Marketing Neophyte

Those few faithful souls who still occasionally check in on me despite my semi-stagnation will have certainly noticed a lack of commitment on my part recently. Normally I would apologize and promise to do better, but we all have seen how that turns out. So, instead, I am taking this blog in a new and exciting direction.

I will still write about my experiences with Universe Point as that remains my most important endevour, but now I am going to refocus the majority of this blog on some work I am doing with my long-time friend Chad Ludeman.Together, we are going to see what two neophytes can do to help small businesses in our neighborhood (Fishtown, Philadelphia) establish themselves and grow through pragmatic, affordable marketing techniques.

I’m not prepared to share all the details of this undertaking quite yet, but we have our first guinea pig  client lined up. Once Chad and I have established all the ground rules of this experiment I will share them here and expect some feedback. What we have in mind is definitely not the ordinary marketing consultant gig, but you will have to wait and see exactly how foolish we really are.

You may wonder how I intend to balance this work with all the effort a startup like Universe Point requires. Basically, I plan to continue my regimine of little sleep and no social life. It’s worked so far.

Stay tuned.

So, in my last post I hinted at a new direction for this blog and the formation of a Marketing Neophyte team. Well, here’s the basic idea.

Chad Ludeman and I are both relatively untrained (in the traditional sense) marketers who also happen to be proud members of the Fishtown – E. Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. As neophyte marketers and concerned community members we have noticed the difficulties of the small start-up companies in our area. Particular those companies that lack the time, money and expertise for proper marketing efforts.

I think we can all agree that every company would benefit from marketing assistance, particularly those just starting out. Knowing this and wanting companies to succeed in our area, Chad and I, the first members of the Neophyte team, have decided to take on projects helping small start-up businesses grow and succeed.

Our first project is Cornerstone Market and Produce, a new, much needed produce market and deli in Fishtown. Our intent is to offer them focused attention for a month on their entire marketing plan including simple web presence, in-store design, promotions and events and pretty much anything else we come up with. During this time careful reporting will allow us to measure the impact of various tactics and ideas.

The plans will focus on no cost or low cost options. Bootstrapping with”expert” direction is the idea we are shooting for. With that in mind, we are also not charging anything for this help. Crazy? Yes, but there are reasons.

Most small companies can’t afford the type of marketing assistance we are offering. This means that their growth is slower and their road to profitability is longer. The hope is that through helping these few companies and requiring careful documentation of the results we can provide useful information to all young businesses starting with little capital. Of course, if the companies we work with become profitable we might not mind a little kick-back.

In fact, to be perfectly honest, our preliminary work with Cornerstone has already paid in cheese. The owners brought a very tasty cheese plate to the after part of my fiancee Marie’s gallery opening.

Next time I will introduce you to the two Mikes that own and operate Cornerstone and tell you a bit about our preliminary meetings. Stay tuned and as always, use the comments to let me know what you think.

This week Chad and I began work on the website for Cornerstone Market and Produce. Using experience we have gathered over the last couple of years we found a domain name, a web host and a platform we thought would be most effective for a small, non-web based business. The design process began yesterday, and we are on our way to a full working site. Now, if only content were the easy part.

A web presence of some sort is a necessity for virtually every business, regardless of size or industry. While we wouldn’t put it at the top of the list for a produce market and deli, the current state of the business brought it to the forefront. Since the guys at Cornerstone had already done much of their preliminary work before we came in, we decided to build the site before revisiting early decisions and ideas. Also, since the blogs and forums in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia are so active, we felt it would be good to give them something to point at when discussing Cornerstone.

When designing a site for a small off-line business three of the biggest concerns are:

Simplicity – The site needs to allow visitors to find information simply and easily. For the market we should be concerned with basics like directions, hours, menus and specials. Visitors shouldn’t have to jump through hoops or take additional steps to find this information. Though tempting, sites seeking simplicity should avoid major flash elements and elaborate scripting.

Consistency – The site should match in color, design and images with the business’ brand. In this case it is a matter of meeting visitor expectations. The site should be obvious about what the business does and how it does it. In doing so, it should attempt to capture a bit of the attitude of the business. For Cornerstone this means fresh, organic colors, clean design, accessible language and a few personal touches. As a community business with a devoted staff, Cornerstone can connect with visitors through the personalities of the owners and employees, translating the in-store feeling of friendliness and invitation to their site.

Ease of Management -Sites designed for small organizations need to account for the ongoing management of the site. The failure to do this is one of the main reasons most small business sites are so out of date. Chances are, the small business owner probably isn’t a web designer and probably can’t afford to pay one to maintain their site. Rather than simply build a site and leave, we believe it is important to provide for the site’s future. To this end we are building Cornerstone’s site on a WordPress platform and holding a training session with the owners and key employees to teach them how to update and maintain their site. We will also help them design a schedule by which site update consistency can be maintained.

With these concerns in mind, I believe it is important that small businesses have professional (or in our case semi-professional) help. Getting assistance with the initial design will save many headaches moving forward and will get your web presence started on the right foot.

Next time I will tell you a bit about the platform, hosting and domain name we chose for Cornerstone. For now, let me know what you think of my thoughts on small business web design. I am a neophyte after all, and I could always use more advice.

Cornerstone Market and Produce existed as a business, a building and a brand before we got anywhere near it. They already had a name, a logo and some solid ideas of what they wanted to be and where they wanted to end up. With this established base intact we had to jump in mid-stream and try not to turn the boat over in the process.

Of course, we wouldn’t be jumping in the boat at all if we didn’t feel like we had some contributions to make to the trip. One particular existing condition we felt we could assist with, prior to site design or marketing suggestions, was an adjustment of Cornerstone’s domain name.

The domain that existed prior to our arrival was a somewhat cumbersome www.cornerstonemarketandproduce.com. Ok, somewhat cumbersome might be a bit of an understatement. Aside from the length and the way the words kind of run together, the domain took up an inordinate amount of space on a business card. It also wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that Google drools over. I know . . . I know . . . the Google algorithm doesn’t care about  domain names, but tell that to all the top ranked sites using keywords separated by dashes.

Now, we’re not big SEO proponents, at least not in the sense that we would put keyword considerations ahead of useful content and user experience, but when the opportunity to avail oneself of a useful tactic without damaging content delivery arises . . . we will use it. This seemed to be the case with the domain name. Not only could we make search engines happy, but we could also make the name easier to type and remember which is even more important.

Unfortunately, with a name like Cornerstone, domain availability was somewhat limited.  One couldn’t simply get www.cornerstone.com an call it a day. However, in the end it didn’t take as much thought or creativity as we feared to find a suitable alternative (we sometimes really fear thought and creativity). After a brief period of exploration and deliberation we found and settled on www.cornerstone-market.com.

This new domain should be easier to type and easier to find as the two words in it will appear naturally throughout the pages. While the dash is not ideal from a user’s point of view, it was the best option available. The old domain, still printed on the stores menus and cards will be forwarded to the new site once it is up and ready, but those following our work with Cornerstone can visit the new site now.

Usually, sites are built, carefully reviewed and then launched, available to the public only in finished form. This is so designers won’t get made fun of for the many errors made during the development process (designers are sensitive) However, for this project we have decided to allow access to the site in progress. Swing by, take a look and give us your thoughts. Just remember, it is far from finished, and we don’t handle teasing well.