Once a Day Marketing: 2012

Monday, December 31, 2012

Summary of 150 Videos on Branding Tactics, Reconnaissance, and Digital Trends

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. This is the second in our series recapping the video advice produced by Once a Day Marketing™ this last year. Today we are going to look at 150 more videos which relate to Action Wednesday, Recon Thursday, and Digital Friday.

Action Wednesday is advice to help you to develop your branding and marketing tactics; Once a Day Marketing™ produced 50 videos on this subject. The videos relate to developing your marketing action plan, fulfilling your brand promise to customers, pre-selling solutions, creating brand goodwill and also using publicity or PR.

Recon Thursday is all about looking into your market, your competition and your own company. Here we produced another 50 videos and touched upon such subject matter as tracking your competition, evaluating your own company, identifying relevant industry trends, performing SWOT analysis on your company, your competition and even your own brand as well as understanding your customer mix.

Given the importance of social media today to virtually all the marketing we are doing, Once a Day Marketing™ produced 50 videos for Digital Friday. Subject matter includes defining inbound marketing, and mobile marketing. We look at using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We also look at how to approach blogging correctly and producing appropriate digital content for your customers.

It's very easy to find any Once a Day Marketing video. Go to youtube.com/onceadaymarketing and type in either Action Wednesday, Recon Thursday, or Digital Friday in the search box and all of these videos will be displayed. It's a quick way to develop tactics you can implement and I hope you enjoy developing new strategies using these videos.

Our tagline is Inspiring Ideas Inside and we believe these 250 videos will really help you find the knowledge, strategy and inspiration market every single day.

To discuss an online or onsite service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

Your Branding and Marketing Resolutions (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. With the new year on the horizon there are new marketing opportunities for you as well. It’s time for you to prepare your branding and marketing resolutions.

To make that easy for you, I created 10 resolutions to get you started for the coming year:

1 – Champion a winning culture

2 – Brand and market every day
3 – Identify your USP, your unique selling proposition, and brand positioning
4 – Develop an actionable marketing strategy
5 – Follow the 7Ps of marketing
6 – Create compelling and consistent messaging
7 – Produce appropriate content
8 – Launch traditional and social media marketing campaigns
9 – Earn the loyalty and trust of your customers
10 – Become #1 in the minds of your customers

Good Luck with your branding and marketing resolutions in the coming year. Please be sure to forward this list of resolutions to anyone you know who may need a little inspiration. Remember that Once a Day Marketing™ will be here for you next year to help you achieve your goals.

On behalf of everyone here at Once a Day Marketing™ I would like to wish you a Happy New Year. To discuss an online or onsite service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

100 Videos to Enhance Your Branding Knowledge and Strategy

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today I am recapping 100 videos we have produced over the course of the year for Smart Monday and Strategic Tuesday.

Smart Monday is all about advice for enhancing your branding and marketing knowledge and Once a Day Marketing™ created 50 videos related to those subjects. Topics include defining brand and banding, USP and brand positioning. We also look at the 7Ps of Marketing, brand image vs. brand identity, recognition vs. recall, reach vs. frequency and brand strength vs. brand stature. Mindshare vs. market share is addressed as well.

Strategy Tuesday revolves around strategy you can implement to outthink and outpace your competition. We produced another 50 videos related to this subject in 2012. Topics include brand, product and pricing strategies. We also look at strategic planning and fundamentals such as mission and vision statements. We discuss developing winning cultures, the marketing ecosystem, building customer loyalty, defining overt benefit and also describe SMART goals.

It's very easy to find Once a Day Marketing™ videos. Go to youtube.com/onceadaymarketing and then type in either Smart Monday or Strategic Tuesday in the search box and all of these videos will be displayed. I hope you have fun increasing your branding and marketing knowledge and developing new strategies to really take your competition on next year.

Be sure to seek out the complementary video to this blog where I summarize 150 videos from our Action Wednesday, Recon Thursday, and Digital Friday.

If you need any branding or marketing support, please contact me to discuss an online or onsite service engagement. You can always find that information at the end of this video. I'm Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we will see you next time.

Friday, December 28, 2012

The Value of Going Viral (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we're going to look at the value of your message going viral and having customers talk about your brand.

The Wall Street Journal recently profiled the best and the worst ads and stunts created in-house or by major advertising agencies for big brands. This prompted me to think about advertising going viral and creating buzz through social media. Some of the viral campaigns did a great job while others caused the companies to backtrack from their efforts. Next, I am going to discuss how important creating buzz really is.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have 800 million people follow one of your social media posts? Is that realistic and do you need that many people tuning in worldwide? I think the answer is a resounding No. Your goal should be a smaller following that is interested in what your company is all about.

To develop an advertisement that may go viral, be creative. Don't take the typical approach to whatever content you are creating. Use your imagination and think about what might appeal to your potential audience.

Your post should be meaningful over cute. Cute may attract a few eyeballs but will it really resonate with potential customers?

The message should be honest and a true reflection of your brand. You want to create a good understanding of what you are all about for the audience who does see your social media effort.

Plan to distribute your content where it aligns with potential customers. That will create the greatest chances of them sharing it with other people who might be like-minded and interested in your post.

And finally, don't force it. Viral means people get interested and they share it on your behalf.

Viral is what is relevant to you. You may not need 800 million, 1 million or even 50,000 views. 10, 20, 50 or 100 people sharing your message may obtain results that will benefit your business. Have fun with the process and perhaps you will create content that does go viral and you will see what kind of results it generates for you in the new year.

That concludes Digital Friday. Do your best to join us next week. If you need any branding or marketing support, please contact us to discuss an online or onsite service engagement. You can always find that information at the end of this video. I'm Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we will see you next time.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Year-end Review: Your Competition, Market and Company (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Recon Thursday and in fact it’s the last Recon Thursday of the year so I am going remind you to review your competition, your market and your own company again.

To truly develop the right kind of marketing strategy and tactics for the new year, you require a thorough understanding of your own company’s successes and failures along with what your competition is doing and what is going on in the market place. In-depth understanding will enable you to create a marketing plan that will make sense for next year.

Start by looking at your competition; I’ve produced several blogs on this subject. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses may allow you to identify opportunities to outperform them in the new year.

Next review the market place. Look at the trends; what innovations can you apply to your products that will allow you to capture additional market share?

Lastly, evaluate your own company. Identify which marketing strategies worked and which ones didn’t. Develop new strategy and the tactics for your marketing plan to improve your company’s results in the new year.

Strategic planning for next year is dependent on your knowledge of your competition, market and your own company. Work with your team to develop the strategy and tactics based on that knowledge. Then have some fun in the new year and see what kind of rewards you will generate.

That concludes Recon Thursday. Join us tomorrow for Digital Friday. To discuss an online or onsite service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Safekeeping Your Future Marketing Ideas (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Action Wednesday and we're going to have you take action to capture all the really good ideas you have for future use.

If you're like me, new ideas surface all the time. We even did a blog recently about how to discover new ideas and innovations for your company. What do you do when you get these ideas? Are you keeping them in a safe place for future use or implementation? That's what we are going to talk about in today’s blog.

I have certainly made the mistake of thinking I could remember those good ideas; but the reality is I often do forget them. I started taking those thoughts and capturing them in one place. Create a location where you can store and evaluate your ideas, prioritize them, implement the good ones and save the others for future use.

Ensure you don't get caught in the trap of always jumping to the new ideas. This can be a distraction to following the strategic plan which you've already put a lot of thought into. Instead, re-visit your stockpile of ideas when you are seeking something new.

That concludes Action Wednesday. Join us tomorrow for Recon Thursday. To discuss an online or onsite service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

7Ps of Marketing: Strengthening Your Weakest Component (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday and we're going to revisit the 7Ps and talk a little bit about shoring up your weakest component.

It's our nature to be experts at things and now that you are becoming familiar with the 7Ps of Marketing I'm sure you're becoming an expert at some of the 7Ps but probably not all. When it comes to marketing and branding you have to ensure you are addressing all of the 7Ps.

First take a look at your strongest Ps; perhaps product or price are the areas that you are really getting good in. Next ask yourself which Ps are your weakest. Does your process require improvement? Do you still stumble over your physical evidence? It's important to identify which P is the weakest and develop strategy around how you are going to move forward to really enhance that particular P.

Every one of the 7Ps is so important that if you neglect one, even if you are doing a good job elsewhere, it will bring down the value and impression of your brand. For next year, think strategically about how you will raise your weakest component to equal the level of your strongest Ps.

That concludes Strategic Tuesday. Join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday. If you need any branding or marketing support, please contact me to discuss an online or onsite service engagement. You can always find that information at the end of this video. I'm Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we will see you next time.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Happy Holidays from Once a Day Marketing (Smart Monday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, with Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Smart Monday but we are going to depart from our regular discussions to bring you some holiday cheer.

I would like to wish all of you happy holidays and thank you for following Once a Day Marketing™. It's incredible to me that we now have followers all over the United States and 130 countries around the world. It's been great getting to know many of you, reviewing your comments and responding to them.

Our goal at Once a Day Marketing™ is to inspire you to market every single day and you should feel very good if you've been following our blog and branding and marketing every chance you get. Your goal should be to strive to brand and market even more next year.

So from all of us at Once a Day Marketing™, no matter where you are in the world, cheers.

If you need any branding or marketing support, please contact me to discuss an online or onsite service engagement. You can always find that information at the end of this video. I'm Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we will see you next time.

Friday, December 21, 2012

The Walmart / Facebook Marketing Blitz (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and I am going to share with you something I read about in the Wall Street Journal; a recent marketing collaboration between Facebook and Walmart using social media.

We are all wondering about the power of social media to drive advertising and sales. Facebook and Walmart joined forces following Thanksgiving and Black Friday to develop a mobile app advertising campaign. They pushed out 50 million ads to tens of millions of people promoting toys, televisions and other products from Walmart via Facebook’s mobile news feed.

Let’s take a look at a few of the specifics of this ad campaign. Walmart purchased 2 billion ads for the holiday season which blocked other advertisers from being in the same space. Facebook worked with them to customize the advertising program. Walmart also had the flexibility to change the ads on the fly based on interaction and responses from the social media customers.

Critics might say the results were mixed but it looks like Facebook and Walmart are very pleased with the outcome. Walmart generated 1 million comments, mentions and interactions because of the campaign. They picked up 164,000 new Likes on their Facebook page. They were also struggling to sell a pair of speakers across their stores at an $88 price point. This item was promoted through the social media campaign and subsequently sold out nationwide.

According to Walmart and Facebook, they are definitely going to launch another campaign similar to this next year. Without a doubt, 2013 is going to be another interesting year for analyzing the results of social media campaigns.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Discovering Your Next Big Idea (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and it’s Recon Thursday. Our tag line is “Inspiring Ideas Inside” and today we are going to inspire you to find the next big idea for your company.

I can’t stress enough the importance of innovation, it’s critical to everything you do in your company. If your competition is slow to market, then you may be able to take advantage of an innovation to capture more customers and market share. Next we are going to provide you with a few thoughts around where you can look for the next big idea for your company.

You probably don’t realize it, but that next big idea is right out in front of you. Here are some ideas to search for it. First, ask your customers; they are knowledgeable about your product and people and they have good ideas to share about how to make your product or brand better.

Next, ask your employees; they are literally in the trenches every day marketing your product and working with customers. They also will have ideas to enhance your brand.

Then look around your market landscape. Review what your competition is doing. Are there any tactics you like that you can borrow from them? Determine if there are ideas you can apply to your business from the large companies that spend a lot of money and time marketing and branding.

Research major trends; there are numerous innovations emerging all over the world which we have discussed on Digital Friday. Is there anything here that your company can take advantage of?

Lastly, use the search engines to search for the 10 best fill-in-the-blank. You may search the ten best ideas, trends, innovations or something more specific to your industry, brand or product. As you begin to explore the search engine results; ideas are going to surface that may be a good fit to improve your brand or your product for the coming year.

If you do this kind of research you are going to find great nuggets of ideas for your company. You can take those ideas, prioritize them and drop them into your strategic plan. Have some fun implementing to see which ones will take your company off in a new direction.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Building a Winning Culture: Part 2 (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Action Wednesday and we are concluding our series with Part 2 of Building a Winning Culture.

The idea for this blog came from Jim Stengel’s latest book Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies. I should have also mentioned that the 10 principles were compiled by Martin Zwilling, a Forbes contributor. Today we are going to look at the next five principles.

Principles 6 – 10 of building a winning culture are:

Number 6 - Set your standards very high. You always want to challenge your team

Number 7 - Train all the time, coach every day and don’t criticize

Number 8 –Create symbolic gestures to excite your customers and your employees. Think about Steve Jobs out there on stage announcing the next new product from Apple.

Number 9 - Think like a winner and act like a winner. You will project this attitude to your customers and also to your employees; everyone is part of a winning team.

And lastly, live your desired legacy. If you don’t know your ultimate goal or direction how will anyone else understand it? It’s up to you to live it and to share it.

By following these principles you should accrue two major benefits. First, that you will build a team based on your ideals and establish a good foundation for future direction. Second, you will give your team the freedom to create. Who knows what that team may achieve in this winning culture where everyone is excited to try new approaches?

I really look forward to hearing about the development of your winning culture

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Building a Winning Culture Part 1 (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are going to begin a two part series on building a winning culture.

If your corporate culture is only about the bottom line, following conventional wisdom and keeping the status quo than I know today’s blog is not for you. Many companies, such as Apple, have a great winning culture. I am going to share ideas you can use to build your culture from a book recently published by Jim Stengel called Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies.

Today we will be looking at the first five of 10 principles that were compiled by Martin Zwilling, a Forbes contributor . The first is: communicate your dream and operationalize it. That means your company should have an outward focus; narrow enough to be achievable and for the greater good.

Next is be clear what you stand for both inside and outside of your company. People follow what you do not what you say.

Third is design your organization to win. You should have winning strategy, winning capabilities and a winning team.

The fourth point is get the right team in place and do it quickly. Ensure you hire smart people both internally and as consultants or others that you bring on to support your efforts.

Lastly is champion innovation of all kinds and make sure that you are implementing your dream across all avenues of your company.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Do You Know Your Customer Loyaltyscape? (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Smart Monday and I am going to share with you a model I developed to assist you in categorizing the loyalty of your customers.

There are numerous, very technical ways to zero in on the buying behavior and nature of your customers; sometimes using demographics, sometimes using psychographics. I like a 10,000 foot view where we look at just the loyalty of the customer

I have developed a simple matrix that has four different categories of customers. The four categories I have created are Undecided, Blue Mooners, Zombies and Brand Lovers.

Undecided are the vast majority of consumers in the market place who may really want to buy your product, they just don’t know anything about it. Next are the Blue Mooners, these are people that have actually tried your product but it has been purely by accident. Nothing you did caused them to buy the product.

Third are Zombies and Zombies are really good customers, they will habitually gravitate to your product but they aren’t very loyal. As soon as they find something else that is more interesting to them they will divert and go in another direction.

The last group is Brand Lovers. These customers will literally go out of their way to use your product because it provides them with an experience that they absolutely love.

Your goal of course is to try to get everybody to be a Brand Lover but that is not going to be possible. Here are some tactics you can apply to influence each group toward your brand. Share more information with the Undecideds. It could be through traditional marketing or social media; you want to get on their radar so that you pique their interest.

Blue Mooners have tried your product once, so the strategic question is how you will motivate them to try it again.

Zombies are already habitually going to your product. They are not loyal per se so the question is how do you encourage them to be loyal?

Brand Lovers is the group that is sacred to your business; they are probably driving most of your revenue. Your goal with them should be to provide reasons they will love your product even more.

That concludes Smart Monday. Join us again for Strategic Tuesday. If you need any branding or marketing support, please contact me to discuss an online or onsite service engagement. You can always find that information at the end of this video. I'm Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we will see you next time.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Enhance Your Visual Marketing: Free Online Design Tools (Digital Friday/Physical Evidence)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we are going to take a look at a few websites that provide tools which enable you to create graphics like the pros.

Hubspot is a great online resource for businesses. They recently sent out a blog that identified 13 free online sites that can assist you with the visual aspect of your marketing. I looked at those sites and I was very impressed so I thought I’d share a few of them with you today.

I am not a graphic artist but I know how important good graphics are. Let’s take a look at five of these sites, each with a different focus, which you can use to prepare good graphics. First is Design Seeds, this is a great site that displays pictures and color palettes in those pictures. This will give you good ideas as to which colors go together when designing a website or a brochure.

Next is Image Color Picker. On this site you are able to put up a picture, touch on it and the site will tell you the HEX and RGB values for any color you click on. Sometimes it’s important to know exactly how to describe a color.

Google webfonts is another excellent tool. This site allows you to identify a font for your website or which fonts complement each other if you are using more than one.

Iconfinder allows you to find its content with a key word search. Perhaps you are looking for an icon such as a coin or a directional arrow; type that in and it will return all sorts of free graphics that are available for you to use.

Lastly we’ll talk about Skitch. This is a tool that that allows you to grab a snapshot of your computer screen and then enables you to add annotations or notes and use it in any kind of presentation that you are preparing. You are also able blur out sensitive content or anything you don’t want to share.

You’ve heard me talk a lot about the 7Ps of marketing and in particular physical evidence which includes those visual cues that allow your customers to get a great impression of your brand. With the power of these free online tools there is no excuse not to enhance the visual aspect of your marketing. I hope that you have some fun with these sites and start impressing your customers.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Your Marketing Journey: Off-Trail Exploration (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Recon Thursday and we are sharing part two of our series on reaching the summit or reaching your marketing goals. Yesterday we talked about taking the conservative, marked trail and today we are going to discuss going off trail.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, taking the established trail will get you to the top, however, that route has a few disadvantages. The fact that everyone else is taking that groomed trail means you are going to run into a lot of competition along the way. You will all be crowding at the top with the exact same view.

When you go off trial and depart from where the rest of the pack is going, it’s not such a clearly defined direction. You don’t know what is going to be around the next bend, it could be more risky, additional resources may be required and it may take a little bit longer to reach the objective as well. One thing is sure; you are probably going to be the only person going in that direction.

What I love about going off trail is that you will encounter numerous different experiences along the way. You are going to see things that those on the well-defined trail are not going to see. You will reach a different place than the masses too and that is the benefit of striking out in another direction. When you get to the top and everyone is in one place taking in the view, you are going to be in a completely different location all alone and owning a spectacular view by yourself. That is a good tack to be taking when you are out there in the marketing world.

Whichever trail you take, the one that is well marked or the one that has no markings at all is up to you and I wish you the best in your marketing journey.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Your Marketing Journey: Taking the Marked Path (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Action Wednesday and I am going to start a two part series that relates my passion for hiking with reaching your marketing goals.

As I mentioned, I love hiking and we have so many great places to hike here in Santa Fe. In particular, one of my favorites is Santa Fe Baldy. It’s a local peak we can see off in the distance from downtown Santa Fe.

When planning a hiking trip there are trail maps depicting very clearly defined routes that you can follow to the top of the mountain. Taking a clearly marked trail to the top of Santa Fe Baldy makes it is very evident which path to follow.

The trail map is similar to your marketing plan and the goals you a want to reach, if you stay on that path you are going to get there; if you deviate you may experience problems. Once off the trail you don’t know what you are going to run into. It is less risky and will consume fewer resources to make the summit when you know exactly where you are going.

The great aspect of taking the groomed path is that, fast or slow, you are going to reach your destination or in this case your goals. It’s a proven approach that will allow you to replicate the process over and over again. It doesn’t matter what day or the week or month you hike, if you take that trail you are going to reach the summit and the same will be true if you take a steady path to reach your marketing goals.

The defined path approach is definitely the conservative way to go when you want to reach the summit. Tomorrow in Part II we are going to talk about going off trail which gets you to the summit in a slightly different way.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Building a Trail of Wows for Your Customers (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Strategic Tuesday and I want you to think about how numerous, small positive experiences for your customers may really add up to enhance your brand.

All of us will agree that Disney is one of the top customer service companies in the world. At the Disney Institute they work with major corporations to re-think their customer service, corporate culture and their leadership practices. Disney believes that numerous little positive experiences taken together will greatly wow their customers and that is what we are going to discuss now.

For Strategic Tuesday I want you to look across your entire company and brand to determine as many new incremental customer wows as you can to enhance the customer experience. Leverage the 7Ps as your foundation. Focus on product, price, place, promotion, people, physical evidence and the process and see how many new little customer delighters you are able create.

The easiest way to do this is to put yourself into the minds of your customers. Be creative; these enhancements don’t have to be expensive, they just have to be a positive experience for customers. No matter where they encounter your brand, product or company, these little wows will add up and over time you will greatly enhance the customer experience and you will greatly enhance your brand.

Monday, December 10, 2012

A Marketing Video Blog Just for You (Smart Monday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing™. It’s Smart Monday when we enhance your branding and marketing knowledge. Today I want to know if you have a specific question for me. This is your opportunity to ask That Branding Guy the one question that’s been on your mind.

The purpose of Once a Day Marketing™ is to inspire you to market every single day and we've produced almost 250 video blogs this year to help you along the way. Perhaps you have a question I haven't answered yet. It may be about the 7Ps of Marketing or something specific around branding and marketing; something you just want to know yourself or share with your team. Now is your chance to ask me that question.

Ask your question by commenting on this Once a Day Marketing™ blog in whatever forum you follow us in and pose your question. I will review all the questions and pick one to create a special video for that topic.

I’m sure looking at all your questions will be very educational and great feedback for me. There may even be an opportunity for two videos. Take your time, ask your question and perhaps yours will be the one I select to respond to in a daily video blog.

That concludes Smart Monday. Please join us tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday. To discuss an online or onsite service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Becoming a Social Business (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we are going to delve a little bit deeper into the importance of being a social business.

Becoming a social business is more than just using social media like twitter and Facebook. It means you have made a serious commitment to social media and to engaging your customers, vendors & partners and your employees through these tools. A truly social business is seeking to be an industry leader in social media as well.

The Dachis Group is a company that tracks social media businesses. They looked at 25,000 companies and 27,000 brands to create an index that rates the top social businesses. This list includes companies as Viacom, who was #1; Disney, Google, P&G, Nike and the NBA. When you hear these names it’s not surprising that these companies are the world’s leading as social businesses.

For these big brands, it’s about more than just having the resources to engage social media. They understand the importance. They know being a social business builds brand awareness, loyalty and even brand love and, that it increases mind share and advocacy.

The question for you as you move forward with strategic planning for the next year is how important is becoming a social business to you? My recommendation is that you consider it to be very important and put it high on your list of 2013 goals.

That concludes Digital Friday. Join us next week for Smart Monday. To discuss an online or onsite service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™ and we’ll see you next time.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Selecting a Media Producer (Recon Thursday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. It’s Recon Thursday and we are continuing our series looking at outsourcing marketing support for your company. Today’s focus is Media Production.

I have been involved in media production for over 25 years and this subject is definitely near and dear to my heart. As I have discussed in many blogs, media is a vital tool to promote your brand and products. Websites, social media and phone apps are all new outlets to leverage for video distribution. Also, the prices have come down. If you feel it is time to invest in professional media production for your company, the following are the essential elements to consider.

There are two main areas of expertise in creating video; media producers and media production companies. The media producer is the person who brings to the table their ability to provide creative input as well as manage productions and other professionals. Media production companies are sometimes just that. They know how to capture images and edit, however, they may not have the creative capabilities you require. Consider these skill sets in your decision making process. I believe having a first rate media producer is more important to a successful video.

Qualifications to review when you are considering a media production company include their general production skills; they should be very familiar with cameras, capturing images and ensuring they provide the kind of shot you are looking for. The professional you select should also be very competent in audio production. This includes more than recording good sound on the shoot; understanding sound effects and knowledge about music is critical because music underneath video is a great way to drive emotion.

Next is graphics and animation, these are powerful tools that will enhance the production value of a video or media production. Validate that the company you want to work with has a good graphic eye, knows animation and how to make images appear on the screen as you expect them to look.

Editing is another important element. The media expert should be able to take the footage they shoot and turn it into a compelling story that has a beginning, middle and end whether it’s a 30 second commercial, a 2-minute promotional video or a 30-minute infomercial.

Lastly, they should be comfortable working across various platforms. Not only should the media professional know traditional video production; they should understand what it takes to run video successfully on a smart phone, computer, tablet, video wall, kiosk or any of the other environments where media is used today.

In addition to the technical considerations there are a few more items that warrant your attention. First look at the company’s demo reel. This should include exciting examples of stories they have created using video, computers, animation and so forth. If you don’t like what you see, this may not be the company for you.

Next, call references and discuss the company’s ability to deliver on whatever media story they were hired to do. Ask questions about their embracing platforms; keep in mind that as consumers are moving more and more toward mobile apps, social media and tablets you want whoever you hire to have an understanding of producing for much smaller windows than large television screens.