How are you getting through this tough economic time?
Last year during our regular Monday morning meeting I broached the subject about the economy with my team. Lets talk about our future? None of us knew exactly how things would play out and yes I was more than a little nervous. What I did know and shared with them was, now more than ever, our clients needed to know how valued they were and we needed to approach their assignments no matter how small, as if it was our first and only chance to prove ourselves. We’ve worked very hard this year and we’ve been lucky, our clients are all still in business and happily, not one of them has gone elsewhere.
While a growing business needs to constantly have new customers, the focus must be on pleasing your existing customer base. From my experience companies that fail to nurture and retain their clients ultimately fail. I remember when the dot com was all the rage in the 80’s (ok, so I’ve been around awhile). Firms I knew were dropping their clients pursuing the glitzy new kid on the block! Sadly when it all went bust many of those firms went out of business.
According to an article in Harvard Business Review “Building Relationships” shows where many companies are headed, and all must inevitably go if they hope to remain competitive. The key distinction between a traditional and a customer-cultivating company is that one is organized to push products and brands whereas the other is designed to serve customers...” –Ann Byne, Creative Director/Principal of The Byne Group
Our Guest blogger and friend, Amy Stern, Director of United Hospice of Rockland shares her personal story.
On a fairly regular basis, Ann Byne, a member of our board of directors and principal of The Byne Group, encourages us to rethink how we are approaching our branding and marketing efforts. She suggested that we needed to start using social media to “get our name out there” as well as to develop and strengthen relationships with our supporters. My initial reaction was, “You’ve got to be kidding.” The resistance came from two areas of resistance: (1) This fifty-something was somewhat apprehensive about stepping into an area with which I was not familiar and (2) With everything we already had our plate, how would we make time for this? I’m sure many of you can sympathize.
Ann encouraged us to start small but to start.We agreed that we would publish an e-newsletter every other month. This seemed manageable to us.The first task was to begin to gather email addresses.They were gleaned from a variety of sources throughout the organization and are now added to on a regular basis so that the list will grow over time. Leadership staff has been asked to collect business cards with email addresses when they attend meetings.Donor envelopes allow for email addresses to be provided.Directories of local membership organizations were sources for the list.Responsibility for writing the newsletter was assigned to a staff member.The Byne Group taught us how to use the mass mailing software, Emma, into which we regularly download new email addresses.They also created a template into which we place our newsletter text.Their skilled eyes review and polish it before we distribute it.We just completed our fourth issue.Feedback has been positive and few addressees have asked to be omitted from the list.The challenge has been to write assorted snippets of news that encourage readers to: migrate to our website, open a link, answer a question or engage with us in some way.I can’t miss this blogging opportunity to share the most recent edition of our newsletter, click here.
Ann became quite the taskmaster and informed us that we were not yet done! The next step in the process was to identify a social media site on which we would create a presence. With trepidation, I volunteered to learn about Facebook. In order to become an administrator of a Facebook page, you must first sign on as an individual user.I spent a few weeks trying to learn some of the ins and outs.The Byne Group created our page and then like coaching a child to jump into the pool to learn how to swim, they sent us out on our own providing feedback along the way.
We soon learned that in order to make an impact, you need to gather fans.We didn’t want just any fans but rather fans of substance. For starters, we wanted individuals who lived in Rockland, supported our work, would believe in our mission, and would help us to spread the word about what we do.
In mid-November, I arbitrarily decided we should set a goal of 1000 fans by year end(we had 130 fans at the time). New Year’s came and went, our goal was so close, then by January 4 we hit 1000 fans. As of today we are at 1,196 fans. Success feels very sweet! Yes, It took a little work but we think it was worth it. We post something on our page several times a week. Examples of postings on our page are (1) unsolicited testimonials from fans about the services we provide (2) upcoming events and (3) a request for help with sign language translation that yielded a volunteer. Soon, we will post a survey and use its results to shape some of our advertising efforts. We are sold on the impact that social media can make. My recommendations, don’t miss this opportunity, start slowly, but start!
On Friday, we gave a presentation for United Way and Pace University Not-for-Profit Management Center, How Non-Profits Can Leverage the Web: Marketing Your Organization Using Online Tools. We had some help from our friend Howard Greenstein, Social Media Evangelist and President of The Harbrooke Group.
We wanted to post a few of the videos we presented, for anyone interested.
Every Thanksgiving The Byne Group tries to have some fun putting together unusual cards for our clients. This year Ann Byne was inspired by the most amazing aprons her mother-in-law recently gave her (her mom's mom had made them in the 50s). Through the magic of Photoshop we happily gathered wearing the aprons in a 50s kitchen preparing a Thanksgiving meal with attitude!
So how was I able to do this you may ask. On Halloween we all dressed up as 50s house wives. We then all took photos of one another against a white wall. As you can see some of us really got into character.
After the photos were taken, I downloaded them onto my computer. Using Photoshop I cut away the background so just a silo of each person remained. Since we didn't have a turkey laying around I also had to add a photo of a turkey in my hands.
Once everyone was cut out, I added them into the kitchen photo I had found. I re-sized each appropriately, people in the front were larger and people in the back were smaller to give the illusion of depth.
All of us had a lot of fun with this year's Thanksgiving card. It's always great when each of us can bring an idea to the table and incorporate it all. We have gotten amazing feedback from those who have received the card. Look for our upcoming issue of Freshly Squeezed where we'll have a downloadable PDF of drink recipes of the top 6 mixed drinks from the 50s and favorites of the MadMen characters.
-Melissa Behrens, Senior Graphic Designer, The Byne Group
At my recent presentation at Pace University on Social Media I was asked, "Why can't people find my website when they search online?" My answer, a bit flippant, was that it would take another three hour class for a decent response about search engine optimization (SEO).
On reflection, my answer should have been another question. Have you submitted your website to all the top search engines? Seems obvious, right, but often this first very simple step is overlooked. Search engines are the most used sites out there, and there is a much greater possibility that people will find you if you are registered in their database. The good news, you don't need to be a programmer or a website whiz or pay somebody loads of money and it's simple to do!
How To Do It First: Visit the search engine that you are interested in submitting to and at the bottom of the page; there is usually a link that says something like, "submit your site." If you cannot find this link, try the site map or the "about" page.
Second: Make sure that you completely fill out each section of the submission form and submit your site only ONCE to each engine.
Another interesting fact is that after a website is indexed in Google, Bing and Yahoo then new content will automatically be picked up by the crawler each time it visits the site. And don't forget social media sites. After you have submitted your site to the big search engines, you can submit it toask.com and stumble.
Living the life and career we want means taking ownership and making our own luck.
If we pay attention, insight comes at us from all directions. In a recent special Chris Rock does a bit about jobs vs. careers, really nailing the difference on the head. And because he made me laugh hysterically while doing it, I still remember the message.
Chris’ skit talks about his former job as a shrimp scraper at Red Lobster and how he played the "I'm not going to look at my watch" game for hours (who of us can say we never played that game) only to give in after what seemed like an eternity and realize that only 10 minutes had past! Chris took risks; faced fears followed his dreams and built an amazing career. Working at a Job vs. Having a Career
According to the book How Remarkable Women Lead, one step is just crossing the line “When you choose to cross that invisible line from being a person to whom things happen to, to becoming a person who makes things happen…choosing to act on opportunities that carry risk, and facing your deep-seated fears…there’s no going back.”
Once you’ve tasted the joy of autonomy, influence, and a sense of meaning it becomes a defining moment. Crossing that line has had a huge payoff for me, and I’m not referring to money. When you have a career that you have chosen, worked hard for, and love, it never feels like work. It's only when you have a JOB that time never passes fast enough.
There is always a downside. A career may not mean stability, and for me the fear of failure doesn’t ever go away completely, but I've learned how to stay ahead of it and have people to call for that extra shot of positive thinking when I need it!
Any thoughts on the subject, would love to hear from you.
If you’ve attended any of The Byne Group’s seminars, you’ve probably seen the following formula:
Promise + Experience = Your Brand
An often neglected, yet supremely important, way that clients experience your brand? Your website.
For all of you whose websites look and function like they were created by your nephew Ned… that’s because they WERE created by your nephew Ned! Sure, Ned’s got mad skill and probably created a super fab flash intro, but are your users able to find what they need, and does the caliber of your website match the caliber of your organization?
Here at The Byne Group, we believe using a website should be easy and pleasant. It should accomplish the user’s goals (They need to find what they are looking for quickly), and your goals (communicating your key message to them).
What’s the most crucial step in your website’s development? A little strategic analysis. Not only does it save time and money in the long run, but you’ll end up with something that looks great and meets your needs.
Here are a few of the things we look at:
1). Your functional requirements. Do you need to manage your own content? Does it have to conform to your corporate style guide? What accessibility laws must it obey?
2). Don’t forget your stakeholders. What does the CEO expect to see? What features does the fundraising committee need?
3). What tone and personality should the site have? What “voice”?
4). Who is your target audience? Who is using your website now and what information are they looking for?
5). If you build it, how will they come? Look at search engine optimization, social networking, and other ways to drive traffic to your site. -Jennifer Zapf, Art Director
The Byne Group is a strategic branding, advertising, and web firm. Some people think that creativity and research are opposites, but in fact, they work together toward innovative design. The Byne Group understands that design success goes beyond winning awards alone, although we’ve won many. Design success means success in the marketplace— design that makes a difference in the lives of the users or in our clients’ bottom line.
Sign-Up for our monthly e_newsletter, Freshly Squeezed by visiting thebynegroup.com
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