If you haven’t heard, it’s our 10th anniversary. I’m pretty excited about it; a little because that’s a nice milestone and I’m proud of our work, and a lot because it gives us a very good reason to host a big bash party (of which you’re invited so get in your R.S.V.P.). However, I happen to be thinking about all of the things we could have done had we planned a bit better for the big year. So learn a little from my mistakes and take some advice: make time to plan for yourself and your business.
One of the things I was thinking would have been fun to include in a 10 year marketing activity was a microsite. Oh the fun we could have had. We were brainstorming today on some crazy, outlandish goals for the next 10 years (loved Clay’s idea of rebranding the White House seal…cracks me up) and we could have shared such fun via a microsite. Then my brain hopped to wondering: Do people really know how to utilize a microsite? I think we all get it’s a site (hence the name) but maybe not exactly it’s purpose or potential. I’ve come up with eight ways off the top of my head to get you started on how you can intertwine a great microsite presence to your marketing mix.
A Special Offer – You want to create a site that hosts your special offer. The special offer does not live on your home site and no one knows about it unless you drive them to or they find this special offer microsite.
Speaking Spanish – Want to branch out to a specific culture or group? Speak their language! We were recently talking to the International Center of Indianapolis and it made me think of all the global families that find their home here in our communities. What if we welcomed them, initially, via an entry point that was all known and comfortable to them?
Social – If you’re a social networking maniac and involved with more than a dozen social media sites, maybe it’s time to make your own social site.
Anniversary – note above. This would fit under the short-lived microsite type, but, it would have been relevant, had a great purpose and provided some history and facts that would have helped our clients and prospects learn a bit more about us.
Expertise – if you’re an expert in your area but you’re lost in the corproate world shuffle, get yourself a microsite. Your niche can win some SEO battles and help put you on the map a little faster when someone google’s your name.
Campaign – If you’re running a special campaign or fundraiser type tactic, great use of a microsite!
Product – this makes total sense if you’re selling a unique or special product, or, if you’re trying to education an audience. Help visitors learn what it is, what it does and how to get it.
Co-Branding – if you’re partnering with someone or want to jointly do something as two brands, a microsite may be your best bet.
I’m sure there are other great uses, but these quickly came to mind based on what’s going on in our world right now and what may be the most relevant to our subscribers. Please share your microsite thoughts in our comments.
Look at the websites of your competitors. Now look at your website. How is yours different? Naturally, it has your branding and colors. There’s information about your company, and your contact information. Okay, technically that’s different – but your competitors still have their branding, their about us, and their contact information. You’re not going to make your website stand out by just trading jabs.
Let’s rephrase the question: how is your site better than your competitors’ sites? That’s the question you need to be asking yourself because that’s the question your customers are asking.
We all get that simply having a website of any kind no longer makes you unique. Everyone has a web presence. Congratulations, you occupy space. Now what?
Something about your site needs to be jaw-droppingly good. What might that be?
a startling and compelling visual design
an engaging tool where your customers can log in and see their history with you
give away practical and relevant advice to your visitors
explain clearly how and why your product is important
get involved with a charity important to your customers
have a contest where visitors enter pictures, videos, or stories
be funny
You don’t need to be the best at all of these things. You might decide you want to do a couple of things well, but all you really need is to find one unique hook for your site. If you knock that one thing out of the park, you’ve given your customers an answer to the question.
Need to know more? Join us at The Combine in Bloomington, Indiana (9/9 – 9/12). On Saturday, Raquel and Clay will be presenting on Web Strategy.
Yeah, I am not sure what that sentence really means, but it’s some advice I gave recently. How many of you wonder if I’ll be asked for advice ever again? Really, though, I do have a point.
Different is good.
It’s a great path to take in your marketing and maybe even in life. We all get caught up in what someone else will think of our campaign, what if our competition does something or learns too much info, or whatever that risk is that is holding you back from being different… or even wonky… I’m willing to bet if you think through a worst case scenario of what would happen if you were ever so brazen to be so strange that you arrive at a place that’s really not all that bad. Give yourself, your company, your brand a chance to be unique, strange, funny, wonky; whatever name you want to call it, and see where it goes. You may make yourself more remarkable than you ever dreamed.
This chair is a little strange, but I love it and took the snap for just that reason.
Every once in awhile I get on these kicks. Actually, that’s probably not true. I’m typically ON some kind of kick, it just changes in theme and intensity. Right now I have two, but this post will focus on one: Good is the enemy of great.
If you’re on our newsletter list, I’ll be sharing all the good stuff that is happening with us Squares. The good problem to all of our new happenings is that you have to be careful of that mentality of that’s good enough. We don’t have that here. Never have. When faced with a lot of change, however, it can find a way to creep in just because you’re moving at a new and sometimes unfamiliar pace.
To hedge against this creep, I’ve started talking about this topic again with the phrase “Good is the enemy of great.” I don’t know who actually coined this phrase, but I like them. It’s a great phrase. For me, it makes me think about what I did that I think was probably good, then how I could have made it great. Should I give it more time, ask someone for feedback, push myself a bit more to think of just one more thing… what is it that takes your good to great?
Feel free to join me in this kick. Share how you’re making things great in our comment section.
About a month ago I applied to review the new book out from Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, and was selected as one of many to help promote this book, which officially launches June 7th. I’m a fan of Zappos, so this was a great, easy task for me. Delivering Happiness is a book about Tony’s life – how he got started, his early mission to figure out how to make money, his desire to be part of something bigger than himself. It’s a great read for business and life.
One of the first things that really got me jazzed about this book was the idea of a Culture Book. A Culture Book is a mini book about the culture of your company… after that, you can make whatever else is inside it all unique to your company. I asked each person at Silver Square to submit, individually, what they thought the culture was here. I asked them not to talk about this assignment as I wanted it to come from them specifically. I’m also going to add photos of our get togethers, of our upcoming office move, maybe of some pitches we do, who knows what all we’ll add to this by the time the year is done. I like that it will document, year after year, what we do and how or if our culture shifts. I’m shooting for constant improvement.
So check out the Zappos Culture Book and keep your eyes peeled for a contest we’re launching next week to win your very own copy of Delivering Happiness.
I have been telling clients and contacts these last few weeks about three main blogs that I ready daily. To my surprise, none of the people have known about these blogs… but they should! This made me believe that maybe our readers aren’t aware either, so if you’re in to reading good marketing/technology/blogging blogs to help you with your own marketing, put these three at the the top of your read list.
Problogger – This blog is for beginning bloggers, advid bloggers, money-making bloggers… you get the picture? If you’re looking to read up on how to improve your blog, this is IT! So check out the blog, get yourself subscribed and start working on your blog posts. If you’re really committed to improving your blog, consider his guide 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I have looked through it and it has quality material.
Mashable – This blog has a slant toward technology and social media, but it’s still a groundswell of amazing information. How-to guides, the latest news on the iPad, what Google is up to and what videos are trending on the Internet are just some of the topics you’ll find.
Seth Godin’s blog – This is just another daily read on my list. He keeps his posts short and to the point, which makes it easy to keep up with yet adds a bit of zing to your marketing day. Typically inspiring, always informative.
I’m mixing it up today and giving you a little view in to my vision board, which is an exercise I learned a long time ago but a few years ago picked back up due to my reading of The Success Principles (interested or committed is one of my faves too). What a vision board is to me is a place to put all of your goals down in a visual statement. In this video, I share the items I’ll be putting on my board and why I have selected them. I’m going to place this board somewhere I’ll look often, as in daily, so maybe the inside of my refrigerator.
I hope you enjoy my first video blog… I think I could increase my energy level a bit. ha I will get better at this. I promise…. or if it’s really bad, you can tell me to stop doing them in our comments section.
If you’re viewing this in a feed, thank you for subscribing, and you can watch the video here.
In honor of Earth Day (or Earth week), I would like to share The Green Book. I saw this little gem when it first came out in 2007 and at the time, it was just the right dose for me. It has a brief glossary, gives some things we can all do, and then there is a celebrity in each chapter that kind of tells their story on how they are being green…. Ellen DeGeneres, Will Ferrell, Robert Redford, etc.
What else this book does, though, is give you small bites of things you can do for every situation. I was happy to learn I was doing some things really well, and doing things I didn’t even realize would make an impact. Let’s take the first chapter about your home. We recycle, which lots of people do, and it seems like an easy thing to do these days. Just this weekend we made a run to the big recycle center in Hamilton County to take lots of cardboard boxes we have from buying in bulk and recently having a birthday party. The thing I did that I didn’t even really think about was the fact that we have no plastic shower liners (or curtains). This helps keep unnatural vinyl plastics out of landfills. PVC plastic waste amounts to 1.23 million tons per year, none of which is recyclable. Then there is the thing I’m still working on… turning off the water while brushing my teeth. I personally brush and let the water heat up because right after brushing I wash my face and I like the water hot. If I’m not washing my face, I turn the faucet off, but I do have that guilt of letting it warm up. This could help me conserve up to five gallons of water per day.
Other things I do that I think are easy…
I drink tap water when I’m out. I do buy bottled water from time to time, but I reuse the bottle; either to drink more water from, to use to water plants, to use when I go on long walks with the dogs (they love to drink out of water bottles) and when I buy water bottles I try to buy Ethos from Starbucks.
I download tunes and books. It’s not especially easy for me as I love to have the real thing when it comes to books, but I’m learning to adjust. I have an iPod and a Kindle and I use often. I also go to the library often and share books with friends.
I use magazines for gift wrap. Remember this past holiday season I showed you my gift wrap? It’s really fun.
I use a digital camera. Yeah, I also just really like the convenience of digital, but the chemicals used in developing film require special treatment and disposal.
Recycled paper. We use recycled post-it note paper and file folders at our office. We also have a bin where I take home our items on the weekends to recycle them here since they don’t offer the service at our building.
What are you doing at home or at the office you can share? I’m going to add something new to my green list this week in honor of Earth Day. Not sure what yet, but I’m excited to pick a new habit. Here’s to being green!
When I’m out speaking or doing a presentation for someone, this question ALWAYS gets asked: “How do you find the time to do all this stuff?” They are typically asking because I’ve just told them about social mediaand it seems overwhelming, or, I’ve given them some tips on how to build and implement a marketing plan and they think there is no way they can find the time to do these things. Well, you can.
My disclaimer here is that… this is what has worked for me. I’m not a productive guru, I typically have lots of emails in my inbox and I never scratch all the things off my to do list. When it comes to my work, though, I do make sure that what needs to get done does.
Don’t watch T.V. Yep, it’s odd, but I just don’t. I rarely like the shows, I cannot sit still that long and I would rather be doing something else. Not watching T.V. gives me gobs of time that most people use for viewing the box.
Block time. I block time together well. On Tuesdays, I am typically out of the office because I’m out meeting clients, meeting prospects, networking, etc. When I need to sit down to do some design work, I make sure I have a few things that need done and I knock those all out at once.
Line time. When I am in line somewhere, anywhere, I reply to email. When I get back to the office, it’s most likely already in process or done. This helps when you have an awesome team like I’m lucky to have.
Exercise. That doesn’t seem productive, but for me, exercising keeps me sane, happy and healthy… which allows me to be my best when it’s time to sit down and work.
Use the phone. This one has taken me a long time to get use to, but I use the phone a lot more now than I ever have. It’s just quicker to handle something and be done with it than to respond and wait for an answer, i.e. which for me translates to use up brainpower on something I cannot control.
Do one more thing. I play a trick with myself during the week days that when I’m ready to call it a day, I make myself do one more thing. Obviously I’m not biting off a four hour project for this task, but I do one more thing I can get done today instead of adding one more thing on my plate tomorrow.
Learn in the car. I rarely hit the road without a purposeful CD read to go. That’s not saying it’s always work related, but it’s something I want to make time to know more about or hear the story. Car time is a great time for that stuff. My husband schedules conference calls on his drive time. I don’t like that so I stay away from that type of activity, but maybe it will work for you.
Do what I want first. Here is where I’m going against the grain – lots of people say Eat That Frog or do what you hate to do first. Well, I try never to do something I hate doing, so that takes care of that. If I have a frog that needs eaten I plan that out for a dinner sometime later. I make time for that specifically when it’s best for me to do that work.
Use your network. If I don’t know how to do something, I typically call a friend or ask on social media for help. You can easily spend hours or days trying to do something, but it’s much easier and productive to just phone in a favor. People like to help, let them help you.
Please add your productive tips in our comments section. I would love to hear your tricks!
I love this guide! I started following CMO.com just a few months ago, and I’m glad I have taken on this website as a source for my continuing education. This little gem alone is one item I have pulled out at least once a week to help guide me on a big picture view on what I would like for our clients to engage in for the social media portion of their marketing mix. So print this one off and put it somewhere you can see to help keep your social media marketing top of mind.
