5 New Year’s Marketing Resolutions for 2012

By Kamea Zelisko

It’s that time of year again. With the New Year just around the corner it’s time to sit back and reflect at the year gone by – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

When it comes to marketing there is always something more you could be doing, so here are some tips to help you form your New Years marketing resolutions and help make 2012 the year your business takes it to the next level.

1.     Review and revise your marketing strategy: Taking a look back at your marketing strategy, whether it’s just in your head or in a document, can help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. To get started, ask yourself the following questions:

• What worked in 2011? What didn’t?

• Do you need to step up your networking efforts?

• Are you up to speed on the latest in social media? (Google+ anyone?)

• Are your social media efforts meeting the goals of your organization?

2.     Try something new: It’s great to stick with what works, but marketing is all about pushing the envelope.  Ask yourself what more can you do to step up your marketing in 2012. How about a new (hopefully viral!) video idea? Have you looked into trade shows or other advertising avenues? How about a creative new campaign to get people buying your products or services? Think outside the box in 2012 and try something new!

3.     Collaborate: There are so many great marketing experts out there, from direct sales to online marketing specialists. Pride will not help your business grow, but teaming up with other knowledgeable experts sure can’t hurt. So reach out and ask for help this year!

4.     Join an organization: Local chambers of commerce or other specialized organizations can help bring not only a more professional appeal to your business but they can also be a great way to market yourself. So if you aren’t currently in any organizations, join one – many are free and only charge minimal fees for networking events. If you’re already a member of an organization look for a new one! There are so many great groups out there and business owners can never meet too many people.

5.     Improve your customer service: In a world full of words like “hits,” “likes,” and “followers,” it can be easy to overlook the basics of marketing. There’s no marketing like good public relations – a happy customer will not only return but will also be likely to refer your services to their customers or friends as well. So make an effort to improve your customer service this year, it will not go unnoticed!

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Great Christmas marketing ideas

By Kamea Zelisko

Over the past few decades Christmas has quickly become an excellent marketing opportunity, and why not? It’s when the public is most likely to have their purses open. Heck, Christmas marketing has started earlier and earlier every year, now starting literally the day after Halloween.

Even with the state of the economy, seemingly always teetering on the edge of disaster these days, consumer spending has been up this holiday season.

American consumers haven’t spent so much money on holiday gifts since 1999. And while Canada has reported some slower Christmas sales numbers, we’re no shopping slouches either. Statistics Canada reported retail sales rose in September by one per cent to $38.2 billion, and the Retail Council of Canada estimates a 3% increase in retail sales this Christmas over last year.

A lot of these sales have to do with promotions and discounts, but don’t think marketing doesn’t have something to do with it.

Marketing your product or service in a new and interesting way can go a long way this season. Here are some great marketing ideas that came up this year that could get you thinking about how to better market your product/service not just this season but all year round:

•  In case you didn’t see it, Jimmy Kimmel did a video challenge called "I gave my Kid a Terrible Present" YouTube Challenge. This hilarious viral contest/segment brought tons of attention to his site. 

•  Dairy Queen is offering free Blizzard treats in its “Reindeer Bites” flavour to anyone who brings a real, live reindeer into a store.

•  Mississauga, Ont.-based website itravel2000 is in the fourth year of a promotion that promises to refund the price of all trips taken between Nov. 1 and April 30 for customers who had more than 10 centimetres of snow fall on New Year’s Day at their regional weather station in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, or Calgary.

•  The Independent has a list of the funniest Christmas ads ever.

•  At the Living Christmas Cards website, a live streaming webcam shows you the mountain in northern Sweden where “Santa’s reindeer” are kept. You can take a photograph from one of the four live views, and make it into a holiday card for your friends.

Hope this helps!

Merry Christmas and a happy marketing new year from all of us at Red Queen!

Should you market in an uncertain economy?

By Kamea Zelisko

With the stock markets plunging up and down like a yo-yo, protests on Wall Street and the risk of Greece defaulting on its debt, it seems the world’s economy is hanging by a thread these days.

This economic uncertainty is enough to have even the biggest corporations on edge, wondering how to best spend their most valued resource – their money.

So it’s no wonder small- and medium-sized businesses are cautious about how to spend their hard-earned cash.

While many companies’ first instinct is to cut marketing to save cash, is that the right decision?

After all, marketing is an integral aspect of your business. It helps attract new customers, brands your business and helps build trust between you and new and current clients on a day-to-day basis – regardless of what the Dow Jones is at this very second. So cutting marketing dollars out of your budget altogether will hinder any chance of you attracting new clients and can negatively affect the client base you’ve created so far.

What’s the key to marketing in an uncertain economy? The answer is to choose your marketing techniques carefully.

Here are some great tips to help you market in a cheap yet effective way:

1. Consider cutting back on some of you most expensive marketing efforts.
Are you running TV, radio, print or billboard ads? If so, this may want to be the place to look for first when cutting down on your marketing budget.

These ads are by far the most expensive to run and although effective, there are many other cheaper and effective options to choose from.

2. Get online. Now.
If you don’t have a website, create one ASAP, even if it’s just a blog site like www.blogger.com. Unlike when websites first came on the scene, today there are many free website template companies to choose from (one of our faves is www.weebly.com).

And remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect right away – when it comes to online presence, something is better than nothing!

Next up, get going on online marketing. This is not a phase – the truth is, if you haven’t boarded the online search marketing train you’re falling waaaay behind.

Online search marketing is the most effective way to market your company today, and while some options still cost money (i.e. Paid Search Marketing), there are free ways to promote your business online (i.e. Search Engine Optimization, or Organic Search Marketing).

Here are some sites to help get you up to speed and marketing online right away:
• www.searchengineland.com
• www.metrikmarketing.com
• www.sphinn.com
• www.tech-junkie.net

3. Get networking.
Personal relationships never go out of style. The more people you meet, the better chance you have of growing your client base, so join industry and business networks such as BNI (www.bnicanada.ca).

For more information on networking, see our How to Network blog posting.

4. Use the mass media to market for you.
Public Relations (PR) is one of the most effective and cheapest ways to get your company’s name and brand out there. By doing things like writing effective and newsworthy press releases, you can get mass media attention.

For more information on press releases, see our How to Write a Press Release blog posting.

Say No to Email Marketing

By Kamea Zelisko

The online world moves so fast. It seems like just yesterday we were all tediously setting up our first email account. The next few years seem to be a blur of emails, forwards and constantly cleaning out our inboxes.

My oh my, how things have changed.

Email quickly moved on to instant messaging platforms, and today online communication has become quick and efficient with an abundance of ways to communicate with people (mainly through various social media utilities).

As the old adage goes, “Out with the old and in with the new.”

Unfortunately, the old is now email, at least as far as online marketing goes.

I read an article online the other day where they referred to it as “inbox fear.” You may not have heard that term before, but I’m sure you get its meaning: It’s the fear you get when you’re about to open your email inbox and you’re thinking, “How many spam and/or marketing emails will I get today?”

The invention of spam had a lot to do with ruining the reputation of email as a marketing tool, and I know I now personally cringe when I get a marketing email. I mean, it’s different if I signed up for an online newsletter or something, but in general marketing emails just annoy me. Especially when I get them every day from the same company. I’m cringing now just thinking about it.

Since I like to think I’m a pretty average person, the rational line of thinking here would be if something makes me cringe then it no doubt makes others cringe too. Today email is mostly used for work purposes, and no sane person who’s already facing a full day of work wants to wade through your mass marketing emails to get to their important ones.

So if you’re drafting a mass marketing email right now, our advice is to press Delete and Send to Trash.

There is a plethora of other, much more effective ways to get your message across, mainly including social media – so why use the dinosaur when you could use the iRobot?

This doesn’t mean email doesn’t serve other useful marketing purposes. Although mass emails are out, personal emails are still very in.

Email is a great way to follow up with people you have met, and it’s a very useful networking tool. So feel free to send follow up emails, but be sure to make them personal and not just a mass email in disguise.

2011 Photo Tips and To Do List

By Finbarr Wilson

I hate looking at great photographs. Because lets face it, someone always has an incredible shot, and I am the jealous type.

Still, after a few decades of clicking I do have some good shots and a few ideas about how to make them better. So here is 2011’s photographic self-improvement project to help vault Red Queen images into another category altogether.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery and I intend to flatter a lot of photographers this year. I am going to buy a few photo books, take a much closer look at some of the great portfolios on the web and broaden my creative range. This sounds a lot like stealing ideas, but I prefer calling it participating in a communal creative process!

Breathing is good. And I need to stop and do it rather than rushing into the fray clicking madly. Stop. Look. Think. That’s my plan. And then when the shutter fires, be still and calm. I say all this because I have thousands of images which are simply okay. But with a few steps to one side or the other, they could have been great. And then there is the small mountain of images with motion blur. Perhaps not drinking triple espressos might have helped too! Okay, maybe I will cut out the coffee next year.

I love those gadgets! But this year, they will collect more dust than usual. In spite of the small super computer in my camera, there are still only a very few variables at work – shutter speed, aperture and focus being the main ones. I need to work directly with them, rather than switching to autopilot. Perhaps it’s just a retro flashback to my old manual film cameras. Whatever it is, I know that when I take control of my camera, I think more about light, shadow, depth of field and motion. I really get into it. Of course, that’s only after whining about all the extra work.

I have this horribly expensive zoom, but like the camera’s computer I am giving it a rest. Sure, there’s tons of flexibility with a zoom, but it’s time to get my older fixed length lenses out. Fixed length lenses are super sharp and take in tons of light. Check it out sometime. If you have a 50 mm lens take a pic, and then do the same with the zoom lens. Nine times out of 10 you’ll see a big difference. It may mean you move around more to get the right image, but that’s all to the good and it gets me thinking more carefully about what I want from the photo.

The last thing I plan to do is be incredibly mean to myself. If a photo is okay, then it gets chucked, because photos should sizzle!

Of course, this is just my list of tips for 2011 – if you are thinking your photos need some help just Google "photo tips" on the Internet. You will be inundated with advice. But for some Calgary content check out www.thecamerastore.com. There are some great articles from local photographers who can make a Calgary winter look pretty amazing.

How to Network

By Kamea Zelisko

If you’re in business you’ve no doubt had to undertake the task of networking.
To many people (myself included), networking can be a scary task – the idea of having to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger feels almost unnatural, and yes, admittedly awkward, but the results of networking can be very rewarding both personally and professionally if it’s done right.

Networking is about more than just handing out as many cards as possible, it’s about building relationships with people, and that takes time. In fact, it has been said that it takes 7 contacts with someone to build a relationship where they know, like and trust you enough to do business with you.

Below are some quick tips to help ease you into networking:

Start with your current network: One of the best ways to start networking is to start with people you already know. Family members, friends and past and current coworkers can all become the beginnings of your network. Don’t be afraid to tell them what your business is about and even ask them if they know anyone who may be interested in your services. After all if you don’t ask, you’ll never know, right?

Look online: The Internet is a great place to find networking events in and around your area. Check out government-funded networking events, visit sites like LinkedIn and meetup.com or do a Google search for networking clubs and upcoming events in your area, and you’ll soon find a plethora of networking events to attend.

Sell yourself, not your business: When you meet someone, don’t immediately push your services on to him or her in a quick and dirty manner. Be interested in the other person, listen and care about what they say and try to make a connection. Remember, business is all about relationships.

Look, listen and learn: When you meet other people during your networking events, notice what makes them good networkers and try to adopt some of their techniques.

Check in regularly with your network: This is an important and often overlooked step in networking. Be sure to keep in touch with your network to see what they are up to and how you can help them. Give them a call or email, send them an interesting article, invite them to an event you think they may be interested in.

Good luck with your networking efforts!

Marketing Basics, Thanks to Celebrity Apprentice

By Kamea Zelisko

Do you watch Celebrity Apprentice? If not, you really are missing out. Sure, the show is filled with a lot of hype and drama, but it is also full of great little golden nuggets of business and marketing information.

For example, in a recent episode where the competitors had to create a four-page ad spread for Trump’s luxury hotel chain (which both teams ultimately failed at, by the way), one team created an ad that the client referred to as looking like an ad for sleazy nightclubs you’d find on the dash of your car. The other team also had an epic fail in not including any contact information (or, “Call to Action”) on their ads.
While watching, it suddenly dawned on me that these mistakes that seemed obvious (to me anyways) were not immediately apparent to those who are involved in marketing. So, I’ve decided to include some quick pointers to help people avoid making the same mistakes in their marketing materials.

1. Hire a designer.
I can’t stress this point enough. Just because you know how to ad Clip Art to a Word document does not make you a designer. It takes years of education, (and more importantly experience) to get graphic and layout design down pat, and if you don’t have that expertise you run a high risk of making your marketing materials look cheap and cheesy. And the result of that? Your company looks cheap and cheesy.
In fact, even if you have some design experience, I recommend you still hire an outside source who is not so closely involved in the project – they can help provide an outsider’s perspective which will ultimately help convey your marketing message more effectively and efficiently.

2. Editing is crucial.
Not a great writer and/or speller? Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. While hiring a Writer and/or Editor would be the best choice, we realize that’s not always a possibility. So if you’re going to DIY, here are some quick editing tips to help your company’s marketing copy look professional:

Spell Check it.
Spell Check is a great starting point to help minimize spelling errors (and even some grammatical ones). So make it a point to add a quick Spell Check to all documents before doing anything else.

Read, re-read, and read it again.
Like we said above, Spell Check can be a great starting tool, but it is not the end all and be all of editing. If it were, Editors would no longer exist. Spell Check may catch the big mistakes, but wrong words can still be left in the copy (e.g., “He” instead of “The). And because Word is an American program that has still neglected to add the Canadian spelling choice to its program, you will end up with the American spelling of numerous words (e.g. Theater vs. Theatre). This is enough to drive any cold-blooded Canadian absolutely nuts.
So once you’ve done your Spell Check, be sure to read your copy over and over and over again (three times at least). Also, here’s a great tip – read it out loud. This really helps to not only point out spelling mistakes but also fix grammatical errors and improve the overall flow of the copy.

Pass it Along.
Once you’ve poured over the copy until your eyes have blurred over and you know you are no longer useful in your editing role, pass the copy along to someone else who is capable of making any spelling, grammar or content edits it may need. If you have more than one person who can fill this role, then pass it to them person as well – the more eyes the better.

Sometimes mistakes are inevitable.
Even Editors know that mistakes can still get through the editing process, so if you’ve taken all these steps and your copy goes out and there are still mistakes, don’t beat yourself up about it. Editing is a skill that is learned over time, and during your journey you will pinpoint your own editing strengths and weaknesses and be able to fine-tune your editing skills as you go.

3. Never, ever, ever forget to add contact information.
This one should be a given, but apparently it wasn’t to the players on Celebrity Apprentice – ALWAYS include the website, phone number and any other crucial contact information on your ads. The point of advertising is to get the attention of potential clients and to get them to use your product and/or service, so be sure to lead them to where they can do so.