People love fun. How can you take your product or service and have a little fun with it? You dont need to down play the power, seriousness, or delivery of the product itself, but the marketing and messaging can really make it that much easier for people to see you stand out out from the competition.

Example: Slick plan. Its a web app that we use to help plan out site navigations (boring right). But check out this email as a great example of having a little fun. Great Job Slickplan!

You heard me. Your business does not need a phone app in the apple or android app stores. More than likely.

Last week, a client of ours was super excited to tell me all about this new web app they are “creating”. By creating I mean they paid some phone app company a set up fee (usually $250 – 500) and $50 a month for. When I asked what the app would do, they rattled off all the amazing features. Features like a home page, news, about us, contact, directions, and product info. So I asked to clarify, that this is indeed an “app”, Yes, they proclaimed! It will be free in the apple and android app stores.

Here is my giant issue. Please hear me very clearly here.

If your app is no more than basic content found on your site, its a waste of time, money and your efforts.

Yes apps are all the rage. All the cool kids are talking about apps. Trust me, no one is going to be browsing the app store, and think to themselves, “sweet! a company I have never heard of has an app about their company / service / product, and its free!”. No, no one will think that.

Save your money, time and app lust. I have a fix for you. Build a site that is mobile friendly. We have a few ways of doing this. One is responsive. Take our site for example. Resize your browser window smaller. Bam! It re-organizes itself to fit the screen size. Navigations get touch friendly, fonts remain clear and readable. Another alternative is a seperate mobile site with the core info, that we have an auto detect script set up on. Basically if the visitor screen size is less than 640px wide, send them to the mobile site. Give them an option back to the main full site. Yes, you can still use a QR barcode to direct people to your mobile site. They can call you, map your location, and learn more all from the mobile web, with no need for an app.

You may have a need for an app. If your idea is functional, helps a user, provides them a beneficial resource for planning, searching, researching, or tracking something. Great, go for it! Verizon has a great app to track my minutes used on my iPhone.  Starbucks has a store locator, with info on menus, amenities, and wifi. E-trade has an app to search, research and watch over your trades. Catch my drift here?

Make it useful, keep it relevant, and make it a benefit to your users (not just you). Or dont do it at all.

It’s often said that the bigger the company is, the less nimble they become. Like a cruise ship compared to a small speed boat. The smaller boat can make quick refinements to its route, but a cruise ship makes big, slow turns. Stoping and starting can take too long sometimes.

Today Netflix killed off Qwikster (article). If you didnt follow it, back on September 18th Netflix announced it would split the online streaming video division and DVD by mail into two seperate companies. They have always been seperate products. Qwikster was the awkward new name and brand for the DVD by mail service.

Lot’s of grumbling from the media, consumers and experts right away. Terrible name, logo, and idea was the gist.

Rather than sticking with it and risking certain chaos, confusion and possible death of one or both companies, they pulled the plug. Netflix, a fairly large organization made very quick movements. They swallowed their pride, and killed qwikster. Thank goodness!

It’s encouraging to see even the big dogs can retreat, and admit they made a mistake. I applaud Netflix for listening to their customers, and having the guts to admit they were wrong, and make the quick change.

It’s never to late and you are never to big to make drastic changes if your customers demand it.

Like many of you, I followed the rumor mill around the iPhone 5 for months. Oh the high hopes, wishes and dreams. So many crazy ideas and cool concepts. When the iPhone 4s was announced some of us may have been let down. But I think there is a lot to be learned and a lot we can model our own products, services and marketing after.

A good thing made better.

Apple knows a thing or two on how to improve a product. Their desktops, laptops, iPods, and phones have all been improved so much over time. I think about the iPhone 4s, and I think wow, they took a great product, and made it so much better, without a drastic overhaul. The outer shell remains the same, familiar design with high quality materials, design and size. Better from the inside rather than out. That’s okay by me. I mean what good would a new design do if the insides don’t change.

Speed.

2x faster. Looking at my own tools, services and creations, when was the last time I made something 2x better, faster, or easier, without a design overhaul? It shows you took great care and consideration for your users  to make your message / medium and product 2x better without rocking the boat of a new form factor.

Optics.

Apple added new camera hardware and software. As we create or communicate, we too need to take new views into account. Has our audience changed? Community around us? Maybe the industry? How can we better change the perception and views of our own marketing or branding with some simple viewpoint changes? Maybe the logo remains the same, we just find a new way of telling the story. Maybe our website remains the same, but some updated copy, photos and fonts really would help a user connect on a deeper level.

Signal.

the iPhone has dual chips, better anteneas , and world phone capabilities. Again, in the same design. As we grow our sites, products and brands, how can we better make sure that we too reach the world with out message? Maybe if we are in an area of multiple languages, we set up some web site content to better reach a spanish speaking audience.

I’m excited for the iPhone 4s, I’m glad that a great man like Steve Jobs lived the life he did to push our technology, ways of thinking, and the industry forward. His inspiration will be missed. Let’s take the legacies he and other great minds have left us to challenge ourselves to improve our messages, products and services.

I hated homework that wasn’t anything more than busywork. Trust me… this isn’t that. In business you gotta keep growing or you die, there are no other viable options. Here are two great reads that are practical in application for your growth as a business on the web.

The Thank You Economy – Don’t roll your eyes because it’s primarily about social media. Seriously, take the time to read it. Better yet, download the audio book. Gary V. will excite you, give you practical steps, tell you how social media can pay off for your company and help you overcome your skepticism (or your boss’s). TIP: The 1st 3 chapters will be enough for you to work on for months!

31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo – I just started this one last night on my iPhone Kindle app. but it’s already proving to be very practical and insightful. You don’t have to blog as a company, but if you do, this e-book will certainly be a great asset for just $5.

Man… it has been a super busy and fun summer. We are stoked about some of our latest projects so be sure to check them out.

Stop Traffick Fashion

http://www.stoptraffickfashion.com/

The leaders at Stop Traffick Fashion have an incredible mission and now they have a more robust online presence & very user friendly online store to aid them. We were excited to take on the challenge of making a client friendly, easy to use online store for their website that is easy to expand and enjoyable to use.

Hollingsworth Home Finders

http://www.homes-in-chandler-az.com/

If Ron & Renee Hollingsworth sell homes with as much personal interaction and eye for excellence as they with crafting their business website, then we are sure you will be pleased with their services. This site came together with great interactivity between them and our creative team and that certainly enhanced the visual appeal.

A tension exists between who you are, who you want to be and who you perceive you ought to be. No, this isn’t a psychology blog. This is about business and this is a real tension in business. It’s also a tension in marketing. A company run by under normal operating conditions goes through a checklist of sorts making sure that they:

_ list with yellow pages

_ pay for ads in local papers

_ get a website

_ design website with areas & content found on demonstrated on competitors websites

_ open a twitter account (although you don’t know what you will do with it)

_ pay for 3 months of google ads (this money goes into outer-web–space very fast)

_ open Facebook account

_ create Facebook page

_ harass friends and family and all of their friends on Facebook

Great businesses design who they are going to be. They know the ‘playbook’ for business as usual, but they decide intentionally to take their own paths. It doesn’t mean that they refuse to be on the web, but what it does mean is that they are purposefully creating their unique presence on the web. It also means that they are creating their unique business culture as well as striving for excellence in their planned and purposeful way.

So over the last 7 years we have had many email newsletter campaign come and go. Sometimes they seem to be more go than come. While we design, promote, deliver and manage weekly newsletters for many of our own clients, factor1 some how sends like 1 newsletter a year.

This is all about to change!

Starting in september, we have hard goals in sending a monthly newsletter with tips, tricks, ice cream, unicorns and freebies. Every month, like a steak of the month club, but cooler, environmentaly friendly, and vegan friendly. Yes, even though we send messages from emailbacon, they are vegan, go figure.

So do you want in? Sign up below.

Cheap and Easy. That’s is definitely the wrong way to see the web. It turns out that the is neither of those. Yes, you can quickly and for free, post information on the web. Go to www.Tumblr.com to be “out there”. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that 15 minutes of copying and pasting content from a sales brochure created 2 years ago will mean instant success for your business. Your best friend’s, uncle’s nephew who is trying some stuff on the side won’t get it done for you either.

The good news though is that you can be successful at online marketing all on your own. The even better news is that YOU are capable of being the driving engine behind your success. The barriers that used to keep you from competing or even succeeding on your own as a the leader of small organization or business have come way down. But, hard work is still required and and investment of your time doing critical learning, thinking and development are imperative.

You must answer critical questions such as:

• “who is your customer?”
• “what does your target audience really want when they visit your site?”
• “how should your mobile site differ from your main site?”
• “do people really care about pages of background data?”
• “what promotions will attract new business?”
• “what references or testimonials or reviews will make a difference?
• “is your site properly optimized to be found on google?”

Good marketing and web presence requires time and money. And yes, with enough work it will come back to you in new business and critical followers.

So much of what we do on the web is often dictated by what we see other people doing, not by what really needs to be done.

“Twitter! Oh, my gosh, have you seen twitter?! We have to have a twitter account! Every corporation has a twitter account.” Or so goes the reactionary logic in the board room. So, like @UPS, you might be tempted to go out and create thirteen twitter accounts will no real concept about why you are creating them or to what end those twitter accounts will be positively effective in accomplishing your goals.

Celebrate the freedom you have as an organizational leader. You don’t have to be or need to be on every web platform. Your site does not have to be like everyone else’s in your industry. It can and should be unique. Tailored to your needs and goals. As simple or as complex as it really needs to be.

Here are two excellent, familiar examples at opposite ends of the spectrum.
SIMPLE |  COMPLEX

So, dive into your web strategy and celebrate the freedom you have to do what you need to do, not just copy what everyone else is doing.