Philosophy Archives - 1st Degree Marketing

What do you say iPhone owners, time for a new relationship in 2018?

When it comes to your smartphone, it’s probably the most emotional device in your life. Emotional because you carry it around all the time, rely on it so much and have such a connection with that silly device. So after years of living with iPhones, I finally decided to take the plunge into the Android world in February of 2017. Why? Even though I owned four different versions of the iPhone and loved my iPhone 5S, it was just time.

I had gotten tired of the short battery life and being tethered to a power cord all the time. I admired the thin and slim design but realized that the iPhone 6 had gone too far with multiple phone and screen breaks for me, even though I had none in the previous 7 years. The lack of a headphone jack and expensive power cables were just ugly icing on the cake for me. And my dissatisfaction came way BEFORE the recent news about slowing down the iPhone broke out.

So after a lot of online research, I settled on the Samsung Galaxy S7 as a worthy replacement. Better specs on the camera, a battery that was nearly twice the size and a beautiful OLED screen that put the iPhone 6 to shame. And while it wasn’t as slim as the iPhone 6, who cares when you just end up slapping a protective case around your $600 investment.

It was with much trepidation that I clicked the “ORDER” button online to commit to my S7 and Android. And once the phone came in, a tremendous amount of angst trying to manueuver through the interface and operating system. After 8 years of learning and relying on iOS, it can be really hard. But learn you do! The extra Back button is actually cool. And the Close All Apps button on the left? Super useful, no need to keep extra apps running. Automatic backups to Google cloud is pretty awesome too. So after a hinky month or two of transferring contact information, music and apps over, it’s been pretty smooth sailing on Android for this ex-iPhone fanboy!

I go back and occasionally use my cracked iPhone 6 and yeah, there are things I miss about it. The smooth scrolling, the stability of the apps and iTunes. But the Samsung Galaxy S7 does 90% of it as well as the iPhone and adds in the better screen, better battery and more durable build so it’s nearly a wash in a good way. They are both GREAT phones with slight advantages and disadvantages for each. But after nine months with the S7 I can assure you that the switch can be made successfully and you can start up a new relationship with Android. It won’t be exactly the same but who cares? You just gotta find what’s most important for you and appreciate it in your current partner. It’s already 9 months into my relationship with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the phone still looks brand new, the screen is as bright as ever and I still don’t have to worry about it shutting off.

So whaddya say, iPhone lover? Time for a fresh new start in 2018? Time to consider moving to Android and a Galaxy S7? It’s probably easier than you think and I can tell you at the minimum that Apple may get jealous and start treating you, the customer, better…

Sincerely,

Ron W

Add Balance to Your New Blog Through SEO, Design and Content!

Like most marketing disciplines, launching and maintaining a blog is an act of balancing different needs with limited personal resources: your time and your brain-power! Do you spend your energy on writing content, improving design and usability of your blog platform or work on SEO and search engine needs? The answer as it usually is in marketing is: all of the above! But it really depends on where you are in the blogging life-cycle.

Over the past 8 years, I’ve probably written over 1,200 posts for my blog, my work blog and online communities. So as you can guess, I’m all about content. Without engaging, well-written and informative content, it will be hard to earn an audience. But the reality is that your focus as a blogger and marketer, will depend on where you are in the blog life-cycle!

For example, when you’re launching a blog, you have to initially focus on design and usability. The goals range from choosing the proper platform (WordPress, Squarespace, WIX, Tumblr, etc) to choosing a template. And the best way to choose a template and look and feel for your blog is to go check out other blogs! Visualize and imagine the type and variety of content you would like to produce and how you would like it presented. Because in my experience, once you’ve chosen a template, it’s never quite that easy to move to different templates, something always breaks. And changing platforms? Ouch, that’s a huge undertaking even with decent migration tools.

Now that you’ve got your platform and template, you’ll need to pick through the options for color palettes, fonts, text sizes, menus and more. You’re tuning your blog and brand presence to make it engaging and intuitively user-friendly. Think about a new reader hitting your blog, what’s the first impression they get on visit #1? And how do you encourage them to poke around and learn more about your content? It’s all about creating an engaging online brand presence that will clearly define your expertise in your chosen topic area. The goal is to give your reader an immediate understanding of your expertise and reassurance that you truly can help them learn more about that topic

Ok, you’ve got your platform, template and you’ve established a brand presence, now you need to start organizing and/or creating content. Whether you’re talking graphic images, logos, blog posts, quotes and more, you’ve got to start producing! Keep your content topics and themes pretty narrow to begin with as you start to establish your blog voice. Create a list of potential topics to write about and to get the wheels going, start drafting some pieces. You’ll find that your writing and blogging only gets better with time and practice. Hopefully you’ll eventually get into a writing rhythm and have lots of good content drafts with supporting quality graphics and images to show your expertise to your audience. And keep them coming back!

The next step after you’ve created a great online brand presence and started to create your content stream is to bring in organic search traffic. Most likely, a substantial portion (over 50% of your blog traffic) will come in from Google, Bing and Yahoo for users looking to learn more about your topic. The obvious goal is to rank on the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to maximize visibility and click-through traffic.

You can create clickability by writing a pithy and catchy SEO title and description for your posts with use of engaging key words. This SEO specific meta-data is often written separately from what your reader will see ON the blog. You can also add micro-data/rich-snippets that will make your post stand out further with author information, a rating and much more. Search engines are focused on delivering the highest quality content and articles to their users. So your goal is to attract new followers and offer that helpful content once they click through. Ideally they are also sharing your content out to their friends and colleagues. Search engines are increasingly looking for social signals that your content is valuable! Social sharing, time on page, lower bounce rates and overall website traffic will help your posts rise up on SERP.

As you can see, there is a lot of work beyond just creating content and posting. While your core responsibility is to put out great content for your readers, better design and usability will engage readers more effectively and help them get value from your content. Tweaking your content for SEO means it will become more visible on search engines and once you deliver a great content experience, you will increase the visibility of your posts.

And that’s how you create a virtuous marketing cycle! Use SEO to maximize the visibility of your blog and content online, design a blog and website that’s easy and engaging to use, and then create great content that educates and assists readers. Ideally you’ll create a loyal readership that will help spread word about your website through social media and sharing which will improve your search engine rankings to bring in new readers.

And that’s not the end of it. Once your website is launched, you need to continually refine all of the three elements above when time and need dictate. Question and challenge yourself. Are you keeping things interesting for your reader? Are my graphic images engaging enough? Is my writing fresh or is it getting stale? Can I improve the menus and organization of my posts and information for readers? Can I maintain or increase the visibility of my posts on search engines when they change rules and algorithms on their side? The best way to improve your online presence is to see what other bloggers and content creators are doing online, there’s always room to improve!

I can tell you first-hand that creating great blog content and keeping your readers engaged is a never-ending commitment. And it’s a fun ride to deliver great and useful information to your audience on a regular basis. But in these days of online and digital marketing, the skills to engage your audience and influence them is a huge challenge but extremely rewarding. Respect your audience, write high quality content for them, make sure it ranks high on search and I’m sure you’ll do great with a loyal readership!

Ron Wen

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen

The Benefits of NOT Being the Smartest Person in the Room

Back when I was in business school at UNC Kenan-Flagler, I distinctly remember one day heading over to my locker to put away some of my gear. Kneeling on the floor, next to my locker was one of my classmates and she had her head in hands, crying. She had just gotten a C on an exam and it was the first time in her life. And she was crushed. Understand that in most business schools we’re talking about an academically competitive environment. The average GMAT score at UNC KFBS was about a 660+ and the very top MBA programs average close to 700. We’re talking about a roomful of classmates that are EASILY qualified to be members of MENSA. In some cases maybe ALL of your classmates are at that level of academic achievement.

My classmate was one of the younger MBA students in the program (24) and after years of being the smartest kid in her class, didn’t feel so smart any more. I re-assured her that we all felt the same way in B-school and it was absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. Maybe it was my real-world experience that taught me that brains aren’t everything and sometimes you’re blessed to be working with smarter people than yourself. She wiped her tears away, picked herself back up and I know that she would become emotionally resilient and things would improve for her over the school year.

My experience after business school has been interesting in the fact that sometimes I run into people that WANT to be the smartest person in the room. Everything about their presentation and demeanor speaks to trying to project that aura. These people are rarely the most effective members in the organization. I consider it a case of ego over-riding effectiveness. By believing that you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re rarely capable of listening to others, learning from others and improving yourself. And it’s rare when an individual can drive an initiative without the help of teammates and ideas from their side.

Some people say that if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room! And I’d have to agree because it means either you’re not going to grow in the organization and/or you’re unwilling to see the value in your teammates and learn from them. And maximizing the value of your teammates is key to extremely effective organizations in today’s highly competitive world.

In marketing where we are in the midst of working with many groups (Product Management, Sales, Creative, Finance, Customers) it’s really important to LISTEN, learn and lead with those around us. We usually aren’t the smartest person in the room and that’s ok. And if you are the smartest person in the room, you should still listen and learn. Everyone knows a little more than you about something! Teams that put their egos aside and collaborate effectively are often the most productive. For anyone not named Stephen Hawking, it’s probably in our best interest to NOT be the smartest person in the room.

Ron Wen

www.linkedin.com/in/ronwen