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Behind the Book: Anita Campbell Talks About Visual Marketing
Oct 9th
Have you ever been in this situation: you want to start a direct mail campaign, or plan your next tradeshow presence, or overhaul your website. But as soon as you sit down to work on it, creative ideas flee your mind. You just can’t seem to come up with ideas for anything fresh and different to get started.
That’s the kind of situation that the new book Visual Marketing is designed to remedy.
Visual Marketing is an idea starter. It gives you examples of how other small businesses today are using visual elements in their marketing to be creative on small budgets.
Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market With Images and Design is written by Anita Campbell and David Langton. Anita is the CEO here at Small Business Trends. She also operates a number of other online communities, such as BizSugar and Bloggertone, that reach millions of small businesses every year. David Langton is an award-winning visual communications designer with the firm Langton Cherubino Group in New York City.
Rather than do a standard book review, we thought it might be fun to take you behind the scenes of Visual Marketing with this two-part interview with the authors. In part 1 below, Anita Campbell gives you a glimpse behind the curtain into the process of writing the book. In part 2 (which we’ll publish tomorrow) the authors will explain some key learnings for small businesses about how to use visuals in your marketing.
Interview With Anita Campbell
You’ve wanted to write a book for a long time – what was it that led you to the topic of visual marketing?
Anita: I’ve thought about writing a book for years. But for a long time I actively resisted it. Many consultants and independent professionals see a book as a way to develop credentials, attract speaking engagements and lead to consulting gigs. That’s a great strategy — for them.
But that doesn’t align with my business expectations. Mine is a different path. I run a specialized publishing business. My primary business goals are to grow my online publishing properties, and to expand the types of content we provide. That goal has taken all my energy, and I was concerned I wouldn’t have time to write.
Over the years, though, I had developed an email correspondence with an editor from Wiley. He’d email me. I would think about a book, decide I didn’t have the time, then go work on more-pressing priorities. Rinse and repeat.
A couple of years go by. One day he said, “I want you to meet somebody.” I happened to be in New York for a British Airways contest that I was judging, and agreed to meet the Wiley editor and David Langton, my co-author. We got together in a Starbucks (where else?) in Grand Central Terminal. David, who owns a New York Web and graphics design firm, had an idea for a book about the visual elements of marketing. I was immediately excited. We hit it off, and several weeks later we had a book contract. It was that fast.
How did you approach a writing partnership for the book?
Anita: The goal in putting us together was to meld two types of expertise. David’s is professional design. Mine is an understanding the realities of marketing your small business — where money, time and staff are limited.
David and I had a “divide and conquer” strategy. We divided up the work according to our strengths. David focused on assessing the design case studies with a professional eye. I focused on writing about them in a way relevant to small businesses. That’s how we conquered it!
With David in New York and me 500 miles away in Ohio, this was a true long-distance collaboration. We relied greatly on collaboration tools, email and conference calls:
- Wufoo helped organize the process of reaching out to the public for case studies we featured in the book. We created a form and allowed people to upload design examples. Wufoo allows users to upload images (unlike Google Forms), so it was the best choice.
- Google Docs and email helped us share drafts.
- Skype was great for our weekly Tuesday afternoon conference calls.
We also got great help. Susan Payton from Egg Marketing and Communications served as technical editor for the book, and Norman Cherubino (David’s business partner) assisted in reviewing design projects. Without them, we might still be writing the book!
What was the most difficult part of the writing process?
Anita: Writing!
Seriously, it’s tough to find time for a book. Think about the hundreds of hours involved. Once you get into a creative flow, you face another problem. It’s challenging to stick with it when you get bored — and you will have moments of boredom. In fact, there will be times when you will work on the stupidest, most trivial things just to keep from facing your book that day.
There are a ton of details involved with writing a book. That’s multiplied several times over when you have 99 case studies, two images for each, and multiple people or firms involved with each design project. There’s a lot of followup, a lot of images to sift through, a lot of people to interview, a lot of signed permissions, a lot of drafts — just a lot! If you don’t stay focused on how great it’s going to feel once you’re done (to keep you motivated), that mountain of details can crush your zest.
Another challenge: resolving differences of opinion. David was a joy to work with. But two people who are creating something are bound to see things differently now and then. If you want to complete that book and remain friends, you have to seek out common ground. It’s a key skill for co-authors.
What’s been the most rewarding aspect of writing the book?
Anita: I’m blown away by the good wishes of friends, colleagues and even social media contacts who I’ve never met.
Authors have no choice but to promote their own books today. Unless you are a famous public figure like Hilary Clinton or J.K.Rowling, the publisher can only do a limited amount of promotion. And there are more books than ever competing for reader eyeballs. That means as the author, you have to get comfortable talking about your book regularly. And that’s hard to do, because you don’t want to come off like a walking sales pitch.
So whenever I mention the book publicly, it’s always with trepidation. The heartfelt and sincere good wishes are doubly welcome.
You’ve written on a variety of topics, from customer service to economic trends. Did the examples submitted bring a new outlook to your ideas and views on business?
Anita: The book’s examples gave me even more respect for the creativity of small businesses and the service providers (marketing firms, designers, printers) that support them.
The book’s design examples contain some that Fortune 1000 companies would be proud of. But some of the ones that touched me the most deeply are those done on low, low budgets. Those often were the most memorable.
More on Visual Marketing
Visual Marketing is a terrific book for creative designers, marketers and business owners who are looking for new and effective ways to bring life to their product or service. It’s not a design book, i.e., it won’t show you how to design your new postcard mailers. But it will show you well-thought out examples to help you trigger new ideas. Read more in part 2, tomorrow.
Behind the Book: Anita Campbell Talks About Visual Marketing
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Interview: Mike Blumenthal Talks Search, Local University
Sep 29th
Whether we’re talking about the SoLoMo revolution, how consumers find local information or how to avoid bad reviews, one thing is clear – it’s getting more difficult to be a small business owner. Luckily, there are resources out there to help. In my opinion, among the greatest opportunities for SMBs are the Local University events that take place around the country and provide tactical, sales-free advice.
To learn a little bit more about the events, I recently conducted a short email interview with local search expert Mike Blumenthal to talk to him about why SMBs need to develop a Web presence, how they can compete in local search, and why an event like Local University may be just their ticket to attracting new customers.
You’ll find my interview with Mike below.
Mike, can you tell SmallBizTrends readers a little bit about the Local University events that are held throughout the country? What is the goal of these shows and what does a typical agenda look like?
A number of folks in the local search space (David Mihm, Mary Bowling, Matt McGee and I) wanted to create a training session that would travel to cities not typically served by the current search conference circuit. We wanted to provide training that was readily affordable for small businesses and to offer them a comprehensive view of local search marketing that wasn’t predicated on selling them something.
Most big search marketing events are either too far away or too expensive and do not attract small business owners. We felt that SMBs were the ones that most needed to hear about the online opportunities in local search, so we are taking the event to them.
The course provides an overview of the full gamut of local online marketing options. We will be covering the basics of website optimization, social marketing, local search and analytics. We offer tactical advice as to what to do and how to do it. There is information as to how to do it yourself or hire a professional. We provide SMBs with a framework for when to take each step and we show them free or very cheap tools that will make their jobs easier.
That’s awesome! One of the next Local University events will be held in Western New York, where Google has stepped in to not only make an appearance, but to offer 25 free seminar tickets to local college students. Do you think their presence is a testament to how important it is for SMBs to educate themselves about local search?
We are really excited to have Google both presenting and helping to sponsor the event. Google clearly recognizes the need for small business education and they are actively starting to reach out to small businesses with their own seminar series. Getlisted targets a slightly different audience and content, and having Google’s help in reaching these SMBs is a real asset. It really demonstrates Google’s commitment to the market segment and the need for education.
Their sponsorship has allowed us to provide other “scholarships” to area college students in related fields. This is the first time we are able to do so and we are hoping that exposing students to these ideas earlier in their education will change how they look at the online opportunities and online marketing.
There’s so much for a small business owner to be concerned with these days – from best practices in SEO to social media to mobile. How does attending an event like Local University help them stay on top of everything and compete? Is it possible for a SMB to do everything they need to in order to be competitive?
Clearly there are many elements to online marketing and it is not possible for an SMB to do “everything” in that arena. But our goal at Getlisted is to help them understand the context of online marketing, help them assess where they stand in that matrix of choices, and help them understand which ones are a good fit for their business.
Most significantly we help them understand that what is important is taking the next step in marketing their business online, not trying to take every step. If they have a website, then perhaps they need to look at SEO and local search. If they have their local search elements in place, perhaps they need to look at a review management process. If that is under control, perhaps they are ready to move onto blogging or social media.
Getlisted tries to provide an overview of best practices so that the SMB can decide what has to be done to get to the next level in this brave new world of online marketing. Our goal is to educate, inform and provide an understandable framework for each business to develop their own plan for success.
What would you say to a small business owner who thinks he or she doesn’t need the Web or that it’s not worth their time to develop a presence online?
If small business doesn’t need new customers and they are currently doing no marketing then maybe a website isn’t needed. To all the rest I would say: Get over it.
Besides your business name and phone number, your website is a key building block of trust and prominence in local online marketing. If a small business wants to be found by new customers and if they want to convey their message in a controlled and long-term way, then it is past time for them to build a website.
For SMBs just now beginning to develop their online presence – what’s most important? Where should they start to help market their business online?
You have to walk before you can run. From a strategic viewpoint, understanding what your business does and who your customer is is the first step. You need to make sure you have consistency in your presence: one name, one phone number and a consistent image.
Before you get involved with Facebook or Twitter, build a great website based on a simple content management system on your own domain. Be sure that it actually answers your customers’ questions. Realize that Facebook, like MySpace, can go the way of the Edsel in very short order, but your website can stay with you forever.
If your website uses an easy-to-use content management system like WordPress, it will allow you to quickly and easily keep the site up to date and fresh. From there the likely next step before “going social” is doing what is necessary to make your business prominent in Google Places and the blended Google results. There are very few online marketing options that can put more customers in your reach more quickly and inexpensively.
How can readers find out more about the Western New York Local University event or future events that may be happening in their area? Is there a way to request that Local University visit their home town?
They can learn about the Western New York event at Getlisted.org/wny.
For more information about the event in general and other upcoming venues, visit getlisted.org/university. You can also email us with questions at localu@getlisted.org.
We are always looking for towns that want us to come. Everyone should feel free to get in touch with us to express their interest.
We have learned that we are most successful in locales where a strong local marketing firm partners with the local Chambers to promote the event. Because the event is a non-selling event, we have found that the local marketing firms provides the SMBs in attendance access to professional advice once we have left, and partnering with the Chambers clearly communicates the message that the event is purely educational. It’s been a great combination.
Fantastic, Mike! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with the SmallBizTrends community!
Interview: Mike Blumenthal Talks Search, Local University
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Netgear’s Patrick Lo Talks Smack About Steve Jobs, Microsoft
Jan 31st
Patrick Lo, CEO of Netgear, let loose on Steve Jobs and Microsoft at a lunch in Sydney earlier today. He said Apple’s business model, currently dependent on proprietary products and technology, would be defeated by Android and other open platforms. “Owning the market” with technology like iTunes is a temporary situation, according to Lo. From the Sydney Morning Herald:
Lo said the industry had “seen this movie play several times”, pointing to the Betamax vs. VHS video format war, Mac vs. Windows and various proprietary networking protocols that at one stage tried to compete with the now dominant TCP/IP. In each of the above cases, the more open platforms won more market share. However, Apple has bucked this trend so far with its closed ecosystems for the iPhone and iPad.
He said he believed Android would overtake iPhone globally and he predicted the platform could become the de facto standard for a range of consumer electronic devices, such as TVs and home media servers. Lo said content providers such as the movie studios were very “wary” of Jobs as the closed model of iTunes meant they were forced to pay a “ransom” to Jobs for selling their content on the service.
“Steve Jobs wants to suffocate the distribution so even though he doesn’t own the content he could basically demand a ransom,” he said. Lo also criticised Jobs’s public thrashing of the Adobe Flash format, attributing it to his “ego”.
“What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego,” he said.
“Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform,” Lo said.
Ouch. Public PR apology, anyone?
Lo wasn’t easy on Microsoft, either:
“Microsoft is over – game over – from my point of view,” he said.
I’d like to hear Lo’s take on who else–besides Netgear, of course–is going to take off in coming years.
View full post on Business Pundit
Texas, ESPN: Money Talks
Jan 19th
Image: Calamity Jane/Flickr
Move over, Notre Dame. ESPN just inked a 20-year, $300 million deal for a new 24-hour Longhorn network. ESPN has more about the network, which will feature 3 hours of non-sports broadcasting per day:
ESPN will help develop, launch and operate the network, according to a news release. The deal is worth $300 million over 20 years. The network will launch in September.
Included in the coverage will be at least one exclusive football game, eight men’s basketball games, women’s basketball coverage of games not televised elsewhere, and Olympic sports coverage. There will also be pregame and postgame shows for football and basketball games, coaches’ shows for every sport Texas sponsors and other daily programming.
In addition, there will be university news, coverage of lectures and visiting speakers along with commencement ceremonies, and even high school coverage on an authenticated online/broadband site.
SB Nation’s Spencer Hall adds:
Texas already has overlapping football rights via the Big 12′s television contract, meaning ESPN will shell out something like $15 million a year for one, perhaps two Longhorn football games and make up the rest on basketball and the relatively paltry revenue from other sports. How will this work? That is a very good question, and fortunately for the Longhorns that is not Texas’ problem. They’re the ones who just get to roll in their estimated $137 million athletics budget for the year 2010-2011, which just got fatter at the margins for future years thanks to ESPN’s largesse.
In comparison, the total budget for Big 12 competition Iowa State came to $45 million for the 2008-2009 year. In the arms race of athletic spending in the Big 12, Texas is clearly the United States, and everyone else is just hoping they don’t invade.
Seattle Pi goes into more depth:
Texas was considering the move to the Pac-16 to boost its television revenue. Instead, it stayed in the Big 12 for even more television revenue. While a Pac-16 was attractive, the rivalries of the Big 12 and its contract with ESPN-ABC and Fox, along with the additional revenue of the Texas-only network, are more lucrative.
But the underbelly of this thing is not as pretty.
First, there’s the journalistic question. Nobody pretends ESPN is the most objective news outlet in the land, but how can it report objectively and accurately on an institution with which it has such a cozy financial relationship?
Second, where does this leave every other major university in America? Before this, schools reaped the benefits of major network sports deals and shared the revenue….Now, major programs such as Ohio State, Michigan, USC and most of the SEC will wonder where their ESPN deal is.
That is, except for this 2008 SEC-ESPN deal.
Bottom line: In college football, everyone follows the money. It’s more lucrative for ESPN to carry one popular team with a heavy alumni following than to feature, say, Colorado one week, Nebraska the next, and rotate from there. UT gets serious moola. And that is what the conferences and bowl games are all about.
View full post on Business Pundit
Mark Zuckerberg Talks Shop With Baidu’s Robin Li
Dec 20th
This photo was taken and leaked by a Baidu employee.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg paid a visit to Beijing to talk to Robin Li, who runs Baidu, China’s biggest search engine. As much as Zuckerberg would love for Facebook to penetrate China, he, like many others before him, first needs to build the kinds of relationships that will let his software penetrate the so-called Great Firewall. From the Guardian:
Zuckerberg appears to have found common ground with Li, an internet entrepreneur who has completed a postgraduate course in the US….Since then, he has shrugged off Google and Yahoo, as well as criticism about a supposedly weak stance on censorship and copyright piracy, to make Baidu the dominant force in the Chinese search engine market. In an earlier interview with the Guardian, Li said Baidu would one day become an international rival to Microsoft and Google.
Given the furore over censorship that followed Google’s decision to curtail its Chinese search engine earlier this year, it is unlikely Facebook and Baidu would like to draw further attention to the issue.
China already has two social networks that are Facebook imitators: Kaixin, with 80 million users, and Renren, with 150 million. These lack the economic clout and global reach of Zuckerberg’s company but they do have the advantages of language and cultural awareness, as well as the protection of the Great Firewall….To tackle them and other big Chinese platforms, such as QQ, Facebook would probably have to move inside the firewall and accept greater censorship.
Facebook would tap a market of 1.3 billion users in China, according to Mashable. Zuckerberg is chomping at the bit to get in, just like everybody else. Since China is notoriously hard to get into for online companies, a Facebook allowance could pave the way for other social media companies, too. How likely that is to happen is a different question.
View full post on Business Pundit
Twitter Talks Money
Sep 29th
| Twitter, the company that early on never wanted to talk about money, now has a money-making strategy that it says is working well. |
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The Best TED Talks To Make Use Of Social Media
Sep 6th
| The turning point for social media, the 2005 tsunami, is discussed by James Surowiecki in detail. He notes that the disorganised blogging and video… |
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Denver Google AdWords Advertising Firm and PPC Consultant talks Pay-per-Click and SEO
Aug 26th
| If 1 million users click your link through search, then all you pay for is the Internet marketing that the SEO marketing firm… |
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20 Must-See Business TED Talks
Aug 25th
Every year, today’s greatest thinkers gather at various TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) conferences around the world. Their talks, which you can find on TED’s website, are often insightful, educational, and fascinating.
As a TED junkie, I decided to compile 20 of the best business talks in the conference’s history. Each talk offers insights either into a business leader’s mind, or into concepts that will change the way you think about business and the economy. (If you have any favorites not included on this list, please mention them in the comments below.)
20. Chip Conley: Measuring What Makes Life Worthwhile
Hotel owner Chip Conley talks about adapting Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to a business model based on happiness. He shares what he learned on the way.
19. Jeff Bezos on the Next Web Innovation
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos offers a fun, visual lesson on how people behaved during the gold rush, and how the dot-com story almost exactly reflected that behavior. He uses excellent stories, clips, and pictures to make his case, which puts a chapter of our economic behavior in historical context.
18. Chris Anderson: The 4 Key Stages of Technology
Author and WIRED editor-in-chief Chris Anderson talks about the four stages that a technology needs to go through to become viable. It’s a valuable look at what a thought leader has to say about technology trends. The talk, while more intellectual than entertaining, is full of useful tips, including how to think about technology and how to time an innovation.
17. Barry Schwartz on the Paradox of Choice
Too many products and services in our society lead to too much choice, according to psychologist Barry Schwartz. Even our identity is a matter of choice: We invent and reinvent ourselves whenever we want. He goes over positive and negative effects of this choice in people, including the levels of satisfaction people experience with products, how products affect them, and how regret plays into the equation. It’s a unique look into today’s consumer society.
16. Sergey Brin and Larry Page on Google
Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page talk about their company, search patterns, and Google.org. A fascinating talk if you’re interested in inner workings of Google.
15. Richard Branson’s Life at 30,000 feet
Virgin emperor Richard Branson shares interesting parts of his life story, including making it big with Virgin and selling Virgin Records to start an airline. This talk, with TED curator Chris Anderson, gives you a rare peek inside Branson’s head.
14. Jan Chipchase on Our Mobile Phones
Head Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase explores engaging questions on mobile technology. What do mobile phones really mean to us? How would someone who can’t read use a mobile phone? How would impoverished people in developing countries use one? Chipchase gets you thinking about mobile technology in a completely new way.
13. John Doerr: Salvation and Profit in Greentech
Legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr gives a serious talk on climate change. Claiming “we’ve reached the time…when panic is the appropriate result,” Doerr talks about how to fight climate change, eminent VC-style. This fascinating talk shares Doerr’s valuable perspective on battling a big problem, not to mention a number of interesting company stories.
12. Cameron Herold: Let’s raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur Cameron Herold shares his own stories of school to help us revisit the way we see success in children—and in ourselves.
11. Ray Anderson on the Business Logic of Sustainability
Ray Anderson, head of the Flor carpet company, says business can lead us out of our sustainability mess. Anderson, whom Fortune has called “America’s greenest CEO,” calls himself a recovering blunderer. His talks about alternatives to businesses that are “stealing our children’s future,” using the greening of his carpet company as an example.
10. Yochai Benkler: The New Open-Source Economics
For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, communications, computation capacity, and other building blocks of the economy are in the hands of the crowds. 70% of critical Web applications are produced open-source, in direct competition with big corporations, notably Microsoft. Thought leader Yochai Benkler explains what this means for jobs, corporations and the economy at large.
9. Charles Leadbeater on Innovation
What is creativity, and where does it come from? Think tank researcher Charles Leadbeater explains why you don’t need an organization to innovate. Innovation, rather, has always been interactive and collaborative. Today, consumers are often ahead of producers in terms of ideas. Leadbeater shares why this is, and how our world of innovation actually works today.
8. Dean Kamen: The Emotion Behind Invention
Prolific inventor Dean Kamen, best know for creating the Segway, describes his work designing a new kind of prosthetic arm for soldiers who lost limbs while serving. He describes not only his own thought process, but the people who motivated him to make it work. This is an excellent look inside the mind of one of today’s greatest inventors, not to mention the stories of the vets who inspired him.
7. Bill Gates on Energy: Innovating to Zero!
Uber-philanthropist Bill Gates shares where he’s putting his money in order to help lower carbon emissions to zero by 2050. An interesting talk by one of today’s leading philanthropists and ex-CEOs.
6. John Gerzema: The Post-Crisis Consumer
Trend expert John Gerzema talks about how consumers are behaving now, and the four cultural shifts that drove them to their current habits. He provides a thought-provoking model of where consumers are. Importantly, he also describes how businesses can connect with today’s consumers.
5. Dan Ariely: Are We In Control of Our Own Decisions?
We make many mistakes, but don’t have an easy way to see them, thanks to cognitive illusion. This excellent talk by Predictably Irrational author and behavioral economist Dan Ariely gives us insight into how we make decisions.
4. Steve Jobs: How to Live Before You Die
This is a recording of Steve Jobs’ 2005 speech at a Stanford commencement. He talks about his health, his dreams, his attitude on life, and, naturally, Apple.
3. Seth Godin: Not Business as Usual
Author and blogger extraordinaire Seth Godin delivers a compelling talk on the merits of bad or bizarre ideas in marketing. In characteristic contrarian fashion, he emphasizes that normal will not get you noticed. He uses fascinating examples to make his points on ideas and marketing.
2. Malcom Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce
Author and thought leader Malcolm Gladwell makes points about companies’ market behavior and human nature by telling market researcher Howard Moskowitz’s story. Moskowitz, charged with figuring out how to make Campbell’s Prego pasta sauce more desirable, discovered that in general, people only liked three kinds of sauce, including one niche–chunky–that no sauce manufacturer had touched before. Gladwell’s story offers insight into product segmenting, the food industry, and how people behave in market surveys.
1. Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an Ad Man
Ad man and compelling speaker Rory Sutherland gets inside the consumer mind by comparing real with perceived value. This is a talk not to be missed, by one of TED’s most entertaining business speakers.
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Medical Marketing Company Aurora Information Technology Talks About Creating Search Engine Optimized Content
Aug 23rd
| Internet SEO marketing can be done in many ways such as with medical articles, press releases, blogs, videos and social bookmarking. |
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