Tag: Marketing

Laws of good branding

Branding and corporate identity are what gets your business seen and remembered. Investing into good branding makes all the difference in the world.

Imagine you are an upscale restaurant serving entrees that start in the $35 range. Imagine you decided to skimp on paying for good branding and lettered your own sign, your business cards are do-it-yourself from VistaPrint, and your menus are black and white photo copies with a little clip art of some shrimp scampi at the top. What does this say about your restaurant? To me, if a business deliberately shows that they are skimping on their branding, it makes me feel like they may be the type to skimp on other important items like their licensing, quality of products, etc. Therefore, good branding is imperative on so many levels.

So what is good branding? Logo Orange breaks down branding essentials into 22 laws in their post called the Big Page. Here they review the items most necessary to getting branding that works for you, including Expansion, Quality, and Publicity. Click to read more about the steps involved in good branding and work with your designer and marketing consultant to get you a brand that speaks to your customers (and entices them to make a purchase!).

Press release works wonders for Bluebird Design

After a few years at East Bay Express as the Classified Sales Manager and at Moonshine Ink as the #2 in charge, I viewed numerous press releases. Many were sent by professional agencies and some were assembled by the starry-eyed entrepreneur. Need less to say, I learned what type of press releases would be printed.

Fast forward several years, now I have numerous clients needing a helping hand in marketing. I don't have the national marketing experience as many of the agencies nearby, but am able to help small companies get seen without the huge agency costs. This is what I did with Bluebird Designs.

After launching Bluebird Designs website and helping guide owner/jeweler Jessica Hall through some basic marketing techniques, Jessica hired me to write and send a press release to local publications. After some questions and answers, I put together a press release with camera-ready photos and sent it off. Within 2 days, the local daily newspaper, Sierra Sun, published the press release. Within 3 days of the publishing, Jessica received 6 new clients who commented that they came to her because of the article. Within 7 days, it grew to 15. Here's Jessica's testimonial:

"After Sara helped me build my website, she helped with with some marketing ideas. One of them was to write and submit press releases to local publications. In a matter of days, my press release was not only printed by the daily paper, but I received over 15 new clients in 7 days after its print. Thank you Sara."

Websites without a marketing plan are lost in space

Ok- so you spent a lot of money and time developing the PERFECT website that visually epitomizes everything you and your business is about. You had some help with the messaging and implemented search engine optimized techniques. You were trained how to use your WordPress or Joomla site, you added one blog post and ta-da: now the site is done. So now what? This is where many people get lazy and just stop. They think that because the SEO I implemented on their site got them on page one of Google rankings that they no longer have to worry about doing anything to their site, or marketing it, for that matter: "It will just bring new clients to me on its own, right?" MAYBE, BUT NOT GUARANTEED.

One of my favorite quotes I saw from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company rings so true:

Launching a website without an ongoing marketing plan is like spending the money and time on a tv commercial and never buying air time to show it.

So what can you do? The beauty of content management sites (CMS) like WordPress and Joomla are not only are they easy to navigate and update (once trained) but there are thousands of tips on how to make changes and how to get a better client base by installing pre-programmed widgets (like newsletter sign up forms) all over the internet. I personally give my clients techniques on how to write search engine optimized posts and content, as well as how to drive content back to your site through the use of eNewsletters and social media. But despite how easy and how CHEAP it is to do your own marketing, the excuses still take hold: "I don't have time."

My retort: "So you have time to complain about the economy, have time to worry about money, but don't have time to put 1/2 an hour a week into free marketing ideas?" Crazy. I am all about taking the bulls by the horns and that is what it takes. Now it doesn't mean you have to dedicate your life to marketing all the time, but 1/2 an hour to 2 hours a week can really do wonders.

If you don't know where to start, just start with some goals. Make a list of how many new clients you want per month and how much time and money you have to spend to acquire those clients. The work backwards. If you want 5 new clients a month, then you need to get about 20 hot leads, which means you need to get the word out to about 75+ people (these are totally rough numbers just to give you an idea). Anyways, if you get lost or confused, you can always hire a marketing consultant. But if not, you can start with that and then make a plan of action.

If you are worried about money but have time on your hands, the first thing you can do is start researching eNewsletter options, such as Constant Contact, MailChimp, Vertical Response, as well as thousands of others. It is a great way to get people who are already interested in you to take action.

The next thing you can do is start setting up your social networks as well as your free business listings in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Relevant links back to you always help the validity of your site as well as help people who are interested be able to connect with you.

Tags: Marketing, SEO, Truckee, Web Design, web designer, web marketing, web marketing tips, website seo, websites

Great Social Networking Newsletter

If you are confused by social networking or not sure where to start, there are numerous resources out there. One of my favorites is The Social Media Examiner. I know I have written about this blog in the past, but just wanted to get the word out because of how valuable it is. Blogger Michael Stelzner and his guest writers frequently review, rate, and explore social networks outlets breaking it down to layperson's terms. If you don't subscribe to it and are wondering where to go next with the social aspect of marketing your business, sign up to receive the Social Media Examiner's news.

Social media use increases among older adults

Many of my clients above 50 always gasp when I mention that to have a good web presence, they need to use social media. "Facebook? No way!" "LinkedIn? Are you kidding? I don't have time for that stuff!." Funny as recent statistics by Pew Internet and American Life show that "social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled—from 22% to 42%—over the past year." Furthermore,  the study continues that "one in five (20%) online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10% one year ago." So folks, if you think social media can't help your business grow by reaching your peers because you are over 50, think again.

Effective Blog Posts

Okay, so now you have a content management site and a blog. Together, you are on the road to getting your blog and/or website seen by search engines. However, to make your blogging a truly effective way for improved search engine optimization of your website, you #1), need to blog often and #2), need to create effective blog posts. Here is a great article by Michale Stelzner of Social Media Examiner of how to make your blog posts effective.

Marketing Workshop Canceled

Sorry folks: Laura Guntren and I have decided to postpone our upcoming marketing workshop until a later date. If you are still interested in upcoming marketing workshops or ideas, please sign up for my newsletter and to receive blog feeds through my sidebar.

Attracting New Customers Workshop Series

Attracting New Customers:
 A Workshop Series on How to Successfully Market Your Business

Dates: 3 Thursdays: September 30, October 7 and 14th Time: 6:30-8:30 PM Location: Tentatively the TDPRD Community Building, TBD Myself and Laura Guntren (Business Development and Marketing Coach) are offering a 3-part workshop series for entrepreneurs. This series is designed to give small business owners/entrepreneurs the tools they need to develop a basic marketing strategy, which will help them successfully grow their business. By the end of the workshop the participants will have the tools needed to: ● Create a brand identity that will allow them to consistently and effectively promote their business. ● Position their products and services in a way that differentiates themselves from their competitors. ● Identify simple marketing techniques they can use to attract more GREAT customers (and keep those customers coming back for more). ● Build a basic marketing plan that will help them achieve your goals in a timely manner, without exhausting themselves (or their budget). Teaching small business owners how to attract and maintain a profitable customer base is critical to the economic health of our community. As these businesses grow and thrive they provide jobs, educational opportunities, industry and commerce to the residents of our Sierra Nevada community. NOTE: If you think "everyone" is your target market, believe that you will get website traffic without having a marketing plan, or are not sure if you need a website, a Facebook fanpage, or business cards, then this is the workshop for you. About the presenters: Together Laura and I bring over 15 years of regional and national marketing experience and effective design experience into this workshop. The workshop dates are Sept 30th, Oct 7th, and 14th, from 6:30-8:30 pm. LIMITED TIME OFFER: Get a 25% discount for pre-registration - available until September 15: $90 for the entire series + a materials fee of $15. After Sept 15th: $120 for the series + a materials fee of $15. Contact me to register by calling 530-587-7492 or email sara@sarazimmerman.net.

Sara's newest design portfolio images

I recently updated my graphic and web design portfolio to include some of my most recently completed projects from the Spring. Among them are logos, business cards, postcards, rack cards, icons, ads, hang tags, and numerous websites. Take a peek.

Facebook competition rules

Facebook is a great way to market your business. However, Facebook has cracked down on how people are using it to run competitions. Belly Beyond's blog has a quick run down of the do's and don'ts of running such promotions, with the main rule being: You cannot make the entry of a competition dependent on an action on Facebook. That means that Facebook Promotion rules cannot have people enter a competition by:

• becoming a 'liker' (or fan)*
• tagging themselves in a photo
• commenting on your wallpage or post
• putting a comment or @ tag in their status
• uploading a photo or video

Read more on their blog or go to "help" on Facebook.