Monday, May 5th, 2008
The Marketing Department welcomed Natalie O’Rourke last week to the team. Her 1st day at Indigio kept the neighboring florist busy as she received a few bouquets to properly welcome her to her new job. We knew that she was loved but that rumor has been validated! Natalie will be acting in the role of Marketing Coordinator, assisting with press releases, newsletters, event planning, collateral and various Marketing tasks. Miss O’Rourke is relatively new to Colorado and calls Auburn, CA home. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, working out, hiking and time spent with friends and family. Be on the look out for Natalie at future Indigio events and be sure and stop by and say hello to her! Welcome Natalie!
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Indigio is proud to be a sponsor of the Suburban Newspaper Association’s Interactive Media Symposium in Vegas - part of the Editor and Publisher’s Interactive Media Conference on May 13th. The SNA is the home to 2400 local newspapers and this one-day symposium is sure to deliver great ideas and market-specific information for these suburban and community markets.
I will be representing Indigio and am anxious to meet the 90 or more newspaper decision makers that have already signed up to attend. During my tenure at MediaNews Group Interactive I saw the smaller local markets become increasingly more profitable and begin to develop a more loyal audience than some of its larger local markets. It will be interesting to compare stories and hear from these folks what successes and challenges they face.
The meeting features a great agenda that includes speakers from Borrell Associates, the Bakerfield Californian and Lawrence Journal World. Timely topics (that Indigio sure knows a few things about) include building your own marketplace, social networking and search marketing. I am looking forward to sharing our extensive experience in the newspaper industry as well as our successes in driving audience engagement in the search marketing space. (Plus its only my second time in Vegas!)
In the next few days I will be emailing attendees to introduce myself and to schedule appointments at the conference. If you happen to be out there in Vegas for this conference and would like to meet don’t hesitate to contact me at tlawlor@indigio.com.
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
One of my favorite blogs to read is Conversation Marketing. I personally think Ian Lurie is a genius. I love his simple, conversations writing style and advice. My favorite posting in February was about 15 principles of interactive marketing. I thought I would share it with everyone at Indigio. I think this lists speaks volumes to working at an interactive agency and interactive marketing as a whole. Overall, great advice to remember.
15 Principles of Interactive Marketing by Ian Lurie
- No one’s lives depend on what we do.
- But people’s livelihoods do. So take your work seriously, and take pride in it.
- 75% of your audience uses a search engine to find you. Get used to it. All the banners and ‘viral’ marketing on earth won’t come close to results produced by a top 5 ranking for a relevant phrase.
- But, a broad base is better. Don’t rely on just one marketing vehicle. Build a complete internet marketing strategy that includes, at a minimum, paid search, organic search, e-mail and online PR.
- Never underestimate the power of an angry customer.
- Never underestimate the power of a happy customer.
- Pretty is great. Easy is better.
- You’re not the customer.
- Karma exists. Treat customers and prospective customers with respect, and they’ll reciprocate. Spam them, annoy them, and lie to them, and they’ll retaliate.
- Risk is necessary.
- Risk without measurement is suicide. Analytics are a must.
- IT is not marketing. Don’t make them run the web site. It’s not fair to anyone.
- A web site does not equal an internet marketing strategy.
- Plan, but adapt. Don’t be stubborn. Listen to what your customers tell you in their response.
- All marketing has a message. What’s yours?
My favorites are #4, #7, #12 & #13, as I feel these are the things I feel are most often missed with internet marketing.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Indigio recently welcomed Kristin Hanley to our growing Marketing Department. Kristin has jumped into action like a breath of fresh air and even helped with set up and registration at last week’s breakfast panel at The Brown Palace Hotel. She has a kind, sweet spirit about her and adds a positive energy to our shared office. Kristin is a freshman at CU Denver, studying Elementary Education. She loves children and aspires to be a 2nd grade teacher some day. Kristin graduated from Grandview High School and was a cheerleader all four years. This must be where her energy and enthusiasm comes from each day! On the weekends, Kristin attends her younger sibling’s gymnastics and cheerleading competitions and enjoys hanging out with friends in the hood and up in Fort Collins at CSU. Be on the look out for Kristin at future Marketing events and I’ll see if she can come up with an Indigio cheer that she can shout out at our next big event. Give me an “I”…!
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
Are your online and offline strategies headed for divorce? How to save the marketing marriage
The Indigio sponsored Wednesday event at the Brown Palace was a huge success. The event was arranged to discuss the Marketing 101 mantra that a consistent brand and message is key to any campaigns’ success. The mantra is true, but that goal can be difficult to obtain. The panelists of local area marketing experts examined the relationship between online and offline marketing strategies, by analyzing their own success in creating a united marketing effort.
Despite busy schedules in the middle of the week, attendees got up early to enjoy breakfast and stayed to the very end engrossed by the subject and providing a number questions to the speakers Jon Nordmark with eBags, Inc, Angie Magatagan with R.H. Donnelley, and Kae Penner with McClain Finlon. I had never experienced an event with as many follow up questions as occurred in the hour that followed the three panelists presentations only highlighting the importance of the online and offline marketing subject.
Two items that I came away with from this event Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Social media. Social media marketing. Social networking. Social this, social that. I know, you keep hearing it and probably know a little about it, but how do you get started with social media?
For a lot of traditional markets, social media marketing can be a scary thing, but it shouldn’t be. It is just another way of communicating with your customers, which honestly is what pays the bills.
So let’s start simple, with what is social media. According to Wikipedia:
Social Media Marketing is a form of internet marketing which seeks to achieve branding and marketing communication goals through the participation in various social media networks such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, social web applications (webapps) such as reddit, Digg, Stumbleupon, Flickr, Wikipedia, Squidoo, Twitter, ePinions and others as well as within 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life, ActiveWorlds, Moove and There.com. The goals of each program or campaign will differ for every business or organization, however most will involve some form of building an idea or brand awareness, increasing visibility, encouraging brand feedback and dialogue as well as to possibly sell a product or service.
Okay, I personally find it funny that Wikipedia is used in the definition of social media marketing from Wikipedia, but it fits as it is a great example of social media marketing.
So you know what it is, but what is the best way to get started with social media? Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Would you like to know how thriving companies like Indigio, eBags, McClain Finlon and DEX market their companies as well as they do? Tim Higgins, Jon Nordmark, Kae Penner, and Angie Magatagan are joining forces to help you learn how to have successful and functional online and offline marketing strategies. A breakfast will be held on February 20th, 2008 from 7:30am - 10:30am at The Brown Palace Hotel, 321 Seventeenth Street, Denver Colorado and will cost $25 per person. Take what you will learn from this event and apply it towards your own company and save your marketing marriage today! Seating is limited so visit www.indigio.com to reserve your spot. Each attendee will be the lucky recipient of lovesavers. If you don’t know what lovesavers are, I would recommend marking your calendar for the 20th. To ensure that our marketing marriage is in tact, we are celebrating Valentine’s for the entire month of February this year! Cupid and I look forward to seeing you at this romantic venue…
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
I love Seth Godin. Already a huge fan of his blog, Purple Cow and The Dip, I of course made sure I picked up his latest (and in my opinion greatest) book, Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?
Seth uses real and profound examples of why ”traditional marketing” like billboards, radio spots and television advertising (the meatballs) and “new trends” like internet media, blogs, or anything else categorized as Web 2.0 (the sundae toppings) often fail when not in sync.
You are probably thinking what does a meatball sundae have to do with anything, right? Meat - good. Whip cream - good. No, probably not…but I am considering giving it a try.
Instead Seth uses the meatball sundae to create a visual comparison of companies trying to “be hip” by using the new Web 2.0 marketing techniques without integrating or updating the traditional marketing techniques within their marketing plan. One of the examples Seth uses is the $40 million Anheuser-Busch spent on Bud-TV, which added no new customers. His examples show how important it is for all marketing strategies within a company to be in sync or they will not be successful. The web 2.0 techniques are new and exciting, but any marketing initiative without success metrics, goals or a plan will not succeed.
I feel the lessons in this book are important for any company or interactive agency (like Indigio). For me, as exciting as the new web 2.0 marketing techniques are, it is important to remember return on investment (ROI). Unless, Indigio helps to build strategy and marketing techniques that increase revenue, create more customers or drive to a company’s success metric, we are not truly helping our clients. We need to remember this with every new initiative (and thankfully, I am proud that this is a focus at Indigio).
The book is broken into three sections. Read the rest of this entry »
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
Marketing Charts put out the December 2007 rankings of US social networking sites, online brand sites and online blogging sites that show the year over year comparison.
As you may of guessed MySpace.com with 60 million unique visitors continues to be leaps and bounds ahead of anyone in traffic, but it is interesting to see the huge increases by Facebook, Linkedin and Flixster. Additionally, Club Penguin from Disney had an amazing jump, which shows the need for safe social community for kids. I am suprised that a front runner for teens has not surfaced like Club Penguin for tweens since MySpace.com continues with privacy and safety issues.
From a blogging perspective, Blogger remains king, but you can see the rise of WordPress with a 200% increases year over year for December. That is quite impressive.
Go to Marketing Charts to check out the actual stats for December 2007. The data comes from Nielsen Online.
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Over the last few weeks, Heather, Eric B., Tom, Becki and myself have been working on a postcard slated to mail out this week. Because of the sheer awesomeness of the campaign, I felt the need to share.
Tom came up with the concept for the art and Eric B. has been working up this hilarious design to convey that what you can add is less important than what you can take away. It makes me laugh real good. Check the roller skate!
Indigio’s 2008 Resolutions accompany the art work. Capturing Indigio’s personality was my inspiration as I wrote them.
- Serve your needs as Colorado’s premier Interactive Agency.
We specialize in Internet Search, Web Design and Web Development.
- Further our commitment to the environment.
We’ve gone green! Recycle bins are placed throughout our offices. We heart Earth.
- Snowball fights outside, not inside.
Apparently storing big piles of snow in our server room is a bad idea.
- Make a difference in our community through service and volunteering.
Indigians are encouraged to perform community service such as giving out free hugs.
- Promote healthy habits.
The V8 in our vending machine only costs a quarter. That’s crazy!
- Share our shenanigans with the online community.
Check out blog.indigio.com for a glimpse into life at Indigio.
- Say shenanigans more often.
We’ve managed to say it twice so far.
- Continue developing innovative solutions for the web and beyond.
We are extending into social media platforms such as Facebook, blogs and more.
- Drink less coffee.
Hah! Who are we kidding?
- Celebrate 10 years of online success.
June 2008 marks Indigio’s 10-year anniversary. We’re going to have a big party. There will be cake.
I love cake. And free hugs. And cheap V8. So yeah, I’m pretty stoked for 2008.
The Marketing Department welcomed Natalie O’Rourke last week to the team. Her 1st day at Indigio kept the neighboring florist busy as she received a few bouquets to properly welcome her to her new job. We knew that she was loved but that rumor has been validated! Natalie will be acting in the role of Marketing Coordinator, assisting with press releases, newsletters, event planning, collateral and various Marketing tasks. Miss O’Rourke is relatively new to Colorado and calls Auburn, CA home. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, working out, hiking and time spent with friends and family. Be on the look out for Natalie at future Indigio events and be sure and stop by and say hello to her! Welcome Natalie!
