THE POETRY OF SUCCESS

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

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

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!

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

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?

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 . . .

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