Archive for July, 2008

Huggo's Restaurant in Kona, Hawaii

I’m sure we have all heard the phrase ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ and know just how true it is (my husband thinks the most beautiful sight in the world is watching the road fly by in the drivers seat of a fully customized ‘69 camaro. I think it is when the sun sets in Kona, Hawaii, like in this pic from our Honeymoon.) 

But how can that phrase help your creative marketing?

Follow me….

Lets take a look at how this phrase applies when you are coming up with creative design ideas for a marketing campaign (something all small business owners need to think about). If we simply replace ‘beauty’ with ‘effective marketing’, it becomes a very meaningful phrase when contemplating how to market to your potential clients. “effective marketing is in the eye of the beholder”

Most of us look at our marketing and come up with what WE think of it (that’s because we assume we are the beholders!). Well, I hate to say it, but what you think doesn’t matter diddly-squat! Ok, so that is a little harsh, but you get my point. What matters the most in your marketing is what your potential buyers think. YOU are not the beholder – your potential client is! You need to make sure that they are seeing what they need to see to be convinced to buy - not what you think they need to see. So here we go – the million dollar question – “How do you find out what your buyers want?”

My answer? ASK THEM!!! Who better to tell you what they like to see than the people who have already bought your product? Try this tip for the next month, and see what happens: Next time someone orders your product, send them a personalized thank you note and ask them to fill out and send back the enclosed postcard with their name and company name and let you know why they chose to purchase your product. Once they send it back, read it and put it into a marketing file. Then, when you are trying to come up with a marketing campaign, you can go back to your file and see why others purchased your product. Try using one of those reasons as your differentiating message for your marketing campaign and see what happens….

As always, let me know what you think! Did you try it? Do you have another way to find out what your potential buyers want to know/see in your marketing campaign?

Chelsie & Mark - Dancing the Foxtrot

Okay, I am a little embarrassed to say, but I absolutely love  the show “So you think you can dance”. Besides the simple fact that it is entertaining and fun, one of the biggest reasons it captures my attention is the creativity of the dancers, the wardrobe and the choreographers. Although it has no exact relations to my career choice (business website design and social media management), it does make you pause and think. Creativity is everywhere around us – and I can not count how many times I have watched the show and come up with a new color palate that I want to try out, or decided on a completely new look for a clients website. 

The point of this post is to remind us all that sometimes creativity (regardless of its source) begets more creativity. What do you use to stimulate your creativity?

LA Skyline - from Yahoo! News

I found a great quote hidden in Dennis G. Jerz’s blog and felt it needed to be shared:

If you are having trouble getting started, look out the window. The whole world is a story, and every moment is a miracle.
-Bruce Taylor, UWEC Professor of Creative Writing

This quote is very pertinent for today, as the LA area just felt a 5.8 earthquake (I don’t say I felt it, since I was in my car, with the music blaring, and didn’t feel it!). Despite not feeling it, the reponses via twitter and email still interrupted my day enough to make me pause and look out the window. In doing so, I allowed my brain a little freedom and was inspired for the design of the new blog for a client I am working with. Until now, I had planned on keeping it similar to the main webpage – but the response to the earthquake on twitter, inspired me to, for lack of a better word, shake it up a bit!

Try it – take a look out the window (or the metaphorical window if your office doesn’t have one) - and let me know what it inspires in you!

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was to have a notepad next to my bed. I do some of my best thinking when I am asleep, and often if I start writing some notes the minute I wake up, I am able to capture some of those ideas. If I wait until I’ve had my coffee and then try, the ideas all seem to have slipped away…

Any other ways you use to remember your great ideas from sleep?

A creative idea, a creative story, a creative image – if it is creative you’ll find it here

(are you sensing a pattern yet?)