Down & Dirty or Up & Clean
Posted on | August 10, 2010 | No Comments
Don’t let your website get dirty. My latest client’s (now fired) web designer purchased Nature’s Way Cleaners URL and then wouldn’t give it back. When googling Nature’s Way Cleaners, this is what you got “this site is being cleaned”.
Skagit Marketing came in and took care of this dirty job. We recommended purchasing http://www.natureswaydrycleaners.com as it was close enough and actually better for SEO than previous URL http://www.natureswaycleaners.com/. Skagit Marketing customized a wordpress template to create the website on a tight budget. To tidy up this job, we claimed Nature’s Way Cleaners Google Places listing and submitted the new URL along with updated information.
Up & Clean is how we like it as does the Nature’s Way Cleaners owner and customers.
Bitchin’ Boudoir Noir – I Love Marketing
Posted on | May 21, 2010 | 2 Comments
One of my favorite clients, artist and friend, Suzanne Fogarty, pays Skagit Marketing (me) on a monthly retainer (which sometimes consists of wine and food) for assisting with marketing strategy, content marketing, social media, and organic search engine optimization (natural search result on search engine result pages). Most recently we have been focusing on branding and promotion for her new website and business “ Hush-Hush Boudoir….sexy forever”.
Branding and strategy first started with the question, “What is boudoir? A boudoir to me is a woman’s room of one’s own (thank you Virginia Woolf). My boudoir is mother nature – the forest, the fields, the islands and the mountains that surround me. Another woman’s boudoir may be her bedroom and another woman’s boudoir is a 50′s diner. One’s boudoir is as individual as the woman . Boudoir Photography is a genre of photography opening a curtain to a women’s sensuality – envision a bloom opening in fast motion.
The etymology of Boudoir? Boudoir is derived from the French word “bouder,” which means “to pout”. This is taken from french literature around 1877 – “room where a lady may retire to be alone” and from 18th century literature “pouting room”. Pouting to me does not mean sulking but rather expressing sensuality. Pouting is to push out that lower lip ever so slightly, bend your head forward just a little, and look up ever so mischievously while slowly raising and softly touching the lips with an index finger while whispering…”hush-hush”.
After working on branding we moved onto promotion. We decided that a website launch party for women would be essential to the success of this new venture. Over glasses of wine and including a couple more women to brainstorm, Bitchin’ Boudoir Noir (aka Girls Night Out!) was created. After pulling in an event stylist, a custom floral designer, and a boudoir boutique along with a restaurant with live music and a bar serving a specially created hush-hush drink just for us, the star was born.
- Created Facebook Page – Boudoir Noir
- Within 2 weeks over 200 Fans
- Posted Event on Facebook
- Created Posters and Promotional Postcards
- Created a Viral Contest – Tag the Postcard to be entered in over $1,000 in giveaways including 4 mini-boudoir sessions.
- Result: 75 Confirmed guests on Facebook and 65 maybes. That’s not counting who the rsvp women are bringing or word of mouth outside of Facebook.
And this is only the beginning. Bitchin’ Boudoir Noir is the foundation of Hush-Hush Boudoir Parties. Spas are out and Boudoir is in. Women can gather up their girlfriends and do something that will celebrate their individual self and sensuality. And they will walk away with a little black book which will last a lifetime – sexy forever.
Have to go get my sexy on for the big night! I will be sure to update you on the success of Bitchin’ Boudoir Noir.
Photo Credit: Suzanne Fogarty...of course.
Oh…and did I mention that I Love Marketing? (See Photo)
Take 10 and feel the Google Places love.
Posted on | May 7, 2010 | 2 Comments
On April 20, 2010 the Official Google Blog announced that the Google Local Business Center is becoming Google Places. Places pages were originally launched last September. At that time I immediately uploaded clients including one of my businesses, Childhood Bliss. Not only does this help tremendously with your organic search engine optimization, but as a business owner you can utilize features such as adding events, coupons (formatted for mobile too!), videos, photos, list of your brands, and access to insights (baby google analytics). It’s basically like having a free mini-website.
If you are starting at the beginning with Google Places, check out this video for a quick overview.
Now for the new features (taken from the Google Blog):
- Service areas: If you travel to serve customers, you can now show which geographic areas you serve. And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private.
- A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. Google is rolling out Tags to three new cities — Austin, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. — in addition to ongoing availability in Houston and San Jose, CA. In the coming weeks Google will also be introducing Tags in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder and San Francisco.
- Business photo shoots: In addition to uploading your own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which Google will use to supplement existing photos of businesses on Place Pages. Google has been experimenting with this over the past few months, and now have created a site for businesses to learn more and express their interest in participating.
- Customized QR codes: From the dashboard page of Google Places, businesses in the U.S. can download a QR code that’s unique to their business, directly from their dashboard page. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for that business.
- Favorite Places: We’re doing a second round of our Favorite Places program, and are mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the U.S. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.
What are you waiting for? Come over to my Place. Take 10 and feel the love.
State of the Chamber
Posted on | March 11, 2010 | 2 Comments
Last week I gave my State of the Chamber speech. I have been on the executive team for 4 years, and this year I’m having a blast as President. As the economy was sucking wind last year I called a round table for the local business community. My theme for the round table was “Tough Times Spur Creativity”. I’m sure you heard that once or twice in 2009! Well, I took the message to heart and implemented ideas like crazy with a newly appointed board. Since that meeting we were able to create strategic partnerships with the town government and the port to secure an additional $75,000 for marketing. That might not seem much to larger communities but that is more than a 100% increase in marketing for our tiny town (population 860).
For the first time ever we purchased a billboard ad, tv commercial spots, implemented an e-newsletter to 1500+ visitors, created a new logo, ramped up on social media with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and cranked up our ad buys in general. Most importantly we will be getting signage ($15,000 price tag) on the interstate along with directional signs along the way marketing waterfront historic district.
Creativity also came in the form of getting lean and mean. We cut over $4,000 in rent by tough negotiations along with many more smart decisions on cutting overhead expenses. Believe it or not, our membership level is at an all-time high.
The current economic times suck. But, on the other hand, we are smarter, leaner, meaner, and more creative because of it. My hope is that as things shake out, my small town will be on top of our destination marketing game.
Love Makes the Marketing World Go Around
Posted on | February 11, 2010 | No Comments
“Show me the love” has been a common phrase in the marketing world before Social Media was a beating heart. Fast forward to 2010 and Social Media has become the BFF.
With Social Media you can easily develop a sincere interest in hundreds of people and accelerate the love. Take Dale Carnegie’s quote, for example: “You’ll accomplish more in the next two months by developing a sincere interest in two people than you’ll ever hope to accomplish in two years trying to get two people interested in you.”
Become a lovecat! Tim Sanders, past Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo!, uses the phrase “love cat” in his bestselling book ,“Love is the Killer App”. Tim defines a lovecat as one who shares knowledge, networks, and compassion. This book was written in 2001 before Social Media went mainstream. Bull’s Eye! He put the arrow through the heart of how you can use Social Media today to “share the love”. In 2010 a lovecat is synonymous to a thought leader (a forward thinker with the confidence and compassion to share ones knowledge).
Think about using social media to share knowledge, offer compassion, and learn about people’s stories. Every one of your friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter and your blog can spread the love and will be worth the commitment to the relationship. From one lovecat to another…Happy Valentine’s Weekend!
Love Makes the Marketing World Go Around
The Art of Social Media – A Workshop
Posted on | February 9, 2010 | No Comments
Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, & More!
The Art of Social Media is a 2 day workshop being held the weekend of March 13th-14th, 2010.
I will be leading the discussion that will provide attendees from the art community with the powerful knowledge of:
- An Introduction to Social Media Tools – an overview of Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace and Etsy including tools and tips for which ones provide the most value for your time invested.
- Social Media Conversations – we’ll talk about the two-way aspect of social media and how this differs from traditional marketing.
- The idea of Chi Marketing – with so many tools, develop a strategy to reach many people but lead them all to your core message and content. We will explore nationally renowned artist, Alfred Currier, using his social media examples.
- Social Media & Compelling Content – a look at what mix of your existing artistic content along with new content will help create & grow online communities.
- Hands-On Step By Step – creating and setting up a Facebook account, Facebook fan page, Twitter account, and a Blog. We will show how to connect with existing fans and reach new ones.
- Round Table & Questions – during registration, you’ll be asked about your questions and interests. We will address these during the workshop. We will also include a round table discussion after each session.
Click HERE to register and for more information on location and pricing.
*Presented by Alternative Focus - Workshops for Creative Minds
Hope to see you soon!
LEAF Hugger
Posted on | January 24, 2010 | No Comments
I dislike everything about gas stations: the smell, the pumps, and the regular visits. Just watching the cars wait in line at Costco makes my heart sink. We keep pumping in the gas and pumping out the emissions. Working on cars is a dirty business. The service and parts are expensive and it’s messy – check out the oil and dirt on the hands of the service person.
Nissan's LEAF
It has always frustrated me that I have bought into this. That there were no other options for me. Riding a bike doesn’t work for a family of five living in a rural area. Public transportation (besides the school bus) wouldn’t work for grocery shopping or carpooling kids to ballet, gymnastics and music lessons. Neither would it work for seeing clients and commuting to my job.
I purchased a new car 15 years ago because my company paid for the mileage. That car is still my baby, but I know at 250,000 miles the baby is going to head off to college. (Literally…with my son).
As the hybrids started hitting the market, I contemplated buying a new car. Car dealerships and car salespeople overwhelm me. However, test driving a hybrid was worth the discomfort of working with a car salesperson. After test-driving the Prius, I was excited, but not excited enough to purchase a new car. I knew what I really wanted: An electric car. A car that would eliminate gas stations from my weekly routine and emissions from my conscious.
But as I researched the electric car market, I was disappointed. I needed an electric car that could at least get me to the nearest town and back (40 miles). The car was non-existent…until this year. Nissan has introduced the LEAF and Julie has fallen in love.
- 100% electric – no gas required
- Zero Emissions
- Up to 90 MPH
- Competitively priced (typical family sedan price range)
- 100 mile range
- 4-8 hour charge time in garage
- 26 minutes charge time at a quick charge station
What does this have to do with marketing? Well…I’m not going to get a LEAF tattoo, but I am going to market the LEAF. Why? Because I am now officially a LEAF hugger.
Lead Customers to Your Content with Pedagogy
Posted on | January 16, 2010 | 1 Comment
Image from Dive Rite's Historical Timeline
In Greek, pedagogy literally means to lead a child. The Latin-derived pedagogy means education. In today’s world, pedagogy is used to describe instruction and learning. You may recognize a couple of these pedagogical features from your college textbooks:
- Did you know?
- Historical Timelines
- Vignettes
- Global Perspective
- Tips & Techniques
- Check Your Progress.
- Outlines
- Key Terms
- Case Studies
- Questions to Consider
- In the News
- In the Field
- Putting it Together
- Real Connections
Use content rich pedagogical features to educate your customers, to solve a problem, to shed light on an issue, and to put your business in the spotlight.
Take Dive Rite, for example. Established in 1984 by two underwater cave explorers and diving instructors, the Florida-based company calls itself “the first technical dive gear company in existence”. Today’s it’s also the world’s leading online community for serious divers with the help of content rich pedagogy.
In early 2006, the Dive Rite website was essentially an online catalogue. The company had long standing relationships with print media partners, and relied on them for most of its advertising. Dive Rite’s organizational structure and budgeting—like most retail brands—was set up to sell products, not to produce content. But the company knew it had a lot more to offer divers.
So Dive Rite contacted content marketer Russell Sparkman who suggested the company establish itself as the “definitive resource” in the technical SCUBA gear market. The company launched a blog, an instructional video channel and a dynamic FAQ tool called the “Solution Finder.”
Dive Rite also reinforced its role as a SCUBA gear pioneer by writing itself into the story. The website features a historical timeline, which takes readers through the early days of underwater cave exploration up to today’s technical advances. The timeline places the launch of Dive Rite into this history, highlighting the fact that the brand was around before virtually all of its competitors.
Dive Rite’s online brand took off because of compelling content presented pedagogically. Textbooks and companion websites are an excellent model for gathering ideas for your next fantastic pedagogical feature. Did You Know? is only the beginning.
With the advent of instructional technologies in the education field, there has been a huge shift in pedagogy. And now with the advent of Content Marketing and new Content Marketing delivery platforms, pedagogy is going to take on an entirely new definition.
Chi Content Marketing
Posted on | December 31, 2009 | No Comments
I started running last summer and did what many first-time runners do – power run and overtrain. I injured my calf and ended up hobbling over the finish line of my first triathlon. So I’m at the library and stumble upon Chi Running – A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running by Danny Dreyer. Sounded intriguing… and after practicing Chi running (pronounced Chee) for one month I have not had one single issue with my calf. With all of this reading about Chi running and logging miles and miles on the trails, I started thinking about how I would like Content Marketing to be just as effortless (and painless!).
Visualize a child running. The child is usually laughing (positive mental state), propelling forward (core engaged), hair in the wind and probably chasing a ball, dog, or a friend (visualizing where they are going). Children run naturally and effortlessly because they are not thinking about “running”- they are having fun. Simplistically stating, Tai Chi’s fundamental principle is to keep the core engaged and everything else will follow effortlessly. When thinking about your Content Marketing strategy, what is your core content delivery method? This core content delivery method should be engaged at all times. Say your website (your abs) is your core content delivery method then think of a Blog, Facebook, Twitter, e-newsletter and custom pub’s (your arms and legs) as your periphery content delivery methods.
How do you keep your core engaged? Focus on your expertise and make the core your #1 priority. How do you keep your arms and legs moving effortlessly? Think about each employee, what are their strengths and interests? How could they be contributing? Content Marketing that is done with freedom and joy (less focus on the external goals or say how many keywords to use) frees up creativity and allows you to have fun, which will ultimately show in the quality and quantity of content. Chi Content Marketing is about implementing a plan to eliminate the stumbling blocks so that your energy (the essence of your brand) can freely flow from your business, out into the world.
Tags: blog > Content Marketing > custom publications > e-newsletter > facebook > twitter
The Naked Brand
Posted on | December 17, 2009 | 1 Comment
I expose myself to friends and family on Facebook daily. I disclose my real emotions in the moment, share candid photos, and give honest opinions. Facebook is a community which is built on trust and relationships. Just as in your local community, if someone isn’t being themselves it’s usually obvious. In the Facebook world your choices are to hide the disingenuous person from your feed or choose not to be their friend (the same as the physical world – to hang with or not to hang with). In the Facebook fan page world, the choice is to be a fan or not to be a fan. So corporate brands and small biz, it’s time to strip down to your birthday suit (the essence of your brand). Go ahead and reveal your true nature! You may feel unprotected and vulnerable at first, but your jewels will soon be discovered.
If the essence of your brand are the experiences and feelings created by your products and services, then celebrate in the sharing of these experiences by your fans via posts, comments, videos, and photo sharing. If you need to jump start the sharing, then do a giveaway, contest or promotion. The JEEP Facebook fan page has over 10,000 fan photos and 163 fan videos along with posts and comments from fans sharing their JEEP experiences. You will notice the wall is filled with experiences from JEEP owners, not with a corporate spokesperson posting.
Southwest Airlines does a great job of humanizing their Facebook fan page. They have two dedicated Southwest representatives, Lindsey and Christi, in charge of the page. They use the standard box (see image) under the logo to give out their first names so you know who you are conversing with. It feels true to the openness of Facebook and Social Media. Southwest Airlines also doesn’t separate their fan feed, which gives you the good community vibes.
A new study reveals Facebook profiles reflect actual personality, not self-idealization. If you are a daily Facebooker then this isn’t news to you. But how does this study apply to the Facebook fan page world? More than 700 million people worldwide now have profiles on Online Social Networking sites (Comscore, 2009). The study notes that creating idealized identities should be hard to accomplish because a social networking profile includes reputational information that is difficult to control (e.g., wall posts), and friends provide accountability and subtle feedback on one another’s profiles. The study concludes that people use Facebook to communicate their real personality. Consequently, lay observers should be able to accurately infer the personality characteristics of Online Social Networking Sites profile owners.
Facebook is the perfect nude beach for brands to show off. At times they may feel naked, but in this new world of social media marketing, getting real and down to the bare essence is what it is all about. Click here to read the complete study: Facebook Study
Southwest Airlines Show Personality
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