Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

I love Failblog. If you’ve never been, I give you permission to leave me now and go there. It’s funnier than I could ever hope to be, I promise.

If you’ve been, then stay here and read the rest of the post? I promise, it’s good

So, browsing failblog the other day and I found this awesome bar sign gem…by far one of the best pieces of marketing I’ve seen in awhile. Why?

• It’s simple.
• It’s funny.
• It’s easy to read.
• It nails their target audience.
• It solves a problem.
• No one will forget it.

Definitely a win.

I want to hear you shout from the rooftops, brag your little hearts out and share with the world:

• What was your biggest accomplishment through the first half of 2010?
• What is your goal for the 2nd half of 2010?

Ready…GO!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog posts from Wright Creativity to fill you in on a couple new things going on!

1. I have officially moved my facebook business page from being under Kirsten Wright to Wright Creativity. So please, click on over and “like” my page…you know you want to! Oh, and by the way…there is a special offer over there you won’t want to miss
2. I have submitted a proposal to speak at blogworld and am very nervous, but will let everyone know the minute I find out.
3. Phone Photo Friday is in full swing, so if you are a reader and haven’t sent in one of your favorite pics you’ve taken with your cell phone…well, why not? You don’t have to fill out the form, just snap the pic and email it to me (kirsten(at)wrightcreativity.com)
4. I have an opening for a new blog management client starting in July. Because I work so in depth with each client, I haven’t had the time available to take on a new client until now! If you or someone you know is looking for some extra help getting started or keeping moving with their blog, you know where to go
5. Coming soon, I will be running a very special contest for all of my subscribers. It involves a 15% discount and one of my design services…so be sure to stay tuned, and make sure to send your friends so they can participate too (it might just be around an upcoming holiday in July).

…Tomorrow we will be back to your regularly scheduled content

This giraffe is watching you. He is judging you. And he is keeping that judgment for a very long time.

Every time someone comes into contact with you in anyway, you are making an impression. In business, this can make or break you as one impression may be all you get before they decide whether or not to work with you! While not every question below will apply to you, each question reflects something about your brand and who you are as a business. The answers you choose may vary from time to time, and that is perfectly fine. What is important to think about is how you react, what you say or do, and how others will feel about your behavior.

What happens when someone emails you?

• Where does the email go?
• How quickly do you respond?
• What type of responses do you send?
• Are their emails you ignore (other than spam)?
• What is your email signature like?

What happens when someone calls?

• Is your phone number available?
• Do they reach a real person or a recording?
• What about after hours?
• What does your voice-mail say?
• How long do you give someone on the phone?

What happens when someone sends you a tweet?

• How quickly do you respond?
• What tone of voice do you use?
• Do you respond via reply or DM?
• Do you follow people who tweet you?
• How do you monitor your twitter stream?

What happens when someone visits your office?

• Who greets them first?
• What are they wearing?
• What does your office look like?
• How long do they have to wait to talk to you if they have an appointment?
• What if they don’t have an appointment?
• What is the temperature like?
• What music is playing?

What happens when you meet someone randomly?

• Do you great everyone in a welcoming tone?
• Do you have your business cards on hand?
• Do you stay and talk with people or brush them off?
• How long will you give a stranger to talk?

What happens with you meet someone at a networking event?

• Do you immediately hand then your card or wait to be asked?
• Do you have a nametag?
• What do you ask them first?
• How do you end a conversation?
• Are you drinking or eating?

Are you making the right impression?

*image courtesy of recursion_see_recursion on flickr

“When Jeff Bootz of Scottsdale, Arizona recently checked into the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa, the hotel’s General Manager Shaun Robinson flipped him the keys to a sleek 2010 Aston Martin Vantage convertible sports car that was adorning the hotel lobby.” Nice surprise right? The surprise was rewarded to Jeff Bootz because he stays at the hotel over 100 nights a year.  @TravelCostaMesa shared the link to this story today through twitter, and it got me thinking about reward systems. Hotels, airlines, some retail stores and restaurants understand the value of repeat customers, so they set up reward systems based on how often or how much is spent at the venue. The more you stay/spend, the better the rewards. Not only is it smart, but these systems work well. People like earning special treatments and will often stay more or spend more because they know there is a benefit.

But, I don’t think that this type of system needs to be reserved for these types of companies. In fact, I think that almost every business should have some form of reward system for repeat clients. The rewards don’t need to be extravagant and it doesn’t even need to cost you money – there are many services that you can offer that are just time based, rather than monetary. Rewarding a good client is worth more than any marketing you can do for new clients. Good clients will refer you, and lead more people like themselves to you. And, rewarding clients with something that they can use in your business again (time, services, etc) means that they will continue to come back for more.

What are you doing to reward your clients?

Going from a normal 9-5, corporate marketing job to being unemployed with a blog and some talents with design and writing is a scary idea. But it happens, and it happened to me last year. With a lot of work over the last 11 months, I have been able to rise above and reached a point in my business that I feel like I am actually making a career! Then last week, I received an email that made me feel even more exited, someone else wants my advice! Mike Wilton, a twitter and facebook friend of mine, sent me the following email:

I wanted to say hello and ask if I might be able to pick your brain a little. I know last year you dove into the freelance world after winding up unemployed. I’m currently trying to make a similar transition, but am hoping to keep my existing career in the process. The biggest problem I am having is figuring out where to start in terms of the business side of things. If you wouldn’t mind I’d really like to send a few questions your way that I’m hoping you might have answers to or may have had to deal with when starting Wright Creativity. If you have the time I’d greatly appreciate it.

Of course, I agreed that I would be happy to answer and asked if he minded if I shared the answers with my blog readers, hoping that others might be able to benefit from the answers. He said he was more than happy to allow me to share, and sent me the following email of questions:

My first question is, do I have to register my business name? I know you do work under Wright Creativity, did you register this name or do you just use this for your site and then all business matters fall under your name?

As a freelancer, did you immediately get your business license and handle all of your tax forms, or did you wait until you knew your business was finally getting off the ground?

I’m ultimately flying blind here, I have a handful of contacts that give me information, but they all live out of state or even out of the country, so I’m not positive on what steps I need to take to get my freelance business up and running properly before I launch. Any startup advice you might have for someone looking for more information about the business side of things would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you again for your time and if you would like anything more from me please let me know.

There were a lot of really great questions in here, and to make it a little easier, I have pulled out the most important plus, I added a few of my own.

1. When did I change from freelance to a business? (Mike didn’t start with this question, but it needs to be answered). I was laid off in April, and didn’t become an official LLC (company) until July. This was due to a few reasons, but the biggest reason was the time that it took to go through the process. While filling the paperwork was actually quick, it takes time to research really what you want to do and determine the best course of action. There are many people who stay freelance (work under their own name) but I was worried about the risks that can have on personal assets, so I knew I wanted to protect myself. As soon as I knew that, I started the process of researching how to become a business. Luckily, I have a great friend who is an attorney who was willing to help me with a lot of the process.
2. Do I have to register my business name? Yes, you will want to register a business name. First, it is more professional to operate under a corporate name instead of your own name (my opinion). Also, a business will protect your personal assets were there an issue with a client. I registered myself as an LLC with the state of California, more exactly, Wright Creativity, LLC. I was lucky that my blog is a unique name so I was able to have them match, and register it as a business. If you don’t have the same opportunity, then register a name that makes sense for you. What do you do/service do you offer? Take some time to brainstorm a name and then do some research on the name. If there is another company in the same industry as you with that name, you can’t have it. If you are unsure how to find out or where to check, I recommend contacting a corporate lawyer. In fact, I recommend contacting a corporate lawyer right away, as they will be the one who walks you through which type of business is the right business to start (LLC, S Corp, Corporation, etc…). I made the choice to become an LLC with the help from my attorney, based on the level of protection I needed of my personal assets and the way that taxes are paid each year. I don’t have any employees, and don’t plan on it for awhile, so an LLC was the best decision for me. Your business decision will be made depending on what is best for you.
3. Business license, tax documents, all that paperwork? When I filed to become an LLC, half of the documents were taken care of. The other half of the documents were taken care of by my accountant. A lot of people can take care of all the documents by themselves, but I didn’t want to make an mistakes, so I got professional help. It is your choice on how you do it, but I do recommend contacting help if you can afford it.
4. What other steps did I take? A business is built on just an idea, but that doesn’t mean it requires only an idea to work. In addition to becoming a business, filing the documents and figuring out all the tax stuff, you also have a lot of work to put into the front end including a strong website which includes services, about you and details of the company; your social media strategy, which will help people learn about what you are doing; and a client strategy, obviously you need clients to make a business work! The good news is that this can all be developed over time, and will definitely grow and change.

Do you have any business advice you can share with Mike? Or any other questions I can answer for you?

And a big thank you to Mike for letting me share the questions!

After spending the better part of my day under a fog of photoshop,  I surfaced just long enough to browse some tweets and respond to some emails. While looking through the twitter stream, a question from @Gizmodo caught my attention: When is it okay to check email during dinner?

I think the answers depends on the type of person you are talking about…

If someone is an employee of a company and they were to check email during dinner (after work hours) I would be offended. They are off the clock and have zero need to check in. If they are working on a large project, once 5 or 5:30 hits, the day is over and it waits for the next day. They get to keep business and home life separate. In this case, it is never okay to check email during dinner.

But, this is a tough question for a small business owner. I find that I check my email a lot in the evening, sometimes during dinner. Usually, this is because I am just taking a quick break from work to eat and then heading back into my office/closet. Then again, there are also nights that I am still checking emails even after I have shut down my computer and made myself cozy on the couch. Do I respond to a lot of the emails? No. But I do write notes on some of them, or create email drafts. This is helpful when the project is fresh in my mind and I am not overwhelmed with everything else that goes on during normal hours. It is hard for a small business owner to separate work from normal life because the separation doesn’t really exist.

What do you think? Should small business owners have different rules?

Steve Woodruff talked last week about is social media circles: audience, acquaintances, friends and intimates (inner circle) and what they mean for business. He explained that each of the levels serve a certain purpose, and that we need all four to really get the most out of our social channels. Of course, as you go down in levels, the people do become more important. For example, it would be better to have high quality intimates than just a bunch of audience. His final thought in the article (which is a great one) is that we need a way to filter these people more effectively…being able to separate them out and monitor them all differently would make connections and conversations much easier.

I know that I have all of these levels, but I have never really thought a lot about who exactly is in them. If I were forced to answer right now, I could probably name 30-40 people in my inner circle. Would it be all of them? No. Would some that I mentioned not actually be in my inner circle if I really thought about it? Yes.

And I think this needs to be remedied. I need to know my lists, I need to understand who I can trust, and I need to know that they can trust me too. I need them to know that I think they are part of my inner circle. We need to be on the same page because not knowing where you stand with someone can be dangerous. What if I think someone is on my inner circle, and I share with them a business idea that I have. They love it, we chat about it, share lots of details and brainstorming. Then a month later, I see them using my idea without asking me. Why would something like that happen? It happens when you don’t actually know your relationships – when you think someone is inner circle and they don’t.

Today, I want you to take some time and think about your inner circle. Who do you trust with your business ideas? Who would you turn to if you needed help promoting something or a new client recommendation? Once you have determined your list, I want you to send each person that you believe is part of your inner circle an email. Let them know why you have chosen them, and what they mean to you. It doesn’t have to be long, and it doesn’t have to be over the top. Make it simple and straight to the point.

After you have sent the emails…come back here. Don’t share your list (as that is a little personal) but please share your thoughts and experiences in building that list. Was it easy? Did you find people you thought would be inner circle that really weren’t? Did someone you expected to respond not respond? Were you greeted with any especially surprising results?

Discuss.

If you are a brick and mortar facility, there are 4 big pieces to your branding:

1. The store (what it looks like, how it is organized, the people who staff it, the products available, etc)
2. The website (whether or not you sell online, you must have a kick butt site for people to visit)
3. Social media (everyone and every business can benefit from using some pieces of social media)
4. Customer service (in person, over the phone, via email)

If you are solely an online retailer or a business which doesn’t need a physical location, you still need to consider #1 (people, products and how you are organized). The only difference is #1 & #2 are combined into one thing.

With this in mind, I decided to analyze a store that I found through Cracked.com’s list of Images you won’t believe aren’t photohopped (it’s #14).

Located in Southampton, UK, this is the actual store front for The Guitar Store. Surrounded by the traditional lift up store gates with simple signs declaring the store name, this store captures audiences attention – even if they aren’t in the market for music. Because of their unique store, I figured they would be a perfect company to look at their branding strategy, and how you can do it for your own business.

Following the above branding guidelines, we will start with #1: The store. First impression, obviously they are doing something right as they have immediately differentiated themselves from any other store on that road (and probably any other store in the UK). Secondly, they got themselves noticed by Cracked.com, which spread their name worldwide. Finally, (after visiting their site) I was able to see some photos of the interior…they have definitely created a beautiful musical haven. Unfortunately without a trip to the UK (hmm…wonder who I could bribe to get me there? lol) I can’t speak for their staff, but with the pictures and the obvious involvement of the owners, it seems they are probably doing okay.

Onto the second step, the website. When I visited the site, I was definitely surprised, as most companies I have seen fall short of “continuity with branding”. Their site not only matched the store front, but improved upon it (click on the image to visit the site, and mouse over their nav buttons…)!  The copy is to the point, honestly written and shows the dedication to true music. I found it easy to use, fun to navigate and it to be well done overall. What I didn’t see was any social buttons, or a quick way to reach them via email (without a form). Which leads us to the next step was to check out their social media strategy…

As I mentioned above, there are no social buttons or blog links. After some searching, I discovered that they do have both a Facebook page (2 weeks old) and a twitter account (with only 1 tweet). There is no blog. I will give them small credit for setting up facebook and twitter – and for the small amount of activity on FB. But, these strategies could be expanded tremendously and could bring in some serious attention. As far as the missing blog – I am a little surprised. I would assume that this would have been one of the first marketing tasks they tackled. Creating a blog that covered tips and tricks, featured unique guitars and even short video lessons would not only gain a lot of attention but would be helpful for the music community as a whole. I think that if they were to simply add a strong social media presence, they would immediately notice a difference.

Finally we reach the discussion of #4, their customer service. Again, not being able to visit the UK it is tough to decipher if they are doing this properly. They do have their number listed prominently, and their location easy to find (two pieces that lead to a great start). What they do need to add is easier access to their contact form and/or email addresses. Also, twitter is a huge customer service tool, being able to answer questions and connect with musicians both in the UK and throughout the world. I think without improving access to their email and their conversations through social media, they are definitely falling short in customer service.

Now, onto your task: When is the last time you looked at the 4 pieces of branding for your business? Do they all work together or are you missing important pieces? Feel free to respond with your thoughts on your own company in the comments – or ask other questions!

Let’s get talking!

Over the next 25 posts, ending on my birthday, I will be covering an incredibly creative moment or idea from a year of my life AND one creative moment in either the marketing, advertising, technology or media world.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post – I started this blog in July of 2008 and really, nothing has been the same since. I often love to look back at my first few posts (Creativity is in the eye of the beholder) and compare them to now (Using what you have to motivate you). Both posts are similar in topic and conclusion, but entirely different in word choice and the way they are written. Doing this helps me in two ways. First, it gives me a little glimpse back to why I decided to start this blog in the beginning (which can sometimes get lost in the craziness of life). Second, it reminds me how much I really enjoy what I do and motivates me to keep going and strive to improve.

While I dislike the outcome, the 2008 presidential election was the first to use social media platforms as a large part of their messaging strategies. Without the use of social media, it is suggested that the election could have turned out very differently…