Membership Sites for Associations
April 27, 2010 by Doug Mitchell · 1 Comment
Here’s how a conversation just went between me and a colleague:
ME – “Hey you know a content rich membership site is perfect for Associations that want to educate, bring more value, and drive engagement between members don’t you think?”
HIM – “Yeah but you know, Associations are still hanging onto the walled garden/newspaper model of having full control, owning the infrastructure, owning the content, and doing it all themselves.”
ME- “I do, but I believe more Associations are understanding that trying to build out and monopolize ‘unique’ content while maintaining website infrastructure that is expensive and outdated is not their core business model and counterintuitive to what an association should do in most cases.”
HIM – “I hope you’re right. Let’s find an Association willing to inject immediate value for its members by leveraging a membership site that has a huge stream of content covering small business issues, Internet Marketing, social media, networking, and branding.”
So am I right? Are you the association? Do we just not get it?
Do Amazing Products and Organic Growth Give a Business a Free Pass with Interactive Marketing?
April 26, 2010 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment
I just spent this last weekend attending Dark Lord Day at the 3 Floyds Brewery in Munster, IN. Before you get weirded out, Dark Lord is a Russian Imperial Stout variety of beer that they release on one day…and one day only per year. This festival started humbly but has grown out of control and the estimated crowd for this Saturday was 8,000 people. Mind you the brewery itself is in a light industrial area and has a postage stamp parking lot. So what drives so many enthusiasts out to share and enjoy amazing beer and festivities…and wait in line for hours to get 8 bottles (max per person) of this $15 elixir? It’s the quality of product in their niche market of course. But here’s the thing:
- 3 Floyds has a website and it’s informative but they don’t interact much with it…ie lack of blogging, etc.
- 3 Floyds is on Twitter but I’ve tried to engage and they just seem to use it here or there as an announcement tool.
- 3 Floyds seems on the surface to have a “our beer does the talking for us” approach…and I can say it works.
So is 3 Floyds making a mistake but not engaging their fans and audience in the social sphere? They are absolutely killing it with sales, loyalty, and mystique growth without the added interactive marketing tools. My guess is that they will keep on growing this way for quite some time and not really ever answer my tweets and I’ll keep going there and buying their stuff and evangelizing. Seems counterintuitive eh?
Is the Economy Turning Around?
March 12, 2010 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment
More small and medium sized companies are proactively contacting us and looking to become findable and engaging online through effective web marketing strategies. So is the economy turning around…or is the realization that Marketing online is not an option anymore? I believe it’s the later.
In Iowa we lag behind the national trends which means that we’ve probably not seen the worst of what’s coming. But the message here is that businesses who spend smart marketing dollars today will reap massive benefits when things do turn around and growth starts again. Spend smart. Use the technology tools available to your business to reach out and engage your markets (and find some you never considered). If you need help…pay for it.
New Media Marketing – It’s Still Rock n Roll To Me
January 22, 2010 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment
Over the last year we’ve seen an explosion of “social media coaches” on the scene. I think that’s great. While the approach of “teaching new media” to key players can work…what’s more critical now is that we’re getting “back to the future” of more holistic marketing guidance.
So many companies are behind on their marketing period. They’re still spending money on banner ads and magazine ads in the name of “branding”. We work with a company that has found an entirely “new” budget for marketing after some simple analytics performed on their current web marketing presence. How many people are actually converting? Bupkis. OK let’s stop doing that. Done. New budget.
So what’s needed out there is a complete marketing plan look. Define what tools might supercharge and accelerate marketing efforts. Then deploy the tools and the revised plan. If the comprehensive approach isn’t taken, a company may still see great results. But too often we see the “bolt on of social media” approach that brings lots of new eyeballs and “relationships”…without ever closing the deal.
So there is no “social media” or “new media” to me anymore…there’s simply marketing and whether you’re being effective…or not. New Media Marketing is still rock and roll to me.
Immigrant Entrepreneur Summit Drake University
November 14, 2009 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment
I had the pleasure today of speaking at the Immigrant Entrepreneur Summit at Drake University. It was a powerful day filled with the entrepreneurial spirit and rugged individualism that makes this country great.
I connected again with the conference organize Ying Sa and her magical company Community CPA that is the driving force and creative vision behind IES.
I also got to connect with Igor Dobrosavljevic and his smart girlfriend (she attended my session 
Suzana. I finally met Justin Volrath too. There was ample opportunity to chat Lori Bosley too from Mojo’s (you have to have their fish tacos!) and Foxboro Business Center. Toni Lampley was here too among others from NAWBO Central Iowa that I met recently when I spoke to their group.
So the bottom line is that I spent the day absorbing the power and spirit of Central Iowa’s rich immigrant community and participating in the awesome collision of the ON and OFFLINE worlds. What a day! I hope I can come back again next year and have stories to tell about how many immigrant entrepreneurs we guided into online findability bliss. Thanks so much for asking me to participate. Videos below. It seems the recordings broke into 2 pieces on their own. Sorry for the quality and the walking off camera…I just set up the Mac book on a whim to provide a record of this talk for my guests. No paper!
Cheers
What I learned most from 6 Sigma Training and Social Media Immersion
October 12, 2009 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment
- Image via Wikipedia
When I got done with my 6 Sigma Black Belt training the question looming in the back of my brain was, “Why did we only spend about 1 day of 20 talking about change management and the corporate culture aspects of deploying 6 sigma as a business tool?” My gut told me that culture and inertia are the hardest things to overcome. So here we were handed a new tool kit but but only 1/20th of our training was spent explaining how to beat the house odds.
So it goes in the land of social media or new media engagement tools. So many “experts” and coaches engage clients and give them the tools…while the client says, “Just give this stuff to Jennie in Marketing…she just graduated and is in tune with “The Facebook” and that “Tweeter”. Not good.
While there is no perfect formula and I don’t advocate the “Wait until all conditions are perfect before deploying” model…I do think it’s wise to work with your client to assess and plan for the inevitable difficulty of who will drive these new marketing avenues when the cool factor declines. Are you embracing these tools as a key part of strategy or simply doing it ‘because’? Are you looking for clear and measurable results? Or…are you just dipping your toes in the water to if your strategy will reveal itself? I don’t think any of these strategies are wrong. But, they all depend on the most change resistant element in the mix…the human.
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It’s been a pretty amazing week around the create WOW media studio at Impromptu Studio
January 30, 2009 by Doug Mitchell · Leave a Comment
Our team, fearlessly made to look superlative by Media Maestro Paul “I love live radio” Gratton, has transitioned from assisting in the recording/streaming of the podcast I do weekly with Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web……to doing a live streaming show with up to 5 guests.
Did I mention that show is Macs World Live and it’s done DAILY from 2-4PM Central Time. Yes. Impromptu Studio where we’ve carved out our little piece of audio and video studio heaven is now teaming with additional life. It’s kind of like we chummed the water and a school of hungry entrepreneurs and innovators caught the scent and are now voraciously devouring the red meat.
Ready to expand Captain Dan?
We’re also working on a weekly Iowa based business show that will take “radio” to a level you’ve never seen. The show will stream live each week and will have new elements of follow up and extension that are going to have an measurable impact on businesses in the Des Moines metro. I can see this show concept being picked up in every market around the United States where entrepreneurs, online marketing and media folks, and business experts collide with a BIG BANG that drives success.
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2009 is off and running
January 5, 2009 by Doug Mitchell · 1 Comment
There are so many great things in the works for 2009 that I’m having trouble sleeping. This morning started at about 3AM and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned for some important new branches growing on the createWOWmedia marketing tree.
Thanks again to all of our superlative clients and partners in our marvelously explosive field.
Also coming soon, “Increasing Your Internet Findability Factor” paper.
If you’d like to be on “the list”, simply add your name and email below by the comment box and you’re in. Until then….
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Doug Mitchell has a new job title at create WOW media: Marketing Technopologist
December 19, 2008 by Doug Mitchell · 1 Comment
There’s a great piece on the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) called “The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World”. While much of the article shares some pretty common themes over the last few years (in our circles at least), I was floored by the next to the last paragraph. The article recommends that businesses find and hire a:
marketing technopologist
I’ll let a quote from the piece explain:
So who should direct a company’s forays into Web 2.0 marketing? A number of managers identified an ideal set of skills for an executive that go beyond those of a typical M.B.A. holder or tech expert. We coined the term marketing technopologist for a person who brings together strengths in marketing, technology and social interaction. A manager said, “I’d want to see someone with the usual M.B.A. consultant’s background, strong interest in psychology and sociology, and good social-networking skills throughout the organization.”
I’m pretty sure this is what I do every day.
Hi I’m Doug and I’m a Marketing Technopologist.
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Doing less with more in 2009
December 17, 2008 by Doug Mitchell · 5 Comments
We talk quite a bit about doing more with less. Our clients and potential clients are seeking higher return on investment, measurability, and increased Internet Findability. Online marketing/blogging/video provides all of these in one nicely wrapped package.
B2B Magazine just had a feature outlining some goals/strategies/deliverables they believe will be key for companies in 2009. It’s a great read. We especially like 2nd and 7th topics on the list.
Leveraging social marketing
However you define social marketing, this piece is critical. Start with a blogging foundation and build your social marketing strategy around that. Maybe for you Twitter and Facebook are where you need to be. Focus your efforts and get to providing value to the market. Join the conversation.
Video explosion
We couldn’t agree more. As Google begins to integrate video results into “normal search results” you want to be there! When someone searches on “Plumber Des Moines” and there’s a nicely produced video showing what it’s really like to do business with you, your odds just went up.
Let the other guys spend their money being a bigger part of that monstrosity that killed a bunch of trees and gathers dust we used to call a phone book.
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