A few months ago, for our “I’m in Logo Love” series, I wrote about the Big Ten logo, and how awesome it was. It used negative space in a clever way to show that the Big Ten athletic conference actually had eleven teams. I also mentioned how excited I was to see what they would come up with when the Big Ten added Nebraska to their ranks, changing the number of participating colleges to twelve. (As a graduate of a Big Ten school, I have a vested interest in this topic.) You can see the full blog post here.
Well, the wait is over. This week, the Big Ten unveiled their new logo.
Small businesses and startups face many challenges when marketing their products and services.
Small businesses and startups have minimal brand recognition, are often located in geographic or demographic areas that limit their marketing options, and most have small (or non-existent) marketing budgets.
Some marketers advise small businesses and startups to research and create strategic marketing plans. Such plans can help – and strategy IS important. But strategic marketing plans take time, resources and money. Few young companies can afford that cost.
Other marketers recommend that small businesses and startups build a website or optimize their existing website, develop email lists, start blogging, and develop newsletters. These tactics can be important and may work for some, but they also require time, resources and money.
The reality is that for the vast majority of small businesses and startups, marketing consists of handing out a business card.
Why?
Marketing and advertising require an investment of significant amounts of money and time. The ads we see on television or in magazines, for example, were developed by agencies and consultants who evaluated past campaigns, developed concepts and assumptions about advertising themes, conducted some market research/focus group testing, created story boards, developed scripts (for commercials), and much more. It’s no surprise that the cost of running the advertising itself is often smaller than the cost to produce that ad or marketing piece.
The truth is that most advertising and marketing doesn’t work. Studies show that people ignore online ads and other forms of advertising are not much better.
Yet products and services rarely sell themselves – small businesses and startups must find ways to let their potential customers know about those products and services.
In this post, we’re going to explore several strategies small businesses and startups can leverage when marketing their products or services without spending a lot of money or time developing comprehensive marketing plans.
In this installment of my posts for entrepreneurs about creating business plans I discuss the second of the “3-Rs,” Refinement. Iteration of your idea is critically important and I share some thoughts about this process and some ideas on how you can strengthen your own plan with a few simple techniques.
Ever wonder how professional basketball players got so good? It’s not just skill as we’ve learned – there’s a company called Point Guard College and it has been setting athletes up for success since 1993.
Point Guard College (PGC) is an intense, no-nonsense learning experience that offers courses for middle school, high school and college-aged male and female student-athletes. Not like typical basketball camps, it is called a “college” for a reason. The course curriculum is specially designed to offer a complete basketball education. PGC teaches basketball players to play the game intelligently, to train purposefully, to be “coaches on the court,” and to be true leaders during games, in practice, during the off-season, and in everyday life.
Aside from teaching on the court, attendees have classroom lectures three times a day analyzing basketball video footage, studying the subtleties of winning basketball, learning about basketball leadership, and communication skills that will be valuable on the basketball court and in everyday life.
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The image above is from a Groupon deal of the day. Check out the copywriting – it’s fun and engaging. More about Groupon’s outstanding copywriting in the Writing section below.
How can crowdsourcing work for your business? (from Entrepreneur) – http://bit.ly/eZHCIN
Crowdsourcing is fundamentally changing business, government, non-profits, education, research, and other sectors. Remarkably, we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Here are my picks for the top ten crowdsourcing trends for 2011:
1. Crowdsourcing marketplaces will earn significantly more market share. In 2010, the top two design crowdsourcing marketplaces (crowdSPRING and 99designs) together paid well over $1 million dollars every month to thousands of designers from around the world. These payments will increase to the mid seven figures monthly in 2011.
2. More professionals will participate in crowdsourcing. In 2010, we already saw greater professional participation when many Brands and agencies embraced crowdsourcing and searched for new and innovative ways to purchase design, copywriting, R&D, and other services.
This trend is rapidly accelerating. For example, in a recent survey of crowdSPRING designers (conducted in 2010), 60% of the respondents reported that they had 5+ years of graphic design experience. In fact, more than 25% of survey respondents had 10+ years of graphic design experience (and 9% of the respondents had many decades of experience in the graphic design industry).
It’s not surprising that professionals are increasingly drawn to crowdsourcing marketplaces and initiatives. crowdSPRING designers and writers have recently worked with some of the world’s best brands, including: Amazon, LG, TiVo, Starbucks, Philips, Forbes, ConAgra, Epic Records, Random House, Grolsch, Barilla, The Economist, Air New Zealand and many others. Similarly, accomplished agencies, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Element79, Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty, DraftFCB, and many others, have posted numerous design and writing projects on crowdSPRING.
3. Professional associations (such as the AIGA in the U.S.) will continue to lose relevance because they do not speak for nor represent the interests of the growing creative movement. Over the last 97 years, the AIGA – a professional association for design in the United States – has attracted 20,000 professional, educator and student members.
In just two years, crowdSPRING’s designer community is already four times the size of AIGA. crowdSPRING is growing at the rate of one AIGA every 6 months.
Professionals design associations have learned little from the failed efforts of incumbents in the music industry to stifle innovation. For example, the AIGA tried to stifle competition and innovation through its misguided policies in the 1990′s (suggesting that speculative work was unethical). The Federal Trade Commission declared that the AIGA’s policies constituted an unlawful restraint of trade.
If you have a great idea for a new business, should you freely share that idea with others? What if they steal your idea?
Many entrepreneurs and small business owners obsess about keeping ideas confidential.
The vast majority of entrepreneurs and small business owners should be far more concerned about people listening to their ideas, than about people stealing their ideas.
But that doesn’t mean you should be reckless with your ideas. Here are five simple things you can do to protect your ideas (3 minute video):
Do you have other suggestions about ways to protect ideas? Do you agree that entrepreneurs shouldn’t worry about sharing their ideas with others?
The fragmentation of mass media comes with its own set of benefits and detriments. So while there is more and more great content available to us, it gets more difficult to track down the best bits. Starting with this post, I am compiling some of the articles I most enjoyed, found most thought-provoking, or felt would be of value to those of us who run our own businesses or are engaged in starting one. The 12 articles listed below are organized by category: Small business news, Small business and the economy, Starting a business, and Running your business.
Small business news
NY Times
Governments Clearing the Way for Small Business Creation, Report Says
“Governments have responded to the financial crisis by making it easier for entrepreneurs to start new businesses, paving the way for employment growth amid an uncertain economic outlook, according to a World Bank report released late Wednesday.”
“While the U.N. summit in Cancun undertakes big environmental initiatives, some small businesses are already taking up the green cause. What they’re discovering is that beyond the environmental factors, going green is helping out their bottom line, too.”
Small business and the economy
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Why AmEx Wants You to ‘Buy Local’
American Express is leading the way with it’s efforts to promote local businesses with its “Small Business Saturday” promotion, launched just after Thanksgiving. (Another BusinessWeek article can be found here)
CNNMoney.com
Small business ‘surge’ in hiring – ADP
“The nation’s engine of job growth is revving up: small businesses were responsible for 58% of the private sector hiring in November, according to a report released Wednesday.”
Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!
The image above shows a YouTube video and an ad below for a cruise. Ad targeting doesn’t always work. I’m not sure I’d want to take a cruise after seeing this video!
Small business and startup issues: paperwork galore” (about the coming flood of 1099 reports) – http://bit.ly/i3tiVd
Small business and startup issues: choosing the wrong software – http://bit.ly/gVLKvk
crowdSPRING is the world's #1 marketplace for entrepreneurs, small businesses, nonprofits and agencies who need custom logo design, web design, a new company name or other writing and design services. Over 110,000 designers and writers work on crowdSPRING. We are trusted by more than 27,000 happy clients around the world.
The fragmentation of mass media comes with its own set of benefits and detriments. So while there is more and more great content available to us, it gets more difficult to track down the best bits. Starting with this post, I am compiling some of the articles I most enjoyed, found most thought-provoking, or felt would be of value to those of us who run our own businesses or are engaged in starting one. The 12 articles listed below are organized by category: Small business news, Small business and the economy, Starting a business, and Running your business.
