Woodalls.biz—Helping a microsite come to life.

March 2nd, 2009

HamiltonBerchman recently completed work on a microsite with PULL Inc for the Affinity Group brand Woodall’s.

Affinity Group is a leading publisher of recreational outdoor enthusiast magazines. One of its hallmark brands is Woodall’s, North America’s best known publisher of RV and Family Camping travel directories in print and online. Woodall’s Campground Directories are a highly dependable and accurate resource for people who are passionate about the RV lifestyle.

We worked with PULL’s expert brand development leadership. PULL provided guidance to Woodall’s marketing team in developing the true line “Everywhere RVers go” as the cornerstone of a new communication initiative to reinforce the brands competitive advantage. HamiltonBerchman brought the communications to life on the Internet with the development of the microsite and an email communications initiative.

The microsite was lauched in the first quarter 2009 to rave reviews by Woodall’s North American sales organization.

Breaking Down The Multi-Headed Monster-Email Marketing

November 5th, 2008

This is part 2 of a 6 part series.

Something we all do in the modern business world is email. It is a staple to getting things done. Are you using email marketing as a tool in your marketing mix? If not you are missing a high-return opportunity. Email is something you already do every day and, if done correctly, can be one of the most effective forms of marketing you undertake.

So, why get into email marketing?

1. You already know how to do it
   You email clients and prospects constantly. Being able to create email content should be relatively simple.
2. It compliments other marketing initiatives
   For those people who may not visit your web site regularly,  see your printed advertising, or be in constant contact, email is the most cost efficient and effective way to stay in touch.
3. It’s a new and recurring revenue stream
   Your email marketing will be organic and change over time. You can offer different content, a new offer, or have a design tweak to make the email more effective. It will improve your relationship with customers and prospects and inject new and recurring sales.
4. It does work
   Based on data from EmailStatCenter email is proven to return your investment.
   1. Cost Effective
      Once the initial cost of setting up an email publishing system is done (design and programming) the cost of publishing is much cheaper than anything printed.
   2. Feedback Is Immediate
      Once you publish you will begin to see feedback data with most data coming back in 24-48 hours.
   3. It’s Relevant and Personable
      Not only can you segment your market and target specific groups of people, you can personalize the message with a “Dear Joe” greeting AND deliver different content to “Joe” than everyone else on the list.
   4. It’s Measurable
      You can review actionable data from every email you send. You can see how many people opened the email and what links were popular by seeing what links are being clicked.
5. Email Marketing can take different forms
   1. Quick Announcements
      For when you have something quick to share. Think of it as a postcard email. A simple note or piece of information works well in this format.
   2. Email Newsletters
      These should build upon relationships you have with existing clients and other business relationships. The focus should be on providing relevant content to your readers. Often the content doesn’t necessarily relate to your products or services, but rather highlights information, knowledge, or expertise you have. For example a grocer may send out an email newsletter that shares recipes and the benefits of organic produce. See my DesignDetails email newsletter as an example.
   3. Catalog Emails
      As the name implies this is an email highlighting content from a catalog of offerings that are typically in print or online. The purpose of this type of email is to encourage readers to purchase.
   4. Press Releases
      If you have a list of media contacts you can certainly share the latest company information in an email press release format and can be a great way to attract coverage.

Conclusions

Know that one email marketing solution may not do everything you need. You may need more than one type of email solution to get the job done. The one item I cannot stress enough is that email newsletters are measurable. You get concrete data on:

• successful deliveries
• unsuccessful deliveries (email addresses that are not working)
• number of people who opened your email
• number of people who clicked on any links in your email

…and many other parameters. For the cost, email marketing cannot be beat as a form of marketing communication.

Let us know if you have any questions, or want to get started with your own email newsletter.

Breaking Down The Multi-Headed Monster-Web Sites and 5 Things To Look For

October 8th, 2008

This is part 1 of a 6 part series.

In a previously published article in our monthly email newsletter DesignDetails, I talked about the “multi-headed monster” of using the Internet as a communication medium for you or your business. I think it’s time to revisit the “monster” and talk a bit more about each component.

The components we mentioned in that article include:

• Websites
• E-mail Marketing Campaigns
• Blogs
• E-Newsletters
• Social Networks ( Linked In, Facebook, MySpace, etc.)
• Video ( YouTube, Revver )
• Forums (Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia, Hosting your own, etc.)

First we will tackle web sites and in subsequent posts we will talk about each of the other components.

Your Web Site

It’s no secret that in today’s business world the first place someone will most likely interact with you, your company, product, or service is through your web site. Therefore it is imperative that your web site is in line with your marketing strategy and message. What impression does your web site make on the first time visitor?

I have written a list of guidelines below that I use to assess the effectiveness of any web site.

1. Purpose
   1. What purpose does your web site serve? If you cannot answer this simple question you are wasting both time and money.
      1. Is the purpose for lead generation, consumer information, business-to-business (B2B) information, e-commerce, service, sales, etc.?
   2. Who is your web site targeted at? Who is your audience?
2. Design
   1. Is the overall appearance of the web site attractive?
      1. This is subjective, but basic.  Widely recognized design design principles apply:
         1. alignment
         2. balance
         3. consistency
         4. contrast
         5. proximity
         6. use of white space
   2. Does the overall design reflect the right mood? Professionalism? Playfulness?
   3. Is there a simple hierarchy to the visual elements? Some things bigger, some smaller, rather than everything the same size?
   4. Is there contrast in color? Dark type on a light background. Light type on a dark background.
   5. Using images effectively? Are the images being used related to the written content?
3. Organization
   1. Is information on the website organized in a way that is most effective to its purpose?
      1. Can people easily find what they want and need?
      2. Can anyone get back to the home page easily?
   2. Is contact information easily accessible?
4. Content.
   1. Content is king. Well written, focused content can do more for your website than you can imagine.
   2. Stuffy “corporate speak” copy does not work on the web. Brevity is important.
   3. Does the web site clearly communicate to who or what your are dealing with?
   4. Is the value proposition, or mission statement clearly presented?
   5. Is there a call to action? What are you asking people to do; buy, communicate, engage?
   6. Ask yourself the question “What’s in it for me to be at this web site?” If the content cannot answer that question you need to address the value proposition or the mission statement.
5. Maintenance
   1. Does your website say “last updated in September 2001″ anywhere? Do you have “under construction,” or “coming soon” pages? You need to “feed-the-beast,” meaning you need to continually update and refresh the content on your web site.
   2. Your business changes. Your website content should update to reflect your business.
   3. Do you have tools to easily update and maintain content. How long does it take to make a change on your web site? Should not take more that 24 hours for simple changes.

I could make this list much longer. However, I do need to honor the tenet of “brevity” here. However, the points made above should help clarify some important considerations for your website. There are a wide variety of ways to market and promote your business online and your website should be the hub of those efforts.

Take a few minutes  to review your website and look through the questions above. If you find you can answer many of the questions in a positive sense then you are in good standing and are on your way to getting the most out of your web site investment. However, if you cannot answer some of these questions positively than it might be time to revisit your web site so that it is working for you.

Let me know if you have any questions, or what you think about this post in the comments below.

Be True To Your Clients

May 6th, 2008

I read a blog post yesterday at The Selling Sherpa that I found interesting called One Cup Of Coffee. I actually find many of The Sherpa’s posts interesting, but the story in this one is something we, as customers, have all experienced at one point in our lives.

The story is about a customer service experience commentary on what you, as a provider of a product or service, should be focused on–giving your clients and customers what they want and need. We read that good service is not being delivered, an attempt at manipulating you is. It really is as simple as that. If you are not sure what your clients want or need just ask them. You can always email them individually or conduct an online survey.

What is important here is to know that trying to ‘pull one over’ on your clients by either not listening, not asking, or employing tactics that can be construed as trickery will ultimately get you nowhere. Be true to your clients. They will pay you for it.

Giving People A Reason

April 18th, 2008

How do you get people engaged with your business, product, or service in the digital space?

The great opportunity available to everyone using the Internet to communicate their message is the chance to innovate and create. A myriad of ways exist to engage people using the Internet. Depending on what you are communicating, what your defined goals and objectives are, and what strategies you employ will determine what type of success you will encounter.

Many of these experiences are based on tried and tested techniques, and people experience them on a daily basis. For example blogs, online forums, and email newsletters have all evolved in their own ways to give people a reason to engage with your message and the value you can provide them. The best ideas and practices bubble up to the top and are continuously refined to deliver the results people are after. You only need to go and look at the blogosphere to see the endless discussion on an ever-expanding range of topics about making things better, faster, and more effective.

Why should someone care about what you have to say? Why should they engage with you? What about innovation and invention in ‘giving people a reason?’ What are the ideas and techniques that have yet to be invented? These are new paradigms that interest and engage people on a mass scale in ways never thought of before. I do run across new examples of this from time to time.

An Example, Or Two.
There are two recent examples of this type of innovation from the music world. As some of you may know the music industry and their distribution model have been brought to the Internet in a haphazard and less-than-elegant way. Had music companies been innovative and not resisted change, their fate today might be different–but we digress. Our  two examples come from the band Radiohead. The band earlier this year released their latest album “In Rainbows” first, and only, on the Internet. Other bands have done this before, but what Radiohead did was to allow people name their own price, and then download the entire album. Many people thought they were crazy to do this. Would people actually pay? Or would they just run off with a freebie? The feedback that I read reported that, on average, people paid what would be considered the price for a new CD. So, overall the experiment worked. Some people paid little or nothing, others paid a bit more and the result was proof of a new way to release an album for a major music artist. Radiohead then went to release the album on a traditional CD a few months later.

The second experiment involves remixing a song from their new album–the song is called “Nude.” This is not the first time an artist has done this on the Internet, but this time Radiohead is charging 99 cents per track to download. People then remix them to create a variety of new versions of the song. People can then upload their mixes and the public then votes on these mixes to arrive at the most popular version.  To date there are over 1600 remixes submitted to the website.

It will be interesting to see what the final results are from this second experiment. What ways can you engage your prospects, clients, fans using digital technology? What examples do you see within your industry or others that get you thinking of ways you can give people a reason to engage?