What’s An Eye-Catching Name For An Asphalt Sealing Business?

Names + Taglines, Services

I need to come up with a very eye catching name for a asphalt sealing business that a very close friend of mine is starting. Do you have any creative names or even a catchy slogan? The owner’s last name is Wolcott, if interested.

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Jay’s Answer: I’m assuming that the owner wants a catchy name/tagline to attract customers. That’s not enough – they need a marketing strategy. Are they trying to attract residential or commercial? Big jobs or small? Any guarantees? Special techniques/materials?

If I’m looking for an asphalt sealer, I’m not looking for a cute name – I’m looking for quality at a good price.

Here are a couple of names for you:

  • Sealed By Wolcott
  • Asphalt Artistry

How Can We Expand Our Greek Business?

eMarketing, Publicity

We have been in business for a few years and is looking for some new ways to expand our business. We do not have a store front and have done most of our business through word of mouth and show style events. However, we feel a need to grow into the area of online sells. What is the best way to begin doing business online?

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Jay’s Answer: Create a website. Take pictures (both low and high-resolution) of the things you want to sell and create great descriptions of them. Allow people to order things and ship them (charging appropriately based on distance, customs, etc.). Use the keywords in your site that people are searching for. Have other businesses (including online directories) link to your new site.

Our Event Venue Needs a Creative Tagline

Names + Taglines

Looking for a new tagline for an event venue in Southern California. We are also a concert venue,and have headliner entertainment weekly, which is also part of the draw for event planners having private events.

We are marketing to corporate event planners who have a need for an event venue. Venues strengths are: In house catering, Built in turnkey production (full concert quality lighting, sound and video), Built in stage, Great location, larger groups (300 to 4000). It truly is one of the best event venues in the area. Our last tag was – Vibrant and Versatile.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Bring Your People. We’ll Do The Rest.
  • The Easiest Event You’ll Ever Plan
  • Your Planning+Our Venue=Easy Fun

What Is a Good Headline For A Home Communication Advertisement?

Services

I’m working on an ad for a company that installs complete home communications systems — entertainment, computing, security, etc. They want to say that they’re the “One Company” or “One Source” that can provide the homeowner with all of the technology needed to create the perfect home environment. These systems are customized to the owners’ specifications, and operate with just a touchpad. Very high tech! I’m looking for an idea that says “#1” or “leading” or “one company.”

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Jay’s Answer: The problem is that the client doesn’t provide the various technologies, they provide the communication between the technology. Communication in itself isn’t a benefit – simplicity or efficiency is.

  • One Home. Multiple Electronics. One Solution.
  • Untangling Home Remotes Since XXXX
  • Your Custom Home Technology Manager

Does Your Website Jingle?

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing, Publicity

Jingle Generator Logo

Because people are being saturated with marketing messages, your message needs to be on-target but also worth remembering.

To keep your website’s content memorable, incorporate more than text to your site: photos, videos, audio, surveys, widgets, etc. The goal is the different components should “fit” into a larger picture for your marketing strategy’s success.

For example, the free Jingle Generator is an attempt to use interactive media to build extra interest in the company’s offerings. The core idea is to attract small business owners to create a canned jingle (for a radio spot). The experience is fun. Here’s a jingle it generated for Many Good Ideas:

The marketing campaign attracts the target market (small business), but it doesn’t connect the jingle (the piece) with how the company can help improve your business (the big strategy picture).

You don’t just want website traffic. You want traffic that wants to pay for your products or services.

Do You See What Everyone Else Sees On Your Website?

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing

Your website is up and running. It looks great, and you get an email from a website visitor: “I wanted to let you know that your graphics on your site look strange…you might check it out.” How is it possible that your site looks fine to you but wrong to someone else?

You would think that each web browser program (Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) take the same web page information and display it identically. Sadly, you’d be mistaken. Web pages are generally written in (a combination of) HTML, PHP, Flash, or CSS. These are different programming languages that web site designers can use to create a site. While there are standards for how these languages display information, in some cases, the interpretation is open-ended. And there’s the problem.

As a minimum, when you create (or have one created) make sure that the site looks “correct” in the major web browsers. But since each of the web browsers have multiple versions and can run on multiple operating systems, it’s non-trivial to test everything.

Browsershots logo

Browsershots is a free service that takes your web page code and displays it in a wide variety of web browsers in a simple format. Here’s a snippet from using my home page as an example:

Browsershots for Many Good Ideas Home Page

You can click on each of the screen snapshots (and save them to your computer) to see them in detail. However, at a glance you can tell what sites look “off”.

If you have unlimited resources, then make sure your site displays correctly in all the browsers. However, if you have to pick-and-choose, focus on those browsers that are used by the majority of users. These statistics can be found on Wikipedia.

Also, don’t forget to look at your site through the eyes of a search engine “spider”. You want to make sure that in addition to people being able to use your website, that the site is examined by search engines correctly. One such tool is Search Engine Spider Simulator.

The Power Of Body Language

Book Reviews

Buy The Power Of Body LanguageThe subtitle of this book (“How to succeed in every business and social encounter”) gives a clue about how much information Tonya Reiman has amassed. She states that as much as 93 percent of our interpersonal communication is nonverbal. The book is about both how to read others’ nonverbal messages and how to control your body to achieve your goals.

Her “five immutable truths of body language” explain her passion:

1. Body language is a constant.
2. Body language is always determined by context.
3. Body language can never be judged based on one single signal.
4. Body language reveals the discrepancies between what a person says and what a person truly believes.
5. Body language mastery allows you to tune in to “microexpressions,” the brief flashes or gestures that betray inner feelings.

Until reading the book, I had considered myself good at paying attention to body language. For example, the next time you’re in a group of people who are talking, look at the direction people’s feet are pointing. If a person’s feet are pointing away from the group, they are no longer engaged.

She has chapters on the language of: the face (including reading emotion, lip gestures, nose and chin expressions, etc.), the body (hands, torso, arms), of space and touch (the four zones of space and the 14 social touches), and sound (vocal cues). Additionally, she has a wealth of information on secret signals and first impressions. Each chapter also contains what the language means (“What to watch for”) and how to use it for your personal benefit (“What you should work on”). As she describes, the information can be used to both build rapport and/or manipulate people.

The book isn’t a casual read – it’s more like a study course. Read about a gesture or two, go into a social situation, and watch for it (in context). It’s another great skill to have in your social toolkit.

The Naked Truth Of Advertising

Publicity

Simpac Advertisement

Quick! What is this advertising image being used to sell?

1. Spa makeover
2. Plastic surgery
3. Real estate financing
4. Escort service

Here’s the complete ad copy:

For the “green” in real estate financing Fiona has you covered with the best rates and products in real estate financing!

Does the ad “work?” It’s certainly memorable. The person is clearly confident of their looks and wants to stand out. However, is this image and copy sufficient for convincing prospects to use her services?

Here are some suggestions I’d make to improving the ad:

  • Use the image, reinforce the copy. Instead of being clever with “green”, tie in the feeling that the image conveys: confidence, vitality, success. For example, “Does Your Financing Make You Feel This Good?”
  • Use the image, make the copy shocking. For example, “I Love the Feel Of Money. Let Me Show You How To Feel More, Too”
  • Make the image and copy more memorable. A naked silhouette with copy such as, “I Find Attractive Real Estate Financing”.
  • Change the image, strengthen the copy. Instead of showing a semi-naked person, show a home made of stacks of dollar bills. The copy could read, “Homes Are Made Of Money. Save More Financing With Me.”

What other images and copy would you suggest?

How Should I Propose A New Marketing Operations Plan?

Services

I work for a large national telecommunications company. My company separates sales (outside sales reps), sales operations (inside sales reps and warehouse staff), sales support (corporate retail call center and training) and marketing (corporate channel marketing, customer retention, and creative services). I work in the field at a small regional office doing marketing, but report within the sales structure. They are talking about having us report through the sales support structure, since our efforts support the outside sales team. I think this is all backwards. We should be working with the corporate marketing team. The way the various departments works is very silo’d. There is poor communication, we are often focused on fire fighting rather than strategy, opportunities are lost due to inter-department red tape, regional offices aren’t given access to all the same resources, and I could go on and on.

My question is, how do I propose a corporate structure change that would involve a much needed addition of marketing operations in addition to redefining a portion of the reporting structure? I have written marketing plans before, but this seems to be different. Plus I’m not very high on the totem pole so I need to be sure it would be clear and convincing. Any tips or advice would be helpful in addition to any ideas for an outline.

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Jay’s Answer: First, you need some “proof” that your idea is good. Find case studies of organizations that made similar changes and the effect on the bottom line.

Second, since you don’t have much authority/power, you need to align yourself with those that do. Selling a shift like this can be tricky, so you need a story to go along with the hard data. I suggest reading “Squirrel, Inc.” for a description of how to craft a story for internal company storytelling. Once you have your story, find people higher up in the organization (or think laterally – Human Resources or even a Quality Circle) who might listen to you.

Lastly, you might decide if it’s better to let it be, fight, switch positions, or even switch companies.

How Can I Organize Business Seminars on Changing Attitude?

Services

I am keen to know how to organise seminars on attitude changing and moral building in a organisation?

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Jay’s Answer: Teaching morals and changing attitudes to children is hard. Teaching it to adults is extremely hard. Instead of having a workshop saying “Do This. Don’t Do This.”, you’ll want to make the workshops fun and memorable. I suggest bringing in a professional storyteller that can craft business stories around morals & attitudes in business.

Following the stories, have groups of employees create their own stories around the same theme, ideally highlighting something they’ve witnessed at your company. You can even have an ongoing story of the week (email) – with prizes for contributions of stories by your employees.