As with all of our blog posts we urge you to remember your brand strategy first and foremost!   

1. Review your posts thoroughly.  It probably didn’t happen that often, but believe me we have all put something out there that we wished we hadn’t.  Even if you thought it was fine at the time you might be surprised what you wrote three years ago.  Delete any posts that are not consistent with your image or that you don’t necessarily want to pop up randomly on your timeline.  You can do this by hovering to the right of your post, clicking on the icon that will appear and click “delete post”
2. Review your photos thoroughly.  Just as old status posts may be surprising to you, so may be some photos.  Take a look and delete.
3. The Cover.  You will have the option on timeline to add what is called a “cover”.  This is a large photo that will dominate the top 1/3 of your page.  TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS FROM A BRANDING PERSPECTIVE!  Should it be your logo?  Should it be a photo of your storefront, or products with an insert of your logo?  It all depends on your overall image and strategy.  You have the option to play around with your page timeline now before it goes “live” so try out a few photo/logo combinations to see what works best with your overall image.
4. Use it to create a branding campaign all your own.  Although these changes are frustrating and take some time to get used to, if creatively used, can be a wonderful way to breathe new life into a campaign or introduce a new brand perspective.   We want to show you how!  Submit your name and company to us at kara@yourlaunchgroup.com and we will use your page to demonstrate some innovative ways to take advantage of this latest change.

What should go in a successful email-marketing piece?

E-mail marketing should have a consistent look that compliments your traditional marketing pieces and convey your brand personality through emotional engagement.

• Brand personality.  Most lists will say that good content is first and foremost, and certainly it is pillar to a successful email marketing piece.  But just as you want to eat what smells good, you want to read what looks good.  So make sure you develop an attractive and well branded header and template.   This is after all just one piece of the puzzle towards brand loyalty.

STOP:   This is a fair warning.  An attractive and well branded piece will not include clip art!  There is never a reason to include clip art .  That’s right NEVER.  Should you find yourself ready to insert a festive array of pumpkins, easter eggs, and shamrocks we urge you to contact us IMMEDIATELY at kara@yourlaunchgroup.com.  Our team of branding experts have been specially trained to diffuse the situation!

• Emotional Appeal/Value – Remember it takes a person to make that “click.”  Whether it is a testimonial, a special offer, or a customer story it will appeal to the “person” rather than the “consumer.”  By keeping the face of person to person rather than person to audience your content will naturally take on the appropriate form.  This appeal should be positioned well within your page so it is the first thing people will read. And if the appeal works, it will encourage them to read more.
• Good Content – Keep content relatively brief, we are society who likes to read in bullets, so don’t overwhelm your audience by trying to write a novel.  If you have a lot of information to get out, consider breaking it up into multiple emails in a strategic and logical way.
• From and Subject – The two shortest  items to complete in an email often hold the most weight.  Do you have a better open rate when your piece is from a person or a campaign?  There is no wrong or right answer. It is particular to each company or organization.  Trial and error is the best way to determine a strategy.  Likewise your subject line should be engaging and creative.  The biggest hurdle in email marketing is the “open”.
• Timing – It is after all everything isn’t it?  If you are using a platform that provides analytics or insights USE THEM!  Try a few different strategies and see what the insights tell you.

What you can do now:

• Log on to Constant Contact or Mailchimp and take the free tutorial to determine which you feel you can work easiest with.
• Customize your template and header.  There are an array of pre-designed templates that easily allow you to drop in your logo, tag line and colors.  Don’t be intimidated!  Once you like what you see, save it and USE THE SAME one each time.
• Look at your next six months of promotions, events, etc, and calendar out when you need to send out an email marketing piece to correspond with each.
• Start gathering customer testimonials or stories.  Have a nice folder of them so you can easily drop them in at anytime.
• Have you received any awards or publicity recently?  Don’t be shy to share it!  If you are looking for a good way to start, think about sending out the good news.
• Remember that email marketing is based on PERMISSION! Start looking at your list of emails and organizing them into the appropriate categories.

 What you should hire someone to do:

• Develop or freshen up your logo and brand if needed.
• Review your email marketing strategy as it relates to your overall plan.
• If the thought of writing throws you right back to English lit class panic attacks, hire someone to write it.  This is usually fairly inexpensive and if it saves you 3 hours of struggle after the 3 days of procrastination, then its money well spent!

Do you have a specific topic that you are interested in or need help with?  Submit it to kara@yourlaunchgroup.com or sonja@sowiseart.com and we will task the appropriate member of our expert team with providing the information in an upcoming post.

More than 300 people clicked in to our virtual ribbon cutting to see what What Is Your Position is all about!  Positioning in marketing is all about image and placement and that can only be achieved with a strategic, well branded, and effectively communicated efforts.   A fully integrated campaign is necessary to stake your POSITION within your industry and your market, but with many companies working with tight budgets you may not think its obtainable.  Making sure it is obtainable is what we are all about.  Now that we’ve answered the question What Is Your Position continue to follow our site, Facebook page, and blog to find how to keep Positioning Your Marketing Best.

We have assembled a team of some of the top experts in the area of digital marketing, print marketing, SEO, branding, business development, social media, video, and reputation management.  They have agreed to provide information on a regular basis that will help guide your marketing decisions.  Each post will provide a topic specific overview and at least one tip that you can implement on your own.  It will also serve as a guide to help you figure out what marketing efforts to budget for and what you may be able to handle in house.

Our community is only as good as the people and companies in it, let us help keep you and Fredericksburg in the best POSITION possible.

The more publicity you garner for your products or services, the more your business will get recognized on and off the web.

Gone are the days of the traditional press release format, the goal in today’s digital market is to set your press release apart from others and implement the use of search engine optimization, or SEO. A strong SEO campaign, including press releases, will help your business rank better in Google and Yahoo news for your keywords, provide you with positive media coverage and create backlinks to your website.

A properly worded SEO press release will include your top keywords as well as links to your website. When the press release is distributed through the channels deemed most effective and targeted to your audience, it can get picked up by a range of search engines. Each time your press release is picked up, and therefore reproduced, it allows for more backlinks to your site that will increase page rank.

SEO press releases can be a valuable addition to any SEO campaign.  We practice what we preach and take the opportunity to inform our current and prospective clients about what new things we are working on through SEO-driven press releases. When you have something newsworthy, whatever it may be, why not take advantage of the benefits that an search-engine-optimized press release can provide? Furthermore, there are now considerable free press release sites, many of which we have found to be effective and valuable.

The Launch Group and So Wise Art along with our partners at Vision Studios provide our clients with a holistic approach to their company’s online web presence. Our services include customized web design, highly effective SEO, cloud computing solutions, cutting edge mobile app development and comprehensive digital content generation and online marketing. We can help your company develop a tailored online marketing campaign, including press release generation and distribution that is integrally tied to search engine optimization. We employ experienced and successful copy writers that can craft exceptional press releases combined with a trained eye for SEO.

It looks good, but what is it really saying?

You can get 1,000 people to follow your page, but how many of them are actually engaged enough that they ended up as customers, clients, or referral sources?  Here in lies the ART OF THE ACTIONABLE FOLLOWER.

Appearances can be deceiving.  Just because you have 1,000 fans does not mean you have 1,000 clients, 1,000 referral services, or even 1,000 sets of eyes who really pay attention.

Maybe you only have a 100 followers, but if they actually respond to your call to action, then who is really ahead of the game?

A well-planned strategy for how you will use social media is essential to gaining actionable followers.  There are a lot of “plug and play” strategies available, but working within the frame work of BRAND, IMAGE, CONCEPT and DELIVERY you can easily produce a plan that gains the attention of the actionable follower.

Working within this framework will yield an entirely different “how-to plan” for each company.   That being said there are four major factors that every company should NOT be doing.

Common mistakes in gaining followers:

1. Being all things to all people.  We ask you is that what your company does?  Everything for everybody?  Our guess is no.  So why is your social media strategy doing that.  Remember social media is an extension of your brand.
2. Post it and Re-post it.  You should not be posting anything that is not directly related to your brand, industry or company!  If you happen to run an eye care center then don’t post things about a restaurant special going on in town.
3. Seek “For-the-Sake-of-Quantity” Likes. Don’t share your page with friends or ask for likes just for the sake of upping your like count. Having the wrong target of followers reflects on your brand as well.
4. Commenting and posting on as many other pages as possible.  There is some strategy in this, but the common mistake is that people will go overboard.  We have all seen them, the ones who post on so many pages that it almost leaves a bad taste in your mouth.  Make sure that you are making thoughtful choices and alliances regarding when and where to comment and post on others’ walls.

The art of the post is not about finding things to post, rather to create posts relating to your strategy and brand in an effort to gain brand loyalty. Become the go-to source for information on what it is you do by thoughtful posting.

These are items that can be used in more than one way, to save on your time, money and resources. And meanwhile your business appears thoughtful, consistent and well-branded while using these multi-purpose items.

Topping our list today: Stickers

Not just any sticker. A well designed and professionally printed, full-color sticker that fits your business image. One that displays your logo, phone number and web address is a worthwhile investment and can be applied to just about everything.

Do you have many things leaving your business that are packaged or mailed? Plain bags, plain notecards, plain tissue paper, handouts, delivery items and more are instantly branded with the addition of your handy stickers.

These also work well for businesses who receive distributor materials for resale items. Add your sticker to a “big name brand” brochure and your customer knows to reach out to your business instead of some other provider when they are ready to buy.

Don’t let something walk out of your establishment without your branding, name and contact information on it. And stickers might be the right fit for that purpose, even as just a temporary solution, to boost your business image and keep business coming back through your door.

It allows users that have no knowledge of web language to create, edit, or delete pages among other common tasks. For those who want to, and have the time to manage web site changes themselves, this is a great option for managing your website.

Online Information Management

The rise in importance of online business presence and search engine marketing and optimization (SEO/SEM) has lead to a need for businesses and organizations to regularly update and create content and information. The management of this data is either handled by your webmaster or internally by your staff. The use of a CMS can make this management of data easier by providing users with an easy way to keep content fresh, up-to-date, and relevant to search engines, clients, and customers.

Common Features of Most Content Management Systems:

Easy Automated Templates and Page Creation

Create standard output templates (usually HTML and XML) that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, allowing the appearance of all content to be changed from one central place.

Easily Editable Content

Once content is separated from the visual presentation of a site, it usually becomes much easier and quicker to edit and manipulate. Most WCMS software includes WYSIWYG editing tools allowing non-technical individuals to create and edit content.

Web Standards Upgrade

Active CMS software usually receives regular updates that include new feature sets and keep the system up to current web standards.

Workflow Management

Workflow is the process of creating cycles of sequential and parallel tasks that must be accomplished in the CMS. For example, a content creator can submit a story, but it is not published until the copy editor cleans it up and the editor-in-chief approves it.

Delegation

Some CMS software allows for various user groups to have limited privileges over specific content on the website, spreading out the responsibility of content management.

Document Management

CMS software may provide a means of managing the life cycle of a document from initial creation time, through revisions, publication, archival, and document destruction.

Content Virtualization

CMS software may provide a means of allowing each user to work within a virtual copy of the entire web site, document set, and/or code base. This enables changes to multiple interdependent resources to be viewed and/or executed in-context prior to submission.

Content Syndication

CMS software often assists in content distribution by generating RSS and Atom data feeds to other systems. They may also e-mail users when updates are available as part of the workflow process.

Conclusion

A CMS can make changing and adding to your site easy for those who have the desire to use and learn a new system. While it is a useful tool, businesses need to make sure they have the time to dedicate in using the CMS and adding relevant and useful content for your users and the search engines. Effective use can turn your website from a static dusty old site, to a dynamic engaging site that pulls your readers in and increases the exposure of your company.

The image is not entirely clear until all the pieces are properly put together.  If there is just one piece that is discolored or damaged the image will not be as appealing. The same thing is true for an overall marketing strategy, and social media is just one piece of that puzzle.

Social media alone won’t make you money, but when properly pieced together with other efforts your image can position you far beyond your competitors.

When you buy a puzzle you often dump the pieces on the table and pick the easiest place to start which is usually the corners.  Think of your corners as BRAND, IMAGE, CONCEPT, and DELIVERY.  Once you have those firmly in place you can begin to fill in the remainder of the puzzle and this is where Social Media should lie.

Social Media should have a consistent look that compliments your traditional marketing pieces, it should include a strategy for posting information, gaining ACTIONABLE followers, and positioning your company against your competitors.  Finally you need to have an action plan for monitoring your online reputation.

START NOW ~ Here are four things you can do on your own :

1.  Set up a Facebook Page – (twitter is not right for every company, so start with Facebook).  Like it or not people or using Facebook, much like they do a Google search, to verify a company.  So whether Social Media is a big puzzle piece or a small puzzle piece, you need to have a presence.  If you need help determining what type of page to set up, please contact us for a quick and free Facebook consultation.

2.  Customize your profile picture.  We always recommend you use your logo, if you do not have a logo,  consider hiring a marketing firm to craft one for you, or if budget is tight there are variety of online logo making companies that offer discounts.  You often hear people say so and so is the “FACE OF THE FIRM”, well your logo is that face.

3.    Customize your Facebook user name. This is an easy to remember link to your facebook page. It’s a better way to remind people to check out your facebook. With a Facebook user name your address becomes: www.facebook.com/SoWiseArt. You’ll find the option for picking your user name under: Edit Info:

HERE IS ONE THING YOU SHOULD BUDGET FOR:

4. You may have seen customized landing pages, some with the ability to ad live USTREAM.  Dependent on your industry, you should strongly consider adding this to your budget.  It is generally a low cost effort, but can really help to highlight your image.  Check out our own customized landing pages on Facebook at WhatisYourPosition, So Wise Art and The Launch Group, LLC.

So Wise Art, LLC and The Launch Group, LLC have teamed up to develop a unique four-part method to effectively position your product or services within the mind of your consumer. PositionYourMarketingBest.com | Facebook | Subscribe | Contact

That being said, we would be remiss if we didn’t also inform you of the need for solid policy regarding its use for your company.

This is one of the most important steps that is often overlooked when it comes to embarking on your social media efforts.  We strongly recommend that you seek the council of an employment law attorney who can guide you through the proper policies to have in your employee handbook regarding social media.

It is also strongly recommended that you limit the number of admins to your page.  Social media is a fairly new platform and as such we have only now begun to see some negative ramifications.

We would hope that most people only have the best intentions but one wrong move (even unintentional) can open a variety of problems.

In addition to policy, the easiest way to negate these risks is to limit access.  When there are too many hands involved it becomes a matter of when not if an issue arises that could really hurt the image, reputation, and ethical standards of all involved.

If you have a policy, limit your admins, and have a little flexibility as social media continually involves it is likely that you will not encounter any major problems.

Did you pause, thinking it may be Political, Religious, or something even a little risky?  Perhaps your first thought was marketing.  Either way we wanted to find a uniquely creative way to get businesses thinking about their own marketing.  It’s not just about a nice ad, website, or social media page.  At So Wise Art and The Launch Group we are guided by Jack Trout’s philosophy that “Positioning is not what you do to a product, positioning  is what you do the mind of the prospect.”   So while the concept of positioning is not new, our method for making it happen with a fresh and uniquely charged approach is.

So, what IS your Position?

• Is your brand and your message fresh?
• Are you one step ahead of your competition?  Can you stay there?
• Does your marketing effectively convey your product or services?  Could it be better?
• Are you using brand standards to ensure all marketing and advertising efforts undoubtedly identify your company?
• Are you reaching your target audience?
• Are you using multimedia?
• Are you properly placed within those media platforms?

Effectively fusing business development with creative intelligence:

So Wise Art and The Launch Group, LLC have teamed up to develop a unique four part method to effectively position your product or services within the mind of your consumer.   From initial concept to execution, we deliver on the promise to make your message stand out among the crowd.  Realizing that all the planning in the world won’t make something so, our services are truly unique in that we provide both a business and a marketing consultant for you to work with throughout the process.  Effectively fusing business development with creative intelligence.