| 1 Comment  Visits to LivingSocial and Groupon websites Groupon has experienced tremendous growth and success in recent years. But with similar deal sites exiting the daily deal market, it is clear these sites can not sustain the amount of customers that they used to. Recently, Facebook killed off Facebook Deals, its competitor to Groupon and other daily deal sites after just four months. Despite Facebook's 750 million users, they were unable to make their deals work. Perhaps more surprising is Yelp's withdrawal from the daily deal market. Yelp was more knowledgeable of local markets, a large asset in the daily deals market and yet still couldn't pull it off. There are an increasing number of smaller entrants in the daily deal market posing a threat to the big players Groupon and LivingSocial. Groupon is currently working on a location based daily deal program to help them compete in what has become a very saturated market. But will it be enough to keep them afloat? Only time will tell. What do you think? Will you keep using daily deal sites? Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team Source: http://mashable.com/2011/08/30/one-too-many-daily-deals/ Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is one way for attracting potential customers to your website and it is a critical component for your Internet marketing efforts. Check out these seven tips for beginners via Business2Community.
We hope these tips from Business2Community help you out! Read the full article here. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team Traditional Media and New Media... Did you know that these two marketing strategies are very different from each other? Or even what they are? Traditional media is what everyone is used to seeing on mediums such as television, radio, magazines, newspaper, billboards, etc. New media is digital and interactive. Some places where new media can be found are on the Internet, websites, social media networks, games on all consoles, mobile devices, etc. The great thing about these two different strategies is that they can play off each other. For instance, it's good to have traditional media pieces running at the same time as new media pieces as they allow you to reach a broader audience and reinforce your brand/message from a variety of touchpoints. Here are examples of brands that do a nice job integrating traditional and new media: Red Bull: Red Bull created a "Red Bull Stash" campaign that went around all over the United States and hid Red Bulls in neighborhoods, behind fences, in gardens, etc. People who liked Red Bull's Facebook page were able to type in their zip code and receive clues to where the cans were hidden. Red Bull created a successful social media scavenger hunt. Starbucks: If any business or brand can learn from someone else, they could definitely learn from Starbucks. Starbucks does an amazing job of communicating with its followers, engaging them and responding to feedback. Take a look at Starbuck's Facebook page here. We hope these examples give you some help when you are trying to integrate new and traditional media. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team  Many entrepreneurs and small businesses start out with a few individuals who have a great product or service idea. Despite having this, their businesses fail to get off the ground. What is a major reason for this? Most entrepreneurs or small business partners did not plan on being salespeople. However, the reality of running a small business is that you must be your own salesperson. So what can you do if you have a great business idea but don't have a knack for sales? Tips For Being Your Own Salesperson:
If you try these tips and still find that selling is just too far out of your comfort zone, hire a salesperson. For an entrepreneur or small business this can be a huge expense, but it will begin to payoff quickly. If sales is really not your thing, hiring a salesperson will be well worth your time and money. But, if you find you enjoy sales and want to hone your skills you can also hire a sales coach - someone to help teach you the art of selling. This is also another well-worth-it investment for your business. If you're still stymied on what to do, give us a shout. We're here to help. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team  HP's Stock Price July 25, 2011-August 23, 2011 No one ever wants to find themselves in the position of having their brand badmouthed to the public, but it still happens frequently. Once your brand has been badmouthed, what do you do next? First you need to acknowledge the problem and show what you are doing to fix it. This must be done immediately. Being slow to react will make the public lose more trust in your brand. Second, be honest and transparent. This means sharing everything you know about the problem. You want to be the one sharing this information with the public, not a third party. Recently, HP announced that they are going to discontinue their struggling TouchPad tablet and WebOS smartphone business and that they have plans to spin off their PC business. An onslaught of press coverage followed these announcements. The result has been a huge loss of consumer trust which can be seen in HP's plummeting stock price. So, how has HP reacted? They have been open about the fact that they find themselves unable to compete in the technology market and that they are undergoing a period of significant transformation. Their Chief Executive, Leo Apotheker, referred to it as a "needed transformation." He has spent time selling this idea to shareholders in an attempt to regain shareholder trust. Reacting to a situation like this is an ongoing process. HP must continue to be transparent about future plans to rebuild their business in order to start regaining consumer trust. It will be interesting to see how they continue to handle this situation. Has your brand ever found itself in an unflattering situation? Share with us your experience. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team Recently, Bu-Ya Bookkeeping came to us for help with creating a logo. They're previous logo wasn't really capturing who they were, and because of this, they were lacking brand recognition. Bu-Ya Bookkeeping wanted to portray that they are fun and upbeat while maintaining their professionalism. We examined logos of other companies in the industry and noticed a trend: extremely simple and often flat out boring logos. We wanted Bu-Ya to stand out among this landscape of simple logos. To do this we created a logo that is a little different than most in the industry. We were able to get their fun attitude and professionalism across in this logo, and it is sure to stand out! Here is what we came up with:  In addition to creating a logo, we also designed a new business card for Bu-Ya Bookkeeping that incorporated the new logo. Their previous business card was busy with too many colors and images. The images used did not portray exactly who they are and what they are all about. And, the type was difficult to read as it was set in a very small serif typeface. We designed a more refined business card with a simplified color palette that better conveys the Bu-Ya image. Here is the before and after for the Bu-Ya Bookkeeping business card:  Bu-Ya Bookkeeping Business Card Before  Bu-Ya Bookkeeping Business Card After  Bu-Ya Bookkeeping Business Card After Having a logo that represents your business well is an essential piece of branding your business. A logo allows customers to easily identify you from your competitors. And having your logo live on a business card that is truly useful and functional is like the icing on the cake. Need help creating a logo for your business? Contact us to find out how. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team What is guerrilla marketing? Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional way of marketing on a very low budget. Why is it great? Guerrilla marketing is great because it's marketing that any business with any amount of budget can do. It also has a very great chance of getting noticed by people because it's usually integrated in high traffic areas in the environment. Examples of guerrilla marketing we love:  Advertising a fan and its power  Kit Kat bench  Mr. Clean on the crosswalk  Watch on a bus handle These four guerrilla marketing campaigns are very creative and definitely get people's attention. We think guerrilla marketing is a great way for small businesses to advertise inexpensively. Would your business ever consider this tactic? If you're not sure, we can help. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team We recently came across "The Ten Twitter Commandments" which we find to be funny, but also very accurate. They are simple and easy to implement. Here they are via B2C:
Follow these commandments and you will be a Twitter star! Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team This past spring we helped Square Deal Lumber prepare for the Lane County Home & Garden Show. They wanted to make their booth stand out against the competition. Additionally, they wanted to create something to give to customers that would be of value, not just another flyer that gets tossed in the trash the minute they got home. Being a lumber company, they had the construction of their booth handled but they didn't know how to dress it up. To do this we designed a banner that clearly conveyed who Square Deal Lumber is and a rack card that customers could take notes on while talking to booth staff at the trade show. Here is the rack card we designed:  Rack Card Front  Rack Card Back Because Square Deal Lumber has been around in this community for such a long time (since 1947) we gave the banner a retro feel by using a font that evokes memories of old hand-painted signs and grass/fence graphics that connect to the idea of 1960's backyard barbecues. In addition, we used Polaroid style framing to the photos that showcase the range of services they offer. Because Square Deal Lumber’s products will be used to fit different specifications for each customer, the space for notes allows customers to write down measurements, product information and pricing so that they can easily reference it when they return home. Trade shows can be tricky, but when effective marketing techniques are used they can yield substantial results. When planning for your next trade show or event, remember the following: with so many similar looking booths yours needs to stand out, customers should be able to easily identify who your company is and what you do from your banner and finally, give the customer something that is of value to them. Do you need help preparing for an upcoming trade show or event? We'd love to help. Cheers, The Ruby Porter Team |
