Personally, I hate most commercials. They annoy me to no end (I’m looking at you Jack in the Box, pretty much any bank and At&T), aren’t that clever and some are just downright ridiculous.

But, every once in a while, a company will put out a beaming ray of hope – a commercial that makes me laugh or pay attention! Just recently, Dodge did just that. Their new Challenger commercial is phenomenal in so many ways. Not only is it beautiful in it’s cinematography, but the messaging, the imagery, everything about it was perfect. They captured the feeling of American better than I have ever seen – and did it with class and a bit of humor. I loved it.

What is your favorite ad campaign running right now?

We’ve talked a lot about brands, how they choose to promote their products, and how to avoid brand nightmares. We also covered the (partial) re-branding of GM – or at least what we think they should have done!

Most companies will be lucky, they will never have to go through the process of a complete re-brand. But, there are a few who will have to…and then there are those that choose to. Of course, re-branding an entire company is not easy, and should be given the time and respect it deserves.

Which is exactly what Gro Baby did when they re-branded everything and became GroVia. Their story is explained in detail on the Fox Small Business site, but the most important details of how they made a successful re-branding happen are below:

• In the earliest stages, brainstorm. Ask yourself these simple questions: Who are we? Who are our customers? Where is our company going?
• Be absolutely certain you are working closely with an intellectual property attorney while choosing names. You are going to want to choose a name that can be registered.
• Enlist the help of a PR firm starting in those early stages, and start planning how you are going to launch your rebrand to the public.
• Know your competition. Does your rebrand set your product apart from others on the market? This is your chance to update your image; don’t try to fit in with your competition–take a risk!
• Budget accordingly. Rebrands are expensive, no matter the size of your company. Be certain you have allotted enough for a strategic public relations campaign (from press releases to interviews and events) and aggressive marketing following the launch of your brand.

Have you ever had to re-brand your business? What other suggestions do you have?

We have quite a few clients who offer products that need tutorials. And almost every tutorial they have is in pictures and written instructions. While this is helpful, it is no where near as beneficial as having a video to watch. Unfortunately, many of them also believe that creating a how to video is way more costly than it’s worth. The good news is that they are wrong – you can create video without a huge overhead cost.

*Disclaimer: This should not be used for large scale videos or ones that are meant to be extremely professional. This is only for small scale videos – the ones that your clients can watch quickly, like tutorials or video blogging.*

So, how do you create a video like this?

• Pick up a small video camera – even the flip would work. You just want something that will tape, and not require a huge camera crew. You will want to invest into a stand too – this will eliminate camera shaking.
• Buy (or rent) a clip on microphone. Most videos fail because they are too hard to hear. Having a strong, clear voice will help the clarity of the video. Also, choose someone who is easy to understand!
• Pick a location in your office with a simple backdrop. Choose either a blank wall, or a wall with only a few pictures on it. You don’t want people distracted by your background.
• Practice. Practice. Practice. With a script! Just because it is an amateur video does not mean you can sound awful You need to know what you are saying, and be concise. Editing can only do so much.
• Use editing software to make the video clean, put it together well and feel free to add text. If there are parts that need more explanation, add diagrams on top of the speaker.
• Store the completed videos on youtube. Creating a youtube channel where all your videos are is a great social branding strategy and will allow your visitors easy access to all your clips.

Finally, remember that no body is perfect, and as long as the videos are clean, clear and concise, it will benefit your business to create them!

75 years ago your marketing was entirely based on print and word of mouth. There was no internet, no TV commercials, no billboard advertising. If you wanted people to know about you, you had to run newspaper or magazine ads, go door to door meeting people and hope that others would spread the good word about your business. This meant that your customer service had to be top notch. Every detail of your business needed to be perfect so that you didn’t miss the sale for a slip of the tongue or a mistake in marketing. You had to understand your ideal client so you didn’t waste time or energy marketing to the wrong people. You attended events in the hopes to meet the right people – and when you did, you didn’t ask for their email or cell number, you planned a face to face meeting at an office to discuss how you could work together. There were no shortcuts, no simple ways to reach somebody, nothing that made business easy at all. And yet, thousands of businesses grew, improved and became huge successes. Why? Because they worked their butt’s off, understood what it took to  succeed and never let laziness or short cuts inhibit their success.

Fast forward to today – the land of laziness in business. You can send an email from the road, tweet in bed and cold call from anywhere in the world. It doesn’t take much to create a website, and there are tons of places you can market yourself for next to nothing. And all this has led to disaster for many companies. It is  more important now than ever before to make sure that every detail of your business is perfectly in order, because your customers can reach you faster and in more ways! Companies who don’t remember the past  – or don’t appreciate how to really connect with customers – are letting social media tools run their marketing and are hitting a brick wall. Social media is not the answer to marketing, and it is definitely not a solution to save your business. In fact, unless you already have a steady marketing strategy based on the old ways of actually having quality products and customer service, social media will bury you alive.

Is your business being lazy or are you using these tools to capitalize on the changing market?

I can’t count the number of people I talk to daily that have a blog. They create great content, and share it through some social media channels. But, their twitter, facebook, and linkedin are not actuallyconnected to the blog.

What do I mean?

I mean that when you post a blog post – it should automatically send to twitter, facebook and linkedin for you. You should never have to actually post it on any other site.

Why?

Well in addition to saving you time from having to go to all the different sites…it also means that you’ll never forget to post it onto the other sites.

Okay, so how do you do it?

Facebook:

• Login to your facebook account
• Click into your main page
• Click on the “notes” tab
• On the right hand side, select to import your blog
• Paste the url to your blog (http://www.yourwebsite.com/blog) into the box
• Click import…and you’re done!

Twitter:

• Login to your blog
• Click on plugins
• Click install new plugins
• Type “wordtwit” into the search box
• The top result will be the one you want, click install
• Once it installs, click activate
• Then, on the left side, click settings and then click Wordtwit
• Sync your twitter account with wordtwit
• Now, every time you post, it will automatically send to wordtwit.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn can be connected two ways, you can either do it through twitter or through linkedin itself. I prefer it though twitter so I am going to walk through that.

• In your blog, you should already have installed WordTwit (as per twitter steps).
• Go into the settings of wordtwit through your blog
• Where its ays tweet message, copy and paste: [title] – [link] #in
• Now, login to your linkedin account
• Click on settings in the top right
• Click on Twitter Settings under your Profile Settings
• Authorize your twitter to be connected
• This will mean that every time you post a blog, it will send to twitter and then to your linkedin status update

Now that you have your blog connected everywhere, you will have an easier time getting people to come to your site!

No matter the marketing tool you choose, you must always remember:

You must know who you are talking to before you decide what you’ll say to them.

The most common questions we get from our clients are regarding the ‘why’ of social media…and most often, on blogging. Blogs are the largest time commitments and therefore bring the most questions. We have a variety of answers, depending on the industry, but there are a few common answers that all our clients need to know.

You need a blog for many reasons; the most important is a place to start building your business. Your blog is the center of your social media tools; you will use the content that you share here to promote through Twitter and Facebook. In addition, your blog is the largest branding tool that you have on the web. Because the site is all your own, you control the content and the participation. It is also a great way to start building your networking lists, the people whom may be potential clients. You will be able to get to know your readers through comments, will have access to their email addresses and can start to gain trust in the community. It is slower pace than either Facebook or Twitter which allows you more time to develop the relationships in your own way.

The second reason you have a blog is to develop your online brand. The blog is all yours, your style, your content, your experiences. The blog should have a theme, whether it is all about your business or a combination of business and personal, your readers need to know what to expect. By creating a main goal for the site, it will be easier to develop content and stay on theme. Even if you want to keep this as a business blog only, you still need to be honest with yourself. If you struggle with certain areas, do not claim to be perfect at them. On the same token, if you are going to include some of your personal side, make sure that you don’t reveal too much. It should never be more than you want strangers to know about you. All of these details put together will create a picture of you, that others can see and will help you to build a stronger network. People connect with other people like them, and giving them a glimpse of you will help them to determine whether you fit what they need.

Finally, your blog is an educational channel for your past client, future clients and colleagues. Just like this blog post is an educational tool for our readers, this could also help someone interested in working with us to learn more about our services. Rather than answering the same questions to multiple people, you can write a blog post about it and then send it out to the entire group. It is an effective way to share thoughts and ideas and allows the readers to participate in the posts as well. They can contribute more content in their comments, or ask questions for you to answer in the future. The bottom line is to open a communication channel between you, your clients and your potential clients.

What other reasons do you have for starting your blog? Or what questions do you have about blogging?

In late 2008 Netcraft placed the number of websites at just over 182 million, stating that it was growing  every day. If the trend continued as they suggest, we are looking at easily over 200 million websites that exist today. Of those websites, how many do you guess are great sites? The sites that make you stop and admire them, sites that you want to use because they are easy and effective on top of beautiful? Probably not very many. While there are many ‘good’ sites out there, a great site is hard to find.

Good sites are the ones you see every day. They work, you can find your way around, the writing is clear and the design looks put together. But there is nothing about these sites that makes you say wow. You don’t stop and look at the site to admire its use of colors and textures, the way the navigation is seamless with the way you think. You use it, but you don’t feel part of it. You use it because it is there, but rarely find reasons to go back to the site unless you have to.

Great sites on the other hand, you feel excited, welcomed and involved. The beauty of the site is felt, rather than seen. When you ‘use’ the site, it just feels natural. Everything is where you would expect it, from the navigation to the smaller links.  A great site doesn’t need flash (although some great sites have flash) and a great site doesn’t need a $250k price tag (although some will have to have it). A great website is a website that your consumers will want to visit and want to use again and again.

Good sites sites have these 4 elements:

1. Navigation.
2. Design.
3. Copy/content.
4. Contacts.

Great sites have these 4 main elements:

1. A navigation system that is innate to the user, where they could practically point out where things are without ever looking at the screen. The navigation is involved in the site, instead of just on the site.
2. A beautiful design that captures attention and makes you want to stay. You feel the design more than just see the design.
3. Content/Copy that enthralls you, you want to read more, discover more and be more involved. It teaches you  without pushing you. You learn from the site.
4. A contact system that makes you feel like they want you to call, email, tweet and facebook them. They are there, just for you.

Is your site good? Or is it great?

Yesterday, we revealed 5 tips on Facebook. Today, we’re covering Twitter (again, if you aren’t on this yet, sign up and then come back and read the rest of the post):

Give more than you take: If every time people turn around, you’re asking for something and never give anything back, they won’t be willing to help for long. When you join a social media site, you have to gain a reputation as someone who shares, participates and reciprocates. In order to prove that you are part of the site, you must always give more than you take out.

Add Value to Twitter: Value isn’t added by continually retweeting the same links that everyone else sends. It also doesn’t mean sending out link after link to promote yourself. Value comes from contributing new and interesting ideas.

Cheaters never prosper: There are no shortcuts to twitter success. You can’t get 1,000 followers by clicking that link, and you certainly can’t build a business in like that way. Instead of looking for shortcuts, look for better conversations. Real people, real focus and real conversations are the secret to any social channel.

Build quality first: Do you really want 10,000 followers if none of them are willing to retweet your links or start a conversation? People are more willing to help those who they really know – and you can really get to know someone on twitter. By building quality relationships with other users, you’ll always have someone in your corner to back you up. Remember, relationships require the participation of both parties.; soSo, always be a good participant in your social media relationship.

Stop bugging people: This is more than just “giving more than you take”, this is about leaving your agenda on the floor and bringing your personality and conversation to the table. Every time you think about of talking about your business, make sure you are phrasing it in a way that is beneficial to them, not just to you.

What other advice do you have for Twitter?

While a fully drawn out and detailed business plan is always the best call, there are ways to get started moving forward without it. Here are a few questions that every business plan should answer:

1. Who is my ideal client? This answer is not an easy one (and why business plans are so long!) but you can get a good answer by thinking about your best client and studying a but about them: What industry are they in? What size company is it? What is it about them that drew you to them? Why do they need you? Now, find someone with similar answers to these questions and you’ll have more ideal clients.
2. Which marketing strategies are working? If you have been measuring results and judging what has happened with your marketing money, you should be able to answer this question easily. Once you have determined the strategies with the most ROI, you know which ones to keep and which ones to ditch.
3. What is my goal for this year? While profitable business practices should always be a goal – that shouldn’t be your only goal. Focus this answer on the goals you want to achieve without financial focus (add a new staff member, improve your customer service, etc).

Have you worked on your 2010 business plan? What else do you include?