Expand Brand Awareness Using Blog Aggregators (Digital Friday/Promotion)

I'm Jim Glover that branding guy for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we are looking at how to expand awareness of your brand using blog aggregator sites.

According to Wikipedia, an Aggregator refers to a web site or computer software that aggregates a specific type of information from multiple online sources.  In particular, some sites aggregate blog content and share it with their followers.  If you produce an entertaining or informative blog, consider using one of these sites.

Once a Day Marketing uses Alltop.com™, an aggregator that collects the headlines and latest stories by topic from the best sites and blogs that cover that area of interest.  Alltop.com™ categorizes the Once a Day Marketing blog under "branding" on a common home page with other leading branding bloggers.  Alltop.com™ then displays our five most recent headlines as well as the first paragraph of our posts.

Consider submitting your blog to Alltop.com™ for consideration.  According to the site, their decision criteria is: "We rely on several sources: results of Google searches, review of the sites’ and blogs’ content, researchers, and our “gut” plus the recommendations of the Twitter community, owners of the sites and blogs, and people who care enough to write to us."

If you are striving to attract more followers to your blog, review Alltop.com™ and other blog aggregators.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Choosing the Right Media Producer (Recon Thursday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Selecting a Media Producer

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.  Our focus today is on Media Production.

Media is a vital tool to promote your brand and products.  Websites, social media and phone apps are all mediums to leverage for video distribution.  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 provides creative input as well as management of 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.  I believe having a first rate media producer is the most important element 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 shots you are looking for.  The professional you select should also be very competent in audio production.

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 regardless of the length.

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.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Branding a Niche Resort (Action Wednesday/Promotion)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: Branding a Niche Resort

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Action Wednesday and we are discussing branding a resort catering to a niche market.

On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we spoke with Suzanne Shell, owner of clothing-optional resorts, about growing their market share and staying top-of-mind with customers and prospective customers.

Glover asked Suzanne how the resorts are marketed.  She said when considering how to brand the properties all of the aspects are the same as any other resort with the exception of the clothing optional focus.

Even within the segment of clothing-optional, Shell knows it’s important to differentiate.  They achieve this by focusing on being family friendly, allowing day use of their facilities and ensuring customer feedback is incorporated into the range of activities that are offered.  To drive interest and build mind-share, the resorts also support events in the local communities.

Shell advertises in industry specific publications to target an audience that is already interested in the product.  She believes that guests are the best ambassadors.

Glover pointed out that expanding social media presence may provide lift in awareness.  As long as you know your audience you can be very successful marketing a product that is unconventional.

Enjoy the podcast.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com. Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at noon (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Promoting an Iconic Brand (Strategic Tuesday/Positioning)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: Branding the Sound of Music Movie

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are discussing promoting an iconic brand: The Sound of Music.

On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we spoke with artist/actress Debbie Turner best known for her role as Marta in The Sound of Music.  The brand of The Sound of Music remains robust today in part through the efforts of Debbie and other cast members.

Originally released in 1965, The Sound of Music is one of the largest grossing films of its time and winner of five Academy Awards including best picture.  Today, lyrics from the movie are recognized among the top movie songs of all time.  The movie's popularity is still strong as evidenced by a recent YouTube posting of a flash mob dance to the song Do-Re-Mi in Antwerp that has generated 28 million views.

Debbie attributes the longevity of the brand to the fact that the movie is based on a true story, the strong cast and great music.  To maintain the brand, Debbie and fellow cast members have made appearances on morning shows and talk shows as well as signing autographs.  Debbie has also created a poster of the cast for sale on her website.  Visit Sound of Music Poster

With the 50^th anniversary of the movie coming in 2015, Debbie proposed the idea to feature the Sound of Music float at the Pasadena Rose Parade and would like to see Julie Andrews as Grand Marshall.  We think that's a very good branding idea.

Enjoy the podcast.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Consumer Adoption of Innovations (Smart Monday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: How Consumers Adopt to Innovation

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Smart Monday and we're looking at Everett Roger’s diffusion of innovation model and how it will assist you to understand your customer’s adoption patterns for new product innovations.

An innovation is any product, service or idea perceived by your customers as new.  According to Roger’s diffusion of innovation model, the length of time it takes consumers to adopt a new product is represented by a bell shaped curve.

The model breaks consumers into five groups.  Innovators, comprising 2.5% of consumers, are adventuresome; they like and seek out risk and are the first to buy new products.  Early adopters, 13.5% of consumers, are opinion leaders and once they make a decision to buy typically others will follow suit.

The largest group is the early majority who make up 34% of consumers.  This group is very deliberate but they choose to follow the early adopters when making purchases.  Next, the late majority, also at 34%, tend to be skeptical.  When they see other consumer getting on board, they will seek out a new product.

Finally, we have the laggards who comprise about 16% of consumers at the tail end of the curve.  This segment is very traditional and they need to know that a product is well proven before they will buy.

Understanding adoption patters for your customers is important to accurately target your advertising.  Once you categorize your customers into the various groups of adopters you will be able to leverage demographics and psychographics to determine media characteristics and create a compelling advertising message for each group that will resonate specifically with them.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Blogging Enhances Traffic and Lead Generation (Digital Friday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Impact of Long-Term Blogging

Hello.  I'm Jim Glover that branding guy for Once a Day Marketing™. Today is Digital Friday and we are looking at a study by HubSpot on the impact of long term blogging.

HubSpot completed a study involving 7,000 of their customers who answered questions about inbound marketing.  They found some very eye-opening statistics that may cause you to re-evaluate blogging for your company.

Here are 5 interesting findings related to blogging:

-          15 blogs or more per month generate five times more inbound traffic than not blogging at all

-          Increasing blogging from 3-5x a month to 6-8x a month results in nearly double the lead flow

-          B2B blogs of 1-2 times a month generate 70% more leads than those who don’t blog

-          B2C companies increasing their available blogs from 100 to 200 saw a 59% increase in traffic

-          Companies with blog count over 200 have 5x more leads than those with 10 blogs or fewer

You may not experience the same lift that the companies in the HubSpot study enjoyed.  However, the point is blogging does work.  When you have a small number of blog you generate less attention than when you have a large number of blogs.  I highly recommend that you consider blogging.  If you aren’t blogging and your competition is, they are the ones seeing the increase in traffic flow.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Choosing Your Advertising Agency (Recon Thursday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Selecting Your Advertising Agency

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.  Our focus today is on Advertising Agencies.

Advertising agencies will create your branding and marketing and may also act as your media buyer.  Through branding they are positioning your brand and developing target audiences.  Under the marketing umbrella the agency will develop your message, design ads and may even produce TV commercials and radio spots.

Once you have made the decision to hire an advertising agency there are numerous aspects to consider in selecting one that is a good fit for your company.  Look at their experience; review their portfolio to ensure you like their work.  Meet the individuals that are part of the organization.  Find out how connected they are to the community and to the media outlets such as local papers, television stations and radio stations.

Other elements to review are the approach they will take to mount your advertising campaign and the associated costs.  The agency should let you know the metrics they will provide to measure the success of the advertising campaign.

Ensure you discuss fees.  Every agency will be different; they may be project based, hourly or retainer.  Lastly, make sure agency you chose has media buying clout.  If they are going to represent you to place your ads on television, in print or on the radio you want to know that they have the ability to obtain the most favorable pricing.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

"Selfies" - Strong Indicator of Social Media Usage (Action Wednesday/Promotion)

Once a Day Marketing™ new featured video blog: Selfies - Strong Indicator of Social Media Usage

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Action Wednesday and we are looking at the growth of "selfies" as an indicator of future social media usage.

Oxford Dictionary just made "selfie" the word of the year.  If you are not familiar with this term, a selfie is a photo we take of ourselves using a smart phone.  The fact that Oxford added this word to our official lexicon shows its importance to our society.

From a branding perspective, we see the rise of selfies as a strong indicator that more and more people are not only using smart phones to take pictures of themselves but are also becoming more comfortable with sharing and accessing content through social media channels.

The writing is on the wall, or should we say the "selfie" is on the wall.  If your brand is not developing a formal social media marketing campaign to build mindshare and develop relationships with potential customers, you can count on losing market share to your competitors who are deploying social media strategies.

Be sure to take action today and start using this powerful tool to build your brand.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Brewers Guild Promotes Member Brands (Strategic Tuesday/Positioning)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: New Mexico Brewers Guild

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are discussing how a statewide brewer’s guild is working hard to promote its member craft beer brands.
 

On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we spoke with Christopher Goblet, Beer Ambassador with the New Mexico Brewers Guild. Christopher shares his insight into what it takes to successfully brand and market the craft beer makers in the 30-member guild.

The New Mexico Brewers Guild is like a chamber of commerce for beer-makers.  The mission of the organization is to promote, protect and education the public about crafter beers throughout the state of New Mexico.

The guild's brandline is "Frontier of Beer," denoting New Mexico's pioneering spirit, its desire to enhance the science of beer making and New Mexico's association with the final frontier: space.  Christopher joked that perhaps New Mexico will be the first to send craft beer across the universe.

Goblet added what makes New Mexico's craft beers unique is the diverse personalities of the regional brewers and the fact they are always brewing up something new.

One tactic that he highlighted which is working well for the brewers is to collaborate and partner to enhance the overall craft beer experience for beer enthusiasts in the state.  Other tactics mentioned that enhance brand awareness included remote tasting rooms located at tourism destinations like the famous Taos Ski Resort and hosting major beer tasting events to increase interest, trial and product adoption.

The biggest challenge facing small craft brewers is understanding branding and marketing, and devoting enough time to build their brands.  Often times the brewers are spending so much time making outstanding beers they do not spend enough time marketing.

Enjoy the podcast.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Understanding Your Customer Loyaltyscape (Smart Monday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Do You Know Your Customer Loyaltyscape
Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Smart Monday and we are sharing our model to categorize the loyalty of your customers.

There are numerous, very technical ways to zero in on the buying behavior and characteristics of your customers; some leverage demographics, others use psychographics.  We like the 10,000 foot view to assess customer loyalty.

Once a Day Marketing™ has developed a simple matrix with four different categories of customers; Undecided, BlueMooners, Zombies and Brand Lovers.

Undecided are the vast majority of consumers in the market place who would potentially buy your product but don't know anything about your brand.  Next are the Blue Mooners, these are customers who have tried your product out of convenience rather than having an interest in a specific brand.

Third are Zombies, they are really good customers and habitually gravitate to your product but they aren’t very loyal.  As soon as they discover competitor product attributes that are more interesting or beneficial they will divert and seek out the alternative brand.  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 they absolutely love.

Here are some tactics you can apply to influence each group toward your brand.  Share more information with the Undecideds.  One approach may be more traditional or social media marketing to get on their radar and generate enough interest for them to try your product.

Blue Mooners have tried your brand once, so the strategic question is how to motivate them to try it again.  Zombies are already habitually using your product, they are not loyal per se so the challenge is to persuade them to be loyal.

Brand Lovers are sacred to your business and are probably driving most of your revenue. Your goal is to provide them with more reasons to love your product and recommend your product to their peers.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Be a Top Social Business (Digital Friday/Positioning)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Becoming a Social Business

Hello. I'm Jim Glover that branding guy with Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Digital Friday and we are continuing our conversation on the importance of being a social business.

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

The Dachis Group is a company that tracks social media businesses and publishes an index which rates the top social businesses.  This week’s list includes Disney at #1, followed by Viacom and News Corp rounding out the top three.  Google, Sony, Nike and the Microsoft are also in the top 10.  When you consider the companies named, it’s not surprising that they are 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, customer loyalty and increases mind share and advocacy.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Choosing the Right Branding Consultant (Recon Thursday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Selecting Your Branding Consultant

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Recon Thursday and we are continuing our series about outsourcing branding and marketing support for your company with a discussion around Branding Consultants.

In Part I we examined assessing whether or not your current marketing is effective and if it makes sense to keep it in house or bring in an outside consultant.  When you decide to hire a branding consultant, focus on the following four areas in your evaluation of the individual or company you are interviewing.

First is rapport.  Have you established a relationship and get along with this individual or company?  You will be working closely with them so it is very important that you work well together.  Your branding consultant should get you excited about your brand and branding in the future.  Number two; review examples of their past work and make sure you like it.  Don’t assume that because they are talented they will be able to provide what you want.

Next look at their approach, the steps they will take to complete your scope of work.  Fourth, call/review references, look at the age of the references and if they are not recent, request more up to date contacts.

Once you engage a consultant clearly define the scope of work.  Discuss fees; every company is different, they may bill you on an hourly basis, a project basis or retainer.  Decide what will work the best for your budget.

Establish a timeline.  I recommend that you consider a phased delivery.  Don’t encompass all the work into one milestone to be delivered at the end of the project.  Rather, establish a number of smaller milestones.  Review and approve one milestone at a time and then move on to the next.  Lastly, be very clear on the deliverable or deliverables the consultant will turn over to you when the work is complete.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: Developing Your Marketing Action Plan

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Action Wednesday and we are discussing the importance of creating a good marketing action plan.

The marketing action plan (MAP) is a valuable tool to identify the important marketing action items for your brand.  What we love about a MAP is that it centralizes all of these tasks in one place.  Using this tool enables you to prioritize which items to do first and which will be completed later.

Let’s take a look at the elements of a good marketing action plan.  We use project management software, such as FastTrack, to maintain our MAP and break tasks down into three categories; short term, intermediate and long term.

Working with key members of your team, create a column for tasks and describe each task is in as much detail as required.  Next, use a column to identify the responsible party.  This is the individual in your organization who is the champion of the task and owns its timely completion.  List start and finish dates for each item.  Include budget or costs where applicable so you know the amount of resources to allocate toward the task.

When the marketing action plan is complete, share it with the appropriate individuals in your organization and review it regularly to establish progress.  When your team members have input into developing the marketing action plan and have committed to a timeline for task completion, hold responsible individuals accountable for missed targets.  When team members know they are going to be held responsible they are going to get things done.

Your task for today is to do is build your marketing action plan.  The very first task on the plan should be to brand every single day by following Once a Day Marketing.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MST) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Branding an Art Gallery in Santa Fe (Strategic Tuesday/Positioning)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: Marketing is a Work of Art

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are discussing branding an art gallery.

On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we spoke with Darrell Hilley, Owner of the Santa Fe Art Collector Gallery.  Darrell shares his insight into what it takes to successfully brand and market a gallery in a highly competitive market.
 

Santa Fe Art Collector represents approximately 35 diverse artists; Hilley shares that it is essential to appeal to a broad spectrum of taste in order to draw a wider consumer base.  Also, he recently moved the gallery to an area with higher foot traffic of more targeted customers and has found the change in location to be very advantageous.

Hilley watches the trends in the market such as the increasing appeal of unique and colorful pieces as well as consumer interest in lower priced pieces and responds accordingly.  Consumers are now more drawn by the particular piece than to a specific artist.

With a majority sales to out of state customers, Santa Fe Art Collector uses printed media targeted at collectors as the preferred form of advertising.  The gallery does have a website, however, customers don’t generally purchase a piece sight unseen.

Glover commented that leveraging the collector magazines is essential to define your brand along with other large galleries.  If a presence is not maintained in this arena, the gallery will not be on the radar of potential customers planning their visit using this medium.

Enjoy the podcast.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at noon (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Bling Can Enhance Impulse Buying (Smart Monday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Smart Monday and we are looking at how bling (the flashy, ostentatious flaunting of things) can enhance impulse buying.

Recently we attended a branding webinar hosted by Guy Kawasaki, a top marketing guru.  He shared adding bling to a blog will visually attract followers.  Great advice, Guy, thanks.

We would add that bling works on just about all branding and marketing because we are such a visually oriented society.  When in line to check out at an Old Navy store this past weekend, we had to pass down a long aisle of merchandise before we arrived at the cash register.  Talk about bling.

From our picture you can see Minnie Mouse and Marvel Comics on display to entice customers as they wait to make their purchase.  This is great example of using bling to enhance impulse buying.  It would be interesting to know how many items are sold from this long display of "last chance" merchandise.  One thing is sure, Old Navy is using this tactic because it works for them.

If you want to entice more impulse buying, follow the practices of the experts like Old Navy, Barnes and Noble, and even your local grocery store of parading your customers past a display of enticing merchandise.  Let us know how it goes.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at noon (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Using Social Media to Make Your Business Better (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello. I'm Jim Glover that branding guy with Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Digital Friday we are looking at how to use social media to make your business better.

Fortune Magazine recently recognized 5 companies who are best-in-class using social media to make their existing business practices better.  The 5 best-in-class categories included 1) Customer Service, 2) Marketing, 3) Small Business, 4) Collaboration and 5) Hiring.

The all-star in Customer Service is JetBlue, who always responds in real time to customer messages.  Best in Marketing goes to American Express for continuing to push the envelope in digital marketing.

First Round Capital is best in Small Business for its private digital network to support the funding needs of its portfolio companies.  Best in Collaboration goes to Facebook who uses its own social networking to make its employees more efficient.

And lastly, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory achieved best in Hiring for using forums and groups to locate hard to find candidates.

The main point here is that these companies aren't just using social media to promote their brands, they are using social networks to improve their businesses.  Something to think about.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at noon (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.

Should You Outsource Your Marketing (Recon Thursday/Process)

Once a Day Marketing™ featured video blog: In-House or Outsourced Marketing

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing™.  Today is Recon Thursday and we are beginning a series around assessing your branding and marketing to determine whether or not it may be advantageous to seek outside support.

If you have been following Once a Day Marketing™ you understand why branding and marketing are so important.  To ensure you are moving in the right direction, evaluate the results of your efforts and determine if you are attaining the desired results.

Here are some questions to consider when determining whether or not you should manage your own marketing or outsource it.

-          Do you have a marketing plan in place?

-          Are you consistently implementing that plan?

-          Do target customers clearly understand your brand?

-          Are you satisfied with creative material (website, ad copy, brochures)?

-          Are customers responding by calling, buying your product, visiting your website, etc.?

If you are honest in your assessment, then you know if in-house branding and marketing is working or whether you should bring somebody in to support your efforts.  If you decide to hire outside assistance who should that be?  When should you bring them in?  What should you have them do?

Stay tuned for additional blogs in this series where we will discuss the different type of professional support and provide information to enable you to make informed decisions.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers.  Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com.  Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com.  Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at noon (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

© 2013 Once a Day Marketing™.  All rights reserved.