Our Insights on Social Media Influence Marketing

Clearly for many, the Super Bowl's attraction lies in the new commercials aired during the game. This year though, with social media starting to hit its stride, will we see interest in watching the game wane? For example, Pepsi, one of the more notable companies that traditionally sprung big time for a Super Bowl ad campaign, has decidedly forfeited any airtime slots (costing between $2.5--3.0 million per ad). Instead, Pepsi has taken a liking to a social media campaign, "Pepsi Refresh," in which they will give away $20 million in grants.

Nicole Bradley, a spokeswoman for Pepsi, explained why Pepsi wouldn't be participating, "In 2010, each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement." The idea is to be bigger than the Super Bowl, while allowing consumers to still appreciate Pepsi.

While Pepsi may stand alone among the giants in replacing Super Bowl airtime with a social media event, for now, many companies seem to be tying the two together. Look for commercials this year to be far more interactive, with more calls to action that direct audiences to Facebook and Twitter. With all the ability to connect television campaigns and social networks, many companies will try to make their 30-second spot go viral, as well.

Vice president of global sales for Facebook, Mike Murphy, seems to be on the same page as Pepsi. He said, "Instead of getting 30 seconds to connect with their customers, they're getting 30 days." This seems to be what Pepsi understands as their new campaign does not involve Super Bowl airtime.

Is this just the beginning of big companies choosing to go with a social media campaign opposed to the Super Bowl commercials? Will Pepsi be a trendsetter or find themselves buying up valuable airtime next year? If this is the wave of the future, will casual fans who watch for the ads still look forward to the big game like they do now?

MicroArts Creative Agency is leveraging social media as part of overall branding campaigns like never before. It's working for companies like World's Best Cat Litter--products trying to break into and make a bigger impact in already noisy markets. We're keen to see how the giants do it. Being big doesn't necessarily translate to being nimble or even right. But it does mean we'll begin to see some real dollars tossed into the arena.

We would love to hear your thoughts.

To many users, this seems very new, as it sort of hid in the shadows for a while. The way it works is by showing people you may know, usually friends of your friends. More importantly it uses your contacts from various e-mail and messaging services to seek out those on Facebook you know, but may not be connected with yet.

Now this may not seem applicable to casual Facebook users who mainly use the site as a way to keep in touch with old friends, but to those who use Facebook for socially networking themselves or their business this is a great way to expand. Now that most businesses are creating Facebook pages, usually one in search of fans rather than friends, they are now being reminded that they can utilize their e-mail contact list to generate a larger following on Facebook which in turn keeps a lot more people connected and updated with them.

Regardless of how you use it, the people at Facebook are really making a push to encourage growth among all accounts, personal or business orientated. This only seems to make Facebook a more reliable source in a world that is being transformed by social network technology. Of course there are some lingering questions about the "friend finder", but the most important ones are about the future. What is next for Facebook? Are they still working on figuring out an even easier way to connect to people you may already know? One thing that is most certainly for sure, Facebook is not done figuring out new ways to stimulate their seemingly endless growth potential.

Have you extended your brand to the world of social media? Contact MicroArts to learn where to begin!

But why engage the blogosphere you ask? Did you know that 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know and 70% of them trust consumer opinions that are posted online, as found by the Nielsen Company in their latest Global Online Consumer Survey? That's right, nearly 3/4th of consumers online trust the opinions posted online by other consumers which is higher than all other traditional formats like editorial content, TV, newspapers, magazines and radio. Still not convinced? Here are some compelling facts supporting the value of blogger engagement:

1. Brand mentions on the Internet are the best way to get users to visit your site to learn more about your brand. In a recent study by ARAnet, it was shown that the most likely source for Internet users to read and take further action was seeing your brand in an article format.
2. Ninety-five percent of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs¹
3. Four in five bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% of them posting them frequently¹
4. There were 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007²
5. 184 million people world wide have started a blog³
6. Seventy-seven percent of active Internet users read blogs³

Now that we've established the immense potential value of engaging the blogosphere, we would like to share three simple principles for success.

1. Respect - you might think this is simple and straightforward but in blog outreach respect can take shape in many forms. Here are a couple manifestations of respect in the world of blogger engagement:
   • Treat every blogger equally
   • Treat each blogger as the expert
   • Take at least 10-15 minutes to read their bio and a few posts
   • Don't talk above them
   • Encourage transparency
   • Expose yourself, don't hide your real personality in the shade
2. Delivery - bloggers are connected. Sometimes stuffing an email down their throat isn't the best way of going about things. Try to figure out the optimal communication medium for connecting with them whether it be commenting on a relevant post, Twitter, Facebook or even picking up the phone (that's right ... phones still exist :).
3. Transferable Value - notice how the word "incentive" or "pay-off" isn't used here? Bloggers aren't a gumball machine you drop a quarter into. Instead, offer them something that is of relevant value. You should be talking to them because they are of relevance. Therefore, the product , service or development you are sharing should be of interest. Why not send them a package in the mail with your product and a thank you letter, or invite them to your private beta, or Tweet about them to your followers. Be creative here.

Serious about doing some blogger engagement for your brand? We would love to go a step further and work on a customized blogger engagement program for you. Feel free to give us a call or better yet connect right here by leaving us a comment!

Brand Transparency
Brands now live in an on-going conversation about themselves whether or not they join in or not, and the truth WILL BE set free. As a result, the trend WILL BE what I'm calling "brand transparency". Brand transparency is the pinnacle of truth in marketing behaviors. These behaviors go well beyond inaccurate marketing communications. Brand transparency is when a brand welcomes the world in to understand exactly how their product is manufactured.

Truth in the Serum
For example, brands like Kleen Kanteen® and Sigg® marketed BPA-Free water bottles. Revenues spiked as the Nalgene® "BPA plastic bottle" business jumped off the cliff.

Nicely done. Or so everyone thought ...

As it turns out, the Sigg brand had not been completely transparent with its BPA content.

The result? Patagonia terminated their Sigg partnership.

In reality, the amounts of BPA in their water bottles would never cause any human harm. They had fixed the problem [after millions of dollars sold], but weren't forthcoming with both consumers and partners [including Patagonia]. If Sigg had engaged in brand transparency, their behavior and communication could have played out in a proactive way (instead of the reactive CYA efforts they were forced to take that fell short), with something like this:

We are very sorry to announce that we missed a trace amount of BPA in our water bottles. It is so incredibly small; our scientists simply did not see it. It is an honest error and we took immediate actions to correct it. Please understand these are such trace amounts they will not hurt you.

Nevertheless, if you like, please do mail your bottle back to us and we'll send replace it with your choice of our new bottles. If you don't want the hassle, since the bottle you have is safe to use, please still accept our apology for this oversight. And, we invite you to please download a "50% off" coupon for our new bottles.

We hope this has not caused any stress or inconvenience in your day. Thank you for your loyalty to Sigg branded products.

Sincerely,

[Founder's Name]

This turns a broken brand promise of BPA-Free into an opportunity to communicate what isn't broken, the brand's values.

Brand Strategy Trends
Total and utter brand transparency is one of the next major trends in brand strategy. Social media will expose your broken promises. Believe it—and brand transparency is the only answer.

In fact, we are launching a new consumer brand in 2010 that takes brand transparency to the max. We are still in super stealth mode, so I can't even share the product category we're aiming to dominate.

Starting with filming the day all the partners met for the first time in Vegas to discuss the brand strategy, brand values and, as a result, the brand's opportunity, we will tell the story of who, what, where, why we are building the products the way we do.

We are 100% transparent with the World, identifying what is not ideal about the product and ask our customers for fresh ideas on how to improve it. Most importantly, we will carry on these communications, these relationships, in the wide-open forum called Internet social media. If you are an organic, all-natural, green, environmentally friendly, totally-safe-for-humans brand, you best have a brand transparency strategy that is as honest as the way you do business.

The first brands to take on this strategy will be handsomely rewarded in the form of unsurpassed customer loyalty, customer evangelism, blogosphere ubiquity and, ultimately, shareholder value.

Get brand transparency right the first time. Contact MicroArts to learn more about how to infuse your brand with truth.

PS: Truth in marketing may not apply to ski areas just yet. Downpouring rain will still be referred to as "mixed precipitation." Unless, you are Alta's weatherman. So many times last year, Alta reported 4" of fresh snow whereby as I was walked toward the Wildcat lift in boot high powder. They under promise and over deliver! They report only 4" when they get 8" - How cool is that? Love Alta.

Let's start with Facebook. A recent report published by Virtue SRM indicates that Monday through Wednesday are the optimum days to post to maximize your click-through rate (CTR) on Facebook. Thursday through Saturday were significantly lower, though interestingly Sunday stood out with a relatively high CTR.

So, as a starting point, if you have a blog post or link that you want to share and you want to ensure it gets the highest CTR then be sure to share it on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. But you should treat this only as a starting point and track your own CTR and see what days are most effective for your own Facebook presence. Ours actually has highest CTR Wednesdays through Friday with Monday and Tuesday being the low points, atleast for now. As the makeup of our Facebook network changes, so could the CTR rate change - so we will continue to test- as should you.

Now with regards to Twitter, we don't have any Twitter-wide specific data on click-through rate but, thanks to great people like Dan Zarrella, we do have data on ReTweet rate (ReTweeting is when someone shares your Tweet with their followers). This data does provide some useful guidance towards when you should Tweet to maximize click-through rate based on two factors: the data shows what day of the week Twitter is being used most and also shows when ReTweets happen the most. From this we can infer when your Tweet is most likely to be seen by the most people and also when it has the best chance of being shared with the most people.

Based on Dan Zarella's data it appears that Twitter is almost the opposite of Facebook: Wednesday through Fridays are top ReTweet days. Based on that a good starting point to ensure maximum CTR would be to share your links later in the week on Twitter. As before, use this data as a starting point and keep track of your own CTR information - our own data also indicates that Thursdays and Fridays have the highest CTR for us, but every network is different and will change over time. So keep testing and refining to maximize your sweet spot.

As to what time of the day is optimal, data indicates that daytime sharing on both networks, rather than early morning or sharing at night, will maximize ReTweet and click-through rates. As a starting point you might try sharing during lunch time, which some have dubbed "the new primetime" - atleast for video consumption, but it's a useful indicator as a starting point. This is something again to test with your own network but good to keep in mind.

In sum, the best practices for when to share blog posts and links on Facebook and Twitter are: Start by sharing during lunchtime for both. Start by sharing on Facebook early in the work week. Start by sharing on Twitter later in the work week. Lastly, you should be testing your own CTR over time and adjust accordingly. Need help testing CTR or just want to ensure maximum success with your overall social media marketing efforts? Give us a call today, we'd be happy to help!

It's now almost 2010 and, although direct mail campaigns have proven to be successful in the past, does any of this hold true today, now that everybody's mailboxes are inundated with direct mail pieces? Do people even look at direct mail? I never did, at least I never thought I did, until recently I found myself clipping a coupon I received for a buy-one-get-one-free offer. Progressive Grocer announced that coupon redemption rates are up 19% in 2009 compared to 2008. Direct mail has also proven to show a 1-3% return. Is this something we should turn our heads to now that we're seeing very high returns with Internet Marketing?

Today, everybody's talking about search engine marketing, social media, Facebook, Twitter and other essential, Inbound Marketing tactics. Hubspot reported that 37% of lead generation budgets, on average, are dedicated to Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing allows you to effectively reach your target prospects. You can even test marketing through A/B testing strategies. Why bet the farm on a particular message, call-to-action or creative design that you think will generate leads when you can quickly and easily A/B test all of your messaging, creative, call-to-actions and be certain you're generating qualified leads?

Now that we're leveraging these great tools online with Internet Marketing, does this mean we should disregard traditional, seemingly more expensive marketing mediums such as expensive tradeshows, traditional public relations and even direct mail? Absolutely not. Rather, we should leverage what we know with Internet Marketing to make our traditional marketing efforts even more successful, especially direct mail marketing.

By leveraging Internet Marketing, we can prove our messaging, creative and call-to-actions BEFORE sending out our direct mail campaigns, thus increasing the likeliness of effectiveness.

Here are some important direct mail tips to keep in mind as you craft your campaign:

• Post office regulations [http://www.usps.com/] - Make sure to double-check the post office regulations prior to sending out a postcard or letter to make sure you're not violating any regulations. A reprint can be costly!


• Gold database - Make sure your database is solid. Without a database that targets the right people, with the correct contact information, it doesn't matter how effective your messaging is.


• Test your messaging - Leverage Internet Marketing techniques to test as much of your direct mail piece as possible. Do A/B tests on the headline, subhead, image, call-to-action, offer, layout, etc.


• Don't look like junk mail - If your envelope looks like junk mail, it is not likely going to be opened. Make sure the envelope you send your piece in has an "openability" appeal.


• What's in it for me? (WIIFM) - It's important that the recipient of the direct mail piece knows immediately, WIIFM? This will increase readability.


• Coupons - Make sure your offers are something you can stand behind. I recently saw a coupon for a FREE Papa John's Three-Topping pizza, effective on one day, through online ordering. Coincidentally, on that same day, the online ordering for the locations offering the coupons was down, along with the phones.

Have an upcoming direct mail campaign? Call MicroArts, a creative agency.

1. Rapid increase in transparency = happier consumers :) - If you have been following the noise/buzz surrounding the recent announcement you will quickly discover a trend. The complaints and issues with the new regulations are coming from bloggers, marketers and organizations. Hmm, but what about the consumers, general public and everyday people in which content on the web was intended for? Are they complaining about the outlook of a more honest, credible and transparent landscape on the internet? I think not.
   
   In reality, the increase in transparency created by these new regulations will create happier and better informed consumers. Why? For starters, 90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know and 70% of them trust consumer opinions that are posted online, as found by the Nielsen Company in their latest Global Online Consumer Survey? That's right, nearly three quarters of consumers online trust the opinions posted online by other consumers which is higher than all other traditional formats like editorial content, TV, newspapers, magazines and radio. With that said, isn't it a good thing we now have some rules that promote transparency within these online opinions? After all trust is everything, is it not?


2. Products - Survival of the Fittest not the Richest! Real simple--money can change the game for underperforming products. Let's let products speak for themselves in the opinion platforms of the online world. Is that too much to ask? If you can't make it out there without paying people off for their opinions then you don't deserve to be there in the first place.


3. Accurate Diffusion of Content - Here is a simple example: You go to read a blog in which the blogger was swayed into liking a product via a payment or special gift. You read how they love the product and highly recommend it. You trust them, in fact, you typically buy whatever they recommend. As a result of reading this post you make a tweet about the product to 150 of your followers, tell five of your best friends at your next party and make a post on your Facebook wall. Get the drift?

When it comes to blogger engagement at MicroArts, we have always relied on our client's true value offering or product to do the talking and nothing else. For many, this development by the FTC probably came as a shock. We hope for those upset or angry with the FTC they can see the positives in this development. We would love to connect with you and chat about it. Please drop us a line or come visit us anytime.

Although barcodes are in use everyday at retail stores, prominently placed on retail packaging designs, barcode technology has evolved drastically over the past few years. Nowadays we're leveraging barcode technology to a new form of the barcode, the two-dimensional code, the Quick Response Code. Invented in 1994 by the company Denso-Wave, the Quick Response code, known as the QR code, was launched in Japan, where it is still a popular medium today. Although QR codes are not yet mainstream in the United States, they are popping up all over the place, not only in Japan but around the world, in advertisements, on billboards, on buses, at tradeshows, and on corporate collateral. A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that allows users to take a picture, using their cell phones (although only certain phones are compatible, view a complete list of compatible cell phones), to quickly access a URL. By taking a picture with your cell phone, you're decoding the QR code and interacting with the creator of the code, by instantly accessing the code's URL. Many marketers are leveraging this new marketing medium to reach their consumers, in a non-traditional way. For example, you'll notice a QR code featured at the top of this blog entry that links to the MicroArts Twitter page.

I imagine the technology will continue to gain traction and become more mainstream in the United States, especially as additional phones become compatible.

Many companies are incorporating QR codes into their upcoming marketing plans. Just this week, while attending a social media presentation at Firebrand's community conference, they had a QR code on their event poster. I also noticed a QR code while attending the movies last week, and was surprised when I noticed someone taking a picture of the QR code as I walked by.

QR codes are easy to generate and a great way to interact with your consumers. If you're looking to create a QR code, here are some easy sites that allow you to generate codes quickly and easily:
http://qrcode.kaywa.com
http://zxing.appspot.com/generator
http://www.snapmaze.com

Remember, it's not only the QR code that you need to worry about, make sure to have an effective landing page that pays off the message within your QR code.

Need help staying on top of the latest and greatest new technologies being used with Internet marketing and traditional marketing? Contact MicroArts, a brand strategy company.

Here is what I learned:

• Two out of 25 companies have a documented Internet Marketing Strategy for 2010. In both companies, they did not have a "documented" Internet Marketing Strategy in 2009, beyond pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing. Both companies ballparked that in 2010, >25% of their total marketing budget was allocated to Internet marketing and social media. Although neither company would divulge the size of their marketing budget, based on my understanding of marketing budgets for brands of this size, I would confidently estimate their Internet Marketing and social media marketing budgets are >$1 million for 2010. Both companies have an agency like MicroArts to lead them in their Internet Marketing Strategy. Both brands engage their customers (the actual pet owner) in online conversation, on a daily basis. A primary objective for both companies is to double their customer contact (pet owners) databases from >100K to >200K. Because I appreciate their candid conversations with me and understand their strategy is a major competitive differentiator for them, I will keep their identities to myself. I will say, however, that one was a long time brand leader in the Pet Industry and the other is a young, fast growing company.
• Fifteen of the 23 companies that did not have a documented Internet Marketing Strategy for 2010 did not even understand the question. I went on to define the benefits of Internet Marketing but it most cases, it didn't help.
• In fact, on five occasions, the response was, "the pet owner is not our customer, we sell through distributors." I'm sure the look on my face was priceless. In all five cases, these companies owned multiple brands. And the only customer contact (pet owners) database in all cases was a rewards program that seemed to give them all a headache to talk about. Four out of five of these companies have brands selling in Target®. Honestly, I left these booths perplexed. Normally, in these situations, I'd leave the booth thinking, "hey, this could be a great client for the MicroArts Internet Marketing Team! But, these five companies clearly attributed "little value" to Internet Marketing and also felt it was the responsibility of their distribution partners.
• Three of the 23 companies became interested with Internet Marketing and didn't want our conversation to end. One company had ear marked 20% of its marketing budget towards Internet Marketing because they knew it was important, but hadn't taken any initial steps.
• Five of these 23 companies believed, in fact, that they did have an Internet Marketing plan because they had a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

In sum, the Pet Industry is a sleeping dog and appears to be settled into a long nap. Which I'm happy about, selfishly, I say, "let sleeping dogs lie." Kudos to brands that will profit from Internet Marketing and Social Media Marketing efforts, your brand deserves every penny of it.

If you found this blog because you did a search on "Internet Marketing in the Pet Industry" or "Social Media Marketing in the Pet Industry" ... Good Morning!

To engage MicroArts in a discussion about your brand strategy, brand design, Internet marketing and social media marketing in the Pet Industry, ping me, Peter Getman.

Question from the group:
I think Facebook and Twitter are more community based and sense people check in more frequently on these sites to see or post status updates, etc. LinkedIN appears to be more of a networking tool. Do you have any suggestions on how to strategically use each of these sites differently for a business? I could see posting the same information to each site (in my case, real estate listings), but I am trying to figure out the best use of LinkedIN for our real estate business (thinking it is to network with industry contacts such as realtor organizations, home builders, appraisers, mortgage brokers, etc.) Any ideas?

Answer to the group:
Let's start with LinkedIN -- The first thing I'd recommend doing is familiarizing yourself with the LinkedIN Learning Center - http://learn.linkedin.com/ - a great resource, especially if you are new to LinkedIN. You'll want to use that as a guide for your experience on LinkedIN -- secondly you'll want to setup a company profile within LinkedIN - following these best practices: http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/11/17/creating-company-profiles-on-linkedin/

Now, within LinkedIN there are many different opportunities to grow your business. For now, let's focus on four:

1. Networking, the base of LinkedIN


2. Groups (like this one)


3. LinkedIN Answers


4. Service Provider directory

1. Of course with networking the idea is simple- examine your contacts' contacts for relevant, compelling connections. Ask for an introduction through your common contact or introduce yourself, you never know what kinds of opportunities exist within your own network's network!

2. Groups, like this one, are also another great opportunity. As a domain expert within Real Estate you should search for LinkedIN groups that relate to your business and join them and contribute your expertise to the discussion. By contributing thoughtful and helpful comments to ongoing discussions you will establish yourself as a leader within the space and earn respect and business as a result. Speaking in general though, if there is not a group within LinkedIN that reflects your domain expertise, then you are facing a great opportunity ... you could create your own discussion group and invite others to connect with you to discuss accordingly.

3. LinkedIN Answers is another great way to connect with contacts and establish yourself as a domain expert. This section of the site contains a wealth of opportunity for you as an expert to answer peoples questions within your domain *and* ask questions to experts in related domains or in other areas of business. In both cases you establish yourself within the greater community, but answering questions provides the best opportunity to gain respect and new business through LinkedIN. Further, participating in the LinkedIN Answers portion of the site can earn accolades for your LinkedIN profile that are seen by others - if your answer to a question is selected as the best answer by the question asker, your "best answer" award gets posted to your profile.

4. Finally, be sure your agents are established within the Real Estate listings in the service provider directory within LinkedIN. This again can provide access to new business because LinkedIN members can browse the directory and find service providers that are connected to their personal network, enabling people to find service providers that are recommended by their contacts, a valuable tool. As a service provider, after setting up shop within the directory, you should be sure to reach out to your network of contacts and ask for recommendations. These recommendations appear within your profile and also can help drive business and referrals to you through LinkedIN.

• Use Flickr Advanced Search with the "Only search within Creative Commons" and "Content to use commercially" checkboxes checked.
  
• Use Google Advanced Image Search with the "Labeled for commercial use" filter turned on to find imagery and photos to use in your blog.
  

• 10 Sure Fire Headline Formulas That Work
  
• 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work
  
• How To Write A Killer How To Post That Gets Attention
  

1. Short is sweet.
   Attention spans don't last long on the web. Focus on the first 10 seconds of your webcast. Do something to grab your audience and keep them engaged.


2. Provide video that is appropriate for your audience.
   Is your video meant to be informative or entertaining? Corporate audiences will look for interviews, webinars and demos; while the more casual audience will be drawn in by music, action and spoof videos.


3. Webcasts don't have to be expensive.
   You don't need the most expensive equipment to post a quality webcast online. You should, however, spend extra for an external microphone. The external mic will provide much better sound quality (as compared with camera-mounted mics).


4. Choose the right setting for your video.
   Lighting is important. Try not to shoot in front of windows - the scenery may draw you to do so, but the back-lighting will not transfer well to video. You'll also want to avoid tile floors and / or empty rooms. You may not pick up on the echo immediately, but your web audience will.


5. Publish your video on YouTube.
   Publishing your video on YouTube is the quickest and easiest way to get the Flash-based code to promote your video. Flash is the best way to show video across platforms and browsers.
6. Use YouTube Insight to track your success.
   This free and easy-to-use service will tell you:
   • Where are your views coming from?
   • Who is watching your video?
   • What is engaging in your video?


7. Remember SEO for your video.
   When describing your video, be descriptive, straight-forward, and use relevant keywords. Give your video a good title (include keywords AND make them intriguing).


8. Embed your video in blogs.
   Make it easy for your audience to provide you with feedback. By embedding YouTube code on blogs any feedback will be tracked back to your YouTube Insight account.


9. Promote your video.
   Use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (FINT) to promote your video. Be sure to link appropriately based on your audience. Paid promotion of your video is not a worthwhile option. While vendors can promise you visitors, they cannot promise the visitor will watch your video.


10. Analyze and repeat.
    Use the stats you have garnered from YouTube Insight data. Read the posts you received from your viewers.
    
    Take what you have learned and put that knowledge toward your next webcast.

Creating a webcast can be challenging, let alone learning how to market it. Don't let it overwhelm you. Again, webcasting is key to any Inbound Marketing campaign.

Check out this recent video from our Principal Brand Director. This video is housed on our homepage and has been watched more than 200X in 2 months. When you are done watching - give MicroArts a call to learn how we can help brand your webcast.

It didn't take long before everything from cleaning products to airlines were dipping a toe in the murky "green" water. Look on any grocery store shelf and you'll see buzzwords such as "natural," "eco-friendly," "free-trade," and "organic" float across product messaging like the cure-all snake-oil claims of generations past. This is called "greenwashing" (originally in reference to the practice of hotels trying to make higher profit by not washing towels or bedding daily and passing it off as conservation) and consumers are quickly becoming wise to these often misleading baits.

So how do you highlight the very real environmental benefits of your product or company without sounding gimmicky or insincere? Consider these three best practices:

1. Focus on your unique selling points (USP). Be specific about these points in your brand positioning strategy. Check out CockadoodleDOO, E-cloth, and Nature's Remedy in our portfolio for examples of using specific characteristics of your brand positioning strategy to back up claims of environmental responsibility.
2. Create a graphic badge. Once you've honed in on the USPs of your brand strategy, create a graphic badge highlighting these USPs for quick recognition on your product packaging design. The badge we created to highlight the whole-kernel corn used to make World's Best Cat Litter™ is instantly recognizable on the product packaging, website, brochures and other collateral. This badge is effective because it quickly communicates a brand message about whole-kernel corn that is easily understood.
3. Start a conversation. Foster a dialog through inbound marketing with your customer. Recently, Dell declared they wanted to build the "greenest PC on earth". The company launched IdeaStorm as a platform to solicit "direct feedback from, [its] customers, suppliers and stakeholders" on how to do just that. Shell and General Motors have incorporated similar inbound marketing tactics which have lead to increased visibility on connected social media and blogs. These consumer and expert voices add increased legitimacy to any "green" claims. Our own success at this is being proven through the Social Media Marketing and Blogosphere Engagement efforts for World's Best Cat Litter™ and the Greenopolis community for Waste Management.

If you can achieve this trustworthy image of a green company through highlighting your environmentally friendly USPs, official badges, and real (honest) unstructured branding communications, you will be well on your way to joining the ranks of Tom's of Maine, Stoneyfield Farm, and Patagonia.

Interested in crafting your green brand strategy without running into the "greenwashing" trap? Give MicroArts a call.

So how does engaging in social media create, support and strengthen brand loyalty for companies, organizations and brands? To explain, let me share a simple example.

You are looking to buy a new set of skis. After much online research and due diligence, you have nailed down the exact model and size you are looking for. You don't want to pay for shipping and therefore look for retailers in your area where you can by them in person. After doing some local searching you find two shops within similar distances from your house.

You can't go to either Store A or Store B until they open tomorrow, so you go ahead and visit their websites to see which store opens first. Not surprisingly, you find out they open at the same time but something during your experience is significantly different from one store to the other.

Store A - You find the typical website... standard navigation, standard content, standard product info and a standard story. There isn't really any additional insight as provided by the employees or management on this store website. This does not bother you though because you feel like you know what you want and you are happy with your choice, right? You go to their "Contact Us" page, grab their directions and print them out for tomorrow.

Store B - At first, it appears you are in store (no pun intended) for a similar website and experience. But, something on this page is drastically different from Store A's website. This homepage feels connected, personal and alive. In fact, there is a big area on the right hand side that says "Connect with Us". Under this heading there are icons for Facebook, Twitter and a Company blog.

You click on the company blog and see a new post of the "Best of 2010" carving skis by the owner of the store. You begin to read. After several paragraphs you realize the skis you thought were a great fit for you weren't on this list. You begin to second guess your choice. You wonder if the owner is credible or not and notice a link in the blog that leads to Store B's Facebook page. You click the link, and see a new video posted on the wall. There he is, fully sponsored and shredding it up at a regional downhill event. Wow, he's good.

You browse around Store B's Facebook page for a little longer and eventually return to their website. Store A is starting to quickly fade to the back of your mind. You are beginning to feel like you know Store B and you can expect good service there. You go back to the main website. You see the icon to follow Store B on Twitter. You click the link and start reading Store B's latest Tweets. The very first one is a Tweet from the owner saying he will be in bright and early tomorrow at 8 am and is doing a demo on a new brand of skis that just arrived. Upon reading this Tweet you crumple Store A's directions.

Hopefully this example made it crystal clear how social media can create, support and strengthen brand loyalty on the spot. Really, social media done right is value-adding personality. If you can get your visitors to feel like they know what your company, organization or brand is all about and leave them excited and intrigued then you are going to get more people knocking on your door. Not to mention, by using social media you are able to sustain brand loyalty over time by being connected where your customers or end-users are connected.

If you don't feel like you are up to speed, we invite you to connect with FINT, a simple way to get your brand immersed in social media. Or better yet, connect with us to learn how social media can be the number one driver of loyalty for your brand.

People are already talking about you online. If they aren't yet, they will soon. We've entered an age where conversations take place online. It's important to understand that this conversation will take place whether or not you have a blog; people will post product reviews, tweet about customer service experiences, discuss your brand in forums and so on. As a business, it's beneficial to be a part of those conversations as part of your overall internet marketing strategy. By creating a blog and entering the "blogosphere" you join in the conversations and give your company a "digital voice" to promote, discuss, and perhaps defend your brand. This gives your customer a way to directly engage with your brand by allowing customers to communicate both to you and now, thanks to your blog, with you. Thus establishing a dialogue that otherwise may not have existed.

Still not convinced? A recent HubSpot study found that small businesses who blog get 55% more website visitors. This study also found that small businesses who blog receive 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages. Essentially, this means a blog increases your chances of being found by search engines. A blog's search engine optimization value alone is worth the effort.

Now let's recap. If your company has a blog you can: start (and participate in) conversations around your brand, increase your site visitors and improve your site's search engine optimization. Are you blogging yet?

If you are blogging then great! Please share your blog with us in the comments; we'd love to review it. If not then give MicroArts a call to learn more about blogosphere engagement as part of your overall internet marketing strategy or leave a comment, we'd love to hear from you.

Today someone might use Google to search for a solution your company provides and see your website content well positioned within the results. They'll click on the link and land on a landing page to learn more about how your company addresses their particular problem. But next year they might just search Facebook instead, and they'll see that a friend of a friend had a similar need for that solution and went with Company X. This will be more valuable because they can connect directly with this friend via their friend's connection and discover more about their personal experience with the company. They might also see a post on Company X's Facebook page within the results discussing this particular solution, further solidifying Company X as a solutions provider candidate.

• Radio: 38 years
• Television: 13 years
• Internet: 4 years
• iPod: 3 years

Know what online medium gets a mere 33% of consumer trust?
Not blogs
Not brand websites
Not search engine advertisements

The drum roll please ... Banner advertisements!

The only medium that consumers value less are mobile advertisements (24% of consumer trust).

Why the bad rap for banner advertisements? Like any other sort of ad, they are targeted. Any Internet marketing agency worth their weight in clients should be A/B testing the banner ads to determine best designs, best sizes and best ad placements. MicroArts has seen great success in conversion rates for our clients' banner advertisements.

Based on the chart above, brand websites earn 70% of consumer trust. This stat leads me to believe that consumers are NOT clicking on banner ads because they don't trust the destination of the ad. Sure some banner ads allow you to pitch a baseball or punch a monkey (which is of course entertaining) ... but what are you really getting yourself into? No one wants to get lost in a sea of pop-ups.

Don't waste time fooling consumers. When you fool someone into pitching a baseball, yes, you do increase your conversion rate ... but what are the odds of turning that conversion into a sale? Better yet, what is the ROI on the advertising campaign?

Clients should expect ROI on their banner ads. ROI makes everyone happy. Happy clients make us happy. In order to improve ROI on banner ads, Internet marketing agencies need to put the trust back into banner ads. Include your brand in your advertisement ... not just your logo. Your brand is the key to gaining consumer trust. A consumer will feel your brand when they see your banner advertisement and, because of that trust, they can be sure that clicking on your banner ad will take them to your trusted brand website.

Want to improve ROI on your next banner ad campaign? Give MicroArts a call.

This process of narrowing the focus of the brand into a clear, concise, tangible and differentiating concept of value is often referred to as brand strategy, others call it brand positioning but in the end it's simply what to do, where to start.

The end goal is to reach the point in time when your product equals your intended concept of value idea inside the minds of your target market. For example, all MP3 players are iPods today. Jeep, Red Bull, Xerox, Google, Facebook, Charmin and Vlassic all started by narrowing the focus of their brand into a laser beam. Jeep is the convertible 4 wheel drive. Red Bull is the energy drink. Xerox is a copy. Google is search. Facebook is social networking. Soft tissue paper is only Charmin. Vlassic is the crisp pickle. All of these brand names equal the concept of value inside their target consumer's minds and therefore own the market category itself.

To illustrate, here are a few of our client brands poised for this success:

Purple - Life's Superdrink.™
Our recommended brand strategy and supporting brand position for Purple is to leverage the mass international consumption of Superfoods. Purple. Life's Superdrink. has created a new market category within the beverage market. In the noise of energy drinks, this is differentiating and leverages a consumer trend in Superfood consumption. The brand idea of Life's Superdrink is believable, tangible and sustainable over time because the product delivers -- it actually is the healthiest drink on the planet. Now Purple = Superdrink, much like Red Bull = energy drink.

OhMiBod® - Music Vibrator®
Perhaps the hottest Apple iPod and iPhone accessory in the international market place is our client Suki LLC. Together, we coined and launched a new brand concept, a music vibrator, which is burning as hot as wildfire in 30 countries in as many months. This differentiating brand idea is recognized internationally on over 500 blogs. The brand's promise of "Feel The Music®" emotionally supports the new market category of music vibrators, which our client now and forever will own, internationally.

DoubleCheckMD.com® Your medications. Their interactions.®
Together with our brilliant client, we harness the brand strategy of this brand concept in the brand name and brand position messaging to launch an entirely new market category within destination healthcare website brands. It is a tight and comprehensive focus on your medications and their interactions in you. With over 25% of Americans on 4 or more medications, this is a valuable market category they now own.

Natural Rocks - Cocktail Ice Cubes®
Isn't all ice made for cocktails? That's what we thought when we first met the founder, a very cool guy making ice cubes from spring water. But spring water is really the feature...so what is the benefit? It's clearly a must-have ingredient for the $15 dollar single malt scotch or the perfect martini. They now own the newly formed market category of cocktail ice cubes and their year-over-year same store sales spike was too massive to utter here (you either wouldn't believe me or you'll think we're bragging). The next time you see this brand in the store, try it, you'll notice the difference ;).

Ledama Olikena
People are brands too. Ledama is running to be the next President of Kenya. He recently retained us as his agency of record to craft the communication strategy behind his beliefs for a healthy, happy and prosperous Kenya. Like product brands, Ledama is a brand. He is forming a highly focused idea inside the voter's minds. True Change. Ledama is true change for Kenyan Youth; which makes up 65% of Kenya's population.

Todi - Après Athletics Footwear
Todi Originals are what you wear to and from the locker room. It's the footwear worn by hard charging athletes in training. The Todi brand symbolizes the spirit found deep inside aggressive souls. Our go-to-market strategy carves out a market category in the footwear market, soon to be owned by the Todi brand.

If a "brand" is an idea [a concept of value idea] that your client has about your product, company or service, then "branding" is the process of forming this idea in their minds.

The process of branding an idea inside your target market's mind can be simplified into two primary communications types:

1. Your client's/customer's actual experience with your product itself
2. Your outbound marketing communications to this client/customer before, during and after the sale of the product.

The sum of these two communication types create one idea surrounding your product which ultimately defines your brand. This needs to be a planned event. The process of crafting these experiences is branding.

Review all aspects of the customer's actual experience with your product, for example:

• The user experience of the product itself
• The tactical feel of the product
• The visual appeal of the product
• Product usage instructions
• The way your customer support phone is answered and how the call is handled
• The first impression with your product, company entrance, vehicles, sales team, etc.
• The packaging, internal and external
• Timely and helpful customer service
• Hassle free warranty
• Product performance
• The purchasing experience

Essentially it is the sum of every single customer touch point they may experience with your product, including the company, service and employees. The sum of these experiences must pay off, reinforce and deliver the focused concept of value your brand aims to "be" in your customer's mind. At every possible touch point, consider a human's five senses [sight, sound, smell, taste and touch] and use this as a proactive opportunity to deliver a brand message that supports your intended concept of value.

The outbound marketing communications to your client/customer before, during and after the sale of the product need to be laser focused and deliver the brand's intended concept of value.

To deliver the intended concept of value, follow this branding process:

1. First craft your brand's concept of value into two distinct clear, concise and memorable messages; the brand tagline and the brand slogan.
   • The brand tagline captures the business you're in, your difference, and why your target market should care about your value. It provides the foundation of your communications by which all marketing programs aim to make this statement believable, tangible and valued.
   • The brand slogan typically tugs on the emotions of your market and presents itself in a punchy and memorable manner.
   Together, along with your brand name itself, this messaging combination delivers your promise of unique and superior value and positions it for intellectual consumption.


2. Next make your brand position believable and tangible to the consumer/client. These outbound communications are key to shortening the sales process. In the most basic form, this is the primary job of the brand story.
   • The brand story is a short readable document of 2-3 paragraphs which describes your company history; how your company arrived at its current position and the vision for your excellence. As such, it validates and makes believable (to your customer) your ability to deliver on the claims made in your brand tagline and brand slogan.


3. Next employ a weave of the key outbound communications which include:
   • Press coverage - When an editor says your brand value is true, it must be.
   • Blog coverage - The new voice of the American people is thriving and vital to establishing your brand position.
   • Social Media - The fastest way to phenomenal brand message believability is get a Facebook homerun. Step up to the plate. There are hundreds of social networks, be alive in the ones where your next evangelists are living.
   • Brand leadership advertising - Once your brand position is awarded a true statement in the blogosphere, social media and main stream press, it is vital to parrot that recognition in leadership advertising.
   • Web Video - demonstrations dovetailed with customer satisfaction testimonials are the classic manner to deliver a believable brand promise. Web video is the new delivery medium and is a must in today's market.
   • Self Service Webcast and Webinars are today's way to provide initial product demonstrations without the cost of sales travel and are a important step in establishing a believable and tangible value proposition.
   • Search Engine Optimization - When a customer searches your brand's concept of value, do you come up on 1st page of Google? If so, it will go a long way towards being delivering a believable message. After all, if Google thinks your brand equals that search concept, it must be true.
   • Websites and Microsites - Craft a microsite around a specific customer demographic, or specific problem environment that your brand specifically solves. If there are 14 different customer demographics and 8 different and specific problems your brand solves, you need that many microsites to communicate your brand message in a clear, concise and memorable manner that is personally-relevant to each of these buyer demographics.
   • This list, of course, goes on... you get the idea.

Once you've crafted your brand position to be intellectually consumed in a clear, concise, and memorable manner that is believable, tangible and personally-relevant to each individual target buyer demographic, then you need to make your product easily buyable.

This is our proven process, one that we stand behind. If you'd like to learn more please connect with us in the blog comments, on Twitter, on Facebook, by email or phone- or, of course, keep reading this blog.

Cockadoodle Doo [logo]
Lawn & Garden Fertilizer [name suffix]

A more aggressive repositioning statement would be:
"The Safe Alternative to Chemical Fertilizers®"

This "go for the jugular" brand strategy is a gutsy brand position because it will grab mainstream press, and go bananas through the green thumb blogosphere. This recognition ultimately positions the brand to start a new product market category within lawn and garden fertilizer therefore being the original brand in this market category. To employ this reposition statement will require deep pockets because we'd be kicking an 800-pound gorilla between the legs and will more than likely have to fight them about it—even though it's a true statement. So for now, we leverage the current brand repositioning statement, but the jugular day will come. :)

We are leveraging this brand reposition strategy for another consumer brand right now. It will ultimately reposition a billion dollar industry. I'm so excited! This brand is now locked and loaded for massive growth. I'll tell you about it once the cat is out of the bag.

• Does your partner's site complement your site?

• What reasons do people have to visit my partner's site?

• Would those people, as part of their experience on that site, be likely to follow a link back to my own site?

• Does the link relate to your site? This can be categorically, horizontally or vertically as long as an intuitive connection exists.

• Can you identify a piece of content or place on the site that your link could exist as part of it and make sense/add value to the user experience?

• Is the site professional and would you like to be associated with it?
• Is the site credible and doesn't practice any black-hat or malicious SEO strategies and tactics?

• We get a relevant traffic flow of potential prospects, who have already seen our work and are interested to learn more.

• Search engines naturally recognize these links and assign us higher ranking on results pages

• We can ask our partners to change terms and tweak terms within each descriptive link as we evolve, our work evolves and search engines evolve. This flexibility provides a great way to test certain relevant link descriptions within different spaces to see what works best.

Offer free, personally-relevant content to your brand's potential customers on the web.

1. What business is your brand in?
   
2. What makes your brand obviously different?
   
3. Why should your target customer give a shit about this difference? In other words, what superior value does your brand's difference enable it to deliver?
   
4. Does your target customer value this superior value most? Second most? For example, does this superior value intrinsically position your brand to "own" 3rd place or enjoy a 1st place ranking in its category?
   
5. Is this difference sustainable? What are you doing today, as a company, to insure this difference is protected, advancing and sustainable next year and in years to come?
   
6. What competitor can threaten the value of your difference? What is their strategic creative based on? [Apply steps 1-5 to their brand].
   
7. What idea is this competitive brand trying to own in your target customer's mind?
   
8. What is this competitive brand's Achilles heel?
   

If the creative concept captures this foundation at its core and communicates it in a clear, concise, enticing and memorable way, I'd consider it strategic creative. More importantly, you are probably on your way to positioning your brand to be a cash farm for your shareholders.

- Peter pgetman@microarts.com

PS: Don't let fancy-pants creative types present any ideas that don't address these strategic drivers. If it's really good creative, you may be enticed to launch it even though it doesn't perfectly pay off these strategic drivers. Besides, the world is filled with enough really cool creative that doesn't sell anything.

• Clear
• Concise
• Memorable
• Spell-able
• Likeable
• Phonically Appealing
• Extendable
• Global
• Protect-able
• Obviously Unique
• It must be 13 characters or less and no more than 3 syllables. Otherwise it will be phonically shortened when the brand name is uttered, which will literally shorten the name when written. For example: International Business Machines became IBM. What do the letters in the acronyms CNBC TV and CNC Bank stand for and how is that valuable to me? Now FOX TV on the other hand, says "clever TV" and in some cases it says sexy TV [Foxy] to me and thus starts to form an image in my head.