Step #1 – Website and e-mail marketing

In Step #1 you can build a compelling one-two punch for your business.  I trust this goes without saying, but it is imperative that you have a fully functional website up and running.  Your website is your digital storefront/billboard/welcome mat for your business.  Not having one is a mortal sin, but having a website that is out-of-date or non-functional is just as bad.  What are the keys to a good website?

First of all, you need to make sure the site is well-designed.  It should be clean, easy to navigate, and fully convey your brand and messaging throughout.  Make sure it doesn’t take fifteen clicks to get to the pertinent information.  It should be easy for anyone to figure out who you are, what you do, and how to get in touch with you.  Also consider the amount of text on each page.  Unless your products or services are highly technical, try to limit the number or words you use.  Convey your message clearly and in simple fashion.

It is equally as important to make sure the website is designed in a way that will allow you to keep it updated.  Too many times companies invest in a custom website, but must rely on an outside company to make any updates or changes.  We highly recommend building a website with a Content Management System (CMS) platform such as WordPress.  This will provide you with a significant amount of control and ease-of-access to make updates and keep your website fresh and engaging.

With your website where you want it, make sure you integrate e-mail marketing into the mix.  You’ll want to have a landing page, opt-in page, or form somewhere on your website.  This will provide people with an opportunity to share their e-mail address and begin receiving newsletters or other e-mails from you.  The easier you make it for someone to provide their e-mail address, the faster you will build a relevant e-mail database to use for marketing.  Consider providing access to a whitepaper, e-book, or some other kind of “digital goodie” to incentivize/thank each person for sharing their e-mail.

Once you have a marketing list, you can begin to e-mail your clients and customers, prospects, and partners.  Be careful not to abuse your list (sending e-mails too frequently or e-mails that lack any relevance).  Those companies who really figure out the right message and frequency to their e-mail marketing strategy will be able to deliver strong call-to-action messaging to drive additional business.  You will want to make sure you are using an e-mail marketing program that can help measure key statistics and keep you in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act.   The investment is worth it for the insightful data and for mitigating your liability.

Do you have a creative way you are leveraging your website?  How are you using e-mail marketing to drive business?    What is working for you?  Share your thoughts and opinions with us!

When it comes to marketing, there’s nothing quite like trying to keep up with the slew of emerging digital marketing tools to make you feel old and dated.  They seem to spring up quickly and multiply like rabbits!  Sometimes I’ll hear someone mention a hot new digital tool and think “huh?” while I run off and quickly do a Google search.

I have decided enough is enough.  I am putting my foot down on digital, (at least for the next week or so) which is why I want to spend some time talking about those old, outmoded traditional marketing tools.  I’m kidding of course!  Often, while we are all wrapped up in what is new, bright and shiny, we forget about some of the tried and true tools that still deliver results consistently.  When your team is made up of a lot of young, talented individuals, you can quickly forget that the entire world isn’t tied to Facebook, using Pinterest, or checking-in with Foursquare.  Sure, the demographics are certainly leaning digital, but you might be surprised to find that every marketing tactic in your arsenal doesn’t need to be digital to be relevant.

I was chatting with the VP of Marketing for a National chain in the travel industry last week.  He mentioned to me that 50% of their customers still prefer a direct mail approach.  While it may sound like an antiquated approach in the traditional marketing sphere, it is hard to beat something physical in the hands of your customers or prospects if it is getting the desired results.

It is the tangible and authentic feel of some of the traditional marketing tools that still makes them successful.  At the end of the day we like to connect with things, we like to touch them, and interact with them; we like to feel like they have some personal connection to us.  Sometimes a very well executed flyer, brochure, or direct mail piece can speak volumes about your business.  A well placed ad, especially in a highly targeted publication, can still reach the ideal audience for your product or service.  As radio and television become more decentralized and fragmented, there are opportunities to pick up valuable air time at a fraction of the cost. Right now there are businesses telling their story using traditional broadcast formats and finding success in their given markets.  One of the most effective of all the traditional tools is investing time and energy to connect within your community.  Whether through sponsorships with local events and organizations or providing support to a non-profit or charity event, this type of exposure is by far the most real, tangible interaction you will ever get for your business.  (Look for a future article discussing creative ideas for leveraging an event or partnership).

Again, I don’t want all of you to run off and put an end to all of your digital marketing initiatives, that’s not the point of this article.  We will spend plenty of time examining the power of digital marketing tools as well.  My hope is you will remember or at least consider the value traditional marketing can provide.  It’s ultimately about broadening your reach through multiple channels.  You might even consider how traditional marketing can strengthen your digital marketing efforts.  Although we have a lot of amazing developers and programmers working at xiik, we’ve worked diligently to keep our traditional offerings robust.  We have designers, graphic artists, strategists, and researchers ready to help your company develop, revise, or execute a comprehensive traditional marketing approach.  While it may be exciting to focus on emerging tools, please resist the temptation to put all of your “eggs” in the digital marketing “basket.”

What do you think?  Do you feel old?  Do you see the power of traditional marketing tools?  We would love to hear your success stories?  Reply here or leave your response on Twitter or Facebook.

Where to begin? I grew up loving business and have a real passion for marketing and strategy (probably one of the reasons I am now working at xiik). It seems natural to start this series with the basics…a real 50,000 foot view of marketing. It’s hard not to really “xiik out” when I think about where we’ve come in the world of marketing. There are so many amazing digital tools at our disposal and some tried and true traditional tools that work equally well. If we step back in history for just a second it’s amazing to consider just how far we’ve come.

In 1992, just 20 short years ago, a good marketing mix for a business might include: print advertising, direct mail, community sponsorships and engagement, and local radio and television commercials (if you had the budget). So simple we could probably manage our marketing plan in our sleep.

In 2002, we were still relying heavily on these traditional tools. Maybe we were using e-mail to do some marketing. If we had the budget, we probably had a website, but it was likely very static. There was still no Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, no saturation of text messaging, and blogging was still the little brother to message boards and chat rooms. Wow! How times have changed!

You might be wondering why this history lesson is relevant to you. Quite simply, the level of complexity that Presidents, CEOs, and Marketing Executives have to navigate just to keep their company and their brand at the forefront of consumer’s minds is overwhelming. While it might seem easy to say, “We’ll just stick with what works for us,” the reality is a fully optimized mix of marketing tools is the only way to remain relevant and positioned for success in today’s fast-paced business climate.

If you have an in-house marketing team there can still be a lot of value in using an outside firm to assist with strategy and execution. Regardless of the size of your marketing team or breadth of your marketing capabilities there can be a real savings of time, resources, and energy when you look for external assistance. Pardon me for the in-blog commercial, but the reason I get so excited about xiik is the fact that we have the ability to deliver the most cutting-edge digital marketing tools, while still maintaining good old fashioned expertise with traditional marketing tools as well. This approach can be a real win-win and can keep you from falling too far behind to the competition in terms of your marketing mix.

In the coming weeks, I am going to delve deeper into both traditional and digital marketing tools and further expand on the growing complexity of marketing today. Soon you will understand why having multiple marketing tools in your arsenal just makes good business sense and why finding the right marketing partner to help you can make all of the difference.

In the meantime, if you think your marketing plan might be due for a “check-up,” please send us an e-mail or give us a call.

Here’s a quick question as well: What area of marketing do you see as being most challenging for your company or business to execute? We’d love to hear your feedback!

In essence, it doesn’t seem like a difficult request to fulfill:  gather the tools and resources at our disposal, and lay them out for someone to see in a lovely list.  An Excel Spreadsheet, even.   And, in theory, it’s easy to categorize what tools might be helpful consider putting in someone’s toolbox.  Yet as I find myself sitting down repeatedly to craft this list, I continue to struggle.

Because it’s not in the list — it’s in the strategy and skilled execution of the plan that the magic actually happens.    It’s similar to having Harry Potter’s list of school supplies.  Even if you could find the perfect wand (yes, I know the wand chooses you, Potter fanatics), education, knowledge and care are required to pull off the perfect spell.

My hesitation and struggle in creating this metaphor for my friend is this:  without fully understanding what he’s trying to accomplish, any such list holds very little value.  It doesn’t provide recommendations, guidance, priority, or measurable results.   Instead, it’s almost dangerous because it might send him down a path without the appropriate guard rails in place.

Ultimately, the presentation ended up titled the “Universe of Marketing.”  A 150 Million KM view of how the pieces put together.  I pulled in a 3rd grade graphic of the solar system (old, as Pluto was still a planet on this version) and outlined the planets as aspects of what we do.  The metaphor works well enough to explain the depth of information within each area of business, and to some degree the scope of ‘orbit.’  The presentation went well in person, when I was able to explain the weaknesses of the metaphor, dig into some of the intricacies and overlap, and answer questions as they came up.  However, it’s also one I’m not likely to share without being available in person to fully explain.

The number of options available these days to craft a strategic plan are as infinite as the universe itself.  There’s no one ‘right’ solution, just a variety of tools to be used to meet your end goal.  Beware of any organization that utilizes a ‘one fits all solution’ or fails to think about the big picture while asking questions and crafting your plan.  And ensure you’re carefully considering your measurable end goal.

Is what you don’t know you don’t know keeping you up at night?  If you find yourself lying in bed concerned about a business problem that needs a solution I won’t offer an intricate chart to let you go off and figure it out on your own.  But I can offer this:  a willing ear, diplomatic and straight-forward questions and guidance, strategy, and a customized solution based on what makes sense for you.  Plus, we’ll have a hell of a lot more fun and be more effective than if I just give you an Excel sheet with a list of things you *might* want to consider doing.

What methods have you found that are helpful in taking an integrated approach in your marketing strategy?

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Seoul, Korea for the 3^rd SIGGRAPH Asiaconference on computer graphics. The rest of the xiik geeks celebrated once they heard news I would actually be gone for a full month on an extended trip through Asia. (Because they were happy for me. Yes, that’s why.) After the conference in South Korea, a few friends and I planned a journey to tackle the east side of China, traveling from Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong and lastly Macau.

Needless to say, it was an experience of a lifetime. I consistently ran into one difficulty, however, while in China: staying connected with everyone back home. My friends, family and co-workers depended on social networking sites or an email here and there to know that I hadn’t fallen off the Great Wall or gotten lost in the Forbidden City. Aside from Hong Kong and Macau, which have an entirely open Internet, while in mainland China (Beijing and Shanghai), we soon realized that contacting home through our normal websites – Facebook and Twitter mostly – was not going to be an option. Not convenient!

So, what’s behind China’s policies to block such popular social networking websites? Though China has always exerted more control over its media than Western-style democracies, the real straw that broke the camel’s back was when violent riotserupted in the western region of Xinjiang in July 2009, where authorities blamed the use of the web, specifically Facebook and Twitter, for its planning. The entire Xinjiang region lost access to the entire Internet for several months as a result.

As I began to make friends with locals in these cities with restricted access, I asked them what their opinion on the matter was. Most felt the violence wasn’t the major player. Instead, they felt the blame was on China’s domestic services like Weibo and Kaixin, the Twitter and Facebook of China, respectively. If China has the opportunity to completely cut off the majority of the population to these US-based sites, locals have no other option than to use what is second best. Can anyone say scarcity power? Here is a list of all currently blocked sites in China. (Unfortunately and ironically, for the mainland China readers out there, this link directs to Wikipedia – one of the very sites China blocks.)

For me, a dude who uses Facebook and Twitter multiple times per day, the inconvenience really required some adjusting that I didn’t have the time or inclination for on my travels. Each moment spent searching for a proxy server or way to navigate the text-based websites that magically let me in (such as getus.in) I knew I was wasting time I could easily be using to see more of that vast country! One wonders what kind of cumulative adverse effect on tourism this might have in the long run.

Of course, I am just one guy. I can theoretically survive without my Facebook fix for a couple of weeks. But what happened to all of those China-based companies that relied on Twitter and Facebook as free, essential marketing tools? Are they stuck using the more censored, domestic platforms for now until China eases up or will they try to use proxy servers to gain access? Does this force more of a national, rather than international, approach to their brand-building and business development? There are many questions and implications for a society that does not embrace the connectivity of an open, transparent online global community.

What would you do in their shoes? Could you adjust to life in China as it currently is? Do these policies affect your desire to travel to or do business with China?

All I know is that we were thrilled to reach Hong Kong at the end of our trip, where we could access the real Facebook layout and catch up with our friends back home. If you cannot live without some of these sites every day, visiting mainland China will be even more of a culture shock than you had imagined. Don’t let that stop you, though! For me, a status update can wait. Traveling the world is much more rewarding than getting a few likes or @ messages online.

If you’ve traveled to or conducted business with China in the last few years, we’d love to hear about your experiences with their media landscape.

It is a quick and easy read that has great take-away points, but I think the examples they chose to include could have been better. Their post features Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry. Notice any similarities? Duh! They all have $40 billion and a private island. I would go so far as to say that it would be unlikely if you haven’t heard even one of those names. And this is where the flaw in the Techipedia article lies.

I don’t mean to bash the article because it is, overall, a helpful read for a newcomer to Twitter. (Did I mention it was written by a 16 year old? Yeah. I know. Go him!) I just feel that it is unrealistic to use a group like that as models for the rest of us.  That would be like reading an article on building a house that only uses examples of mansions in Beverly Hills.

For the record, I am no Twitter expert, nor do I have as many followers as Justin Bieber. But, I do believe that I have been using the site long enough to take a stance on topics such as this. Since we are talking about Justin Bieber, I’ll use him as an example. Bieber has over 5 million followers and follows…wait for it…over 83,000! Don’t even try to convince yourself (or me) that 17 year-old Bieber sat there and clicked follow on all those tweople. And he’s not the only one following so many. Personally, I don’t have time for that, so I can safely assume little Justin doesn’t either. Barack Obama, on the other hand, probably has plenty of time to follow 715,000+ users, right?

We could continue to examine these stats, in detail, like number of tweets, following to follower ratio, join date, status popularity, and so on, but using examples like Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian won’t guarantee a pathway for Twitter success. Instead of looking at these stats, practice yourself by making a Twitter account and learning how to use it for your own success. Everyone’s different after all, so we all use it for different reasons.

I will leave you with my quickly revised list of Twitter tips (based on the Techipedia article):

Status updates matter only if you are being true and real. It is so easy to spot a Twitter-bot. Don’t fall for the old “Want 2 million followers overnight? Click here!” trick. It won’t work. Oh, and your number of tweets won’t make you more popular automatically. Just because you posted 8,500 tweets last month doesn’t mean they were all quality tweets.

A follow for a follow would be nice in a perfect world, but it won’t always happen. My advice: follow who you want, who you think is interesting and helpful. The followers will come after, just as long as you are being real in your status updates. And remember, this takes time.

Add personality that fits you (or your brand). This is the only way to separate you from the other 75 million users on Twitter. You can only fit so much in 140 characters, so it’s easy to sound like Joe-shmo.

Promote yourself, but be careful not to overdo it. Would you still follow Katy Perry if all she was tweeting about was to buy her new album? Me neither. I say this: Promote at your own risk.

As much as I’d like to play it off like all of these wall posts are not that big of a deal, they really are! Who doesn’t love a little extra attention on their special day? The fact that the wall post is public serves two purposes, if you think about it, the sender and receiver both win. The birthday boy/girl is seen as a person who is cared about and gets birthday wishes. The friend who writes on their wall is seen as a caring person who sends happy birthdays. That’s a win-win in my book!

There are even discussions I found talking about the expectation of responding to your friends who wish you a happy birthday. Take this thread on Yahoo Answers as an example. Personally, I responded to every person who wrote me. That’s just my two cents, but I think that I can devote 10 seconds of my time to respond with a “Thanks dude!” since they took time out of their day to think of me.

So, let’s crunch some numbers here. These are the birthday wish figures for this fiscal year for me. Looks like Facebook is the obvious choice for my friends.

I find it interesting that people go that far to seek advice on a matter such as this, which can tell us one thing: Facebook happy birthdays are that important. My prediction is that this trend will only grow in popularity, just as quickly as Facebook has been growing. It’s convenient, quick and still personal. So, before your birthday comes around this year, be sure to prepare yourself (and your Facebook wall) for some birthday love. You know you like it!

Obviously Anderson was rooting for the Colts. And we all know how that story ends. (If you don’t, the Colts lost.) The significance of this whole bet, however, is rooted in the publicity that each museum garnered. In addition to Twitter, this smack talk was also discussed on the Modern Art Notes blog, meaning that anyone who follows their tweets or that art blog most likely followed the course of the bet.

In publicly announcing the bet and egging one another on, the two museums were actually generating interest through social media, whether they realized it or not. They rallied their art history communities around something entirely unexpected — home team pride — and in the process caught the attention of folks outside their average orbit.  xiik did something similar when we realized that we had more Facebook followers than our friends over at another Indy firm, Mediasauce. See the humorous post here. In this case, we inspired several comments and feedback about our little popularity contest. You know what they say: any publicity is good publicity.

Unfortunately, it looks like Max Anderson and the IMA were just a tad over confident with their art wager. The Saints’ 31-17 victory over the Colts proved quite a few people wrong, including most of us xiik geeks. In a final tweet to end the Super Bowl bet, IMA declared, “Congrats to the Saints & @NOMA1910 on winning the Super Bowl bet. #Indy-be sure to see the JMW Turner before it heads to New Orleans!” Now that’s good sportsmanship! As Twitter continues to broaden its utility to interactions such as money transfers or one-on-one interviewing, we will likely see “tweeple” using the service in more creative ways, like smack talking, to entertain and thus promote their brand.