We know that Content is King…yes, yes, yes – we’ve heard that over & over again. But let’s talk about the content strategies being implemented by brands and media leveraging this great sporting event taking place right now. I’m confident it was a full on sprinting event for various brands & powerhouse marketing firms to get their client products or just their in-house writing talent to be considered for this years’ event. Whether submitting product designs or being a head content writer for the television promos or print campaigns, all were gunning for the gold.
Leading the pack of those trailing close behind, Coca-Cola (Coke) has certainly won the coveted spot. I have read that Coke created more than 120 pieces of content for this years’ Olympic Event. But the company’s most brilliant move was capturing Mark Ronson, an English DJ, Grammy award-winning producer, musician and co-founder of Allido Records, to blow away the competition with its “Move to the Beat” campaign for the London 2012 Olympic Games. http://bit.ly/QZoW7L Using the video platform of YouTube, Coca-Cola created an entire series of videos to extend the value of their brand for the Olympics and reach customers in an interactive way. While some companies may still be hesitant to embrace video due to budget or ROI concerns, the forward-thinking marketers of Coca-Cola are diving headfirst.
This campaign has broken the ribbon with their concept of recording the sounds of Olympic sports events and transforming them into music. http://bit.ly/NQMDvF The motivation behind Move to the Beat is to bring teens closer to the Olympic Games while drawing inspiration from London’s musical heritage and connecting the two in a very tangible way. http://bit.ly/MOzd68. Doing so resulted in a cool, interactive corporate sister-website solely dedicated to this Olympic campaign at http://bit.ly/QLBOKf.
Knowing that Social Media would play a key component in their ability to gain worldwide access & participation, they coupled with Facebook on this venture allowing the brand to blast worldwide and engage the masses to create their own music beat! http://on.fb.me/OxDuau
Wow, talk about leveraging Social Media elements with written & video content! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at that team meeting! Just when you realize the enormity of this project & campaign, scrolling through the website you realize that this concept allows all of us NOT IN LONDON to engage outside the normal screaming from the couch or bar stool at the TV, to tap our fingers, dance while cooking or wield our musical talents (novice or expert) TO BE A PART of this historical event. That’s right YOU can create your own beats and let the whole world know you are part of the London 2012 Olympics. Sweet right?
So kudos to the marketeers and content creators at Coca-Cola for taking content creation to another interactive level. And based on the numbers of those Moving to the Beat on this venture, I’d say it’s proven that this campaign was destined for the podium and the #1 spot at that!
Everyone loves Walmart, right? You can get just about anything you need – same name brand & quality products as grocery stores but at a significantly lower price point. In this day when recession is as common a conversation topic as the presidential election (if not more so…lol), everyday people in life & business are looking for ways to snip financial corners to get their needs with not much room for wants. While some businesses are downsizing their staffs, other are cutting the “extras” out of their budgets and even their general operating expenses. I am glad to report that Design Theory is well aware of this issue, how worldwide economics drive business AND we’ve responded.
We know that in order for us to thrive beyond the bottom line, we have to be smart, competitive in our pricing and savvy in our marketing. So taking some pages from Walmart’s business playbook & business acumen, Design Theory offers a variety of solutions for business websites & branding efforts. Move over Walmart, we’re taking a seat at this table too! Established by Jean Perpillant, Design Theory’s primary goal is to assist businesses, small to large, in catapulting their message, services or products to a worldwide presence AND doing so at a fraction of the cost of most big design firms. We offer the same quality of work and development talent as the bigger firms but without making your wallet cry uncle. This includes creating both functional and eye-catching websites, which is at the core of Design Theory, but also SEO and Social Media management and creative development of all print media and brand marketing and more to come!
Coming from an IT background, Jean understands what goes on in the back of the house of websites and has developed a staff along the East Coast (present company included) to give it all the curb appeal needed to entice consumers and grow your profit line. But it’s not just what Jean does, it’s what he loves! “It is gratifying to be able to put such creativity to life”, he says. And that type of passion is conveyed in his commitment to both his clients and his team. He knows how to bring a clients vision forth in an almost tangible way while challenging and extracting the best out of his staff to do so.
Much like Walmart, Design Theory is always thinking and trying to figure out ways to be a “one stop shop” for a company’s total business marketing needs. We take growth & evolution seriously; and we want our clients to know that we truly can offer them a personally catered menu of services specific to their needs. Moreover, services specific to their current and long-term goals so that all elements of their branding work consistently and cohesively across all forums today and down the road. Design Theory currently offers:
Full HTML & WordPress Website Creation
Domain Hosting and Registration (client or privately owned)
Graphic Design
Web Site Traffic Analytics
Website Improvements
Content Writing
E-Commerce Online Solutions
Business Development
Multiple Email Accounts
Web Forms
Social Media Management
Print Media (Flyers, business cards, letterheads, etc)
Branding Materials (such as Brochures, Business Cards, Media Kits, and more!)
At Design Theory, one of our “theories” is we want your business, not your money. Simply put, your business is what’s most important to us. If we can provide a service that is beneficial to and improves your business, then we establish a relationship. And that relationship means more to Design Theory than anything else since your success is our success!
On July 12th I was a part of HubSpot’s highly anticipated webinar “The Science of Inbound Marketing” in which they attempted to host the World’s Largest Webinar. Although they had thousands of people online, unfortunately they didn’t make their goal of surpassing the Guinness Book World Record they had last year. One of the big hooks for it was that depending on how often you Tweeted during the broadcast, you could win big discounts on their upcoming seminar and possibly even free attendance which is worth $600 bucks! So I thought AWESOME – I can surely do that. I mean I am a digital age, multi-tasking gal – how hard can this be?
But despite having great minds both behind it and as the slotted hosts/speakers, it was rather overwhelming to me in a myriad of ways and I was sorely disappointed with it. Their format and dissemination of information truly felt like being on the end of a machine gun – and not the one pulling the trigger I tell ya! It was rapid fire information which caused lack of focus, confusion and even fatigue – all typical of complete information overload in a short period of time. Now I don’t want to give the impression that is was all bad. The information itself was extremely illuminating and the slides gave rock-solid statistics and trends. But it was the METHOD of delivery that was like an assault rifle experience. Now I have NO desire to go to war with HubSpot as I truly respect them as a company and industry leader in many ways. But I feel compelled to say why it wasn’t effective for me and I’m sure many others, that were online. Here’s why…
The webinar started off like many do. Introductions from the moderator as to who the talented speaker will be, what their credentials are and what benefits will be graced upon the attendees. So I removed every distraction, ready with hands on keyboard for note-taking and awaited the flow of great information to make me better at Inbound Marketing than ever! Soon after they began I found myself, a self-proclaimed great multi-tasker, losing ground quickly. I mean we’re talking like A.D.D. Multitasking without any Ritalin-Tweet, read, listen, store this in your brain and look at these slides…all at the same time! And as the information infantry moved in, they wanted more Tweets – no 20 isn’t enough to get tickets, now you need 120 during the only ONE HOUR broadcast to win free entry to this gig. The great slides contained a lot of information of which I could only GLEEN the wealth contained therein before they were on to the next. I counted over 20 during the one hour webinar but I am confident of the inaccuracy of that amount because I lost count numerous times as they flew from one to the next. Once again, it wasn’t a “waste of time” kind of experience. It was a “Gee, I wish they had done it differently” so myself and the thousand others could have really reaped the huge benefits ascribed to it. So what have I learned from this?
Bullet Points for Successful Webinars
Doing webinars is a great tool for networking, marketing a product or service and conveying information in a structured way. But I believe that a few things need to be considered for success of the mission:
Informational Impact – If you are considering hosting a webinar, take your time during it to convey the important information in an ear & eye-pleasing way. If possible, offer the audio or full broadcast on a limited replay for the attendees. As I’ve opined above, if a person can’t take notes during the webinar without knowing shorthand or feels frustrated by the speed (or lack thereof), they’ll lose interest, log off before it’s done and may not tune in again. Allow Absorption Time – You have to disseminate the information in a manner that allows for total absorption via both eye and ear so attendees can formulate solid questions or just make sense of what they are being told or reading. If not, they will not reap the value of your hard work & time as well as your industry expertise. All the Artillery is Not Always Needed – If you have a lot of information, don’t feel pressured to convey it all in one webinar broadcast. Try breaking your information into several webinars or a multifaceted series. If you are conveying good, solid industry information, you will create a following and people will return for more. What better way to earn some Social Media street cred! Who Is Your Comrade? –Isn’t creating relationships at the heart of Webinars? I often think it’s about touching an audience with your business prowess, conveying information that creates dialogue with your contemporaries and building your business network.
So at the end of the day, HubSpot is still the amazing inbound marketing strategy powerhouse it was before this famed webinar and more than likely, I will attend several of their webinars in the future. Just maybe armed with a little Kevlar…lol. What about you? If you attended this event or have an opinion on this subject matter, shoot me a comment.
WordPress 3.4 has a number of exciting new tools and features. Over the next several weeks I’d like to share some of the highlights with you. Please do note that the current version of WordPress is 3.4.1 -which includes some important bug fixes- but because these features were included in the 3.4 “Green” release, I’ve chosen to reference the core.
One of these new tools is the Theme Customizer, which provides a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor for some style and display options.
To access the Theme Customizer page, you can reach it via a link directly under the active theme area.Alternatively, you can find it in the admin menu bar beneath your site’s name when you are logged in and viewing your site. You should end up at a screen looking like this:
Looking at the options on the left side, we can see that there are a number of things we can alter. (I am referencing WordPress Twenty Eleven. Depending on your theme, there may be varying levels of support for this, so be sure to check what version of WordPress your theme is compatable with.)
The top box drops down to provide the description of the current theme–though there isn’t an option to change it here.
The second allows you to alter the site’s title and tagline. If you make a change to either, you will notice that the preview on the right instantly updates. This is the case with all edits done from the customize page — hence the WYSIWYG feature — though none of the previewed changes take effect until you click the “Save and Publish” button on the top of the toolbar.
One of the coolest functions of the “Theme Customizer” tool is the “Color” option. This allows you to preview and select a change in color scheme– for example, Twenty Eleven has a light and dark color scheme built in– header text color, background color and link color.
Clicking on one of the swatches displays a color wheel, which allows you to slide and select your color, or you have the option to input a hex value if you already know what color you’d like.
Layout does just what it says–allows you to select from the theme’s default layouts. It is important to note that this change seems to cascade throughout the site, so if you select “No sidebar”, you will not only be removing it from your homepage, but from your blog as well. If, however, you want to set all your pages to the same template with minimal amount of clicking, this is definitely the way to go.
Header Image lets you select a header image from the defaults, uploads, or upload a file. The uploader is much like the media uploader, allowing you to drag and drop the image or select it by browsing. The uploaded tab shows you images that you have uploaded previously. The default tab allows you to view all header images packaged with your theme. You also have the option to remove the header image entirely.
Background Image is, again, self explanatory. This gives the same options as the header image (upload, remove and, depending on your theme and your prior changes, uploaded and default). Once you make a selection, you are given the options of background repeat (change if or how your image tiles), background position, and background attachment (if the picture scrolls with your content).
While an option available in the Settings>>Reading menu, Static Front Page with the customize tool is easy to find. You also can preview how the front page will look if you switch it to a static page, or if you want to display your posts.
The option to customize your WordPress theme via a WYSIWYG editor gives you even more freedom and control over your site. If you don’t know CSS or don’t want to mess with the theme’s style sheet directly, you are no longer forced to choose a theme simply based on available color schemes or background. Are you a theme designer/developer? Then check out “Add Customizer Support to Your WordPress Theme” to learn how to add customizable options to your own theme.
Many people ask me many questions about content writing. They vary from the off the top of the head answers to “I actually need to research that” responses. So when our head honcho at Design Theory asked me about researching client industries, billing and how clients respond to issues surrounding that, what solutions to these problems look like and how to not cause heart failure with the billing from it all, I realized I had quite a bit to say. So rather than writing it all, Jean & I decided to give you an over the shoulder peek at our conversation on camera. Some of it you might already know while another facet may give you an Ah-ha moment. Either way, I hope it conveys some worthy considerations when you incur some of these same questions and frustrations with content writing, research and billing for your web and branding clients.
Here are some of the highlights:
Professionally Developed Content
*Clients need to understand the process & value of the necessary research & writing that will be critical to the success of their website.
*Not everyone who owns a business can necessarily write well about their business.
*Understand the importance of the potential consumers experience will be via the client’s website.
*Make the potential consumer/service recipient feel like “I want to do business with them or by their product.”
Content Writing Time & Research *Do your due diligence in research to create great content to create traffic for the client *Become intrigued and entrenched in the subject matter & then writing from a position of “seeming” expertise and authority. *”Write It Like You Live It” positioning in content writing
Billing
*Use reportable billing software (i.e. Toggl) that report specifics to prove good utilization of time
*Consider incremental billing
*Establish a great rapport & trust so they so they don’t question the integrity of the work & the corresponding billing
We know that Content is King…yes, yes, yes – we’ve heard that over & over again. But let’s talk about the content strategies being implemented by brands and media leveraging this great sporting event taking place right now. I’m confident it was a full on sprinting event for various brands & powerhouse marketing firms to get their client products or just their in-house writing talent to be considered for this years’ event. Whether submitting product designs or being a head content writer for the television promos or print campaigns, all were gunning for the gold.
Knowing that Social Media would play a key component in their ability to gain worldwide access & participation, they coupled with Facebook on this venture allowing the brand to blast worldwide and engage the masses to create their own music beat! http://on.fb.me/OxDuau
