Amp Your Brand!

1. Keep It Sticky. Teach me something and I’ll stay awhile. Teach me continually and I’ll be sure to come back. Provide me with information (content) that is useful to me personally—not a 24/7 billboard about how awesome you are. I need high-quality content and useful information. From there, our relationship may grow to a deeper conversation and deeper trust. Excellent content is king.

2. Be Search Engine Friendly. Take the time to learn about SEO or hire a professional. Poor website SEO is like putting a shingle up in a cave—no one will know you are there. Feed your site fresh content. Yes, on top of your day job, you have to post fresh content to your website either in news items, updated work, or a blog post. If your site is sleepy two things happen. 1. Google loses interest and your SEO plummets. 2. Customers think you are lazy/not current. Here’s a quick crash course on how to plug some basic SEO into your site.

3. Plug In Google Analytics. This is a free, easy program to plug into any site. Know what pages are attracting search engines and potential customers. Rearrange or improve your SEO and content from there continually. Check your analytics weekly and make revisions.

4. Get Socially Amped. Your site must include ways for your visitors to go deeper in relationship with you. Do this with a blog, social network buttons (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), an email subscription, RSS button, Facebook “like” button, re-tweet & share buttons for social bookmarking.

5. Invest in Professional Design. Don’t skimp here or your business will never grow beyond your circle of friends and family. Design for your industry’s culture not for your personal taste (just because you love pink, doesn’t mean it should show up on your site unless it’s relevant to the product or topic). Research other award-winning sites. Stay relevant by choosing a design firm with a proven track record.

Here’s are just a few of the sites Birdsong Creative has created for our clients: Community Church of Hendersonville, New Hope Academy, Wedding 101, @stickyJesus.

What’s the biggest challege you have right now with your website?

Toni Birdsong is a communications strategist at Birdsong Creative. She oversees marketing strategy, copywriting, and social media for Birdsong clients. She recently co-authored @stickyJesus, a book on social media and faith. Follow her on Twitter at @ToniBirdsong and @stickyJesus.

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1. Listen & Study. Before you jump in, listen to the texture of the conversation going on. Study other Twitter streams of people you admire. Note the thoughtful mix of useful information, links and original content.
2. Be Kind. Sure, you feel like saying “duh,” several times a day, but try to refrain. Imagine you’ve walked into a business mixer. Don’t embarrass yourself or others by being condescending or strutting your stuff.
3. Don’t be a Twitter Cop. Allow newbies learning curves. Don’t tweet-spank people who are bumping around or not hip to the lingo. No one likes a know-it-all and in the land of social networking NO ONE knows it all.
4. Keep it Clean. There’s nothing worse than getting hit with the F bomb in your Twitter stream before you’ve had your first cup of coffee – or any time for that matter. Cursing is jarring, telling and can permanently severe a relationship. And, it’s just rude.
5. Don’t DM prematurely. Take your time and build trust within Twitter relationships. Don’t ask to Skype, call or meet with someone you don’t have an established relationship with. It will only annoy them and could shut the door permanently.
6. Don’t Overshare. No one cares about the woes of your irritable bowel syndrome or that the Tex Mex you had for lunch continues to surprise you. Really. They don’t. I promise. So stop it.
7. Don’t Overpromote. It’s cool to give a shout out to your clients from time to time but if you over do it, it won’t take long for your followers to start to yawn. They will figure out you are either void of any original thought, a chronic brown noser or part of the paid noise that is creeping into the Twittershpere.
8. Share. Loosen your grip and share your knowledge. Trust that sharing great content will result in great opportunities.
9. Attribute Content. Always, always, always credit re-tweets and attribute quotes. Twitterverse is a small world and tweeters are savvy to pirates. Argh!
10. Help a Brother Out. If you agree with the cause, RT community events, non-profits, fundraisers and philanthropic causes.

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Ever feel like you’ve missed the social media train? Don’t fret. Even though the train has left the station, you can still catch a ride.

If your business is not engaged in social networking, chances are you are not engaged with your own customers. While not every social media tool is right for every business, studies show that the “trend” you were hoping social media would turn out to be . . . well . . . isn’t. The advertising medium is here to stay and the proliferation of communities of brand lovers talking about your business — and businesses like yours — is growing like a Chia pet in spring.

So why explore social networking options for your business? Simple:

Traditional Marketing is Losing Its Punch. People love to talk to each other. The one-way advertising speech from business to customer is over. The Internet has revolutionized buyer behavior and savvy businesses shouldn’t expect traditional marketing strategies to pull the influential punch it has in the past.

Your Customers are Online. You need to fish where the fishing is good. More and more, online communities are where you will find your customers and potential customers. Get cookin’ on Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Yelp and find out what your target market is thinking, buying and yes, even ranting about. Check out forums and groups for opinions and tailor your marketing message to the conversation.

Build Brand Awareness. Social media presents an incredible opportunity to generate brand awareness within your target audience. Research what channels and tools your customers are using – just ask them what communication channels they prefer. Yes, it’s as easy as a survey. Begin to contribute, share and engage with them. Then, feed your Google porch dog and by engaging other blogs and platforms and linking back to your own website.

Social Networking Makes You Smarter. It’s true! Social media can be an incredible (and FREE) learning tool for you and your team. By building a strategic following and followers list on platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn, you can create a funnel of information that will grow your industry knowledge. If everyone else is out there searching great content down and sharing it, your learning time has been cut in half! This creates personal power and opportunities for innovation.

Social Networking Strengthens Relationships. There’s a secret sauce to social media that creates a bond not easily explained. By reaching out to others with tweets, posts and sharing information, there’s a camaraderie that has real “community” power behind it. More than a just a trumpet to tout your wares, social media platforms offer an exclusive opportunity to grow genuine friendships and build your business at the same time.

It Helps with Brand Management. Reputation management is now a real reality for many businesses. As more and more opinion sharing is taking place online, businesses need to be listening to the good and managing the bad. As Yelp and other opinion sites become more widely used, as a business you should regularly Google yourself, set Google Alerts for your company name and be proactive in managing your brand. Being engaged daily might also help you turn a grumbler into a raving fan if you can get in front of concerns promptly.

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Being a creative it’s easy to rationalize a client that just isn’t a good fit for your firm. Throw a feeble economy on top of that and it becomes even tougher to stay away from the client danger zones that end up costing you money in the long run. Who hasn’t overlooked blaring warts on a sexy account? Creatives do it all the time. We love what we do and we’ll often throw in free wart removal services in order to keep doing it another day.

But the quest for creativity can promptly kill profitability. Design isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a hobby — but rather a means to keep a roof over your head and a PBJ in your George Jetson lunchbox.

Love yourself enough to run if you hear a potential client say:

1. “I want top of the line design, but this is all I can afford.” Doesn’t everyone want a maximum return on his or her dollar? Remember, your time has a value too. You also need to get the best result for talent and time invested and remain profitable to keep your doors open. Communicate your capabilities and explain the process involved. For those clients hit hard by the recession, rather than turn them away, we created a budget-friendly solution that doesn’t exhaust our resources but meets basic business needs to get give lower budgets traction. Check out: Birdsong Creative’s Hot Launch program for accidental entrepreneurs and start-ups: www.birdsongcreative.com/HotLaunch/index.html

2. “There’s no budget now but we can compensate you on the back end.” You only have to jump through a few of these vapor hoops in your career before you realize these partnerships only benefit one person — and it’s rarely you. If a business isn’t capitalized on the front end with a decent marketing budget, chances are your ship isn’t coming in today or on the back end. Choose this payment plan only if you have the financial ability to subsidize other people’s ventures.

3. “If you cut me a price break now, there’s more work in the future”. Proceed with caution. Sometimes, this is a genuine promise with real projects so use discernment. Think of it this way: When you go to the doctor and ask him to set a broken leg, do you ask him to reduce his rates promising him future work? Not likely.

4. “I like this — can you make it look like this?” When a client comes to a professional design firm with an established design direction — that 99% of the time is really bad stock art — this is not a good start. Their design sense is so far off, no amount of persuasion or teaching will fix stunted design sensibilities. This could easily turn into a tug-of-war relationship. If it does survive, the client’s learning curve will likely cost you.

5. “I just need this ‘simple’ thing, and I need it ‘fast.’” Fast and quality cannot co-exist peaceably. This client does not understand or value the brain trust that goes into the creative process. This kind of comment signals a project tempo that their emergencies will fast become your emergencies. Trust your process and don’t allow the client to re-engineer what works for your team (a huge temptation for creatives who get stars in their eyes over the bigger, more glamorous projects!)

6. “I had to fire my last designer.” While this may ignite your hero complex – don’t go there. This is your queue to press in and ask the right questions about what fell apart and why with the last designer. You may be able to save the day if the client’s complaints are legit but if he or she trashes the last designer, you need to walk. Okay, pick up the pace and consider a sprint.

7. “Sorry I’m late . . . again.” This is okay once or twice but if a client is chronically late it indicates he doesn’t respect your time. If he or she fails to return calls or emails in a timely manner, there’s a good chance he’s stalling you and courting other firms for a better price. Chronic lateness could also mean the client just isn’t organized; a deficit that could come back to stunt a project and cost you money in the end. If you are always late too, then fahggedababoutit — you may be a match made in heaven.

All of these scenarios have grey areas that require scrutiny on a case-by-case basis. When a client asks these questions, it’s not an indication of any kind of character deficit. Fantastic people can be terrible clients for a creative person. Creative projects require a strong launch and need to be agile enough to withstand changing variables inherent to the process. Trust your gut, employ the wisdom of hard lessons learned and ask the right questions up front. This will save you valuable time and cumulatively, may even save your business.

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Birdsong Creative recently was honored with two prestigious Communicator Awards, an award that recognizes communications professionals for creative excellence.

Birdsong won the Gold Award of Excellence, the groups highest honor, for copywriting created for the New Hope Academy website. The Gold Award of Excellence honors writers “whose ability to communicate puts them among the best in their field.” The Birdsong design team also won a Silver Award of Distinction for visual design of the same website. The award recognizes communication and design firms that “exceed industry standards of quality and achievement.”

The Awards are sanctioned by the International Academy of the Visual Arts and judged by a “Who’s Who” in media including top-ranking creatives from Brandweek, MTV, Disney, Wired, Yahoo, Sothby’s Institute of Art, and HBO.

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(1 of 3 in a series)

When we create communication plans for our clients, we often advise them to start a blog on their website for a number of reasons. Blogs help you connect with clients, potential clients and position yourself as the industry experts you are. Blogging is also a great way to catch Google’s eye when it’s out trolling for information.

There is a “but” to blogging, however. With the skyrocketing number of bloggers on the web, many bloggers write so poorly their message falls on deaf ears. It’s easy to spend hours writing bad copy. It’s more difficult to craft compelling, engaging copy. Before you begin blogging, you need to think about what that means and get a plan.

So if you aren’t a writer and can’t hire a writer to blog for you, what should you do about writing effective copy for your blog? Simply make a commitment to get the basics down. Then, blog away! Don’t let your lack of experience discourage you from a foray into writing, just be aware of the need to be intentional with your copy.

Here are a few tips to get you started. This is the first of a 3-part series on Better Blog Copy so stay tuned to make sure your blogging is time well spent.

Tip #1: Relax. The best writing is conversational. After you’ve got your first draft down, re-read it, fix the flow and grammar and ask yourself if you have expressed your thought in the best, most exciting way possible. Let your personality come through. That is part of your brand.

Tip #2: Make your paragraphs easy to read. Simple words. Simple sentences. Don’t try to impress with fancy words you will only annoy the reader. Write your copy as if a 12 year-old is reading it. If your content is valuable Using one word, two word, and three word paragraphs is not uncommon in good copywriting.

Tip #3: Your first sentence is crucial so make sure you have a point and state it clearly. It must capture your prospect immediately. Your first sentence hooks their interest and your final sentence compels your prospect to act or think deeper about what’s been said.

Tip #4: Makes sure your copy flows. Your copy should read seamlessly. It shouldn’t limp or hiccup. Double check your punctuation to reduce ambiguity and miscommunication. Each paragraph should connect with the prior one. Ask a friend or associate to read your copy for you and comment before you post.

Tip #5: Your headline is your most important element of your piece. In fact, studies show that 80% of your prospects don’t read your brilliant copy beyond your headline. Which means, you only get one in five visitors to read ALL your copy. So, spend 80% of your time making sure that you have your best possible headline.

Remember, the goal of your blog isn’t to do something just because everyone else is doing it – your time is too valuable for that. The goal is to make sure you, your company, and your information actually connects with your intended audience – and gets results! Take the time to make your copy work for you.

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Innovation makes a comeback.

Okay, no one enjoys an economic squeeze and the crop of grey hairs that comes with it. But let’s face it, it’s the hardships we’ve walked through that have made our nation — and our businesses — exceptional. Innovation springs from the parched wells of possibility and the greatest ideas rise up from the pangs of empty stomachs. Always have. Always will.

If you’re paying attention, there really are some wins happening inside this economic downturn. For instance:

1. The customer is once again king. Business large and small have been forced to “enthusiastically” refocus on the customer or face extinction. We call it economic smelling salts. Nothing “brings you to” more abruptly than seeing other businesses drop off the landscape … one by one. There’s a determination from service providers bent on giving a more cost-conscious customer more value and better service.
2. Innovation makes a comeback. Currently the U.S. is ranked No. 6 in innovation in the world. If it takes a recession to spark a new revolution, then let the Dow take a dive. No one is listening to the naysayers grumble “that can’t be done,” because we know that somewhere — right now — it’s being done. Big thinkers are being forced to amend their paradigms and chase neon rabbits. New technologies, processes, ideas, products and perspectives are born every minute in a recession. Now that’s a good thing!
3. Networking has evolved to “chic.” Networking over lunch, at events and online via the proliferation of social network platforms, isn’t just acceptable, it’s downright chic. Check out Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook if you haven’t already. Genuine, talented and focused people want to connect to solve your problems and spray their brand of miracle grow on your next project. A harvest of useful information is being shared rather than hoarded. We’re listening to one another and aligning to build that better burger — and it’s working!
4. Generosity rules. Recessions remind us that business is about relationships big and small – not about a Holiday card and a generic gift basket. “Titles” are loosing their clout as CEOs lose their jobs and generosity is stepping in as the great equalizer. Those looking out for others before themselves in a recession will see their own opportunities soar.
5. Collaboration and creativity = currency. Collaboration and creativity have become the currency that hooks the next opportunity. We’re coming together more and using parts of our brains relegated to complacency in times of plenty. There’s an air of possibility and working parallel paths toward success. We’ve become virtual sales people for others whose livelihoods are in more danger than our own. Cross-promotional opportunities, referrals, bartering, sharing resources, co-op marketing, volunteering and thinking someone else’s story more than our own is just one way we’ve come to redefine success.

Basically, in many ways, the recession has forced a flood of businesses and individuals to become the people with whom we’ve always wanted to do business. Is that such a bad thing?

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Nike brand without even showing the logo.

It’s a question that makes creatives cringe: “So, what’s the difference between a logo and a brand?”

Actually, it’s a great question and we’re glad you asked.

A logo is a graphic mark; a concrete object — a thing. It communicates your company name with type or a graphic element. A brand on the other hand isn’t a “thing.” A brand, it’s been said is “what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Your brand is a promise you’ve made that your client believes in. It lives in their hearts and minds long after your logo has left the building. It’s your personality, your values and what people can predict — and expect — about you and from you. It is the sum total of your customer’s experiences and perceptions.

Too, a brand is not the sum of your logo, tag line or overall campaign — these are simply “expressions” of a brand. For instance, the Nike “swish” is the company’s logo. The Nike brand is the message of power, competition, excellence, victory and hard work. Disney has a logo typeface known the world over but it’s brand is making dreams come true. Additionally, Apple has a logo that would make an alien stop and clap but Apple’s brand is “thinking differently” and it is expressed in everything from their written ads, their package design, their commercials, their CEO and their employees.

Our office has a melting pot of competing brand lovers — some might even be borderline brand stalkers. We love Starbucks. We love Apple. We love Disney. We love Target. We love IKEA. We don’t purchase based on logos, rather, we purchase based on our trust and love of a brand that repeatedly gives us what they’ve promised.

So as hard as you work at building your business, it serves you well to craft, guide and manage your brand carefully. Now more than ever, it’s branding that sets companies apart and wins loyal customers — logos alone can’t lay claim to that kind of fame.

AMP YOUR BRAND: Here are just a few of the many questions we ask clients who come to us for brand development.

1. What are the core values of your company?

2. Does your name, copy and tagline reflect your core values?

3. If your company were a person, what would its character be like? What qualities stand out? Is your company creative, inspiring, bold, lively, accessible or sophisticated? Is it serious, quirky, innovative or reliable?

4. Why do customers choose your business? What sets you apart? Not what you think sets you apart but what actually sets you apart. (Ask them!)

5. What are the feelings your most satisfied customers get when they work with you? (Fun, friendly, serious, somber, exciting, whimsical, brainy, empowering).

6. What values are most important to your core customers?

7. Does you’re the tone of your web, ad, collateral copy match your brand personality and promise?

8. What is one thing that sets you apart from your competition? How are you telling that story?

This is a very abbreviated skip across a very deep pond called Branding but it will at least give you something to cook on as you dive deeper into who you are as a company and why the world should care. It’s also a very slight nod to the topic of logos, both of which will get more real estate in future blogs.

© 2009 Birdsong Creative, Inc.

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Life IS good!

Brand Strategist Scott Talgo once said that “a brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment.” Which begs the question: While you may be able to catch ‘em, can you keep ‘em?

A few years ago while doing business in Los Angeles we had a client that no matter how many marketing dollars they threw at their brand or how many new additions they made to their product line, their company could not break through a certain level of profitability. They came to us for help.

At the onset, we were thrilled to be doing business with such a positive group of people and such a positive product line. They had a line of calendars, artwork, office accessories and rec wear that that carried very positive, life-affirming messages on them. The company’s visual look was tight, the products well thought through and the price point right on. We looked at their messaging, which was sound. We had them fill out several in-depth branding analysis about who they were and what their motivations were; about their ideal client and where they wanted to take their brand. Everything “looked” healthy.

We couldn’t figure out the problem until the third and fourth meeting when we met the client afterhours to discuss their upcoming marketing plan. At that time, the “true colors” of the client began to surface. It became clear that the three owners of the company were not aligned with the values of their brand . . . nor with one another. While their brand espoused health, inspiration and hope, in person, the owners of the company had little in common with their product.

They talked about their customers in derogatory terms; they were loose and fast with their speech and filled the conversation with offensive references and innuendos that event