Now that Halloween is over, you know what that means, GLAD WORKS friends!

It’s time for all the other stuff—Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza, Festivus, Wintereenmas, New Year’s, what have you! It’s nothing but fast-paced action from now until 2012, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to share some of our seasonal advertising ideas with you.

Season’s Greetings!

You may think this is a little outdated, but it’s still a cool idea: Company Christmas Cards. With everything being done electronically these days, don’t you kind of miss getting fun stuff in the mail? People love getting cards! If you want to avoid the whole December rush, you could always send out Thanksgiving or New Year’s cards, too. Hardly anybody does that so you should definitely consider it if you don’t want to risk getting lost in the pile of other holiday mailings. Of course, as always, we’re willing to help you with all of that. We even create personal cards for people to send to friends and family!  We strive to make everyone look beautiful, not just business owners, you guys. Oh, and if you really wanna take it over the top, did you know we can design customized postage stamps for you?

Make it Personal

Ok, so you’re not too cracked up about the idea of a holiday card. That’s fine because you can personalize just about anything under the sun and distribute it amongst your many wonderful and loyal customers. You can go WAY beyond pens and calendars here. You can personalize M&M’s, or you can paste custom labels on bottles of champagne for New Year’s Eve. The options here are nearly limitless, so basically, if it exists, we can help you figure out how to get your logo on it. 

Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing campaigns are easy and inexpensive ways to reach out to your customers. Holiday and season changes are a great time to send out special offers and promotions!

Deck Your Website with Boughs of Holly, Fa -la -la -la -la…

You know how Google always has something cute going on with their logo?  Did you notice the Halloween thing they did on Monday?  That was cool, right?  Those wily Google people! You never know what to expect! Your website can be full of pleasant surprises just like Google. This is a really fun thing to do, and it gives your visitors something to look forward to when they hit your site. You don’t even have to make this a once a year thing--you can do it for every holiday if you want to. You can even do it just…because!  But as long as we’re being so festive right now, why not take it a step further and change your Twitter page too?  You can really go nuts here and it’s not going to cost you very much to do it either.

Videos and Stuff

TV Commercials and Radio Spots can be great at this time of year, but have you also considered creating a video card to send around via email and or post on YouTube? Have you ever gotten one of those cute little animated email cards that you just had to forward to someone because it was just so cool?  Those can go viral pretty quickly, and some of them circulate for years. We’re just saying.

When it comes to making an impact during the holidays, all you need is a little creativity and a willingness to have a little fun with it. Whether you have a big budget or a small one, you have lots of options to choose from—but hurry! It’s time to get moving if you’re going to make a splash this holiday season!

If you’re like many small business owners, you find yourself awake at night worrying about how to attract new business and keep your current customers coming back to you and not your competition. Well have I got a big ol’ can of Monster-B-Gone for you!  You can attack that boogieman very effectively with engagement marketing!

Engagement marketing is a marketing strategy that employs many different channels of communication to reach out to new and prospective customers with an understanding that people are not passive receivers of messages. People today prefer to participate in a conversation with a brand and be actively engaged with it and that’s what engagement marketing tries to do.

In the digital age, customers have a tremendous amount of power over the information they receive. They’re wielding smartphones like mighty hammers of Thor. They’re loaded with a schmorgasboard of apps and they can be standing in an aisle of your store, whip out a phone, and compare your prices to those of your competitors right then and there. They’ve got email, they watch videos on YouTube, and they have social media accounts. Clearly, people today have a lot of choices in terms of how they get their information and how they interact with a brand, so if you’re out there in as many places as you can think of, you’re going to catch them all eventually. Being everywhere also helps you establish a sense of omnipresence so that once you’ve got their attention, you’re hard to forget.

Social media marketing has grown to become an important marketing tool for most small businesses. In fact, many businesses that aren’t using social media at this very moment, should be seriously considering creating an account on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Social media isn’t going to go away, so it’s important to get on board and start learning how to use it efficiently and effectively. Besides, it’s a great way for you to be your charming self and engage your customers directly to establish that personal connection they’re looking for.

But social media isn’t the only way folks are reaching out to their customers. Lots of businesses are pursuing non-traditional ways of communicating as well. Some small business owners are creating their own “channel” on YouTube and find video sharing to be an effective way to meet up with customers. You can post customer testimonials, a tour of your place of business, or any number of things that might interest people. Fun, entertaining, and informative video is great for PR! Just keep production quality high so your videos are polished and professional looking.

Even though it’s very important, social media marketing isn’t a silver bullet and it should be seen as a complimentary tool in your marketing mix. Things like email and direct mail campaigns, print advertising and creating special events are other ways to help build relationships with customers.

Email is one of the most frequently used tools when businesses seek to reach out to both current and prospective clients. Isn’t email one of the first things you check when you start your day? Well, you’re not alone! Most people are just like you, so email is a great way to reach out and grab some eyeballs.

Being open to communicating with your customers in new and innovative ways can do a ton to help spur customer growth and repeat business. You’ll be able to rest a little easier since you know your customers can find you just about anywhere.

When you see a blog post, a website, a Facebook page, or a piece of mail, what do you notice first?

Cool fonts?  Maybe.

Great copy? Probably not right away.

The pictures? You got it!

Pictures are often the first thing that draws a viewer’s attention, and they help to create that initial attraction to a brand. Because of that, it’s really important to think about what the images you have posted on your website, social media sites, and even those that appear on your printed materials say about your business. If they’re crummy, people will think you’re crummy and that’s not the direction we want to head in. We want to be totally un-crummy and maybe even amazingly spectacularly gorgeous and wondrous.

Your pictures, just like your words and actions, represent your brand. They’re your big chance to stand out from the crowd and create interesting and memorable images for your marketing materials. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  It’s completely true, so as representatives of your brand, your pictures should look professional so they can help you communicate all the right things to your customers.

By professional, we don’t mean to say that your images should be predictable or stuffy or boring.  In fact, they should be anything BUT that, but they also shouldn’t be pictures you took at home of your pet chicken or your kid unless they’re relevant to your brand and they look professional and polished.

Part of what’s special about a professionally done picture, is that they’re very high resolution. This is important because the resolution requirements for print and web are different and your pictures must be appropriate for your purposes.  Pictures intended for use in print need to be much higher resolution in order for them to print clearly.  Pictures intended for the web will probably not be good enough for print materials. Web pictures will not have high enough resolution to be used in print. That’s why the pictures on those invitations you made for your Great Uncle Carmine’s 90^th birthday party came out kinda wonky even though they looked great on the computer. A professional photographer can help you sort all that out and make sure everything looks sharp.

Another thing a professional photographer can help you establish is consistency. Pictures that are of the same style and quality help to create consistency throughout all of your marketing collateral. This helps create that ever-important brand recognition. Another part of brand recognition is having images that draw people in by making an emotional impact on the viewer. Your pictures should work to connect your customers with your products and make them remember that connection. Animals and children are great for evoking a viewer’s emotions. If you’ve ever wondered why we use so many pictures of Bella and Dolce, there ya go. Aside from the fact that they’re wicked little divas and they sulk until we post pictures of them, we also do it because they’re adorable and people love adorable things. We’re always careful though that Bella and Dolce are relevant to our content. Their sweet little Chihuahua mugs wouldn’t work so well on a website that sells home security systems, for example. You’d need a Rottweiler for that at least.

But why should you bother hiring a professional photographer when you can just Google stuff and find great pictures for free online? Well, there’s a little thing called copyright. It’s very, very naughty to take images you find on the Internet and use them for your purposes without permission. You can always buy stock photography from a web site and that’s totally cool to use, but those photos can be kind of pricey and generic. You can always purchase exclusivity rights to the photos you choose, but that can be costly too, especially if you’re purchasing a lot of images. If you don’t own the photos, there’s a chance you’ll see that same photo on something a competitor is doing!  EEEEK!  It’s like showing up to Prom wearing the same dress as that annoying girl from math class. That’s so embarrassing!

We hope we’ve successfully communicated to you how important it is that the images you use to help you with your branding and marketing are tip top and full of The Fabulous. You want everything to be, well…Picture Perfect! 

Sorry. We had to say it. We held it all the way to the end though! Aren’t you proud of us?

PS: Next week we’ll talk about creating content that has great viral potential. These days it’s not just enough to be cool or interesting--you’ve got to be contagious!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

The other day I was riding my bike through the park when I noticed three gorgeous parrots sitting on top of a fence surrounding the playground. I was intrigued because you don’t see that kind of thing around here very often, so I took a quick detour to go check it out. On my way into the playground, one of the birds greeted me with a loud “HELLO!” from high atop the fence. I wasn’t expecting that (Duh!  Parrots…talking…who knew?) and I admit it scared the heck out of me, but once I got over myself, I noticed how much attention these birds were attracting.

There were two handlers there with the parrots, and they were having a great time interacting with the public and letting parents take pictures of their kids with the birds on their shoulders. All they had with them to identify themselves were shirts with the name and logo of their pet store printed on them. There were no brochures; there was no flashy mini-van with EXOTIC PETS written on it parked in the lot, there was nothing like that. They didn’t make a big “look at us we’re so awesome!” event out of it. Not that there’s anything wrong with vehicle wraps and brochures—they all have a place in your marketing mix, but sometimes, less is more. Instead of being flashy that day, they were just two people from a pet store showing off their exotic birds and hangin’ out.

I’ve always thought parrots were pretty cool, but after seeing them up close like that and interacting with them, I wondered if maybe I could be that kind of guy—one who owns a parrot and teaches it to sing the Rocky theme song to me while I get ready for work in the morning. And then I thought, “what a great marketing idea!”  I’m always going to remember that experience, and more importantly, I’ll always remember what pet store provided it. If I ever get my wife to approve such a purchase, what pet store do you think I’m going to go to?

Yup.

A part of that decision was the fact that the “high pressure sale” was nowhere to be seen. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how hard it is to get a consumer’s attention in a way that’s meaningful and memorable. People these days are bombarded with so many messages coming from every direction imaginable. There’s a lot of competition for their attention and everyone seems to be getting louder and bigger to get their message noticed over all the others. Is there another way to get grab some eyeballs without looking like Arnold Horshack trying to get Mr. Kotter’s attention? (Hi five if you get that reference without clicking the link.)

Maybe the answer is not to ramp up the intensity and jump up and down shouting, “Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!” Maybe something quieter and more creative in this age of flash and hype is an option for getting noticed? Often, that kind of stuff is also the most memorable.

The parrot people didn’t have anything terribly complicated and flashy going on at the playground, but look what they got out of it?  I’m on the Internet talking about that experience, and I might actually go and buy a parrot from them (if my wife will let me)!

Creativity is key here. One great way to get some creative juices flowing is to find out what your competitors are doing, and do the opposite! What got me to go over to that playground?  I saw parrots in an unexpected place and I was intrigued. Normally, you’d expect to see exotic pet retailers at a mall or at an exotic pet show, not at the playground!  Going out of your element and doing something totally unexpected is a great way to get noticed—and by a whole new group of people, too!

Another remarkable thing about the parrots was the emotional engagement they inspired. Parents were lined up with their kids to get a picture with the parrots, and everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. Those families will always remember that day, and those wily parrot people got to be a part of that—they made it happen!  It’s so hard to reach people on an emotional level and create a magical experience, but it’s one of the biggest things you can do to really reach your customers. So many of our decisions are not based on rational, logical thoughts—they’re based on emotions.

For example, who buys a pet because it’s a logical thing to do?  Almost nobody. I mean, let’s be honest. Does anyone truly buy a dog because they want to go for walks at 5:00 am and pick up little doggie “presents” along the way?  Nope, but they do it because they’re emotionally engaged with their pet.

If you can find a way to get into people’s hearts, you win. That personal connection isn’t only what will get attention, but it’s what’s going to set you apart from your competitors too. Not only that, but it will lead to far more word-of-mouth marketing and networking. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling pets or car insurance, you’ve still gotta be creative: do the unexpected, appeal to emotions and you’re in!