Hello Spring. Hello New Business Opportunity

27 Apr

It’s Spring. Have you Thought About Refreshing Your Business?

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Media Marketing, Web Design, Website Refresh /

April is coming to a close but it’s not too late to come up with new ideas. For me, April and Easter are synonymous with Spring, so when this time of year comes around, it makes me think of all things new. The skies are not so cloudy, the sun seems to be out more. Definitely the time to get out of the house and look around. For homeowners it’s time to seed the lawn to get some new grass or flowers growing. For others it’s time to shop for new clothes or something else new. How about making this season a time to think about what can bring new life to your business? Maybe it’s a change to your marketing or a new way to go about sales or even time to hire a new employee. What stops us from doing that new thing that can propel our businesses to a new level? Maybe you don’t have the right information, but with the internet and lots of informative newsletters out there, we really have no excuse! Here a few things I’ve seen that can rob us of the opportunity to put that “new thing” into effect!

Time

Are you like me working 9 to 5 (sometimes even 9 to 7!) in the business? And after a shift like that you are guaranteed to be tired! What time are you taking to look at the overall effectiveness of your business? Well, I’ve learned that my best days to do that are not at the beginning of the week when work is “jumping.” For me it’s the end of the week, like on Thursdays and most recently on Sundays, when I can really take a look at my business and notice some areas for change. To me it’s just quieter then and I’m able to focus better. Early mornings are good for some, but others like different times of day. Either way, we can all find 1 or 2 hours of quiet time during the week to look for some areas in need of change, right?

Budget

Let’s be serious. Is it the budget? Are you one of those business owners that thinks that your budget can make or break your business life? Well, I recently put some effort into identifying extra money to put towards marketing.

After a while I learned that I had to include money in my budget, for marketing. I had to save a certain percentage of all sales into a separate account for marketing. That way there would always be money set aside for growth. Let’s say though that after I pay myself there’s not much left for anything. Is it true that there’s nothing left? Do you know your budget? If not it’s time to talk with someone with budget expertise, who can help you go through it. Maybe it’s your spouse or friend or maybe even a bookkeeper or accountant. Either way it may be time to get more intimate with that budget than you have been in the past.

Let’s say you have a budget and there actually is no wiggle room. Then let’s think about using Paypal or some other lending situation. What I like about Paypal is that it has a 4 to 12-month no-interest payment term, so you can try a few things out and just make your payment the following month or over time. That’s pretty good for $500 to $10K purchases. Thinking strategically, if the money you receive is more than the possible interest in payment you’re ahead of the game. This would just be a temporary strategy until you have a cash budget. Beyond that, there are lots of way to obtain finances to increase business. If you’re in a special business zone there are incentives for hiring people. There are funds out there for free marketing on major sites. There are also organizations with funds that are solely there to help you grow. They have funds to pay for training and even some marketing. So on this topic let’s start by affirming “I can find the funds; budget or not”. Let’s at least start there.

Fear of Failure

This can really be the one that stops a lot of us. To be honest I’ve had great years in business and I’ve had a few bad years. The few bad years have at times made me overly cautious, when I should really be pushing forward. I think it’s because I worried that I could make a catastrophic mistake that would destroy my business. I have to say though that after 15 years in business I believe I’m smart enough to leave room for failure that can push me towards a possible win. If I tried a strategy that resulted in failure once in a while, I can now say that that avenue did not work and move on to my next idea! Better to try and fail and learn from my mistakes, than to risk nothing, learn nothing and gain nothing!

So I hope this helps you get to the “new” you deserve in your business. I hope it gets you off the sidelines at the very least. If you need help getting your marketing program going, schedule a call with us at 973-655-9396.

Todd Sayles, Principal of Creative Mind Consulting Group, has built a successful organization that services real estate, retail, hospital and wellness clients among others. His team’s expertise includes problem solving/market strategy, design and marketing consulting, creative design, online website development, content and design creation for digital media and print collateral, public relations, search engine optimization and collaboration with outside designers and writers.

Creative Mind Design Group teams up with clients to strategize on marketing challenges and design goals. We partner with companies to ultimately create brilliant results which feature inspired design.

23 Feb

Lessons on Marketing from Tyler Perry

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips, Uncategorized, Web Design /

This morning I was reading about Tyler Perry after watching last night, part of an episode of The Oval, a miniseries created by Tyler Perry, which now airs on BET. The article written by Mark Olsen was entitled Tyler Perry puts his faith behind, and into, his work (Chicago Tribune, 2005). I am very happy about Tyler Perry’s success and the way he initially marketed his work. I remember hearing about his plays from fellow church members back in the day, when I lived in New York, and wanting to go and see one. On a cold Saturday night in 1999, I finally got the chance. I took the train from Far Rockaway, Queens, where I lived, to the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan and saw his play “I Can Do Bad all By Myself.” I laughed all night and totally enjoyed the play, especially its message. Realistically, at that time, Tyler Perry was known mostly by black people, and particularly by church going black people. He was not heavily publicized. The question is: how did all of us get to know about his plays? As black history month comes to a close, we would like to end on a high note, as we take a peek at how this legendary black entrepreneur used the basics of marketing to push-start his phenomenal success!

Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is a well-known American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2011, Forbes listed him as the highest-paid man in entertainment, earning US $130 million between May 2010 and May 2011. Perry is famous for his performance of Madea, a tough, elderly female character, whom he created. Perry’s films vary in style from the usual filmmaking to filmed productions of live stage plays. Many of Perry’s stage-play films have been adapted as feature films.

The article I read said:

“Initially inspired to write down his own experiences by an offhanded comment Oprah Winfrey made on her TV show, Perry moved in 1992 from his native New Orleans to Atlanta, where his plays began to attract an audience. With minimal advertising, relying largely on word of mouth and a now-massive mailing list, Perry has mounted and toured numerous plays since 1998, also selling videos, and amassed a devoted fan base and a rather sizable fortune.”

Later on the article stated:

“Michael Paseornek, president of production at Lions Gate Films, said he had become aware of Perry after a package arrived containing a script and a video.”

“It isn’t like we were tracking Tyler’s activities. He did so much from a grass-roots level, through his Web site, through the church, through word of mouth, that he completely slipped under the radar of the film industry. I got this package with a cover memo from William Morris saying something like Tyler has done 57 gazillion dollars in sales, something outrageous for someone I’d never heard of.”

What this shows me is that anyone can become a success if you are good at the basics of marketing. Here are some of the main points I took from this information:

Inspiration

Tyler Perry was inspired to write not from being taught that, but by watching the movie “Precious” and hearing a comment from Oprah Winfrey on her show. Tyler Perry had no degree in marketing and actually only had a GED. Nonetheless, he had a very troubled childhood which he seemed to work into his plays. He found a love of writing and just went with it. Many of us are inspired to do what we do for various reasons. Find your inspiration; find your reason for living. Enjoy it, love it, and persist in it.

The Website

Tyler Perry, then and now, advertised what was happening in his entertainment world through his website. I remember seeing his plays advertised there and finding out where they were playing. He basically kept a newsletter of what he was doing. He kept his fans informed and updated on new plays (and now movies and TV shows) so they could plan to see his content. Back then, it was a gallery of pictures and text on his website. Today, it’s all video which is more appropriate for his market. A good website advertises what a person or business is doing, and keeps its viewers engaged. That’s what Tyler Perry did.

The List

The next important thing Tyler Perry did is that he developed a list. So many times, I speak to entrepreneurs, business owners, so forth, and find out that they do not maintain their lists. Your list is your life source. Whether you are making B2B connections or retail customer connections, one of your main goals is to keep them informed, even when they are not in front of you. The general rule is that “6 touches lead to a sale”. In general, the more ways you can connect with a customer or potential customer, the better. Those “touches” may mean some calls, some postcards, advertising or even some emails. What can you provide them that would be helpful in their current situation? Is it offers, new services, games, etc.? Going to one of Tyler Perry’s plays made you want to go to another one…and bring some friends with you. To take it to the next level, see if you can get the “troopers” on your list to do some social media organic advertising for you, to increase the size of the list. The more “troopers” who do this the better. Tyler Perry developed a list of interested and devoted fans that made him a millionaire before he made all those relatable movies many of us, brothers and sisters love.

The Location

Tyler Perry had to adjust locations. He knew that Atlanta was a hot market for his type of shows. There are a lot of affluent black people living there. They were his target market so he went where his target market was. Sometimes you have to move your shop to a different place, or focus on a different target market, where you’ll be more successful. Some would say why didn’t he go to NY?; perhaps, he wanted to test his plays in Atlanta, before hitting the big stage in Manhattan. Tyler Perry was smart about this, not holding onto New Orleans, where he could not be as successful as he wanted to be.

Tyler Perry is great at making content that speaks to his core black and Latino viewers and even moving to more mainstream viewers occasionally. To people like me, he will forever be known as one of the most successful black entertainment entrepreneurs. In 1999, many of us had very few places to see shows that spoke to the experiences we had growing up, especially in a light-hearted way. Anyone with the courage to try can achieve a similar level of success. You just have to start with the basics and not give up. More opportunity will come over time as it did for Tyler Perry.

If you need help getting your basic marketing program going, schedule a call with us to help you work it out at 973-655-9396.

Marriage Retreat, Creative Mind Consulting Group

07 Feb

Can a “Marketing Retreat” Benefit Your Marketing Future?

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Web Design, Website Refresh, WordPress /

Nowadays marketing in this post pandemic world is different than it used to be. What do B2Bs do when they are on endless zoom calls and have little face to face time with leads, clients and even staff? They change their marketing or else become obsolete. Marketing in this new post pandemic world is pivoting. Saying that you get all your business from referrals can’t cut it anymore. Putting that marketing plan on the “back burner” is coming back to hurt some. Maybe it’s time for some to call for an SOS?

More and more people I’ve connected with have said they don’t know where they are with their marketing. As a marketing professional, it’s hard to even get these people ready for something as simple as marketing goals. I’ve learned that in these situations, it can be best to get my clients together as a group and just do an effective “Marketing Retreat”.

What is a Marketing Retreat?

To start, a Marketing Retreat can be many things. A few things include:

Stepping away from the norm to strategize improvements
Brainstorming a few hours together with key staff
A review of your marketing and sales numbers
Time to focus on better marketing effectiveness

It’s basically some time to regroup on what’s important for your clients and your company. With all the ways you can market your company, it can be mind boggling as to what’s your best route. Many times each person has different ideas on what can be done. At times when a decision maker has to decide on a path, hearing multiple ideas ends up sounding like lots of disjointed plans. That’s not usually the case though. When we get all the major stakeholders together (marketing VPs, researchers, salespersons, etc.) and fully review the ideas in a loose, but fun, structured setting, it’s an opportunity to bring out the best ideas, to brainstorm, and comprise a strategic plan.

Here are some obstacles that may come up when you bring up a “Marketing Retreat” to your staff.

Isn’t a Marketing Retreat a Time Waster?

Some may say “with all I have to do, and all the proposals I have to fill out, do I really have time to sit and think about my marketing.” Yes, I’m sorry but you have to take some time to do something you don’t normally do. You may learn that some of the time you currently take on sales and marketing may be going in the wrong direction. What if you’re working on sales that are not pulling in the best paying jobs for the company? Having a good marketing retreat takes time to looks at sales and recognizes what’s a good use of time, and time wasters. I’ve worked with clients that have made shifts away from what they thought were good sales on their websites to marketing other items that were better for their clients and paid better as well. A Marketing Retreat at the least is not wasted time.

Marketing Retreats Can’t be Fun?

For those who are more action-orientated and not number-crunchers does it all have to be work, to be work though? Many times, you can add intentional fun. You can add games that answer marketing questions. At one retreat I was at, we actually climbed a small mountain. Mind you, none of us were dressed to do this, but for some reason we all agreed. At one point, we were actually scaling a small wall. I’ll never forget the stories we came back with. The thing was, we all did something that bonded us together better, and it lasted way after the retreat.

Marketing is not as effective as on-the-street sales. Why focus on that?

Sales is integral to keeping a company growing. Every salesperson needs leads. Some leads may come from cold calls and friends but others can come from online sources. Still others can come from inbound calls off of sales materials out there. Any salesperson knows that the better the leads, the better they are able to make sales. You can try and make cold calls all day long, but you know if they don’t have interest in your specific products, there can be lots of time lost in those calls. Why not have leads that come from marketing strategies that are tailored to a prospect’s needs that “clever” marketing has discovered. I know a real estate salesman who just relied on his referrals. Over the years, he knew he needed to be more strategic with his marketing but he never made the time or budget the cost to get the marketing moving forward. We tried to lead him several times. Instead he did very little. The thing is, he continued to make money but his partners did not do as well. Because they could not come together to decide on a marketing plan, it affected the growth of their leads and eventually the partnership fell apart.

So really, what is a marketing retreat?

The real answer is that a marketing retreat can be whatever you need it to be. When you work with a good marketing expert and a creative event coordinator, you can hold it for a day at a close by outdoor resort, or a half day on your campus grounds or board room. It can become memorable, and cause a transformation for your organization. A good marketing retreat will usually have these components:

Food/snacks
Activities
Prizes
Stats of current sales and marketing campaigns
Strategy and target discussions
Goals discussions
Budgets
Campaign options
Next steps

Our organization has done marketing retreats for a variety of organizations. If you need help finding focus in your marketing, schedule a call with us to help you create it at 973-655-9396.

Creative Mind Design Group teams up with clients to strategize on marketing challenges and design goals. We come alongside companies to ultimately create inspired design alongside brilliant results.

22 Jul

Is Creativity in Marketing essential for Your Business?

By Todd Sayles In Branding, Healthcare, Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends /

Is creativity a marketing essential?

Marketers believe in love at first sight. Consumers are likely to fall for whatever catches their attention first and consequently, give the businesses what they want — sales. In other words, the eyes were always the first to decide. So can we prove that creativity in marketing is vital to every business especially now during the pandemic when most consumers’ decisions are heavily inspired by what they see in social media? We’ll see!

Think about this situation. Suppose there are two businesses, both wellness centers – WC X and WC Z, situated near each other.

Both businesses offer the same services including personal care, functional medicine, fitness, nutrition, and more. WC X has been in the business for 10 years now and they have established relationships with long-term clients, leaving them with consistent profit. WC Z came into the picture two years ago and was more costly. People started to visit them but it wasn’t doing well at first because customers already trusted the services of WC X. They started marketing their business through social media and later, people started to flock to their center and some of the long-term clients of WC X even started to visit them more often. That’s when they started to earn good profit.C X realized that social media was a more cost-efficient way to market their business than traditional media. They created their own page and promoted their products. However, they only posted photos of their center and soft copies of their posters. They thought, “why are we not getting more responses than them?”

WC Z Instagram page used an aesthetically impressive color scheme and flow of content. They posted close-up photos of females and their glowing skin, videos of someone getting a good sweat from the sauna experience, recipes that one could try for dinner, and even motivational posts which gained a lot of engagement. It showed what people could need, get, and at the same time, it captured the market’s interest.

So is creativity essential in marketing?

Usually, we would think that an established brand offering a proven quality experience is enough to keep the business running. It still is true. But fact check, new consumers are mostly captivated by how you present your brand.

This is where creativity rings as an essential part of marketing any business — wellness, real estate, service, retail, and more. You see, consumers want to be intrigued. They need to see the experience in a manner that makes them want to use your service.

So to answer your question, yes. Creativity in marketing is vital to every business and especially now with this pandemic since most people are already a click reach in social media.

Why Should Businesses Invest for Creativity in Marketing?

A Forrester study projected that shifting from technology to creativity in six years increases the return on investment (ROI) by almost 18%.

This is upon a comparison of adopting marketing technologies and investing in a more creative strategy.

Creativity in marketing is a true driver of success for every business. And now with this pandemic, business owners should really consider it.

You see, a crisis can be both good and bad for business owners. According to John F. Kennedy, whenever there is a crisis, you should learn to be aware of the danger but at the same time, recognize the opportunity.

While several businesses suffered greatly during the pandemic, others saw an opportunity to reboot, reassess and revamp their businesses. This is how you plan out an efficient comeback for your business.

Reassuring customers is a given. To do so, you have to work on improving your marketing tactics. Competition gets strong, especially in social media, since most business owners know where the audience is easily targeted. But how do you stand out from the competition?

Get really creative!

Creativity in marketing means having to think outside the box, taking risks, and exploring new ways to capture your audience’s attention. Think about how you can level up while dealing with this virus?

Healthcare centers may now start to welcome virtual consultations more frequently. Some entrepreneurs are now doing a lot of webinar sessions. Commercial real estate starts opening up space where one can work safely and conveniently without having to travel a lot. Wellness Centers start sending out care packages to their clients.

There are many ways to get creative. Sadly, not all business owners are willing to invest in creative marketing. They would think that these are additional costs. If you are one of these business owners, I encourage you now to think about all the things you have to take care of in your business. From human resources to building costs to inventories, marketing, analyzing business sales and dynamics, and overall, ensuring that all is well, it is definitely a full plate!

If you invest in marketing such as hiring a creative consulting agency to take care of your business, one task is taken off your list. It may be an additional cost but the value that you get from quality branding and convincing marketing initiatives could easily double the returns.

To unlock your brand’s full potential and leave your mark, here are some good reasons to invest in creativity for your business:

Creativity in marketing differentiates your business.
Creativity appeals to the mind.
Your creativity can allow you to create alongside your consumers.

Investing in creativity for your marketing initiatives brings an enormous amount of value to your business. To add, this can really be exciting for your business too. There are many ways you can get creative but consulting with the experts may be a good start. Call us today at 973-655-9396 and let’s see how we can get creative with your business!

To help you with your COVID comeback, let’s get you on a Marketing Retreat! This will offer you a half-day marketing research segment, marketing creative strategy document that comes from the retreat, marketing advice, and free food!

Todd Sayles, Principal of Creative Mind Consulting Group, has built a successful organization that services real estate, retail, hospital, and wellness clients among others. His team’s expertise includes problem-solving/market strategy, design, and marketing consulting, creative design, online website development, content, and design creation for digital media and print collateral, public relations, search engine optimization, and collaboration with outside designers and writers.

Creative Mind Design Group teams up with clients to strategize on marketing challenges and design goals. We come alongside companies to ultimately create inspired design alongside brilliant results.

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24 Mar

Getting Ready for Ecommerce: Shopify

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips, Uncategorized, Web Design, Website Refresh /

During the Coronavirus / Covid-19 situation there are many businesses in a very unsteady situation. Some have products, staff to pay but no way to get their products paid for and easily into their hands. You may have a website but its not setup for sales. You may think that would take up to 3 months to be completed. Actually with a Shopify addon to your website it could be completed in just a few days. If you’re a restaurant, clothing store, children’s store, home store, etc. some sales could help offset some of the losses you may be seeing right now. Plus it could be a step towards future growth that could help you way after the Coronavirus / Covid-19 is long gone.

Here are some items to get ready before you commence getting your Shopify site created:

Products

What are you selling? In Shopify, a collection allows you to organize products into structured groups. This is beneficial for your customers and helps the buying process. For example, a clothing online store wants to include Men’s Fashion. You can create a collection and put in Men’s clothing and when a customer clicks on your Men’s Fashion menu, they are taken to a gallery of products for men. You have to think about navigation menus and add links to help guide your customers to your collections. There are two types of Collections: Manually and Automated. A manual collection always contains the same products unless you add or remove them. An automated collection automatically puts products into the collection using rules, like tags. When you add a product to your online store with a particular tag, the collection is automatically updated with that product.

Pictures and Descriptions

Having a good list of products is great. Now you will need some good pictures of those products. Sometimes with the right lighting, some minor box equipment and a good camera and decent skills you can do it yourself. Other times you may need models, food designers, etc. to make it all work and look tantalizing on screen Its best to provide at least 2-3 shots per item (not more than 5) for variation for the web designer you work with. You’ll also need descriptions per each item you sell. Make it keyword rich to help people find your product within their own google searches. That will help people easily get at look a your items.

Shipping

Knowing your shipping sizes and weights are crucial as well. This will determine the shipping cost per item someone purchases. You can offer free shipping but then that should be factored into the sales prices. If you’re a restaurant and doing local deliveries this won’t matter much. If you’re a clothing designer or electronics store it will mean a lot more. There are several selections in Shopify for shippers. Do your research to determine the best, cost effective shipper out there. In Shopify once the choice of shipper is provided and the dimensions per product are stated the system does all the rest of the calculations for shipping.

Domain:

For those without a domain make sure to determine that first. The cost is minimal per domain but reserving the name is the most important thing to do. Fore a few you may have to shorten your name because its too long to type into a browser and remember. Maybe an acronym is better. If this is a new business check keywords that are searched that could be worked into your name. That way you could get some really easy traffic to your store once its up.

Shopify fees

Lastly keep in mind Shopify is not free. It has fees. It ranges from $29.00 to $299 per month. The differences in costs deal with selling gift cards or not, reporting and special shipping calculations with third-party apps at checkout or not. You have to choose an option to get started. Maybe you start at the lowest end and work your way up sales increase. Its up to you.

Once you have all this ready you’re good to go to have your Shopify website designed, or if you’re adventurous and knowledgeable enough, do it on your own.

05 Feb

3 Tips for Branding in this New 2020 Decade

By Todd Sayles In Branding, Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends /

This being the start of a new decade already introduces a new atmosphere that’s almost infectious. Companies like Quickbooks, Godaddy and more have re-branded for the new decade/year. There’s something this year that almost draws you to think of the possibilities. Can your company get better noticed with a new look? Can anyone claim the decade? Only hard work will get you there and time will ultimately tell the story.

What is branding though? Branding is many times thought of as your logo. In actuality that’s only a piece of the puzzle. When you brand your company right it can become your company’s identity. It becomes what your company embodies when someone thinks of or meets your company. A brand identity should look at the following:

Audience:

Connect with your audience. Is should make them feel like you understand their needs. One example are Birds Eye Foods’ Steamfresh bags that started in the early 2000’s. That company understood parents needed to prepare food quickly when they get home from work. They redesigned their packaging to fit a need and its worked out so much that other companies have copied them.

Go Daddy wanted to connect with their entrepreneurs better so they focused heavily on the “Go” part. They said “The GO is a clear statement of advocacy for entrepreneurs everywhere — a symbol of empowerment that encourages them to stand on their own two feet.”

Value Proposition:

It should stand out from the competition to make you identity your own. You need to keep an eye on your competitors to make sure your copy and graphics send a clear message that what you offer is important.

Mission:

A brand identity should have a mission to direct consumers as to where you’re going. Our logo was redesigned years ago to include “Inspired Design” and “Brilliant Results”. For the circles and “Inspired Designs” our ideas come from not just being on the computer all day but being a student of our clients, nature, art, our spirituality and so forth. We combine that with tracking, statistics and reports to lead us to better results for our clients. We’re not just about the design and we’re not just about stats. We’re about combining both better design lead by better stats which will give you brilliant results. This is what our clients strive for and we aim to deliver on.

Personality:

The colors, type, design and all should have a tone that’s all about you and your company, you and how you excite your consumer. As an example you see a new element surely meant to show love to their entrepreneurial consumers.

Multiple videos and images using the new element were released. A new light blue color was released surely there to connect with new businesses.

The actual parts of your brand may be different from other companies based on your needs and the client’s expectations. For some it’s a logo, brochure, website and business cards along with new copy. For others is a packaging design, logo, website, copy and branding guidelines document.

Branding for the New Decade

Either way in this decade you have to look out for the following:

How will I be seen in social media? How can your brand possibly be blasted to thousands/millions just by a marketing program that connects with your audience. For example Pop Tarts works with Twitter to connect to their youth. Their tone on Twitter is sarcastic and caters to that young Twitter-savy group.Can you recreate your branding to fit in each space which has its own tone? Sometimes a badly built logo (especially in font choice) will hurt you when used in different sizings.
What do you stand for? Nowadays politics in the Trump Era are non-stop. Values are important and people want to see that it’s not all about the money. How is your care for your consumer/clients being displayed? Nanawall designs and creates folding glass walls that rework spaces, such as opening up a bedroom to the outdoors. Their newest brand messaging campaign uses the tagline“Boundaries Unbound”, and other Un-words, like Unconstrained and Unprecedented to convey the unlimiting effects their products have on built spaces.
How are you looking forward in this decade? What ways can your brand be used to get out new projects, other new items and ideas? How can your brand expand at least into the next 3-5 years? One example is the new Today Show logo that was adjusted just to become more modern.
Look at the size of the circles to see the difference. The logo “pops” better in today’s more simple world.

If you follow these 3 tips along with the basics above you’ll be on the way to recreating yourself in a way that everyone in your target market could probably connect with.

For further help with your branding click here. or give us a ring to help you through the process. Here are some adwords packages available as well.

12 Dec

4 Tips On Generating Thousands of Site Visits a Day with Adwords

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips /

You’ve come to the understanding that increasing the amount of visitors to your website can be beneficial to you. You know that a percentage of visitors will go to the next step or even make a purchase. So now that you know that what are some of the things you could do to increase your page views. Well you could do some print advertising or email advertising or adjust your keywords on your website. All of these examples will work but they take time. A print campaign can take at lease two weeks to get going. Then steps in Google Adwords (or Google Pay-Per-Click). With Google Adwords advertising you could be up and running within a few hours. The most a day. You could go from 10 visitors a day to thousands in a day for as little as $30/day. What could $30 a day get you in the other areas we discussed? Probably a laugh or two.

So is it that easy to get them there in a day. Well it almost is. Here are the 5 most important things you can do to get started:

1. Open a Google Adwords Account:
Just go to Google Adwords and start an account. You’ll need a google email address but if you don’t have one the wizard will guide you to do that. You can receive notifications at another address as well. Once there setup a bank account or credit card for Google to bill from.

2. Create an Ad:
You have the choice of using text ads or picture ads. Text ads are quicker obviously but picture ads are very effective too. For quick purposes we’ll focus on text ads. Your text ad could be as little as this:

Google AdWords
Try Google AdWords & Get Your
Business Ads Online in Minutes!
www.google.com/AdWords

The wizard steps you through the setup of your ad and stops you when you’ve reached the text limit. Make sure to have a good landing page setup with a call to action on the other end of the url you use for people to click through too (this could be a whole other topic). Words like “Best” are great to use in the text.

3. Add keywords
It used to be that you had to do alot of this research on your own at other websites. Now Google has their own Keyword Tool that finds keywords, gives suggestions and copies keywors to different ads. What can be better than that. A one-stop-shop. Just put in your keyword, say I’m a door manufacturer so I put in “doors’. It will give back choices that are exactly what you have and others that are more specific. Just sort the form by searches (global or local) and pick the ones that have less competition and speak to what you have to offer.

4. Adjust the settings of your campaign.
There are lots of settings in this area but the most important settings for a fast campaign is two things. Daily spend and, new to google, locations and languages. The daily spend determines how much you’re willing to spend to get those thousand clicks of clicks a day. The more you spend the better opportunity your ad will have of being seen in the top x of ads. You could start as low as $30 but if you need more people coming to your site to get the desired sales you need you should increase. Do that over time after you start to see the progress.It may not be needed. Next determine your target market. If you’ve never done this here are some quesitons to ask:

Are they local?
Are they only women or only children?
What time of the day are they on the computer?

Enter this information into the system and you’re good to go. Get ready for that increased traffic to your website. You can always maximize your campaign with solid marketing techniques like goal setting, wording and strategy but this gets you off to a start. Sometimes that’s all you need, A start!

For further tips on creating your Google Adword program click here. or give us a ring to help you through the process. Here are some adwords packages available as well.

18 Dec

Have You Refreshed Your Website Lately?

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips, Web Design, Website Refresh /

Why You Could Be Losing Business If You Have Not

We are often asked by clients, “how often should my website content be refreshed?” Our answer: We tell clients to update their site’s content every two to three months at a minimum. However, you may need to redesign or refresh your website bi-annually.

In general, how often you update your website depends on how well your site is performing in generating business and leads. If your website is struggling to produce results, that’s a huge red flag that a refresh is needed. Specifically, focus on the following:

Are you getting enough leads?

If the answer is no, it’s time to address it. While a redesign maybe needed, first focus and determine which parts of your site need attention. Start by improving the copy, developing better calls to action and using new separate landing pages for sign-ups, promotions, and free samples.

You have traffic but no conversions.

Your website gets traffic but does not engage prospects in conversions – that’s a problem. Start by looking at keywords on your site and make improvements. Keywords need to generate traffic and produce conversions. Attract the right visitors to your site by updating keywords that create “solutions” to their challenges.

Website is not friendly to glance at

Is your website attractive and easy to navigate? Can a visitor quickly obtain the information needed from your site? If the answer is no, and visitors can’t figure where to navigate on your site within seconds, you’ve lost them – and you may get only one chance. Design with user friendliness and navigation at the top of your list of website requirements.

Design is obsolete

If your website takes you “back in time” and looks stale, you are giving visitors the impression that your product or service might be as well. A refreshed, modern website helps establish solid branding, credibility and trust with visitors. Balance user-ability and easy-to-use navigation with clean, modern attractive design.

Not mobile or phone friendly

People visit sites using laptops, phones, notepads – so your website needs to accommodate a myriad of different size formats. In addition, your site needs to load quickly and look attractive regardless of the type of device. If it doesn’t, re-designing your site to be mobile-friendly should move to the top of your list.

Lastly, better search results for you

Every update you make to your website helps generate business with its interaction with visitors, customers, and search engines. Frequently updated websites offer search engines fresh content and sources of new information for their search requests.

The more frequently you update your website, the more frequently a search engine will “visit” your website. When search engines look at your site more frequently, you have more potential to achieve higher rankings based on your new or updated content.

CMCG Webinar

Be sure to check out our CMCG Website Webinar to increase your website’s effectiveness.

24 Feb

Top 10 Healthcare Marketing Trends in 2017

By Todd Sayles In Hospitals, Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends /

Just as the healthcare industry continues to innovate and evolve, so does healthcare brand marketing by hospitals, healthcare practices, and doctors in targeting potential patients. In 2017, we expect the following healthcare marketing trends to significantly impact the industry:

1. Smart Content in Layman’s Terms Attracts Potential Patients

In 2017, offering healthcare content, that is authoritative, interesting and easy-to-understand so patients can make informed decisions, will attract them to your brand. The internet is knocking at the front door and this is one of several important healthcare marketing trends to be aware of. With patients becoming increasingly responsible for more and more of their medical costs, they are spending more time searching online for valuable and relevant information. Today’s content must be fresh, social-sharable and reliable to earn respect and build trust of potential patients.

2. New Universal Standard For Healthcare Websites Is Mobile First

If your hospital or healthcare practice has a mobile-optimized website, it is a step in the right direction. However, the best healthcare websites will be designed for mobile consumers primarily, since potential patients will likely connect first using a smartphone. Today, four out of five Americans own a smartphone and primarily search with it instead of their laptops, desktops and tablets. You need to think “mobile screen” to begin with for your website and marketing, but also budget and adapt content for other options.

3. One of the Healthcare Marketing Trends Not To Overlook: Live Video

Today’s healthcare marketing needs to leverage live video to share stories by way of recorded content via live streaming on websites, blogs and social media platforms. Internet technology now supports online video delivery, and video has a stronger audience appeal than text only. We are advising clients in healthcare and other industries to drive traffic through use of video content on websites, in blogs and social media. “A picture is worth a thousand words” and video is worth exceedingly more and has great advantages such as timeliness, impact, and the ability to demonstrate results. (Incidentally, we are constantly striving towards “inspired design – brilliant results” for our clients.)

4. Online Physician Ratings Important As Patients Research More

Today’s patient is much more informed than in the past and is willing to review and post physician ratings online. Long before a patient makes a phone call for an appointment, many are researching medical and health information, treatment options, provider reviews and credentials, etc. Patients are much more savvy than in the past, and check out online comments before making a selection. It is critical to make sure that your ratings accurately reflect your level of service and patient satisfaction.

5. Patients Online Experience With Your Website More Important Than Ever

As online digital competition grows with potential patients, healthcare providers must review their website presence to ensure it offers a pleasant and beneficial online experience. Going forward, successful hospitals and healthcare organizations will be the ones that make sure that everything from website design to content in blogs, e-newsletters, social media, etc. is created with healthcare consumers in mind. This is a good time for your website to undergo an internal and external audit to make sure the patient experience is first rate.

6. Speed Becoming Top Priority For Content Loading on Website

You can lose potential patients reviewing your website if the content is not loading fast enough. Speed has been one of the defining goals of Google’s business for years and it is one of the healthcare marketing trends which will impact your website and digital marketing. This is the year where speed becomes more important, especially on mobile devices. Google’s accelerated mobile pages and Facebook’s Instant Articles are two examples of this significant trend.

7. Social Messaging Apps Transforming Into Marketing Platforms

New social messaging apps such as Snapchat, Messenger, and WhatsApp, are springing up everyday as real-time customer conversations go mainstream. These convenient apps are fast evolving into multi-purpose platforms since we are getting “more chatty” with online messaging. Such apps present new marketing and advertising opportunities as the number of chat apps continue to grow.

8. Digital Marketing Creates New Opportunities For Personalized Content

As digital marketing and social media platforms become more sophisticated, new opportunities are cropping up to present relevant and personalized messages. We are becoming resistant to old-style, broad brush advertising methods of yesterday. Today, we expect content based on our interests and for it to be delivered timely, personalized and relevant on a one-to-one basis. Through use of patient and visitor profiles, you can begin delivering such content which will be of more interest and better your chances at getting responses and results.

9. Smartphones Allow For Location-based Marketing

Smartphone’s GPS capabilities offer the ability to target and reach potential patients by their location. For instance, you can create alerts when a potential patient is near a healthcare facility and/or offer directions to a nearby location. Location-based marketing can detect, alert and target potential patients based on their social and personal preferences.

10. Consider A Card-based Website Design For Healthcare Sites

Card-based website layout allows potential patients to easily pick and choose content of interest to them. Its design is a creative way to display short bursts of content in a visual menu and lets patients easily pick and choose the content that interests them. While this concept is not new (Pinterest currently uses), we expect card-based website design to become more common on healthcare websites going forward.

Todd Sayles, CEO & Founder of Creative Mind Consulting Group, has built a successful organization that services real estate, retail, hospital and wellness clients among others. His expertise includes problem solving/market strategy, design and marketing consulting, creative design, online website development, content and design creation for digital media and print collateral, public relations, search engine optimization and collaboration with outside designers and writers.

08 Jul

5 Ways To A Better Website – Design for Growth

By Todd Sayles In Marketing Tips /

Online statistics can be scary. We hear about millions of websites, hundreds of millions of Facebook fans and how more and more, people shop online first before they make a purchase – even from a retail store. Online competition can be fierce in some industries. How do you stand out online or compete online to grow in your marketplace?

Start with a better website.

The great news is that most business websites are so neglected or poorly designed that beating your competition online may not take much effort. We’re in the business of making better websites. Our experience is that many business sites are just not user-friendly. This article will focus on how your company can have a better web site by making it easy for online visitors to get information they need to purchase from you.

We routinely use the following five steps when preparing to design or upgrade our clients’ web sites:

#1: Assess your competitors. Create a table with 5 columns. In the first column, list the components on the websites. Components can range from a flash animated banner to a newsletter sign up. Use one column for each company and compare your top three competitors’ websites with yours. Completing this web site assessment step first. The results will show you where to focus to improve website.

#2: See through your prospect’s eyes. Are the most important things on your site easy to see without having to scroll down the page or click through to another page? Does your site have interactive elements like animation, video or sound? Do you offer information that reinforces your brand message while providing something of value, such as white papers or a downloadable brochure? Remember, websites must be visually appealing, well-organized and provide value.

#3: Make clients feel special. Is there special information only available to customers? Do you have exclusive offers or information for customers only? Do you make it easy for clients to provide testimonials or referrals? Too often, business owners put emphasis on attracting new customers and neglect the ones they already have. You might be able to beat the competition simply by using your online assets to show appreciation to customers.

#4: Stay up-to-date. Does your site look and function like a relic from yesteryear? Nowadays, online users expect a website to look modern and incorporate user-friendly technology. What new online tools or components could make your site more functional? As for text, write for people that are in a time crunch. You have only a few seconds to convince a visitor to stay on your site. Make sure copy gets to the point quickly. Use links to further information for those that want more.

#5: Bring visitors back. Do you have ways to keep people coming back to your company’s website? One of the best ways to use email and channels like Facebook, Twitter or a blog, is to post summary information with a link back to the main site. Let people know about projects, industry news, service updates, offer training, or ask for feedback. Social media tools are also great for keeping in touch with customers, professional colleagues and individuals that can help spread the word about your business.

These five steps make a good start the process of redesigning your company’s website. Always compare notes with your design agency to get objective input as well. At Creative Mind, we offer a web site assessment for just $500, and it’s done in five days or less. If you’re interested in making a better web site for your business, just contact me.

Thanks, until next time.

Marketing Tips

Inspiration

The Website

The List

The Location

What is a Marketing Retreat?

Isn’t a Marketing Retreat a Time Waster?

Marketing Retreats Can’t be Fun?

Marketing is not as effective as on-the-street sales. Why focus on that?

So really, what is a marketing retreat?

So is creativity essential in marketing?

Why Should Businesses Invest for Creativity in Marketing?

Get really creative!

Products

Pictures and Descriptions

Shipping

Domain:

Shopify fees

Audience:

Value Proposition:

Mission:

Personality:

Branding for the New Decade

Why You Could Be Losing Business If You Have Not

1. Smart Content in Layman’s Terms Attracts Potential Patients

2. New Universal Standard For Healthcare Websites Is Mobile First

3. One of the Healthcare Marketing Trends Not To Overlook: Live Video

4. Online Physician Ratings Important As Patients Research More

5. Patients Online Experience With Your Website More Important Than Ever

6. Speed Becoming Top Priority For Content Loading on Website

7. Social Messaging Apps Transforming Into Marketing Platforms

8. Digital Marketing Creates New Opportunities For Personalized Content

9. Smartphones Allow For Location-based Marketing

10. Consider A Card-based Website Design For Healthcare Sites

Start with a better website.

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