There is little doubt that search engines have replaced the Yellow Pages. If consumers want to find a business, even just a business’ phone number, they are searching on the Internet.  Search engine usage is not limited to the computer savvy; consumers from 10 years old to 80 years old use the Internet on a daily basis.

Whereas, your business used to be one line in the phone book, now your business’ website is a visual presentation of your company’s vision, culture, and products and services.  Let’s face it, the marketplace demands instantaneous information, resulting in a less patient consumer.  Your website should immediately appeal to your potential customers.  A recent study conducted in Canada found that a business literally has milliseconds to grab a consumer’s attention before their minds forms an opinion*.  You should think of your website as a storefront.  What does your website say about your business?

Many businesses provide too much information that is lost on their potential client.  Information overload causes your “hook” or marketing message to become lost in a sea of information, resulting in your potential customer clicking off your site and looking at your competitor’s website.  Keep it simple! Don’t make your customer work to do business with you.  Your potential customers want easy to useful information about your business and an easy way to contact you.  Think of shopping at the mall.  It’s always a better experience when you find what you are looking for and when you have helpful sales person.  Your website’s design and content is a key to customer conversions.

Website design is also very important.  If you walked into the grocery store and found the milk with the dog food, how would you feel?  Customers like things to make sense.  There is an expectation that the milk will always be with other milk items and that the dog food will be found in the pet care aisle.  People expect the same kind of shopping/information gathering experience at your website. Organized website design results in consumers clicking through to multiple pages on your website, thus they stay on your site longer.

Obviously, your website design should convey the culture and vision of your company.  Your website design should be simple, clear, and represent your company.  Since the majority of consumers are finding your website with their smartphone or tablet, make sure your website is mobile ready.  Some studies suggest that over 55% of all searches are done on mobile devices.  Further, bounce rates are close to 60% when a business’ website is not mobile responsive.  Isn’t it annoying when you constantly have to enlarge and scroll a non-mobile ready website?

If you are not sure if your site is mobile ready, give us a call.  We are the experts in website design, from content creation to mobile readiness. If you are not using technology to maximum your business outreach, you are falling behind. Playbook Public Relations, LLC can help you stand out from the crowd and attract more business this year with great website design.

Playbook Public Relations, LLC

*BBC News Jan 16^th, 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4616700.st

“You can actually make a lot of money and do a lot of good in the world,” says Peter Henry, Dean of NYU’s Stern School of Business. According to Mr. Henry, students who are enrolling in the prestigious business school are not just looking to be financially successful; they also want to impact the world in a positive way. As our economies become more global and we see the interconnectedness of our world, this line of thinking is moving to the forefront.

Look at a company like Tom’s shoes. For every pair of shoes purchased, a pair is donated. The consumer naturally wants to support this mission. It feels good to them to be able to reach out and help in a way they may not be able to do on their own. And it also generates a lot of revenue for Tom’s. Would this company be as successful if they didn’t have such a strong corporate ethic to make a difference? Probably not.

No longer do you have just one hardware store in town or only one strip of local shops to get goods from. Consumers have thousands of options. Adding a charitable cause to your business plan may be something to consider for the growth of your business.

In many people’s eyes, big corporations have become the villains of our times with the vast lobbying money that is spent and the campaign dollars given out. As soon as a corporation does one thing that is harmful to the environment, it is front page news. Recently, Walmart got news coverage for leaving their mulch in the parking lot too long causing the possibility of pesticides moving into a local water source, the Catawba River in North Carolina. A lawyer for Walmart said, “Annually, our stores give back millions of dollars within their local communities specifically for environmental issues.” And they do.

They are also committed to reducing packaging and waste to landfills by over 5% by the year 2013. Walmart’s initiative to reduce waste associated with packaging is unprecedented. They also have led the way utilizing innovative energy saving initiatives such as using renewable resources and LED lighting. Walmart knows helping our planet also helps their bottom line. It is also keeps the customers coming in.

If you had a choice, shop at Superman’s store or Lex Luther’s, what would it be? Take it even deeper: who would you rather have a conversation with? Because that’s what marketing essentially is- a conversation.

If you are a business owner, you need to begin to consider your giving philosophy. Are there causes you are inherently interested in? There are so many wonderful non-profits out there. Research them and see the ones that appeal most to you. Target feels strongly about supporting education. Let’s emphasize those key words, “FEELS STRONGLY.” You have to believe in it or your consumer will see through you and the impact will be lost.

The advent of social media gives you an outlet to talk to your customers in a way that wasn’t possible before. It is the venue for sharing; sharing with them all the good ways your company contributes. It is the marketing of feelings and inspiration rather than just a hip slogan.

The unique luxury clothing company, Alp-N-Rock (one of Playbook Public Relations’ clients), founded their business based on the idea of how to give to the organization Room to Read. The founder, Suzanne Reich, was so inspired by wanting to help educate girls that she started the clothing line as a way to give back. What a powerful message this sends to the consumer!

Your consumer has a heart that beats, and in the future they expect their companies to have beating hearts too.

Logo Design – Creating a Brand

USF Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is an administrative office that has two nonprofit community centers: Gulfcoast North AHEC (GNAHEC) Gulfcoast South AHEC (GSAHEC).

USF AHEC is funded by the Florida Department of Health to train future health professions students and current health professionals about how to work with tobacco-addicted patients. They are also funded to run cessation groups to help people stop smoking. USF AHEC has two different programs, which are both offered free of charge.  The first is called Quit Smoking Now (QSN).  QSN is a 6-session program―1 hour per week in a group setting. The second is called Tools To Quit (TTQ), and it is a 90-minute one-time session.  Both programs offer free patches, gum or lozenges to help with the nicotine withdrawal symptoms that occur when people quit using tobacco.

“WHAT!?! I don’t care, I just want to quit smoking!”

Creative Process

That’s what we thought too, so we went to work on creating a brand that people who want to quit tobacco could easily identify with. First, it is important to note that AHEC operates in conjunction with Tobacco Free Florida (TFF).  Since TFF has well established brand we want to piggy back off their success by choosing a matching color scheme.  Next, we began to brain storm with little game of free association. We won’t bore you with the all the ideas that wound up in the trash can.

Here are the cliff notes on how our team came up with the “IQuit” brand:  We wanted the new logo to be culturally relavent, so we considered “iQuit” (let’s face it, Apple knows marketing-the company has more revenues than Exxon Mobile).  But we decided that “iQuit” was just too  trendy, and it had the potential to render itself obsolete in the near future.  So we scratched the “iQuit” and started playing around with IQ.  We liked the “IQ”  and intelligence aspect it brought to the forefront. We knew we were on to something here:  everyone knows smoking is bad for you, right? But a high IQ is not enough to get people to quit tobacco. We all know intelligent people who are addicted to nicotine. Further, an IQ is not something that is identified with smoking cessation, so we played with our IQ’s.

NO SMOKING ALLOWED!

We made the “I” look like a cigarette, and play with the  Q so it resembles a “not allowed” sign. We stilled needed a tagline to tie all the aspects of the design together.  Informed to Quit. Inspired to Quit. I Quit with AHEC.

The Brand, The Tagline, the Win!

Playbook Public Public Relations, LLC is proud to announce the “IQuit” brand was so well received that it has recently been adopted across the entire Florida AHEC Network.  That means our “IQuit” brand will be used in all of Florida’s 67 counties!  Further, we ensured the successful launch of the “IQuit“brand by developing and redesigning www.ahectobacco.com, the Florida AHEC Network’s website (more about that in another post).

The Florida AHEC network agreed that Playbook Public Relations, LLC was able to grasp the irreplaceable value proposition that the “IQuit” programs offer to Floridians who wish to break free of nicotine addiction.   Over the course of this fiscal year, our firm’s marketing and PR initiatives helped USF AHEC reach its yearly program goals before the start of the 4th quarter.

An identifiable brand can increase your bottom line!   

Business is built on relationships. Thus, the terms B2B and B2C are referring to a symbiotic relationship.  Healthy and strong relationships take nurturing, neglect breeds apathy, apathy destroys relationships.

Think about your own business relationships for a minute.  Do you have good relationships with your co-workers and with your customers?  How do you think your customers and co-workers view your management style?  Here are five tips that may help you maintain and develop good relationships:

1.     Become submissive.

If you are drinking coffee right now, you probably just choked.  Culturally, we often associate negative connotations to the word “submissive.” Here submissive means to back off and actively listen, become open to different possibilities. Some of the most creative ideas emerge when we let our guard down and just listen to others.

2.     Set boundaries.

When clear internal and external boundaries are set, everyone knows what is expected of them. It is much easier to thrive when there are easy reference points of expectations for all parties involved in the relationship.

3.     Remember you are not alone.

The African proverb, “It takes a village”, is modern and relevant to all of us. Stronger business ties are established when strengths and weaknesses are assessed.  Not good at marketing? Designate this task to someone who can really shine in this area. In this way, your internal strengths are maximized. It’s not about you! It’s about creating a winning plan for success.

4.     Make your partner happy.

Weather your relationship is with your consumer or someone within your company; all parties need to feel contented. Think of your business relationship as a circle. When you have a positive effect on the person in your relationship, it circles back to you. Everybody becomes more vested when there is a sense of the relationship meeting their needs.

5.     Don’t be afraid to let an unhealthy relationship go.

There isn’t a relationship out there that doesn’t have some rocky times. When you communicate effectively and have tried to implement all the tips above, you will intuitively know which relationships are worth riding out for the long haul.  Often fear keeps us in toxic or unhealthy relationships. Unhealthy relationships are time and energy suckers, and keep you from focusing on what you are good at.

If you have a strong business model and the intent to nurture positive relationships, new relationships will continually flourish that offer abundance and satisfaction for all involved

Ahh, the closing of an old year and the beginning of a new year—it’s when we make our annual new resolutions.  Of course, this is the typical time for most of us set new goals, but here is some food for thought: As a small business owner, friend, athlete, daughter, sister (in all my roles), I see each day as a new beginning.  As human beings we have control over our thoughts and our feelings; we alone can decide what we focus on.  Every morning when I wake up, I ask God to help me to service my clients, friends and family to the very best of my ability.  That is my personal goal in all I do.  However, since this is a business blog let’s talk about Playbook Public Relations LLC’s focus and business goals.  

For example, as a licensed psychiatric social worker, Robin Leigh Maier helps her clients better their lives by finding emotional health and happiness. Every Wednesday, Robin shares her wisdom in her weekly blog, discussing topics such as managing A.D.D. and handling the Holiday Blues.

Randy Clark and Kevin Wade are instructing students so they can launch new careers in the health care field.  These bright students at the Center for Neurosomatic Studies (CNS) will in turn, will help their patients live pain-free lives through the practice of Neurosomatic Therapy. You can learn more about CNS at their Open House on Sunday, December 9^th.

The team at Florida Property Title Services is facilitating an important part of the American dream, home ownership. We helped them launch their new mobile ready website.  Please check their website at www.FlaPropertyTitle.com.

Of all small business owners, only 10% earn revenues greater than a million dollars annually.  We understand that owning a small business doesn’t always equate to big earnings.  It does, however, always require long hours and hard work.  It’s a labor of love.  But that’s part of the American dream that we love being a part of.  At Playbook Public Relations we are thankful to live in the United States, a country built on entrepreneurial spirit and determined work ethic, which is still found in American business today.

We are thankful for all of our clients, big and small.  Please share with us what you are thankful for!

L.C.S. Stone Care’s website needed an over haul.  Aesthetically, their old site looked good, but it had some serious design problems.  Most business owners do not know that flawed website design can be a factor in poor “Search” results on Google, Bing and Yahoo!  Playbook Public Relations, LLC (PBPR) understands that great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) begins with effective website design and website content.  How does website design and website content affect SEO negatively?  Well, one factor that negatively affected L.C.S. was that all of their website headers were built headers in Adobe Flash (Flash).  Google’s search engine cannot read Flash, so if Google can’t read who you are and what you do quickly, it will negatively affect your search ranking.  PBPR was able to take the website design elements they liked from their old site and recreate them in a “Search Engine Friendly” customized WordPress website.  L.C.S. had their new WordPress website up and running in three short weeks.  To the naked eye nothing had changed, but internally, everything had changed…for the better.

This first step in executing a SEO strategy for L.C.S. was redesigning/recreating their old website.  Next, we rewrote their meta titles and much later their meta tags.  Google does not like too many changes too quickly, therefore, we held off on changing all the meta title and tag information at once.  We continue to write keyword focused blogs, and do back end submissions at a feverish pace.  The results?  In three months time, we have helped L.C.S. dominate the search terms for their industry on a local level.   As of this writing, we have them ranked as high as the 7th position on Google, nationally, for “terrazzo” related keywords.  Now old and new clients are able to find them near the top of Google’s, Bing’s, and Yahoo!’s search engines.  L.C.S. Stone Care is able to track their amazing progress with PBPR’s easy to read weekly Keyword Ranking Reports.

PBPR loves helping our clients achieve their marketing goals.  By the way, if you are looking for terrazzo restoration or marble or travertine polishing, you should have no problem finding L.C.S. on Google, Bing or Yahoo!

Recently, Playbook Public Relations, LLC’s (PBPR) client the Center for Neurosomatic Studies (CSN), an educational institute that provides an 18-month curriculum in Neurosomatic Therapy (NST) asked us to create a strategic marketing plan (aka a playbook) to ensure a successful launch of their inaugural class.

CNS needed a marketing and public relations (PR) strategy to attract qualified students for the fall semester 2012.  CNS has a unique value proposition.  While their patients testimonials are inspirational and newsworthy, unless you have gone to the St. John-Clark Pain Treatment Center for treatments then you have probably never heard of Neurosomatic Therapy.

Neurosomatic Therapy (NST) is no ordinary massage. Physicians, patients, and therapists agree that Neurosomatic Therapy (NST) succeeds where traditional forms of therapeutic pain management fail.  NST treats pain through manual therapy, not by prescribing pills. There has been an increasing demand for training in areas of manual therapy that require an advanced knowledge of human physiology and kinesiology in order to address specific imbalances often presenting as chronic pain. In response to this increasing demand and due to the lack of qualified therapists to treat patients, Randall Clark and Kevin Wade established the Center for Neurosomatic Studies (CNS).

Playbook Public Relations, LLC’s challenge:  To market an educational institution that that teaches a skill that the general population has no knowledge of.    Give our love of competition, we embraced the endeavor, rolled up our sleeves and got to work.  Task one, reinvent the marketing message, Randy and Kevin’s technical knowledge is mind blowing.  We had to chisel down their knowledge to four main bullets points.  We had to tailor the message to attract qualified students.  Task two; carry the message and the brand to the Tampa Bay community.  While CNS and Playbook Public Relations envision eventually attracting students from all over the country, there is tremendous talent in the Tampa Bay area and we want to capitalize on the local talent pool.  We arranged for Randy and Kevin to appear on CSB’s Studio 10 morning show.  Click here to watch the video: www.youtube.com/CNStudies.com.  This segment gave Randy and Kevin seven minutes to educate and brand CNS.  Task three; create a social media strategy for CNS.  Social media is a complete waste of time for businesses unless there is a strategy.  We revamped their Facebook page, created a Twitter account, a Pintrest account, a Google + and YouTube account.  Task four, grass root efforts.  Roxanne and I hit the pavement and targeted yoga studios throughout the bay area to attract potential students.   We held information sessions at the school and packed the classroom.  We called Rotary Clubs to schedule Randy and Kevin as guest speakers.  The result?  From zero applicants a month ago to an inaugural class for CNS will starting on Monday September 10^th.

Good luck to all the students at CNS.  We admire the courage and dedication that change requires.  I know from first hand experience that Neurosomatic Therapists help patients live pain free lives.

At Playbook Public Relations, LLC we only win when our clients are successful.  We are here to serve our clients needs and provide solutions to their problems.  We are honored to earn the trust of our clients.  Call Playbook Public Relations, LLC and allow us to create a custom “Playbook” for your business.

Friday, June 1st Fight Night Productions will put on a show at Tampa’s A La Carte Pavilion to showcase some of the Bay Area’s hottest prospects in boxing.  I grew up in the Tyson/Holyfield ear… I mean “era.”  And so I’ve always been into the sport.  But my love for boxing has been replaced by my fascination with the UFC.  And I’m not alone.  Though I wince just seeing someone get their finger pricked for a blood test and feel it in my own kidney watching a fighter get a heel kick to theirs (which, by the way, is now illegal under UFC rules), I find myself enthralled with this gut-wrenchingly violent sport and not enthralled in a watching a train-wreck sort of way.  My first (and only) live UFC event was in Vegas–Rashad Evans’ take down of Forrest Griffin in ‘08.  The pageantry and drama of the whole night is what wooed me.  But many fervent UFC fans have never even seen a live event.  When you think about that fact and you think about what the ultimate fighters have been up against―political opposition and state licensing issues―, it’s an amazing feat.  The main reason that mixed martial arts has become one of the fastest growing sports organizations on the planet has much to do with marketing, specifically content marketing.  For those who are less familiar with the term, content marketing involves the creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content to a specific target audience.

The UFC masters content marketing with a holistic attack.  “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show on Spike TV does wonders for the sport, allowing fans a transparent view of what it takes to make it as a fighter, and the show endears fans to up-and-comers.  Charismatic UFC President Dana White’s video blogs on the UFC’s web channel, which has over 370,000 subscribers, serve to fuel fans’ interest for upcoming events.  The UFC uses long-form content for the pre-fight programming―documentaries about the fighters that delve into their family backgrounds and what drives them to seek fighting championships.  And as far as social media content goes… Well, while most sports leagues are telling their athletes when not to Tweet, White gives his fighters incentives to use Twitter and labels Twitter as “the greatest marketing tool in the history of the world.”  What do we tell our clients about posting and tweeting?  Be inimitable.  Be provocative.  Be unforgettable.  Be authentic.  Yes, White is all of the above.  In fact, he’s authentically authentic.

As a business owner, you may say, “I don’t have the budget to create a reality television show.”  Maybe not, but believe it or not, many of the marketing content strategies used by the UFC can be employed without a TKO to your marketing budget.

It’s been a wild ride this week for Facebook (FB).   The company’s IPO had Wall Street and investors buzzing.  On May 15^th (two days before the before IPO) General Motors (GM) the largest auto manufacturer in the world, announced that it would no longer spend advertising dollars on Facebook’s paid advertising.  The reason?  GM’s marketing department believes that Facebook advertising does not work.   Last year GM’s marketing team spent $10 million dollars on Facebook’s paid advertising.  Was this an ominous foreboding for Facebook?  Since the initial IPO on May 18^th FB shares have plummeted by 19%.

However, it should be noted that marketing industry insiders question the timing of GM’s announcement.  Apparently, a few months ago Facebook representatives criticized GM’s marketing department for allowing multiple marketing firms to manage their Facebook advertising.   This suggests that GM’s marketing department intentionally withheld its decision to announce its departure from Facebook’s paid advertising.

GM still believes in digital advertising, and it will remain a part of GM’s overall marketing strategy.  In fact, GM’s marketing department spent $300 million on digital advertising in 2011.  GM will continue to promote its brands on the company’s various Facebook Fan pages.  The $10 million spent on Facebook paid ads is a drop in the bucket for GM but a blow to the effectiveness of Facebook’s paid advertising reputation.

Facebook’s paid ads appear on the right side of the page.  Every time a user navigates to a new page different two things can happen:  one, different ads appear or two, the same ads follows the end user.  Facebook ads are targeted based on the demographic information provided by user’s profile.

Team Playbook combines decades of advertising experience  with the latest trends in new media marketing and digital solutions. See why our people make the difference.

We look forward to creating a Playbook for your business!