From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

I attended a pre-proposal meeting this morning that our agency was invited to. Without divulging too many details, this city commission asked several regional advertising agencies, marketing agencies, new media agencies and communications firms to participate in their RFP process. JASE was selected to be a part of this prestigious process.

As I quite often do, I exited the meeting wanting to call every person on our team and begin brainstorming ideas instantly. As I ran through this list of people in my head I noticed the types of folks I wanted to talk to - creatives, operational, techies, thinkers, and the list goes on.

Now to make my point - I promise there is one.

In order to keep your agency in the running during the bidding process of a project, both right-brain folks and left-brain folks are equally important and must work together. One side out maneuvering the other would be catastrophic. What do I mean?

Left Brain

Your initial contact (in our case, the written Answer to the RFP) with the potential client is all about convincing them that you belong on their pitch process. They need to see:

• Your team’s professionalism and confidence in your work.
• How your team thinks logically, strategically and on-task.
• The quality of your team’s credentials.
• Examples of successful campaigns.
• The creativity your team can demonstrate.

Right Brain

Once your pitch has made it through the cut process, you must then address the more emotional senses and concerns that will differentiate you from the next agency. They need to see:

• The passion your team has for their project.
• The overwhelming innovation your team’s brainstorming processes have produced.
• Your team’s creative concepts have aligned with their strategic goals.
• The working chemistry your team can share with the client.

We hope to have a very successful bid process on this particular RFP. And hopefully these points can help you. Good luck in your agency’s next pitch.

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On Twitter? Follow me at @parnellk63.

Listening to Take Five by Acoustic Alchemy.

Is the strategy behind your marketing plan shooting for the right audience? Does each initiative, including your inbound marketing tactics, identify with your sales goals?

Make sure your marketing firm doesn’t leave you all alone with your ideas.

Photo taken of a house in the middle of the Nansemond River in Virginia

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Let’s talk about mixing the two worlds of offline advertising and online advertising. Don’t allow advertising budget segregations to not let inbound marketing do its job. Inbound marketing is a money maker for any size business.

Watch the free video here.

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I’m very excited to have finally started this weekend reading David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing & PR. The book has been sitting on the bookshelves in my office for months. 

I’ve gotten on the ‘reading’ kick lately having just ordered copies of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust (by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith) and Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah).

What are you reading right now?

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Our marketing team initiated a reboot earlier this week of the thinking by our clients of the purpose of a SWOT Analysis, what they can expect as a report from the study and how the SWOT Analysis can be used in support of a full-blown Marketing Plan.

Get full details here.

During these days of tight economic times a lot of us that are decision-makers for our respective companies are thinking hard about the details of our marketing initiatives. How should we market? Should we market? How should we spend? And at what rate should we spend?

JASE published an article on our company blog a few months ago that references thoughts from the Harvard Business Review. It’s worth the read.

Harvard Business Review - How to Market during a Recession

Twitter users get a little face time at Va. Beach ‘tweetup’

By Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 1, 2009
VIRGINIA BEACH

So, you know all those people who spend so much time talking to each other on Twitter? They also like to meet in person, as they did Wednesday evening at a “tweetup.”

More than 90 Twitter users met at Gordon Biersch restaurant at Town Center to see each other in the flesh. Most were professionals networking for business and personal reasons.

“A tweetup is just a gathering of people that use Twitter,” said Naoma Doriguzzi, 32, who has hosted about 10 this year. “Just meeting the people behind Twitter.”

Some Twitter users on Wednesday wore suits; others wore jeans. What they had in common was use of social media to network, meet people and, for many, do business.

Keith Parnell, 46, of Norfolk is the founder of JASE Group, an advertising and marketing company. At a tweetup, people talk about everything, he said, just as they do on Twitter.

“They’re growing relationships,” he said. “They’re growing both personal and they’re growing business relationships.”

Jennifer Taylor, 26, of Suffolk said she got a job interview Wednesday with a marketing company, lined up by someone who followed her on Twitter.

Most of the networking was in person Wednesday night, although some people brought laptops to update Twitter.

Twitter makes it easy for people to have conversations about anything, Doriguzzi said. She is the social media director for New American Mortgage and uses Twitter to brand herself. People she has never met have recognized her because of her photo on Twitter and Facebook, she said.

“I’ve met random people online that I’ve never met in person that I’ve actually done business with - new clients,” she said. “It’s an easy conversation. Because it’s so simple… you can talk to people in a casual way.”

Click here for a guide to Twitter.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com

Source: http://hamptonroads.com/2009/09/twitter-users-get-little-face-time-va-beach-tweetup

The official count from Naoma Doriguzzi, organizer of the latest Hampton Roads Internet Marketing meetup, is 99 people. We had a great crowd of professionals at Gordon Biersch in Virginia Beach show to talk business and network with like-minded Hampton Roads folks. The JASE team was there to be in the action. Don’t miss the next event.

How is your online marketing campaign producing for you? Are your sales agents overworked yet?

I’ve heard any one of four discouraging answers many times over in the past few months.

1. My what? I guess don’t have one.
2. Yes, it is working great for us. But it doesn’t equal our traditional advertising efforts.
3. No, I must be doing something wrong.
4. I make new Facebook friends all the time but the sales dollars are not paying the bills.

The bottom line is, your online marketing campaign should be strategically aligned with sales goals, and thoughtfully planned and executed. Your online marketing campaign should have inbound marketing initiatives embedded that are measurable and proven. Your online marketing campaign should be producing overwhelming results feeding your sales team.

And probably even more critical than any other item in your planning, don’t rely on the advice of folks that just hang out on Facebook. Marketing is a skill. Online marketing is an even more specialized skill. Don’t leave the success of your business to just anyone.

Laura Foy of Channel 10 recently interviewed a few folks on the street in Any Town, USA to talk Internet. That’s right, just to talk Internet. Knowing this was a very small sampling of a possible Internet audience, sometimes we need to hear these kinds of comments and reactions just to remind us of the demographics and (lack of) Internet savvy of portions of our audience.

As brand managers and online marketers is it our job to educate these folks as well as accommodate the acronym-laden surfer that lives ‘in’ the Internet everyday?

Possibly. Probably. Watch the video and let me your thoughts.

Don’t sit around and hope you can make the playoffs. Small businesses don’t have that luxury. Prepare your company for success.

Do you have a marketing plan established for your business? You should. Don’t get caught without a solid strategy, goals and guidance.

“Playoffs?! Don’t talk about playoffs! Are you kidding me? Playoffs?! I’m just hoping we can win a game, another game!” - Jim Mora, Head Coach, Indianapolis Colts, November 25, 2001

Here’s a quick definition of Internet Marketing from the JASE website:

Internet marketing focuses on creating powerful content that will lead potential customers to your brand, product or service line through online methods like searching, referrals, and links from other web entities such as blogs, video and social communities.

If you are not investing in and actively participating in Internet Marketing, you are certainly missing an audience that is looking for you.

I talked a while back during the Coffee with the CEO series about aligning your business to attract Inbound Marketing traffic. See the video here. A quick overview of the video: social media fits into an inbound marketing campaign, inbound marketing fits into an internet marketing campaign, and internet marketing (along with traditional marketing) fits into an overall marketing plan.

Read that again if you didn’t understand. Internet Marketing can be, should be, and (if you talk to us) will be a vital aspect of solid sales leads generation for your sales staff.

Don’t miss out on Internet Marketing. Let’s talk.

Never miss an opportunity while you’re out in the community to talk about what you do everyday. If you have the passion, if you love your work, if you live for the success of your current project, why wouldn’t you want to shout it from the mountain-top?

I just dropped our new (used) car off at the local station for a state inspection. While the car is being inspected, I’m here at Starbucks (photo below taken now) working. Back at the inspection station I had my JASE book bag hanging over one shoulder so I could bring the laptop. Right on cue, the station manager asked me about the JASE logo on my bag. Hooked. Good conversation ensued that couldn’t be bought with the best advertising dollars.

Marketing message: Never miss an opportunity, triggered by tactful advertising, to talk about your passion. Connections are connections. Networking is networking. And everyone has friends who have friends. Talk your wares every chance you get.

“Wares” definition:
Marketable skills: skills or talents offered as a service or a commodity.

We are back from vacation and the whole team is refreshed and ready to roll.

Wanna talk social media? Wanna talk inbound marketing? Wanna talk advertising? Wanna talk tech?

Call us - (757) 715-4595.

Email us - info@jasegroup.com.

We’re ready to talk.

This post will give you a little insight into my running-crazy-brain these days.

I woke up this morning from a dead sleep with this quote in my head: “Don’t social media the kids, fly out and embarrass them in person.” I have no idea why. And I have no idea where it came from.

Did I hear it on TV? Did I overhear it in a conversation somewhere and cannot recall? I don’t know. But I think it’s right on target for a certain generation. If nothing else, it’s funny.
Social media, social networking, is not for everyone. So don’t try to force fit it into your life or into your business’s life. Check out the Social Media is NOT the Marketing Silver Bullet video and let me know your thoughts.

* Image courtesy of Ken Blackwell’s Flickr stream.