Spring It On: Springboard Marketing

YMCA of the Suncoast is Award-Winning Online Marketing Package

2011-08-03T07:42:02-07:00

Springboard Marketing has been awarded a 2011 Communicator Award of Distinction from the International Academy of the Visual Arts for its online marketing work for YMCA of the Suncoast. The YMCA project included development of a new website and social media presence, both of which incorporated the recently released YMCA of the USA national branding. As part of website development, Springboard created a searchable database of the association’s programs that allows users to find classes easily across 12 branch locations. It also introduced social media strategies and set up pages on popular platforms to help the organization’s visibility, reach and...

How to Thwart a Social Media Attack by Employees

2010-07-08T06:36:05-07:00

A recent article about a Facebook post from an employee of the Pittsburgh Pirates caught our attention. In the article, one of the team’s pierogi mascots, frustrated with yet another losing season, commented on the recent announcement of the extension of contracts by those he viewed responsible for the team’s poor performance. The contracts for the manager and general manager, it seems, have been extended through the 2011 season. The Facebook post: “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.” Ouch. As hard as it is...

5 Reasons to Change the Marketing Plan

2010-06-23T07:01:38-07:00

If you’re a good CEO or CMO, you’ve invested money and time into your marketing plan. If you’re a great CEO/CMO, you’ve insured that everyone in your company is aware of the plan, has a copy of it and is committed to its success. Given the employee buy-in, is it okay to change the plan? To steal a quote from Robert Burns – “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Note to the purist: True, Burns didn’t actually write that. What he wrote was “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, gang aft agley.” –...

Don't Cut the Marketing Budget

2010-06-16T05:52:12-07:00

David Allen Ibsen has written a blog called Telling Tales: “Hey marketing guy, how much did you make me today?” It’s a short and sweet tale of his experiences as a consumer marketing manager in an advertising, sales-driven organization (cable channel). In this position, David is visited often by the CEO. The CEO asks almost daily, “How much money did you make me today?” and our hero, David, is always forced to reply “Not a penny, Larry.” While laced with humor, David could read the implied threat in the CEO’s question. That’s the trouble with marketing. Results are rarely immediate...

Put Your Email Marketing Efforts on Steroids

2010-06-08T10:39:02-07:00

Tyler Gams in his recent blog Email Marketing 2.0 brought up some great points for small business owners using email as part of their marketing strategy. Tyler offers five best practices to make the shift to email marketing 2.0. Here’s a brief rundown of his suggestions followed by things we would add to the list for successful email outreach. · Track your customers’ activity. Know who filled out forms, opened your emails, clicked links and eventually bought your product. · Use reporting information to help you create messages targeted specifically to your customer. · Create valuable content that offers plenty...

Are Your Competitors Integrating Social Media with Other Marketing Tactics?

2010-06-01T12:06:49-07:00

Marketing Sherpa has released a chart illustrating how B2B companies are integrating social media efforts with their offline and online marketing efforts. In summary: 51% integrate social media with both online and offline tactics. 31% integrate social media with online tactics only. 16% do not integrate social media with other marketing tactics. 2% of companies integrate social meda with offline tactics only. For more information read the MarketingSherpa article or download the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa's Social Marketing ROAD Map Handbook.

Choosing Social Media Platforms for Your Nonprofit

2010-05-15T15:10:14-07:00

Having trouble identifying which social media channels are best suited to your nonprofit? Here are six platforms to consider, with a few notes about the kind of nonprofits that might find them valuable. Blogs: If your organization is all about information –a curriculum, advocacy, thought-leadership, etc. – you’re likely to have lots of content to support an effective blog. Keep in mind that you can share more than the written word on this platform – you can share videos, charts, research, pictures – you name it. And don’t worry about building thousands of readers – if your blog is set...

Spy vs SpyFu: Track Your Competitors' Search Performance

2010-04-28T10:19:49-07:00

Feeling nostalgic for Spy vs Spy? Instead of running to purchase the latest MAD magazine, don a black or white outfit and go on a sleuthing adventure of your own. All you need is your competitor's domain name and a visit to an online offering known as SpyFu. SpyFu can give you all kinds of information about your competitor's search performance including: Paid Keywords Top Ad Competitors Top Organic Keywords Top Organic Competitors Through SpyFu you can also: Discover your competitor's daily AdWords budget Measure your competitor's organic search performance View actual ads placed Access free Top 100 Lists such...

Foursquare Basics: Localized App and National Holiday

2010-04-23T04:26:00-07:00

In case you missed it, Friday April 16th was Foursquare Day. While not technically a national holiday (banks were open, mail was delivered), there were celebrations and special offers in some very major metropolitan areas such as New York, Miami, Atlanta and the place where the whole idea began…Tampa Bay. Although the holiday was not the idea of Foursquare, once the company got wind of it, the Foursquare team supported it wholeheartedly. So if Foursquare wasn't behind it, who was? Dr. Nate Bonilla-Warford, a children's optometrist in Tampa bay. An avid Foursquare user, he linked the date with the name...

Web Marketing: Why Use Landing Pages?

2010-04-22T07:04:34-07:00

Because if you're not, you're probably losing customers. A recent post on Hubspot’s Internet Marketing Blog, “4 Simple Ways to Integrate Analytics into Your Daily Internet Marketing Efforts,” offers tips to help you determine the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts. One of them, “Check out your landing page analytics and work on your conversion paths” is worth exploring. Just in case you haven’t used landing pages, let’s start by clarifying what they are. Once you extend an invitation to connect with your company online (through an email blast, tweet, direct mail, etc.), it’s critical to avoid distractions. You want...