Marketing

Don’t wait for your ship to come in…

December 13, 2010 By Dan Thornton

It was while I was working as a journalist at Motorcycle News that the news came through that legendary motorcycle racer Barry Sheene had died. After his death, a tribute poster was created for charity, with a suitable photo and the quote;

‘Don’t wait for your ship to come in… Swim out and meet the bloody thing’

That’s true of most situations, and especially in digital. The access to self-publishing, information and knowledge, collaboration, computer power, cloud storage and more means that there’s never been a time when it’s been more likely you’ll find someone else could be already implementing your idea, or your rivals are innovating in a new way.

But the flip-side is that all of that stuff is just as available to you if you go and make use of it. If you’ve been thinking about creating a website, for example, you could have a working example up and running on a free CMS in under 30 minutes. Most importantly from a business perspective, you start listening to your customers and monitoring your rivals quickly and relatively easily, all for free.

It’s already the time:

2011 is definitely the time to do it – in fact 2010 already was. You can still run an entirely offline business, but if you’re ignoring digital, you’re ignoring a huge source of revenue and opportunity. The repairman who fixed out cooker today was completely unaware that we found him via recommendations on an online forum, and he would have been equally unaware had anyone written anything negative about him (they didn’t, and he did a great job at a very reasonable price). The fact is that simple tools exist to allow him to be made aware when something business-critical is being discussed.

So why hire someone?

You might be wondering why I’d emphasise how quick and simple it can be, considering most of my living comes from helping people create and market digital content.

It’s really quite simple, and it’s the same reason I’ve paid for design and development help for my own projects. The opportunity is there for me to learn those skills (as far as any natural ability might let me), but I’d rather concentrate on content and marketing, as that’s where my natural skills and experience can best serve both my clients and my own projects.

Plus, there’s nothing to say you can’t get started, and come to someone if and when you discover areas in which you need help and advice.

Two results for December already!

December 8, 2010 By Dan Thornton

Having written about how I was going to work flat out in December, it’s nice to be able to share a couple of examples of it working already.

Firstly – I’m pleased to say that a recent pitch has been successful, and I’ve now got a couple of new clients to work with. Happily news of my availability appears to be resulting in a steady growth in demand for my services – which is brilliant news both for me and my bank manager. And a big part of that has been down to the fantastic response by a group of wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with over the years – your assistance continues to be invaluable, and without naming you individually, I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your support and more!

While I’m thanking people – every blog comment, link to my sites, reweet, like on Facebook, @ message, DM, recommendation to a social bookmarking site etc – these are hugely appreciated and they all have an effect on me personally as well as helping to improve everything I’m doing – so thanks to everyone reading this, whether it’s on the site, via RSS, a social network….

Secondly – I’ve been thinking a lot about the potential concerns clients may have, and finding solutions for them. One potential concern might be that by hiring what is essentially me on my lonesome, they might encounter some risks if I get abducted by aliens, or that I might not be able to offer the range of services that a larger, full-service operation might be able to provide.

So, I’m pleased to say I’ve been speaking to a small number of the very best people I know in various areas. That means that I’m not only able to plug-in respected experts to cover in the event of an emergency, but I can also offer project-managed delivery of various additional services, whether it’s a design for a social media profile, or a complete website or mobile application build. So you really can go from nothing to a complete website, social media presence, and have content supplied whilst only ever dealing with one person!

Not a bad start for the month!

December – an opportunity for great work?

December 4, 2010 By Dan Thornton

Dominated by Christmas, the month of December often seems like a chance to relax a little, and churn out some blog posts looking either back at the past year, or making a few predictions for the next. And while I’m probably going to end up writing some variations on those themes, I also have a much better plan for December this year.

I’m going to be working harder than ever to take advantage of the fact some people will be easing off. Whilst I know a lot of great companies and individuals will be working as hard as they do for the rest of the year, if even 5% of the rest take a bit of a break, I need to be making the most of that opportunity!

TheWayoftheWeb:

In terms of freelancing and consultancy, I’ve got a small and growing number of clients, which is great news. But to make it truly sustainable I need to increase that number, so the fact that many companies will be looking to improve their content and digital marketing for 2011 is a great opportunity.

On that note, this blog will be more focused going forwards. I’ve had some very nice offers to contribute to some very good sites, and I’ve struggled to find topics which I didn’t already cover. But with my concentration on content creation and marketing for my own business, it makes sense to funnel some of my writing on the media, journalism and publishing onto some more relevant sites…

Personal Projects:

OnlineRaceDriver.com: In under 12 months, the site has done really well with sustained growth in terms of content contributors and traffic. But the difference between a nice little blog and a publishing business comes down to the business model, which is something I want to prove can work for smaller sites.
140Char: I started 140Char almost 3 years ago now, and although it’s been great fun, the time and effort to run it hasn’t evolved into something which makes a good enough return. For the last month or two it’s been mainly dormant while I look at whether it continues with some big changes, transfers to new ownership, or the content gets archived on a free host for the time being.
DPiP: The first two Peterborough meet-ups have gone well, and I’ve been talking to a couple of people about how we can involve DPiP into something which offers more educational and business opportunities alongside the social side of meeting local digital people for drinks. Most of that should be in place for the next meetup in January.
1-2 new projects: At the moment, I’ve probably got just enough time and space for one, possibly two, of the new projects and ideas I’m been discussing with a couple of people. In the next week or so it should be clear which is the best business proposition, and I should be able to start talking about what is going on.

So a pretty busy time. As ever, client projects come first, with OnlineRaceDriver remaining as an example of building a site and business with great content and some of the digital and social marketing techniques available for very little financial investment (time is another matter!). DPiP is very much something which will grow with the involvement of everyone that has expressed an interest, and I’m pretty confident one of the new projects will soon evolve into a productive business interest.

Of course, I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t make time for friends and family over the holiday period – especially as someone with a young family to indulge and spoil this year. But all the time I can be building a future for my family, that’s what I’ll be putting first this year!!!

Misunderstanding cigarette branding…

November 22, 2010 By Dan Thornton

The UK Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley has suggested cigarettes should be sold in plain packaging, as ‘the evidence is clear that packaging helps to recruit smokers’.

Sadly for those who want to prevent smoking, he appears to be talking cobblers – as suggested by the fact the previous Government ditched the same plan two years ago due to a lack of evidence to that effect.

What’s happened is that there’s a misunderstanding of the role of branding in cigarette smokers.

People encourage other people to start smoking.
Branding and People influence which particular product someone smokes.

Removing branding won’t make any difference to the amount of people trying smoking. It might make a difference in the number of cigarette companies, but the spread of cigarette smoking is largely spread by encountering other people that smoke and being influenced by them in some way. There’s a handy chapter in The Tipping Point on the triggers for smoking, quoting examples of being influenced by people who were seen as cool, and also smoked. The basic hypothesis is that some people who smoke happen to be cool, and therefore smoking is perceived as cool (Rather than smoking making someone cool – the reality is that it makes people smell of tobacco, wheeze when they’re running, and end up dying earlier more often than if they hadn’t smoked – but as a smoker for over 10 years, I already know this).

So why do tobacco companies spend so much on marketing, and finding ways to place their brands in your eye, despite cigarette advertising bans?

The first cigarette I ever tried was a Silk Cut Ultra Light – and yet for 10 years I’ve smoked Marlboro. I’m not sure it’s a coincidence that Ayrton Senna drove a Marlboro McLaren, Wayne Rainey rode a Marlboro Yamaha, and I actually suffered through the feature film ‘Harley-Davidson and the Marlboro Man‘. Given the choice, I’ll pay a slight premium for the familiar taste and amount of nicotine, plus the branding and image etc. But if that brand vanished tomorrow, I’d find another one in the time it took to run out of cigarettes. The fact is that in the past I’ve bought John Player Specials (JPS Lotus, JPS Norton), and Rothmans (Rothman Honda in the Wayne Gardner era) as fall-backs which have no relation in taste or nicotine levels.

I’d reveal a more effective way to tackle smoking, but unfortunately there’s a limit to how long I can write about the topic without nipping outside for a cigarette…

Second chance to meet Digital People in Peterborough

November 10, 2010 By Dan Thornton

Last month I finally asked if anyone fancied coming along to a meet up for people working in all aspects of digital in Peterborough, UK and the surrounding area. And fortunately I didn’t end up sitting on my own in the pub, as around 12 people came along for a pint and to chat. It was great to meet a load of talented people, catch up with a couple of people I already knew and be able to find out how much we had in common etc.

So, as it went so well last time, we’re doing it the same way again this month, on Thursday November 25th from 7.30pm, in the Brewery Tap pub in Peterborough.

There’s more details and the chance to meet up with other digital people in the Peterborough area online at http://dpip.spruz.com (No www), or via a public Twitter list I’ve created for Digital People in Peterborough. And we’ll be using the Twitter hashtag #DPiP.

It’s likely to be the last one before Christmas, so hopefully everyone can make it, and in the new year, we’ll look at what we can add to the drinking and chatting to make it even more useful for everyone…