Blog :

Welcome, Jess!

Welcome, Jess!

As our team here at Insight180 prepares to welcome the fall weather, we also would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest marketing associate, Jess Reikowsky. Jess first joined Insight180 as a graduate intern in May after graduating from West Virginia University with a degree in marketing and a focus on brand management. Jess will be coordinating social media efforts, managing client accounts, and assisting in PR and marketing efforts. We believe that she will add great dynamic to our team and are delighted to have her. Welcome, Jess!

READ MORE
Incentives: Dulling or Enhancing The Creative Process?

Incentives: Dulling or Enhancing The Creative Process?

What drives one person to succeed and achieve is likely to be completely different than what drives the next. Therefore, not surprisingly there is something to be said about lack of performance in the workplace. In an effort to combat this problem, employees are often offered incentives, increased pay or bonuses for example, in order to spark the flame of creativity and get the ball rolling on productivity. However, what most leaders do not realize is that incentives are scientifically proven to dull thinking and hinder creativity. Scientists report that while incentives seem like the most logical way to boost productivity, not only are they unreliable but they also harm the process.

READ MORE
To Tweet or Not to Tweet

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Many of our B-to-B clients still debate the benefits of Twitter for their businesses. Sure it makes sense for retailers, but are other businesses going to follow us? Well, many B-to-B companies are behind their B-to-C counterparts in their efforts to ramp up, but we’re seeing more and more take advantage of social media outlets to gain clients. We understand that for a small company with limited time, it can be a tough call — it takes time to tweet, blog, or create content on Facebook. This is something that has to be developed and maintained with great thought and care. However, there are plenty of potential clients who are already online searching for services and ready to follow.

READ MORE
Key Words and Tweets and Blogs, Oh My!

Key Words and Tweets and Blogs, Oh My!

We are inundated with more than 2000 marketing interruptions per day – whether it be print, radio or TV advertisements, emails we need to sift through despite our filters, banner ads on the websites we visit, billboards we pass on the way in to work. It is a very crowded marketplace and it gets more and more challenging to get your message to your potential customer. So why not allow them to find you more easily? This is the premise of “inbound marketing” – using Google, social media outlets, blogs and other methods to get people to find you. We recommend two excellent books on the topic: Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (founders of Hubspot), and Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day, by one of our colleagues (and clients) Hollis Thomases, owner of Web Ad.vantage. While the adage “It’s not what you say, it’s what others say about you” is true to a large degree, we would also argue that you had better, indeed, have something substantive to say. You can tweet and blog and reference key search terms ’til the cows come home, but if potential clients land on your website and find little relevant content, a cluttered or crowded site, or an amateur design, you can be sure that they won’t come back. While Halligan and Shah devote a chapter to creating remarkable content, they don’t emphasize enough about the importance of branding and design.

READ MORE
"Less worse is the new excellent."

"Less worse is the new excellent."

Just a quick post here about an economic development forecast I attended yesterday for members of the business community in Howard County, MD.  Attendees were enlightened and entertained by economist Anirban Basu of Sage Policy. Mr. Basu, smart and sought after economist — also completely entertaining, had even the most serious folks chuckling with sections of his economic forecast titled after popular reality TV shows (American Idle [sic], The Biggest Loser, Survivor and HC’s Next Top Model, etc.). Though all the news wasn’t great, hence the quote in this article title above, there were some positive signs about the future of business, particularly in the Baltimore-Washington region. Overall, the panel that represented real estate, retail, small business and hospitality was cautiously optimistic, and a survey of local businesses was as well.  Even Mr. Basu, who last year predicted a much longer recession, provided glimmers of hope.

READ MORE
Thinking outside the box?

Thinking outside the box?

At a panel discussion for enterprising women that I attended last week, I heard a particular sentiment that resonated with me.  The point that was being addressed was that changes in the economy, in technology and in the way we work have contributed to a  paradigm shift — it’s no longer enough to simply “think outside the box,” because the “box” is no longer there.

READ MORE
Three ways to go viral.

Three ways to go viral.

No, I’m not talking about the swine flu. I’m talking about marketing messages and how you can get them to go viral. Viral marketing has become a hip, low-cost way to reach a lot of people quickly. While its not easy to do, following a few rules can help, according to Dan and Chip Heath, in the May issue of Fast Company.

READ MORE