Our CEO Daniel Herndon Featured on Firebelly

Not long ago, Duncan Alney from Firebelly (a Boutique Social Agency) wrote this lovely article  about our CEO, Daniel Herndon in his series of articles profiling “cool people” in Indianapolis. Duncan skillfully crafted what is not only a great article, but a fairly accurate profile of our Company’s leader.

Some highlights from the article:

“Daniel Herndon is a bad ass. There I’ve said it.”

When talking about Daniel’s beginnings, Duncan shared,

“Rock-n-roll kick started his career in marketing when he started seeking creative ways to market his own band nationally. He rolled what he learned from creative marketing adventure to form redwall MUSIC…”

Duncan is the leader of the passionate Firebelly Social team. Our services include community management and social promotions. I love working with people with vision who expect the best of themselves and the people they work with. I believe that happiness is a critical part of my personal and professional life equation.

Read the full article here.

Why you should create stories, not marketing

It’s very common for business owners, marketing directors, etc. to talk to their ad agency and say “we need to do a social media campaign” or “we need to design a new marketing [insert specific collateral item here]“. The reason is always to build their brand, and increase business. I should also mention that this is preceded by a challenge that needs to be overcome, or goal that has been set out. While you may be right that you need an online video advertising campaign (or whatever), it’s not actually the right answer to your challenge. What you really need is to develop your story – as the first part of your brand.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal says that successful branding still happens offline. I agree with this by the way. The premise of their argument is that branding doesn’t happen because of a Facebook campaign or because of advertising a brand well. It happens because there is something worth talking about.  A quote from the article stood out to me.

It is important to fight the urge to start your marketing strategy with a particular tool or approach. Instead, start a story that consumers will want to talk about. What are the messages about your brand and category that make you talkworthy?

Advertising campaigns and social media campaigns are simply formal ways of sharing a story that already exists. If that story is not interesting or something that people are passionate about, that is the end of the story. If it is “talkworthy” then the story continues organically, with no respect of marketing channels.

This is why we call ourselves an Idea based ad firm. Tomorrow there will be a new tool. Actually, today there is a new tool. We start with the idea (which is always the centerpiece of the story). We like to help our clients craft their story, build great ideas from them and determine the best way (or ways) to share it. This is a timeless method.

Want to know more? Find Out More

3 BIG Ways that new ICANN top level domains will change marketing

Recently ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that internet users will be able to purchase top level domains with new suffixes. This means that internet domain names are no longer limited to suffixes like .com, .net, .org and the several others that have been in action for some time now.

“ICANN has opened the Internet’s naming system to unleash the global human imagination. Today’s decision respects the rights of groups to create new Top Level Domains in any language or script. We hope this allows the domain name system to better serve all of mankind,”

-Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of ICANN.

I believe, and judging by the above quote from ICANN’s CEO, they believe that this will make a dramatic change to the internet. I will take it further to say that it will even change marketing in other mediums as well. ICANN’s new provisions for top level domains is going to dramatically shape the way search engines handle search ranking. In turn this will shape the way companies use search marketing, and with nearly all marketing efforts being tied to the internet, marketing as a whole is going to go through an evolution of sorts. The days of having one website may no longer exist.

Since the cost is $185,000 to have your own top level domain, you will see big brands establishing their TLD as well as investors and special interest groups. Here’s 3 big ways that I believe this will change marketing:

1. BIG BRANDS OBTAINING BETTER OWNERSHIP: Coke (and other big brands) will be able to diversify their online marketing by offering segments to their online presence like products.coke and contests.coke. Furthermore they might open up the opportunity for brand advocates to get more connected socially by creating my-name.coke where you can create your own persona within a brand that you are specifically fond of. Coke sized brands will be able to connect their audience in a more clear way to special offers or products because there won’t be competition for  cool-idea.coke anymore. Offline materials can get more specific and be very memorable with their brand embedded.

2. SEARCH MARKETING IS DIVIDED: If you are in home remodel services, you no longer need to rank only for home services but now you need to rank within the domain.home field of domains. There will be internet investment companies building sites to focus on industry topics so that anyone looking for anything.home can go to the central .home hub and find other home service companies. This will create specialized search engines that essentially combine the concept of search with the function of organizations like Angie’s List or The Better Business Bureau.

3. ONE WEBSITE IS NOT ENOUGH: Your ranking is now likely going to depend on more than just how you rank on the web in general, but also how you rank in industries. It may become increasing important to establish a web conversion strategy that varies based on different inbound paths. If you’re ranking well for searches of “Indianapolis home remodeling” in the general search, that doesn’t mean that you will the same for a search isolated to the .home TLD. You also will be dealing with different types of customers at a different level, with different preconceived expectations. It’s plausible that the site and conversion strategy will need to be different too. Think of it like the difference of your Facebook site vs your home site. You are not expecting the same results and appearance as your home website, in fact it is not an option. While the two work together, they are not the same.

What would you add to this discussion?

Relationship Marketing: Opt In Direct Connections

This week I’ve been commenting on Relationship Marketing. Relationship marketing is to market based on a level of permission or connection. It is essentially the opposite of interruption marketing which comes out of context and sometimes uninvited. Also known as permission marketing as Seth Godin made popular, it is a fact that someone who has invited your message is much more likely to purchase your services.

Relationship Marketing Example 2,3 and 4: Opt In Marketing

The people that opt into your marketing are the people that are the most interested. For this reason, it would make sense that those are the people that you should marketing most specifically to. It might also make sense that all your outbound marketing should (in many cases) be focused on simply drawing people into your opt in model. I’ve broken this into three specific examples:

2. Email Marketing. This is one of the most common and most known modern forms of opt in marketing. It is also known to be one of the most hated and abused as well. On the contrary, if you are truly using a permission marketing approach than you are not in the same category of those methods that have given email marketing a bad name. One of our customers told of of their raving fans (customers) that have called their email marketing “the only junk mail I look forward to”. This is because it is truly based solely on permission. That opt in list is the first to respond to special promotions, in essence, their most profitable customers.

3. Social Media. We do a lot to make our customer’s Facebook pages come to life. Using Facebook as the example, You have to “Like” a page to be opted into the brand’s content. Furthermore, you have to have activity on their wall (or responding to posts, etc.) before the algorithms of the famous “News Feed” will pull the brands content into your top news. For this reason, a Facebook user is only likely to really see what they are truly interested in. If you are using social media to market your business, I would focus on getting people interested, rather than simply putting out content.

4. Direct Mail, Catalogs. In this day and age we get a lot of junk mail. We don’t have laws against junk mail in the same way as we do spam and telemarketing. For this reason people have to be captivated by your message (or actually think it IS the IRS trying to send them money if they call now). The fact is, while I throw most of that mail away, the mini catalog from Guitar Center is one I always look through – because I am receiving based on my actual interests. I have made purchases there and given them my address (I.E. Permission).

Enhancing Marketing with Customer Surveys

Have you ever wondered a little more about what your customers thought about your product? What else they would buy, or what would make them buy more? Or maybe you have actually taken the step of asking them. Customer surveys are not new or uncommon, but how can a survey help you with your marketing? At the most basic level, a survey allows you to interact with your customer without an overtly “sales” approach. That interaction is valuable, but here are three ways that that interaction can tremendously enhance your marketing efforts.

1. Improve market data. The imagery and message in your ads is important, and it allows your target consumer to identify with your brand. If your buyer is predominantly women in their 30s than your marketing materials should have pictures of women in their 30s or things that appeal to women in their 30s. Even linguistics are important. Your survey can tell you more specific information about your market like what other products or hobbies interest them or what charities they support. This helps you to predetermine which partnerships might work best, or where sponsorships should go.

2. Grow your database. Depending on your business, someone who buys your product may or may not be in your marketing database. Signing up for their newsletter alone may not be enticing, but helping your company improve (and possibly getting a discount for it) might be good enough reason to fill out the form that ultimately brings them into your database.

3. Develop new products. Growing companies develop new products. The fact is, the cost to acquire a customer is higher than selling more to them. If you have a ready made customer list, than you have the opportunity to sell other complimentary products or services. I always admired Wilson’s Leather who offered leather lotion with every sale. It was presented as the best way to protect your investment. They offered additional care products beyond that. A customer survey that asked “what is the biggest concern you have with our product” might indicate that wear and tear  is a common answer, allowing you the insight to know that developing a product care product would be valuable.

There are many ways that you can use the data that your customers willingly provide you. Referrals, product ideas, product features, etc. Knowing the data can allow you to increase revenue and decrease costs. How have you used surveys to your business’ advantage?

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redwall LIVE is an Indianapolis Marketing Company that provides Campaigns, Strategies and Tools for Successful Marketing

The Deficiency of the Paragraph: A Better Marketing Opine

All the people that work for me know that one thing that is very important to me is clarity, simplicity, and ease of understanding. More specifically, I like bullet points, line spacing and easy and clean formatting. Bold Titles. Often I receive emails that contain content that is a combination of important and unimportant content, full of text. Not Separated and ordered by importance. It is actually fatiguing (and I am not making that up). The individual delivering this content to me feels that it is all important enough to take the time to write it into the email and send it to my inbox. The fact is I want to read every email that comes from a friend or business colleague but the truth is sometimes I am left with little time to really dig into the thought the individual is trying to get across. I skim. Yep, I skim the emails and don’t take in every detail. I look for the high points and then move on. I assume that if it is important beyond that they will either call me or I send me information again. The fact is marketing is the same, because it is communication. Communication with a purpose. Much like these emails I am referring to, and this reader (me) that I am referring to (consider all the more your email marketing). Your message is way to long, ugly and complicated (This message is only going to those that actually fit into this criteria. If you have successfully escaped this in your marketing communications, you are exempt from this criticism). My point is if your marketing message is not focused and to the point, you are getting people that will only skim and get what stands out. In many cases (due to the absence of context) you will more likely get people to simply ignore and move on.  Heck, I do that to my friends, wouldn’t you do that to a stranger? My point, Focus on the high points.

• Use Bullets
• Don’t tell everything
• Tell the most important thing

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redwall LIVE is an Indianapolis Markting Company that provides Campaigns, Strategies and Tools for Successful Marketing

Can you use Google Analytics to define offline Marketing?

It’s funny when you take a look at the patterns of clicks on your website as well as email marketing. It was an “aha” moment for me (and I’m sure other marketers) when I realized I could use the data for more than just how I layout a website.

Google analytics and Click maps are a digital marketing tool but it is not just for digital marketing. They tell a lot more than you might think at the surface of it all. It shows how customers react to images, messages and is great for A/B testing.

As a marketing consultant, we have to come up with stuff like tag lines and catch phrases. Sometimes you have a couple that you know are good, but until you get data from a real selection of consumers, you’re only guessing. The same is true for design, what really draws people to respond? This is where “fun with email marketing” comes in. You have to formulate the content in such a way that it doesn’t appear redundant, but the answers give you a fair snapshot of what is more of an attraction to people.

Once one of our clients who had a website in place – targeted at consumers – had a secondary “promotion” or “call to action” that we put little or no attention into and certainly spent no money advertising. When we looked at our site analytics and realized it was getting a lot of clicks, it made me think. First, the obvious – maybe we should be sharing this more. Then – maybe we can pre-test future campaigns this way? We began using this area of the site (a home page widget like space) to put feelers out for other ideas. If it get’s good response maybe we can duplicated it at a bigger scale.

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redwall LIVE is an Indianapolis Marketing Company that Provides Campaigns, Strategies and Tools for Successful Marketing.

Indianapolis Marketing: In a box

One of the things that I’ve learned about small business is that every business has similar needs, but every one of them has to pick and choose which ones they actually fulfill. It’s as if there is a point where the budget get’s to just the point where the business can actually sustain all of it’s needs and invest in news ones. If an Indianapolis marketing provider can meet the marketing needs of the small business and also the budget, it would not only enrich those businesses but it would enrich itself in the process.

The reason? Scale! Big businesses simply are able to get more because they have scaled it to what proves to be cost effective. The same is not as easy for the small business owner. It shouldn’t be this way. That’s why we say “Campaigns, Strategies and Tools for successful marketing“.

It’s the “marketing tools” part that matters to the small business. The Marketing Team in a Box. The small business owner is often DIY in his approach. The small business owner does what he needs to do to grow his business. If you have the tools to do it well, you will have a better presentation, you will have greater results which will allow you to grow. It is not just about becoming a big business, it is about doing what you do well at whatever level it is at!

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redwall LIVE is an Indianapolis Marketing Company that provides campaigns Strategies and Tools for Successful Marketing.

Shifting to Permission Based Marketing

Companies that are growing have to continue to market their brand and product to keep the business coming in. Permission marketing is a term that is talked about in reference to social media, email marketing, and many data driven methods. Set Godin Says:

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention

I speak more about this under relationship marketing in a later blog.

What do you do when you have a long history of outbound marketing and you want to shift your focus to a permission based model? Well I have an active model to discuss on this one.

We took on a client late last year that had a long history of outbound marketing such as direct mail. They would get leads from direct mail and then sell them, then send out more mail to repeat the process. As much as hip marketers would like to say that this is a tired old way of doing things, it is still a valid method and is producing results. Still, a permission based approach will strengthen your brand and your response.

So what is permission marketing?

When people are marketed to in a movie theater, via radius based direct mail lists, through billboards, etc. they did not necessarily permit the advertisement. Clearly, if I subscribe to your blog, sign up for your mailing or email list, etc. then that level of permission says that I am qualified within your market and interested in hearing your message.

How do you shift to a permission based model?

With our client, instead of slashing successful efforts, we are using the outbound marketing to invite people for a deeper marketing relationship. By partnering with a non profit, we’ve offered a dollar for everyone that will pledge their support through subscribing to the website. YES, We (our client) are donating the dollar for every subscriber. This simple approach is building good will with the community, not being too “on sale now” oriented and is attracting people that will support the brand because of what they stand for.

This is one of 5 ways that we have implemented an “ask” for their permission to connect with them further. The result is response rates far higher and marketing costs far lower. The way to shift to permission based marketing is simple… ASK FOR PERMISSION. The value will be tremendous over time. The greatest way to measure the value of your brand is the size of the permission based marketing database.

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redwall LIVE is an Indianapolis Marketing Company that creates campaigns, Strategies and Tools for Successful Marketing.

Double your marketing dollar (almost) instantly!

Whether you are a small business that is in it’s infancy or a large national brand, marketing budgets are never without limits. In fact, the only consistent problem that all businesses face is that there is always an end to the spending abilities when it comes to what will ultimately increase the value of your brand. All you can do is make sure that you get the most that you are able to out of the investment that you make in advertising and marketing.

There is one method that is commonly overlooked that will expand the reach of your dollars called co-marketing. Co-marketing simply means that you are pooling your investment with other brands to spend possibly half as much per customer reached. It’s not complicated to recognize that if you buy half of the ad space you are still visible to the same number of people. Let look at this a little closer (from a tactical viewpoint).

Let’s say that you are a residential lawn care service. Clearly, your buyer is the homeowner. If you look at the cost to acquire a customer, it is clear that whether you’re paying a door to door salesman, direct mail, television, social media, etc. it is not cheap or easy to get people to buy your product. This is where the handyman company walks in your door looking for referrals for his business. Being the brilliant business owner that you are, you’ve determined to partner up your marketing efforts to double your exposure.

Once you’ve built a customer base you have established trust with your customers. If you present your lawn care customers with the opportunity to save money on handyman services just for being your customer, you presented value to them. If you provide this in exchange for the same with your handyman partner company, you’ve effectively lowered the cost to connect with those customers, and increased the chance of response. Take it a step further and include the invitation in the bill you send them every month and you decrease the cost of a back office expense too!

Partnerships are a great opportunity and if done well, they can increase results!

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redwall LIVE is an Indianapolis Marketing Company that provides campaigns, strategies and tools for successful marketing.