The Marketing Boutique

If Pinterest could....

2012-02-09T23:32:00.000-05:00

Source: a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net via Rasa on Pinterest

Pinterest is the latest technology in the social sharing platform arena. It is a photo sharing platform where one can select {pin} a photo and place these pins in personally created categories {boards}. It is a good promotional tool for businesses like fashion designers, crafters, cooking blogs, photographers, wedding planners and florists who can showcase their product and service via beautiful photos.

Source: google.com via Britnie on Pinterest

On the flip side, you can pin a photo but Pinterest will link the photo from the last pinner, not from the actual owner of that photo. The photos always keeps the link of the photos’ owner but it only shows up when you click on the photo but on your board it will show the last pinner. I’m not sure what is the value in that process; maybe someone can clarify this point for me.

Plus, Pinterest specifically tells you to ‘play nice’. While I’m not into criticizing other people’s work but sometimes an honest view point or funny comment does have its place. All these, ‘yummy’, ‘I can’t wait to try it’, ‘love it’, ‘oooh wish I had one’ type of comments, I mean after awhile, what’s the point?

Also, we can’t rearrange the photos {pins} on the boards. If Pinterest could change just this one feature and give us more creativity and better organization of the content on these boards, where it would allow us to create a storyboard based on other people's photos, wouldn't that rock? Right now the arrangement of the board is first pinned is first placement and built upward.

The 2nd best thing about Pinterest is now we (bloggers) can embed photos without the hazzle of contacting other bloggers for permission.

Source: soufflebombay.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

What? Come on! Its a baby, a funny poster and peanut butter with chocolate recipe. Come on, you know you love these.

Happy Marketing!
Cecilia

The Marketing Boutique Wins 2nd Place in the 2011 Canadain Weblog Awards

2012-02-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Thank you to the Canadian Weblog Awards for this recognition, The Marketing Boutique is awarded 2nd placed in the Best Weblog About Business & Career /Affaires et carrières Category.

We also thank the huge number of volunteer jurors who worked on their spare time on the weblog awards and to Schmutzie of Schmutzie.com who is the creator of this award.

What is the Canadian Weblog Awards?
The Canadian Weblog Awards promote good weblogs of all genres from across Canada year round through regular interviews, articles, and the nomination, judging, and an award process that culminates with the announcement of the top three weblogs in each category on January 1st.

For more information on the Canadain Weblog Awards, click here.

Thanks again from Cecilia and Jamie. We will see you again next year!

2012 Retail Trends and The Economy

2012-01-24T21:35:00.001-05:00

Retail Trends |

A great video presented by chic.tv. Here is a wrap up of the interview:

Interviewees:

Robin Lewis, CEO & Managing Editor, The Robin Report
Neil Cole, CEO & President, Iconix Brand Group
Alexis Maybank, CMO & Founder, Gilt Group
Joe Gromek, CEO, Warnaco Group
John Long, Partner and Retail Strategist, Kurt Salmon Associates
Andrew Tilton, Senior Economist, Goldman Saks

Retail Trends:

Burst of spending (consumers say they won't spend but then spend more money than anticipated)
Tale of two consumers (The employed and unemployed)
Everyone is looking for value
Consumers have traded down
Young working professionals are connected and as a result:

Shop online (good use of their time)
Make fast decisions (quick in and out shopping style)
Don't go to the brick and mortar store (don't have too because they are connected)

Keys to success

Use multi-channel / more channels
Expand geographically
Create powerful brands (lots of marketing $$)
Drive forward/take advantage of technology
Innovate
Be everywhere
Stay current
Provide new experiences to get them in the store

Online Trends

Selling online has doubled
Does not cannibalize brick and mortar channel
In face, helps to increase sales.

Personal Note on Success:

Stay focus
Be great at one thing
Listen to the customer

Happy Marketing!
Cecilia

Four B2B Companies That Use Facebook Right

2012-01-21T11:36:00.000-05:00

Facebook | Faccialibro

There is a change in the air.

Facebook is becoming a solid tool for B2B industries. We thought we would check out which companies are on Facebook right now and doing it right. (I'm sure you know that this is not an in-dept report....and if we missed a b2b company that deserves to be on this selection, feel free to add your company to our comment section.)

We picked four B2B companies that use Facebook ranging from great to good based on user interaction, content engagement, application uses and brand positioning:

Bombardier - http://www.facebook.com/BombardierAero : Our number one, the winner and all around best with respect to B2B Facebook tactics. It offers us a great design, engaging photos and a FB page allowing their fans to post and provide their comments.
Siemens Water Technologies - http://www.facebook.com/siemenswater?sk=wall. They provide quality content, really like their water quiz section and casual videos. They should consider expanding their quiz section to engage a younger audience and fix their video page with a teaser headline for easier selection.
Taco HVAC - http://www.facebook.com/TacoHVAC#!/TacoHVAC?sk=wall. They read like a happy company. I want to work for them. I would suggest adding the photo and events applications, these would make their news feed page more organized, give important trade shows more visibility and help direct their visitor to current news.
Smalley Steel Ring Company - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smalley-Steel-Ring-Company/126999777335065. Fun photos with a FB page also allows their fans to post their comments. I would suggest adding an email app, perhaps a white paper and/or more personal photos such as their sales staff at a trade show, some local news plugs would be great to add to their FB page. And, of course, they need to get their vanity link.

You are probably wondering why I'm suggesting to engage a younger audience. Social media's manner of working is the opposite from traditional tactics. Meaning social media first engages a larger audience who then pushes your target audience towards your company; whereas traditional tactics are directed only towards your target audience.

The second reason is that this younger audience may be one day your future client. Most importantly, they are the rulers of social media and done correctly you can build your online brand with their engagement.

Lastly, it is still free to add a quiz and other items on Facebook, so take advantage. Remember - opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.

Happy marketing!
Cecilia

Recognizing Quality Candidates: My Five Favorite Interview Questions

2012-01-19T17:08:00.001-05:00

I often preach that your staff are a key component to your company's success. I've certainly learned this in my career experience in retail, but I'm confident this is true across other industries as well. Interviews offer a small window of time to realize a potential candidate's quality. Great people get snatched up quickly! Here are my go-to questions for finding a star.

1. Tell me about our company.
2. What can you do for us?
3. How long would it take you to make a meaningful contribution to our company?
4. What important trends do you see in our industry?
5. What do you NOT like to do at work?

Seek out answers that show the candidate respected you enough to have prepared for the interview and those who share a passion for what you do.

Happy Hunting!
Jamie
@wolfetoday

Three Factors That Affect Your Advertising Budget

2012-01-15T16:19:00.000-05:00

traditional & online advertising

Advertising is considered a short-term objective. As such, what you need to accomplish for 2012 should be how you develop your advertising budget. Remember; design an advertising budget with your entire marketing plan and not as a single activity.

1. Reduce sales cycle: An educational style advertising program will help seal your brand position and messaging. Consider this under the education and awareness factors under your sales process. The ability to establish a company in a value-add position will help to reduce your sales cycle leaving your sales people more time to build a relationship and getting closer to the sale.

2. Brand Development: A USP advertising program will include positive elements over the competition that will help build your company's brand image.

3. Competition's re-Position: You can’t know what the competition is doing all the time and more importantly, you may not even have the financial capacity to keep up when they announce a new service or product. However, a focused advertising program will keep your clients and prospective clients’ in-the-loop with what is happening with your company as well as your competitive edge over the competition.

Happy Marketing!
Cecilia
@themktboutique

What I wish for 2012

2012-01-07T20:42:00.002-05:00

wishing you love | amore, sempre amore

Hi guys!

Happy New Year. Hope you had an enjoyable holiday and a safe return to work...

We will start off 2012 with our ever so popular post, What I wish for. We may even make it an annual event. In this year’s post Jamie and I decided to combined our wishes.

Can you guess which wish belongs to whom?

For more original thought;
For smartphones to become even smarter;
For the US presidential candidates to run with more integrity and creativity and less pointing fingers (Who is originally from New Hampshire?);
For more women into leadership roles;
For the retail industry to stop using so much packaging;
For those inspired by social movements such as “occupy” to stay inspired and maybe try traditional management practices, it may help to bring about real change;
For less social media ‘strategy’ experts selling books – isn’t social media social and how much could there be to write about in an ever-changing platform;
For the online value of companies be based on real expertise and not on linking strategies, Alexa Ranking and Facebook subscribers;
For less ‘being nice’ just because you want your link on a popular blog and to more truthful comments;
For less opinion makers and more unbiased news reporting;
For less dependence on our resources by supporting local shops, buying vintage items and refurbished furniture;
For less goodness themes and to more acting good;
For more thank you's, please, hello, and kind regards on emails;
For the rise of young bakers, backyard vegetable gardens and cooking with moms;
For becoming financially savvy;
For more real fruit and less of corn derivatives;
For more volunteers;
For more acceptance that there is room for everyone on this beautiful earth.

Happy marketing!
Cecilia
@themktboutique

Here is our last year's post - What I wish for 2011.

Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays | Buon Natale | Joyeuse Fetes

A warm thanks to all our readers and friends. We truly appreciate your support and enjoy hearing from you. Thank you for all your well wishes!

We send you our very best and all good things for 2012!

This is our last post for 2011, we will see you again in the New Year!

Jamie and Cecilia

Seven Tips For Holiday Business Greeting Cards

2011-12-18T10:40:00.000-05:00

merci | gracie

I was planning on sending this post in November but it got lost for awhile. So, it is a little late. I'm sure your holiday cards have been sent already. Perhaps you can use these tips next year!

1. Use a combination of ways to send your message. Depending on your territory, market and client, you should consider sending your holiday greeting in paper and electronic format. Some people really do like to receive a card in the mail, starting with me. Okay forget me, the point here is if you have clients say in California then go the email route. However, if you have clients in Japan do the paper route.

2. Give Back. If you are using the email format, then consider using the money that you've saved for charity. Perhaps to your local community or to a worthy cause. Even if still send paper cards, try to give back during this time of year. This can even create good-will with your staff.

3. Add a personal note. Add your own special message in addition to the general holiday greeting.

4. Handwritten signature: If you are sending a paper holiday card, then take the time to hand-write your name. Please don't get your signature pre-printed; you’ve basically wiped-out any meaningful message you have on the card, burr. You still want to, you say? Then consider not going with the paper card and just use email. But you still need to follow with #3.

5. Make it important: This is not a project for your junior staff or your son because you are busy. This is an important message at an important time to show thanks to your clients, staff and colleagues who have helped you and supported your business. Make it your business.

6. Change the theme yearly: This is one time where you can get magically creative and outrageously expressive. Take the opportunity to showcase it here!

7. A time for appreciation: I'm sure you know this already, there is no additional message used and not a medium used to promote your company.

Happy Marketing,
Cecilia

What's in a name? Everything.

2011-12-13T22:37:00.003-05:00

Brand Strategy |

After reading that the Huffington Post will now be in Canada, I decided that I should really read up on what this news blog is all about. I don't see anything different in its format when compared to a general newspaper would offer expect for one element - their business model.

The Huffington Post has a huge number of freelance bloggers and syndicated columnists where many are unpaid.   These bloggers provide their content for free with the hopes of getting their work noticed.

Nice set-up.

Brand Name
Being curious of the Huffington Post's background, I discovered that Arianna Huffington is using her ex-husband's last name, which brings me to this post. What's in a name? If Arianna called her news blog Stasinopoulos Post, would it have had the same steady climb to success? Sure, I've never spoken with Arianna, but I suspect that even she believed that her news blog would gain faster credibility if it carried an old English name.

Timing of Your Brand Name
Probably in no other time in our life has timing been so important when it comes to developing a brand name. Take for example our name, The Marketing Boutique. We were late.

We were late coming in the world wide web with our domain name, The Marketing Boutique and if I had to do it all over again today I would pick a name that doesn't have the word - boutique. When we decided on the name, it was to showcase our wide number of skills we brought to the table, never thinking that the social media platforms would have such an important impact on our brand name.

The other truth is that we get many inquires about budgeting for a boutique due to our domain name. Not that we are complaining but this also means we have to work double to expand our key words to ensure that we get other types of consulting inquiries.

Social Media Platforms and Your Brand Name
Yes, it true.  Facebook and Twitter have made it a challenge for us to stand apart. Here are some fun truths that we've experiences with social media platforms:

No Control: There are 3 other companies called The Marketing Boutique listed on Facebook.
Limited Space: Twitter only allows 14 characters for a Twitter handle, which came to @TheMktboutique. We still discuss whether we have gone with our tagline "@getnoticed"?

Happy Marketing!

Other articles of interest:

Update on eCourse:
We've finalized our outline for one of our eCourses, Gifted Blogging. You can read about it here. If you have any questions, please contact us at info(at)themarketingboutique.net

Make Money with your Blogging: Pioneer Woman Style

2011-12-02T12:19:00.001-05:00

I guess the Pioneer Woman would be the Martha Stewart of the blogosphere. Ree Drummond, or otherwise known as Pioneer Woman offers us her personal take on living on a cattle ranch, home schooling as well as her cooking and photography tips.

Why am I talking about Pioneer Woman, you ask? There is a movie in the making about her love story with her husband, aptly named Marlboro Man. Is this not the best scenario we would all love to have when it comes to our financial aspiration with our blogs?

My movie would be called..., oh wait a minute it is not about me.

Back to topic.

Let’s do a strength analysis of Pioneer Woman’s Blog:

First-in-market: I don’t do my research in this area but my gut feeling tells me that Ree was the first-to-market in the ‘city girl goes country’ market position.
Dedication: You can say what you want about Ree but she is dedicated to her blog. She blogs daily and if you want your blog to get noticed, blog daily.
Personal: The Pioneer Woman’s blog is also very personal. Tone, photos and content are all about her loves, likes, family and daily life.
Unique Content: No rehashing someone else’s blog post on the Pioneer Woman, that’s for sure. All content is her own.
Corporate Identity/Brand Position: Unique, friendly and fun.
Photos and more photos: After all, what’s a blog if it doesn’t have photos? This is one area that I aim to have more in 2012 for our blog.
Niche Target Audience: There are lots of other blogs trying to get in this niche target audience but as you can see being first-in-market supported by dedicated daily blog posts does provide many benefits.

I hope this analysis helps you with your blog brand development and finding your niche target audience.

Happy marketing!

Other interesting articles:

Tom Fishburne - Content Marketing 101 (Cartoon) {I love this guy!}
TMB: 3 Tips Using Facebook

Corporate Events: Why Events Matter in Business

2011-12-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

You are probably thinking that hosting a corporate function in today’s economy is a dumb idea. After all, you’ve sent your ‘Happy Holiday’ card and even took your top clients out to lunch, so what’s the big deal about a corporate function, anyway?

Most likely during lunch with your client you spent 50% of your time talking business. And, while you will never admit it, your client is in all probability thinking that this lunch is well deserved considering all money they’ve sent you’re way.

Not quite the outcome you wanted and you still spent $150.00.

Now take that amount as a cost-per-person when you are designing your budget and create a good feel corporate function, one that:

Entertains: Give your clients the unexpected. They won’t think it is well deserved, they will be thinking, ‘Wow, you care!’
Amplifies your Brand Position: Yes, how you say thank you for your business lends to your brand image. You don’t have to have a yearly corporate function during the holidays, consider one every 5 years or something less costly, like a summer bar-b-q.
Shows Appreciation: Don’t talk business. Your client will probably think that you will at one point during this affair, but continue to surprise them and make it all about them. They will really love you for it.

Happy Marketing!

3 Tips: Using Facebook for Business, B2C and B2B

2011-11-29T22:00:00.005-05:00

Facebook Marketing Tip for Small Business |

I'm sure you heard this before - if Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world.

These charts recently released from HubSpot this month not only show that this statement as fact, it also shows us that Facebook is still leading in usage and preference when it comes to social media outlets.

For any business in b2b or b2c with a modest marketing budget, the question is:

How can you use this information on Facebook demographics to your advantage?

Analysis

It shows that there are more women, between 18 - 34 years of age on Facebook, followed by individuals who are parents (Chart 24). This would suggest that the largest demographic on Facebook is the mommy demographic and if you provide a product say diaper service or children's clothing, then Facebook is a perfect outlet for your business.

Chart 46 reveals that Facebook outpaces any other social media outlet when it comes to your target market connecting with your brand, which suggests that your company needs to be on Facebook. Even if your target market is not as strong as the mommy demographic, being first, networking and having a presence does have its advantages for any business.

Charts 40 and 42 shows that if you want to increase your followers you will need to add more items to your Facebook page. Recently I saw a commercial on television that ended with; "Like us on Facebook!" which suggests that you've wasted 5-10 seconds and a lot of money when you should have said something else on air.

Finally Chart 43 reveals that your target audience spends most of her time on her Facebook Newsfeed, so make your content worth reading!

Recommendations

To increase your Facebook followers: add something extra or special just on Facebook for your target audience to "like you". Discount, report or coupon would probably work well.
To maintain your Facebook followers: post only once a month and post something in addition to your blog post.
To create engagement with your Facebook followers: Write in a personal tone, add a dash of humour and occasional insight.

I've selected only a few charts for this post. You can download the entire research collection directly from HubSpot.com.

Happy Marketing! And, you can like us on Facebook....
Cecilia

More great articles:

Simplify The Sale: Getting it Right and Getting my Money

2011-11-21T11:12:00.001-05:00

I'm back!

Where have I been, you ask? Well, as all of you LOYAL followers may have read in my prior TMB post, I was luckily able to take a 2-month hiatus from my various on and offline business and community support activities to take care of my new son. As much as I don't want to bore you with all the trials and tribulations of being a new Mom (okay maybe in my next post), I have one important question for businesses, which came to me as a result of my tiresome maternal adventures:

Do you want my money or not?

A giant whack on the side of the head came to me because my life was completely turned upside down with this whole parenting thing. Being a new mom means I only get three, nonconsecutive hours of sleep, get on with my day and I still need to buy stuff.

So, which business got my money? The answer is simple: whoever made it easiest for me to shop.

Shortening the Buying Cycle
Just like your best performers, you business should also be in forward motion, always finding ways to make the process better.

Whether you're in B2C or B2B, don't make your customers jump through hoops to purchase your goods. Make it easy for them to choose you by offering ample payment options adding helpful staff and great hours doesn't hurt either! If you have more modern ways to shop/order than your competitors do, then market yourself as such. Be the obvious choice for your customer.

I challenge you this week to simplify the sale.

Make it easier to pay, and I promise you that more customers will be cashing in with you.

Happy selling!

Jamie
@wolfetoday

Best Sales Practices Blogs:

Retail Best Sales Practices Articles:

Ninjamatics 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards Annouces The Marketing Boutique as Nominee

2011-11-20T18:08:00.002-05:00

We are very pleased to announce that our blog, The Marketing Boutique has been nominated for the Ninjamatics 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards in the Business & Career category.

The 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards are a juried competition with nominations open in 37 categories between January 1st and October 31st, 2011. The nominees shortlist will be announced on December 1st, 2011, and the winners will be announced on January 1, 2012.

The Canadian Weblog Awards accepts volunteer jury member and you can apply online. While the deadline for 2011 is now closed, there is always next year and it is opened to everyone. You don't have to be Canadian to be part of their jury members.

Jamie and I are very honoured to The Marketing Boutique nominated!

Happy Marketing!
Cecilia
@mktboutique

Local Promotion with Houdini; Original, Essential Theme and Limited Time Offers

2011-11-06T21:16:00.003-05:00

Houdini.com

I recently learnt how Houdini got so much local press. Houdini would pick the top of the local press building to conduct his magical, impressive performances. This way the local press would have no choice but to write about him - pretty good, right?

This got me thinking - what could we take from this tactic and bring it to today's market as a promotional stunt, without breaking any laws or performing a death-defying act, of course!

Let’s review what Houdini brought to his audiences:

Originality: Houdini did what no one else was doing. Example: have someone wear a costume of “The Flash” and let him stand outside your store pointing to your door. This is affordable and funny.
Showmanship: Houdini was a skilful performer. Of course, this can’t replace customer service but in the spirit of this promotional tactic, having a complete promotional program would bring you better results.

Staff: Ensure your entire staff has bought-in to this tactic. Meaning when you do get a client in your store your staff should not be dismissive about the tactic, it’s what got your potential sale in the door!
Script: Have a script to engage your customers (for new and old customers, treat them all the same!).
Products: No point having a gimmick outside the store with nothing inside the store. If we continue with “The Flash” outside, then how about something “flashy” inside, like a 2-for-1 special, The Flash cupcakes or speedy, speedy service.

Short and Sweet: Houdini did not over stay his welcome. So rule number 1, a cheesy promotion should be short and sweet. You can do it annually if it was a success but that would be it. Or, in current marketing speak, "Limited Time Only!".
Essential Theme: Houdini offered the shock and awe theme. Yours, well for this post we have The Flash. Sure you may be thinking, what? But I like it. What's yours?

Happy Marketing!

p.s.: We’ve been on hiatus for awhile. I decided to take the summer off and our lovely Jamie is a new mom so she is enjoying her baby for the time being. We hope to hear from Jamie soon!

Update on The Marketing Boutique Blog!

2011-09-06T01:18:00.003-04:00

We are updating our blog. Please stay with us and thank you for your patience.

Jingle, Jingle...Jingle, Jingle... Oh, thank you Degree Deodorant, now I remember that I sweat.

2011-09-03T15:02:00.005-04:00

You know what I'm talking about.

That Degree Deodorant where they make women wear a bell bracelet so that these women can 'hear' how many times they use their arms during their busy day. It follows by the people at Degree stating that we - the female population - can finally understand how deodorant is very important for us because and stay with me here, women hear the jingle all day long and we can then connect this sound with our need to stop sweating.

Every time I see this commercial, I ask myself, “Who wrote that? Who approved that? How did it get to air without anyone laughing at this nonsense? Was it a man or a woman?"

If it was a man then, really dude?

But this also suggests there are not enough women in senior management that mange this product. Because I would hope they would have or should have said, "What? Are you kidding me? Come on, Bob, we are not showing that!"

If it was a woman, I am disappointed and feel sad. Because this tells me that after all our work towards female equality it is still a losing battle.

Are we really just all that? Who is this woman they are targeting?

And, given with what has happened lately (Financial crisis, Madoff, Mortgage problems), don't we surely need a new type of leadership. Not this.... not this...

Of course, you are probably thinking, well this advertisment did its job, it got me to notice. But was it the right way? No. Did I buy the product? No.

I guess the people at Degree won't be calling me anytime soon for a consulting gig.... maybe I will blame this post on Jamie.

Happy Marketing!
Cecilia

@themktboutique

No Laughing Matter: The Truth Behind Employee Turnover

2011-09-01T20:57:00.001-04:00

Share |

No matter what industry you hail from, this post is for you. Employee turnover is killing businesses and most managers are turning a blind eye to this margin-sucking activity. Pay attention when your staff start to drop like flies, because a few simple tips can help you to preserve your investments. Remember, human capital can be just as valuable as the green stuff; don't let it go to waste!

1. Hire the right people:
Take your time during the interview process to get the right candidate the first time around. DO check references and DO be thorough in your questions and with your expectations. Be extra alert during training; if it's not going to work out, cut your losses early, before you get burned.

2. Offer room to grow:
Incentives are part of a great working environment. Whether it's career advancement, more vacation time, salary augmentation, or increased autonomy; be prepared to have rewards for staff that stick with you for the long haul.

3. Give regular feedback:
A good manager balances praise and constructive criticism. I'm personally a big fan of public appreciation and celebration, when merited. Give generously, and give often. Bookmark regular employee evaluations at the point of hiring and make sure both parties have the chance to speak.

4. Keep your ear to the ground:
Listen to what your staff are saying, and ask around how everyone is feeling. Give yourself the opportunity to improve the environment at your workplace before mutiny stirs.

Wishing you loyalty and longevity,

Jamie
@wolfetoday

Tanner's Tale: 24/7 Social Media Strategy Success

2011-07-20T10:17:00.005-04:00

Monitoring your brand is an important facet to the strategy.

As important as it can be to send out messages, it’s equally important to respond to commentary and to monitor what’s being said about you. I will explain now the Air Canada example.

Earlier this year on a lovely Friday morning, a young boy and his mother were travelling from a small town in the United States for a three-day vacation to New York City. The boy’s name is Tanner, and he suffers from life-threatening, degenerative disease which keeps him in his special wheelchair at all times. It’s not just any wheelchair you see, this customized machine has special mechanics to help him be more autonomous, including assisting in speech, movement, and overall pain management.

Well, Tanner’s chair had to be checked at the gate, as expected, but upon arrival, Tanner and his Mom learned that the chair was broken to bits. The airline offered a generic wheelchair replacement they had on hand at the airport, which they took, but his Mom knew this would be absolutely devastating to the trip. The airline said they would try to contact a repair company, but as the family’s trip was only for 72 hours to the city, it wasn’t much help.

For more info on the adorable and inspirational Tanner Bawn, click here.

Feeling defeated in the taxi ride to the hotel, Tanner’s Mom took out her Blackberry and tweeted her frustrations to anyone who would listen. Within an hour, the message had been read, added to, and re-tweeted by thousands of people. Some offered to help, and some were outraged. Almost all of them used the hashtag #AirCanada. The messages were seen by over one-hundred thousand people by nightfall with the number of retweets increasing by the hour. It could have been a PR nightmare.

Why wasn’t it?

Employees at Air Canada noticed the name trending on twitter within the first hour. Management contacted the flight staff within two hours. Tanner’s Mom received a call from the company within three hours. And then, a usable, quite suitable wheelchair arrived at their hotel within five hours, and Air Canada is sending them to Disney World. Brilliant. Tanner’s vacation was saved, and Tanner’s Mom headed back to twitter to thank the company and calm the mayhem.

Just imagine if this matter had waited until Monday. Oy!

Go check your twitter!

Jamie

@wolfetoday

The Triple Bottom Line: A Case for a New Teaching Standard in Business Schools and Executive Education

2011-06-29T04:53:00.019-04:00

Share|

We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.---Socrates (ca. 469/470 BCE-399 BCE) in Plato’s Republic

Creating shareholder value... this is what business education is all about and always has been: encouraging leaders who stimulate more profit and growth. It’s worked for a long time, so why change it?

In one of the lectures I attended at a sustainability-themed business conference this year, speaker Dr. Vandana Shiva, winner of the Sydney Peace Prize, explained that there is a fatal flaw in business at present. She went on to explain her opinion that we are operating in a "Greed Economy." This economy strives for endless growth and power. The problem here, she said, is that there’s only one other thing she could come up with in the world that related to this concept. That being cancer, a disease that we recognize as terrible, because its’ never-ending growth is always fatal.

Her conclusion: incessant growth driven economies are cancerous.

If this is true, then why are business schools creating leaders to perpetuate this false ideal of success?

EDUCATION IN SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP

Let’s take a progressive school like Queen’s University, which offered at no cost this year a certificate in Socially Responsible Leadership to their undergraduate and master’s business students. The program is not mandatory and as a result less than 25% of students took advantage of this opportunity.

Next year, the university will charge for the program, which will undoubtedly drop enrollment. To be fair, the business degrees at Queen’s do have a compulsory ethics class, however, if the university recognizes the importance of a more developed program like this, it’s hard to understand why it wouldn’t also be compulsory at this point in time.

In a 2003 survey by the Aspen Institute, MBA students who were seeking sustainable development coursework rated MBA programs globally a D+ on how often social and environmental concerns were raised by faculty in required courses. At this point, universities are still not taking the topic of sustainability seriously enough.

BUSINESS
Sustainability author, Bob Willard states that 96% of CEOs believe that sustainability should be fully embedded into company strategy and operations. This number is rising, up 24 percent from the same survey in 2007. Research clearly shows that companies want employees who have a strong footing in these topics, so why are business schools being so slow to create these candidates?

With MBA programs trying to compete so fiercely against one another for the best candidates at admission, the only reason I can imagine why we see a gap here is because schools are actually to afraid to break away from the pack in their annual budgeting and program requirements, in fear that it will be their downfall in recruiting the crème de la crème.

If educators are honest with themselves, the current approach is nothing but a “toe in water.” A 2011 survey by The Aspen Institute claims that 54 percent of institutions now require a single course in ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, or business and society, up from 45 percent in 2003. This is supposed to be an uplifting statistic, but all I can say is.... just one course?

That doesn't prepare our future leaders for reality.

My primary justification for increased sustainability education in business schools are:

(1) There are risks if you don’t do it.
(2) There are rewards for doing it.
(3) It’s your responsibility to do it.

The Business Schools that can support the profit orientation of companies and show how a well-executed sustainable development strategy can be a large contributor to savings, revenue, productivity, competitiveness, lower risk and new markets. (Bob Willard, The Sustainability Advantage)

In fact, the reason for upping the ante comes down to this: at least 66% of SMEs will see more profits and at least 38% of large companies will see more profits if they improve their business in a sustainable manner. These savings will come primarily from the following areas:

Customer retention and attraction
Drop in operating costs
Greater productivity
Employee retention and recruitment
More tax incentives

The risks in not improving the curriculum include:

The current system isn’t producing the right kind of leadership
Other universities will do it first, and may attract stronger faculty
Students don’t understand the background or strategies to cope with increased regulatory guidelines hitting companies
Corporations will select other candidates/ or degrees over commerce in order to meet their needs
Without educated leaders, we risk running out of oil or other natural resources and having nothing to replace them on the scale required

The rewards for doing it include:

Environmental & community benefits
More well-rounded, diverse curriculum which attract prime candidates
Less financial strain, as it will be easier for students to gain educational financing from their employers
Graduates will be more marketable to employers
Stronger correlation to creating transformative/visionary leaders as alumni
Current business people will return to school to gain these skills
First-mover advantage is still available

There’s a responsibility to do it because:

Both the bottom line and the world matter
Universities with Government funding should be striving to create these candidates for Canada’s businesses
Courses should be using the most modern, break-through research in their teaching
Academia should be part of the solution and not the problem- i.e., the 2008 Financial Crisis
Universities should inspire people to do better
It’s the right thing to do for generations to come

The mandatory addition of this concept to financial subjects is the most important change that needs to happen to correct these miscalculations. Financial-stream students are already the least likely crowd to have a natural interest in these topics once they enter the workforce. This is probably because of the lack of “black and white” decisions that are present when you add in certain subjective measures. This is all the more reason why the change needs to infiltrate these subjects first and then move to an integrated model that spans the entire core curriculum. Our goal should be to teach future managers to tie incentives to sustainable goals for all.

The other reason to start with this more analytical addition to the curriculum is that it’s nearly impossible for business schools to teach students to simply be better or “good people”

What schools can do is offer tools to help students make better decisions. The immeasurable or “soft” societal and environmental benefits that will naturally follow this theory are simply and added value.

The challenge in using this method, involves teachers coming up with ways to really measure the people and planet portion in calculation. How do you apply a cost to environmental degradation, for example? Deans and Chancellors should allow professors more paid time to work on integrating modern curriculums, and I’m sure they’ll be more new models and ideas coming to the table before we can say go. I’m also implying here that there must be a modern review of core subject textbooks. The current reading material just isn’t cutting it because they don’t address these new issues to the student.

CHANGING NORMS

To be clear, I’m not inferring that the status quo automatically leads to corruption, as that’s another essay altogether. I’m also not advocating that all business people should save the world.In fact, the “Save the World” argument is no longer even necessary. Businesses will simply be better companies if they do something, it doesn’t have to be for some far nobler calling.Customers and potential employees have begun to demand it, and the market is responding.

In 2010, there were 73% more green products than in 2009, yet there’s still a big problem in bringing these products to market as over 93% of green products are still found to be misleading/ or not as green as they claim to be.

This is happening because integrated sustainable strategy has not yet permeated the majority of organizations. Bob Willard, author of The Business Case for Sustainability, often refers to the five stage sustainability journey (see right). There are essentially five possible levels that a business can operate at:

pre-compliance
compliance
beyond compliance
integrated strategy
purpose/passion

There are almost no corporations at levels four or five, even though so many aspire to be. There’s simply no one capable to take them there.

Leaders pay attention to what’s measured, the numerical data that’s provided to make decisions.In actuality, as companies grow bigger and bigger, leaders of the larger companies rely more on numbers and less on gut. For this reason, I would advocate for mandatory education of the triple bottom line for both today’s and tomorrow’s leaders. This is a concept first coined by John Elkington in 1994 on the premise that companies should actually be considering three different bottom lines: people, planet and profit (the three p’s). The reasoning behind using this model is because this is the only way for a company to truly understand the entire cost of doing business. Students must learn to measure the financial, social and environmental performance in their analysis.

In 2008, Harvard Business Review author Chris Meyer said, “An activity is only sustainable when all costs are internalized” and this is the heart of the triple bottom line theory.

WHERE TO START?

The leader so far in the model I’m advocating is Stanford University. On Friday, April 29^th, 2011, they opened a new business school with full incorporation of the triple bottom line. Energy- and water-resources management exemplified by the building's design will also be woven into core MBA classes covering sustainability across the functions of business. The changes were heavily prompted by Nike founder Philip H. Knight, who graduated from Stanford’s MBA program in 1962 and donated $105 million dollars for this venture.

The best business schools to market will focus on true leadership and innovation, and they can only succeed if the issue of sustainability is fully addressed in their educational mandates.

Best Business Practices; Think Lean

2011-06-22T00:42:00.004-04:00

Share |

Just something I recently found and thought I would share it with you.

If you are anything like me, you are always cleaning your desk, opening a new file, making lists and updating your calendar in the ever losing battle of creating a more efficient workplace. Because the theory states that an uncluttered and organized workplace makes it easier to get work done.

The theory goes further that you can probably increase productivity, and catch errors or potential problems. Because eliminating waste of any kind – time, effort and money – can benefit your bottom line and contribute to good business health.

The following system is based on a series of Japanese practices that aim to eliminate waste. Each step is identified by a word that starts with the letter - S -:

Seiri (sort) – This first step involves eliminating anything that is underused or not needed at all. Without clutter, it is simple to find what you really need. Without distractions, you get the job done.
Seiton (straighten) – Once you have streamlined, it is much easier to create a new system that is based on order and simplifies the process. Having a place for everything saves time and effort.
Seiso (sweep) – Putting the new process into daily practice will make it seem effortless. Maintaining order becomes automatic.
Seiketsu (standardize) – I totally agree with this one. If you are working with an off-site team or multi office, consistency can reduce time with respect to reports, analysis, purchasing and so on. You also have the benefit of having more people do a wider number of tasks and can take on more roles within an organization should a team member is sick or absent.
Shitsuke (sustain) – Committ to the new routine, which takes discipline, you can look ahead towards growth and more improvement.

Small or large business and all departments, including Marketing can all benefit by implimenting any and all of these practices.

Happy Marketing
Cecilia

Missing my mail...

2011-06-09T11:47:00.006-04:00

Share | There is a postal strike going on in Canada. News channels and industry experts both claim that many of us won't see the difference because we're so connected with emails, texting, skype and so on. The message from the experts is; "...the postal union is out of touch..."

Everyone I spoke too agrees, "who needs the mail", my friends say.

So why do I disagree?

FREE IS NOT THE SAME AS LOYALITY
I receive about 40 emails subscriptions a month, a blend of business and personal subjects.  I will take the time to open and read about 7 emails. The rest goes like this, batch A) delete automatically, batch B) keep until I have more time to read the post and the last bunch open, scan quickly and delete.

Remember when you took an after-school hobby and your mother told you that you will need to commit to this course until the end, "whether you liked it or not"? Email subscriptions give you the freedom to register, check out the content and unsubscribe without financial loss and mom's look.

Just because you subscribe doesn't mean you are loyal to the product.

THE MEANING OF LOYALITY
Since we are on this subject, let's talk loyality. Everyone says you need to be likeable, increase facebook likes. But what is the point with all these likes? And, how many likes do you need to make the sale?   What comes first, the likes or the sale?

Did you know that high-end brands don't allow their followers to add comments on their facebook page and don't do any promotional activity on facebook and still have the most loyal customers. Why? Because high-end brands stand for something - quality or high-fashion or being trendy or create a lifestyle and/or a blend of all these traits. Their customers like these high-end brand because of one or all of these traits. They don't just like their brands because facebook made you click the like buttom.

More importantly, the sale came before the likes.

THE ONLINE FUNNEL VISION
If you are in marketing or communications field and love to keep up with trends, I'm sure you will agree with me, that after a couple of days being online, it seems that's all there is, the online world. And, it starts to become an obsession, "how can I increase my twitter followers, how can I increase my email subscribers, should I develop a Podcast, who is this new blogger, and so on. It is endless.

As I've said before in my previous post about branding, don't be busy for the sake of being busy. And, social media has that tendency, to make you busy but are you really finding your customers on social media?

Whereas Trade shows still today will make a solid impact on your business, there is nothing like picking up the phone to fix a customer's problem and having lunch with my cousins is a feel good activity that so far social media, emailing and texting can't compare.

As Daniel Laporte said so eloquently, do not be glamored by the medium.

WHERE YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY MAKES A STATEMENT
With my snail mail, I receive 3 magazines which I look forward to each month. Living from Martha Stewart, StyleatHome and Country Living and I have a long standing relationship with these magazines. These magazines came long before social media and their websites still can't compare to my relationship with the actual magazine.

On the other hand, I read so many posts from social media experts that show how to increase facebook likes, but they never show how these likes move into actual buys.

Where we spend our money makes a statement.

THE PAPER RELATIONSHIP
Sure we print less but when we buy something in print, it makes it that much more important to us. When we purchase a book, we are well aware of how many trees were cut and the eco footprint it was required to get the book to our hands.  But we still love paper. It connects with us on so many levels, visual, touch and even smell.  Does twitter have that?

No, that's why we need so many apps to get the same effect as paper. We need twitter with video app together with our Iphone equals 1 paper product. And, today whoever creates paper products, does it more beautifully. Paper still has a space in our lives.    I miss my mail....

Happy Marketing
Cecilia

The Best Kept Customer Service Secret: An Element of Surprise

2011-05-31T08:41:00.023-04:00

Share|

This little gem of inspiration actually stems from a moment almost five years ago after an exceptional shopping experience at a Birks jewelry store. Years have passed, and certainly my background in retail management has grown, however, this story is still one of the most wonderful overall shopping memories that I have.

I wandered into their flagship store during an end-of-summer sale and ended up purchasing a heavily discounted necklace for my younger sister as a graduation gift. I had a lovely sales woman, who truly didn't seem to mind that I wouldn't be spending a whole lot and was quite kind to me. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.

You're probably not all that impressed so far, but I was already jaded with low expectations from past experiences at high-end retailers, thus I was smitten. Two months later I received the nicest handwritten card from that sales woman. She referenced my short visit, wished my sister and I well, and hoped she had enjoyed the gift. I was so taken aback by the personal touch of this unexpected card; it still makes me smile today. To this date, I still frequent Birks, and I must say I have increasingly more expensive outings there.

Have you or a member of your staff ever surprised a client with an act of kindness? I'm quite sure it doesn't matter if it's spur of the moment or strategically contrived, as long as the execution is done well and the element of surprise is present.

We all know that low prices will often command a reduction in service. On the other side, premium pricing should be accompanied by exceptional service. What about all those companies floating around in the middle? You're probably at one of them. Step outside your box. Surprise a client and surprise yourself with how great you can be.

Wishing you the inspiration to be excellent,

Jamie

@wolfetoday

Stupidity and dumb logos... I just can't take it anymore!

2011-05-13T13:57:00.010-04:00

It all started with him pointing out the brilliant subtlety of the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo...

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to hear Mickael Kanfi of Twist Image speak about Building a Brand for a Digital World. Amongst other things, he spoke a fair bit about logo design, which I was a bit surprised about. I was pretty sure that most people understood the importance of a good logo, digital world or not. At the time, I sort of wrote off the session as overly novice.

As it may happen, in the weeks that followed, his pointers made me hyper-aware of logos everywhere. I now bow down to Mick, as he was oh so right. I'm not sure how this happened, but clearly quite the fair share of companies missed the memo. Here's my new pet-peeves list, which I strongly suggest avoiding in order to escape my inevitable twitter wrath:

Cheapskate. For goodness sakes, if you don't know what you're doing, please hire a professional. If you can't afford top notch, try finding a students at your local university or on craigslist.
Outdated. I love my triangles and neons, but there are a startling number of logos that seem to be clinging onto the 80's...
Randomitis. Logos that have absolutely nothing to do with you or your business. Hmmmm.
Identity crisis. Why is your logo changing every year? Total waste. I'm all for modernizing, but be smart about it. Best example of what not to do: huge backlash The Gap faced this year when they changed their logo for no apparent reason.
Inferiority complex. Logos with "global" in their name or a picture of a world. Ok, we get it- you're thinking big. It's really lame.
Forgettable. What's the point if I won't remember it? Don't be b-o-r-i-n-g. Every point of contact with your consumer is advertising. Please value your brand.

I challenge you to start looking around. I'm certainly hoping to get some comments on some of your favorites who got it right, and of course some who have missed the mark.

Happy Hunting!

Jamie
@wolfetoday

Photos, an important element to your brand development success - On and Offline

2011-05-09T17:44:00.004-04:00

Share |

Whether you are in e-commerce, b2b business, an appliance repair shop, accounting firm or craft business; every business needs to build and protect their brand name and market share. While the sale is the only clear result of success, getting there can be tough.

An easy investment and one that will bring back many returns (if you know how to use them properly and you have a good marketing professional) is to develop an inventory of company photos.

Here are some tips on building your photos:

Make it personal: hire a good photographer and have him or her photo your shop, your local, products and your people.
Think long term: Align your photos with your long term vision. Think where do we want to be tomorrow, what's is in our 5 year marketing plan and how can we showcase this in our photos.
Close-ups! Especially if you are going online, will increase your email campaigns, promote via facebook, allow your clients to connect with your products with close-ups.

Show today: Keep your clients in with your progress, your trade shows and events.
Think out of the box: Do more than "A Letter from the President with a photo of your boss". If your company is not a public company (on the stock market), then this type of content doesn't provide much value....anywhere.

Layout Design by Artifex, Content, Elements and Focus by Cecilia

Find yourself a good photographer, they are well worth the investment. I found a couple that I still work with today on craig's list.

Happy Marketing
Cecilia
@mktboutique

About Cecilia Read more about Cecilia!

{Privacy | Disclosure | Code of Ethics Policies}

2011-04-29T13:34:00.036-04:00

important information | des informations importantes

The following policies are for The Marketing Boutique and its network of blogs,

currently Gifted Blogging.

Email Privacy
We do not sell, rent or give-out our readership information in any form. Your information is private and stays with us.

Personal Information Collected
Our web server may collect information related to your visit to our blog, including the IP address and domain used to access our website, the type and version of your web browser, the website you came from to access our website, the page you entered and exited at, any website page that is viewed by that IP address and what country you are from. We use this information to monitor our website's performance (such as number of visits, average time spent & page views).

In addition, we collect the personal information that you submit to our blog, such as your name and any other information that you choose to provide by:

using the "Contact Us" page;
using the "Comments" section;
contacting us via our email address; and
subscribing to our newsletter.

Disclosure

The content here reflects the personal and professional opinions and viewpoints of the individual contributors for The Marketing Boutique. These contributors offer their extensive marketing, business and leadership expertise as a service to our readers and they are not represented, sponsored and/or paid by any company to produce any content for The Marketing Boutique.

For more information:

We also support our blog through affiliate programs, which you will see on our Resource page and advertising in our sidebar. We do not accept payment of any kind to write a post about a company or product. We will do product or service reviews and provide our honest, unbiased opinion.

Our aim is not to disparage a company, if we feel we cannot provide a value-add review for our readers, we will not produce the post on your product and/or service. If you are interested in having your product or service reviewed, please contact us at the email address below this post.

Guest Bloggers
We aim to provide quality content driven by professional and experienced people in their profession. We review each inquiry to the best of our available resources.

Code of Ethics

Please visit this page.

Advertising / Public Speaking Engagements

Of course, we are open to offering advertising space on our sidebar on TMB. For speaking engagements, please contact us at info(at)themarketingboutique.net

Our policies may change without notice.

CONNECT WITH US!
We love to hear from our readers, friends and family.
Please connect with us at @mtkboutique, comment or subscribe to our newsletter.
e. info @ themarketingboutique.net

Top Tips for Improving the ROI of Your Loyalty Program

2011-04-26T14:05:00.001-04:00

Share | The good news about investing in relationship marketing is that you can measure the results and demonstrate them to Management. That's the bad news, too: you can't hide behind "but the business would have declined even more without it," unless it's actually true.

So, here are some effective ways to make sure that you're delivering maximum profit bang for every marketing buck:

Start with your objectives and strategy. If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish, you’ll never be able to determine whether or not you did it, and you’ll likely waste a LOT of money along the way. While you’re at it, make sure your objectives and strategies are consistent with those of your organization, and get senior Management buy-in. Otherwise, your efforts are doomed from the start.

Examples of objectives: increase sales by x% over the next 12 months; improve profitability by y% within the next 3 years, etc.
Examples of strategies you can use to meet your objectives: Improve customer retention; increase # trips per customer; increase average purchase per customer; reduce costs of new customer acquisition, etc.

Clearly establish how you are going to evaluate your program and what the definition of “success” is. Get it in writing, and get sign-off from the relevant stakeholders. For an unbiased view of how the program is performing, evaluation should be done by a different group or department than the one actually running the program.
Segment your customers, based on their current and probable future value to you, and on their needs from you. You want to influence different customers to do very different things, e.g.: get best customers to stay with you longer and to refer their friends; get occasional customers to shop more often; encourage non-customers to try you.
Test, test, test! Make sure you have a control group (people who act just like the people you are targeting, but don't get your offer or message). The difference between control (what they would have done anyway) and target (what they did after they got your message/offer) is the actual benefit you delivered.

Ideally, try a number of different messages or offers before you commit yourself to the full promotion. Try everything from an offer you think is way too rich (the upside might surprise you) to just information, with no offer at all (just hearing from you – or finding out something new about your business – may be enough). See what gives you the best return, and roll it out to the rest of your targeted list.
If your message is time-sensitive (like a Valentine's promotion), preventing you from doing pre-testing, divide your list and try a few different messages/offers. Make sure you track the learning from each, and test different approaches over time.
Remember, the list (whom you speak to), the offer (what you are willing to give them) and the creative (look, feel, copy) all affect redemption, IN THAT ORDER. Use learning from previous offers to do a better job choosing whom to contact, and more importantly, whom NOT to contact. This step is particularly important if you are using an expensive medium, like direct mail.

Focus your spending on INCREMENTAL behaviour, i.e. getting customers to do more than they would have done otherwise. Note: this doesn’t always mean more than they are currently doing. For example, retention of best customers is a perfectly valid strategy if they are at risk of defecting.

Don’t focus on rewarding PAST behaviour (which you can’t change), but on influencing FUTURE behaviour (which you can). Don’t reward someone for being a best customer this year – give her an incentive to continue to be a best customer next year. You can position the offer, however, as a reward for previous behaviour, e.g. “Only our best customers quality for this special offer.”
Do the math. Determine what the customers in a particular segment are doing now, and what you want them to do differently. Calculate how much you think you need to spend to change the behaviour (based on offer and distribution costs and probable redemption) and how much more margin the new behaviour will bring in. What’s the return on your investment? If you were your CFO, would YOU fund the offer?

Optimize the balance between your base offer (e.g. 1 point for every dollar spent) and extra, targeted offers.

Use your customer data to identify your greatest opportunities and threats. Hold back enough budget to send the right messages/offers to the right customers to get that incremental behaviour you want.
Note: the base offer is NOT what generates loyalty; it is merely the bribe to get your customers to use the card and share information. If you spend too much on the base offer, you are turning your program back into mass marketing.
Get more out of less spending on your base offer by creating/using a currency that your customers value. For example, in one loyalty program, we found that a significant proportion of our members would rather have one of our points (which cost us just over 2%) than a 10% discount! Cash isn't always the answer.

Leverage inexpensive electronic media, social media and vehicles you need to send anyway: your POS/cash register receipts, in-store messages, statements/bills, e-mail, etc.

Save expensive direct for campaigns that are likely to have high redemption and drive a lot of incremental spend, or for valuable customers/prospects you can't reach in other ways.
Make sure you have customers’ permission to e-mail, and always include clear and easy directions for opting out.

Don’t waste your money giving incentives for e-mail addresses. You will end up with a lot of useless information from customers who only wanted the incentive.

The only offer you need for a valuable e-mail address is “We’ll send you relevant offers and information by e-mail.” Now you have a permission-based list of customers who want to hear from you, and who will tell you what they are interested in getting from you. Make sure you deliver value to them.

BY GUEST BLOGGER: Stacia Rubinovich

ABOUT Stacia Rubinovich

I'm an experienced marketer (25+ years with household names like Kellogg’s, Hershey and Dominion) and neophyte social media user. I'm interested in sharing knowledge and views with like-minded posters.

Full disclosure:

I am also currently Director of Retail Business Development with Advantex Marketing International (www.advantex.com). We represent 3 major loyalty/promotional programs: Aeroplan (Air Canada's frequent flyer program and Canada's premiere loyalty program); CIBC (#1 issuer of Visa cards in Canada) Bonus Rewards Program; and gaggleUp, a new on-line couponing and social network site, in partnership with Canadian Tire.

Visit Stacia's Blog: Relationship Marketer

We are very excited to have Stacia on board. Stacia will proivde us from time to time posts on loyality programs!

HOW DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE A PRODUCT THAT’S ALMOST COMPLETELY UNDIFFERENTIATED?

2011-04-23T15:52:00.002-04:00

Share | I recently discovered a great advertising blog, called AD TEACHINGS. AD TEACHINGS is owned and writted by Suzanne Pope. Suzanna is the Creative Director at JOHN ST. in Toronto and has been writing ads for 20+ years. Her blog provides free advise and instruction to young people in advertising.

Even if you are not young or not in advertising, Suzanne's content is so good, I'm sure you will return to her blog again and again. I have the pleasure of adding her latest post to our blog, which I'm sure you will enjoy.

HOW DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE A PRODUCT THAT’S ALMOST COMPLETELY UNDIFFERENTIATED? By Suzanne Pope

This is a subject that always causes anxiety, but it doesn’t need to. As we’ve discussed previously in this blog, very few products today stand out as being superior. As much as you probably love your iPhone, there are lots of folks who still swear by their BlackBerry or Android.

So, in a world where objective superiority is really hard to establish, you’re left to duke it out for tiny patches of emotional ground. Nowhere is this more true than in the category of air travel. Flying probably hasn’t been much fun since the 1960s. Even before 9/11, planes were cramped and smelly and uncomfortable. And these days, even if you’re flying first class, you’ll still be waiting in Security for someone to check your junk through a latex glove. No, not much fun at all. But somehow, lots of post-9/11 advertisers have managed to make their airlines seems special. Some have done it by talking up relatively small service advantages (wider seats or better food, for example). Others have more or less skipped past the travel part in order to get straight to the benefits of getting to where you want to be.

Let’s go through some of these approaches.

COMPLETE POST, VISIT SUZANNE POPE'S BLOG, AD TEACHINGS

The Gift of Gab: networking is key to professional growth

2011-04-06T19:01:00.018-04:00

Share I just got home from a networking cocktail hosted by the women's alumni organization of my alma mater. I did not want to go. I'm tired, worked for 10 hours today, and I don't remember sitting down for dinner with my husband in the last two weeks, but did I skip it? No.
Putting yourself out there is one of the single, most important things you can do to fuel your own professional growth, and that of your firm. Sometimes it can be tough to put yourself out there, but I can assure you it is worth it. Word of mouth is priceless, and it's up to you to start the buzz. Here's some tips to get started:

WHO you're looking for: potential clients, employers, suppliers, employees, industry or media contacts and more.
WHAT you're going to talk about: exchange advice, questions, stories, and contacts. At the end of the conversation see what else can happen by remembering to swap business cards.
WHERE to find events: you can network anywhere and anytime, so always try to take the opportunity to start a conversation. If you're looking for more structured events, try seeking out conferences, gatherings at your old universities, alumni events, even sites like LinkedIn or craigslist. Check industry publications and ask around to your friends and colleagues.
WHEN to get out there: try something new 3-4 times per year, and also try to revisit groups and events you've enjoyed in the past. Above all, anything is better than nothing.
HOW to actually make it work for you: build relationships by following up with these people in the following week or month by email or connect on sites like LinkedIn. Reference your conversation as well as the event, and ask if they mind if you contact them again in the future regarding something you discussed.

Please feel free to share your networking tips and questions below or on twitter

I wish you all the confidence and lots of new conversation!

Jamie
@wolfetoday

Expect more from Marketing; Create a competitive advantage

2011-03-26T13:05:00.006-04:00

Sarasota Herald Tribune

A recent job posting is credited for telling it like it is

I worked for one company where the president would gather his sales team once a year and ask' "What's your strategy for this year?" And, the answers from the team around the table would sound like this; "My strategy is to follow-up with my key clients and visit my territory more often. And, I'm going to need advertising support from Marketing. Do you think we need to update the website this year?"

This company loved to use the word strategy.

In a B2B environment, marketing has it tough. Mostly it is a support role because companies hire either recent graduates who don't know how to handle vocal meetings or let's face it, there are too many generic marketing professionals who don't want to push the company in a better direction and make it a real sustainable company.

And, then one day all s!*t breaks lose because your competition is moving into your territory.

Now what?

The usual response is to increase sales activity. Why? Because it is easy, it is easy to add 2 more sales people and get them on the road. And, of course they look at Marketing and say; "Get an advertising budget together".

Uh...., wait a minute.

Will advertsing hamper the competition's entry into your territory? Yes, until when? And, when that time comes, then what? Maybe the competition's entry is a signal that your industry is changing? Maybe this means your advertising goal is to develop a dominant position for your company? Does your company even have a position to promote? Does advertising even work in your industry?

"...advertsing support from marketing? He could of said, "I want to eat soup tonight", it would have been the same thing.

Happy Marketing!
Cecilia

The Three C's that are Crucial to Good Leadership

2011-03-18T23:29:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of attending a Montreal Sustainability Conference last week, and that event was the inspiration behind this post.
Share Throughout the day and myriad of speakers, I saw three common themes in almost every presentation or speaker panel. Though the topic of the day was sustainability, the list below will set you on the path to success in any leadership role.

1. Communication: This is a skill that can always be improved, so don't despair. Opening the conference was acclaimed author Bob Willard of The Sustainability Advantage. His message was clear: in order to effectively sell your story, use language that your audience will understand. For example when speaking to a customer, don't use the same language you would use with a CFO. Tailor your message and research your topic so you can share your message effectively.

2. Collaboration: This conference was co-sponsored by the three notable business universities in the city, McGill's Desautels Faculty of Management, HEC Montreal and Concordia's John Molson School of Business; and this was certainly a great example of how "crossing enemy lines" can bring great rewards. The search for and sharing of knowlegde by organizers and attendants alike was inspiring and forward looking. How can you think different in your position? Try bringing together other players in the industy or even multiple departments across your organization.

3. Compassion: Ever wonder why nobody is following you? While all the guest speakers were undoubtedly passionate about the cause, nobody moved the audience like peace prize winner Dr. Vanada Shiva. Not only is she an exemplary communicator and collaborator, she has truly committed her life to the wellbeing of others. When you act with authentic compassion for others, there is a human connection that others find magically magnetic. You undoubtedly gain the trust of those around you, building followers to better achieve your mandate. Think about your day-to-day actions and priorities. Will you draw the support of others with your raison d'être?

Wishing you courage to get out there and make a difference,

Jamie @WolfeToday

If you want to learn more about the conference visit the conference website, Business Beyond Tomorrow or check out my tweets with the hashtag #bizbeyondtmmrw.

There's no I in Team: a simple management lesson from the Oscars

2011-03-01T08:28:00.004-05:00

This post wasn’t inspired by the Academy Awards, but it all just rang too true when I watched the awards show last night.
Entrepreneurs and business owners alike often bite off a bit more than they can chew. You may even do the same in your position. Maybe it’s a lack of resources, maybe it’s personality type—either way I think it’s imperative to realize the best business teams are strategically formed. One person may be able to do everything, but one person can’t do everything best.

If I may jump on the Oscar bandwagon once again, can anyone truly believe that The King’s Speech would have won in so many categories without the right people in the right places? Task allocation is key in any successful venture.

One of the best ways to tackle the project of strengthening your team is to make a list of the people in your organization, their strengths, and the tasks they are responsible for. Are strengths lined up with tasks? Another key indicator is to identify tasks that individuals don’t like doing. Often times a simple switch can put this job into someone’s hands that maybe enjoy it more and usually they will be better suited to it!

When it’s time to bring somebody new on board, try to find someone who may fill more than one weakness on your team. First find a good fit for the organization, but equally important is filling gaps you’ve identified.

To stay on top of keeping your team in tip-top shape, repeat this exercise at least once year and always try to surround yourself with people smarter than yourself.

To Your Success!

Jamie,
@wolfetoday

Let’s Get this Party Started!

2011-02-21T13:14:00.009-05:00

I’m so pleased to join The Marketing Boutique blogging team. Last week’s introduction was just a brief scratch at the surface… now let’s get down to the nitty gritty!

With 12 years of retail experience, nine in managerial or strategic capacities; this has allowed me to achieve significant experience in a variety of topics. This experience I bring to you.
I will discuss, go over, review and provide tips directly related to your day-to-day retail needs, including:
Planning & Procurement

Creating business plans: including target market analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and risk assessment
Cost Control: lease negotiation, purchasing operating supplies, media buying, negotiation with suppliers, and purchasing the best inventory selection or brand or mix

Pricing

Beginning competitive benchmarking
Analyzing margins and price elasticity

Human Resources

Modern hiring practices: including social media and group interviews
Retention strategies: performance reviews, creation and maintenance of job descriptions, and management of diverse staff teams
Continuous training: sales, product knowledge, team building and senior management leadership

IT & E-commerce

POS systems: evaluation and implementation of solutions (including networked), inventory/variance management
Breaking through the clutter: search engine optimization, analytics and mobile applications
When to bring in external professionals

Promotion

Increasing average sale amount by cross promotion, merchandising, sales training
Increasing repeat business through customer relationship management and engagement, loyalty programming, excellent customer experience/concept, special events, social media portfolio management
Increasing new visitors through targeted advertising and strategic messaging (traditional and non-traditional methods) as well as cross promotion

For my first few posts I will develop some beginner tips and how to bring your business the best returns quickly. Keep on the lookout for my next post, "There's no I in Team" coming next week.
I’m also happy to take special topic requests at jamie@themarketingboutique.net.
Wishing you sales, success and smiles,
Jamie@wolfetoday

IT'S NOT ALWAYS CLEAR!

2011-02-13T14:32:00.001-05:00

Share |

"Customers don't always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was due to the fact that most of the coffee people bought was stale and they weren't enjoying it. Once they tasted ours and experienced what we call "the third place".. a gathering place between home and work where they were treated with respect.. they found we were filling a need they didn't know they had." Howard Schultz

The Marketing Boutique Blogging Team Expands, Introducing Jamie Wolfe

2011-02-12T13:42:00.003-05:00

Share | With over 9 years of retail industry expertise, a recently completed MBA from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, a natural organizer with a ‘get it done’ personality, Jamie will discuss her passion for retail, everything retail and specifically retail store operations for The Marketing Boutique. She will also discuss Social Media Marketing tactics and its role in retail as well as current leadership and management styles.

Jamie is presently the Head of Retail Operations for one of North America’s leading eco-friendly cloth diaper manufacturer, also specializing in modern maternity and children’s products. Jamie leads a team dedicated in supporting eco-moms and dads who are interested in reducing their carbon footprint and want to leave a greener earth to their children.

Young, focused and a great people-person, we are very excited to welcome Jamie to The Marketing Boutique team.

IN THE WORKS
We’ve got plans for Jamie, be on the look out for these e-Courses in the near future:

Social Media Tools and what’s right for your retail businesses
Review and Streamlining your Retail Operations
Design Sales & marketing strategies tailored to your retail store

Connect with Jamie here at The Marketing Boutique or @wolfetoday.

CONSULTING SERVICES Jamie is also available for consulting services. Please contact her via our contact page below or at info(at)themarketingboutique.net.

Happy Marketing!

What I wish for 2011

2011-01-02T13:19:00.001-05:00

Share |

What I wish for 2011 is:

For the market to recover and have more people working. Busy people are happy people.
For us to have more time, tried people spend money. Tried people eat out more; look for more resources to help them get on with their day, which require money.
To create a movement that we receive the Kindle for free. The Kindle is helping to either eliminate or change these industires such as: publishing, tree loggers, distribution such as Fed-ex and Trucking and retail shops like Chapters. This means that a book should be cheaper for us - so why pay for a Kindle?
For CNN to stop telling us the obvious.
To have genetically produced, modified and any other manner outside of Mother Nature producing vegetables - labeled!
To have industries become more transparent. For example, I am walking distance to 3 grocery stores, 3 vegetable stores, 1 Walmart, 2 bagel shops, 1 gas station that sells milk and bread, 2 corner shops, 3 bakeries and a number of restaurants. So I'm confused with the argument that we will have a food shortage. I suspect it is perhaps that our farmers cannot compete with Mexico and Chili and going via the genetically modified technology route is a cheaper option allowing them to stay competitive. I haven't researched this but at this moment, that is what I suspect.
To stop blaming Marketing professionals for everything. Their bosses, senior management and all the rest of the higher-ups all have a hand in approving, supporting and even devising crappy selling methods and anything else you find unethical. More times than not, it is usually the president that goes to the marketing officer's office and blames him or her for not being more aggressive.
To stop the grocery stores lay all the responsibility on its customer. When I remember to bring my bags, give me 5 cents!
To create more regulations to ensure businesses are ethical and fair.
To stop believing that only one person made a company successful.
To stop strategizing everything.
To more kindness movements.
To honor the doer, the tinker, the innovator and the fixer.
To finding a good shoe maker.
To making adoption affordable. There are too many good homes that are empty.
To have more days where people stop and acknowledge that this good earth is for everyone.

Happy Marketing!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T10:39:00.001-05:00

Share |

All the best to you and your loved ones for 2011. Wishing you a very good year with lots of love, laughter and prosperity.

Theresa and the gang at The Marketing Boutique

Happy Marketing!

Ecommerce Retail Business

2010-12-05T14:43:00.008-05:00

When I was in Ecommerce Retail, it was a lot of fun. And, quite honestly, I would love to return to this industry given the opportunity.

Of course Ecommerce Retail presented it own challenges. From my point of view, these would be the most important to get it right before you go live with your site:

Shipping costs: At best try tp standardize you packages with whatever shipping method you plan on using. This will ensure you won't lose money in this area. While some sites claim you that shipping is the place to make money by adding handling charges or just my adding a few more dollars, this can actually make you loose clients.
Technology: Make sure your back-end is connected. Meaning shipping costs, CRM software(database marketing, Email Subscription Feature), inventory control, calculating taxes and other features, such as automated Welcome messages, Codes for specials and Sign-in features are all tied into your website. Most website designers and online payment companies offer most of these features or can integrate them
Website Design: Of course, your website will need to be beautiful, engaging and ever changing with either the seasons, new product introduction or company news. Review the competition and move beyond your industry and review what makes other websites leaders in th ecommerce industry.
Creative: Do invest in a good photographer and graphic artist, you will need them. After all, how else can your prospective customer get a feel for the product before they buy it? You will also need a good online writer. Writing for an ecommerce site is very different than with other mediums.

Next post I will continue with Ecommerce Retail Business, stay tuned!
Cecilia

December Action Plan

2010-11-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

Share |

Hopefully you have finalized your marketing plan 2011 earlier this month allowing you to review:

what has been done successfully and not so successfully
what resources are missing
did you manage to keep to you budget, if not why not
competition review (very important)
consumer trends, including a discussion with your large or best clients, sales staff and suppliers

December is usually a very busy month, wrapping up the year and starting up on the projects that need to be completed in the first quarter of the new year. Here is just a small list that is on my December Action Plan:

Wrap up Marketing Plan 2011, some items missing on the budget
Finalize Holiday card and email, send by Dec 15!!
Contact suppliers that have greatly supported me during 2010 and personally extend holiday greetings
Decide on holiday menu (come on, you know you all do it, add your personal list...)
Dec 5 - Finalize editorial content for 2011 (for blog)
Dec 15 - First meeting on e-course, initial title "Tactical Marketing in 2011", launch date Q1, 2011
Start Christmas shopping

Finding a Social Media Expert

2010-11-20T10:14:00.002-05:00

Here is an intersting article on how to evaluate a Social Media Expert, even the comments are good to review. I don't know the fellow who wrote it so I'm not making any claims but the article is worth the read.

My only issue is that he has this huge banner ad for singles, not sure how this relates to his blog.

Share

I got the share button. I received a couple of comments that my readers that they could not share some of my posts, so you will see this feature on every post from now on.

I am planning on updating the blog, so please be patient, there will be more features next year. Also, if I have not said it before, please add your comments, I do enjoy hearing from you!

Happy Marketing!

Four of 10 Americans Read Blogs, One-Third of Those Click on Ads,

2010-11-15T13:28:00.002-05:00

Article from MarketingCharts.com

Validates what you've been thinking...

According to a study conducted by Synovate/Marketing Daily, blogging has entered the US mainstream. Nearly 4 out of 10 Americans having visited a blog and 8% of Americans have their own blog.

The following are key findings from the survey:

Loyalty to specific blogs is fairly strong, with 46% of US blog readers saying they visit the same blogs regularly; 54% say they usually surf for new and different ones.
Awareness and usage of blogs, along with people penning their own, strongly correlates to age, with younger people being much more active:

Nearly 90% of those age 25-34 know what a blog is, compared with just 65% of those age 65 and over.
Similarly, 78% of those age 18-24 who are aware of blogs say they have visited a blog, compared with only 45% of older Americans.
More women than men are bloggers, with 20% of American women who have visited blogs having their own, versus 14% of men who have visited blogs.

As blogs gain in popularity, the number times they are read has also increased:

The majority of blog readers (39%) view blogs less than once a month.
Some 28% visit blogs monthly.
15% visit blogs daily and 5% read blogs several times a day.

As blog usage grows, so has their use as marketing tools:

43% of blog visitors said they had noticed advertisements on blogs.

That proportion that have noticed advertisements on blogs is 61% among those age 18-24.
Nearly one-third of blog visitors have clicked on an ad while reading a blog.
Even though consumers are spending more time with blogs, they aren’t necessarily replacing other media: Only 13% of blog readers say they spend less time with other forms of media (newspapers, television, radio) since they’ve started following blogs.

The study asked about the types of information visitors get from blogs:

65% said they get opinions.
39% get news.
38% get entertainment.
About one-third read gossip on blogs.
Only 2% use blogs to catch up on news about family and friends.

The main reason people read blogs:

48% of those surveyed say they read blogs because they are entertaining.
26% read them to learn about specific hobbies or other areas of interest.
15% of blog readers say they do so for news.

11% read blogs mainly for political opinions.
Among those who said they have never read a blog, the main reason cited was that they’re “just not interested.”

Impressions, Click-Through and Inquiries

2010-09-07T20:06:00.002-04:00

I have been looking at increasing the online visibility for The Marketing Boutique (.net) and I was slightly irked that some directories still position Impressions as a quality selling point. I then thought a review on online advertising stats would be good to post.

Impressions: Quite simply the number of impressions is the number of times your online page, banner, button on a website shows up to a viewer. This suggests that I can go back and forth on the same page and this simple action adds up to the number of impressions. If sites sell you 1,000 impressions that is all you are getting and usually adds up very quickly.

Click-Through: This is the number of viewers (people) that have made an action, clicked on your banner, button or link. Since this is a more difficult objective to achieve, companies will sell a lower number of click-through but usually it is the better value.

Inquiries: Of course we all strive to get that inquiry, that golden one where it will lead to a sale. Personally, I based my objectives and measure my marketing tactics to this one achievement, the sale.

Happy Marketing

The Spa Marketing Handbook: Service

2010-06-21T18:44:00.001-04:00

Congratulations!

You've opened your first spa business, selected the perfect background music, created the calming water feature and carefully tested the skin care products you will use in your treatments. You've done some promotions and voilà, the clientelle is starting to come to your locale.

How will you keep them?

Service: For first time visitors, call them within 24 hours of their visit. Ask how their stay was, how did they like the place, the treatment, etc, etc. No matter how small, even if it was just a manicure, call!

Service: Every Saturday morning offer coffee with croissants for early-bird clients.

Service: Offer mulple ways for clients to leave a tip, stay in touch, leave a comment. Example for tips: create small envelopes where your clientelle can put money, write for who it is for and drop in a small box.

Service: Coupons, Contests and Gift Certificates

In other words, stay close to your customer.

You might enjoy these others posts as well.

Happy Marketing!

New stats on : Will Social Media End Email Marketing

2010-06-12T15:40:00.003-04:00

To update the last post on the topic if Social Media will End Email marketing, according to a new study by ExactTarget and CoTweet, it states that, "More online consumers use email than social networks for brand interaction".

The above graph from ExactTarget reveals that more of us wake up and check our emails, 6 out of 10 of us will check our emails at the start of our day. We, who are the 6 that do that are actually not looking to socialize but rather seek information.

The following graph from ExactTarget, highlights the age break-down on who receives permission-based emails.

Surprisingly the study also reveals that only 5%, just 5% of online consumers use Twitter.

Will Social Media End Email Marketing?

2010-06-08T20:25:00.002-04:00

I'm sure you've noticed the impact social media is having on our business lives?

Chatting, connecting with potential clients, allowing your prospective clients to voice their opinion on topics that are important to them and networking with past colleagues, these sound more like good networking skills and customer service programs. But when you add tweeting, linking, connecting from services called LinkedIn, Blogging and Twitter and we've got game changers.

Your business communitity when built on Social Media is instant, loud and wide. Instant: as soon as you send your news or message your community will read it on twitter or email. Loud: Your community can like/dislike, comment, converse and share the news. Wide: News travels quickly on the net!.

Can a one-dimensional, static email newsletter compete with all of this?

Email Trends
Just about everybody we know is using email. In fact, the following chart from NielsonWire reveals that email usage is up.

Nielson News

Content Design and Approach Per Medium
The one thing we do have to remember is that each medium requires a different content approach and writing style. This suggests that a style of writing for a blog post will be different than a email newsletter.

Privacy IssuesProbably because of privacy issues, trade marks, intense competition and other business concerns, email marketing will still be a viable promotional and communcation medium.

Segmentation / Focused Message and Specials
When done right, the software used for email marketing offers the abilty to segment your database based on different motivational triggers, such as specials, services bought, location and other qualifiers. Once done,
your email marketing campaigns are powerful sales tools. I don't think any social media forum can do this for you. When you send a message it is sent to your entire community.

Email Marketing Trends
However, recent reports have shown a 3% decline on the usage of email marketing. Could Social Media Marketing be the cause of this decline and could we see more of it? It seems that I have more questions than anwers at this time because I could not find any email marketing stats connecting to social media.

If anyone has any information on this topic, please let me know. And, in the meantime,

Happy Marketing!

Taking inspiration from other industries

2010-06-02T20:15:00.001-04:00

One of the most fun parts for me in this profession is taking ideas, inspiration and promotions from other industries and see how they can be carried over to other industries.

Here is your freebie (a new section that I've added):

Women are primarily responsible for clipping coupons, coupons is usually associated with grocery retailers. How about spa owners and/or retailers design a coupon book, say sent out once a year. Make it an event and have about 10 different coupons where the receipient can use it or spread the word (include reguarl 10% discount coupons as well as Friend coupons, gift coupons, manly man coupons, Mom and Daughter coupon, etc, etc). The added good news is "consumers with an income of $100,000 or more are among the most likely to use couponswealther", from Marketing Vox. This sounds like a win-win for you.

Happy Marketing!

Online Advertising Increasing: Market Research Base Shopping

2010-05-25T14:39:00.002-04:00

Good news for B2B and B2C companies, small and large.

According to Retailer Daily, online advertising is on the rise. Article-based advertising that include brand information was the type that consumers between the age of 25-34 would respond to, while pop-up ads were the least popular.

Directly from Retailer Daily, respondents also said they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and respond to:

Articles that include brand information: 53% (compared to 51% in 2009) a year ago.
Email offers: 51% (compared to 47% in 2009).
Sponsored search engine links: 40% (compared to 39% in 2009).
Banner ads: 28% (compared to 25% in 2009).

Most interesting is that "younger and high-income people showed a considerable propensity to conduct a search after reading online articles". The article continues to state that, "Seventy-two percent of 25-34-year-olds said they were likely to conduct a search for products or services based on an article, up from 66% a year ago. And 70% of those making more than $75,000 per year expressed their likelihood to perform a search – 13 percentage points higher than last year’s 57% .

I have to say that in our home, this is true. My husband does extensive online research when he is on a buying project and readers comments, consumer reports and news commentary do have an impact on his buying decision.

For complete article, click on Retailer Daily

Happy Marketing
Cecilia

Look Out, its a Price War!

2010-05-23T12:59:00.002-04:00

There are early warning signs. Price Wars just don't happen. You just don't wake up one day and say, "s*%&t, I need to lower my prices!"

If you haven't been following your competition for early signals (mergers, alliances, showing themselves bigger at trade shows, etc) or if you don't follow the news, undersatnd trends or have at least a 5 year marketing plan, then SURPRISE, you may wake up to a price war.

There are other options (strategies, tactics, developments and programs) that your company can do instead to protect its profit margins. Remember, if you feel you need to match your competitor prices, you are contributing to the price war.

Depend on your Marketing department for forward-looking research, early warning signs, and for this team to propose deliberate changes in your company’s position to help remove your company from price war.

Don't have a marketing department? All you have is one person who creates brochures and updates the website? ....too bad.

Depend on your sales team to dictate pricing? Do they come rushing in, screaming, "I can't make my numbrers, the competitor is low balling the prices". And, you follow with, "Match them!" Good luck with that....

Are you a public company and believe that your financial analyist will give you honest, current market and industry analysis? How is that working for you?

Happy Marketing

Branding and when it is not

2010-05-18T22:15:00.005-04:00

I've been reading a lot about Branding Strategy and seriously, the creativity does not lead the brand.

It is easy.

It is easy to believe that your logo is sooooo unique and that your tagline is just right. But, when times get rough and your prices are falling, how is all that creativity doing for your dwindling market share? Is it standing up with current market conditions?

Don't get me wrong, I love creativity. Most people that know me will tell you I am more creative than analytical. But there is one thing that I know is that your Brand needs to stand for something. Most importantly, it needs to answer the "who cares?" question.

The other thing your Brand needs is to have a position in your market place. Where does it stand in the industry, with your competitors and with your customers? Time and time again companies just don't want to do a competitive analysis and brand positioning exercise and I don't know why.

Also, do not confuse developing a brand image with just being busy with things. Twitter, facebook, blogging, these are crowded activities and if your content is not relevant these activities will not help to make a brand. There is a difference between “what your company stands for” and with just being busy with noisemakers.

Example: President Obama gave you a reason to care about him. His brand message was "Change". This message was given to us via a variety of mediums: television, public speeches, rallies, (get it, the real facebook) to make twitter work for him. He did not just tweet Change for the sake of tweeting Change to hopefully create the Obama brand.

Finally, if you have not spent the money or time on building your brand name, do not expect for it to work for you when times are bad. Brand development is like farming, you harvest what you've sowed.

Happy Marketing!

Price Wars and Branding

2010-04-10T08:52:00.005-04:00

For many industries when the recession hit, price wars followed.

But how can you protect your company's brand position in the midst of falling prices or worse price wars? Especially when it is your competition who is discounting to stop their sliding market share? And, more importantly after all the work - you, the marketing guru - has done with annual planning, analysis, metrics, competition review, advertise planning, creating the right message and market analysis when your sales team is selling at a price discount?

First keep doing what you are doing. Consistency is very important in times like these; it is leverage for credibility – one of “C’s” for branding. And, hopefully your company has not reduced the marketing budget to ensure your programs can keep that consistency.

Second review with management when pricing will stabilize and in the meantime ensure that the sales team has a consistent (yes, that word again) message to their clients so your clients won't be shocked when the prices start to go up. Add something like, “take advantage of these temporary reduced”, “to help each other out”, “during tough times”, etc, etc.

Third, review your marketing plan. Does it need to change with all that has happened. Most likely some programs will need adjustments. Remeber, even in good times, the marketing plan is not static.

Fourth, there is a reson why I selected that photo for this article and yes, it connects with price wars. Does anyone know what it is? I would love to hear from my readers.

Most importantly, if you had invested in branding, not advertising but branding (how will you keep your promise, what does my message say about my company, etc, etc), before the recession hit, your company would have been more stable.
Of course, there are other great tactics that can be used. Remember, the beauty of marketing is that you can adjust any program, tactic, strategy to fit your company.

Call us; we can help you and get your company noticed!

Much success!

Making the Connection: Brochure, Content and Design

2010-03-19T19:27:00.006-04:00

Have you ever picked up a brochure and felt its content did not match the actual people and company?

Do you remember the last big advertising campaign from Sears? It was so great it even go me in their stores. What failed was their clothing category did not change, their advertising did and the expectation from their new consumer (i.e. me) was high and exciting. Sears got a lot of bad press because of this mismatch.

My husband and I recently visited California and as we left Napa Valley, I felt that the people we met, the restaurants we had dinner at, the scenery and lifestyle, all did not fail the brochure. As we drove off to our next destination, I looked back at the rolling hills and serene view and was content that my expectation was met....ahhh, that was nice.

Brochure Design / Content
My point is this; many businesses either try to do the Trump thing, "go big or go home" but it is true, can you really go that big? Or, some are just too timid or don't want to bother to become involved in the company's brand and how their company should be presented. These companies are just are too busy... selling.

What are the benefits of a good brochure?

Consistent Message: Help your sales people have a consistent message regarding products, brand, and company position against competition. Unfortunately, most companies have a variety of messages flying out of the mouths of sales people.
Branding: Stand apart from the competition during trade shows, client meets, presentations. Ever go to a trade show and leave half of the paper products on your hotel bed? But a good brochure you will take home with you, even read it on the airplane
Education: What do you do? It is in the brochure. Sales person forgot to highlight an important item? It is in the brochure.
Paper: The less we print, the more important the paper has become. It is recycled, linen, satin finish, etc. It does make a difference and it will help with your brand position (remember, there are more people in business that don't have a marketing degree so they relate these items to branding). More importantly, if you finish the brochure off with a shiny laquer, it will look like a pizza menu and not reflect the $5,000.00 item you want to sell.
Creative: Take your chances on something different but take it slow. As you progress from year to year, make changes to the brochure.

The Marketing Plan

2010-02-07T14:42:00.001-05:00

We know it is difficult to design a marketing plan but it is one of the most important elements to your business's success. We've created a marketing plan method that is perfect for small business and retailers and it is affordable! Contact us today!

Starting a Retail Business

2010-02-06T19:43:00.003-05:00

I recently met a new client, a young woman who wanted to finally open her very own store. She had the product ideas, the feel of the store and the company name but nothing much else. She had a vision of what is was suppose to be, "green, classy organic clothing, no plastics, etc, etc".  And, of course, she spent a good time going over her logo, how people love to create....

Very nice.

The first thing I set her to do was to help her make a concrete product list she wanted to offer in her store.   This exercise is to help us gage the real finances and cash flow required during the first year of business. Remember, as a new company many suppliers are not that generious with payment terms, in fact, more often suppliers expact payment in advance or FOB because you are a new businesses.

The second part is making a product grid, this helps with purchase selection, impulse products and other important variables you need to consider. During this process, she started to realize that having a retail store meant that she would also need a strong closer. Basically, the romance was starting to wane a bit about what it meant to have a retail business.

And, please don't skip the compeitor review.

Then we added other costs such as rent, retail equipment, living expenses, etc, etc.

This process is as my father would say is, a good kick in the head, or if you prefer a realistic view what my client will need to get started to be successful. I'm not saying that if you don't do this you are going to fail but there is a large percentage of small businesses that go under and that is mainly due to not having their finances in order, especailly their cash flow their first year in business.

The fun part is logo design, company name creation, colour, designing the retail store, everyone wants to do that. Many of my clients will spend dinners with friends, money on graphic artists to get this part right. But once they meet me and I start with the important part, discusisng their financies - this will get everyone running to the door.

Exercise completed, my prospective client is now reviewing her options.

Much success!

********************************

The Marketing Boutique
We can help! We offer over 10 years of marketing and communcation expertise. The Marketing Boutique offers small business owners, like you the opporunity to build a marketing plan and we are affordable. Contact us at info (@) themarketingboutique (dot) net.

The Need For Promotional Items in Your Marketing Plan

2009-11-29T11:42:00.004-05:00

My distributors are going to hate me for this but for the most part, I consider promotional items land fill. Do we really need all that stuff? How many bendable pencils and stress balls do we really need to in our office or have to bring back to our kids? But realistically and selected well, it is one item that allows you to quickly connect with a prospective client during an intense 3-day trade show event or road show.

Making the Intangible Product Tangible
This prospective client can not touch, see or feel the intangible product. They need to connect with your sales person, by the background setting (your booth and literature) and by that small "thank you for stopping by" gift. And, it is that gift that your prospective client will touch and remember once leaving you.

Make sure that gift connects with your service. Don't cheat, give-up or accept whatever. Search, source and think out-side-of the box for that right promotional item. Because the right one will help your prospective client easily connect with your service or your tagline. Make sure the colour fits with your brand colour, as well.

New Promotional Products

Live Evergreen Tree Seedling

There are some great echo and charity products that have recently been introduced that can easily be used for promotional items. World Vision, a great charity that offers a gift card program that works with some retail stores. Or, living tree gift card you can purchase from Epromos.

Much success!

The Business of Marketing

2009-11-07T11:09:00.005-05:00

The Afterthought
Most small companies position the marketing department solely as a support function for their sales and product development team. Worse, the marketing team is usually never part of the company's strategy development instead hired only years after the company has been in business and only when the company feels it has the funds to bring on board a "marketing person".

However a better understand of the role of marketing what it can and should do for your company should take place before hiring a Marketing Manager.

What is Marketing?Your marketing team is first and foremost the department that looks forward.

Finance looks back and sales looks at today, the immediate. This implies that your marketing department should provide reports and information on your industry's overall environment, market intellengence, competitor analysis and brand positioning.

It is this team that you should depend on providing customer dynamics based on what you deem to be important variables and, of course the return on investment on any marketing activity.

Customer-Focused Department

How you develop the marketing department will depend on how customer-focused your company really is. If you are really customer-focused the best design is a blend of centralized and de-centralized teams. Centralized would lead and develop the marketing plan and strategy based on the feed-back from the de-centralized teams who works with local customers.

This will help you deliver the right products at the right time to the right customer. You won't be that company that focuses on products but fails to understand the customer.

Much success to you!

Branding Charity

2009-10-28T20:44:00.001-04:00

What is a Charity?
A charity is a desire to change the world. This means that the brand of the charity needs to have a deep connection with the public. Sometimes the connection is applicable to the wider public, like increasing education opportunity for all.

Creating the personality
The easy part is the logo, name and colors. The difficult part is deciding the charity's traits and the tagline that fits with the traits. Afterall, the tagline is the brand's promise.  Make sure that once you've decided on the tagline, you also have 5 to 10 points as to how the charity will keep this promise. This then can be part of your press campaign, if you have a creative mind that is.

Developing the Brand
It is going to take time. There is nothing going about it, your brand will not be built overnight. However, the good news is that you now have a lot of options to get noticed, twitter, facebook and blogging are excelling venues for your charity. The bad news is that everytime you write something, make sure there is value in the content. Don't twitter like a twit, twitter because there is something to say, especially when the brand is new.

Every step needs to count.
You will probably have a limited budget so make everything count for double.  Review and review again. Make sure you have a team that believes in the cause or it will never build the momentum you need.

Good luck!

For Charity

2009-09-17T21:28:00.005-04:00

My girlfriend and I created this charity event which I wanted to share with you not only because the creative is so nice but the concept behind GLOSS is unique.

GLOSS is as you guessed it, supports the breast cancer association. The concept is on 1 day and 1 day only, several retail shops band together and offer their clients the following:

Proivde deep discounts on all items in their store
Door prizes
Receives a welcome gift

For a nominal entry fee of $10.00 or $20.00, all clients not only support this great cause but also has fun at the same time.

T-shirt Decal. All staff got a shirt with this detal.

I have more to show but I need to change their format to jpeg. Will add next time!

This concept is registered and if you are interested in taking this up in your city, please call me.

Preparing for 2010

2009-09-05T11:17:00.005-04:00

It is not business as usual, everyone has been hit. All market research reports that offered insights until 2010, I would think are today invalid. None expected or wrote about the recession, mortgage crisis or the personal credit debt. So how do we start with our 2010 Marketing Plan?

A part of me would like to say by trusting no one. But is this any way to do business or plan to do business? Unfortunately not.

Starting the Marketing Plan 2010
Your best bet is to a SWOT analysis, a review of what your competition did in 2009 and these two items will help you assess your Market Overview. This will be very important for 2010, it will help your company decide on a direction and focus. Some simple truths:

SWOT: Be honest. Don't let your favourite "*-kisser" do this part. Get that guy that disagrees with you from time-to-time on this as well. Review closely and ask what does this mean for my company?

Once completed, add these two items:

COMPETITION: What has the competition done in 2009? Have you seen an increase in advertising dollars, merged, created alliances? All these movements suggest changes in your market; these provide indicators and again will help to lead you to decide on what activities or markets you need to go after.

REVIEW 2009: Carefully review what you did in 2009 and what was successful and what wasn't.

Next Step:
MARKET REVIEW: It is not as easy as everyone thinks. It is tough keeping up with the market, its changes but if you have the time, this will also help in the 2010 marketing plan's direction.

All these items should give you an idea if you are in a mature market, growth phase, etc. Once this has been concluded, follow with the market strategy and marketing tactics.

Much success!

Inspiration ~ Thank you cards

2009-08-17T19:19:00.012-04:00

It is tough out there. Everyone is looking to stand out, competition has either increased its agressive position or they are laying off. When you do get the client, how will you take the time to thank them for choosing you over the other guy?

Sometimes, going back in time does the trick.

This is Damask Letterpress Thank You Notes from The White Asile.

These are hand letterpressed in dark chcolate brown ink on heavy Somerset ivory stationery cardstock. The interior page is blank allowing you to give your client your undivded attention to write that personlized thank you note. And, there is even a matching envelope.

If you do purchase from The White Asile, tell them The Marketing Boutique sent you.

Direct Marketing ~ Tip

2009-08-17T19:18:00.000-04:00

Sending traditional mail or e-mail campaigns to your in-house database is far more effective than using a rented list. Get your sales, marketing and customer service teams involved in building your in-house database now. And remember, garbage in, garbage out.

Direct Marketing ~ The Postcard

2009-08-14T19:14:00.010-04:00

While we prefer to showcase our own work (our own samples arriving soon!), I think it is a worthy exercise to look over works from other sources. Reviewing and discussing the works of others can sometimes help to inspire and provide a clearer creative direction. Do you want a simple and straightforward message, like the one below or and perhaps you prefer one that includes a photo and more text.

This is a great postcard that says it all, I would just add the company logo at the bottom right and complete the message on the back of the postcard, including your call to action. This can be sent to lost clients. For B2B industry it would probably do nicely for manufacturing of steel, equipment and perhaps even software industry. For retail, this stye would probably would do nicely for urban style clothing, it would work very well. If you like this creative, check out Set Editions.

SBM: What is the website for?

2009-07-29T08:51:00.008-04:00

I'm calling these posts: Small Business Marketing (SBM).

I recently met a small company who wanted to go over their communcations materials. They had recently expanded and knew they needed help in building or upgrading their brand image but didn't know where to start. During our initial meeeting this question was brought up by one of the managers, "What is the website for?"

For just a moment I thought, "Hmmmm, I have not heard this question for a long time".

My second thought was, perhaps there are other small companies that have not put a clear definition on their web site's primary and secondary purpose/goal - this can certainly lead to a fuzzy purpose to any marketing tool.

So, I asked this question to the manager, "Well, what would be your ideal reason for having a web site?" "Sales!", he replied.

Here are some questions to help you with web site designed to help you reach the objective of havinig sales

1. Is the site designed to promte interest in your serivce? Or, do you have a lot of pages on mission, values, core, history....
2. Do you have any forms to help them complete a RFQ?
3. Is the service sold on trust and relationship, then perhaps a tour of your facility, photos of your staff, testimonials would help meet the objective of a sales driven web site.
4. Have you compared your site with your competition.

There is a saying that Mom to say, "follow your betters".

Compare and ask "why?". Why do they have this feature, why do they post this information, why...

Much Success!

Top Ten Tips :|: Email Marketing Content and Design

2009-07-25T08:27:00.006-04:00

Over the last 3 years I have designed many emails campaigns and I've come to learn important tactics and elements about design, email technologies and customer data management. Here are my top ten design lessons. Stay tuned, as I will bring your Top Ten Email Customer Data Managemet Tips as well.

1. Print-Friendly: If you want your readers to be able to print the newsletter and not loose any text in the process, keep the size to 580 pixels, not more than 600 pixels. (I've recently read that it is possible to expand the size if it is desiged with a“fluid” design. Apparently this allows the newsletter to resize according to the space ~ Interesting. I hope that my grapic artist knows about this...will let you know the results)

2. Make it personal: This doesn't usally mean converstaions about your dog or what you did this weekend. For businesses, making it personal means add your photo, let them connect with the author while reading. Also, change the tone to, "I am proud to announce", instead of "The Company..."

3. End with your signature in a different font or if possible, your actual signature and create a personal "sign-off". Like all great news anchor people, they have their personal signing-off, like television icon Walter Cronkite, his sign-off was, "And That's the Way It Is".

4. Links at the Top: Create a table section for links. If your company publishes articles, put these at the start of the newsletter. This will increase "click" activity.

5. Short Text: Remember to write the content appropraite to online reading habits. Short text and bullet points. If it has to be a long text, create a link to a pdf so your readers can print.

6. Focus: Don't try to be all things to all people. Focus on top 4 to 5 things you want to cover on your e-newsletter. I know it is tough, but your readers will enjoy it more and you will get the results you want.

7. Keep Something for the Bottom: Make it a Q&A Section, Tip, Did you Know section, something that drives your reader to scroll to the bottom of your e-newsletter.

8. Remember a newsletter is not a sales promo tool: If you have a sales promotion, give it space it deserves, design a different email - "Special Sales Promotion".

9. Colour / Font: Make it interesting. If the e-newsletter is content driven (as opposed to photos), please make it interesting. More e-newsletters try so hard to "keep the brand image" they miss out on making it interesting - ugh.

10. Timing: Remember sending more emails is not necessary going to get more activity. If you nothing new to say, then don't bother. Remember content is king and when marketing experts tell's you that repetition is one of the keys to success, they omitted to tell you that for e-newsletters, if you are repeating the content, you are just going to irriate your readers. Content is King.

I hope this helps. Email me at info@themarketing boutique. net (remove spaces) to disucss your next e-newsletter. We can design and help with the content development.

Signing off,
Theresa

Re-Branding; A Time for All Seasons

2009-07-23T10:05:00.004-04:00

While it is popular to discuss and even at times "trash" the large retailers when they attempt to re-brand themselves. I'm not sure most of the time it is just cause because even B2B companies, big and small will re-brand themselves. Eventually they all do. They have to.

If we agree that companies are organic, this implies that they move along with the times, like us. And, good companies understand that what they believed in or positioned their brand even as short as 10 years ago sometimes does not stand the test of time. With an increase in respecting the environment, a healthy dose of charity and community involvement, just these items suggests that for most companies need to review their brand image, company position in the industry, values and mission.

The Spa Marketing Handbook: Experience

2009-07-19T11:09:00.010-04:00

I've discovered that creating a marketing program for spas is the same as B2B marketing. It includes building the brand and selling the details. I also discovered while it is great to bring a list of "to do's", like build a face book page, add content, send it with RSS feed, most spa owners don't have the time or the inclination for these type of tactics. They need clients now!

What I found most successful are implementing grassroots marketing, referral programs (keeping the current client so happy they come back with friends) and building the company brand.

The next step is building their own brand of skin care products. After all if the spa owners are using a skin care product they love, then why not sell it under their own brand name. This is the perfect brand extension strategy.

Contact us, we can help.

Direct Marketing Program

2006-03-28T19:47:00.003-05:00

Direct Marketing tactic is probably the best tool for small companies with a limited sales staff and budget. Direct mail has the ability to target and focus on highly specialized segments of your market segment. It offers the opportunity to introduce new products, generate new leads and increase your company presence.

A direct marketing program can help to develop a new territory and can even help with customer retention. This tactic is possibly one of the best tools for a small company when product education is required. Best of all, it is a low sales cost.

There are several types of direct marketing campaigns for example:

- Brochure Design
- Content Development
- Newsletter and E-mail marketing

Our first discussion we'll touch on developing a Direct Marketing Strategy.

Much Success!

Promoting the Brand, Part III

2006-01-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

One of the stickiest issues for small companies is media. From my experience most don’t have a solid understanding of the many forms of media and the process of selecting the right one for their company’s band.

What is the goal/purpose?
Having a specific goal will help you develop your brand stratety. The following questions will help you develop a more focused, targeted advertising strategy.

• What is the main goal of my advertising? (Is is to increase product sales, develop more long-term customers or simply build brand awarness)
• Who is my target audience?
• How much can I budget?

There is no straightforward rule about whether newspaper is better than radio or magazines are better than newspapers. It all boils down to knowing your customer base.

Happy New Year!

2006-01-08T14:21:00.002-05:00

2007

Wishing you a happy, healthy and successful new year!

Promoting the Brand, II

2005-12-18T15:26:00.002-05:00

In a nutshell, good branding begins with knowing what makes the product special and exploiting its advantages. You cannot brand your product unless you understand the real benefit your product offers – in other words, what is the point of difference between your product from the competition.

Marketing Objectives
Start with determining your marketing strategy that best meets the marketing objectives in this given scenario.

Target Audience
Determine the needs of your target audience. How does your product meet their needs?

The Message
Remember to go back and review your comparison analysis of your brand with the competition. This analysis should include price, package design, distribution, etc. How does your target audience categorize these brands?

Your message should communicate not only the value of the product but also the essence of what your company is all about, what you stand for. And, the message should be short and concise. Your market doesn’t have the time to read a whole paragraph.

Promoting the Brand, Part III
In our next issue, we review the many forms of media. Which is right for you and your company's brand? And, how do you determine this?

New Product Promotion

2005-07-19T18:26:00.003-04:00

Objective:
Introduce new product, generate leads and create media buzz. Define clear “unique selling proposition”. Shorten sales cycle of new product.

Strategy:Develop an integrated marketing communications plan that would include direct marketing program, sales materials, press kit and attend various trade shows.

A single unique message, “We’re mixing water with fire” was also defined and was the catalyst for the creative direction for the self-mailer, booth as well as attire for sales reps at trade shows.

Result:
Most of the media we contacted visited the company and covered the new product. The self-mailers, a total of 3 were sent out during the year, generated many new leads and also renewed interest from potential clients that previously had no interest in the company's product.

Contact Form

Direct Marketing Strategy, Part I

2005-07-18T20:38:00.003-04:00

Direct marketing program is an excellent vehicle for introducing new products, generating new leads, increasing company presence and building up weak territories.

For small companies with a limited sales staff, a direct marketing program can target a territory not currently covered by its team. The benefits are many including reaching new business, customer retention, product education and a low sales cost.

There are several elements in creating a successful direct marketing campaign, to start with is the objective. "Our objective is to recapture our lost clients by 10%". Make sure you have it on paper, ake sure that the objecitve is agreed by senior mgmt.

Remember the Objective is concrete, numbers or percentages. A goal is vague, "we want to enter the Japan market in 2010. Our objective is to gain 10% of the market share in Japan.

{Writers for The Marketing Boutique}

2005-07-18T19:28:00.033-04:00

The Writers | Scrittori

About Cecilia

Cecilia offers 12 years of marketing and communications expertise. With 5 years in pharmaceutical marketing expertise combined with 3 years of expertise in retail (on and offline) and skin care, Cecilia offers her extensive knowledge in B2B and B2C marketing planning and brand development programs.

Cecilia will discuss the benefits of developing an integrated marketing communication plan (market research, competitive analysis, product selection & mgmt, financial review, strategy, social media and tactical development), including brand development, communictions and promotional programs.

Cecilia has a B.comm, Marketing from Concordia University, currently completing her graduate certificate degree in Public Relations at McGill University and is available for marketing/brand consulting services.

Connect with Cecilia:

t: @mktboutique

e: info @ themarketingboutique.net

About Jamie

Young and determined, Jamie brings with her over ten years of retail management and strategy experience. Over this period, she has accumulated experience in operations, developing purchasing policies as well as community initiatives and comprehensive modern marketing plans with hundreds of independent retailers and associations within North America. She has a passion for the cooperation of non-profit and for-profit organizations and has worked on multiple event planning projects to marry the two.

Jamie has her MBA from Queen's University, a Certificate in Socially Responsible Leadership from Queen's University, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University, with a specialization in Strategy in the Social Context and Marketing. She currently holds various advisory positions for women's student organizations within McGill University. Jamie is available for marketing/retail consulting services.

Connect with Jamie:

t: @wolfetoday

e: info @ themarketingboutique.net

* * * * * * * * * *

Guest Blog Contributors

We are always interested in having guest blog contributors. If you have an expertise in the area of Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Branding, Graphic Art, New Technology and Social Media

we invite you to be a part of TMB.

We look for contributors who are experts in their field.

All submissions must be your own original content. The Marketing Boutique retains first publication rights and the right to reuse and promote the content to promote The Marketing Boutique. We will always acknowledge the writer. As a guest contributor, you will benefit from attribution, maximized exposure and links back to your own site.

Editorial, in final form, in a Word document,
Headshot: high resolution image [.jpg, .gif, .png], size 120 x 120,
Bio: 2-3 sentences that can include your background, blog/website, social media links and email address.

All submissions are non-paid but we give you lots of love and help you maximize your exposure with our blog.

Guest Blog Role

Other Places of Interest