I get asked what it’s like to work with my mom, the boss of Front Porch Marketing, Chief Rocker Julie Porter. Well, let me tell you. It’s a lot harder than you would expect. Why? Because she expects so much more out of me and she knows that I’m capable of doing almost anything and everything.

Is work easier when your mom is the boss?

A lot of people usually say “oh she definitely lets you slack off” or “oh I bet it’s so easy”, but they couldn’t be more wrong. It adds a lot of pressure on me when I do work for my mom’s company, because I want to do my absolute best in order to impress my mom. I want to live up to her expectations of me. But, it is also very comforting to know that my mom is the boss and CEO. 

The boss always has your back

While she is always challenging and expecting the most out of me I know that she will always have my back and be the most understanding when it comes to work. No matter what, there will always be someone in my corner. She also tends to have a great support system.

She surrounds herself with the very best team members which makes my situation a lot more comforting. Seeing her support all of her employees, and create a successful remote working environment makes it a lot easier and more fun for me to do work for her, and the other Front Porch Marketing team members. I don’t say it a lot but when it comes to working with and for her sometimes, I can be a little excited. While she has taught me a lot about marketing, she’s also taught me about running a business. Because she is good at this.

Takeaways from a summer internship with a parent

All in all, this summer has been great so far and it has been a pleasure to heighten my business relationship with my mother. I’ve learned so much from my mom the boss, that I can apply to college and my future job endeavors. I owe it all to her and I love her so much. Thanks mom!

Marketing items to high schoolers is very different than other age groups. High school means freedom. This includes the ability to get a job, drive, and buy things without asking parents.

Social Media

As the first generation born into technology, Gen Z has grown up with the internet. For high school students in particular, social media surrounds our daily lives, making it easy to access new products and reviews faster. When targeting a high school audience, the first thing you will want to do is create a social media presence, especially on Instagram and Tik Tok.

Marketing to High Schoolers with Trends

For products such as clothing or make up, it is important to follow trends. Stay up to date on the latest styles and aesthetics. In typical high school manner, everyone wants to fit in, this means providing products similar to the current high school style. In regard to social media, creating content that follows popular trends will increase the chances of your product being seen. For Tik Tok, use popular sounds with a unique idea, making the Tik Tok more likely to get on the for you page.

Accessibility and Inclusivity

High schoolers are cheap! Most income comes from a minimum wage job or allowance from parents. The price of a product can immediately deter consumers, especially if is not a well-known name brand. Make sure the price is reasonable for the product. It is also important to make products inclusive to all ethnicities, body types, and genders. Exclusion can create bad reviews and overall dislike for a company.

Visuals

Once the consumer has clicked on the website, visual organization is a key part of reliability and user attention span. As someone who frequently purchases products from Instagram or Tik Tok, the first thing I notice is the website’s aesthetic. If a website looks low quality, chances are the product is also low quality. By using attention grabbing visuals and colors, while also maintaining the clean look, users will trust the product more.  Secondly, in a world of 15 second Tik Toks, the average attention span is much shorter. When websites are difficult to navigate, most users will simply give up. By making products easy to find through a search bar or navigation tabs, people are more likely to stay on the site.

When Marketing to High Schoolers, Think Like One

Overall, when marketing to a younger audience, it is important to think like a high schooler. What you may like or dislike, could be completely different because high school is its own world. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I see a product that would be amazing if one little thing was changed, such as a childish image or an older print. Step outside of your world and think like you are 17 again!

The 2020’s Have Been Tough

The beginning of this decade has been a tough one. No one expected a pandemic in the 21st century. At least not one that would impact the way we live, learn, and conduct business. Covid-19 has forced humanity to adapt to the era of online learning, and remote work. Now that we have all had a taste for what its like to work at home I don’t think we’re going back to the office anytime soon. Or at least not back to full time positions in an office. In 2021 America experienced a momentous event: everyone started to quit their jobs. Journalists have called this “The Great Resignation”.

Following this, major companies in marketing and other knowledge industries like HubSpot, Twitter, Airbnb, and Microsoft announced that they’re switching to going fully remote or remote/hybrid. Due to this transition, more companies have started to look towards future advances in a new era of work. What comes next? The Metaverse.

What is the Metaverse?

So what is the Metaverse? The Metaverse is a virtual 3D world that can be accessed by using either a VR headset or through a computer. Its goal is to create a world that is more layered and connected than the internet. It will allow users to create their own avatars and converse with one another, making remote projects significantly more efficient.

What Might Business in the Metaverse Look Like?

So how does this effect businesses like marketing? Well, to start off, one of the many challenges in working from home is communication. It takes a very well structured team with consistent communication and clear goals to make remote work flow efficiently. The Metaverse would only help this work style. It would allow for more open communication and allow people to separate their home life from their work life.

Often times people blend their work life with their home life when they work remotely, and this would solve this problem. You would simply say good bye to your coworkers once work is done in this virtual world, and log off. You would no longer have this distance problem. And be able to have more effective collaboration while you’re there. Just imagine everyone having a shared virtual space where you can freely move around. It could be the future of remote brainstorming sessions.

A Cheaper Alternative

Business might want to shift towards implementing the Metaverse, because in the end it’s going to save them money. There would be no need to pay office rent anymore. No need to fly employees out to meet clients in other countries and rent them hotels. This gives smaller businesses a chance to do business with clients overseas. In a way, it could even the playing field to meet in a virtual world.

Having a Metaverse office might also allow companies to save time on trainings. With this new technology managers will be able to train new employees at a much faster rate. Instead of just sending them a standard pdf of the tasks they need to complete, they could jump into a virtual simulation that has been specifically designed and tested to maximize their efficiency. The possibilities are endless.

Is the Metaverse a Necessary Change?

It may seem like a sudden and drastic change, but that’s what life has been like these last two years. And as humans, we continue to adapt to all of these sudden changes. I think the way we look at work — at least in the corporate setting —has forever changed since 2020. “The Great Resignation” is proof of it. It may take awhile for companies to change, but I believe there is no going back to fully in-person at the office in the future. I think you could compare this time period to a time in history when we stop using horses and started driving cars. It was a sudden drastic change that the world was not expecting, but over time it just became the new normal. You can either adapt and stay up with the times and join your colleagues in the Metaverse, or stay behind. There’s no moving backward now.

Marketing leaders, what are you doing to nurture relationships with your customers?

Consistency and connection nurture relationships. Sure, loyalty and points programs are tactics that bring brands and customers closer together.

But genuine allegiance is an outcome.

A recent conversation with a marketing leader provided inspiration. This marketing leader has had some challenges. But realized the value of marketing.

The company had cut the marketing budget. All the momentum that person built was put to a halt. And then the company brought in a consultant. First, he asked her what was happening on the marketing front. To which she replied, “Nothing.’ And, obviously he was shocked.

How to foster genuine relationships.

Business leaders do these four things:

1. Conviction – Know the brand. Marketing leaders walk the talk. And they demonstrate it every touchpoint. Then, clients and their customers can see it and feel it.
2. Consistency – Do you have a message map for your client? Share the value proposition of the brands you work on, on every platform, consistently.
3. Communication – Know your audience. Then recognize: how do they want to communicate? It isn’t about you. It is about what works for them. Marketing leaders will recognize this and pivot messaging to solve clients’ problems in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the client.
4. Connection – If there is consistency communicating the message, then the connection will happen. But as a marketing leader, how do you deepen the ties with your client and their customers?
   • Weekly meetings with clients
   • Weekly catch-up calls on both status of projects, and how pain points with consumers are being addressed
   • Notes on special days to recognize achievements
   • Boundaries set on both sides, so that both marketing and client are set up to succeed

Marketing leadership: Take inspiration. Deepen connections. Accelerate growth.

We love to partner with smart leaders who value marketing. And, if we can help, let’s talk about mutual partnership to grow top line sales.

Recent readings over Spring and Easter Breaks provided four great reminders for me as a business leader. And I hope they do the same for y’all too.

For those of you who do not know, one half of my heart – my son – attends Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, right outside Orlando.

We stayed at one of my favorite beaches over Easter, New Smyrna Beach, which is a hour drive from my “son~shine.” And, where I purchased a beach condo, aka short-term rental investment property, earlier this year. It is affectionately deemed the “money pit.” But that is a blog for another day. I digress.

Reminder One: Be a GD Cheetah

A beach read was Glennon Doyle’s Untamed. She shares a visit to the zoo and the Cheetah Run. The cheetah, Tabitha, is tamed. She performs on queue.

A little girl asked, “Doesn’t she miss the wild?”

Zookeeper comes back with a BS answer.

Doyle writes that Tabitha would sigh and say, “I should be grateful. I have a good enough life here. It is crazy to long for what does not even exist.”

“I’d say: Tabitha. You are not crazy. You are a GD cheetah.”

That had such a profound effect on me. I later cried as I read the excerpt aloud to my daughter. Without the GD, of course. And I asked her to promise me to always be herself. To be a cheetah.

Reminder Two: Finding Leverage

Not as an emotional experience for me, but profound none the less. Reading the latest issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Time is our inventory.

An article by Adam Bornstein explores business growth by not necessarily adding more people. Rather, exploring this. “Smart growth is not about spending more time, nor is it about maxing out your time. It is about finding leverage.”

Reminder Three: Damn the Sycophants

I cannot remember what the article was about. It was the word. The word I had to look up.

I was reminded, although sometimes painful, I treasure those around me who are not this.

Surround yourself with talented people. Those who are smarter than you. Formidable team members push back. They may not think like you. But they make the organization better. These folks fill in for your short falls.

Reminder Four: Being Too Efficient

In a past life, I was ultra-organized. I am a Franklin Covey Planner Training Course graduate for heaven’s sake. Organized all the things in my office and life.

Then, I started Front Porch Marketing. And, had my second child at an “advanced maternal age.”

Words quoted from Edward Tenner in another Entrepreneur Magazine article spoke to me. In summary, big business always has the advantage. However, entrepreneurs combine technology with connection to people. Something big companies cannot do.

Jason Feifer, author of the article, cited Blockbuster and Netflix as an example. Early in my career collaborating with folks at Blockbuster and Viacom shaped me into who I am today. And I am eternally grateful for those experiences. I saw how they tried to evolve. As well as saw what was attempted and did not happen. These learnings were invaluable.

So I hope these four reminders for business that I learned this spring will resonate with you too!

Are you assessing your brand right how? Recently I was invited to sit in on a brainstorming meeting about marketing and growth. Here I was able to pick up some powerful marketing tools needed for growth. These tools may be applied both for personal and business growth.

Assessing Your Brand: Assets

In growth, we learn powerful information. So look at and determine your growth, and the path you took to get there. Assess the road your brand has taken – whether it’s a personal or business brand. Revisit where you have been and decide where you’re headed. Assess your brand’s strengths and weaknesses by asking yourself these questions.

• Present your strengths and weakness so that you stand out, sell your brand.
• What is new with you? Determine what you have learned and how it matters.
• Why does your business exist?
• Who are previous clients and why did they hire you?
• Evaluate your goals: where do you see yourself long/short term?

Target Audience Evaluation

Your target audience are the people you want to work with, your customers and potential customers. The internet provides resources to reach your target via platforms such as blogs, newsletters, social media, and alumni groups. Use these resources to be present for your customers, and assess your brand’s voice on these platforms.

• Who are you targeting? Who’s the decision maker that could benefit from your expertise?
• What are the hot topics? What’s trending in your brand’s space?
• Protip: Subscribe to platforms that your target audience subscribes to.
• Listen to your customers. Assess what they are talking about, and their relevance to your brand.
• Protip: Participate on sites that interest you, this is a great networking tool for finding like-minds.
• Become like your target, interact with their “friends” socially to really get to know them.

The Social Media Impact

Social media is more than a picture sharing platform, it is great for networking. Use social media platforms such as LinkedIn to learn about and follow clients to implement current trends.

• Use social media to introduce your brand to your potential customers, potential employers, and to your peers.
• Seek out and become a “friend” to past clients as well as their friends, and network with them, sharing your expertise.
• Your LinkedIn page should mirror the career for which you are aiming. Find websites dedicated to that career and subscribe to them. This will allow you to network and stay on top of any current or future possibilities. Brag about yourself on your profile, be proud and loud.

Plan and Grow Your Brand

Planning is the most important step one can do to get to the next level. So, plan, plan and keep planning. Brainstorm with colleagues and staff about ways to grow your personal brand and/or your business’ brand. Gather, analyze and leverage data, creating a message map of the recurring themes that you see. Really think about: what is your end game – a job, a career, an entrepreneurship? Evaluate and understand what you will need to get there by assessing your brand. Update your skills, explore what’s new and current. Investing in yourself is important to your brand’s growth.

Are you ready to spring clean your brand for 2022?

Spring is in the air! As much as we need to enjoy this time and “smell the roses” it’s time to go through your media channels and update them. Use the idea of spring cleaning on your brand and your company’s media assets to help you stay relevant with what’s going on in terms of design, copy, content, PR and media to be competitive in today’s marketplace. Maybe its time for a marketing audit?

Could your logo use updating?

Let’s first start with your logo. Is it still relevant? Does it convey what your company stands for and the products/services you provide? Maybe it doesn’t necessarily need to change, it just might need an update. Use these questions as more of a checklist, and think about your logo against the backdrop of your company’s competitors’ logos. Sometimes business have had the same logo for decades and it works, but sometimes it does not. What these companies often do is simplify their logo, and clean up the look of it to make it feel more modern.

Is your social media talking to the right people in the right way?

Try a spring cleaning social audit:

It’s time to get your hands dirty and do some data analysis – spring clean your social media. Take a look at the insights/analytics offered on each of your social media platforms to find out better times to post. See what content you have posted in the past that got the most likes and comments, and then do more of that. Long-term, you can record your followers and likes in an excel sheet or Google sheet, to track changes from month to month. Or you can subscribe to a scheduling app like Buffer or Hootsuite to post your social media. Those types of platforms have great analytics to track your engagement over time.

Then do a competitive analysis:

Hello Neighbor! Your social media be doing well and be on track, but it’s important that you see what your competitors are up to as well. Pablo Picasso once said “good artists copy, great artist steal.” Now don’t take this advice literally, but don’t be afraid to adopt similar strategies that other companies in your industry are doing. It’s a great place to start. Work smarter not harder. Start with something that works in your industry, make it your own, and then improve on it.

Brush the cobwebs off your website.

Your website is your company’s home. This is probably the most important place to focus your spring cleaning because this where you want your clients to go – again and again. Since this is your brand’s home, how good is your homepage? Make sure you have quality imagery, an engaging font, and text that flows well when read.

It’s important to consider not only how your website looks, but also how it works. Is it easy to navigate your website? Does your website answer the questions that people would ask about your product or service? You might also consider adding Google Analytics code to your website so that you can study your site visits. Where do visitors come from? What pages do they read? How long are they staying on your site? This information can help you continue to build a better and better website over time.

Conclusion:

It’s important to stay up to date with your brand’s image online and this spring is the perfect time to do it. Get your spring cleaning done sooner than later, and welcome your customers and fans into your remodeled “house” the rest of the year!

AHA Moments are happening again!

AHAs and WHOAs. When the way the world of work is done shifts, like it did Q1 of 2022, you can expect a little bit of both. Our annual team kick off meeting this year was an AHA for us! Unfortunately, not everyone could make it. But it was the first time for us to meet two team members in person. They had joined us in 2021, but we had not all met in person yet. Such a great AHA moment!

We were also so excited to be onsite with our client last week. Their manufacturing facility inspires. Yes, we creative individuals love being in this environment because we can have lots of AHA moments together. Then, some of us go into a cave for a few hours after to recharge, taking all that inspiration with us to create. That meeting was the first time we met our client of several months in person vs via a screen. We hugged, natch.

WHOA, I’m not sure I’m ready for this.

In a catch-up lunch, Friday, a longtime advocate of ours was very anxious. And he admitted, he’s a bit angry. He starts international business travel again full throttle this week. He liked his pandemic routine. WHOA. We all kind of got used that didn’t we?

Another client of ours brought us on board recently. Their team is overstretched all the way around. Trade shows and conference are back now in person, and that adds a lot of extra marketing work to their plate. What’s extra hard for them right now is the fact that some of their clients are demanding online events as well. So, WHOA, they are now doing double the work.

We’ve been virtually ready for this for years.

Between all the client AHAs and WHOAs, it’s easy for us to just keep rollin’. Eleven years ago this month, we were founded on a virtual model. So, not much changed for us workstyle wise over the past two years. The rest of the world finally realized what a great model remote work is, and caught up to us!

Now the “Hybrid” work is emerging. Hybrid offices practice some time in the office and some time remote. According to U.S. News & World Report, the younger generations love the hybrid idea. But, they also love the connection of the face-to-face model. The older generation, who were the yuppies of the ‘80s, working 70 hours a week, now prefer not to be in the office all the time. And everyone seems to still be moving forward, getting things done. So remote and hybrid models are making more sense to a lot of workers.

Different work styles can work together.

Whatever style you or your team members or clients chose, be kind and carry on. You CAN work together! Remember professionals of all industries and levels are going through AHAs and WHOAs of their own as 2022 progresses. It may take some people time to settle in to their optimum work style, and make it work for their family, their team, and their company.

How to make working together easier.

When you’re working together, the key to a successful partner relationship between an agency and an in-house marketing client is articulating goals on both sides. What does the in-house marketing director want out of the partnership? What role(s) will the agency fill? And for those on the agency side: what is the expertise that you are offering and how will it fit into the work and process of the in-house marketing department. Ultimately, what common goal is everyone working toward?

3 traits of a successful in-house marketing director (when working with an agency):

1. Treat the agency like a partner. Be available. Share the wins and the losses. Exchange information and best practices. Work united toward a common goal.
2. Let people do their job. It has been said many times – surround yourself with smart people and let them do their jobs. This is very true when working with an agency. You, as the in-house marketing director, know your brand better than anyone. But the agency will have deep knowledge in how to market your brand to the right people, at the right time, and in the right place. Take advantage of this expertise.
3. Be clear, concise and direct. Communication is key to a great in-house/agency working relationship. Having clear goals and being able give good feedback will make the process of creating great work run smoother.

3 traits of a successful agency (when working with an in-house client):

1. Be transparent. Give real world examples with data and KPI results to show that you know how to do this work successfully. Show and tell your successes that relate to your new client’s business to increase their confidence in your expertise.
2. Flatten your organization when it comes to direct contact. Allow clients to be able to communicate directly with different members of your team if they need an opinion on a specific matter. Shielding most of your agency from the client and running everything through gate-keeping account service people prevents deeper brand knowledge and deeper connections.
3. Prepare to collaborate. Including your client in the creative process will not only make the working relationship work better, the client will have the opportunity to “own” the idea with you. Then, you’ll have no better champion for your idea than your client as it moves up the C-Suite approval chain.

Growing your partnership and working together – in-house and agency – requires determination. First, be determined to recognize the value of the people that you are working with. And then, be steadfast in your determination to succeed together.

It’s time to go PTO!

It’s spring break week for most of the team on The Porch. For those of us with school-age kids, it is a time to break away from the daily routine and rigor. The memories of Spring Break 2020 linger, so it makes us more conscious to take a break — whatever that looks like. Staying home, road-trippin’, or flying away. Our kids need it, parents need it, employees need it.

There are many benefits of breaking from routine to go PTO. Here’s our top five:

1. Happy Teams. Breaks are happiness, happy teams create better, more creative solutions
2. Making Memories. Sharing stories is a porch favorite and vacations create the perfect environment to fill our story cup.
3. Improved well-being. According to a Gallup study those who “always make time for regular trips” scored 18 points higher on a well-being survey than the group that does not take a break frequently. The regular trip group had fewer physical complaints, improved quality of sleep, and were in a better mood compared to before vacation.
4. Brain Tune-up. Taking time off can be like getting a tune-up for the brain, improving your mental health and cognition.
5. Work Life Balance. Team members with balanced work-life are more efficient in completing assignments and less susceptible to stress. Helps with burnout, unexpected or unscheduled absences and employee engagement.

Take PTO or vacation if you can

There are so many benefits of taking time to recharge and reconnect. When you take time away from the stresses of the daily grind, it can improve your physical and mental health, motivation, relationships, job performance, and perspective. A vacation can help you feel refreshed and more equipped to handle whatever comes when you return. If you are on break this week, have a wonderful escape, if not, plan and take your next PTO.