Playing loud Dixieland since 1963, The Landing is one of the oldest jazz clubs in the US and a San Antonio institution. I used to go to the Riverwalk to hear Jim Cullum and his band with my grandfather when I was still in short pants. I had the good fortune to get to update the brand when the club changed owners recently.

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and even email marketing can be very effective with the right steps taken. Too many companies today join facebook and update their followers with the information that most of them are already aware of because they do “like” you’re brand. If you really want to gain some ROI on your time invested in social media, it is best to ask your loyal consumers what they would like and build up a majority of input that can be realistically met. When you see through with the requests of your consumers it builds a strong loyalty to your brand making your consumers more inclined to spread the word about your brand and the new changes put forth. Just remember. Facebook isn’t going to help your company, but rather help you get in touch with the people that can.

By: Mark G. Valente | Online Marketing Director | @MarkwithMWL | Vigor Interactive Branding

1. “Brand yourself for the career you want, not the job you have.”
2. “By focusing entirely on your personal brand, you become unemployable.”
3. “Create your own career, instead of letting your company do it for you.”
4. “If you want to be known for everything, you’ll be known for nothing.”
5. “When you have passion, expertise and a support system, you can do anything!”
6. “Make your life one giant networking event.”
7. “You have to be as committed to your personal brand as you are to your husband or wife.”
8. “Just like content is king on the internet, your experience is king when it comes to getting a job.”
9. “In order to succeed in the new world of work you MUST become the commander of your career.”
10. “Be the real you because everyone else is taken and replicas don’t sell for as much.”
11. “As technology rapidly changes, your personal brand remains constant.”
12. “The best way to become successful is to make others successful first.”
13. “What makes you weird, makes you unique and therefore makes you stand out.”
14. “If you don’t know what you bring to the table, you don’t get a seat there.”
15. “Life is one big pitch, so you better start practicing.”
16. “Your blog is your space…completely yours to do with whatever you want.”
17. “To succeed, you must be the best at what you do for a specific audience.”
18. “The first opportunities are the hardest to obtain because everyone wants to view your past performance.”
19. “You are the chief marketing officer for the brand called you, but what others say about your brand is more impactful than what you say about yourself.”
20. “To secure your brand, spend more of your time networking outside of your company than within.”
21. “It’s what you do that makes you who you are and how you project that to others that makes you memorable.”
22. “When it comes to the web, you are judged solely on what is observable.”
23. “Proficiency in social media is a differentiator now, but will soon be a qualifier.”
24. “The goal of personal branding is to be recruited based on your brand, not applying for jobs.”
25. “You won’t succeed in marketing a poor personal brand.”
26. “When you brand yourself properly, the competition becomes irrelevant.”
27. “Visibility creates opportunities.”
28. “If a resume was the deciding factor in recruitment, there would never be a need for interviews.”
29. “The divide between interviewing for a position and actually working at a company will close thanks to employer branding.”
30. “Social media will expose people who have bad intentions and reward people who are trying to make a positive impact on the world.”
31. “It’s not the size of your network, but how you use it.”
32. “In order to be successful tomorrow, you must sacrifice today.”
33. “Lead with your brand and let the compensation follow.”
34. “Any new opportunity or experience can change your life.”
35. “As professional and personal lives converge, those who are authentic and transparent will triumph.”
36. “When you are passionate about your job, it becomes a hobby.”
37. “The most successful networkers give value before receiving.”
38. “The reciprocal nature of networking establishes a relationship instead of a one-night-stand.”
39. “Passion is personal branding fuel.”
40. “Your name and face carry your brand in both reality and virtual reality, such that wherever they are cited, your personal brand is at stake.”

Social media has been an increasingly effective part in the marketing strategies of many big and local businesses. The main question when Foursquare came around with their innovative geolocation sharing network was; How do we use this to benefit our brand or business? But the Foursquare team has added a few cool features with their network, bringing the game focus to the site, while continuing to build on their own marketing and professional relationships. Today we have some unique ways in which Foursquare has become an effective business marketing tool for more.

The tips function allows the user to view “tips” left by other users concerning specified businesses. For example: When you are checked-in to a place, you can shout out to friends something good or bad pertaining to that establishment. Once you shout , this is always shown to anyone under the Foursquare network within the range of the place you shouted about. So if you want to throw some good feedback out on the Foursquare network it is best to shout about your business from time to time, to tell consumers about different promotions. To view these “tips” the user will go to the Tip tab and view the “Nearby Tips” tab to see the shouts that have happened around the users present demographic.

Another great use for this tool is to use certain contests with the game aspect to promote different sales and discounts. This gets people to interact more with your brand and spread the news to others around them about your business. This week, for instance, Starbucks had announced to the public that it would begin to reward Foursquare users with a Mayor (Have the most check-ins to any specific place; can have numerous mayorships) status of any Starbucks’ store to receive a personal discount every time they visit that specific store.

We will continue to see an ongoing expansion of Foursquare for the next year or so, given the recent mainstream exposure they’ve been gaining. The Today Show announced their recent partnership with Foursquare. This is great to spread the Foursquare trend wider throughout the world, transitioning itself as a mainstream social media tool.

By: Mark G. Valente | Online Marketing Strategy | @MarkwithMWL | Vigor Interactive Branding

In order to establish the right service provider for email marketing, first you need to answer a couple of questions.

1. How many email marketing messages do you plan on sending per month or year?

2. How many people have subscribed to your email list?

3. Do you have an ad agency or designer on contract?

Frequent Emails, Large Lists, with or without a Designer

If you’re sending out email blasts once or more per month, then you need to look into a monthly fee service provider. The top three that we have used and like are MailChimp.com, iContact.com and Fishbowl.com. They all offer templates that you can customize and allow you send out as many emails as you would like as many times as you would like per month.

Infrequent email marketing, small lists with a designer or agency

If you’re more of a quarterly email type of company or marketer. Look to a service that charges per email sent. We’ve used CampaignMonitor religiously for these types of clients. You will probably need some technical knowledge to navigate this service.

Infrequent email marketing, small lists without a designer or agency

We suggest going with a service like MailChimp.com or Fishbowl.com. The user interfaces are extremely simple and they have templates you can customize.
All in all, you want to have the ability to review the statistics on your campaigns. Who is opening them? Where do they click? Do they convert? Whose emails bounced? They must also manage subscribing and unsubscribing.

Don’t think that these email marketing service providers are providing something that Outlook can do just fine. That’s simply not true. Choose a vendor and see the results.

The fact is, there is no such thing as a magic media bullet; one media that will skyrocket sales and perform as the end all, be all solution. Sure, you have your new media pundits and your traditional media lobbyists out there. You have every salesperson from television to print to digital and everything in between. They all spin their media as The One.

The bottom line is this: Just because you finally decided you need marketing, doesn’t mean that you can spend $200 bucks a month and see immediate results. Marketing and advertising is a concerted effort that works when multiple medias are orchestrated. 7 tends to be the magic number.

A person needs to hear your message 7 times before the potential of action even occurs. What media delivers your message 7 times for $200 a month? $2000? Not many. That’s why an integrated program is what works.

Here are some steps to make your marketing and media campaign more powerful:

1. Figure out your conversion. What is it? An email subscription? A phone call? What constitutes a “lead” or “sale?”

2. How can you make the conversion as seamless and easy as possible? Online is definitely the answer, but maybe you’re thinking more old school like direct response or a phone call.

3. Pinpoint which medias will drive people toward that conversion. If it’s a website, use a mixture of search engine marketing, banner advertising, and potentially TV and print advertising. Push all call to actions towards the website and conversion method.

4. Measure and monitor constantly. Which medias are working? Which aren’t? Roll with the punches and move the proverbial shells until your campaign is optimized.
You should be looking to spend real money on a marketing campaign. A couple hundred dollars will get you $10 in return. If it were cheap and easy EVERYONE would be doing it, right?

So, why shoot for good enough when “great” is just around the bend?

A little more effort can make a good enough program better, greater. It can increase the results by leaps and bounds. Extra effort can make something extraordinary. Extraordinary is what gets a return on investment every time.

How do you push good enough to extraordinary?

1. When you think a project is done, review it one more time. Don’t proofread or check for errors. Instead, think of one thing that will make it better.

2. List the options of elements that can be improved then decide which is most cost effective with the most impact.

3. Execute half a campaign with the change and half without.

4. Measure the results.

We’re sure you’ll find that the greater piece will get greater results every time. Isn’t that worth the extra investment? We think so.

People are wary about giving way vital information like a cell phone number, so you have to make it worth their while. Ask yourself, “What’s in it for them?” Craft an offering around the answer to that question and you’ll see people gladly subscribe to your mobile club.

2. Immediacy is Key

Think immediate and urgent. People are not going to react to something that’s happening two weeks from today. No, they will react, though, to a lunch coupon sent at 11am. It’s immediate. It puts you top of mind at the right time.

3. Review the Results

Look at the numbers. Who is responding? what types of messages cause unsubscribes or complaints? What offers work? Craft your messages around what works and what’s not annoying to get better, more focused results and return.

Follow these simple tips and you’ll see impressive results. People are using their mobile phones. They are responding to marketing if it’s worth their while. Targetted messages get better results so your small geographical coverage is just what this media ordered.

Go Mobile!

Blabberbug.com is a web tool that helps you drive word of mouth via viral coupons. Arooga’s, a sports bar and grille house in Harrisburg, has been leveraging Blabberbug with much success. In fact, in 30 days they saw over 30 people send coupons to over 90 other friends. That’s 120 people all with a coupon in hand ready to come to one of Arooga’s locations. So, how did they do it?

1. They signed up for an account on Blabberbug and set their monthly budget, coupons and store information.

2. They started posting a link at the bottom of their marketing email blasts.

3. They also promoted it throughout their locations on digital screens.

4. Informed the staff of the coupons so there was no confusion.

Now Arooga’s has more traffic from Blabberbug than they’ve gotten with any other media. The best part is, it only cost them a fraction of what other medias cost. Want to know more? Call us!