This Mothers Day we decided to do something a little different. We know that Moms like a good laugh and thought these insightful cards from Speckles & Weeds would make an appropriate Mother’s Day greeting. Only a Mom could create these cards. We hope you enjoy it. Feel free to share with the Moms in your life!
May 7th, 2009
MomsRising creating a microsite and customizable video to send friends a Mothers Day video.With days to go, the microsite was well planned in terms of it’s release date and the video itself is hilarious. Obviously Moms where involved in the making of the video and it’s message.
The site was created to raise awareness for Moms Rising and the customizable video is a perfect viral marketing tactic to leverage Mothers Day as means to market their organization. “Moms Rising is working to bring together millions of people who share a common concern about the need to build a more family-friendly America”. Click here to view the site and video. want to learn more about viral marketing? Read Glow Marketing’s article on Viral Marketing in the MOMpreneur Magazine.
May 6th, 2009
Wee Welcome Parentprenuer Contest
Parentpreneurs this contest is for you! Add your company logo or product shot and a short description about your business for your chance to win over $20,000 in advertising and promotions with Wee Welcome and more!
Starts April 29th, 2009, ends May 31st, 2009
More contests to come!
April 29th, 2009
In Ad Week’s article it is clear that big brands recognize the power of Mom bloggers and include blogger outreach in their marketing plans. Whether you are a multi-national or small start-up, Mom Blog outreach can be an affordable part of your marketing strategy. To find out if blogger outreach is right for your company, contact Glow Marketing.
Read the Ad Week article here.
Add comment March 30th, 2009
Recently my natropath recommended I use this homeopathic medicine called “oscillococcinum”. Luckily I knew what she was referring to because I’ve seen it at the store many times. When I asked my husband to pick it up for me I had to say “You know, the one with the long O name and yellow stripes…”. If you are in the process of developing a name for your company or product, please read this! There is a lot to think about when choosing a name for your company or product.
This made me think of the importance of choosing a great name for your product or company. A name that is easy to remember and unique enough that it doesn’t get confused with other names. This is so important in marketing, particularly for word of mouth marketing. If your customer cannot remember (or pronounce) your name, how will they tell their friends?
In the marketing to Moms arena, I come across a lot of companies offering products for babies. Many have names that are similar and try as I might, I get them mixed up from time to time. Very embarrassing! Do your homework and look at the existing companies and products out there and BE DIFFERENT!
Lastly, if you are choosing a name that does not have an obvious meaning, make sure it has a good story behind it, because people will ask. Acronyms are tricky and usually leave your customers guessing.
When evaluating possible names, ask yourself:
bugaboo strollers is a great example of a unique and catchy name. The name alone gets your attention. Do you have any other good examples? Please share here.
If you need help developing a name, please contact Glow Marketing. We work with a variety of Calgary and Vancouver copywriters experienced in developing unique product and company names.
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Add comment March 23rd, 2009
Let’s face it, custom logos can be expensive. I know, because I have been involved in numerous branding projects and logos can be extremely challenging, hence the big price tag. Having worked with Calgary and Vancouver graphic designers, I can safely say that most small start-up businesses would be shocked to know what a great logo costs. Freelance designers are a great option and will charge less, however you are working with one person vs. a team of people that can come at the project from different points of view. This is fine if their style is what you are looking for and sets the stage for an ongoing relationship with someone that you can trust and knows your brand.
Starting a new business can also be expensive and I understand the need to tighten budgets, so when I discovered this site Crowd Spring, I was thrilled. The site offers “name your price” designs services and uses a new trend called crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing is when people from all over the globe come to together to solve a problem. In this case, designers from all over the world contribute logo concepts for you, based on your creative brief. You rank each logo and provide feedback so that ALL the designers can create more logos that are more inline with your tastes. At the end of the process, you select the winner, whom receives the project fee.
Before recommending this site to my clients, I decided to try it myself because I was in need of a new logo. I was pleased with the number of options (over 200) and the final logo choices and couldn’t argue with the price because I set it myself.
After a successful trial run, I recommended this site to 2 other organizations, Family Fun Calgary and Entrepreneurial Moms. Both were pleased with the outcome.
“I would definitely recommend them and I have many times. The cost was definitely reasonable compared to what graphic artists normally charge for logo design work.” Melissa Vroon, Family Fun Calgary
Though the site offers low cost design, it is not without it’s drawbacks. Part of the fees you pay at an ad agency or design studio include writing a succinct creative brief and reviewing all of the logos, providing constructive feedback to the designers, directing them and pushing them and presenting only the best options for review. This process is very timing consuming, but if you have more time than money it is worth it.
Melissa offers the following advise “If you just pay the money and sit back and wait you may not get as many options or logo ideas but if you work with the designers and provide feedback as to what changes you would like to see you can get a better value and better logo.”
Before you start the process of a new logo, please read my article on branding. If you decide to use the Crowd Spring site but need a little help, Glow offers consultation on writing the creative brief and can also support you in providing feedback and choosing the final logo, or we can handle the entire process for you.
To find out more about Crowd Spring, click here.
If you’d prefer to work with a qualified freelance graphic designer, please contact us for more information on pre-screened candidates.
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Add comment March 23rd, 2009
By Sharole Lawrence, Glow Marketing
Attracting customers is a little easier when owning a franchise as a business thanks to marketing materials and brand awareness that head office often has already established. This competitive advantage also saves owners time and money on marketing, but it doesn’t mean that marketing ends with head office initiatives. The wise franchisee will go beyond head office marketing materials and campaigns to expand their local customer base and increase their chances of success. Read the full article published in the March/April issue of The MOMpreneur Magazine
A franchise head office will usually develop a number of high quality marketing materials for brand identity, including the corporate logo, store design, company website, ad layouts, and point-of-sale materials. To develop marketing materials and campaigns, franchise owners are typically required to contribute two per cent of their gross projected revenue to head office as part of an “advertising fund”. In return, marketing materials may be offered at a fraction of the cost to each store. By contrast, independent businesses have creative freedom to create their own marketing materials, but they absorb the entire development cost and don’t always end up with high quality or effective tools.
A franchise head office may also have created brand awareness within the target market. Brand awareness is like “warming the door” so that when customers are approached with a promotion, they already know how the franchise can benefit them. An independent store might skip developing their brand and jump straight into offer-based advertising, such as a product discount. Skipping over brand awareness can result in missed opportunities to help new customers identify with the store and learn how the store can meet their needs.
Marketing a franchise effectively means doing more than just contributing to head office’s advertising fund: the two per cent required payment may only go towards a seasonal campaign, but a franchise typically requires customers over the entire year. Industry standards recommend that an established franchise with a good track record increase it’s marketing budget to at least five per cent of the gross projected revenue, and a new business with limited awareness should budget 20 per cent to fund additional marketing efforts.
Individual marketing efforts can dovetail with head office initiatives. One example is a franchise owner taking a brand campaign that head office is advertising on billboards and applying the same image and message in a direct mail flyer or community newsletter advertisement. The idea is to increase the amount of times potential customers consistently see and hear the message to move them to action.
Franchise owners will benefit from knowing what head office’s plan is for marketing and then supplement those initiatives with their own. Creating an annual plan empowers franchise owners by ensuring that critical selling seasons aren’t missed.
While owning a franchise usually means having a corporate brand and materials readily available, basic marketing principles still apply, including the importance of knowing and reaching the local market which is critical for success.
Franchise owners need to ask the same questions that an independent business asks: who are my customers? Where do they live and what do they like to do? What other business are they likely to frequent and what media are they regularly exposed to? How are they likely to find my business – through the Yellow pages, a friend, driving by the store, seeing community newsletter advertisements, or searching the Internet? Profiling local customers helps determine how to effectively market to them.
Trying new marketing initiatives tailored to local customers also helps to ensure success. For example, a franchise dog grooming owner could visit a dog park and hand out dog treats with franchise information to dog owners. That same franchise owner could partner with a complimentary service or company, such as a pet store, to provide a preferred rate to the store’s customers, resulting in a win-win situation for both businesses. Another idea may be for the franchise owner to sponsor a fundraiser for the local Humane Society.
The Internet is another forum for localizing marketing efforts. The “world wide web” can be reigned in through search engines which many customers use to research products and services. Google Ad Words can put a business front and centre in a local market. Additionally, Google can place advertisements on well-known websites that only appear to viewers in the local market. Placing advertisements on related websites, such as a local car dealership promotion on a car enthusiast website, is another way to target customers.
Attracting new customers is important, but keeping existing customers happy is vital. Existing customers influence new customers through word-of-mouth referrals, so consistency in the customer experience is crucial. For example, if a spa offers herbal tea and fresh fruit, they need to always do this, regardless of how busy they are. Customers feel let down when there is a deviation in their experience and can communicate this to potential customers or decide to abandon the business themselves.
Consistency in marketing is also important, including times of trying out new and different initiatives. New initiatives need time to grow and be used frequently. A potential customer may be exposed to a marketing message five times but be too busy and forget the message or tune it out. However, it may be the sixth time that that potential customer receives the message and decides to become a new customer.
Finally, tracking marketing efforts determines which marketing initiatives attract new customers. Marketing is an investment that takes time and can have a delayed, but lasting, effect. This means that marketing initiatives and their costs won’t necessarily correlate with monthly or direct sales. The math doesn’t add up – the amount of a sale doesn’t equal the value of a new customer. Calculate the long term worth of a customer, and the investment in marketing can be exponential.
Sharole is President of Glow Marketing, Western Canada’s leading marketing consultancy specializing in marketing to Moms. Glow Marketing is currently working with franchises such as Beaners Fun Cuts for Kids, Marble Slab Creamery and Milkface Nursingwear.
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Add comment March 17th, 2009
Sharole Lawrence of Glow Marketing is this months featured Mom entrepreneur on urbanmoms.ca. Could you be next?
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Add comment March 10th, 2009
Courtesy of Jeanette Miller, Limelite PR
I started twittering just before Christmas 08 and quickly became a twitter-evangelist. Within 24 hours of creating a profile, I was “followed” by two Mom PR experts (based in the USA), made direct contact with a woman who runs a number of mom blog networks and within 48 hours I connected with two new (prospective) clients. It became quite apparent that twitter is the place to be to engage with peers, clients and like-industry influencers and monitor the competition.
For those companies who want to connect with the mom-market, twitter is the mom-mecca of social networking. As long as you are honest, transparent and actively engaged in the community, you will experience significant results.
When I spoke to Annemarie Templeman-Kluit, founder of yoyomama.ca and yoyobelly.ca, about the impact twitter has had on her business, she cited twitter as one of the biggest referrers of website traffic (more than facebook, which they’ve been on for years). Her participation on twitter was also the reason she was recently interviewed by Canadian Family Magazine. “We’ve connected with people we would have never found any other way - we’ve connected across Canada with experts like Ann Douglas and Alyson Schafer, we’ve been interviewed by Canadian Parent Magazine about mums & technology, we’ve gotten advice on what we can do with kids with colds & coughs now you’re not supposed to give them kids’ cough medicine - and it’s all thanks to twitter,” said Templeman-Kluit.
Twitter also provides a porthole into the lives of mom bloggers around the world. There’s no way anyone can read the thousands of mom blogs each and every day but with Twitter, you can get quick updates on the daily lives of some of the top mom bloggers, engage with them directly by relating to their mom-life trials and tribulations, send them congratulatory tweets when they win something, and support them by re-tweeting relevant posts to my own followers. That’s one of the best first steps into developing a relationship with these key mom influencers.
Also consider that most media outlets are on twitter, especially those specializing in the mom-market. Twitter is providing a foot-in-the-door to your next media pitch! Most of the outlets use a logo as an avatar(something that does irritate me but that’s for another post), which gives them the freedom to have multiple people tweet and participate in tweet-versations however, in the rare cases like with @yoyomama_van, you will see a photo of the person behind the tweets. In any case, you learn nuances of the editor, writer or researcher that are almost impossible to obtain unless you personally know them. You will learn what they like/dislike, their own daily struggles and how they like to engage with their followers. I have seen media tweet a call for people to be interviewed and products to be submitted. I’ve also seen companies subtly pitch Annemarie and receive a warm response. Note of warning: do not spam the media by sending them a link to a press release via twitter! Twitter is about learning, sharing, and engaging with your followers. If you spam, you will quickly be blocked or un-followed.
Twitter is easily the best business tool I have found to network with peers, clients, influencers and competition. It does require time and effort but so does any aspect in building a company/brand.
What’s stopping you? Get on Twitter today and when you do, send me a tweet @limelitepr
PS - Having trouble getting started, read this post on “Think like a Toddler and find your voice on Twitter”, by Darren Rowse.
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1 comment March 5th, 2009
Call me crazy but I think coupon sites are going to be HOT this year. Where have you been all my life Motherhoodofadeal.com? Post your sales now!
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March 4th, 2009
