A couple of years ago when speaking to a group that included many holistic practitioners, I jokingly said that we provided "organic, crunchy web design that's good for you and tastes good too!" It kind of stuck for a while, we even ran it as an ad in a local magazine (and it worked!). With all that has been happening with the economy over the past couple of weeks I began to think about organic-crunchy again. No, I wasn't driven to wheat grass and seaweed (though it probably would not be a bad thing). I was thinking about how organic does imply an holistic approach. My feeling is that any of the problems we have in our economy won't be fixed by a addressing symptoms only. Somebody if going to have to view the big picture and see it all at once.

This holistic approach applies to solving marketing problems, too. How many of us have tried advertising hit or miss, or put together a web site based on off-the-cuff ideas and content? Successful marketing comes from having a plan. When there is an understanding of the company mission, unique selling proposition and target audience, it makes those decisions about what content to have in the web site and where to advertise much clearer.

So here's some homework:

• Write a mission statement for your company. There are lots of guides on the web, and you can find one here
• List your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs). What differentiates you from your competition? Why should a prospect buy from you?
• List your target audience(s). Who is most likely to buy from you? What are their demographics?
  

Get these three things together and you will be amazed at the insight it will give you on approaching your marketing plan.

So what about "organic, crunchy web design that is good for you and tastes good too"? Organic means the web site is built from the best ingredients: effective strategy, good design, modern coding standards. Crunchy is fun, because both the project and the result should have that edge that engages. Good for you: it has to work! Results! Tastes good too: It has to appeal to your audience.

Okay, I need to finish my wheat grass now.

Labels: Marketing

That is the question. There has been a lot of hype around blogging and with the advent of blogging environments like Blogger and WordPress, just about anyone can set up a simple blog and publish.

When I am helping clients with the strategic planning of their web site marketing, I always bring up blogging. Sometimes, the client looks at me timidly and asks, what is a blog? No need to be shy, it's a good question. Blog is both a noun and a verb, a thing and an act. Blog the noun is short for Web Log. In its most rudimentary form it is a diary, or a series of entries, usually displayed in reverse chronological order (newest entries on top). There are all kinds of blogs, from politics (often acerbic) to personal diaries to particular subjects of interest to business information. You are reading a blog entry right now. By writing this, I am blogging. Some blogs allow for readers to comment on the entry.

While blogging is a great outlet for those who want to share their thoughts on a favorite avocation, my concern here is how blogging can help your web site and your business be more successful. There are some real advantages to blogging for those willing to invest the time and effort (yes, there is an investment, more on that later).

Blogging is a lot like regular exercise. If you do it right and you do it consistently, there can be wonderful benefits in a variety of areas. But it does require discipline, a little time, and some basic writing skills. Here are some of the benefits to blogging:

• A blog that is part of your web site and updated on a regular basis helps keep the site fresh. New content added to a web site on a regular basis gives your audience a reason to keep coming back, and search engines tend to give preference to web sites that are regularly updated.
• A blog that is part of your web site and features your commentary and perspective on your industry helps to establish you and your company as an expert in your field. This is a good thing!
  
• Blogs that allow comments on entries posted (comments can be moderated) provide a forum for discussion between you and your audience.
  
• Blogs that develop a degree of popularity may be referenced by other bloggers. This has a subset of benefits, such as potential increased traffic as well as providing those inbound links that search engines use to determine your site's popularity.
• Blogging can help you refine your business message and talking points. There is nothing like writing (except maybe public speaking) to help you deliver the story of your business more eloquently.
• If you blog on a regular basis you can reference this content in periodic email newsletters to help build your blog audience.

Now for the flip side. Like exercise, blogging takes commitment and work. In order to be truly effective, a blog should be updated regularly, preferably on a set schedule. It requires thought (but if you think about your business all the time this should not be an issue). And it requires some writing skills. However, like exercise, you may stumble a few times at first, but with practice your writing skills and discipline will improve. At some point, you will actually like blogging!

Unfortunately, there is a possibility that the reality of your schedule or other factors means you just don't have the time or resources to commit to a blog. If this is a case, consider a ghost writer. If someone in your organization can't take the job, there are resources available that can contact you once a week or so to get some background information for your blog, compose it, present it for review, and then post the approved content. You get the benefits of above without the direct effort. Wouldn't it be great if we could hire someone to exercise for us?

So the question, to blog or not to blog? The answer depends on your individual circumstances, your type of industry, and your commitment. For those that want to try the blogosphere, we are here to help!

Labels: Blogs, Business Resources, Marketing

One day last week as I was driving home I had a little meltdown. Being a bit of news junkie I had allowed myself to become obsessed with the financial collapse of seemingly stable institutions, and the resulting panic that was setting in. I am of the opinion that trickle down economics works basically one way- when things are bad, you-know-what trickles down! So I managed to work myself into a state about the end of my financial world. Anyhow, I got home and went on a self-imposed news fast. No news TV, no incendiary commentary, not even baseball. I allowed myself an evening of cooking, guitar and walking to de-stress from the past few days of news.

The next day I felt better. I gave my mind a chance to work on its own, to work around what a change in the economy might mean for my business, and what I might do about it. I also realized that I am not the only one in this predicament. Many small business owners must be seriously concerned about what all this means for their future. Many of them are our clients.

The tendency at times like these is to look for any and all expenses to slash. I think that the exercise of looking at everything is appropriate. If things do go south we have a plan in place for reducing expenses as needed. But my goal is to use the panic as an incentive to get a bigger share of the pie. As business owners, we have all worked too hard for too long to let a slump kick us in the teeth.

So what are we doing? Going back to the marketing basics. Looking at our prospect lists. Looking at where business is coming from and stepping up efforts to market to those segments. Looking at our messaging to see if it reflects where we are right now. Effective marketing doesn’t have to cost more, but it requires you to think more.

So I have been thinking. Less news. More thinking. Here are a few things we are doing:

• Reviewing our web site to be sure the content reflects who we are today and delivers the most recent evolution of our message (when was the last time you actually read your own web site?)
• Identifying new target markets based on recent trends in our business. We are looking at what services are most profitable, and how we can leverage them.
• Developing a marketing calendar that is attainable. Marketing requires activity, and without a schedule those activities can easily be placed at the end of a long to-do list.
• Spending more time with our blog! Writing about your experiences and insights with your business helps establish you as an expert in your field. It also helps you clarify and grow your own perspective of your business. It makes you more self-aware.

That’s my story of using perspective to alleviate the panic. A creative mind coupled with good information and some smart work can be successful in any climate.

Labels: economy, Koa, Marketing