I’ve been reading some great books on entrepreneurship, business consulting, and the new rules of PR, marketing and social media in this incredibly connected world we’re in. Business is different. The climate has shifted. One really can start a business on a shoe string, or invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to help it grow. Both are viable. Some of the smaller companies are even doing it better than their larger, more established counterparts within the same space.
I recently conducted a workshop on how important your brand is within the social media arena, particularly when your business focuses on selling a concept, service or other intangible. This particular workshop happened to be for churches, but they are not unlike many of the businesses we advise, who sell consulting, advice, conceptual services or ideas. Let’s face it, churches are probably among the most conceptual of all, promoting not only events and services, but an ideology.
Content marketing is nothing new. If you are a company that consults or advises, or deals with “selling the invisible,” you may already be considered a thought leader and have a paper trail of articles, speeches and case studies that you’ve shared with clients. But are you consistently producing and distributing material that is useful and engaging to your target audience? Are you seeing results in organic search or social media efforts?
In the wake of topical storm Lee, there were flash floods throughout Maryland on Wednesday, September 7, 2011. Ellicott City ‘s Main Street became a river. After evacuating our office, we posted some footage of the action happening right outside our office. (In this video, you can actually see the entrance to our office with near foot-high water when the camera pans to the left of the big black truck.) The footage was taken from a bystander’s phone and then posted to You Tube.
The sky is blue and air is warm, and there’s just a little bit of true summer left to enjoy. Hopefully you’ve had some downtime, while still keeping up with the important marketing and business tasks at hand. But with the slower summer days coming to an end, how can one best prepare for the busy pace that always comes in early September? Here’s our checklist:
Take the “no-header test.” Go to your website and scroll down so that the header is out of view of the browser window. Now take a look at what’s left. Is it easy to tell what your company does? Will a first-time visitor to your site know what you do, have any sense about what makes you unique, or care? Now put the header back in. Uh-oh, that might not help either?! Here’s the point: you have about six to eight seconds to make an impression, which means you need to give visitors something to latch on to right away so that they will continue to learn more. If they can’t even discern what it is you do, there’s a problem.
Insight180 would like to welcome Michelle Loeb to our team. Michelle will be interning with us over the summer, and we are happy to have her on board. Michelle is a recent graduate from University of Baltimore’s School of Communications Design and has an interest in marketing and advertising. She is especially looking forward to working on some brand research and content strategy for both insight180 and some of our clients.
Aside from being a great Rolling Stones refrain, that line is a great intro to this blog post. Have you done a “word cloud” lately? There are some wonderful tools out there to help demonstrate in a visual way, what your web content, resume, or blog post is really focused on. When working on web content, or any content for that matter, we are constantly reminding clients about key words. While we don’t want articles or content to be overbearingly key word rich, we do want our content to be energized, if you will by terms for which someone might search. Enter wordle.net, a word cloud generator. You can enter in an article or resume, or web page text, etc. and create a word picture that shows what words are emphasized most. Artistic and smart. . . or at least a good way to check your content.
I’m a logophile, I admit it. I love words and language and communication. I love getting a particular message across to a particular audience, and I love helping clients do the same. It serves me well in my career as a brand consultant, as the visuals and the message are equally important.
What is it about some companies? You know the ones . . . the companies that you want to see do well, that you love working with, that you’re loyal to, or that you’re rooting for because they are special in some way. Sure it probably starts with a good product or service—but it’s way more than that, because lots of businesses offer good products or services. Is it good marketing? Well, sometimes good marketing helps, but it goes more to the core of an organization. We believe that these are the companies that have a clear and specific vision about why they exist (and it’s not just about making money) and are able to articulate it beautifully.
I’m a basketball fan by default. Having a son who could quote very detailed NBA player stats since he was about eight years old made it so. And in the throes of March Madness, that now 18-year-old George Mason freshman got me at least paying attention to this incredibly exciting March ritual. So, GMU was out early, but so were many of the top seeds. From the teams that make up the final four, only Kentucky was ranked in the top 10, with UConn, ranked 11th. But two teams, the no. 37-ranked Butler and no. 50-ranked Virginia Commonwealth have surprised pundits and upset many an office pool. What can businesses learn from this year’s March Madness?
Looking at the larger picture, our list of things to do can seem overwhelming. But do not fear! Take your time. Think about it. Each step we outlined is just one more way to lay the foundation right. If you don’t already have a business Facebook page made, don’t just throw one together. Prepare some posts or find some wonderful articles or events to share. Make your posts clever, and your page eye-catching and informative. If you haven’t checked your website lately, don’t just make changes for the sake of changing something. Think about it. Make each step along the way count. Enjoy yourself along the way.
