not sell”. Your web site better be building up your brand and not weakening it

Functionality – does it provide the services, correctly processed, that are aids to your viewers?

Marketing – how are people going to get to your site and more importantly how are you going to distribute your site outward.

Many may disagree with me, but your visual communications are so important that in some cases doing nothing may actually be better than publishing/posting something that weakens your brand image.

So for you designers or people that work with designers – you get what you pay for. Crap is still crap!

In or On the Business - Part II

2009-05-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

I am continuing my blog from last week addressing the issue of working-on-the-business versus working-in-the-business. This sequel is somewhat late in that I had my oldest son and his 8 kids visiting me from Chicago so I non-blogged over the past holiday.

6. Concept Policy – You need to know what is the general policy when it comes to how many different concepts you promise a client. Some promise only one. Here at the studio, we usually gear for three concepts.

7. What are your normal schedules – Develop generic schedules for the various basic products you offer (web, brochure, logo designs, flash presentation, etc.) These should of course be modified for specific projects but they will provide the client some idea of elapsed time for the project.

8. Do you charge for rush jobs or projects that are clearly required in time frames less that your typical schedules for product/service.

9. Do you hold regular staff meetings – Of course if you are a one-person show this may not apply. But even if there are only two staff members you should have regular staff meetings. The last thing you need is to work in a vacuum. But never underestimate the power of group thought.
10. Who estimates – there should be clearly defined procedure on how and who prepares your estimates. To assist you in this area is to develop average project costs similar to the generic schedules that you develop in #7.

11. Hardware and Software – know what hardware and software your firm or studio utilizes It can add value in the eyes of your client.

12. Work Samples – make sure you collect your work samples in a central location. Everyone will know where the work is ad also to re-use design elements. This central repository is also important in creating your portfolios.

In or On the Business

2009-05-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

So often we as designers spend all of our creative energy working “in the business” that is doing the actual creative work for a client. To be able to survive and continue offering design services, we must also realize that many cases we have a parallel set of functions – making sure our design firm/studio is profitable. If not the doors will close and so will our avenue to be creative.

This deals with “working on the business”. This is important for a one person design firm to the large studios. So I thought I would spend some time with this and the next blog going over graphic design “on-the-business” suggestions.

1. Just like any other business, the graphic design business must have goals. These will permit you to measure your progress and provide opportunities to celebrate when you reach such goals. Sales and Revenue goals are two of these very important goals. Set a goal for your upcoming year. This should include reviewing what your revenue was last year so you can set meaningful goals that can be reached with a stretch.

2. Who are your firm’s clients? You should know who you want to sell to and who is buying. If you have been following my blogs you should know that answer of “every and any one” is unacceptable. Avoiding the wrong clients is just as important as going after the correct client.
At the studio we measure a potential client/engagement by 4 criteria. If the prospect as only two or less, it is a very high risk situation to accept the project. These (in no order of importance) are:

Good credit (did not say lots of money). They need to be able to pay their bills when milestones are reached and not post-pone acceptance to meet their cash flow crunches.
Understanding of Design - or at least an appreciation of the importance of design and the process and creativity behind effective designs. Also stay away from anyone who says I do not have time to provide input but I will know it when I see it. Run away from such a prospect as fast as you can.
Not a dying industry – every industry has its cycles. Stay away from those industries that at the present are in a down-turn. You do not want to be pulled down with them. Such clients will also just be looking for price and not the most cost-effective, message-effective, and brand-effective solutions.
More than one engagement – It takes time to build relationships with clients. You want to be able to harvest the investment in such relationship building.

3. Marketing and advertising – Design firms must also advertise and market. You need to invest in your own collateral. So often we just create such collateral for our clients and forget about our own internal needs. This is often called the “physician heal thyself) syndrome.

4. Are designs available for out-of-the-studio meetings? Many times, especially for more complicated projects, the creative design team must be available to meet and discuss/brainstorm/present with/to the client.

5. How professional are your proposals. For small projects, a quote is sufficient. But as the project becomes larger and more complicated, pull blown proposals are required including addressing the three aspects of a project (specifications, budgets, and schedules).

Our Philosophy Wall

2009-05-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

We had moved into our new studio location this past December. As with all moves, it takes a while to get everything in place. This week I have been preparing to re-constitute our philosophy wall. It is various saying, various sources, various sizes of saying that convey our “philosophy” of design and its proper place in the creative process. I thought I would share some of these with you:

“Budgets only restrict how much you can spend, not how much design you can get.”

“When color is at its richest – form is at its fullest.”

“Today it is form over function – How it looks is more important than how it works.”

“Crap is crap.”

“Tell me the facts and I will learn. Tell me the truth and I will believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.”

“Design is a necessity not a decoration.”

“INSANITY: Repeatedly performing the same process – hoping for a different result.”

“If the identity of your brand is not well defined, you may have visibility but no personality.”

“There is no curve as beautiful as a rising sales graph.”

“The objective of a name is to stand out and distance itself from any formulaic or trendy expressions that could diminish the impact of the brand.”

“Design is more inspiration and imagination than logic and analysis.”

“Design is all about personalization and customization.”

“One single idea – especially if it involves a great brand concept – can change a company’s entire future.”

“Ugliness does not sell”

Ring the Bell

2009-05-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

I was in “deep design thought” yesterday when all of a sudden The Bell rang out and everyone at the studio starting clapping and yelling. So much for keeping my current thought pattern. It may sound like I was upset – No just the opposite. You see that whenever we win a new task or engagement, we ring The Bell - Happiest sound around!

So you may think I am complaining - No way. We have learned at the studio that for success you need to celebrate success. Every time you reach a milestone, or win a contract – celebrate it. Ring a bell, have a party, make a speech, have a company party – whatever - but celebrate.
The secret to celebrating success is to break down your goals and objectives into small measurable milestones. Recently we just completed a rich media presentation. Of course we had a “client presentation” party but we also had smaller celebrations whenever we completed a scene.

Are we party animals at the studio? No but we have learned the all-important function of defining what is success, measuring our progress, and celebrating reaching the finish line (on time, within spec, within budget, and high quality). So make sure your organization learns to Ring the Bell.

The Finish Line

2009-05-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to blog#31 of our series on New Media Marketing. I wanted to present a summary of the last 30 blogs and the various aspects of New Media Marketing. I thought the best way was to share with you an announcement that we crafted for one of our clients who just announced there advertising campaign for the upcoming year. The content has been modified, where appropriate, so as to provide some unanimity for the client.

“Last year we embarked on the continuous journey of making our company stronger and better. The reason we were even able to start such a journey was we were building on an already strong foundation of quality, design, and service.

Our first step was to launch a stronger and updated brand. One that through consistent usage, will grow our perceived quality, name recognition, and customer loyalty.

This past year we have been concentrating on new and improved methods of customer communications and effective sales and marketing. We started this segment of our journey with a statement that was made at one of our planning sessions with our creative design firm: ‘Customers are still buying but they are buying differently.’ This statement becomes even more powerful given our present economic environment.

We also agreed upon four givens:

It still takes on average seven contacts to make a sale
Conventional approaches of direct mail and phone campaigns are becoming more costly and time consuming with in many cases response lead times being too long
It is important to control costs and yet successful organizations do not cut marketing and sales activities during economic down times.
And probably the most telling – over 72% of consumers now communicate electronically

We thus have started implementing a new approach to our sales and customer communications. It is called New Media Marketing – using today’s technology and communications channels. The result is more communications, in a more timely fashion, with lower costs, in a manner of electronic communications that we all are moving toward in our everyday lives.

So what is New Media Marketing? Would be more then happy to discuss in more detail the hows, whats, whens, and where but you will get a good picture by giving some examples of what we are implementing to bring more prospects into our community of buyers using today’s technology.

More then ever, the web site becomes critical. We are completely overhauling our present web site to bring it from what is known as Web 1.0 (information only) to today’s Web 2.0. Today’s consumers look for and expect not only information but also collaboration and personalization. Our new look will be more simple, cleaner, and easier to navigate with the ability for viewers to ‘tap’ into other channels of communications and discussion. Also our brand will be more dominant. The web is one of if not the most important vehicle for branding in today’s business environment.
You will start seeing on all of our electronic communications (web, email, electronic newsletters, etc) what we call “opt-in” capabilities. We are starting to constantly offer and request that our future and present community of buyers choose to provide their name and email. With these two pieces of information, we can proactively – electronically market without becoming spammers.
In the very near future, we will be introducing our blog. We are still working on a name and look, but this will provide another networking channel where we will be able to provide information and opinions on various topics. Our blogs will encourage readers to make comments that we will respond to. We will be blogging at least twice a week. Blogs are critical to providing collaboration capabilities and also providing timely and up-to-date communications. From our blogs, viewers will also be able to link to our new web site.
We will be re-launching our newsletter. But it will now take the form of a html(nice looking) email. These are known as ezines –electronic magazines. When fully implemented, we will be publishing once a month. Articles will have links to our blogs and web site for additional information.
We will be expanding our email campaigns. We will not be abandoning totally direct mail, but a well designed, visual email piece is much more cost effective. It is how people now communicate and with email you get feedback within 48 hours not weeks.
Like it or not, one of the fastest growing and impactful communications channels are the Social Media Channels. Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIN, Twitter, etc. are becoming dominant forces in not only personal networking but also business networking. You will be seeing not only our company but each staff member, establishing presence in these Social Media Channels with always a think back to our web site. As a side note we have found out that these Social Media channels are one of the major methods that the googles of the world determine where your site appears on a web search.
We will then move on to podcasts (both audio and video) so that we can provide communications on a longer term bases.

This sounds like a full plate and it is. But we are very excited. It is something that we all need to do to stay competitive. You see the secret is that every time someone clicks on our web site or clicks on our blog and from there clicks to our web site or clicks to open an email or clicks to read our ezine and from there our blog, etc - each one of those clicks is one of the 7 needed to move a prospect or keep a current client in our buying community. “

Tracking Results

2009-05-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

One of the most important aspects of NMM is the ability and the discipline of tracking results. You need to know what is working and what is not. Here are some recommendations for tracking results. Such tracking should occur for three distinct considerations:

Content
Relevance
Impact

Content: This is directed toward the “audience”. What you need to determine is who is talking about you. What are people saying about you and your industry. Metrics that can be used:

Blog posts
Recommendations
Tweets and similar Widget Views

Some tools to use:

BlogPuse
Google Alert
Cymfony
Techrigy
Blog-search
Technorati
Net Promoter

Relevance: This measures the value of opinions and conversations, interest levels in your messages, content and intensity of blog posts. Metrics:

Time on Site
Bounce Rate
Pass Alongs
Comment to Post Ratio
Podcasts Listens and Views
Recommendations
Tweets

Some tools:

Google Analytics
Web Analytics
Omniture
Web Trends
DoubleClick
Digg
StumbleUpon
Del.icio.us
Feedburner
BlogPulse
Cymfony
Techrigy
Blog-search
Technorati

Impact: To whom is your NMM campaign appealing, how involved is your audience, number of times desired outcome occurs. Metrics:

Referrers
Demographics
Time on Site
Bounce Rate
Conversions
Reviews
Recommendations
Tweets
Tools:
Web Analytics
Google Analytics
Omniture
Web Trends
Double Clicks
Repeat Customers
Reviews and ratings
Net Promoter
Platform

E-PR and Mobile Marketing

2009-05-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

New Media Marketing impacts the full range of marketing and sales. Traditionally, PR dealt with reaching the media, usually through press releases. This would connect the PR professionals and their client with reporters and newswire services. New Media Marketing permits one to distribute releases directly to the customers. Done properly this can greatly increase the impact and effectiveness of your PR function. Note: This requires that you create news releases that are not loaded down with technical jargon but rather can be easily understood by your clients and potential clients. Some recommendations to develop ePR strategies are:

Keep in mind SEO – Enhance your URL by including in your electronic PR release the same key words and phrases you use for your web site SEO. Including images, videos or audio to your releases will make them more attention grabbing. Also use Social Media tags so that they can also be circulated through the various Social Media Channels. Also a carefully crafted headline and sub-headlines, using your key word phrases, is also important.

A second consideration when using NMM vehicles is the whole concept of mobile media. More and more of your potential readers will be using mobile instruments to receive, read, and respond to your electronic communications. The following are some of the differences you will need to take into consideration:

The size of the preview screen goes from 13-21inches to 2-4inches.
Content rendering hardware and software vary in how they render your data.
In many cases, mobile units are used to categorize messages for delete or save for further review and action via phone or computer.

Recommendations for mobile readers:

Reformat text – always offer a text only option to html formats. Also remember most mobile viewing screens will show smaller lines and fewer number of lines. Do not create long paragraphs or sentences.
Unlike other media formats, for mobile communications use short URLs for tracking purposes.
Be Brief – Small file sizes, smaller paragraphs and sentences.
Include a mobile option on your opt-in forms
Test before using

But there are so many:

2009-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Social Media channels have become such a force in the way we communicate with each other, that the number of different channels available is extensive. I thought that I would provide a list of Social Media Resources. This list was obtained from the book of Dave Evans, Social Media Marketing. I tested each one to determine if they are still available. Things change so quickly that several of the links provided in his book are no longer up.

Industry Blogs:
AdRants - http://www.adrants.com
BoingBoing - http://boingboing.net
Chruch of the Customer - http://www.churchofthecustomer.com
Customer eXperience Crossroads - http://customercrossroads.com
Social Media Today - http://www.socialmediatoday.com

Social Media Platforms
Bazaarvoice - http://www.bazaarvoice.com
BzzAgent - http://www.bzzagent.com
Jive - http://www.jivesoftware.com
Lithium - http://lithium.com
Mikons - http://mikons.com
Ning.com - http://www.ning.com
Pluck - http://www.pluck.com
ProductPulse - http://www.friend2friend.com
RockYou - http://www.rockyou.com
Salesforce.com - http://salesforce.com
Slide - http://www.slide.com

Social Networks and Services
AdGabber - http://www.adgabber.com
Bebo - http://www.bebo.com
Brightkite - http://www.brightkite.com
Del.icio.us - http://www.del.icio.us.com
Digg - http://www.digg.com
Dodgeball - http://www.dodgeball.com
Flickr - http://flickr.com
Eventful - http://eventful.com
Facebook - http://facebook.com
FriendFeed - http://friendfeed.com
Friendster - http://friendster.com
Identi.ca - http://www.identi.ca
Kyte TV - http://www.kyle.tv
Last.fm - http://www.last.fm
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com
Livejournal - http://www.livejournal.com
Ma.gnolia.com - http://www.ma.gnolia.com
Metacafe - http://www.metacafe.com
Minggl - http://www.minggl.com
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com
Orkut - http://www.orkut.com
Personal Life Media - http://www.personallifemedia.com
Photobucket - http://www.photobucket.com
Ping.fm - http://www.ping.fm
Plaxo - http://www.plaxo.com
Plurk - http://www.plurk.com
Pownce - http://www.pownce.com
Seesmic - http://www.seesmic.com
SocialThing - http://www.socialthing.com
Sonico - http://www.sonico.com
Stickam - http://www.stickam.com
Stumble Upon - http://www.stumbleupon.com
Tumblr - http://www.tumblr.com
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com
Upcoming - http://www.upcoming.com
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com

Social Media as Business Networks

2009-05-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

With respect to Social Media as business networking, the following are the major social media business networking sites:

AdGabber (http://www.adgabber.com)
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com)
Plaxo (http://www.plaxo.com)
Spock (http://www.spock.com)
Jigsaw (http://www.jigsaw.com)

Unlike MySpace, Facebook, and other personal Social Media sites, the above sites are set up to be business-oriented. It should be noted that one can use Facebook for business solutions. Visit http://www.insidefacebook.com to learn how to incorporate Facebook into your marketing program.

The following are some examples on using Social Media for business applications:

Develop focused target list by using search capabilities of LinkedIn
Use contact tools in Jigsaw
Use Facebook to build a group around a new product or service you want to launch. This is a good way of beta testing and getting feedback.

So how do I start:

Select a professional network
Create a presence on that network
Invite a few colleagues to join
Ask colleagues what networks they belong to and join them.

Always remember, when it comes to Social Media, active participation is a requirement.

As you become more active in Social Media networks always remember that they are a means to an end not an end in themselves. You should always be guided by the following:

Developing a presence to extend your brand
Reaching out to potential employees
Gathering feed back about your products and services
Building a sales prospect profile

Please share with us other Social Media business networks that you use and how you use them.

When it comes to Social Media it is personal

2009-04-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Many of the Social Media vehicles were developed for personal relationship building. This must constantly be remembered when using Social Media. Unlike other media such as TV, for Social Media the other participants and not some producer or programmer determine actions. Thus there are several considerations that must be taken into account when using Social Media for business concerns.

Social Media vehicles are often advertiser unfriendly. For Social Media we want to share our information with others and visa versa. There is really no motivation for one to share advertising with others.
Your conduct is very important while using a Social Media channel. The guests make the rules not you. We have a business acquaintance that is “gung-ho” about Social Media. The problem is that this person uses any and every Social Media channel to communicate some business event or offering. After getting 6 – 7 invites from the various channels about the same topic, it starts having the same affect and effect as spam and I stop even opening up the corresponding emails from this person.
Social Media is just one part of an integrated marketing approach. So do not become too concerned when you cannot strongly suggest or forcefully persuade. Use your other media channels to accomplish this.
Social Media, since it is a personal network, is a very good channel to recruit new employees
Act as if you are a guest – one that would like to be invited back.

Do not let the above sway you from using Social Media as part of your marketing program. Often times us baby-boomer will say that w e do not like to use Social Media channels since they are for kids. Remember those “kids” probably are in their 20s or 30s – large buying community.

Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, LinkedIn? What a busy social life

2009-04-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

An important part of New Media Marketing is the integration of the various Social Media vehicles. For many Social Media is a new type of building friends and relationships. This is also true for businesses where we are concerned with customer relationships and sales. In this case we refer to it as Social Media Marketing.

One of the first couple of blogs in this New Media Marketing series dealt with the arrival of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 users took for personalization and collaboration. This is also one of the major discriminators of Social Media. Social Media differs from traditional media of newspapers, broadcast, books, etc. in that with Social Media the audience can participate in social media by adding comments and stories themselves.

Social media has the following characteristics:

It is involved with a number of different social media channels.
Social Media changes over time. Actually the more participants the faster the amount of change
You cannot have social media without assuming and encouraging the audience to be part of your sales or creative process.

A question often asked: “Is social media accurate?” Yes and no. Statements may be made about your products/services that may not be true. However, if your customers reject them, you better fix them ASAP if you want to be successful. Guidelines when it comes to this:

Social Media uses the collective, the wisdom of the crowd – they cannot be entirely wrong
Social Media is effective when used for participation and influence not command and control.

Marketing classically deals with awareness -> consideration -> purchase. Social media feedback is user generated: use -. form opinion -> talk. This talk must be captured and made part of the marketing consideration. Social media is word-of-mouth. It is based on actual post-purchase experience. This is critical to help maintain the perceived quality aspect of your brand.

In terms of psychobabble, Social media follows Reed’s Law. David Reed’s work at MIT developed the Law of the Pack. This holds that the value of a network grows more powerful as the network grows. Thus a network of 100 customers is much more powerful than a network of 10 customers.

The simplest and effective way to jump into the Social Media Marketing is to use the New Media Marketing vehicle of the blog.

But to at least starting looking at all the various vehicles out there, here are just a few:

Microblog Services:
Twitter (http://twitter.com)
Tumblr (http://tumblr.com)
Plurk (http://plurk.com)
Seesmic (http://seesmic.com)

Multimedia Sites
Flickr (http://www.flickr.com)
Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com)
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com)
Seesmic (http://seesmic.com)
Metacafe (http://www.metacafe.com)

Taggin Services:
Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us)
Stumble Upon (http://www.stumbleupon.com)

Social Sites
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com)
MySpace (http://www.myspace.com)

Business sites
AdGabber (http://www.adgabber.com)
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com)
Plaxo Pulse (http://www.plaxo.com)

Please share with us any others that you may be using.

All dressed up and no where to go:

2009-04-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

The past few blogs, we discussed some guidelines and recommendations to help create an effective email. Now that is done – but it is a waste of time (except for practice) if you do not have a list to send the email to.

Jut a reminder as we continue this discussion – remember you cannot spam – it is the law!
So how do I build up my email list to send this perfect email to? There is actually two parts to this question. The first is to get legitimate emails and the second is to keep them on your list (not opting out).

The second part is straight-forward: target the right people and keep your emails relevant and engaging:

Keep it relevant – tell your audience about things they are interested in.
Tailor to your audience – consider different emails to different sub-targets
Attract attention with your subject line
Get straight to the point – people do not like you to waste their time
Use simple language – create text that is simple to understand and very clear on benefits and call to action
Offer exclusive benefits – offer special benefits that will appeal to your audience
Correct frequency – send on a regular basis but only when you have something relevant to talk about.

So how do I begin building my email database? Before we address this question – make sure you have some procedure/process to capture and maintain your email list. You do not need to capture extensive amounts of data BUT capture enough so that you can select sub-lists. This will help you sent out emails based on message relevance. Now on to collecting and building your email list.
Collect information on-line: Place sing-up (opt-in) requests on your web site and other similar locations.

On every page of your web site
E-mail signature
On your blog
On banner ads and online advertising
Online directories

Collect information in person: Always ask for permission when you collect information in-person.

Swap business cards
Guest book on counter or in office
Business card bowl at trade shows and events
Train employees to capture customer information

Collect information through print:

Send a postcard offering an incentive to return card with email information
Position sign-up request to add value to the mailing piece
Add sign-up incentive
Always add your domain name to ALL print media

If you have any other suggestions, please share them with us.

If you're going to send an e-mail, design it right!

2009-04-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

In our last blog, we talked about picking the proper theme. We will now look at format and layout considerations.

One of the most important parts of any email is "from:" and "subject" lines. There are studies that show up to 65% of recipients will decide to open an email based on the from: line.

The secret is to keep the from: line familiar. Some guidelines to achieve this is to include the following:

Your name (drjack)
Name of your business (tCDG Studios)
Combine your name and your business name. (drjack - tCDG Studios
If you have many locations, include your locations - drjack - tCDG Studios, Orlando

Also create an email of what you are and what you are doing

Newsletter@tcdgstudios.com
Coupons@tcdgstudios.com
Event_response@tcdgstudios.com
Announcement@tcdgstudios.com

It is estimated that up to 31% recipients will open an email based on the subject line. Some suggestions:

Highlight immediate benefits
Include value words
Work with a theme. Colors work well, eg. making your sales more green

Another important aspect of your email is its format/layout. You should consider the following when working with text.

Font - This is especially true if your email is in a html format. If you select a font that is not stored on the viewers computer, it will not display properly. Use commonly accepted fonts such as Arial, Garamond, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, or Veranda.

When considering font styles, use the following rules:

Bold: contrast or emphasize

Headlines
Short phrases
Captions
Key words or phrases

Italic: subtle emphasis

Single word
Subheadings
Proper names
References to titles

Underline: emphasize words or phrases

Text links
Column headings
Headlines to separate from text

Font Color: enhance overall look and feel

Add emphasis to headlines and subheadlines
Links within text

Images - Make sure that the file format can be recognized by browsers. These are usually .jpg, .gif, or .png.

Images should re-enforce your text.
Photographs are most versatile in telling your story.
Examples include:

Key staff members
Products/Services being used
Site location
Event activities
Customer testimonials

Created Art

Logos - required for brand strengthening
Clip Art - recommend limiting use since it can "date" your design/layout
Animated .gif - same as clip art
Icons
Text images - most common is signature. Also effective for headlines

Another important consideration is how to increase the content value of your email. The following help increases the effectiveness of your email.
Include an offer

coupons
Give-a-ways
Lost leaders
Extending urgent offers

Effective Call to Action. Examples of Call to Actions are:

Read your email
Save your email
Print your email
Forward your email
Make a purchase
Fill out a form
Visit your web site
Visit a physical location
Request information
Register for an Event
Make an appointment
Phone you

So what is your theme?

2009-04-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

There are two aspects of “what an email should look like”:

Format and Theme. There are many who do not consider both but often one will at least consider format. Format refers to the classification and configuration of an email. For a successful email campaign, you need to also consider the appropriate theme. The theme is the main idea of your entire email campaign. It is not the same as format.

Once you have decided on the objective(s) for your campaign, you then select your theme. Most objectives can be achieved using one of the four typical email themes:

Promotional
Information
Procedural
Relational

We will also address emails that have multiple themes.

Promotional Theme – Use the promotional theme when you want to persuade your audience to take a specific action or at least ask for a specific purchase decision such as making an appointment. Typical PROMOTIONAL theme include:

Product images and descriptions
Testimonials
Coupons
Headlines and links that cal for action
Links to information that supports your main call to action
Directions on how to make the call to action

Informational Theme – Use this theme to inform you audience so that they will form an opinion. They are different from Promotional in that they usually do not include a call to action.

News articles
Stories and narratives
Opinions and viewpoints
Announcements
Event calendars
FAQs

Procedural Theme - This theme is used to give instructions or explain processes. Like informational themes, they usually do not include a call to action. Examples are:

New customer or opt-in welcome
Notifications
Shipping or privacy policy
Disclosures and warranties

Relational Theme – This theme is used to build or deepen relationship(s). These are usually one-way communications and no call to action. Examples:

Greetings
Acknowledgements
Personal experiences news and stories
Customer recognition messages

At times your email campaign may require you to use Multiple themes. Try to minimize the use of multiple themes. Recommend the following when considering multiple themes:

State your main theme very succinctly right up front
Sub-group together with design and layout elements
If there is that a major theme within the multiple themes, then send out separate emails
Remember objectives -> themes -> formats -> genre.

We will discuss the concept of genre when it comes to design in a future blog. But just remember, if your email is not text only, then maximize the visual impact by doing it right. Viewers are very savvy and can quickly detect amateur design. As I covered in my blog of January 29, 2009 “Crap is Crap”.

Why email if you are going to do it wrong?

2009-04-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

As we start the email portion of the New Media Marketing (NMM) blog series, we will not be spending time on what is an email or how important they are. Most of us are very familiar with emails; email marketing campaigns, and which ones seem to work. Creating emails as part of your integrated marketing program is not the same as sitting down and writing an email as most of us do several times a day.

When it comes to email marketing campaigns, there are three distinct tasks that you must follow to maximize your email campaign effectiveness. (Thus don’t waste your time sending out emails).

The first is to determine your message – what your email message should say.
Remember: Make your emails as concise and focused as possible. Most recipients scan e-mails and do not necessarily take the time to read every word or sentence of your email.

Your message should contain the following three content elements:

Value proposition – why you versus someone else or some other solution/product/service.
Supporting Information – Provide additional information to support your value proposition. Summarize the following four questions in a paragraph: (1) What are the features of your product or services, (2) Benefits (always more important then specifications), (3) How are you different (4) Why that different is important
Call to action – ask the readers to take a specific action in a specific way. So often a well-crafted email forgets this part. Do not be afraid to ask the viewer to do something. This need not be “buy now” it could be call, click a link, download, save this message, forward this message, print out and use as a coupon, etc.

After you determine your message, you should select the look/type of your email. We will address this in more detail in the next blog.

The second step is to deliver your message. The how is easy to answer especially with the well-developed email service providers such as Constant Contact. The who is most important.
Like direct mail, email campaigns have the same mantra – junk mail/email is good mail/email sent to the wrong person.

As we so often mentioned in this blog series: targeting your campaign, categorizing your lists is critical.

The third step is to evaluate your message. The beauty of email is that you will learn very quickly if your message worked (usually within 48 hrs) and you can change the message or target for your next email.

Some suggested metrics you can use:

Increase in number of web visits
Increase in orders and sales
Event attendance increase
Increase number of opt-ins
Change in opinions over time

Please refer to our last ezine Studio Buzz articles to read more about email as a marketing tool.

Getting Started with an Email Campaign
Do it Right – Five types of Emails

Note: links
Getting started… www.tcdgstudios.com/articles/articles_030901.php
Do it right… www.tcdgstudios.com/articles/articles_030902.php

Crafting your Podcast

2009-04-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

One of the first questions asked by clients who are attempting their first series of podcasts is: How long should a podcast be? A typical podcast episode is usually 15 to 30 minutes.

Remember podcasts are episodic so for a given podcast, since you have your audiences attention for that amount of time, you can build advanced or nuanced themes over time. Remember think of your podcasts as scheduled sequence of audio (or video) files, downloaded to a computer or portable media device.

Strategies learned from successful corporate podcasting:

Plan your podcast: spend time determining your audience, the purpose, format and audio alone or audio-video
Stylize your podcast: Will you use a one person presentation or an interview. For interviews use participants who are knowledgeable in the podcast subject /theme.
Podcast in a series: Podcast users expect a continuing series that they follow, not just a one-time file
Combine with interactive blogs: This will create an even higher level of interaction with the audience (Remember when we first started this series of blogs concerning New Media Marketing – the rule of 7 clicks to get someone into you Buyers Community).
Internal and External Use: Consider using podcast series for internal use for employees, associates, partners, etc..

How do I “get my podcast out to the public?”

Similar to other NMM tools, specific distribution tools are required. Podcasts use the same delivery mechanisms as does blogs. GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) or BlueHost (www.bluehost.com) provide basic podcast delivery tools.

Podcasts have their own directories. Submit your podcasts to as many directories as possible. Most, if not all, are free. It is actually not that difficult to add your podcasts to iTunes (www.itunes.com) for more details

To close the discussion on podcasts, we provide some don’ts:

Don’t garble your words
Don’t speak in a monotone
Don’t record with background noise
Don’t try to show-off by bombarding your audience with too much information
Don’t use loud, harsh music
Don’t try to act as a broadcaster be yourself
Don’t publish a podcast that is not relevant to your audience
Don’t make your podcasts too long. Even though a 15 – 30 minute max is suggested, as audiences become even more time starved, 10 minute podcasts are strongly recommended

For those who have ventured into the exciting world of podcasts, please share your lessons learned and some tricks of the trade.

PODCASTS – Newest and Soon to be the Greatest

2009-04-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Podcasts are the newest media member of New Media Marketing and is rapidly growing in usage. eMarketer estimated that at the end of 2008, 6.5 million people will download a podcast at least twice a week. They also estimate that number to be 25 million by the end of 2012. For those who hate the idea of sitting down and composing a blog or writing an article for your ezine – podcasting is your solution. Podcasts permits you to “talk” about your product or discuss your business. You can speak directly to your audience.

As we have previously mentioned, New Media Marketing works the best when you integrate the various medias. This is also true for podcasts. Even though a stand alone podcast can work, since podcasts are web based, they are much more effective when used in conjunction with your web, blogs, ezines, and email campaigns. The secret to New Media Marketing is it provides media variations on the same theme.

If podcasting is your main New Media Marketing vehicle then you should provide a podcast at least twice a week (similar to blogging). If it is used in conjunction with other NMM, you should podcast once or twice a month (similar to your ezine).

Podcasts can be viewed directly from your audiences computer via the web or they can be downloaded to a mp3 player (such as your ipod) and can be viewed or listened to at your audiences convenience.

Make sure that in your ezine, you describe your podcasts and lists the titles of at least the last three casts. Also add a link so that viewer can subscribe.

Just like the other NMM vehicles, name your podcast with a compelling name – one that will both grab the viewer attention and also establish relevancy for your targeted audience. Once you have selected such a name, then you can choose a theme. All podcast episodes for the theme should thus focus on that theme.

An example would be if you are a design studio, you may want to select the theme “Emotional Branding through Color” or “The Wonderful World of Color”. You then can create a video podcast that shows how colors actually create different emotions and also an audio podcast that talks about the process of selecting the right color for a given message.
There are some technology requirements that are not necessarily required for the other NMM vehicles:

Need a computer with a high-speed internet connection
Audio software to produce the required audio files and a microphone. Also consider buying a pair of headphones
For video, the software and equipment is more extensive then for just audio. However one can product a low-budget video using such programs as Mac’s iMovie and photographs and illustrations. Life video is not always required.
You will also need to select a hosting company for your podcasts:
Often your existing web site hosting company provides podcast hosting, some other suggestions:
Switchpod (www.switchpod.com
Liberated Syndication (www.libsyn.com)
Godaddy (www.godaddy.com)

When creating your podcast remember to make the media have heart with your enthusiasm
Create a picture in your listener’s “mind’s eye”
Practice your enunciation and diction
Remove words such as uhms, ers, etc.

Content suggestions:

Key business products and services
Interviews
Profiles
Business tips
Panel discussions
Behind-the-scene tours and looks

Like most NMM vehicles, once you tried them you will become comfortable with them and actually enjoy using the various media to tell your story. Remember it is all about your story.

E-zineanomics (Part III)

2009-04-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

Your e-zine is probably one of your best tools to constantly build your community of buyers. Because of this we are going to spend one more posting on this all important New Media Marketing tool.

Now that you have created your e-zine and have it ready for posting the next important question is How do I get viewers to read it?”

The first answer is obvious but often overlooked – build your database of email names (remember just taking names and sending an email can be considered spamming).

Add the opt-in names from your web site
Get your contact lists that you use for business and personal and go through that list for candidates
Join professional and civic group and use their membership list (check on membership list policies for each organization)
Collaborate with businesses that service the same audience but our not in competition with you. Adding information to the e-zine for them provides the ability to use the names that your collaborator can provide.
Provide a description of your e-zine in your web site opt-in registration page that provides a simple but direct benefit of the e-zine.
Register with an e-zine directory. Many such directories often offer categories that you can register with.

Some such directories are:
The Directory of E-zines (www.directoryofezines.com)
E-zinelocater (www.ezinelocater.com)
BestEzines (www.bestezines.com)
New-List (www.ezine-universe.com)

The last two blogs we provided some suggestions on writing your e-zine content and how to build an e-zine skeleton layout.

Well here are some E-zine Do Not Dos:

No generic greetings. Remember in the world of web 2.0, viewers are looking for collaboration and personalization.
Do not have your e-zine look totally different from your web site
Do not use a free e-mail domain. It makes you look “mom-and-popish”.
Do not write long articles. Be brief. Viewers are often time starved.
Do not try to show off by trying to demonstrate how much you know.
Content should not be all self-serving. So often in corporate story telling, we advise our clients: you know your story (we hope) the task is to tell it to others in a way they understand it. This is the same with e-zines. Readers are interested in information of value. Make it relevant. If not viewers will unsubscribe.

E-zineanomics (Part II)

2009-04-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

The key to a good e-zine is to get the reader’s attention. E-zines are good ways to combine your marketing messages with new announcements, and industry news.

Note: For every e-zine issue, make sure it is interesting and relevant. If not the recipient will not open up the email.

Your e-zine should consist of customized messages – that is of interest to your audience. If your e-zine leads with regional information, you may want to consider having different issues that are geographic specific.

Note: E-zines are not stand-alone. You want the viewer to email you or click to your web site to obtain more information. For example you may have a summary of an article in your e-zine and a read more link to a specific page to your web site. (The link should be to the relevant page. Do not have the viewer go to your home page and have to navigate to the additional information they are seeking.)

Some content creation suggestions:

Make sure your subject line of your email is attention grabbing. Also make it consistent so that they will recognize it and know to open the email. Using the name of your e-zine is a good strategy.
Select a good name. The above suggestion works well when you select an e-zine name that is also eye-catching.
Keep in mind the following two tenets when writing content: Relevance – your e-zine is specifically targeted to your audience and Brevity – keep content focused and succinct. No long text.
Keep articles no long then 300 – 500 words. Use links to your web site articles page to provide full articles.
For a given e-zine think of a theme. This theme will help you select article topics and other content elements.
Establish a structure or skeleton for your e-zine. Try and follow that layout skeleton for each issue. Try to keep the number of articles to no more then 5. You do not want to have a long table of contents.
Your e-zine need not be created in HTML (this is the format that most email/e-zine providers offer.) You can create your e-zine as plain text.
E-zines should contain multiple calls-to-action
Must contain more information then promotional material. If not it is not an e-zine but an advertisement
A good format for an e-zine is one that has multiple columns

And finally you still may be wondering what do I write about? Here is just a list of some of the many topics you can cover in your e-zine:

Advice and options
Membership communications
Stories
Product support articles
Event calendar highlights
Book reviews
Summaries of larger bodies of information

For our blog readers, please share with us topics that you have found very useful.

E-zineanomics (Part I)

2009-04-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

“E-Zine”

“God Bless You”

“No I did not sneeze I said e-zine you know electronic magazine”

“What?”

“Let’s try this – email newsletter”

“Oh, why did you not say that from the beginning?”

An e-zine is a regularly scheduled email that connects to your targeted audience by providing information and re-establishing the relevance of your product/services with the audience’s needs and wants.

Unlike email campaigns, blogs, and other types of electronic communications, e-zines communicate with your targeted audience, periodically offering information, tips, and suggestions that will help the viewer.

A good rule of thumb is to send out your e-zine once or twice a month – always on the same day. This way the potential viewer will grow to expect your email and will be looking out for it being sent.

E-zines are critical to stay in touch with present and past clients. Remember that email marketing can lift brand awareness by over 58%.

E-zines usually have the following standard parts/sections:

Business information – This includes your log name, contact information, etc. Try to use a header that becomes part of your branding. Should look similar to your web site header. (you may have to resize it)
Personal Greeting – Should be relevant to the e-zine issue, make it personal, and use it to introduce content, a new product, an event at your organization, etc.
Main Content – It is here that you offer your information, helpful tips, and recommendations. This can be a mixture of (but not necessarily all): Articles, FAQs,Book Reviews,Interviews, Customer Profiles, Statistical information, or Guest writers articles
Product and Service Information
Privacy and Subscription Information

There are many good e-zines being posted. If you know of any or have suggestions of other content elements, please share them with us. Tomorrow’s blog we will continue with how to create a good e-zine.

Blog – Summing it all up

2009-04-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Over the last few blogs, I attempted to give you some insight into the world of blogging. It is a key element of a successful New Media Marketing campaign. Like most marketing vehicles, it has its own set of guidelines and suggestions. Also do not be fearful of or discount blogging. I remember when our studio staff wanted me to blog. My initial reaction was “no”. It was something foreign and strange. Even the name sounded strange. So the request rapidly moved to a command and I found myself in the blogosphere. It went from dragging my feet to really enjoying blogging. Anyone out there who is hesitant, make the decision, the commitment, and start developing the related skills – results will come.

Anyone out there that blogs on a regular basis, please share some start-up stories and suggestions you may have.

Suggestion Summary:

The blog name is important. Choose one that relates to the topic you selected for your blog. Remember that relevance is the key factor for all electronic marketing.
The best way to maintain relevance is to keep your blog focused on its purpose. The reverse side is to select a theme that you will be blogging on such as these blogs are focusing on the theme of New Media Marketing
Say what you think about your professional focus. Remember to write blogs that contain your own opinion.
When writing your blog make sure you write them personal, informative, and somewhat casual without loosing your professionalism.
Be consistent – you should blog at least twice a week.
Your blog is part of your integrated marketing program so make sure the look of your blog is in tune with your other marketing vehicles especially your web site, email campaigns, and ezines.
Be brief – Blogs should be short but frequent. To tell you the truth, blogs within our 31 Blogs for New Media Marketing, at times border on being too long just because there is so much information to provide.
Don’t throw too many listings or blatant advertising at your viewers.
Make sure you proofread your blog. I have at least two people read the blog before it is posted. Even then some mistakes are found so use a blog service where editing is very convenient.
Consider using RSS feeds and blogrolls.

Blogs are for Companies also

2009-03-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

One thing about a good blog is that it is personal. So how does this apply to business? First of all blogs being personal can portray to the reader sense of personal touch which is very important in today’s environment where service is so important.

Blogs can also give you insight into your clients’ attitudes and behaviors that you probably would not gain from a survey.

Blogs can also extend your company and brand personality. Distinguish yourself by writing with an unique voice that is welcoming, fun, somewhat entertaining, always being informative.

Keep your blog low-profile but have links to your company sites. Do NOT make your blog a get in your face sales piece but tell your viewers about opportunities for sales and discounts.
Blogging should be a major part of your marketing program. Some lessons learned from other companies that successfully use blogs:

Give it time – creating your blog page, developing a blog strategy, and keeping up with your postings takes time – but it is worth it. As a blog author you need to be active in the blogosphere. When we say that it takes time that also means that your blog will not produce results over night.

The Golden Rule Applies – Write your blog just as you would want someone to write about you. It does not mean not to be truthful and/or controversial. Just review the voice of the blog before you finally post it. Remember your blog is a representative of your brand.

As we mentioned, blogs should have a personal touch. Thus it becomes very obvious if you are not knowledgeable or passionate about what you blog. Don’t fake it.

Continue improving your blog by increasing your participation in the blogosphere and staying with the basics of what makes a good blog.

If you have any other examples or suggestions on how you use your blog for your company, please share them.

I am a blogging but not a seeing. . .

2009-03-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Now that you finally have taken the leap and jointed the world of blogging how do I become part of the blogosphere. In other words, once you have created your blog and started posting blogs on a regular basis, how do I let people know about your blog? Remember: It takes time for a blog to become established, accepted, and frequently visited.

The following are some techniques you can use to help “get the word out about your blog”.

Create a blogroll. This is a list of related blogs and site on the same subject. You can place your blog roll in your blog and also on your web site. This helps establish your community affiliation. It states that for a given topic or profession your blog is relevant.
Comment within other links and include in your comment a link back to your own blog.
Social media Link on Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and others.
Include links on your own web site and email signature blocks
Use trackbacks – acknowledgement tool that lets other bloggers know that you have mentioned them and are sharing information
Most important tool for blog-distribution is RSS. A RSS enables those following your blog to be instantly informed when you update your site.
FeedBlitz and FeedBurner(owned by google) are services to help you establish a RSS for your blog
End your blog posts with open-ended questions. Ask for feedback.
List in a blog directory – Blogs are rated by popularity in blog banks. Top places to submit your blog (also search for other blogs) are: Technorati (www.technorati.com), Google Blog Search (blogsearch.google.com), Blogarama (www.blogarama.com), and BlogPulse(www.blogpulse.com - These directories categorize blogs by topic.
Guest Blogging – invite others to post on your blog

These are just a few of the ways you can gt people to know about your blog. If you have any other suggestions and recommendations please share them with us.

Blog – No not a 50’s B-Monster Movie

2009-03-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

It is known as a blog not the “Blob”. There are many different approachs to creating a blog or even describing the act of blogging – posting a blog or comments to a posted blog. Think of it as a type of journaling. You may also think of it as an on-line newspaper or magazine of opinions and interactive comments.

Blogs have the greatest effect on business communications. As it relates to New Media Marketing, they are the most direct to-way online communication vehicle used in today’s business environment. Consumers today do not want a monologue. They want conversation and that is exactly what a blog does.

Just as any other marketing tool, blogs must have a specific target audience to be successful.
Remember: Because of the nature of blogs they are the key to building your community of buyers. Your audience, who may not normally have the chance of communicating with each other, can use a blog to do exactly that. Thus they can not only communicate with a business owner but also with each other. To ignore this is ignoring how people use electronic communications.

Working with clients and New Media Marketing, the blog is often the most difficult to convince them of and yet the most important and critical. Some of the reasons used for not blogging:

Fear
Ignorance
Lack of leadership (agents of change)
Lazy
Insecure
Belief that it does not apply to their industry (this demonstrates a total lack of what is happening in the world today or misplaced sense of knowing better than your customer)

Blogs also permit you to not only listen to your targeted audience but also to communicate with them in an informal manner. Many entrepreneurs are using blogs to introduce their new concept or enterprise.

Some people do not blog because they do not want return comments. In today’s environment that is “burying your head in the sand”. With that attitude or fear, you might as well raise the surrender flag and prepare to close your doors.

There is one simple rule for a blog: make it relevant and update frequently. A good rule of thumb is to blog at least twice a week. One of the great things about blogging is that it is an excellent platform to stir the pot, kick the ant hill, stimulate thought. Just remember to be interesting and not offensive.

Some people just cannot blog, it is not in them. Many in this situation have others create their blog. It is no different then having a writer create your text/copy for other marketing collateral. Several of our clients retain us to write their blogs. It is also acceptable to get personal just keep your professionalism.

And finally, if you build a successful blog site, you can actually create revenue through such programs as Google’s AdSense.

Search Engine Optimization – Getting Noticed

2009-03-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization (known as SEO) is and is not easy to obtain. A simple way to describe SEO is where will your web site listing appear if someone was looking for your products/services utilizing a search engine query usually through Google or Yahoo. Your position in these queries is also referred to as ranking.

Why is this important? Most purchase selections are made from the top 3-5 sites listed. You can "buy" your way to a higher ranking utilizing pay-per-click/sponsor links or you can optimize your site by building and incorporating certain rules. This is often referred to as organic SEO. Each search engine has developed a set of algorithms they have developed that decides where a site is positioned (ranked). Certain aspects of your web can include approaches that are acceptable and recommended by the search engines - known as white hat organic SEO. There are also tricks that one can use to try and outsmart the search engine algorithms - black hat SEO. Note: if caught and eventually one is, you can be temporarily or permanently black listed by the search engine.

No one actually knows the exact algorithms used. These are closely held secrets but the search engines and companies offering web site SEO as a service do have a set of guidelines. Note: Often what achieves higher ranking may be in conflict with a highly designed rich media site.

When attempting to achieve high ranking, many different parts of your site must be considered:

Web site code
Web site theme
Web site structure
Internal links
Alt Tags
Header Tags
Inward links
Content
Meta data
Keywords

The whole goal is to establish relevance in all aspects of your site.

I will make the statement that there no longer is such a thing as SEO. What is required is an integrated marking program built around a well-designed site. SEO is one of the first steps.

Some say there are more than 118 factors utilized by the Google algorithms. Here are some basics to consider. The percentage shows the relative importance.

Incoming Text of Links (2.3% & up) - phrasing, terms, order, and length of incoming link -anchor text
Title Tag (2.3%)
Keyword Use in Document Text (2.2%)
Links to Document from Site Internal Pages (2.1%)
Primary Subject Matter of Site (2.1%)
External Links to Linking Pages (2.0%)
Links Popularity of Site in Topical community (2.0%)
Global Link Popularity of Site (1.9%)
Keyword Spamming (1.9%)

The above accounts for 21% of ranking. Some other techniques are:

Keyword Placement in the
Using header tags to emphasize keywords
Naming website and pages with keywords
Incorporating keywords into body text

There is no way one can cover the topic of SEO in a single blog. These are just some considerations one can take immediately. Remember: the web world is constantly changing. It is no longer about having your site as a destination but more importantly, distributing your site outward.

Widgets, Wikis, Dashboards - What the heck are you talking about

2009-03-23T09:43:00.000-07:00

Took a few days off to visit my son and 8 grandkids in Chicago – but am now back. This blog takes a side step to cover topics that are surfacing more frequently. They are widgets, wikis, and dashboards. These tools are very effective if and when used properly.

Widgets

Definition: A widget is anything that can be embedded within a page of HTML, i.e. a web page. A widget adds some content to that page that is not static. Generally widgets are originated by third parties, though they can be home made. (Wikipedia)

Basically it is a mini-web application that you place onto a web page, desktop, blog, or social profile that stream information to the viewer usually containing some visual information. The widget becomes very valuable if it provides relevant information that someone can use daily. For example if you had an airline web site, you may have a widget on your home page that would provide visual in-flight information for a given flight.

Widgets are here to stay and should be considered for your web site or blog.

Do not contain just a collection of titles and hyperlinks – this is no more than another web page.
Display information tailored to the user
User should be able to glance at
Scrolling titles to breaking news, videos that play inside the widget are acceptable examples

Widgets can also be used to support customers. A widget that puts a subject matter expert directly in touch with a customer to answer questions is a viable widget example. Widgets are also used to help provide added value during document approval processes.

Wikis

Definition: A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content (excluding blocked users), using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. (Wikipedia)

Basically it is software that enables visitors to create and edit Web page content using their web browser. Wikis are like web sites but are more interactive. Note: when using wikis there is a risk that someone may add content that is not relevant or inaccurate.

A blog is similar to a daily journal that others can comment on. A wiki is also participative but its end result is a single entry that reflects a collective consensus.

For both widgets and wikis remember content is king – must be new and relevant.

Dashboards

Dashboards are at the opposite new of a New Media Marketing process. They are instruments that one uses to monitor metrics to measure your program. We will cover these metrics in detail toward the end of this blog series but since it is one of those new words that frequently appear, it is a good idea to at least understand what the word means.

There are several definitions and uses of dashboards. We are referring to a measurement dashboard. Think of it being a report card – a standardized data presentation that provides information reporting on the metrics you use to determine the effectiveness of your business process.

Web Speech – How to say it on the web

2009-03-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

Since your web site increasingly becomes a hub for your marketing program, what you say and how you say it is extremely important. One of the original assumptions of New Media Marketing (NMM) is that we still buy from people we know, like, and trust.

Values
At the studio we believe that it is important that your web site convey values that are important to your organization and industry. They go beyond the basic ones of quality, reliability, customer service, professionalism, etc. Ours are: talent, creativity, design, and great stories (t • C • D • G •).

Mission
Mission and Vision statements have been around for a long time. Because of this, we often think that they must not be hip or in vogue. You can not be so far from the truth. Mission tells the world who we are and vision announces where we are going.

Compelling Content - verbal
The main purpose is to address the visitors needs and wants; their stereotypes and emotions. (customerology psychographics – remember focus, targeted audiences).
As a storyteller I will not be able to get through this series of blogs without telling this story (analogy) so we might as well do it here. It is the key to everything we are addressing. I call it my Grass Lawn story.

“Lets say that I manufacture grass seed. Over the years my engineers have the developed the best grass seed ever produced – needs hardly any watering, birds do not like its taste, grows deep roots, not effected by weather, and produces the greenest grass. We have this technological process that no one else can even come close to replicate. Visit are labs and you will see the investment in equipment and knowledge we have put into this product. The problem is as a consumer I really do NOT care. I do not care how you do it just make sure that I have minimal lawn maintenance and yet have the best looking lawn in the neighborhood.”

You see as founders and entrepreneurs we are very proud of our product specifications but the buyer is ONLY interested in benefits. Make sure your site benefits oriented not specifications oriented.

Some other tips:
• When offering solutions and advice opt for conversational writing style.
• Address directly using ‘you” instead of customer, client, patient, etc.
• Modifiers actually tend to dilute and weaken what you are saying
• In all cases remain professional
• Use headlines and sub titles to guide readers
• Again stay focused on your audience with benefits, results, and solutions.

Compelling Content – Nonverbal

Color: If you have read any of the studios’ past ezines, you have heard how important color is. Color is often the most nonverbal element of your site. Put bluntly – we do not care what your favorite color is, we are interested in what color provokes the emotions we want created to cause a response to a call-to-action. Just like specs versus benefits, concern is not about you, it is about the buyer.

Logos and Header: Your site should protect and foster your brand. Your top header is extremely important. Have a professional design a header that incorporates your log, tag line, and appropriate color schema.

Images: The web is 70% visual so make visually appealing. Images can help. Make sure that the image files should be optimized for fast browser loading. They should also be part of telling your story. The wrong image could just as easily make your site look totally unprofessional and “mom-and-pop”

Special Effects and Rich Media: When used properly, they have their place. Some will say for SEO considerations – no flash others will say that as a society we are custom to special effects. As most things in life, the answer lays somewhere in the middle. Pure technicians will only do what can be produced by code and pure graphics designers will over-kill with eye-candy. Find the proper balance. Branching to pages that load electronic presentations, video, etc. should be considered for providing additional information.

Navigation –Extremely important both in extent and placement. In recent years, placement has moved to the upper center and gone from an extended list of buttons to more of a hierarchy of information. A good rule of thumb is a main nav bar with around seven buttons. Latest studies have shown that males use the web to surf and females use the web for research. Too complicated navigation, males will opt out.

Lena Claxton and Alison Woo, in their excellent overview book How to Say it: Marketing with New Media, Prentice Hall provides a good checklist.
• Refine your home page copy – it is the first impression of your company
• Write conversationally – use words to convey the desired emotion
• Choose the right color
• Use the correct pronoun
• Communicate your credibility
• Use language that positions you as an expert
• Focus on benefits and results
• Use a variety of promotional methods to promote your business

And don’ts:
• Don’t use corporate speak
• Don’t use passive language
• Don’t focus on your own gains
• Don’t lose track of the customer
• Don’t use multiple animations on your home page

What makes a good web site?

2009-03-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

On one hand a simple question and on the other not so simple. Lets look at the not-so-simple answer first. Ask 10 people and you will get 11 different answers. At the studios, we consider three major areas:

Design – web is a visual media. It needs to look good, easy to navigate and holds the viewers interest. You need to balance eye-candy, flash and rich media with the site being too plain with no ability to grab attention. Remember your site often produces “first impressions.”
Functionality – That is does it do what it is suppose to do functionally. No broken links (pressing on a button that goes to a page that does not exist), no error messages, loads in a reasonable time-frame, works on multiple browsers, calculations, branches, etc. all work.
Marketed – Having a nice looking, working site and no one visits it or does not support your marketing program is like an un-charted island that no one knows about.

The simple answer is:

Does it do what it is suppose to?
Does it help expand and protect your brand?
Present a good first impression?
Support your marketing program? and
Helps bring in more revenue (or at least some call to action).

If it does these five things, by definition, it is a good web site.

Another question often asked is template vs custom. Bottom line is cost. However, a large percentage of our web work is for clients moving away from an existing template:

Difficult to change
Found out they do not own their site
Starting to look like everyone else using the same template.

“If you are different and unique – that is why you rather then your completion – then why are you spending so much effort to look like everyone else?”

At t • C • D • G • Studios, we provide a detailed web site audit that covers the three major areas of design, functionality, and marketed. Below is a short list of the audit areas:
Part I: Design elements
First Impression:
• Colors
• Logo/Branding
• Header Images
• Typography
• Unprofessional items
• Spelling and Grammar
• Overall professional appearance

Purpose:
• Well-defined purpose
• Clarity

Design:
• Smooth transitions
• Use of active white space
• Page consistency
• Other:

Part II: Usability/Functionality
• Load time
• Error messages
• Amount of advertisements
• Navigation
• Accessibility
• Hyperlinks
• Page organization
• Use of CSS
• Use of pop-ups and pop-unders
• Other

Part III: Marketing
• Relevancy words phrases for page/file names, alt tags, header tags, meta areas
• Do-nots

New Media, Web 2.0 and Social Marketing
• Associations
• Opt-in registration
• Collaboration
• Ezine and email links
• Articles and other content
• Social Media servers

Your web site is one of the most important assets of your business. It needs to be right. Since it serves a broad range of purposes, there are many aspects that must be considered. You need a web site – but do it right. A bad site can actually hurt your business a good site will help your business.

What is the number of your Web?

2009-03-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

This blog starts part B of the 31-blog series of New Media Marketing (NMM). Over the next few blogs, we will be addressing one’s web site as the foundation and starting point for a NMM program. Instead of starting with what makes a good site or how should you say it on a web or some of the more standard questions concerning web sites (we will address these topics in subsequent blogs). It is important to realize that when we are talking about web sites for NMM, we are concerned with certain characteristics of the site. Did you know?

Only 40% of companies with 100 or less employees still do not have a web site. The web is more often then not, the first place a potential client will go to validate your business or receive their first introduction to your products and services.
It has not been just an electronic equivalence of the yellow pages for a long time.
Without online presence your business can be considered nonexistent.
For many successful organizations it is an essential lead-generating tool
It is the stage to build your brand.

I mention this for many companies are implementing an obsolete approach when they finally decide to have a web site . I am not talking about its look or functionality. Ask yourself what category web site does your existing site fall into. What I am talking about is the fact that today our web sites should be or moving toward Web 2.0. The following definitions also highlight the fact that the web world is evolving, for technology continues to impact marketing effectiveness.

Web 1.0: Access information, purchase online
Web 2.0: Share and collaborate
Web 3.0: Experience, participate, and co-create

Most sites today are Web 1.0 sites - that is the site provides the customers with information and ability to purchase and/or register on-line. Successful organizations realized that with today’s customers that is not enough. Thus Web 2.0 enters the scene. It is where all web sites should be moving. Web 2.0 pushes sharing and collaborating, whether that is product reviews or asking for help on how to market a product. Web 3.0 is a world of visual experiences with the goal that the user is an actual participant and co-creator - the user is actually immersed in the experience. Do not make the mistake of thinking that Web 3.0 is far in the future, some companies have already made the move toward Web 3.0. Web 3.0 enables the web 2.0 communities to come alive.

A good way to compare web 1.0 and web 2.0 is that web 1.0 is read only and web 2.0 is read-write. Web 1.0 was somewhat passive, with users downloading information. Web 2.0 encourages users to be more involved by uploading information to the web. It no long is about destination but distribution. You no long only interested in having users come to your destination but how do you distribute your site outward.

Your web site should be designed to support other community-building platforms and also be supported by them. Your web site participates in other web building servers and social media sites. Your web site is not only the hub for information but also the hub to foster and support your NMM vehicles such as your blog, pod casts, ezines, email, etc. A prime example but a very simple one is not only does your contact information need to be on each web site page (providing information) but also opt-in form (becoming part of your business’s electronic community) or your site to have the ability to post and archive articles as a read more location for articles presented in your ezine, etc.

As you move toward web 2.0, realize that you do not need to utilize all vehicles that it offers. The following is a table of some of your options (selection depends on your target market – staying focused)

Communicating:
• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Online video
• Videocasting

Participating:
• Social networking
• Social tagging
• User ranking and rating
• Online user groups
• Social Bookmarking

Collaborating:
• Comparison shopping engines
• Wikis

Trial environments
• Picture/video sharing
• Community development projects
• Collaboration software

Setting agendas
• SEO
• RSS
• Content syndication engines
• Content distribution via social networks
• Person to person viral marketing

So back to the original question. What number is your web site?
0 – No excuse for not having one.
1 – Average but not good start moving it to web 2.0
2 – Good but do not get too comfortable, web 3.0 is coming
3 – Great and like me anxious to see what web 4.0 brings (you can count on there being a web 4.0 and with today’s accelerated technology, it will be here in a blink of a marketer’s eye.

Only if you have Permission

2009-03-13T07:31:00.001-07:00

When utilizing New Media Marketing (NMM) there are three basic tenets that must be constantly considered:

• Permission - do you have permission to send this to me?
• Relevance – is your message and/or content relevant to my needs and wants?
• Value – does your content provide value? does it help me with some aspect of my business?

Of all the topics that are being addressed over this 31 blog series, these three questions are paramount and need to be asked before any e-communications you originate. The first is important for a very simple reason – it is the law. The CAN-SPAM of 2003 requires one to have permission to send an e-communications especially when it comes to email. The topic of permission is usually centered around opt-in and opt-outs.

First some definitions:
Opt-in: A specific proactive request by an individual email recipient to have their own email address placed on a specific mailing list.
Opt-out: A request to remove an email address from a specific list or from all lists operated by a single owner.
Spam: Popular name for unsolicited commercial email. However, some email recipients define spam as any email they no longer want to receive, even if it comes from a mailing list they joined voluntarily.

Basically, asking contacts for their email and permission to send them information needs to become part of your business culture. Remember: Over 74% of Americans now communicate electronically.

Step 1: Make sure that you have an opt-in form on all your electronic media to include:
• On every page of your web site
• In your email-signature
• On your blog
• Personal Web
• Banner ads and online advertising
• Online directories

Step 2: Gather essential information:
• Don’t ask for too much information
• Don’t ask for too little information
• Address validation – include a script that checks for syntax errors upon submission

Opt-in request form fields – minimum
• First Name
• Last Name
• Email address

Optional fields:
• Secondary email address
• Frequency – how often they wish to be contacted
• Demographics
• Interest/Preferences

Step 3: Use incentives to get viewers to opt-in
Whenever possible, include some type of information product that is relevant and can help the viewer you want to opt-in. Some examples are:
• Tip of the week
• Free white paper
• Promote special sales
• Give tips to executives and professionals
• Informational article
• Location-specific guide
• Free audio
• Offer an e-book

Step 4: Request opt-in in person:
• Exchange business cards
• Guess book on store counter
• Basket for business cards at events/seminars/shows
• Train employees to take down customer information

Step 5: Use print to collect information
• Send postcard offering an incentive to return card with email address
• Include opt-in incentive as part of print advertising
• Add opt-in incentive t back of your business card
• Utilize a domain name and place in your print advertising such as www.joinouremailjust anexample.com

WRITE THIS DOWN: Opt-in requests and awareness has to become part of your standard operations.

This completes Part 1 - next week is dedicated to the web.

Branding – Still the Key Success Factor

2009-03-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

This is the fifth blog in the New Media Marketing (NMM) series. So you may ask - when will we read about actual helpful hints concerning my web site, blog e-zine, etc. They are coming BUT without the proper background of target knowledge, content messages, branding, and actually building relationships, NMM quickly becomes an exercise in ”playing’ with the new media. As business people we do not have time to just play.

Your brand is still one of your most important assets and must be both properly used and protected in any and all marketing campaigns. Let’s visit the concept of brand quickly before moving on. The following story was found in Email Marketing by Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels, Wiley Publishing.

“How Strong Is a Brand? A Lesson from History, Matey – As Captain John Smith looked out the starboard side of his ship, he felt his heart beating faster. Land! He saw land! What a phenomenal feeling He knew would be a matter of days before he could see his baby daughter again. Captain John Smith turned and walked to the other side of the ship. As ne looked out the port side, he felt his heart beating faster. But this time it was for a very different reason. This is what he saw – a black flag with skull and cross bones. No words, no tag lines, not a sound – just a brand image. This image very quickly registered in the captain’s head: death and destruction. The brand of the pirate was very clear: - we are here to kill and rob you. We will succeed, and with every success our brand will grow stronger.”

That is the power of a brand. Your brand will set into place certain beliefs, opinions, and assumptions about your company and brand. Your brand and company image are critical to your success. A strong brand will generate a sense of trust in your customer/client. This is extremely important for e-based processes where security and privacy are a concern. As we had discussed, potential customers are under time pressure, thus we have only a limited amount of time together their attention. Your brand, coupled with your elevator speech helps tell what your business is about very succinctly and in a meaningful matter.

Take into account the following three tenets:

Businesses no longer control customer’s decisions, customers do.
Longer companies refuse to accept the importance of customer dialog (two-way communications), do not utilize new technology to foster collaboration, will actually alienate and drive away potential clients
Where customers now control conversations (satisfied clients tell three friends and angry ones tell 3,000 – you must achieve credibility throughout all aspects of your marketing program.)

To summarize the above – smart brands constantly evaluate customer wants and needs (psychographics) by listening all the time.

So Master Story Teller what is the bottom line? Keeping the design elements, the look, personality of your messages similar or identical over time strengthens branding, reinforces each of your messages, and makes your next message even more impactful to your audience.

Branding makes each NMM message and posting more inviting and recognizable to your targeted audience. They know that the message comes from a trusted and familiar source.

As a beginning make sure that each message you send or post has the following:
• Graphics and logos that are unique to your company
• Text and fonts that you use to differentiate your product/service
• Color schemas used consistently to give your company its identity.
• Also start matching your print communications with your e-based communications.

Short but Sweet - Creating content for your Marketing Program

2009-03-10T10:55:00.000-07:00

The topic of creating content for your New Media Marketing (NMM) program is one that we will continue to revisit as we take a closer look at each of the NMM vehicles (i.e. web, blog, e-zines, e-mail, podcasts, social media)

Write this down and memorize it:

Your message must be condensed, focused, relevant, and succinct for it to be effective. Your readers are time starved. They are much more savvy, less conservative and more edgy, and extremely impatient. You only have a small window of time to catch their attention and keep it. Add to that your communications content must connect with them emotionally - that is connecting with their needs and wants.

Second thing to write down and memorize is: Short, focused messages are one of the keys to successful marketing campaigns but the shorter the message, the more impactful but the more difficult to create. The Gettysburg Address is a classic example of a powerful message of great important and said in only a few statements.

The third tip to remember: Every marketing piece, every web page, every e-zine and article, every blog should have one key message. When asked to critique or edit media copy, the first question I ask, even before reading, is " What is the message? Once I hear more than one or two messages, I say "stop"!

Thus enters the "elevator" speech onto the stage. Everyone has heard of the concept of an elevator speech. I enter an elevator and my potential client is on the elevator. I have two minutes before the elevator reaches the top floor and that is the only time I have to convince my potential clients why they need my product/service and why I am the best choice among my competition. Do not confuse an elevator speech with your Mission/Vision Statements or your Branding North Star Statement.

For impact, the following formula is a simple place to start creating your Elevator Speech (the first step to creating content): what (verb), whom (ideal customer or client), and how (key benefits).

What do I do?
Whom do I serve?
How do I specifically benefit the customer?

The above three elements are also steps in developing targeted audiences (read yesterday's blog). A word on the third bullet. Do not confuse benefits with specifications. Owners, inventors, and entrepreneurs are so involved with the behind-the-scenes characteristics of their product that they never address benefits to the client. Like it or not, most of us do not care how it works just what does it do for me. Visit your existing marketing text (copy) and see how much is specifications and how much addresses benefits to the reader.

Once you have statements developed for the above three sentences, then combine them into a smooth reading statement.

Do not just throw jello against the wall - Targeting your audience

2009-03-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

New Media Marketing is one of several strategies you should use as part of your integrated marketing program. Thus it still requires following certain basic marketing and sales principles. New Media Marketing is NOT for you if you practice one of the following proven-to-fail-every-time marketing strategies:

Try everything as if you are throwing jello against a wall hoping that something sticks or
Follow Einstein's Definition of Insanity - repeating the same failed process hoping that new outcome will occur next time.

Rule #1: Define your target audience. Often your marketing objectives go unachieved simply because your audience is not able or willing to help you achieve those objectives.
Any successful marketing program, new or old, must include you knowing and targeting your audience. Often during our Branding workshops, we ask the client team who are their targeted audience. If the answer is everyone - our response is "so you really do not know who you are targeting to sell to". Even in the direct mail universe, there is a saying - "junk mail is really good mail sent to the wrong person."

Rule #2: The more you are able to sub-define your targeted audience, the more successful your marketing strategies will be.
Even with you targeted list, you need to be able to sub-target to who, what, and how you communicate with them. If you were sending Christmas Cards, to some you would send out a generic Happy Holiday card, to some a Christmas Card, others a card with a short message, and to others a family newsletter of what has happened during the past year to keep friends up-to-date. KNOW and target your audience. Note: what we are moving toward is the topic of relevance that we will cover in detail in a subsequent blog.

Rule #3: First know who you are and who you are not
Another question we frequently ask our clients is the who and what of their business. This often takes the longest to answer. Here are four basic questions to ask yourself to help answer this all important question.

Who has a need (problem) or want that my product/service can solve or fulfill?
What type of customer/client do I like to work with? (do not just say someone with money)
Is this group easy for me to communicate with? (one of NMM's benefits is that it makes it easier and most cost-effective to communicate with a larger segment of your targeted audience)
Can this target afford my products/services?
Are there enough buyers in my targeted audience to sustain my business?

Rule #4: Know your targets demographics - who are they?
Some basic demographic questions (so simple but we often cannot answer - and again the wrong answer is everyone). Depending on if you are business-to-consumer (BtC) or business-to-business (BtB), your answers will be different. In BtC will be the consumer in BtB will be the decision maker.

Age
Gender
Average income/revenue
Title/position of buyer/decision maker
Georgraphic limitations
What are their interests?
Any cultural/ethnic considerations?
What do they buy and how?

Rule #5: Know your targeted audience psychographics - how do they feel!
This is even more important than demographics. 80% of all purchasing decisions are emotionally based:

Needs - what problem do they really need a solution for
Wants - do not make the mistake of confusing needs and wants - our clients will often do that for us
Stereotypes - every client/customer has a preconceived idea about you, your industry, your organizations, or product/service. Effective marketing campaigns often are directed toward changing or re-enforcing these stereo types and we all have them (think of the many used car salesperson or lawyer jokes that exist in the marketplace)
Emotions - what specific emotions do clients often exhibit or you want to invoke - remember 80% of buying decision is emotionally based.

Once we follow these five basic rules, we can then communicate to the right audience, creating the succinct marketing message. Thus the topic for our next blog (Blog #4 in this New Media Marketing series) - Creating the Right Content (to be posted Tuesday, March 10)

Just Seven Clicks Away

2009-03-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Even though New Media Marketing utilizes new technology, the rationale behind it is based on established and proven buying psychology that has been used for decades. Fifty years ago when there were neighborhood banks, drug stores, hardware stores, gas stations, etc. people would walk into one of these establishments and readily buy something from that store.

FACT: We still do business with people we know, like and trust.
Our marketing programs should be geared to build a community of people who are loyal to our company and products/services.

FACT: We need to create a community of buyers who constantly want what you have to offer in a timely fashion.
NMM techniques are designed to build your Community of Buyers.
Review your customer/client list and see who are really in your community of buyers - people who are loyal to you and will buy only from you in a timely manner.

FACT: Even past client relationships must be maintained or they will drift from your community of buyers.

So what is this Seven click away "stuff"?

FACT: In today's market it takes on an average of seven communications, with a prospect to get them into your community of buyers.

Phone calls, visits/meetings, or mailings are both time-consuming and costly. Remember our society is time-starved and there is a limit to how many people we can see or call; but with today's technology we cannot only communicate but more importantly dialogue with a larger audience through our web site, email, blogs, ezine, podcasts, social media, etc.

FACT: There are over 23 million people in the United States who actively communicate on-line and that number is growing.

FACT: Every time someone clicks to visit your web site, clicks to read your blog, clicks to open an email, clicks to download a podcast, etc. adds to one of those seven communications required to get them into your Community of Buyers.

FACT: The more they visit, read, open, respond, or communicate back:

Increases probability they will open your next communications
Increases probability that they will select you
Decreases time to make a decision
Decreases number of required contacts to closure
Increases number of viewers who will pass-along your information to a friend
Decreases the probability of opt-ing out (will address in detail in a subsequent blog)

Think of NMM as a series of concentric circles (at least 7) with the middle being your business/organization. The 1st circle consists of your Buying Community. As the circles go out from the center, there are more prospec ts but farther away from buying from you and in a timely fashion. As you communicate out to farther circles with your web, blog, e-zine, email, podcasts, etc., the faster they move toward the center with each movement being faster than the previous.

Scenario:

A viewer hears about your blog and decides to click and read it - Click #1 - (we will present ways to announce your blogs in future blogs of this series)
In your blog you refer to more information and line to your web site - Click #2
The viewer then decides to comment on your blog - Click #3
You respond and they click to read your response - Click #4
You also tell the viewer that you may include more information in your upcoming e-zine. They look for the e-zine (electronic magazine) and they click to open - Click #5
At this poing you have started not only communicating with the viewer but also are dialoging. At the Studios, because of the nature of our servidces, at this point we usually get a phone call requesting an appointment/proposal - Communications #6
This leads to a final discussion and win - Communcations #7

FACT: NMM is a highly message-effective and cost-effective way of carving out a community of buyers from a large pool of potential customers/clients on-line and with ease.

YOUR NEXT NEW CLIENT IS JUST 7 CLICKS AWAY

Monday's Blog: Targeting your Audience - The First Step for Any Marketing Campaign

31 Blogs to New Media Marketing - WELCOME

2009-03-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

Welcome to our blog series on New Media Marketing. Over the next 31 blogs, I will try to provide a working overview of the various aspects of this subject. Even though New Media Marketing utilizes new technology, its use in your business will be both an art and a science. This is true for most successful marketing programs. The first thing I would like to do is start utilizing the short-cut NMM whenever I refer to the words New Media Marketing. Over 31 blogs, this will shorten my typing efforts.

This first blog (Blog #1) provides some definitions and a road map for the following next blogs. So let's see how Wikipedia defines NMM:

"New Media Marketing is a relatively new concept utilized by businesses in developing an on-line community which allows satisfied customers to congregate and extol the virtues of a particular brand. In most cases, the on-line community includes mechanisms such as blogs, podcasts, message boards, and product reviews, all of which contribute to a transparent forum to post praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions.

One of the primary arguments to promote New Media Marketing is the premise that traditional advertising is losing its influence on consumers. Backed by statistical evidence demonstrating a growing trend of consumers making purchasing decisions off Internet research and referrals. These advocates strongly adhere to the notion that consumers are more inclined to believe feedback from like-minded peers than corporate marketing verbiage dispersed through traditional television, radio, direct mail, or newspaper advertising."

The bottom line is we all want to boost our business. In today's economy, this also includes cutting costs - but wise sages say that is not a time to cut marketing costs - yet one still needs to cut costs. NMM is the ideal solution for this dilemma. Using the powerful tools of NMM will help separate you from your competition.

NMM's key factors are the same for any successful marketing program today:

Time: As business manager, owners, and entrepreneurs, we are constantly struggling to do more with less time. Couple this with the fact that our clients/customers' attention spans are constantly decreasing, and thus demanding simple, straightforward messages. This results in a business environment that is marked by both buyers and sellers who are more knowledgeable, demanding, and impatient every day.
What and How we say it: Your marketing messages, how they are crafted and delivered is key factor in all our marketing efforts. Today it is form over function. We no longer dictate content - our clients' needs and wants do.
Creating Community: One-way communications is no longer sufficient. Our communications must be two-ways. We must not communicate with clients but must dialog with them. NMM is based on the assumption that building an online community is one of the most important things your business can do.

So what vehicles does NMM utilize? An integrated NMM program utilizes the following:

A web 2.0 web site
Blogs
e-zines (electronic magazines or newsletters)
Podcasts
Emails
Social Media

We will cover the above during this blog series. We should point out that there are things that NMM cannot do:

Replace actual and direct physical contact
Replace other forms of advertising - since some of your target may not use new technology, other forms of advertising including print cannot be totally abandoned
Will not provide instant and immediate gratification - NMM is a process, not a magic pill that one takes and business is successful overnight

The series will consist of the following eight parts:

Introduction - "Seven-Click" model targeting your audience, creating content, power of the brand, and building relationships - the opt-in
WEB - Web 1.0 vs. 2.0, what makes a good web site and audit, how to say it on the web, widgits, wikis, dashboards and other strange sounding things, SEO
BLOG - Blog essentials, telling people about your blog, business applications, and forums
E-zines - e-zines essentials and promoting your e-zine
Podcasts - Podcast essentials and telling your audience about your podcasts
Email - understanding email marketing, types of email, designing email, email list building, spamming
Social Media - intro to social media, personal social networks, business social networks, and social media servies
Other - e-PR and Mobile emailing, tracking your NMM results and summary

Blog #2 of our New Media Marketing Series will be posted Friday, March 6. Topic: "The Seven Click Model" - One of the reasons for NMM's success is the fact that it relies on collaboration. So please comment on the blogs as you read them.

Design - a necessity for success.

2009-03-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

In 2000, Times Magazine announced that Function is out; Form is in. In other words, there was a time when our customers and clients were more interested in how it worked then how it looks. Good looking design definitely sways our decision making process. Put simply, a creative design is a necessity for the everyday requirement of bringing your story and brand to life. [visit our site to learn about our studio's approach to design - designnovation]. A good designer will be challenging and often interpreted as pushy or arrogant when in fact it is the designer's commitment to fresh, new, and sometimes unusual solutions - thinking out of the box.

Over the years, we have collected several quotes and expressions from various famous designers. These are posted on our studio's philosophy board [view our board]. The following are just some of these expressions:

"When color is at its richest - form is at its fullest."

"Design is a necessity not a decoration."

"Insanity - repeatedly performing the same process - hoping for a different result."

"If the identity of your brand is not well defined, you may have visibility but no personality."

"There is no curve as beautiful as a rising sales graph."

"Design is more about inspiration and imagination than logic and analysis."

What ever you do. . . Do Not forget these. . .

2009-02-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

Next week we will begin our blog series of "31 blogs to new media marketing". Web 2.0, New Media Marketing, and Social Marketing have become "hot topics" of the day.

BUT do not forget two key elements of success as we work our way through today's economy. They are Customer Service and Visually-appealing, Affective Design. Today I will share some thoughts on customer service. My next blog will address attractive design.

Always drive your business toward the goal of serving those who purchase your products and services. You may refer to them as customers, clients, constituents, or patients. Whatever you call these people, you must satisfy them or risk losing them. Customer service must become part of your organization's culture. Everyone must talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk.

It is a shame that many of Orlando's businesses are known for poor service. The attitude that many customers are only one time buyers will surely place your enterprise on the path to failure.

No matter the product or service, we all have customers - to keep them or attract new ones we must have the reputation of always exceeding customer expectation. Customer service is never a candidate for cost savings. Service should be part of your corporate story. [for more information on the power of story]

Tactical is good - Strategic is better

2009-02-23T10:54:00.000-08:00

We have been receiving several emails from our clients concerning Web 2.0 and new media marketing. The next issue of our ezine (newsletter) "Studio Buzz" will be addressing many of these questions.

The underlying question or concern is how does my business model catch up to the technological possibilities of today's web? So many people today are using the web that its "economies of scale" not only lower costs BUT also create value.

For business owners, managers, and entrepreneurs the critical question is "why" Web 2.0 (the business question) more than "how" (the technical question) - focus on strategy before implementing random tactics.

We need a belly-buster

2009-02-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

And I am not talking about our waist-line (probably could use one of them also). What I am talking about is a good laugh - and that is today's topic.

There are many recommendations on how to get through all the bad news and economic pressures that we all seem to be facing today. The one sure thing that will get us through all the ups and downs (and actually make us mentally and physically healthier) - is a good laugh.

We have found that creativity at the studio is directly related to the amount of laughter that is generated. Now what kind of pressure can a creative design studio have? Let's see - clients that make up their minds tomorrow but want their designs yesterday or my favorite is "I do not know what I want but I will know it when I see it!" (ugh!).

We have implemented a laughter policy at the studio - everyone needs at least three good belly laughs a day. I do not mean a smirk or a smile - a real bottom of the gut laugh. Try it. It really increases the creative juices and will actually make you sleep better.

So start that joke bulletin board, or do something a little "crazy" and just have a good laugh.

Be careful

2009-02-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

Web 2.0. social media, and new media marketing are today's "in" words. You can tell by how many self-help books on these subjects are coming to market. They all provide powerful marketing and advertising tools and every company should seriously consider these approaches.

JUST BE CAREFUL! Using these techniques should be configured, designed, and implemented as business tools. They need to be integrated into your existing marketing and advertising programs to expand and improve their cost-effectiveness and message-effectiveness. They need to be crafted so that you stay focused and are properly telling your story.

When seeking professional assistance in how and when to use these new tools, make sure you utilize a firm that has the technical, creative design, and marketing experience - NOT someone who has bought a few self-help books and their experience is mainly spending a lot of time on their personal Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr accounts building their personal social circle.

Back to Fundamentals

2009-02-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

With all the talk about advertising and marketing challenges, it is important that we do not forget the fundamentals. Innovative marketing is about having a strategy. A sound strategy has two parts: focus and then being able to tell an innovative story. There's that word: Story.

I recently read an old Indian proverb that says, "Tell me the facts and I'll learn. Tell me the truth and I'll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever."

How’s your Power Suit?

2009-02-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

Remember how business people would make sure they wore their "Power Suit" when going on an important interview or making a prominent presentation? That first impression is so important. With over 70% of the population utilizing the web, your website often is your first impression. Potential clients and customers will go to your website first validate your company and your products/services. Your web site has become your Power Suit.

In today's economic environment, clients are still buying - they are just buying differently. Thus your website has become even more important. Does it represent your organization properly? Does it tell your story in such a way that they want to buy from you?

Having the wrong website may actually hurt you more then help you. Recently we recommended to a client that they take their site down and replace it with a simple landing page until they redesigned their site. The current site was chasing clients away instead of enticing them.

So are you wearing your "Power Suit" via your web site? Makes sure that your site looks good, works correctly, and is being marketed. (go to www.tcdgstudios.com/webmedia.php for more information)

Don't Stop - Just Do It Smarter

2009-02-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

With today's economic environment, there is a push to cut costs. In so many areas of business, this is way overdue.

When it comes to marketing, the traditional sage would recommend that during down times, successful organizations do not cut marketing budgets. Those businesses that market will come out of the down turn quicker and stronger BUT today we still need to cut costs.

Using new media marketing techniques will permit you to market even more effectively and drastically lower your marketing expenses.

Give the studio a call at 407-345-0370 or email me at drjack@tCDGStudios.com to learn more.

Edutainment - The New Frontier for Graphic Designers

2009-02-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

I believe that visually based edutainment (education that is entertaining or entertainment that is educational) is one of those growing frontiers for our industry. Being a designer with a Ph.D. in Education (cognitive learning - how people learn), I see the potential every day. For us storytellers, marketing is "educating your client in your story" and training is "educating your employees in your story". Forbes, a few weeks ago, posted a story on the future size of edutainment. We at tCDG Studios have started investing in expanding our creative talent and professional skills to become an active source for edutainment solutions.

Crap is Crap

2009-01-29T12:12:00.000-08:00

The other day I was perusing Craigs List and saw some postings for graphic design freelancers and staff members. After looking at the rates they were quoting - the only thing I could say is - "you must be kidding". They were so low and unrealistic (even with today's economy). Thank goodness there was another posting from a graphic designer who posted what realistic hiring rates are.

Knowing some basic graphic programs does not make you a graphic designer, not even a layout person, not even mentioning effective concepts. You know the old saying "You get what you pay for." Today's customers are becoming more sophisticated - they recognize crappy visual communications. The natural interpretation is if your visual communications are crappy then your products/services must also be of the same caliber - crappy.

Did not know us designers were also athletes

2009-01-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it finally happened - my faithful chair broke beyond all repair. Got enough energy to drag it our to the dumpster and went off to buy a new chair. Not that easy of a task - couple needing the right chair with the fact that a lot of us designers have back problems. Ask a designer about lying in bed at night with this pain going down your leg from your back to your feet.

So I asked the doctor and he tells me it's my posture and probably my chair. I asked around and got the advice that a good chair is one that "keeps you in the chair" - not like my broken chair where I sat on the edge with my feet tucked under it. No wonder why my shoes all have a curl to them.

So off to the designer store for the perfect chair and I found it. The chair actually kept me in the seat with my back not hunched over. What a chair and what a shock. The stripped down version was over $800. That is more then I paid for a treadmill. With prices like that you would think we designers were athletes in training.

Bottom line is I guess my back does not hurt that much for now. But one of these days I am going to get that chair. Would appreciate any suggestions.

drjack

www.tcdgstudios.com

PS I did get a new chair since I still have to sit - looks nice and modern (good design elements) but a fraction of the cost.

2009-01-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

I was watching a TV show on the Ovation channel the other night concerning design. The opening of the show brought to mind a warning that we often give our clients - "Do not get lost in the media". The program made the distinction that artists who create art for contemplation is what we refer to as Art. Artists who apply their talent to items we use is called Design.

I believe that the operative word in this definition is USE. As designers, we craft our clients' stories in a way that is useful to the end user. This is at times difficult when clients want "eye candy" for the sake of showing off instead of making the design usable.

Understanding that "ugliness does not sell", as designers we need to overcome egos and keep in mind the end user.