Digital Summit Dallas

This week, our team had the opportunity to attend the Dallas Digital Summit, the region’s largest digital gathering, to re-enforce our digital insight strong hold.

Attendees were from a diverse range of organizations including national brands, agencies, technology, media, B2B providers, associations, nonprofits and start-ups. 

The conference was two days of jammed pack information all things digital insight ~ from SEO, email, mobile, social, analytics to cross-channel campaigns, trends and overall digital strategies.

Here’s the top 10 take-ways the team will be rockin’ on the porch in 2015:
1)   It is Search Everything Optimization not Search Engine Optimization
2)   Local SEO is absolutely vital for any business with a physical location
3)   Everyone wants their emails to be meaningful! Change your email strategy and get it opened
4)   Social media is not elective any more
5)   Employees can be the biggest brand ambassadors
6)   Create a behavioral statement to compliment your mission and vision
7)   Watch your inauthentic dislikers ~ it’s ok to ask why they don’t love you anymore
8)   2015 trend watch: more video, more spend on social
9)   Make it pervasive, participatory, personalized and prescriptive
10) Wheel and Spoke – Cross Channel is essential

Need to get started on your 2015 digital plan? Let’s get together on the porch and rock it out.

Multitasking ~ The concept is fantastic. The temptation to work on multiple things at once is great. We all have many demands on our very finite productive time which battle with the seemingly endless list of things to do both at work and at home.

However, it turns out that multitasking is not the most efficient way to work. In fact, many tasks done simultaneously are not as well done, take longer and are more likely to have errors. According to Travis Bradberry in a recent article in Forbes, multitasking can not only be ineffective, but can cause damage to your career and ultimately your brain. Research done at Stanford University found that, “those who multitask a lot and actually feel it boosts their performance, were worse at multitasking than those who like to do a single thing at a time.”

Apparently our brains prefer a single focus.

But … there is a time and place for everything. There is one area where multitasking is not only desirable, but essential. Marketing. It’s critical to have each initiative working as hard as it can simultaneously to intrigue and motivate the consumer to engage. Creative advertising campaigns, artfully crafted messages and carefully chosen images should be designed to make the most of every platform they reach by optimizing key search words. When done well, the consumer will willingly follow, much like Alice trailing the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole and an enticing new world. Your world.

Lead consumers to your world with an effective marketing program. Once they have landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole and are again faced with the realities of looming deadlines and gnawing to do lists, they will agree that the distraction was worth the trip.

I made it! Surgery went great.

Here’s my favorite things from my latest adventure:
1) The anesthesiologist came with her tray of champagne, her words, it really was tequila shots. Lights out quicker than I could say “see ya later.”
2) The day before surgery I received a pedicure … day of Pete, my husband, had to remove my new polish. They check for circulation through your toes. Now you know.
3) The people that surrounded me, picked me up, covered me in kindness and took care of my family and me during this time. I have so much gratitude!

Recovery is progressing as planned ~ slowly. Meaning I have spent a lot of time in my recliner … A. LOT. of. TIME.

For many entrepreneurs, their business is their life. Life can teach us lessons about business. In my experience, most business owners are firefighters. They like solving problems and typically get a rush from fixing things! There usually is a small or raging fire that gets their complete attention, from equipment, accounting, staffing, inventory or sales, and rightfully so, if they don’t put out the fire, who will?

I was at a dinner party two weeks ago. It was exciting to get out of the house for an adult evening. Someone asked me {kindly} what exactly I was doing with all my time. Lots of computer time, social media, reading and a whole lot of being still.

Folks, I am here to tell you. After staying in the same spot for a while, you start to notice things. Little things like dust under the TV stand and big things like schedules, strategies, systems and relationships.

In the stillness. In the quiet. A new perspective emerged.

What an interesting idea for business leaders and owners. How often do we sit still? How often do we take the time to seek new perspective? Fresh perspective can come from new employees, new business partners, customers, but it also needs to come from you. The person who lives and breathes the business. The business that is your life. Imagine the possibilities. Take the time to be still and see things differently.

Personally, I can’t wait to get off the bench and start applying a fresh, new perspective.

Chances are your business is using content marketing as part of your overall marketing plan. The objective of content marketing is to deliver valuable information that will engage your audience. Consumers are tuning out the more intrusive marketing tactics. What they really want is great, customer-focused information that helps them make a decision or solve a problem. That’s what content marketing delivers.

I actually like The Content Marketing Institute’s definition of content marketing the best: “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

So when it comes to content marketing, as a marketing professional, your job is to create and share valuable, free content to attract and convert prospective buyers into customers and engage existing customers so they are repeat buyers. The content you create and share should be closely related to what you sell without selling.

The purpose is to build relationships, awareness, branding and overall establish your company as an expert in your industry. You want to educate people and gain their trust so they do business with you.

There are many types of content that form a content marketing strategy including:

• Blogging
• Guest blog posts
• Social media posts and sharing
• Email marketing
• Infographics
• PowerPoint presentations
• Podcasts
• Standard videos
• Micro-videos (i.e. Vine)
• Public Speaking
• Webinars
• Articles

It’s up to you to know what is the best way for your brand to reach those potential and current customers. Just remember the power of great content marketing can make a person stop, read, think and behave differently. The return on investment for content marketing can be huge if executed correctly. And, it really doesn’t take a significant investment!

Last week’s game in which the St. Louis Rams special teams faked the punt against the Seattle Seahawks to help win the game, highlights the strategic importance of specialization, and believe it or not this type of strategy can be applied to teams in the workplace.

Special teams are some of the most overlooked in football. They can however, make the difference in controlling the game. Their moving the advantage up and down the field can lead to the big win. They are specialized and trained in their purpose. Whether punting the ball deep, keeping the opponent in a poor field position or making those final, last second field goals – they do something that the rest of the team cannot.

What makes special teams special? Practice, training, more practice, more training.

In this age of Do it Yourself (DYI), technology provides instruction on pretty much anything. Google has become the “go to” for immediate answers on how to accomplish an unknown task. No longer do we have to slog through piles of research. We can learn anything from how to reupholster a chair, how to tweet or learn how to sharpen our Excel skills. It’s great to be able to have access to this wealth of knowledge. But it does not guarantee the level of proficiency that only time, focus and mentoring can provide.

In order to create a winning strategy, become a leader and grow your small business, remember you can’t be all things to all people. It is critical to know when to call in the special teams.

You may only call on your experts for such specialized projects such as branding and marketing strategy and execution or human resources. As your business grows and time becomes more precious, you may use those special teams on a more permanent outsourcing basis to keep your eye on growth and innovation.

Whatever the case, when you need a game changer, call in special teams.

On September 20, little did I know I would have a lesson on my latest opportunity to adapt to a new obstacle. I attended Camp Gladiator’s annual CG games, a fitness competition that pushes athletes to their limits.

We were there to do a fun run of the obstacle course. I was amazed, inspired by the competitors and already planning my training to be there as a competitor in 2015. I knew I could do this and wanted to do it!

Two hours later after a fall on the monkey bars, my adaptability was tested. My ACL was toast and needed reconstruction. Out with the goal to compete in CG games in 2015, new plan to be 100% recovered in a year.

Life happens, your professional life happens, business happens. To be successful in all areas in the current world that changes in a nanosecond, how can you ensure success?

To set your business up to prosper, it has to be flexible in any conditions. Here are three ways to ensure your business is adaptable:

1. Stay on top of market trends. Including customer insights, competitors, economy, employment, technology and laws and regulations.
2. Talk to your customers. Get feedback and respond.
3. Create and foster an innovative culture. Be open to new ideas from all levels within the organization.

Companies must constantly evolve to changing dynamics in society or an industry to be successful.

A couple adaptability examples:

• In the technology sector, you can easily see the winners and losers. As we switched from fax machines and snail mail to email and text, from bulky desktop computers to handheld devices, from Mapsco to built-in navigation systems, many organizations had to adapt. Apple was once considered dead. Look at them now. They innovated and adapted and are winning.
• In August 2001, the opening of The Shops of Willow Bend, an upscale shopping center with mostly high end tenants, opened shortly before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Retail sales nationwide entered a slump. When it first opened, the mall’s tenants included Escada, Bruno Magli, Burberry, Armani Collezioni, Montblanc, Nicole Miller, Diesel, D&G and Loro Piana among others. The economy and environment dictated the need for change. Today, they are focusing on opening national retail chains versus luxury stores. This year, the center was sold to Starwood Capital Group for more than $1.4 billion.
• In February 3, 2013, lights go out at SuperBowl XLVII. One hundred million viewers turn to social media to find Dunking in the Dark. That’s all. Oreo, you are genius and a perfect example of adaptability on the fly! Rock on!

Customer’s basic needs don’t change, but how they satisfy them do. Successful brands stay on-top of this.

Wish me luck on my surgery next week? Maybe I will blog about it …

We were excited to meet with a prospective client partner and learn more about their branding and marketing needs. The company is in the B2B space.

Well into the conversation, my pulse began to race, my leg started to shake and my voice rose an octave.

You see, they have been meeting with several potential marketing partners and being very thorough about their due diligence in selecting the right one. One agency told them that they could … wait for it … manage and execute all their email marketing for the entire year for an annual fee if they handed over all the email content in one meeting.

Whoa! Really?!?!

It sounded good to the prospective client. This was:

• Very cost effective
• Low effort on their part
• Efficient with their time
• Worry-free. They wouldn’t have to think about their email marketing for an entire year.

Yes, friends, but this is wrong in so. many. ways. Hence, me physically reacting to this idea.

Effective email marketing campaigns are, among other things:

• Useful. If you are sending content to your audience that is several months old, you are missing the boat. “We try to include something useful in every email,” says Ben Chestnut of MailChimp. “If the announcement was totally useless, let’s at least give the recipient a case study, or something educational (even if it points to some other resource).”
• Fresh. Our world is changing daily. What is relevant or newsworthy today is not going to be tonight or tomorrow, never mind months from now.
• Personal and relevant. Your current and potential customers’ needs and businesses are constantly evolving. What they want and is the crisis du jour changes hourly. You may learn something in a meeting or on a call with them that you have never thought of before that could be a new product or service offering for your company or a nugget of wisdom for your next company email. Sorry, too late, you can only submit your content once a year … Ugh …

The reality is email marketing takes experience, work and expertise. The good news is we’re here to make it easy, effective and right for your brand.

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? These eight innocent words are like loaded dice.

The word entrepreneur immediately brings to mind some obvious choices: Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Melinda Gates has also earned her own place at the table with her philanthropic and global development efforts via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

These folks are true forces of nature.

What landed them in this spot?

Talk to any successful entrepreneur and you will notice familiar traits. Entrepreneurs are driven by passion, not money. According to Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of Zappos, “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will follow you.”

There is a myriad of research, articles and opinions citing successful traits of an entrepreneur. Most are variations of the same them:

• Passion
• Imagination
• Vision
• Tenacity
• Self Confidence
• Resilience

All packed with determination, perseverance and huge dollop of grit.

Lest you think it a glamorous endeavor, being an entrepreneur also means late nights, early mornings and everything in between. But the rewards of watching your vision come to life and grow supercede all else.

According to Eric T Wagner to be a successful entrepreneur is to, “Think Big and be Bold.” We would tend to agree.

Do you have what it takes?

One of the things that makes marketing rock is the combination of science, art and a whole lot of planning. Clients that come to Front Porch Marketing typically have marketing goals they are trying to achieve. Sometimes they are WOG’s (wildly outrageous goals), sometimes they are motivational or aspirational.

Regardless of the size or type of goal, without a brand strategy and marketing plan, it is just a dream.

You are planning a trip from Dallas, Texas to Taos, New Mexico. You have plugged it into your GPS and you have selected the route with the shortest drive time. You know how long it is going to take to get there and what it is going to cost.

The STRATEGY: (your why) Family of four wants to have a safe trip to Taos, New Mexico, and enjoy time together.

The TACTICS: (your how) Travel by car in 16 hours, spending $200 on gas. You have your plan!

Not so fast.

What tools do you need to be successful? A driver’s license, a car, food, water, lodging and gas. There are a lot of vehicle models just as there are endless marketing tools (branding, social media, radio, TV, direct mail, print, e-mail marketing, e-commerce, in-store POP, affiliations, cross-promotions, customer loyalty, on and on).

The vehicle selection for a road trip is important, as is the selection of your marketing tools. Having a budget upfront can be helpful in determining tool selection. Who doesn’t want to drive a Bugatti Veyron to Taos, but is that the best tool for the goal?

Always tie your tactics and tools back to your goal and strategy. The performance and constant analysis of your tools is the science of marketing. There are tangible metrics and formulas for each tool ranging from frequency, reach, engagement and ROI.

When and how you use your tools is the art.

Ask the tough questions. What else do you need to know to be successful? For the Taos trip you might ask: Are there other destinations you want to visit along the way? What is the weather forecast? What are the traffic patterns? What is the longest stretch of highway between gas stations? Even the most expensive and sophisticated vehicle without fuel is just a heavy piece of metal.

Ask every question that will help or prevent you from achieving your goal. Then ask 10 more and PLAN accordingly.

Our Chief Rocker enjoying the opening festivities with Megan and Landon Wood of Lily Jade.

Branding and marketing are more art than science.

In fact, it’s one of the reasons it’s so rewarding. There is no “one size fits all.”

Blogging could be a necessary part of your digital strategy. It’s the perfect way to deliver messages near and dear to your brand and engage your audience.

So, when we heard about the first annual The Hundred Event, we didn’t think twice about participating ourselves.

Hosted by four lovelies, Grace Patton, Bridget Hunt, Lauren Knight and Megan Graham, the event brought together a talented group of small business owners and bloggers intent on learning and sharing best practices. There is a distinct entrepreneurial spirit in this group. People came from all over to partake in the delicious food, warm ambiance and shared knowledge.

We discussed many blogging styles. What do they have in common? Imagery is key to them all. Whether it’s still or video – good photography is non negotiable.

Here are a few of my favorite photography takeaways and recommendations, compliments of Jenni Dawson of J.Noel Photography:

• If you have a good camera, shoot in manual.
• If you don’t know how to use that great camera, invest in the Extremely Essential Camera Skills Tutorial and learn how.
• Afterlight is a handy app for photography on the go. It’s super easy and really adds a textural element to pictures taken on your phone.
• Pic Tap Go is perhaps my favorite app. It costs $1.99 and is worth every penny. There are several filters to choose from. Pic Tap Go saves your “recipes” for future use.

Enjoying the Peacock Alley Block Party under the super moon.
Lauren Knight, Laura Busby, Beth Dotolo
Photos courtesy of Awake Photography