Posts Tagged ‘creative’
Monday, August 29th, 2011
Like small businesses, most not-for-profits have limited resources, ambitious goals, and finite capacity. Many NFPs operate in ways that would not be considered ‘business-like,’ AND these organizations, like their small, for-profit cousins, can benefit by leveraging the ideas and tools that we often discuss in the Lean Marketing series.
Here are 8 tips for not-for-profit organizations on marketing their organizations, and some tools and suggestions for setting goals, maximizing resources, and extending capacity.
1. Define your goals.
Many NFPs have long-range plans, ambitions, and a clear mission. But one of the tenets os lean marketing is to define short-term and intermediate goals. It is of critical importance that NFPs define smaller, intermediate goals which are highly measurable and allow the organization to assess whether the strategies and tactics in use are successful. When determining these it is important to be as specific as possible, and to determine in advance how progress will be measured. Here is a post which goes into greater detail on the topic of setting goals.
2. Have a plan.
Put it on paper. Like most business startups, NFPs should also write their plan out in the form of a report or a presentation. Key to this process is homework: research, research, research. It is just as important for NFPs to write a formal document as it is with a for-profit business and the content of the plan should have many similarities to a formal business plan: an executive summary, a description of the market space and size, competitive analysis, and projections of growth and description of how that growth will be measured
3. Understand your market.
Many NFPs don’t view their organization as being a participant in a market, but the truth is they are. A market merely defines the aggregate of demand for a product or service and every organization, whether for profit or not participates in one. Without a clear understanding of your market, it’s size, shape, and composition it is impossible to define goals, raise funds, or execute strategy. Ross made a video on this topic and it is just as relevant for NFPs as it is for all small business and startups.
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Tags: community, creative, crowdsourcing, design, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, leadership, marketing, NFP, not for profit, pr, public relations, small business, smallbiz, social media, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in business, community, crowdsourcing, How To, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy | No Comments »
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
A marketing channel can be defined as a system used to make goods, services, or concepts available for consumption. The very best businesses are adept at managing their marketing channels and can effectively transmit goods and services from the points of conception, extraction, or production to their customer and can gain significant competitive advantage in the process.
Important to this discussion, is the concept of the “value chain.” Michael Porter first described this concept in his 1985 book, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. In it, Porter describes a “chain” of activities, each link in the chain adding value to a product, ultimately giving it a greater total value than the sum of the links. The elements of a product value chain typically include inbound logistics and transportation, production (or operations), outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service or maintenance.
A classic example of a value chain is the manufacturing of a complex product: the automobile. Tons of raw materials, thousands of individual parts and components, literally hundreds of suppliers and vendors, vast logistics, acres of production plants, and thousands of workers are involved in the production of a car or truck. More logistics are involved in the outbound sees of the completed product, as well as marketing efforts, direct sales, and finally service and maintenance. The value of that car or truck is indeed greater thank the sum of the various parts that went into its creation.
Companies that deal in digital products and services, can leverage the concepts of marketing channels and the value chain to enhance their own offerings, build valuable relationships with their customers, and find efficiencies in their own processes. A powerful marketing channel available to digital businesses is the social media and platforms like Twitter and Facebook. SM can be leveraged to engage your customers, gain an understanding of their requirements, and strengthen communications and collaboration with their channel partners. Indeed, effective use of social media can be to digital companies what a well-designed logistics hub can be to a wholesaler of packaged goods.
Here are 5 tips for understanding and managing a specific marketing channel: the social media.
1. Engage your audience and your partner’s
If your goal is to make your product or service easily available to your targeted consumers, social media can provide a great channel for doing so. SM platforms can act as tools for aligning the interests of social media participants. When SM participants act as channel “partners” they can add great value to your messaging and your company’s reputation while at the same time promoting their own interests and extracting their own value. Re-tweeting a message on Twitter benefits both partners, by providing value to each and enhancing both partner’s reputations.
2. Understand what your customers want
Whether you are aware of them or not, your customers each have their own “service output demands.” These SODs make up a person’s requirements around the purchase of your product or service. SODs typically consist of a mix of factors, including expedience (“I want to purchase a service that is convenient for me”), pricing (“I want to pay the lowest price available”), and qualitative elements (“I need a well-trained salesperson who can educate me on using this service”). Using social media to listen can help you to understand your customers SODs by giving them the ability to talk back to you – just ask them what they value and they will tell you. Simple, right?
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Tags: branding, creative, crowdsourcing, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, facebook, marketing, product design, small biz, small business, smallbiz, social media, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy, twitter
Posted in business, How To, inspiration, marketing, social media, start-up tips, Strategy, Technology | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Grace Wall Conlon (crowdSPRING username: gracewc) today. Grace is from Brooklyn, New York and currently lives and works in Provo, Utah.
1. Please tell us about yourself.
Date of Birth: December 7, 1921 (I am in my 90th year and still working as a free-lance writer. I do not ever plan to retire.)
Although I’ve lived and worked in many other cities and states, I still consider Brooklyn to be my home town. I’ve lived in Wantagh, L.I; Boynton Beach, FL; Greenwich, CT; the Hamptons, L.I. N.Y.; Westport, CT; the Upper East Side of Manhattan, N.Y.; Bountiful, UT; Salt Lake City, UT; Orem, UT; Spanish Fork, UT; Provo, UT (where I currently reside).
I’ve written for newspapers and magazines in many of these places, e.g. as a columnist for Advertising Age in NYC; technical writer for Marketing Communications magazine, NYC; publisher/writer, illustrator for The Sandpiper magazine, Boca Raton; reporter for Greenwich Time/The Advocate, Stamford, CT; reporter/columnist for Utah County Journal, Springville, UT; reporter/columnist for Orem Daily News, Orem, UT; reporter/columnist for The Spanish Fork Press, Spanish Fork, UT; columnist for the Daily Herald, Provo, UT; contributor to Utah Business magazine; contributor to Connect magazine, UT.
2. How did you become interested in writing?
I’ve been writing all my life – prose, poetry, technical studies, short stories, novels, news stories, investigative journalism – just about any form of writing you might imagine. I wrote my first poem at seven years of age and I still write both serious poetry and jingles. I’ve written three novels, one of which I self-published. I am considering doing the same for the second one. I’ve also written a screen play for an animated feature but other than submitting it to the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts several years ago during a contest, I’ve done nothing more with it. It made it to the final leg of the contest, though. The screen play was expanded from an original short story I wrote for a magazine I was publishing in Florida.
I really write because I need this outlet, I guess. The business end of promoting my work leaves me absolutely cold.
My published novel is “Satan’s Caravan, A Victory Over the Adversary.” I wrote it in 1978 but didn’t self-publish until 1995. This novel has a very interesting story attached to it and, if you would like, I’ll tell the background in a separate story. Some very unusual aspects prompted me to self publish.
3. Who/what are some of the biggest influences on your writing?
My interest in writing continued through my school years, both in grade school and high school. My freshman- grade English teacher was very instrumental in establishing the discipline that most writers, including myself, really need; e.g. to write every day, even when you don’t feel like writing. Students in this teacher’s class had to write a short theme every day and maintain a notebook of them. By the end of the term, even the most uncooperative among us, had to concede that this daily exercise really worked. The improvement each of us showed in our work was quite evident.
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Tags: 12 questions, advertising, blog, community, copywriting, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, Grace Wall Conlon, inspiration, interview, marketing, weekly glance of awesomeness, writing
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, inspiration, Interviews, marketing, Uncategorized, writing | 3 Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature MJ (crowdSPRING username: UpQuark) today. MJ lives and works in the desert southwest of the US.
1. Please tell us about yourself.
My name is MJ (I’m a female “Junior”). Contrary to popular belief, I was not spawned, but rather hatched in the northeast region of the US. I live in the desert southwest US, and am the youngest of four girls who, oddly and inexplicably, were not hatched. The explanation is classified, even to me.
Okay, so random tidbit (or is it random? We’ll see…): I’m ambidextrous. Not in a perfect-handwriting-with-either-hand kind of way, because my handwriting isn’t… oh wait! My handwriting is equally bad with either hand, so there ya have it. Clarification issue solved.
I actually do believe that my ambidexterity translates into everything I do, in that my logical and creative sides tend to balance each other out, or slap each other around, depending on what’s needed. I’m often frenetically creative and possess hyperfocus superpowers (unless I see something shiny, and not in a girly way; I mean like futuristic spacecraft shiny. Or escaped mercury). My sister and I can riff on creative ideas faster than a… something really fast, or get extremely excited about something really geeky. If I get too hyped, there’s cheap entertainment to be had. Think superball let loose on a vibrating surface.
So, linear background.
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Tags: 12 questions, blog, community, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, design, designer, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, inspiration, interview, logo, logo design, logos, MJ, UpQuark, weekly glance of awesomeness
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature Keith Woodruff (crowdSPRING username: Dayshift) today. Keith lives and works in Akron, Ohio.
1. Please tell us about yourself.
I am an ex ad agency writer and am freelancing now as gRasShoPpEr Communication. (The big and small font is an e.e. cummings thing.) My hobbies are, in this order I suppose, reading and writing, fishing, hor
ror movies, craft beer (all hail Lagunitas) and jogging to run off the beer – and to smooth out the edges. I have two Border Terriers, Otty and Indy, and am haunted by the ghosts of my cats Katie and Paisley. My first love was the ocean, the Pacific, even though during my childhood there the Zodiac Killer was hiding down every path. One of my favorite foods is Blind Robins. I makes em and eats em, much to the disgust of everyone around. (If you have to ask you’ll be sorry.)
2. How did you become interested in writing?
I would have to say reading made me interested in writing. (Have always been an avid reader.) I read Of Mice and Men in high school and was devastated, in a good way if that makes any sense. I thought, if I could ever write a story this gorgeous that would be quite an accomplishment. Then there was the whole Stephen King thing.
3. Who/what are some of the biggest influences on your writing?
… Third base. I think the word play of classic comedy had a big influence on my advertising writing. I remember loving the word gags of Abbott and Costello as a kid (and still do.) as well as Laurel and Hardy and imitated their style of word play whenever I could. Later Steve Martin, George Carlin, Steven Wright, more wordsmiths. I think that that love of word play and sense of humor about language helped me with some of my best headlines and also makes it hard to get a straight answer out of me—or so I am constantly told.
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Tags: 12 questions, ads, advertising, blog, branding, community, copywriting, creative, creativity, crowdspring, Dayshift, design, graphic design, graphics design, inspiration, interview, Keith Woodruff, marketing, weekly glance of awesomeness, writing
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized, writing | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Greg Hartle is re-learning the hard way what it means to be an entrepreneur. A successful small businessman with a decade of experience, he set out this past winter to visit all 50 states, to interview 501 entrepreneurs from across the country and, at the same time,to reinvent his life from scratch. On January 5th, he left a friend’s home in Seattle, having given away his home, cars, and possessions and with just a laptop, $10 in cash and a backpack with a few changes of clothing. His goal was to build a new life – one introduction, one small business opportunity, and one person at a time; by using the skills he had learned in his ‘old’ life, he would start a new one and see where opportunity took him next. Greg blogs about his experiences and posts the interviews he is conducting with entrepreneurs on his own site, “10 Dollars and a Laptop.”
I met Greg when he visited Chicago last month and was blown away by his judgement, his courage, and his perseverance. Greg was making his own opportunities as he was moving across the country, leveraging the people he met, developing new skills as he traveled, gathering assets which he could use, and defining for himself the next step almost minute-by-minute. As I thought about Greg and his journey, I realized that those are the core elements of what makes an entrepreneur and, in many ways, it is the mix of those elements that can determine success or failure for so many of us.
I asked Greg if he would mind sharing some thoughts on his own adventure with us and sent him some questions which he kindly answered in an email from Long Island this past week.
Whatever led you to start this “venture?” How did the idea come about?
Over the last three years many people who are going through a significant personal and economic transition in their life have come to me asking advice on how I was able to rebuild my life after overcoming a devastating illness that caused the loss of my business, home, and life savings. Rather than simply tell them how I did it, I thought I would show them how I would do it now. In November of 2010 the idea popped into my head and the idea was offically born. Over the next two months I donated everything I owned, flew to Seattle, and launched the experiment on January 5, 2011.
How will you define success?
I define success of the project in two forms. For me: traveling through all 50 states, interviewing 501 entrepreneurs, and launching at least one successful business. For the world: Inspiring as many aspiring entrepreneurs as possible to act on their idea(s).
What are the top three skills you need to execute successfully?
1) Creative Adaptation. The ability to be open to learning something new every day and NOT pulling forward my beliefs about what is or isn’t possible from my previous life experiences.
2) Social Integration. The ability to communicate both online & offline with people and quickly move those conversations to either platform.
3) Inspired Action. The ability to inspire others to move from inspired into action.
How do you find people to meet or network with?
Social networks such as Twitter, Craigslist, Couchsurfing, and Meetup. I also go to every in-person business/entrepreneur/technology networking event I can attend. I now have a network of over 350 people that I’ve directly interacted with since I began this experiment.
Describe a typical ’10 Dollars and a Laptop’ day.
Because I have very few resources (money, vehicle, internet access) to my name right now my day is largely dictated by the people I meet and how we can benefit each other. A few things that I focus upon daily regardless of where I’m at are meditation in the morning, exercise, doing one thing embarrassing to get past judgement and fear, writing in my gratitude journal in the evening, and meeting at least three new people.
How do you decide where to go next?
So far, I’ve gone wherever I can get based on the few dollars I have and where someone will host me. The intention is to earn a living, accumulate access to resources, and be able to choose where I go next. I haven’t reached this point, but I feel I’m close.
How has this journey affected your personal and family life?
To date, I have not seen a single friend or family member in person. That obviously takes a toll of some sort on each of those relationships. I do, however, talk (via phone and skype video) with my friends and family regularly. I’m certain I will lose some friendships over this experience. It’s part of the process.
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Tags: 10 Dollars and a Laptop, creative, creativity, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, hartle, inspiration, leadership, small biz, small business, smallbiz, start-up, startup, startups, Strategy
Posted in Awesomeness, business, How To, inspiration, Interviews, social media, start-up tips, Strategy | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
Not long ago my girlfriend came home from a long night of waiting tables and, as per our usual after-work conversation, began to walk me through the horrors of the service industry. “I was just in the weeds,” she finally sighed.
“Well there’s your problem right there,” I replied. “I mean honestly, drug abuse on the job…”
“IN the weeds, you goon. I was IN the weeds.”
“In the what now?”
I pride myself on keeping a lexicon of slang, antiquated and otherwise readily at my disposal. This one, however, was new to me. So about 10 minutes of explanation and no less than 4 diagrams later, I finally got it. I think Yahoo! Answers actually does a nice summation:
“Diners’ wait-staff would get hopelessly behind and overwhelmed by orders, causing them to struggle as if they were walking through remarkably high weeds.”
Huh. How incredibly appropriate. And it’s safe to say we’ve all been there. Well, not waiting tables in a diner, per se, but we’ve all been in the weeds. I certainly have. Support tickets piles up, voice mailboxes get filled to capacity, twitter um, tweets.
There’s a millions different ways for people to get your attention and a million different ways for you to reply. Some folks will only speak on the phone. Others only through email. There are folks on cS who strictly go through our private messaging system. I had a dude hit me up on facebook once. And part of my responsibility is to juggle the queries from each medium, review each request and reply in kind.
And that’s just my grind. As a designer, I can only imagine what it’s like to walk in your shoes: different clients all concerned about their various needs, revisions, deadlines, et al. Actually, I’ve had the folks at cS laboratories recreate an average day in the life of y’all. Behold!
So yeah, it’s easy to get in the weeds. How in the world to you get out? Yahoo! Answers, you got anything?
“..drinking lots of cranberry juice, get a detox kit from GNC or wherever (which are pretty expensive), and take lots of vitamin-B to speed up your metabolism.”
Not helpful Y! Answers. Not helpful in the slightest. Now go sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.
Okay, well here’s my trick for getting out of the bottomless mire of metaphors for getting overwhelmed on the job: Turn off the monitor. Turn off the phone. And walk away.
Seems simple right? It’s not. Pressing the reset button takes equal parts zen, skill and steeled determination (unless you’re a Nintendo, in which case you just hit the reset button). But 9 times out of 10 it works and you’re back in the game, clear head and all.
But that’s just me. How do you guys get out of the weeds?
image credit: a47nn
Tags: concentration, creative, design, focus, freelancing, productivity
Posted in community, design, How To | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice.
We’re very proud to feature zaxgarner (crowdSPRING username: zaxgarner) today. He lives and works in North Carolina.
Hey cS Community!
Thanks for the opportunity to join you today.
Life has been busy, so I will drop a few brief lines for a quick read & then we can all get back to designing!
1. Please tell us about yourself.
I’m a self described simple man…. 02′ Grad Appalachian State University (the real ASU…in Boone NC) – I think this was also Kevin’s ol’ stomping ground! I majored in Graphic Design & Marketing… in an attempt to balance the business side with the creative. The design 
department was big on typography & fine art ‘which was a huge plus’. I took classes in casting, photography, clays, & metals etc… I think I could have got by with a little less art history though! The marketing courses were awesome, I enjoyed learning how design/creative work enters our marketplace & society.
Former Rowdy Kid, Construction worker, Repo-Man, & Tattoo artist…. To Graphic Designer. Also a converted Christian since 04′ attempting to operate under Col.3:17.
2. How did you become interested in design?
I started my design career with non-commissioned murals. You know; crayons on walls etc… & tracing drawing books to keep up with my older brothers. I won a few art contests in kindergarten & found out that this design thing could pay off – The hook was set!
3. What is your favorite project from the past year?
In listening to a podcast I found out Concealment Solutions – in Orem Utah was hosting an independent T-Shirt design competition for their best selling concealment holster – ‘The Black Mamba’. In working with the owner we got the Tee nailed down & the project evolved into a complete branding package for: Concealment Solution’s primary logo, Misc. Product logos, Business cards & web headers etc… I still have a great working relationship with them… with future projects on the horizon! They sent a me a bunch of gear as an added bonus!
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Tags: 12 questions, community, creative, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, design, designer, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, illustration, inspiration, interview, logo, logo design, logos, weekly glance of awesomeness, zaxgar.com, zaxgarner
Posted in Awesomeness, community, crowdsourcing, design, inspiration, Interviews, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, April 15th, 2011
If you are a creative, you know the galleries in projects can be filled with page after page of designs, and everyone is trying to stand out from the crowd. There are several techniques you can use to display your designs that may help draw the eye of the buyer and the decision makers on their team.
First, you need to start with your brilliant design idea. Next – display your concept in a way that will capture attention. Here are a few ideas…
Versatility
For logo projects, it is important that your design is versatile enough to work wherever a company will want to use it. The design will need to work on the web, in print, and on many other types of collateral.
For true flexibility, show that the logo can work in color, on a dark background and light background, and in back and white.
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Tags: branding, community, creative, creativity, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, design, designer, graphic design, graphics design, graphics designer, inspiration, logo, logo design, logos, Strategy, weekly glance of awesomeness
Posted in Awesomeness, design, How To, inspiration, Strategy, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Monday, April 11th, 2011
It is almost 3 years since we opened the doors to crowdSPRING and in that time we have grown dramatically. In May of 2008, we started out with fewer than 600 registered users. By May of 2009 we had grown to just under 30,000, and by May 2010 we were 79,000 strong; today we have nearly 125,000 registered users and are growing by 1,100 per week! And they are active: after one year in business, Creatives had collectively submitted over 275,000 entries to projects; by May 2010 the entry count was over 900,000 and as of today the number has more than doubled with over 1.8 million individual entries submitted to projects on the site!
Traffic to the site has also increased dramatically; When we launched on May 6th, 2008 we had already received over 19,000 visits during our beta-testing period. By the same date in 2009 we had received 551,000 visits; a year later we were well over 1.3 million. Our growth continues to accelerate; to date we have welcomed more than 2.3 million visitors!
The international flavor of our community has not ceased to amaze us and our footprint has continued to spread since we launched – after our first year in business visitors came from 204 countries and spoke 136 languages. By May of 2010 they came from 219 countries and spoke 199 languages; according to Google Analytics, there are only 5 countries from which we have not had a single visit: Chad, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Guinea, and The Central African Republic. But, not to worry – as I write this, our marketing geniuses are actively targeting those 5 nations and we expect to welcome them to our community in 2011!
Interestingly, we have become more international with each year – after one year in business, US visitors accounted for 73% of the traffic to the site; in the last year US visits accounted for only 61%! What were the 10 visiting countries in the past 3 years, you ask? Take a look here to see how the Top 10 have changed in each year over year:
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Tags: community, countries, creative, crowdsourcing, crowdspring, inspiration, languages, traffic, visitors
Posted in business, community, inspiration, Site Updates | 10 Comments »
