the dangling carrot
cultivating your business vision
Small Business In Big Business Pants!
Business Discipline
May 28th
During the past 2 weeks, I have been being “taught” the lesson that it is really important to “stick to it” and not give up. In my personal life, the lessons are endless with kids, and with an insurance claim…
In my professional life, we had a prospect with a project that promised to be the second largest project for us this year. The prospect had a private investor, who wanted us to provide an estimate for which we had no specifics (only that it would need to include animation and games- but not how much), and to tell them what we would build for them, without a budget – just like asking someone to fix your car, without telling them what was wrong with the car or letting the mechanic look at it. Also, the prospect was unavailable to meet with us as they were busy getting estimates from 15 other web companies.
We respectfully told the prospect that it is not our “business model” to give estimates without determining the customers needs – how could we provide a solution without knowing the problem? Our business methodology has been successful for us – though temptation of big cash projects can be very seductive – we will be disciplined and stay true to what is working. And we recommend that if something is working well for you, that you ”stick with it too.”
How Do I know if I am Getting my Money’s Worth with My Ad Words?
May 12th
At Creative Carrot Studios, we do not provide services for Advertising words (adwords) with Google or Yahoo, or any of the Paid Inclusion Groups. We don’t have anything against these services, this is just not our forte – however, I can provide some guidance to those of you who are participating:
- If you are paying for PPC, or ad works, etc, – please make sure that you have the proper analytics installed in your site to be able to measure what is happening with your website. Has there been an increase in traffic since you began utilizing ad words? Are the ad words the words driving traffic to you? How long have the “people” stayed on your website when they have been driven there, by the keyword. If it is a short time, the people may not have been your prospects and your Ad words may need to be adjusted.
- Do you have the time or staff to manage the ad words if you have the analytics? Watching the traffic numbers, and determining what is working and what is not working takes time and discipline. So – if you are spending $20,000 on ad words per year, but are not effectively interpreting the traffic, conversion rates, site rankings, etc, we recommend that you spend $12,000-15,000 on the paid inclusion and $5,000-$8,000 on marketing support to manage the project.
- Don’t skip the Organic Search words traffic. Lots of people skip the “paid” site rankings without even know that the sites are “Pay per Click” – they just skip it because they know it is some type of advertising. So – it does not make sense to not increase your rankings with Keywords in your source code.
Does Hard Selling Still Work?
Apr 15th
We recently were one of the keynote presenters at a Business Expo. Prior to delivering our “Introductory to Online Marketing” presentation, I attended a number of others offered throughout the day.
Some of the companies provided their “information dump” & then proceeded to push their business’ products and services. Like Traditional selling, it was “in my face” – with loud ad’s and “buy this now”, “there are only two left”, etc. Now that buyers have the “remote control,” they can turn off the volume on the TV, or record shows and skip the commercials, and even watch their favorite programs on their computers. Buyers like the control, they can watch what they want and when they want and they like their buying to be the same. They want the information they need, and they want it when they want it.
So this is why it surprises me when people hard sell from the stage, & I am even more amazed when people buy. Hard selling may still be effective for getting the first sale, but it can breed buyer’s remorse and is certainly not effective for referrals. Business today, just like in the past, is about relationships. But not like in the past, your competitors can easily be found by searching the internet. So establishing a relationship of trust while face to face and on the internet is fundamental to a long-term buying relationship.
SO – we say – Soft Sell – and you may miss out in the short-term, but long-term you will succeed!
The 5 Love Languages – Are they Good for Business Too?
Apr 2nd
In case you are not familiar with the “5 Love Languages” – it was a best-selling book by Dr. Gary Chapman. He believes that there are 5 modalities of communicating love that are universal and that understanding them is the key to successful and happy relationships.
At Creative Carrot Studios, we believe these principles apply and are imperative to successful and happy business relationships:
- Words of Affirmation – Let your customer know that you understand their pain, see the value in their product/services, and that you appreciate their business
- Quality Time – Give your customer your undivided attention – when you are “with” them, be with them
- Receiving Gifts – Provide simples gestures or efforts like remembering their birthday or giving them a promotional item
- Acts of Service – Let your customers know about all of the services you are providing for them. Shame on you of you don’t tell them what you are doing and then expect them to appreciate the effort.
- Physical Touch – Instead of physically touching our customers, we communicate with them and let them know we are thinking about them even after we finish a project – with ideas or possible strategic partnerships.
Love your business!
Who Says a Pig Isn’t Pretty? Don’t Pass Up on a Small Opportunity just because you Missed a Bigger One
Mar 24th
This past weekend was the Deerfield Beach Pig Out in the Park Event. The Deerfield Beach Chamber hosts this annual Barbecue Contest and Community event. Sponsors received publicity in the Chamber collateral, coverage on the website, and an 8 foot Pig Banner to decorate with the company name on it. Everyone on our staff had previous engagements that weekend and could not attend – so we did not participate.
Just prior to the event, a chamber member, who had seen our business card, called and asked if one of our artists could paint the Pig Banner for Toshiba – the end result is the photo above. We weren’t able to be at the event, but our artist’s work was on display – and our company name was at the bottom of the banner. We researched what was current on the Toshiba website, and incorporated it in the design – eco innovation. We have received many comments on how great of a job we did and 2 calls already requesting that we do some graphics work.
SO – the big lesson for us, is that we will seize opportunities – good ones, of course, no matter how big or small. Good luck with your pigs!
How to Allow One Marketing Opportunity to Lead to Another!
Mar 11th
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- Creative Carrot Studios at the Homestead Grand Prix
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- Creative Carrot Studios at the Homestead Grand Prix
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- Creative Carrot Studios at the Homestead Grand Prix
One of our clients, Starworks Motorsport (Grand American Rolex Daytona Prototype Series), retained our services to create a logo for them which created a string of business and marketing opportunities for us. The logo – led to business cards, a website, designing racing shirts, and to having our logo on their racecar. Having our logo on the racecar means that:
- Race fans at the race track saw the logo!
- Sponors at the Race track saw the logo!
- The television audience saw our logo!
- Photos of the car including the one on this blog are all over the web!
Now – it is always going to be a gamble whether or not people are going to like our work (just like everyone else who puts out a product or service). But, when a real marketing opportunity arises, make sure that your business is in a position to take advantage of that opportunity – your website and marketing materials are current – and that you can handle the increase in activity to your site as well as an increase in sales.
And enjoy the Creative Carrots on the rearview mirror and the back of the car. Next – we are designing the wrap on the racecar!