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Can I Just Do It Myself? Sometimes.

More than once I have been asked if a client would do well to save on investing in a custom-built website and instead could just DIY it with one of the available online site builders.

For a small business or a startup carefully counting dollars spent, an online website building tool may be either very practical or may be seductive, but in a bad way. We are realists at K2M Creative Media. If you come to us to discuss website creation we’ll tell you the truth.

The truth is, it depends.

What are your goals and needs? That is the crux of the decision to be made. In the beginning of our website creation process we try to eek out this vital information.

What is your company’s goal for your website? Are you trying to attract customers from a new segment? Do you need it as a tool for brand awareness? Do you need to generate leads? Are you offering up a source of information and resources to a particular constituency?

What do you need your website to do for you? Do you need an ecommerce store? Do you need different calls to action on the site? Do you need data collection on the site? There are countless questions.

You may not know all of the answers to these questions when you begin. Especially if you are just starting a new business. But if you don’t clearly understand the goals of your site, it may be difficult for you to create one that is actually helpful to your business.

If you think there is a chance you will need to make changes to your site after it is built, either option may have benefits. If you use an online tool, you can make the changes yourself whenever you need to without any worry about dollars spent or calls to designers. But, if the changes you need are not easy to create or are not available in the pre-fab tool you have chosen, you may end up at a roadblock.

Additionally, there are certain conventions that the search engines prefer over others. Some DIY sites are better at setting you up in the right direction and some are worse. A custom built site, by knowledgeable creators, will set you in good stead. It would be good to know that your Google requirements are met and your SEO is properly set up right out of the gate.

Honestly, there are benefits to both models and it depends on your goals, needs, knowledge base and budget. If you want to talk about options, be in touch!

Please, No Fake Words in My Sweet Sauce

Every industry has its proprietary terms. Those words that when spoken, make non-insiders feel especially like outsiders. Some industries have complete languages of their own. I have friends who speak legalese, medical, philosophy and more. Sometimes those inside the industry bubble don’t realize that they are speaking a language that others don’t understand. This can make for terrible bedside manner — when a doctor thinks she is explaining, but the patient has no idea what is being said. It can make a consultation with an attorney confusing beyond belief. And, I have witnessed graduate students in university classes turn pale and feel ill listening to a professor who seems to be speaking English, yet is unintelligible to the students.

The Marketing field is no different. It has more than its share of in-speak words. In fact, depending on the area in marketing, there are actually sub-categories and the digital sphere is a major culprit. I have had clients who confessed that they had paid others for digital marketing services without actually knowing what the alphabet soup meant, even though they were paying for SEO, CTR, CPA, CPM. Because there is an element of the theatrical and artistic in marketing, there are sometimes marketing pitches full of dramatic and artistic license. “These upmarketing efforts to your subgregated target” (subgregrated?!?) or “smart digital optimizationalism”—yes, I’ve heard that said as if it were something real. These were made up words! Actual fake words used to intimidate the client and make them think they were witnessing some miraculous inaccessible marketing magic.

There is a history of large marketing companies with inflated overhead and huge operations budgets trying to quote clients and give pitches that impress and hide what is actually happening. The idea of saying, “we will be billing you hundreds of thousands of dollars because our conference room is very swanky and we like to play air hockey while we think” isn’t appealing. Here’s the thing…well, one of the things…There are some valid difficulties to billing and quoting in marketing. Clients don’t always understand paying for creative or intellectual equity. There is value in a great creative idea or an aha! genius moment. Those don’t just get born immediately. They often take some ruminating, research, collaboration, brainstorming. That is in large measure what a marketing client is paying for. That incubation of ideas. If a quote or bill could be totally honest, it might state that the client will pay for “as many hours as it takes for us to come up with an incredible idea and to creatively plan to execute said idea” as well as the number of actual hours for design, writing, media placement, etc. But quotes and bills aren’t written that way.

We are big advocates of transparent quoting and billing. That is in part because we aren’t ashamed to say that our minds are the thing. That creative development, the understanding of the importance of communication and relationships with the receivers of the marketing –those are the sweet sauce. We’ve got plenty of it at K2M Creative Media and we’re ready to pour it on in 2019!

Color Me Beautiful and Make My Logo Gorgeous

We often talk about the content, concepts and methods of marketing. What about the look? Something as simple as color has such an impact. How do you choose the right colors for your product, event, logo or website?

Are you old enough to remember color wheels? Or to remember your mom having makeup consultations based on the season? “Color Me Beautiful” was a hit book about seasonal color analysis in the 1980’s. The idea was a simplified version of a previous publication and was based in research and writing from the early half of the 18th century having to do with chemistry and dyeing fabrics–the idea of a color wheel was born then.

So, how do you navigate the color wheel? It’s arguably more complicated now, with the addition of tones between colors, light and dark, the appeal of contrasting or opposite colors, the idea of monochromatic choices, and on and on. There is way more than, “I have Autumn hair with a Spring undertone to my skin.”

People always want their logos and promotional material to stand out. What is the perfect combination that will draw the eye of buyers? My advice on how to choose important colors in your business is twofold.

1) Use your gut. Unless you are colorblind, and I do have some good friends in this category, you probably know what you like and what doesn’t speak to you. Go with it. There aren’t such hard fast rules today that you cannot veer from. I mean, the first make up color wheels were in the 70’s….seriously? Have you seen those pictures???

2) My second piece of advice is to consult an expert. Your gut instinct and your personal taste can take you far. However, it’s possible that it can only take you “so” far. Knowing what to pair with a pair of black pants isn’t the same as knowing what colors will draw attention from consumers, which will work well with the back-light of a computer monitor and which will be most visible and attractive on particular types of packaging. I have been amazed countless times at how my talented graphic designers have developed an idea that I thought was already fully formed! Graphic designers have a lot of time invested learning about color. Not only about the color wheel, but about how colors translate digitally, in print and in different types of presentation.

When your foot hurts, you see a podiatrist. Tooth ache? Dentist. Color choices? Color professional. Aka, graphic designer. Personally, I think it works best when the designer is also working in consort with your marketing team and not in a bubble and…yes…that’s what we do. Want to know if you’re a Summer, Fall, Winter or Spring? Be in touch and we’ll do our best to figure it out with you. Should be fun—I love makeup.

Salmonella Social: Half Baked Social Media Isn’t Worth Serving

You wouldn’t serve a half baked dish to your guests. It might taste bad, or even make them sick. But many small businesses regularly serve half-baked social media to their clients or audience. It’s not on purpose. Nobody is setting out to serve up salmonella-esque social. People just don’t know.

Here are 9 (or 10) Indications that a Company’s Social Media Strategy Is Not Fully Cooked:

1. Social media accounts that lay dormant, with no posts since they were initially set up.
2. Accounts that re-post or share and never post original content.
3. Accounts with no images and copy-only posts.
4. Accounts with no copy and image only posts.
5. Social media that ignores customer engagement.
6. Generic posts that have no connection to the location or target audience.
7. Ill-timed posts;
– either posts at times of the day that don’t fit the audience
– posts that don’t take current events account (such as posts about frivolity during a crisis news event)
– posts that don’t take the environment into account (such as posts promoting local beach fun during a snow storm)
8. Social media accounts that never say anything personal about the business
9. Accounts that direct prospects to websites without capturing emails for further outreach

Perhaps one of the most common problems isn’t in the list above because it’s just so big it deserves its own paragraph. Strategy. There actually has to be a strategy. It’s hard to believe, like bang my head on a wall hard to believe, but many companies don’t actually have a social media strategy at all. (Maybe I’ll blog soon about how many companies don’t have a marketing strategy at all…hmmm…). Social media won’t manage itself or just blossom on its own. Sadly, neither do the plants in my house. A lame or limping social media channel may be better off non-existent. It looks bad when a social media account is dormant and it is criminal to let customers go unacknowledged when they reach out via social channels.

Business owners get busy doing their “real jobs.” I hear it all the time. That’s why the strategy matters. Plan before you invite the guests to dinner. Will you have enough time to put the roast in the oven and get it cooked before everyone is seated? That kind of thing matters. Thankfully, while being poisoned at someone’s dinner table is hard to forget, social media mishaps may be easily repaired. Social media strategies can be developed and employed at any time. There is hope and a solution.

Slip and Catch

So often clients connect with me when they are in a skyrocket mode…shooting up and fast, everything is clicking/working and they need the tools to be ready for when the emails start coming in and the phone starts to ring. It’s such an exciting time for them.

There are many times though when a client comes to me, either after that skyrocket moment and they feel the lull of regular business, which feels slow compared to the exciting and fast rocket time. I also meet with clients who begin their first conversation with apologies. They know they don’t need to apologize to me, but they are really apologizing to themselves.

“I have let my blog slip.” – Guilty here.

“I have not emailed my client list enough.” – So guilty here.

“I haven’t redesigned anything on my social media in forever.” – Guilty.

“I don’t use all of the social media channels I could.” – Guilty too.

A favorite was when a new client said, “I haven’t cleaned my house in months.” Not part of the business discussion…but she needed to unload. And by the way — Guilty too.

Yes, there is a level of therapy that can be part of the client relationship. So much about business and marketing is about relationships and interactions after all. So, whey the guilt about her home? People hold themselves up to unrealistic standards about running a business and a home. They get intertwined in our self-assessments – I find this especially true for women vis-à-vis their homes.

It is not only women. A male client told me that since he started his business his personal life had suffered, and he was hoping that as I took over some of the marketing responsibility, it would help him and his family carve out more time together. That was a priority for him because he felt like he was missing out.

However – NO guilt necessary. No self-blaming. We are a Love Yourself business. First of all, nobody succeeds and sells as well when they are depressed, self-loathing or negative. Secondly, when someone slips in their own business goals and knows it, they have likely caught themselves before too much damage has been done. So, a business that starts out with a healthy and regular blog schedule that slips and falls off the routine for a bit, but notices it and reaches out for my help before it’s gone on too long, can usually get back on the blog wagon and fix it.

Did they lose possible business during the down time? Probably. Does it mean the business is not savable? Unlikely.

When the guilt is about not taking all available opportunities, such as not using all available social media channels, or not using all possible sales channels, again – no guilt needed. Not doing enough, but doing some or a lot is still doing. It is a great platform from which to build. There are times when a client will tell me in a hushed voice about what they have not tried. That’s ok. In fact, it’s great. It means we have a starting point to assess and perhaps work from.

The bottom line is that we focus on the achievements of our clients and on their inroads towards success as much as possible. People catch themselves and we create support to help catch them.

Life is full of Slips and Catches. We all slip and then catch ourselves. Expecting perfection and no errors is unrealistic and doesn’t lead to much more than stress and disappointment. I think a goal of near perfection and no errors is great, as long as we understand that as people we are inherently engineered to slip sometimes. It’s more than ok. It’s just great. It’s real life. It is what gives us opportunity to reinvent ourselves, to try again, to work harder next time, to train more, to build, to learn.

People are perfect, but not because they are not flawed or because they err. It’s our mistakes and nicks and dents that make us interesting and experienced and wise. You’ve slipped? Bring it on – we’ve got you!

Marketing – Smoke and Mirrors

In several recent meetings, potential clients have shared their experiences with pitches from competitors or from online solicitations from marketing companies.

Smoke and Mirrors don’t belong in a relationship between a marketing agency and a client.

Marketing companies have called and promised top Google page listings for either an unrealistically low amount of money or an exorbitant amount of money. Marketing companies have come in to present out of touch proposals with no research done about the target market, the client’s needs or desires.

There is a certain amount of mystery that marketing companies have historically. I understand why; much of the work of a marketing agency is creative and intellectual capital. It is the kind of work that is hard to quantify to people. You cannot see it, feel it, touch it. And yet, out of it remarkable things get produced. However, this type of work is easy to mark up in price. Unfortunately, some companies charge a lot of money for very little real work production with a lot of noise about their secret process. Smaller firms and businesses can easily be taken for a ride in this sort of situation.

The marketing companies that call to offer online miracles are easy to weed through. Some companies do honest quality work. I get these calls too and like to ask a lot of questions. I learn about my competition, what’s out there and have made some nice connections that way. I have found a few questions usually clear through the mess quickly. Some of my favorites are:

How much of my payment goes to Pay Per Click ad words versus to your company?
What do you mean by backlinks? Where do you get them? Or how do you make them?
Can you explain what SEO is to me please?

I have actually had more than one marketing solicitor hang up on me after one of these questions. I have also ended up teaching more than one person over the phone—“no, not all of the money goes to Google Pay Per Click because then your company wouldn’t be making any money” or, “SEO…no I don’t think you are correct that it is the same as what I pay for Google Ad Words, that is the Pay Per Click.” But so many people do not understand this wild wild west of marketing and the internet, it is easy to be taken advantage of. Especially if those calling are themselves uneducated but talk a good talk.

It is the client’s right to know what their money is being spent on. Even in a situation where the client is paying for that intellectual and creative work. A marketing company worth their salt is willing to explain what the money is for. I don’t mean that salary breakdowns need to be shared, but to explain that creative capital is expensive because it is valuable is a fair statement. To explain what SEO is and how hard and time consuming it is to achieve is also fair.

For my company, I even believe that with smaller clients on a tight budget it is helpful to explain what parts of SEO and marketing in general they may wish to do on their own to save money. We can work together that way and everyone feels good about the process. My goal is to do what is best for their bottom line and what fits their needs, which is never smoke and mirrors.

The Communication Conundrum

shutterstock_578690737 The most essential element of business is communication. You need channels open to your suppliers, your customers, your employees, and everyone else who plays a role in the success of your business. The question is, are you using the most effective channel for each group – or each person?

It’s easy to accidentally isolate yourself. Baby Boomers remember when a face-to-face meeting, a phone call or a letter were the only options. Some wouldn’t dream of using text, Skype or Instant Messaging (let alone platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr) for business communication. For generations X, Y and Z, digital communication is as natural as breathing.

Maybe you just like email best. Maybe you’d rather pick up the phone. If you stick with only what you prefer, you might be clogging your own communication pipeline.

You need to be flexible, pay attention and use all the tools you have available.

For example: your webmaster sends you an email asking a question. You respond with a phone call, leave a message and then fume for days if you don’t get a return call. Meanwhile, they are waiting for your email reply.

You may find a vendor who is on the road all day will respond to a text more quickly than an email. Your web hosting company might prefer you submit a support ticket via their website.

In this hyperconnected world, finding the right mode of communication isn’t as simple as you might think. Learn what works best for each person or company. When in doubt, just ask.

The Blog: Guiding through the Fog

lighthouse in fog The internet, our phones, our devices, they are ultimately visually and sometimes physically noisy.

We see ads when we didn’t ask for them, we get distracted on the social media platforms that are our favorites, we receive texts for coupons; all of these are a regular part of our day. And our searching has become less sure. We Google something and we know the top choices have often paid for prime real estate. Ultimately, we question what’s real and what’s trustworthy.

As the recipient of the noise, it’s hard to remember that we can be that clear voice of reason in the fog, but how?

The answer is through our blogs, if they are crafted with care.

Believe it or not, the best use of your blog is not to say, “Hey, look at me, I’m awesome. My business is the greatest, the biggest, the best.”

Instead, the most effective use of the blog is to write as the subject matter expert, offering useful information free of charge. Yes, you’re giving away some of your expertise, so you need to be judicious, but you are also filling your website with content, which Google loves and creating the conditions for people to spend more time lingering on your website.

Some basic blogging rules:

Come up with a list of 10-20 topics that need explication or for which you can be the subject matter expert, the maven. Keep a running list on your phone and always add to it, when something strikes you.
Start writing or engage somebody to write on your behalf.
Enlist a skilled editor. Accept their criticism.
Determine if there is a timeliness to any of the topics (tax issues during tax preparation, medical insurance during open enrollment times, civil rights issues around MLK DAY) and schedule the blog posting (or have the marketing firm help you choose these.)
Select an image to accompany the blog, one that is available for use and fits in with the color scheme of your website and your social media sites.
Post a blog at least monthly, sometimes weekly, depending on the traffic that currently visits your website.
As soon as the blog posts, link the blog to any social media accounts the company has or that you personally have, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
Consider a small Facebook boost to publicize the blog, which will bring traffic to the site.
Utilize Google analytics to gauge how your website is being surfed after the writing posts. You can determine if you’re gaining any traction and bringing people to your website.
Repeat! Don’t stop blogging. Old blogs look stale. Go back and cull old blogs if they are no longer relevant or require editing.

Marketing to Moms – We’re on the Phone!

shutterstock_266982734 Successful marketing requires you to identify, find, and interact with your target market. If the demographic you seek is the “mom-market,” where can you make a connection? As a busy mom myself, I can tell you exactly where you’ll find us – on our phones!

In May 2017, Edison Research did a survey on “Moms and Media.” These highlights from that survey confirm what every mom already knows, but what might be surprising to some business owners.

Nearly every Mom owns a cell phone in 2017
In 2017, more than 9 in 10 moms use social media
Moms spend an average of 3.5 hours using the Internet every day
55% access the Internet most using their cell phone
84% of Moms use Facebook

The study outlines the mindset of today’s mom as a consumer.

She lives in the mobile space
Her mobile lifestyle dictates how she adopts other behaviors
She drives social media; checking in multiple times daily
She doesn’t shy away from new media or technology
She is a heavy media consumer

So, here’s the bare minimum you need to interact successfully (and profitably) with the “mom-market.”

A well-designed website that looks good and works well on all devices – especially smart phones. “Responsive” website design is a must.
An intriguing and engaging social media presence. Start with Facebook – that’s where the moms are!
Online advertising that drops you right in front of your target audience. Think Facebook ads, “boosted” Facebook posts and sponsored posts on Facebook.

If you want to tell us about your product or service, you’ll have to have that conversation in the space where we spend our time. We’re way too busy to go searching for you.

Blogging and Slogging: Hurricane Lessons

Untitled In August 2014, we wrote about the great flooding of Southeast Michigan and our impressions of that time through the lens of marketing. Click here.

We got to revisit some of those lessons recently. The lesson occurred a few years down the road, a few hours south on I-75 in the face of Hurricane Irma. One of our writers now lives in Florida. Here are some of her reflections:

During a potential disaster, business owners perform a critical function helping people prepare for the onslaught: Everybody needed gas, bottled water, batteries and a supply of non-perishable food. Obtaining these took a lot of work (not always successful, by the way), and some businesses really figured out how to help their customers, which in turn, built customer loyalty.
Communication is key: Publix, a large local grocery chain, posted what supplies they DIDN’T HAVE right at the front entrance and when their next delivery was scheduled. Publix also sent out an email, posted on their doors and told the news media how long they would remain open and gave an absolute closing time of Saturday night at 9:00 p.m.
Not all companies utilized social media to its full advantage: Franchise owners like fast food restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations often have little social media presence for their specific store and seemed to have no ability to let people know if they were open or not or what supplies they had in their establishments.
Some businesses communicated less than others: Gas stations were the least nimble of all businesses. Gas lines were interminable. A station with no lines meant that there was no gas left. Very few stations took the time to post a “Out Of Fuel” sign at the entrance. In addition, perhaps because most stations are self serve, no employees came outside to help shepherd people through lines or to ration gas usage; some customers filled tanks and back-up gas cans as well. After the hurricane, the Florida turnpike authority hired people to handle the gas lines at the turnpike rest stops and there were some law enforcement authorities at major intersections throughout Georgia and Florida.
Emergency staff isn’t always available to help in large numbers: Hotels were completely overwhelmed and understaffed in the cities to which people were escaping. We stayed at 6 hotels in 7 nights in Georgia and they often didn’t update their websites quickly or answer their phones, but they worked hard to accommodate everybody, including a lot of pets and wheelchairs.
The ability to email and text was very helpful: Businesses that had email or text messaging lists and working email servers were able to let people know when they were closing and reopening. Our gym let us know by email and text when their power was restored and what their hours would be for awhile. Even though this is typically a 24 hour gym, there were still curfews and their staff needed to be able to be home by curfew. We found that being able to return to working out was an integral part of returning to normalcy.
Community organizations offered respite: Many synagogues, churches and mosques sent emails to their members once their power was restored, letting them know that meals were available or inviting members to get some relief in the air conditioning or to recharge their phones.

Lingering Effects

Even as I write this, it’s not all normal in south Florida. One marketing relevant reflection is that, in addition to the tree detritus that is everywhere, the billboards and shopping center marquees are destroyed. I wonder how long it will take to get the billboard canvases reprinted and re-installed. I also wonder how the cost of that is going to be shared between those who rent billboard space and pay for a certain number of days and those who own the billboards. Businesses, particularly restaurants and food stores, still don’t have their full inventory and it’s going to be a bit longer before anyone can order what they want or get their favorite food, including basics like bread and peanut butter. Traffic lights are not yet completely functional. Neither are street lights. This makes driving take longer and nighttime driving is disconcerting.

For a while, the birds disappeared. I am in love with herons and egrets and they simply weren’t visible anymore. But now they have returned in abundance, especially the elegant long-necked Great Egret. Where did they go during Irma? I didn’t see them at the hotels in Georgia.