New Maryland Chamber of Commerce member Storyfarm New Media is partnering with us to create a monthly reality video series chronicling the company’s first year of membership.
The goal of the video series is to call attention to the many ways the Maryland Chamber helps member companies grow, while working to enhance the state’s economy and business climate. Follow along as Storyfarm Managing Partner John Sherman attends Maryland Chamber events, connects with other members, gets involved in Chamber committees and activities, and learns more about the organization’s legislative advocacy efforts in Annapolis.
We’re pretty excited about this new collaboration, and we hope you find it entertaining and informative. This new format is being pioneered by Storyfarm, and we think it’s a great fit to showcase our efforts and get real-time feedback about our events and activities.
In the first episode, Sherman begins the series by going to the joint Marketing and Membership committee meeting at McCormick & Company headquarters in Sparks. Watch as John makes new contacts, learns about the Chamber’s legislative agenda for 2011, and shares what it’s like to be be a part of it from a newcomer’s perspective.
If you are not at least paying attention to “going green” and the growing number of businesses marketing their sustainability efforts, you are behind the times. But don’t take it from me.
Ida Cheinman, Principal and Creative Director of strategic brand communication firm Substance151, said businesses that do not participate in or market their efforts to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible (two concepts that have become increasingly intertwined and covered by the umbrella term, ‘sustainable’) are at a real disadvantage.
“Environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility are becoming strong motivators because people want to feel good about their personal choices,” she said. “The marketplace is becoming very crowded very quickly and simply being green or socially responsible and knowing that internally is not enough. You really need to be branding and marketing your business appropriately to take advantage of all the benefits there are to taking on those initiatives.”
Among the audiences you can reach through marketing of your sustainability efforts:
Your customers: According to Cheinman’s presentation, 67 percent of buyers believe it is important to buy sustainable products, and 71 percent avoid purchasing from companies with “bad” practices.
Employees: Marketing your sustainability can give you an edge in recruitment and employee retention. “Younger generations are becoming more conscious about who they work with. They want to work for an organization that is known for sustainability and good practices and, for small businesses that must compete with larger firms for top talent, this can be especially important,” Cheinman said.
Investors: Cheinman said investors are increasingly looking for performance in the triple bottom line, which encompasses an economic, environmental, and social impact.
Art Jacoby’s business consulting firm, his “labor of love,” has led to the growth of sales for hundreds of businesses. The success of his firm, named Jacoby, makes it difficult to believe he was ever nervous walking into a networking event. But, as he writes in the introduction of Jacoby’s ‘Sales Optimizer System’ Playbook, a how-to guide on encouraging sales growth, understanding the tremendous value he provides and communicating it effectively has allowed him to grow a successful and lucrative business, a lesson he passes on to his clients.
Jacoby said the first step in understanding and communicating the value a business can provide and encouraging sales growth is to tackle the company’s marketing strategy. “Your ability to be successful selling depends heavily upon your marketing success,” Jacoby writes in the S.O.S. Sales Playbook. “All sales take place in the context of a market with an industry of competitors vying for the same customer work as you. Marketing ‘sets the table’ for sales.”
Jacoby said the first step to evaluating a marketing strategy is to first look at the products and services being offered.
“Look at your products and services and get them right. It’s not about how good you think your product is. What matters is how good your consumer thinks it is,” Jacoby said. “You can be the best sales person in the world, but if your product isn’t good, then people are going to notice that.”
Second, evaluate the message that’s being sent out.
“Why should the consumer buy from you? A lot of small businesses stumble on that. Either it’s not very exciting, or it sounds kind of ‘salesy.’ You want to come across as authentic,” he said.
Jacoby said a very important part about evaluating a marketing strategy is to make sure that the right market is being targeted.
“It might seem fairly obvious that most companies would go after the right market, but most of them don’t, especially smaller companies. Smaller companies tend to go all over the map, trying to sell to many different industries when they should be focusing on one or two,” Jacoby said. He added that it’s difficult for some companies to narrow their market because they can justify going after several markets at the same time. Jacoby said once a target market is identified it is important to determine how to communicate effectively to that market.
“First and foremost, you should use inexpensive marketing vehicles,” Jacoby said. “The best way to do this is to join membership organizations and associations. That’s probably one of the best, most inexpensive vehicles for people. There’s a reasonable chance there’s an association or two that represent the audience you’re trying to target.”
Jacoby said that if a company would like to see their sales improve, it is important to take action sooner rather than later.
“Whatever you do, whether you do it yourself or if you get help, do something. Don’t be inactive. Try different things. It might work, it might not work, but at least you tried. It’s very easy to have excuses,” he said. “The average company spends less than an hour a month on strategic thinking. People are busy solving day-to-day problems. To improve your marketing and your sales, it’s not about fixing today’s problem. It’s about taking a step back and asking yourself what you need to do better or differently.”
Baltimore-based Blue Sky Factory launched an email marketing iPhone app earlier this week. The application, Publicaster iPhone Edition, is available to all clients free of charge.
“With mobile applications on the rise, we recognized the need to give our clients access to their email campaigns anytime, anywhere,” said Blue Sky Factory CEO Greg Cangialosi. “The Publicaster iPhone Edition allows email marketers to check campaign statistics in real-time, add new subscribers on the fly, and access their accounts while working on the go.”
Publicaster iPhone Edition gives marketers access to selected functionality of the online version of Publicaster, in the palm of their hand. Key features of the application include:
Real-time access to email campaigns, accounts, and key reports
Account activity dashboard for last 5 sent emails
List Library where marketers can view Summary, Subscriber Status Chart, Top Domains Chart, and List Growth Charts
Ability to add permission-based email addresses to any list
View campaign and campaign distribution statistics in real time
Detailed campaign distribution activity and delivery reporting
The Publicaster iPhone™ Edition is available to all Blue Sky Factory clients via the iTunes store. Download it here.
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Here is a short video from yesterday’s Digital Marketing event. We’ll post a complete wrap up from the event Monday — we’re still sorting through all the great information from the panel. To kick start the discussion, our moderator Mario Armstrong asked each panelist to name the three digital marketing activities they think businesses should [...]
Baltimore-based 
