Building a Culture That Motivates and Inspires Creative Teams

In his book Drive, Daniel Pink discusses a number of recent studies that show how people in today's creative knowledge economy are not necessarily motivated and engaged by traditional methods.  In fact, offering rewards for performance (the carrot and the stick), using title and rank to direct people (micro-managing), and lavishing half-hearted recognition can actually be fairly de-motivating.

Instead, people are motivated by their desire to be creative in their work and make a difference. We want to be empowered to find solutions to make their work better. We want to work on something that helps improve the world. We want to solve complex problems that challenge their skills and intellect. It's the creative nature of our work that can keep individuals excited and energized every day.

However, creativity is not just an individual endeavor. In many situations, the most creative work happens when individuals come together as a team and feed off of each other through collaboration, brainstorming, arguing, and exchange of ideas.

As leaders and managers of creative organizations then, it is our responsibility to create a culture that enables individuals to explore innovative ideas in their work and build an environment where teams can flourish. We need to help employees find meaning and interest in their work and design an environment that encourages sharing and inspiration for ideas.

OK, sounds good, but how? A creative work environment is more than just a ping-pong table in the lounge. Physical environment is important, but there are a multitude of other ways a culture of creativity and entrepreneurship can be infused into various parts of your business.

In a Webinar next week, we'll discuss the growth of our creative culture at Mad*Pow, detailing some lessons we've learned along the way. We'll outline our approach in general, and then detail some of the specific activities we've tried ' from the design of our space, to team building activities, to management guidelines, and goal setting. We'll also dive deep into our recently completed company Design Slam event ' a team building design activity that gave Mad*Powians the opportunity to collaborate with folks they don't normally work with, and spend their energy on interesting design problems with few constraints. Exactly the type of team building and creative exercise we intended.

This article is an original contribution by MIchael Hawley.

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Email Spam Law Guide, Part 1: CAN-SPAM

Image provided by: The Chronicles of Nik

As a short disclaimer before I start, I'd like to emphasize that I am in no way a legal expert on email or the internet. As little as a few weeks ago, I didn't know what CAN-SPAM was, and even now, most of my knowledge comes from Wikipedia and questionably reliable forums and blogs. If you have serious questions about the legality of your email practices, please consult the nearest lawyer, which isn't me, since I'm not a lawyer.

That being said, what I am is an expert in scouring the internet for useful information. Employing these skills, I embarked on a fact-finding mission over the past week to understand what exactly is legal, illegal, or legal-but-frowned-upon when it comes to email marketing.

The result is my Email Spam Law Guide. If you're thinking of firing up an email marketing program for your B2B business, this might be a good place to start.

What I found is that the laws intended to fight spamming are actually pretty innocuous, and marketers can stay within the law by obeying a few relatively harmless guidelines.

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean email servers enjoy delivering spam. A number of private-sector mechanisms have sprung up that effectively enforce tighter limits on email marketing than what is strictly legal. In part 2, I'll tell you about both those techniques and how they could impact your email marketing strategy.

Since the first thing on my to-do list at all times is 'Stay out of prison,' I'll start with the legal definition of spam.

CAN-SPAM

In 2003 George Bush signed Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing into law. CAN-SPAM, in addition to being a horribly forced acronym, was a piece of legislation that standardized spamming laws nationally. In doing so it overrode preexisting state laws that were in some cases actually stricter than the legislation that replaced them. CAN-SPAM has three basic requirements for anyone sending marketing emails:

1. Unsubscribe Compliance: When emailing someone, you have to provide an unsubscribe option that can be triggered with just an email address (i.e. no onerous information requirements or fees). The request has to be honored within 10 days. It's like the do-not-call list for phone numbers, except it only goes for the organization you unsubscribed from.
2. Content Compliance: Your subject line has to have something to do with the content of the email. You have to provide an accurate email and physical address.
3. Sending Behavior Compliance: You can't send emails to a list harvested via a web spider or directory harvest (where you guess and validate likely email patterns, such as 'jdoe@gmail.com'). There are some other technical components that won't concern most people doing honest email marketing.

And that's really it. So long as your email complies with those three tenets, you can legally blast out emails without any sort of opt-in.

In other words, unsolicited email may be frowned upon, but it is NOT illegal.

Does that give you the green light to do it? Probably not. In the absence of powerful legislation, email servers have built up their own defenses against spamming.

In part 2, I'll go over what some of these are, how they can hurt you, and the best ways to make sure your emails don't land in a recipient's spam folder.

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Branding And Content Marketing Lessons From Reality TV And The Olympics

The TV networks have learned an important lesson from all the years of Reality TV.

And believe it or not, what they've learned applies both to your brand and your content marketing.

Let me explain.

They've learned that the more viewers are allowed to 'know' the people competing, the more they will become committed fans of those people and in turn committed viewers of the show.

They know that the more they allow us to know the each person's backstory, the more we'll connect with them and become invested in them winning.

I stumbled onto a blog yesterday over at SilverSquareINC.com and learned that VISA is using this same technique to promote Olympic athletes on their VISA Go World channel.

They are revealing each of the athlete's backstory. They are helping us to know the athletes who are competing.

I'm sure it'll have the same effect on people watching the Olympics as it does on reality tv viewers.

What does that have to do with you and your branding and content marketing?

Simple.

Tell your story. Reveal your backstory. Expose more of who you really are.
(This should be a part of your content marketing strategy.)

Do you risk losing some people by doing this? Yep!

But, who cares?

Because what will also happen will make it more than worth it.

In the same way those viewers bond with the reality tv stars, people will start to bond with you.

You will stand out in their minds. They'll 'know' you. They'll become invested in you or your business. (Brand)

And those people you lose will be replaced with fans.

Always remember, fans are worth much more than followers!

Stay tuned for an upcoming post called 'The 2 Critical Ways To Make Your Content Marketing Stand Out' where I'll share two important ways to elevate your content above your competition.

In the meantime, read some of my 'behind-the-scenes' personal story in these posts:

• 'The Day I Was Kidnapped (A True Story): A Business & Life Lesson'
• 'The Martial Arts Master And The Unexpected Business Lesson'
• Content Marketing And A New Purpose For Books

Why Easter Eggs Should Be Part of your Email Marketing Plan

A new type of marketing that I actually like, make that 'Love' is the (and I am branding this so everyone has to pay me a quarter every time they use the term moving forward) 'Easter Egg Marketing'.

An Easter Egg for the virtual world is generally defined as a hidden message, or an inside joke, or a cool hidden function on a web page, program, game or even an email. To find the hidden Easter Egg one may need to mouse over the page looking for the hidden item, or click on seemingly harmless items featured on the program or site. Once clicked or discovered the user may receive additional information or features to the program/game/site. Easter Eggs have been used on computers since the 70s and even in DVD menus.

Go to thinkgeek.com. This is my absolute favorite place to shop online. Whenever you buy from them, they include in your box of goodies a catalog of some of their items with a promo code on the back for 10 dollars off your next order. They also mail once or twice a month to your house the same catalog, with the same promo code. The truth is, you can find these promo codes on promo code sites so they are not that exclusive. But, they also will email you. Now, they do something different with their emails and their Facebook posts, yep they have a pretty active Facebook page. They are fun to read. They are not always trying to sell. Sometimes they are sharing funny articles, important dates in geek history (6/28 was 'Tau day' by the way, 6/29 was Happy Unicorn Appreciation Day). But, and the best part is, they put an Easter Egg in one of their recent emails. I received one the recently, unfortunately I did not see it until an hour after they sent it, and was too late to claim the prize.

So, the email said something like 'there is a promo code hidden somewhere in the email. The first to use it gets 100$ off their next order, they just have to hurry up, throw it in their cart and cash out'. How brilliant is that? They have done similar things on Facebook, where they will throw out a promo code for 100 bucks off to the next person that cashes out their cart. Now, they do not force you to finish the transaction if you did not get there in time and someone else used the promo code first, so they will inform you if the promo code has already been used and no longer available before you buy. But, they keep people waiting for their emails. They keep people waiting for their FB posts. People read them, just to make sure there is not a special little deal in there. BTW, the Easter egg in the email could only be found by looking at the plain text version of the email (view source) and was found at the bottom. It was actually hidden in the HTML version. Only a geek would even think to suppress the HTML to look for it there, which I did, but was too late, someone else found it first.

So, they make it fun, keeping their readers engaged to the point they are reading each and every line of text to find the hidden code. They are making sure that the consumer is reading everything they write. They are keeping the customers engaged with their online cart, yet they aren't always trying to 'sell' them. Instead, they educate them on great moments in geek history and interesting and fun ideas to try. They highlight the customers by posting their submitted action shots using the merchandize, or posting customer submitted geek poetry, all the while sneaking in a deal or highlighting a new geeky item. I love them, and I can't wait for my next email Easter Egg, my cart is full and ready.

Image: Wikipedia

3 Examples of Specialty Manufacturers Leveraging Inbound Marketing

As a leading Inbound Marketing agency in Wisconsin, our team has new discussions daily with prospective clients intrigued by what Inbound Marketing could do for their business, within their specific industry. One of those niche industries we're immersed in within our great state of Wisconsin is specialty manufacturing.

With such a wide array of specialized products being produced, many of these specialty manufacturers struggle to wrap their heads around how certain disciplines of Inbound Marketing (blogging, social media, advanced content downloads for lead capturing, etc.) can be applied to the products they manufacture as a company. This is when we typically offer up some relevant examples of other companies within their industry who are rocking Inbound Marketing.

If this is where your company struggles with Inbound Marketing, here's a look at 3 inspiring examples of specialty manufacturers who are leveraging the power of Inbound Marketing.

1. Mercer International Inc.

As a manufacturer of high-performance Oil/Water Separators, Mercer International has clearly embraced Inbound Marketing, which is apparent the moment you visit their website. Their home page alone is stocked with two downloadable content offers, a video presentation and an on-demand webinar. In addition, their blog is clearly visible in their site navigation and their social media accounts are accessible throughout the site as well.

Here's a preview of the landing pages for their featured whitepaper download. The landing page instantly makes a statement with prominent graphics and a preview of the download, and clearly articulates what you're getting.

2. HydraForce

HydraForce is a great example of a manufacturer who makes highly specialized products ' high performance hydraulic cartridge valves and electro-hydraulic control systems ' yet has embraced the power of blogging on topics in this manufacturing niche. Their blog is dedicated to providing hydraulic tips, techniques and news, and allows their team to demonstrate their expertise while benefiting their SEO performance with the use of fresh and keyword-rich content with internal links to various pages of their website.

They also utilize prominent call-to-action (CTA) graphics in the right column of their blog to direct visitors to targeted landing pages where they can convert visitors into leads.

3. Biocoat

Another great example of a manufacturer who offers a unique product and variety of services, and that's leveraging Inbound Marketing, is Biocoat ' a developer of biomaterial coatings for medical devices. Their website offers informational videos, a stocked library of downloadable resources, robust blog and webinar opportunities as shown below; all designed to attract relevant prospects who are searching for a solution that their company can support.

These are only a handful of examples of the possibilities Inbound Marketing offers for specialty manufacturers, but it proves no matter how niche or specialized your products may be, an Inbound Marketing strategy can be implemented to improve online search performance and attract and convert qualified leads through your website.

To learn more about the disciplines of Inbound Marketing and how to get started, download our free Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.

Four Steps To Generate Leads Online With Your Business Blog

Most experienced marketers agree that a business blog is an extremely useful tool to expand online reach, build brand loyalty, and generate leads online. According to Social Media Examinar's 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 79% of marketers with over three years of experience use blogging as a social media marketing tool. Whether you're just getting started or need to revamp your approach, here is a proven four-step formula your business can use to reap the many benefits of blogging:

(DEFINE+LISTEN+ADDRESS) X (COMMUNICATE) = BLOGGING SUCCESS

Clearly define your target audience, listen to them, and then communicate solutions that address their pain points in a simple, concise and relevant way.

DEFINE ' Develop Buyer Personas

Create a demographic profile for each buyer persona. Flesh out personal details, such as gender, age, income and education level, marital status, and children. Speculate on any hobbies, pursuits, and personal interests to give you personas a three-dimensional feel.

Expand on employment information. Create data points for industry, department, specific role within the organization, and level of seniority.

Finally, speculate on each persona's information acquisition and consumption habits. Do they prefer nline search, social networks, books, newspapers, or trade papers? If yes, which ones? Try to be as specific as possible- the more detailed your buyer persona, the more effective your blog.

LISTEN ' Understand Needs and Motivations

If your business is selling a product or service (which for your sake I hope is the case), take a moment to think about the needs and motivations of your target market. What features and benefits are your buyers looking for? Make sure to think about this for each of your buyer personas. Moreover, what type of user experience (UX) is your buyer expecting to have when purchasing your product or service?

On the flip side, you need to anticipate objections. What issues or concerns would keep each buyer persona from purchasing your product or service?

To the extent that you can understand needs and motivations, and expose consumer objections, you can tailor various blog posts to address the interests and concerns of each persona within your greater target audience.

ADDRESS ' Solve Pain Points and Offer Value

Now for the nitty-gritty: how will your product or service resolve a problem, address a pain point, and/or ultimately provide value to your target audience? At his/her core, what does each buyer persona really value? What will get them excited to work with your brand? What are they trying to accomplish with this relationship?

Once you have a clear grasp of such fundamental buyer motivations, you can communicate how your product or service can solve their problems and add value to their lives. Blogging gives your brand a direct and relatively intimate platform to communicate with your target audience on a consistent basis.

COMMUNICATE ' Keep it Simple, Concise and Relevant

Clarity of message is the cornerstone of effective blogging. A simple structure and a clear proposition make for the most compelling posts. Most readers are looking for useful insight they can easily digest in one sitting. The best blog posts are usually 400-800 words in length. Make sure each post is in some way relevant to your target audience: resolve, inform or entertain. Tie your product or service into each blog topic, being mindful of the buyer persona(s) you are trying to reach.

In an increasingly crowded Internet, a well-crafted business blog can provide real value to your target audience. In time, this will translate into more web traffic, leads and sales for your brand.

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This article is an original contribution by Chris Horton.

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Auto-Publish Blogs for 50% more B2B Leads

As an inbound marketer, you're probably in cahoots with tens of thousands of other inbound marketers across the globe in search for an effective method to gain more b2b leads. It is quite safe to say that nowadays you can't survive getting any leads without social media integration. Promoting your products and/or services is one of the most effective and vital processes of inbound b2b lead generation. However, this might not give you just a piece of the pie and not the entire thing.

So what's lacking? A recent entry at the Hubspot blog, entitled 'Companies That Auto-Publish to Social Media Generate 50% More Leads [New Data]' states just that.

The guys at Hubspot has graced us with pertinent data regarding the effectiveness of auto-publishing blog posts to suit one's advertising efforts for generating more leads. The blog post has indicated that within 3,308 B2B and B2C companies, there is a recorded 576 leads generated to those companies that did not use blog auto-publishing whereas 865 leads have been generated with auto-publishing. On the same note, Hubspot has studied that within 8,892 B2B and B2C companies, a recorded 308 leads were generated with the aid of social media scheduling whereas 981 leads were generated with social media scheduling.

At their graphs, it can be clearly seen that there is a near 40% increase in leads generated with blog auto publishing and a whopping 300% increase when social media scheduling is applied.

Nonetheless, there are still a few things to take into consideration before you start any blog auto-publishing or social media scheduling. After all, if you want to generate more leads then you have to do it right.

1. Optimize the title and content of your blog post

   First thing's first, you have to focus on your targeted keywords. However, you have to make it so that you attract the attention of your targeted market. A title that plainly says something like 'commercial cleaning leads'won't really give you that much attention.

2. Provide readers with tweetable content

   Whenever you post something, give your readers something to focus their eyes upon. For example, you can bold a portion or phrase out of your blog post or article to highlight the importance of that to the topic. For instance, you can indicate in your post on how your prospects can get more cleaning leads. This can get their attention immediately and lets them read the entire article for them to find out more about how they can acquire more leads for their cleaning services.

3. Install social media sharing buttons

   Within your website, don't forget to put in a plug-in or two with easy access to social media sharing. This lets your readers easily share your content with a click of a button. The easier that your content gets shared, the more chances that your blog will spread throughout the World Wide Web.

4. Consider a tool the lets you auto-publish your posts and social media activity

   There are many softwares out there that you can download in order to spread the word about your blog at scheduled times and dates. For one, Hootsuite is one great option that allows you to schedule posts and allows you flexibility on where you want to post them. The good thing about this tool is it is only an on-line application; hence, no download is required.

5. Know the best times to publish your content

   Do a bit of research beforehand on the best times to publish your content. Also take into consideration the market that you are planning to target. As of late, a lot of people agree that reading blogs is now the morning newspaper. So, as an example, when you want to target states within the east coast of the United States, make it so that you publish at the times that they're sipping their morning coffee.

Do you still need excuses on why you shouldn't ramp up your blog posting and social media activity? Does auto-publishing posts still need to be questioned further?

This article is an original contribution by Matt Ford.

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