By Brody Dorland — February 13th, 2009
I know this might sound crazy (no offense Tom), but I often think that the acting classes and theater training I had as a kid has molded me into a better marketer. Let me explain…
Throughout my childhood, my parents would take my sister and I to see plays and musicals at local outdoor venues and dinner theaters. I couldn’t get enough of the theater so in fourth grade, I started actively pursuing roles in musicals at church and at school. I absolutely loved being on stage (still do), so in 6th grade I started taking acting classes provided by a local theater company. These classes not only taught me things about life on stage, they also taught me all kinds of things that I still use to this day. Here are a few:
- How to put on a production – Whether your planning a new product launch, managing a booth at a trade show or even executing an integrated marketing campaign, you have lots of moving pieces that have to come together for the big show.
- How to flip the switch - You may have just had the worst morning of your life, but you have to give a presentation for your biggest client in 5 minutes. You better get your sh*# together.
- Be prepared. But also be prepared to ad lib – Memorizing my lines was always a pain, but being able to give my monalogue “in my sleep” always improved my delivery. Instead of worrying about fumbling to find words, I could really sell it. But look out for curve balls. One critical client question may leave you asking, “LINE?”
- Put yourself in your character’s shoes - This is the technique that I probably use the most. In those acting classes, we learned how to step out of ourselves, out of our own heads and think deeply about the needs, desires and motivations of our character. “What’s my motivation?” is a question commonly heard among actors. But as marketers, aren’t we pretty much doing the same thing? Our job is to have a firm grasp on our customers’ needs, desires and motivations. Often times, we need to step outside of ourselves, outside of our own heads to understand what our customers really need and want from our products or services.
Do you agree? Did I miss anything? Have any wacky childhood theater stories to share? Don’t get me started…
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By Brody Dorland — January 1st, 2008
During the development of a website content strategy for a recent client (let’s call them Big Gorilla Promotional Products), we felt compelled to include an opening disclaimer that read like so:
“Your Commitment – Many of the tactical elements included in these proposed strategies will require ongoing support and internal creative resources. If those resources are not committed to the ongoing development of these items, then it is best that they aren’t implemented at all. But know that if this strategy is not implemented, site design will be the only thing that sets you apart from your competition. And that may not get you very far.”
On a daily basis, the Something Creative team is being asked to develop high-quality websites that will significantly elevate our client’s online presence and their customers’ user experiences. While all well and good, you, as the website owner and operator, need to understand that fresh, engaging content is the piece of the puzzle that will keep site visitors coming back. And it is vital that you make the commitment to providing that content on a normal basis.
What is a normal basis?
For some companies, that may mean daily content updates. For other small businesses, daily content updates might be overkill. The important thing is to know your audience, your industry, your marketplace and your competition, and introduce fresh, original content on a consistent frequency that will keep your visitors wanting more.
Getting back to the Big Gorrilla…We think that they understood our disclaimer. Knowing their internal resources (personnel, time and money), they only implemented the content strategies that they knew they would be able to handle consistently and we believe their new website will be better off in the long run.
Tags: content, development, strategy, website
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You’ve even read articles (here) about why you should have a blog. And these articles make sense and spell out the benefits that a blog can provide in terms of helping you market yourself on the web. But how do you get started? If you’re ready to pull the trigger, what are the things you need to consider so that your blog is not set up for failure?
