BrandingFire Blog

Here’s some intersting data I found by accident. Last week I was perusing one of Google Labs‘ projects, Google Trends. They compile search data from the last 4 1/2 years and reveal trends based on search terms. For instance, you can see trends for the search term “american history”, which is what I did. And after checking a few search terms, I came to realize that american history is taking a hit in the public consciousness - or at least in their searches. Keep in mind that this is in no way a scientific study and public interest in subjects is cyclical. Interests come and go in cycles. But overall, online interest in US history seems to be slipping away.

As a quick side note, the graphs included in this post are from Google Trends. The top blue line reflect the number of searches for a particular term from the beginning of 2004 until today. (The bottom blue line reflects news items reflecting the search term and aren’t really considered in this post.) The letters you see along the top blue line reflect the interest generated by certain online news stories.

Take for instance the search for american history (chart at beginning of post). As with all searches, you’ll see spikes in searches for this term (especially when some news event occured surrounding the subject, but the overall trend is down.

Likewise, here is a search for “United States history”. The trends is remarkably downward!

So, what if you search for specific places or events? Here’s one for Gettysburg.

And Antietam.

How about the Wright Brothers?

So, is the prognosis for history bleak? Not really. As I’ve said, interest in history is often cyclical and frequently spurred on by notable news, entertainment evens (such as Roots, Gettysburg and Cold Mountain). We’re just three years from the sesquicentennial of the Civil War (two if you start with secession in 1860). Furthermore, travel to historic sites is down due to economic woes, but that will turn around. Good historic site marketers should even be able to take advantage of this downturn and fuel pricing woes to lure in local visitors for “backyard vacations” that could save them travel dollars.

What are you doing to gin up interest in your site? Add a comment or drop us a line and tell us about it.

If you are into history and marketing historic sites, you really should check out Heidi Glatfelter’s blog Marketing Early America. Heidi has more than a decade of marketing experience working with non-profits and she’s really connecting that experience with her passion for history and pumping out some good information for anyone involved with history-related organizations.

I didn’t know Heidi until I ran across her blog a short while ago, but I’m happy to find someone out there who shares my passions for history and marketing and is trying to be a beacon to help guide these worthy groups.

Now, GO, READ, COMMENT!! Be heard!

Image via Wikipedia

I wrote in an earlier post that when it comes to marketing, remember that it’s not about you, it’s about your audience. That was driven home for me again today. This evening I went to Best Buy to test out the new iPod Touch (a product which, by the way, really engages its audience). I really, really want one. Here’s the problem I encountered: half of the applications are web-based. In fact, testing the browser was a big part of what I wanted to check out. But Best Buy doesn’t have a wireless network so you can try them out. I sort of understand why they wouldn’t want an open network in the store, but trying out something like the Touch is a big part of the customer experience.

Likewise, my son and I were looking at the video game consoles. There was the XBox 360 which, as far as I could see, only showed demo movies of their games. Next to it was a Playstation 3, with a fun racing game with killer graphics. We had a blast playing that game. If I was seriously in the market for a gaming system, guess which one I would have walked out with?

This reminds me of the times I’ve taken my son to Toys R Us, where they have several cool toys on display… behind Plexiglas. That’s just cruel. It’s also one of the reasons I usually take my son to Main Street Toys here in town. They put the toys out where kids can reach them and play with them. That’s what their audience really wants!

So, are you engaging your audience or are you locking everything up behind glass?

I ran across a nice site called Cultural Heritage Tourism run by (again) The National Trust for Historic Preservation. On their site, they list the Five Principles for Successful and Sustainable Cultural Heritage Tourism. It’s worth a read. The third principle - Make Sites and Programs Come Alive - really hit a cord for me.

Image via WikipediaThe National Trust for Historic Preservation has a really good blog and last Friday they posted about how important it is for historic sites to create a business plan. They also published a nice, concise list of resources to help you get started.

You might be wondering how important a business plan is - especially if you’re a not-for-profit. The answer is simple… VERY! But it’s not just the plan itself that’s important, but the process you go through in creating the plan. It really makes you study your market and think about your mission and audience. For that reason alone, I also encourage organizations to create their own plan. You can get outside help, but I don’t recommend you outsource the whole process. No one understands your organization and it’s mission quite like you do and the process of “getting your hands dirty” (so to speak) is very important.

I encourage you to head over and take a look at their resource listing!

I’m heading to Podcamp Nashville tomorrow. I’m not a podcaster, but the place will be crawling with the new media/social media elite. And I already talk with many of these people online, so I’m looking forward to meeting them in person.

If you’re going, look me up!

“A person is smart. People are stupid.”
- Agent K, Men in Black

Several years ago, the “wisdom of crowds” became a popular concept. The theory follows the old adage that “two heads are better than one”. Today, the phrase “wisdom of crowds” has fallen out of favor with many people, but the theory is still sound when implemented in the right circumstances and manner. For instance, it works well with reader ratings and reviews on Amazon.com or Travelocity.com. It works well because the feedback informs a user and then they make a final decision themselves.

Where “wisdom of crowds” fails is when it’s utilized as a decision-making tool. Essentially, it was seen as an inclusive way of making decisions. One of the ways it was instituted was to let everyone air their opinions on the matter at hand and then a decision was made in a way that incorporated those opinions and “validated” everyone’s input. The trouble with this “decision by committee” is that it’s a breeding ground for a virus known as Groupthink. Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. During Groupthink, members of the group avoid promoting viewpoints outside the comfort zone of consensus thinking.

There is validation in seeking other opinions, from both people experienced in your subject and those who aren’t. Fresh outlooks are great to solicit. But eventually, someONE must make a decision for the process to move forward. Decisions made by multiple people tend to be muddy and lackluster.

A creative director I know recently went through this “design by committee” purgatory. She needed to get a new company logo, business papers and website designed and approved in 8 weeks. A daunting task under any circumstances. But in this case she had to run EVERYTHING through a committee of company executives and every one of them had to have a say about every little item and every change thereafter. The continual nitpicky changes back and forth and lack of a leadership decision frustrated the creative team and nearly broke their relationship with an outside agency they were using. After nearly ending up with ugly, in-distinctive art the creative director finally pushed through something decent by sheer force of will and a bit of subterfuge. However, the silliness of the decision process took seven weeks and obliterated the roll out time line. Everything had to be rescheduled and the executives grumbled that they couldn’t figure out what the delay was.

Decision by committee is a terrible way to get things done. Take other people’s opinions into account, but then task someone with being the decision-maker and get it done. Besides, everyone’s got better things to do with their time than to site in committee meetings.

Do you have an opinion on this? Share it and leave me a comment!

I recently found a cool website called PartnerUp.com. It’s a sort of social networking site for wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs. You can create a profile with your abilities and experience. You can post business opportunities or browse opportunities from other members. If you’re willing to pony up a subscription fee, you can search other member’s profiles to help you find potential partners who match your specific needs.

But this really brings up the question of partnerships. Two of my mentors really, really don’t like them. They’ve both seen some very ugly business break ups in the past when one or more partners don’t or can’t keep up their part of the workload. It really puts a strain on a partnership when you rake in $5 million in revenue and having to split it 50/50 when one of the partners did 90% of the work. Or if the business struggles when one of you is working your heart out and the other is completely absent. There’s also the challenge of making sure all of the partners share a passion and vision for where the business is going.

On the other hand, there have been some successful partnerships: Hewlett-Packard, Sergei & Larry, Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Peanut Butter & Jelly! In all seriousness though, there have been many successful partnerships. And having more than one person to work on a startup would sure be helpful. The amount of work it takes, no matter if you fail or succeed, is rough and sometimes overwhelming. I think the key to success is to set up a well-defined partnership. One that defines who is responsible for what jobs, what is the definition of successful performance, what happens when someone doesn’t perform, how much everyone owns and a hierarchy of leadership. It’s also important to define how disagreements will be
handled. And all of this needs to be decided before anything else is done in the business.

I think a partnership can work out if it is well structured. That having been said, I haven’t decided yet if I will take on partners for one or more of my endevors. I’ll keep it in mind as an option.

Have you had partnership experience? I’d like to hear about it! Comment on this posting or shoot me an e-mail at darrin-at-brandingfire.com.

If you haven’t read the November/December issue of Civil War Historian, the Attention to Orders column (letter from the editor) is worth a read. Editor (and noted Civil War reenactor) Nicky Hughes sometimes steps aside and lets his wife Susan (equally noted Civil War civilian reenactor write in the space. This issue she writes about the hidden peril facing many historic sites: a lack of money and support. She notes that many of those sites that are in danger of closing look prosperous. She reports on two Baltimore sites and one near Richmond which closed this past Autumn.

Baltimore lost the Baltimore Civil War Museum and Fells Point Maritime Museum. Both were satellite museums run by the Maryland Historical Society. The society was hemorrhaging money and the closures would put the back in the black in about a year.

Flowerdew Hundred is a historic plantation nearly 400 years old. It was also the location of General Ulysses S. Grant’s crossing of the James River in 1864. Turning Flowerdew Hundred into a historic destination was to a great degree the work of lawyer and investment banker David A. Harrison III. But Harrison died in 2002 and the family has decided to stop funneling money into the site. The site cannot support itself financially on its own. The only option left to them was closure.

Susan Hughes says that even with the elevated public awareness historic sites have received in recent years, many of those sites are still struggling. She says it’s time for historic sites to start looking at their destinations with a “business” eye and mindset. Something that is alien and hard for the administrators of many of these site. Yet, Hughes is right. Sites all over the US that don’t have access to unlimited amounts of money are turning things around by using a “business” mindset.

How is the situation with your historic site or group? Are you struggling or are you thriving? If you have issues or would just like some fresh perspective, drop us a line and we’ll be happy to give you some input. In the meantime, keep fighting to tell your story and keep your branding irons hot!

In order to explore the opportunities available using e-mail marketing, I did a short interview with Dave Delaney, New Media Manager for Emma, an e-mail marketing service. Dave talks a little about what e-mail marketing is and how it can be useful.

Q: What are the benefits of using e-mail marketing?

A: E-mail is the marketing medium that talks back to you. Most ESPs (that’s “e-mail service providers”) offer tracking and reporting that show you who opened your e-mail, what links they clicked, who forwarded the e-mail, and more. You can learn a lot more about your audience’s interests and behaviors that way through e-mail than through some of the more traditional marketing methods like direct mail. Also, e-mail is a relatively inexpensive way to stay in touch with your customers, members, donors, etc., and keep your brand in front of them.

Q: Are there certain types of businesses or organizations who benefit more from e-mail marketing?

A: Emma works with about 8,000 organizations, representing a variety of industries like large financial firms, small non-profits, creative & design agencies, universities, retail shops, and everything in between. They’re all using e-mail marketing and communications to stay in touch with their customers, promote events, advertise specials, promote their brand and expand their reach. Because most businesses put a pretty high value on those things, we think there’s a place for e-mail marketing in any organization’s marketing plan.

Q: Is e-mail marketing expensive?

A: It certainly doesn’t have to be. At Emma, for example, our monthly plans start at $30 and allow you to send up to 1,000 e-mails. That’s cheaper than a cell phone plan and possibly even cheaper than the box set of Poison’s Greatest Hits. Not that we’d, um, know that.

Q: How often should one send out e-mail newsletters? How long should they be?

A: This is a common question in the world of e-mail marketing. And although there’s not a silver bullet answer, there are some best practices that tend to work well. When you’re thinking about frequency, think about things from your recipients’ perspective. Send too often and you might annoy; send too infrequently and they might forget you. Work toward finding your ideal frequency.

When you’re considering length, remember that everybody’s time is valuable, including your readers’. Make your points quickly, near the top of your e-mail if possible, and if you have a lot of content to send, consider linking to a landing page on your website or to a downloadable PDF.

Q: Who puts them together and sends them out?

A: Emma is all self-service, so our customers sign into their accounts to add and manage their audience members, create and send their campaigns and check the response as it comes in. Of course, service and support come free of charge with every account, and we have a fabulous team of people to help along the way, some of whom are named Erin and Dean. But probably not Lonnie.

Q: Any other ideas you’d like to convey?

A: Sure. There’s a very important legal component to e-mail marketing, and it centers around the federal Can-Spam legislation that helps to regulate commercial e-mail. It requires that you include a physical address in your e-mail, provide a way for recipients to “opt out” of your mailings and honor those requests in a timely fashion. E-mail delivery is an industry unto itself, so consider using an e-mail service provider to handle the compliance and delivery for you, so you can focus on the content, design and strategy (and besides, that’s the fun part!).

About Dave Delaney:

Dave Delaney is the New Media Manager at Emma. He is a recent transplant to Nashville, Tennessee from Canada and has extensive marketing and new media experience. Dave and his wife Heather have two children and produce a podcast named Two Boobs and a Baby +, which offers a humorous look at parenting. To learn more about Dave, go to www.DaveMadeThis.com and you can find links to his podcast, his personal blog and his blog about new media.

About Emma:

Emma is one of the major companies providing Web-based service that makes it easy to create, send and track stylish email newsletters and campaigns. You can find out more about Emma at www.MyEmma.com.

Other E-mail Services:

There are some other good companies offering e-mail marketing services. In addition to Emma, I encourage you to check out the ones listed below and balance what they offer against your needs to make an informed decision.

Constant Contact

StreamSend

Benchmark E-mail

iContact

Final Notes:

I’m sometimes asked if it’s OK to make and send out your own e-mail newsletter without paying for a service. It is, but I don’t recommend it. I do have companies I work with who do this, but the time you spend creating, designing and building each newsletter is a burden. Most organizations don’t have a lot of free time to use doing this on a regular basis. It’s worth the small investment to work with a company such as Emma or Constant Contact and let them handle the technical part. Then you can spend more time creating remarkable content that might encourage customers to read your message and possibly share it with others. The added time needed to handle the technical aspects is one of the reasons some do-it-yourselfers give up on e-mail marketing. The service providers out there are so reasonably priced that it usually doesn’t make sense to do it all yourself.