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Archive for marketing tips – Page 2

Branding in the Small Things

Posted by haley montgomery 
· November 17, 2010 

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT HOW YOUR BRAND LOOKS HERE?

So, you have a great logo design. You’ve carefully chosen your website colors and imagery to reflect your company “look.” You’ve created consistency across all your printed materials with typefaces, colors and patterns. You’re watching how your logo is used to make sure it conforms to your brand guidelines. You’ve carefully crafted the verbiage on your promotional materials to reflect your company’s approach to products and services. You’re adequately branded, right?

Maybe so. But often, the dividing line of whether your brand reaches a level of customer engagement that really makes it memorable is found not only in the traditional marketing materials, but also in the details–the details of how your customer experiences you and your business.

I’ve been thinking more about the details of branding as I’ve been working on various client projects that take an existing brand image and expand it or fine-tune it. That process sometimes involves redefining. It sometimes includes augmenting. And more often than not, it requires a keen attention to detail.

I’m kind of a brainstormer. I use the technique of listing as part of my creative process sometimes. In this recent thought process on branding in detail, I’ve been brainstorming areas of a business operation or a customer experience where brands can reinforce themselves and even make their mark just by adding a little intention. Here are some of the results — 25 branding opportunities you may have overlooked. Have you thought about how your brand looks (or sounds) here?

1. Email signature
2. Restroom doors
3. Parking lot signage
4. Voicemail messages
5. The back of your business card
6. Invoices
7. Friday casual-wear
8. Your front door
9. Sales tickets
10. Your website “favicon”
11. The materials you use to take notes during client meetings
12. Office computer screen savers
13. Office or store wall art
14. #10 business envelopes
15. Price tags
16. Your Facebook “place” page
17. Packing materials
18. Gift enclosure cards
19. Appointment cards
20. Company vehicles
21. Your Twitter background
22. The beverages/refreshments you provide clients
23. Your email opt-in thank you message
24. Event name-tags
25. Your on-hold message

Categories : learn
Tags : ,

Five Questions to Ask Yourself with Every Customer Encounter

Posted by haley montgomery 
· September 7, 2010 

I was talking recently with a new client–a business advisory service who hired me for brand development and start-up marketing–and he asked me some questions about why I decided to name my business Small Pond Graphics. The client had been to my website and wanted to discuss some of the ideas a little further. Some companies that are local occasionally use feather flags to get customers from sidewalk traffic. As it turns out, we had similar impressions of the value of our small town business experiences, and the conversation expanded into a discussion of how many of the typical small town attitudes and ways of conducting business translate into the wider marketplace.

My thoughts on the name Small Pond Graphics began germinating with the idea that I live in a small town in the rural South. It’s a fact that has colored much of my career over the years. Being in a smaller community sometimes means that companies have to be a little more ingenious in their marketing efforts. It means they may need to approach services and customer service with a little more flexibility, creativity and a personal touch. Whether a business is located in a small town or a large city, however, the reality in this digital, media-rich age is that all are part of the same small world–a small world that is getting even smaller by the minute. It was that thought that really resonated with me in trying to determine the focus and “culture” of my own company. Perhaps those flexible, creative and relationship-centered approaches aren’t confined to small ponds after all.

So, my client conversation got me thinking. How DO businesses approach customer encounters in a small town? What makes that process so appealing? What can I glean from it as I market my business on a daily basis? How can I market to every customer and prospect as if I’m marketing in the small pond?

It boils down to relationships. There’s no question about it. They are the hallmark of marketing with a small pond approach. People want to do business with folks they know. It’s a tried and true reality straight from small town USA. Embracing that reality means that every customer encounter is an opportunity to build a deeper relationship. That sometimes requires approaching the experience from a slightly different perspective than what marketing or sales trends might dictate. With that in mind, consider asking yourself these 5 questions with your next customer encounter.

1. HOW CAN I SAY “YES”?

Instead of immediately evaluating how a contact may fit into your “ideal customer” profile, figure out a way to say “yes” in some way. It’s really what customers want to hear. Put determining how a customer is positioned in your sales process or list of services on the back burner. The ability to say “yes” shows that a company is willing to step beyond a rigid business model in order to address a customer’s individual needs.

2. WHAT CAN I GIVE TO THIS SITUATION?

Rather than asking “what can I get out of this?”, make an investment. Relationships are built on investments–offerings of time, resources, effort, and self. The laws of farming say that you reap what you sow. Sowing is required FIRST before reaping the benefit of a good crop. Make a plan for what seeds you want to sow with each conversation or customer experience. Be willing to give before you expect to get.

3. HOW CAN I LISTEN MORE CAREFULLY?

Instead of trying to figure out how to squeeze in your elevator pitch, devote yourself to listening in your next customer encounter. Before a company can meet a client’s needs through products or services, it has to know what those needs are. That understanding doesn’t come through anticipating or completing the sentences, it comes through really listening.

4. HOW CAN I MAKE THE MOST OF THIS ONE-ON-ONE OPPORTUNITY?

Rather than asking “how can I make the most of this time?” in a hurried effort to multi-task, focus your attention on the person in front of you (virtually or otherwise). Lay aside the need to be available to everyone else at that moment and pay closer attention to this one-on-one opportunity to connect and build a lasting bond. Your entire relationship with a customer may rest on this one encounter. Make sure you’re all there.

5. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT THIS CUSTOMER & HIS SITUATION?

Instead of asking yourself first”what products or services can I provide?”, let your customer take center stage. Listen for the unique qualities to emerge and respond to those. Focus on offering resources to resolve unique problems or highlight unique assets–whether your products and services apply or not.

At the end of the day, customers still value the same things they did when your grandparents were doing business. They still value the wave on the street, someone calling them by name, or the handshake at the grocery store so common in small towns. It’s just that some of the venues today are places like Facebook or GMail or Skype. The small town approach works. Are you on board?

Categories : learn
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Responsible Facebook Marketing: Page or Profile? (part 2)

Posted by haley montgomery 
· August 2, 2010 

A few weeks ago I shared some thoughts on responsible Facebook marketing for businesses in part 1 of this article. My comments centered on the important impression it makes for businesses to market within the Facebook Terms of Service when using this ever-growing social networking website. Since the Facebook Terms of Service disallow users from conducting more than one “profile”, I recommend that users set up their business Facebook presence in the “page” format. While I appealed to our need for responsible (and TOS-abiding) marketing as a way of setting examples of how to conduct business in this new digital age, I also promised some more concrete reasons in a future post.

Hello, part 2. Business ethics aside, using the Page format rather the Facebook Profile option just makes good marketing sense. And, here are 5 reasons why…

1. Pages look like businesses. There are quite a few business or organization options that are available when setting up a Page format in Facebook. Creators can choose ptions like restaurant, retail, professional organization, and many other specific business types. Facebook allows Pages to be designated as a local business; a brand, product or organization; or an artist, band or public figure. Each option has built-in display items for information that is relevant to the specific type of entity. Options like hours of operation, service listings, mission statements and products are just a few of the items you can include in the information displayed on your page. On the other hand, Profiles look like people. So, your business information looks amateurish at best. Businesses don’t have birthdays, favorite quotes and movies, or many of the other items displayed in the standard Profile. In trying to apply normal business information to this more personal format, your message becomes clunky, or even confusing.

2. Pages offer business-friendly application options. These applications can enhance your Facebook marketing efforts, but many aren’t available for use on Profiles. You can add custom tabs to your Page with specific company information, integrate FB with your other social media outlets and channels, import blog feeds, post slide or powerpoint presentations, and much more by adding applications to your Page.

3. Pages give fans instant gratification. In the Profile format, users request a “friendship”, but must wait for confirmation. Even if it’s only a few minutes or hours, you’ve lost that potential customer or contact’s interest in your business. When a user “likes” a Facebook Page, they immediately gain access to all the Page has to offer, and your posts begin showing up in their stream. Yes, they can immediately begin interacting with your page with wall posts or comments based on your page settings, which can be risky. But, that opportunity fosters an open relationship of engagement with a potential client — the hallmark of doing business in a social environment.

4. Pages include a helpful set of analytics about page use. Unlike Profiles, Facebook provides data on who is interacting with your Page and how. Brief statistics are part of your account notifications and more detailed information is available to any Page administrator. These stats can help you gain a better understanding of which Facebook marketing approaches are gaining the best response from fans.

5. Pages allow for multiple administrators. While the Terms of Service disallow passing around your password information for FB Profiles, the Page format allows the creator to designate multiple administrators who can edit settings, make posts and add features to the Page. This feature is particularly helpful for organizations who may need multiple staff to be able to promote their projects on Facebook. It also helps ease the burden of maintaining a consistent message in this social outlet.

To make this a well-rounded post, there are also a couple of drawbacks I see in the current Facebook Page format. I’ve noticed quite a few requests in the FB discussion boards for development changes surrounding these two issues, and it’s possible solutions will be developed and implemented into the Page structure.

1. Pages do not currently provide notification of fan wall posts or comments. If an administrator has “liked” or commented on a post already, he will receive notification of any subsequent interaction with the post. However, there is not a vehicle for alerting administrators of new posts or comments.

2. Pages are not specifically tied to the Facebook advertising opportunities. Only profiles are enabled with administrative privileges for the FB pay-per-click ad options. Any ads related to a Page must be administered by a specific profile user. The option to place ads or change them isn’t possible for multiple Page administrators. In addition, a user can only have one credit card listing on file for advertising. So, multiple pages administered by the same user can not have separate credit card payment options designated.

Categories : learn
Tags : , ,

Responsible Facebook Marketing: Page or Profile? (part 1)

Posted by haley montgomery 
· July 19, 2010 

I’ve been thinking alot about Facebook recently. Not only have I been launching the Small Pond Graphics Facebook page, but I’ve had several clients seeking my input on how to create or maximize their own pages. With over 400 million active Facebook users worldwide, and the statistics growing for the impact engaging with companies online makes in how consumers respond to products and services, Facebook is indeed becoming a more and more valuable marketing commodity. Just the other day, I saw Google’s statistics on the most visited websites on the internet during the month of May, 2010. Facebook topped the list with over 540 million unique visitors during the month and a mind-boggling 630 billion page views.

One of the pieces of information I shared on the Pond FB page this week was a link to a new application for Facebook profiles that has been released. It was produced by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and offers a “panic button” of sorts for 13- to 18-year-old Facebook users. The application adds a profile tab that allows the teen to quickly report suspicious users. In the press release about the application, James Gamble of the Centre commented that online predators are often dissuaded by visible deterrents. The hope is that this application might serve to protect young Facebook users from falling victim to the inevitable unscrupulous and sometimes dangerous online realities.

With the news of this new application that attempts to protect young online users from the internet’s worst tendencies, I’ve also been starting work on an online media contract for a local private school. It has me thinking. We have been trained in recent years to consider corporate responsibility and the ways businesses can or should involve themselves in social issues. How does that concern for ethical and responsible business practices extend to online marketing? Given the fact that we have no control over who reads our contributions to the online buzz — their age, their nationality, their proximity, their gender — how do we orchestrate a responsible online presence?

There are undoubtedly many answers and viewpoints to those questions. A full discourse would certainly produce a much longer word count for this post than I would ever recommend for a blogging client. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject, but for now, I’ll limit MY answer to just one recommendation regarding Facebook.

Follow the rules.

Facebook is a free service. It isn’t a democracy. It isn’t an “economy.” It doesn’t have juris prudence. It’s an idea that has come to remarkable fruition. And, marketing a business or organization on Facebook is a gift. My number one recommendation to businesses seeking to reach out to customers on Facebook is “don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth.” Say thank you, and follow the rules. By doing so, companies promote an ethical and responsible approach to doing business online. They demonstrate that “Terms of Service” agreements aren’t just a checkbox after a password is set. They are guidelines that are important to follow as we take advantage of our internet privileges. I appreciate organizations that set an example in the way they approach online media for the scores of young users we know are watching.

And, I notice when they don’t.

One of the primary ways I’m disappointed by businesses marketing on Facebook is when I see them presenting themselves in the “PROFILE” format. The site offers businesses a free way to promote themselves using the network through their “PAGE” format. The Facebook Terms of Service prohibit an individual from holding two different Facebook accounts. So, if you have a personal profile AND a business profile, you are in violation of those terms. In my opinion, businesses and organizations who violate this policy send a subtle, but immediate message that they don’t mind stepping outside the rules when conducting their business. In this age when the global focus is more and more on corporate responsibility for both large and small companies, that’s just not a good marketing strategy.

Not convinced by my “set a good example” theory? Stay tuned for Part 2 and a few solid marketing reasons why giving your business a Facebook “PAGE” presence is a better option.

Categories : learn
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Sketchy Ideas

Posted by haley montgomery 
· July 5, 2010 

My friends Jennifer and Juliette deserve “thank you” notes. These two fabulous women, whom I most often connect with via Facebook, were kind enough to send me special “happies” last week to celebrate the move to my new home office. Sweets and jewelry–two of a girl’s best friends. The gifts have served to confirm for me the power of acknowledgement, even in the business world. I’ll save the soap box for another post, but the common courtesies we learned from our mothers and grandmothers are just as important for doing business as they were for sweet 16 parties and high school graduations. The fact is; “please” and “thank you” are solid marketing strategies–perhaps even more so in today’s digital age than ever before.

To that end, I decided some custom Small Pond notecards were in order based on a few sketchy ideas. Literally. I think I’ve mentioned that I have been weeding through files (and piles) over the last few weeks. It’s an integral part of moving offices. Sadly, it hasn’t been an integral part of my organizational routine, so the process of late has netted some crazy stuff.

I keep most of my sketches for design projects, especially those “doodles” used in developing logo designs. The sketches are kind of like visual brainstorming sessions with overlapping images and notes, little dots or boxes representing where the text might go, and the occasional note about reference material. These doodles sometimes segue into drawings on tracing paper (or bumwad, as I learned in architecture school) destined to be scanned. Being the design pack-rat that I am, I keep almost all these wrinkled pages. You just never know when they might come in handy.

As you can imagine, I found a considerable set of sketchy blissdom when weeding through my office piles, and dutifully filed them away in drawer #2 of the red filing cabinet. I decided they would make nice visuals for the inaugural “Sketch Paper” series of Small Pond notecards. I may subject you to more of the sketches and their stories here at Plop! as time goes on. Meanwhile, you are the first to have a peek at the notecard designs, and I plan to enlist the USPS in firing off a couple to Jennifer and Juliette this week. Saying “thank you” is important, even if the “look” is a little sketchy. Come to think of it, YOU deserve a “thank you” for reading these Pond ramblings. So, message me your address and I’ll fire off one for you too!

Categories : in the studio
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Hello & welcome! I’m Haley Montgomery, and I’m the designer and owner of Small Pond Graphics. I sometimes fancy myself a frog kisser— a documentarian coaxing poignant moments from unexpected places. This blog has evolved from those moments.

The small Pond FIELD GUIDE is part diary, part sketchbook, and part wish list – an archive of ordinary wonders. For years, this space has housed my stories – creative ideas, vintage inspiration, our forays into curious places, and the simple artifacts of quiet of conscious living. Through watercolor, photography, and illustrated tales, these pages uncover the blessing of ordinary days and the wonder found in authentic places and pursuits.

I invite you to open the boxes.
Peek into the drawers.
Rustle through the pages.
I’m honored to have you here.

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