Endorphin Advisors – SlideShare
Endorphin Advisors has a SlideShare account where we post copies of presentations, courses, workshop content and a wide range of other useful information.
Please see our SlideShare account at: http://www.slideshare.net/ebunaes.
Let us know if you have any questions or would like to have us lead a workshop, class or training session on one of the business, strategy, leadership or marketing topics in which we specialize.
Thank you for your support.
Endorphin Advisors on Facebook
Please visit us on Facebook and become a fan of Endorphin Advisors
Once you become a fan, please write on our wall and join the conversation.
We are actively posting news and useful information about a variety of marketing and business planning issues that we are sure you will find helpful in growing your business or improving your professional endeavors.
In our marketing work, we divide our work into two major areas: strategy and implementation.
In the strategy area, we focus on company vision, innovation, leadership, brand development and market research and definition.
In the implementation arena, we focus on web marketing, email marketing and social media marketing.
We look forward to talking with you soon!
Thank you for your interest and support.
Erik Bunaes
415.595.6813
Erik (at) EndorphinAdvisors (dot) com.
Constant Contact Email Expert
April 20, 2010 – Erik Bunaes became a Certified Contact Contact Email Marketing Expert. See Constant Contact Expert Certificate.
Contact us if you want to improve your email marketing or launch a new email marketing or web marketing campaign to really get you and your firm noticed
Thanks for your continued interest and support!
Endorphin Advisors – New One Page Menu of Services
Endorphin Advisors is a management consulting firm and marketing agency.
To easily review the range of services offered by Endorphin Advisors, we have published a new one page menu of services.
See the Endorphin Advisors “News” page to view this summary.
Get Your Complimentary “Six Month Marketing Action Plan” Today!
Download this valuable, comprehensive workbook by signing up for our monthly email news “The Endorphin Rush.”
Just visit our web site (www.EndorphinAdvisors.com) and enter your email address in the sign up box on our home page. You will receive an email confirmation with a link to your complimentary copy of “The Six Month Action Plan.”
Here is an excerpt from “The Six Month Action Plan”:
In the everyday crunch of business, sometimes it is difficult to take a step back for a high-level view of a marketing strategy. We put it off until tomorrow, a quiet time or until after we put out one last fire.
In the Six Month Marketing Action Plan we have consolidated into a very short, clear workbook a multi-step action plan to guide you along the thought path of creating or refining a marketing plan.
This action plan is designed for the specific needs of small and medium sized businesses as well as individual professionals and entrepreneurs that need to increase their own sales and business development outreach.
This workbook guides you through the fundamental steps of effectively marketing your products or services by:
1. Defining a clearly targeted audience
2. Understanding the alternative choices offered by your competition
3. Creating a compelling message which communicates your offerings benefits
4. Developing a strong demand-generating offer to get your target market to try your product or service.
This workbook also provides an opportunity to define and document your goals for the upcoming six month marketing period.
Then, we give you a month to month action plan to follow to keep you on track toward your goals, as well as a way to gauge and measure your success in your efforts.
Visit www.EndorphinAdvisors.com now and enter your email address for your complimentary copy of “The Six Month Action Plan.”
As always, thank you for your interest and support.
Strategic Business Advisor? Who Needs a Coach (or Advisor)?
Some of The Smartest Folks Around Use Strategic Advisors or Executive Coaches. What Can a Professional Advisor or Coach Do For You?
If we think of this from an athlete’s point of view, top athletes have a host of coaches. From Derek Jeter of the NY Yankees to 7-time Tour De France champion and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, from Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup overall champion alpine skier Lyndey Vonn to football quarterback Brett Favre. They all have coaches. Strength coaches, skills coaches, nutrition coaches, business advisors, agents and even media coaches.
Why not have advisors and coaches for what is likely one of the top two or three priorities in your life, next to your family? That is, your career. It may be wise to think of your career as if you were a professional athlete. Get coaching, practice and drill skills, learn new skills, strategize and role play for big meetings, presentations or sales calls, learn new approaches to your business or career.
If you are a business owner or experienced professional, you know how many different skill sets you need. These include:
1. Practicing and continuing to develop your particular skill, service or product
2. Creating new marketing strategies, products and services
3. Marketing your business
4. Building new customer relationships and maintain existing relationships
5. Hiring, motivating and managing employees
6. Hiring outside vendors
7. Managing the financial, accounting and tax side of your business.
8. Envisioning, purchasing (or building) and managing complex technology.
9. Keeping up with federal, state and local regulations.
That’s just a start.
Do you honestly excel at all of these, and can you with a busy work schedule maintain and manage all of these on your own?
As a business owner or entrepreneur, you have no choice. You must manage and excel at all of these skills, and more. Even as a professional or an employee working at a company, you must excel at one or more of these areas, too.
Who do you talk to for help in managing your work (as an owner, entrepreneur, executive or career professional)?
If you think that having a strategic advisor or executive coach on your side might benefit you, give us a call and let’s talk about it and how we have helped others.
Why Are Even Those Small Businesses That Think Social Media Will Help Their Business Still Not Using It?
New study shows that many small businesses are not using social media as a component in their marketing mix even though they think it would benefit their businesses. (See article below).
The question then is, why are these businesses not using social media in their market mix?
- Is it that they do not have time to do it?
- Do they not know which tools to use?
- Do they not know how to use the tools?
- Do they not understand what – and what not – to say on various social media outlets?
- Perhaps these folks are too introverted, shy or timid to venture into this social media ocean?
In any event, there is more and more concrete evidence that the use of social media as a component in a business’ marketing mix is worthwhile and useful in making your company, brand and products/services more well-known to a target market.
Let’s hope these folks step up and start dipping a toe into this powerful and fun new ocean of opportunity.
As always, we welcome your feedback and comments.
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog!
Erik
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EMPLOYERS(R) National Poll Finds More than Half of Small Businesses Believe Social Media Presence is Important, but Only 16 Percent Tap its Power
Fifty-nine percent of small businesses currently leveraging social media say it provides value to their business
RENO, Nev., March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The majority of small businesses (52 percent) believe having a social media presence is important for companies, according to the Small Business Opinion Poll commissioned byEMPLOYERS®, America’s small business insurance specialist®. The national poll also reveals that although there are nearly five million small businesses leveraging social media, that figure only accounts for 16 percent of the 29.7 million small businesses in the United States based on figures from the Small Business Administration.
A quick online search of how small businesses can generate value by integrating social media strategies to help grow their businesses yields page after page of useful tips, insights and advice for those looking to boost their marketing and customer-engagement efforts. Social media experts extol the business development benefits of social media platforms like LinkedIn®, Facebook®, Twitter®, and their own Web sites and blogs. As the Internet, e-mail and mobile communications have become widespread in modern society, EMPLOYERS’ small business poll indicates that a relatively low percentage of small businesses are effectively tapping these opportunities. The total still represents a significant critical mass of small businesses at 4.75 million.
Small Business Opinion Poll Snapshot:
- 52 percent believe having a social media presence is important for a company
- 59 percent of small businesses with social media presence say it has provided value to their business
- 16 percent of all polled have a business account (representing 4,752,000 based on SBA data)
- 49 percent say that their social media presence has produced advocates for their business
- 65 percent with a social media presence say they actively use it to promote their businesses
EMPLOYERS’ poll also discovered that about 7.7 million small businesses or 26 percent say they are likely to use social media channels to find information on workers’ compensation insurance. And while the percentage figure is relatively low today, 7.7 million small businesses represent a significant business opportunity for insurance providers to engage small businesses on social media platforms. It also illustrates that even though the majority of small businesses believe that having a social media presence is important, many are unaware of the valuable information available to them via social media channels as it relates to business insurance and other subjects relevant to running efficient, successful businesses.
Eight important tips to consider when using social media channels:
- Be a Good Listener: Once you sift through the social media noise and find the kinds of people with whom you wish to engage, take the time to hear what’s being said before jumping in.
- Think of Social Media as a Conversation Rather than a Marketing Vehicle: In many respects, social media is like a giant room with millions of people in it, talking about thousands of subjects. Your task is to locate the part of the conversation that matters to you and find a way to participate. And, just like a conversation in the real world, if you bully your way in and try to dominate, people will just turn away.
- Consider your Objectives: Whether you want to improve awareness of your brand, listen for customer comments about your business, or track what your competitors are up to, it’s important to establish your objectives and focus on them. Social Media can be incredibly time consuming if you approach it randomly.
- Join the Conversation: You may as well participate, the conversation goes on whether you choose to take part or not. By participating, you get to tell your part of the story.
- Inform Rather than “Me-form”: When you encounter a post, or series of posts, that you can add value to, do it. But you will do well to think in terms of contributing to the conversation rather than making a blunt sales pitch.
- Understand your Target Audiences: Knowing the needs and engagement-style of the people you want to connect with will give you a much better chance of having a positive experience with the conversations you join.
- Practice Makes Perfect: Refining your social media efforts by testing different ways to improve your engagement with agents and small business owners is a smart approach. Social media is definitely not a one-size-fits-all environment. Find what works best for you.
- Work Smart: By using free tools like HootSuite and Google Alerts, you can set up a fairly sophisticated Internet listening program at virtually no cost.
About the Small Business Opinion Poll
The survey commissioned by EMPLOYERS sampled 500 owners or managers of small businesses with 1-99 employees. Data was collected through telephone interviews during the period November 6 – 17, 2009 at the 95% confidence level. The sample is stratified across business size and industry grouping, including manufacturing/construction, transportation/ communication, wholesale/retail, financial services, or personal/professional services businesses. The survey was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation.
About Employers Holdings, Inc.
Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EIG) is a holding company with subsidiaries that are specialty providers of workers’ compensation insurance and services focused on select small businesses engaged in low-to-medium hazard industries. The company, through its subsidiaries, operates throughout the United States. Insurance is offered by Employers Insurance Company of Nevada, Employers Compensation Insurance Company, Employers Preferred Insurance Company, and Employers Assurance Company, all rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company. Additional information can be found at: http://www.employers.com.
Copyright© 2010 EMPLOYERS. All rights reserved. EMPLOYERS® and America’s small business insurance specialist.®are registered trademarks of Employers Insurance Company of Nevada.
SOURCE Employers Holdings, Inc.
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Endorphin Branding Services
1. Brand Consistency Audit
The Brand Consistency Audit is designed for those businesses that already have a full or partial suite of marketing materials in place.
These marketing tools may have been created by different designers, at different times over the course of months or years. There may be differing claims or benefits, inconsistent use of visual elements and/or colors, changing environmental or competitive factors or there may be conflicting information contained across the spectrum of these tools.
Inconsistent, or outright conflicting, information weakens your marketing message, and will create confusion about your brand and the value you provide. Confused customers mean they will shop somewhere else.
We will perform an on-site evaluation of all your existing marketing and brand-related materials and will provide recommendations on how you can make them more consistent with your image or brand.
We will determine which visual elements closely represent the image your business wants to project today, and what can be done to bring all of your marketing materials into alignment.
The Brand Consistency Audit package includes: on-site consulting session, evaluation of existing marketing tools, detailed marketing questionnaire, research of the company, industry, and competitors, written report containing recommendations.
2. Company Branding Package
Do you need a comprehensive marketing package that sets you apart from the competition? Is your current brand outdated or is it just time to breathe some new life into your image? Do your marketing pieces accurately represent your company today?
With our branding package, we can help you harness the power of a strong, clearly-defined company brand that attracts attention to your company and gives your staff renewed energy and excitement.
We begin with an in-depth analysis and discovery session which helps uncover your company and culture, your unique attributes, and what makes you different and exceptional. We listen to your needs, and help highlight your strengths and goals. We then translate this vision into a custom logo, stationery package, brochure, and pocket folder that speaks to your customer. The result: an invaluable suite of powerful and distinctive tools that projects a professional, sophisticated image to your customers.
Packages include consulting session, logo development, one (1) design for business card, letterhead and envelope, 8.5″ x 11″, 4-page brochure, and standard 9″ x 12″ pocket folder.
For clients who desire to take advantage of some of the features of this package, but not the whole offering, customized programs, individually priced, are available.
3. Logo Development Package
A logo should possess all of the following attributes:
- Be descriptive
- Be memorable
- Be unique from competitors
- Effective without color (black and white only)
- Be scalable (readable in various sizes and media)
- Create recognition
- Communicate product or service’s message and personality
- Speak to the audience
- Create credibility
With so many roles and responsibilities, it is important to get the logo just right.
We have a time-tested, clearly-defined process that delivers results in developing powerful logos. Our Logo Development packages include: consulting session, detailed marketing questionnaire, research of the company, industry, and competitors, five (5) initial logo designs, two (2) sets of revisions to one (1) final design, color palette selection, font selection, and final logo file formatted for print and web.
Contact us today and take big, bold steps forward in your branding
Endorphin Web Site Development Services
Custom Web Site Design & Build Out Package
Today, virtually everybody will do some level of research on the web before they make a purchase decision. They will find information, research alternatives and locate reviews about you online. All of this will help them make a smarter buying decision, and allow them to feel better about their purchases.
Your web site has a big impact on how potential customers view your company and how they interact with you, too. Your site needs to clearly tell your story, offer information about the value of your products or services, provide an easy way to contact you, and perhaps also show some recent work or offer testimonials from satisfied customers.
The Custom Web Site Package includes: consulting session, one (1) home page and one (1) interior page design, five (5) pages of SEO-friendly, XHTML/CSS code, two (2) sets of revisions for design and development, and testing on top Web browsers.
Please contact us for pricing and to discuss your specific needs and goals.
For high-impact content and messaging to go with your new web site, add the Web Site Writing Package, too. See below for more details.
WordPress Web Site Design & Development Package
A solid alternative to a custom-designed web site is to utilize WordPress.
Web sites developed using WordPress are often easier to maintain and are less expensive than developing a fully-customized web site from scratch.
There are some limitations to WordPress web sites, including how they look, but the cost and ease of use make this a good alternative for many people, especially as a “starter” web site.
The WordPress Web Site Package includes help with choosing the WordPress template that best suits your needs, five (5) web pages, appropriate plug-ins, and loading the site onto a web server of your choice.
Please contact us for pricing and to discuss your specific needs and goals.
For high-impact content and messaging to go with your new web site, add the Web Site Writing Package, too. See below for more details.
Web Site Writing Package
When someone lands on your web site, does it generate the kind of interest and engagement you are looking to achieve? Are you grabbing viewers from page one? Are you ready to create a new web site that reflects who your company is today? If so, this may be the perfect package for you.
In addition to getting your graphics, user interface and Web site design up to snuff, you may want to revisit the written content on your site.
The Web Site Writing Package crafts content that best reflects the company you are today, displays your staff biographies in the most empowering light, features a home page with a dynamic call to action, addresses the frequently asked questions your customers have about your company and services.
This package features writing that is user-friendly, easy-to-read and appropriate for your business goals and the audience with which you are communicating.
Packages include writing for the following pages: Home, About, Services, FAQ’s, Books, Products or Services page and Contact Us.
Please contact us for pricing and to discuss your specific needs and goals.
Contact us today to take a big, bold step forward in your social media marketing
Endorphin Email Marketing Services
Today, email marketing is everywhere. With such popularity, and with such competition for attention in your target market’s inbox, it is getting difficult to get your message through to your potential customers.
More importantly, it’s not just creating an email and sending it out to your contact database. To be most effective, and successful, an email marketing campaign has to act like a campaign, with a plan, strategy, guidelines, timelines and a performance measurement and review process. In short, you can probably use a Email Marketing Plan to keep all this information in one place.
Integrated Email Marketing
We help companies develop effective email marketing strategies and campaigns that meet your goals and suit your needs as a business. We help put a process in place, document this process and help you review the results of the campaign.
In email marketing it is critical to track and analyze the performance data from every email sent out, and to use that data to improve open and click-through rates, and to increase sales.
Email Marketing Project Management
After a strategy is in place, we help develop, implement and manage the specific email campaigns. This includes creating specific and unique landing pages with special offers and ways to track what your site visitors are doing on your site once they are there.
We do A/B split testing of email contact lists to optimize offers and wording in both email body and subject lines, all in an effort to increase open and click-through rates, as well as drive sales to your organization.
We help you measure the performance, cost and return on all marketing campaigns so your goals are being met and your investment is well-served.
Contact us today to take a big, bold step forward in your video marketing efforts
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