The subscription model is nothing new. This method of payment has been used by cable companies, utility providers, fitness clubs, magazines and more for years. Though, lately, it has been introduced in more interesting ways. You may have noticed it with Manpacks, the service that delivers men’s essentials to your door, or with Birchbox, Glossybox, and Loose Button’s Luxe Box. If you’re a pet lover, it could have been with Toys4Tails or Barkbox. Subscription commerce for products other than Teleco’s and fitness clubs are making a grand entrance.
Marketing
7 Tips to Creating The Best Content For Your Blog
Posted by renee on February 16th, 2012
The amount of content created increases dramatically every day. People are saturated with more advertisements, media, and content than ever before. Yet they still seek more: they are still loyal to TV shows (5 hours per day!), consistently browse the web, and are always on their smartphones. People love content and can’t get enough of it. Though what they are seeking is often times only really REALLY good stuff. Why would they want anything else? So how do you create content that will drive the traffic and success you are looking for?
Tags: content, content marketing, social media
Posted in Blog, Marketing, social media, Social media for small business | No Comments »
7 Tips To Optimize Your Landing Page
Posted by renee on December 16th, 20111. Powerful Title
The title of your landing page is one of the most important elements. It needs to explain the purpose of the page in as few words as possible. Make it short, visible and direct. ( This Mailchimp example is not a landing page rather their website homepage, but demonstrates a large title)
Posted in Blog, Marketing | 1 Comment »
Wait, what? I am supposed to know UX too?
Posted by renee on March 18th, 2011
More and more each week I get requests to help companies with their online strategy, more so, with wireframing UX, and UI. I haven’t created so many mockups in my life! I am by no means a designer (Christ, I haven’t even used illustrator) and by no means a UX/UI or wireframe expert. But you know what? I KNOW good design when I see one. [Ok, you are 100% allowed to call me a hypocrite as my company's own website is a bit sour, but at least I recognize it] <– on that note, if you know of a really good designer that can make it better please email me.
So here blurs the line in expectations of online strategists and social media folks of all kinds: we are expected to know, or at least, under stand it all. What is social media? When does design, development, and user experience come into play? In my opinion, it’s at every level. If you claim to be a social media ‘guru/expert’ here are my words of advice:
Pick up a damn UX book, purchase balsamic, head to a design conference, chat with a developer and learn – even just basically – the many different components of the web. It will make your job that much easier and your clients will appreciate you more.
Why? Because you need to know if certain elements of the strategy you are creating for a client are feasible, can be completed within budget and on time, and even make sense.
Why? Its where the web is heading. YOU are expected to know these things, maybe not in much detail, but you must be able to appreciate them.
“In order for someone to appreciate something they must first understand it” – Valerie Maltoni
So stop reading every damn Chris Brogan blog post and start following:
- Brenden Mulligan (@bmull)
- Jeff Parks (@jeffparks)
- Valeria Maltoni (@ConversationAge)
- Jared Spool (@jmspool)
Do it.
And for this advice, I charge you $1000 USD.
Posted in Blog, Marketing, Social media for small business | 5 Comments »
Blog inspiration: Find it in your playlist
Posted by renee on January 11th, 2011Trying to attract more people to your blog but facing writer’s block, or worse can’t think of what to write about? Consider turning to your iTunes play list for a little inspiration.
I was on a flight back from Canada and was racking my brain for ideas to blog about. I felt the ‘social media’ topics were saturated, that Infographics were over done, and SEO was too advanced and boring to write about. I was stuck, so I opened up my iTunes to get some music pumping with hopes of being inspired. And then it occurred to me. Here is a detailed list of over 600 song titles. I could easily play around with them to help me generate ideas for a post. It turned out to be a little fun, but more so hilarious.
Tags: Blog, engagement, Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing, small business tips | 3 Comments »
Are engagement and UX the new art and copy?
Posted by renee on January 2nd, 2011The exponential rise in internet use has led to fundamental changes in the advertising and marketing world with no end in sight: if anything, the rate of change is only accelerating. While some argue that the internet is merely another advertising medium, albeit with an unprecedented audience and reach, others point to a fundamental shift in the way that companies now interact with their customers. So this begs the question: Is having the right copy and artwork still enough? With the rise of affordable technology available today both could be replaced with the use of Photoshop and someone savvy enough to use it. Even with a website, your online presence must consist of more than merely loading all available information about your product and hoping for the best. Today you need to be aware of the new relationship between media, technology and user communities. To engage the internet consumer you need to provide a compelling user experience (UX).
There is a great scene in an episode of Mad Men where Don Draper delivers a pitch for a Kodak product, The Carousel. The way that he invokes nostalgia and family to sell what is simply a slide projector is a great example of user experience by deftly merging the associated sentimentality and emotion with the product. It is a vivid example of how user experience encompasses all aspects of the customer’s interaction with a company, its services and products. But how have things shifted since? Are Engagement and UX the new art and copy? How could Don Draper possibly pitch that product today?
Technology is a glittering lure, but there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash, if they have a sentimental bond with the product.
A website, therefore, is not only a medium for providing information but must also have a clean, elegant and to-the-point design that anticipates a user’s needs and addresses them in an efficient, entertaining and comprehensive way. It needs to engage the customer by providing an interactive ‘digital experience’. In addition, this now occurs in the context of massive online communities where there is an ongoing dialogue between consumers. The community of Facebook users alone, for example, is over 500 million strong. Try to imagine a magazine with that sort of circulation! Your product can reach an undreamed of level of user awareness through the right ‘tweets’ or ‘likes’ but, make a mis-step, and your reputation can just as easily be destroyed overnight.
In this brave new world you cannot engage the fickle internet customer simply by creating the right copy and artwork (although you need these as well), instead it is vital to know your customer and his or her needs. This requires knowing and interacting with your customer at a significantly more sophisticated level than in traditional advertising. Customers now say ‘I will allow your product into my consciousness, but only so long as you do so in a way that entertains me and that is relevant to what I want’.
‘I will allow your product into my consciousness, but only so long as you do so in a way that entertains me and that is relevant to what I want’
For more tips on UX see the presentations from the WarmGun conference on Slideshare.
(Thumbnail image from catalystresources.com)
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Tags: engagement, social media, user experience
Posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing, Social media for small business | No Comments »
13 Things Glee Can Teach you About Social Media
Posted by renee on November 30th, 2010Social Media basically involves people who choose the online world alongside the real one to interact and socialize with friends, strangers, and businesses. When social media first hit the scene, no one really took it seriously. All the new apps and platforms popping up where thought to be the next ‘ICQ’ or forum. Many thought it was just a bunch of kids goofing around on the Internet. Ha! These days, if a business or organization does not have a Facebook page or Twitter account, they are considered behind the times.
The Fox television show Glee demonstrates how effective social media is as a way of achieving fame, popularity, fortune, and maybe some marketing success to boot. The plot of the show is simple: a high school teacher attempts to rebuild the glee club to its former glorious heights and recruits a motley crew of students to achieve his goal. The success of this show can teach us all a thing or two, whether we are using social media for small business purposes or to make a play at world domination.
1. You can make it big on YouTube. Every episode of Glee is made to be broken up into small segments, perfect in length for YouTube.
2. You don’t have to be “cool” to go viral. The Glee song and dance numbers are full of joy and happiness and performed by the school’s stereotypical misfits and nerds! They aren’t ‘cool’ , but hey anything goes.
3. People crave a little of that joy – songs from the Glee soundtrack consistently top the charts on iTunes.
4. Spread your social media net wide. Like peanut butter, just spread it.
5. One blog or website is not enough. Glee is on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, iTunes, blogs, and forums. Keep it consistant and focused, but do use more than one platform.
6. Integrate your media net. Glee has song clips that link up to the iTunes store, audio and video clips that link to where you can purchase the full episode, and the great big gift-wrap bow that ties it all together: advertising.
7. Build anticipation. Glee’s pilot aired in the spring, leaving fans a whole summer to look forward to the next installment.
8. Give freebies. The pilot for Glee was available free online all summer long.
9. Keep tabs on traffic. Where are people coming from and where are they going?
10. Use what you find to your advantage. Searches for Glee spike after every episode — make sure all those searches have lots of good results to choose from.
11. Toot your own horn. As Glee’s cheerleading coach said, “I have to put in a call to the Ohio Secretary of State notifying them that I will no longer be carrying photo ID. You know why? People should know who I am.”
“I have to put in a call to the Ohio Secretary of State notifying them that I will no longer be carrying photo ID. You know why? People should know who I am.”
12. Make your own catchphrase. Glee fans call themselves “Gleeks” and are proud of it.
13. Look to the past for inspiration. Glee’s success is partly due to the modern social media craze, but no one can dismiss the nostalgic element of the actual glee club!
Oh, Hell to the no! Look, I’m not down with all this background singing nonsense. I’m Beyoncé, I ain’t no Kelly Rowland! – Mercedes Jones
Don’t be a backup singer with your social media. Be the Prima Donna, the first one on the stage and the one who gets all the attention.
What Glee-esk things are you doing to leverage social media?
Tags: glee, Marketing, social media
Posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing, Social media for small business | 5 Comments »
If a Caveman Ran a Startup
Posted by renee on November 23rd, 2010What would it look like? How would the caveman way of thinking apply to running a new small business? Well, let’s take a look:
- Was there ever a fat, lazy caveman? I’m sure there was, but he probably didn’t stay alive long enough to start a business. By analogy the paleolithic startup model would be lean, mean, and efficient.
- When living in a cave, basic survival necessities make themselves very obvious. Being cold and hungry will not only kill you after a while, they are also excellent motivators. A smart caveman would have learned from this and applied the same lesson to his business. Needs come first. You can work on your fancy rock engravings later.
- If you’re going to make it as a caveman, you need to know how to hunt. This means leaving your comfortable cave and taking on some risk and hard work to bring home the meat. The same goes for money. The funding won’t come to you, so you need to sharpen your spear and get out there.
- While our cave-dwelling hero is out hunting moose, someone else is holding things together back home. Back then, this would be the cave woman. I’m not saying you should get one of those, but it is important to have support and division of labor. Ideally, designers and developers should do their work while somebody else is out hunting for capital.
- If one thing is essential to the caveman, it is fire. To light that fire, you need a spark. A good idea is the basis of that spark for your fire. Once you have it, you need to watch it and feed it so that it keeps burning and keeping you alive.
- If you did not increase the size of your cave family, you would go extinct. This is why they did not bother with birth control. You, too, can not afford to kill off ideas before you check their potential.
- Back in the stone age, you never knew when another tribe would show up with their axes to fight for your best hunting and gathering territory. But, if you had anything worth taking, you could be sure that they would be there eventually. Startups are the same. If you’ve found a promising niche, competitors will get there, and you’d better be ready to defend yourself.
- The common thread here is that there’s nothing like living on the edge of survival to make you focused. Therefore, our caveman entrepreneur would doubtlessly run a very efficient and lean startup. Things would get done on time, and on budget, because there’s no arguing with caveman issues. Once the firewood is gone it is gone, saber-toothed tigers don’t wait, and that’s just the way it is.
Are you running your startup like a caveman?
Tags: lean startup, small business advice, startup
Posted in Blog, entrepreneur, Marketing, small business, social media | 1 Comment »