Recently I was with a group of business owners who were talking about different “marketing tools” they were using for their businesses.  There seemed to be a rabid desire among them to learn about some “Holy Grail” new tactic or technique they could use. But as I started asking them how they would use one particular tool or another, their answers started sounding more like the feature lists these tools use to market themselves.

• “It lets me add all my contacts and manage discussions in one place.”
• “I can see results from my email campaign in real time!”
• “I can post to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, all from the same program.”

Not to belabor the point, but these stated reasons for using a tool aren’t reasons at all. They don’t identify the one crucial element every marketing activity must possess: The Goal.

So what is the goal of any marketing effort, digital or otherwise? It’s simple: To increase revenue and profit.

Any tool, tactic or strategy must be able to demonstrate how it will help you hit this goal, or it’s nothing but a waste of time, money and resources.

Lately, it seems like many respected tools and tactics cannot seem to quantify any bottom line objective.  I guess that’s what makes us different from other creative digital agencies. We genuinely think that if a service can’t justify it’s price, then neither can we.

Are you asking the tough question about your marketing efforts? Or are you wasting precious resources without a strategy that moves you closer to your revenue or profit goal? Either way, you should know and be able to quantify how each new tool or tactic moves you closer or farther away from revenue and profit. To riff on an old axiom, “Experiment, but verify.”

• Math – Just enter your formula (ex. 120*16) hit enter and get the magic result. Note to students: do not try entering things like “A train leaving Boston at 5:30am and  another in New York leaving at 6:59 pass each other outside of Piscataway at 7:38. How many words per minute was each train conductor texting on average during the trip?”
• Definitions – Need to check the definition of a word before you embarrass yourself in a blog post? Just type define: the word or phrase. Google spits out a full page of definition results immediately. (ex. define: video production)
• Weather – You’re about to head out to make that big proposal, and you want to know if you really need to take along a heavy rain coat, because your girlfriend kindly told you last week how dorky you looked in it, and you’d rather not make that kind of impression on the company who stands to make your year, if things go well. Google to the rescue. Just type weather proceeded by the location you want to inquire about, and you’ve got a pretty good chance of getting the answer on the first line, complete with pretty little graphic aids. (ex: weather Nashville) Note: despite Google’s legendary algorithms, it is no better at making accurate weather predictions than that guy on channel 5. Remember, Google only shows you what it thinks you WANT to see…
• Shipment tracking – I just tried this one out by accident, only to find out it’s a real feature! Half-slain by sleep deprivation, but still eager to find out where TigerDirect was in the process of getting me some new toy I’d ordered, I copied and pasted a “onezie” (all UPS ground tracking numbers start with a 1Z) into the google search bar. Two clicks later, I was looking at my package online!  Try it!
• Area Code Lookup - Couldn’t be simpler. Just type the 3-digit area code into the search bar, and you’ll immediately know what part of the country it belongs to. Now you can know where that mysterious number is calling you from before you even send it to voicemail!
  
• Time – I frequently need to talk to people overseas (India, Sweden, France, Spain, Uzbekistan, to name a few) and trying to remember the time differences at any given point in the year is an embarrassing nightmare. Good client relations are not served well by accidental 3am calls. No problem, just enter time followed by the location in question, and you’ll have your answer, including the date, in case the time zone is over the International date line. (ex. time sweden)

So there’s six quick ones, and I have not even touched on the search modifiers like site: or link:, which are incredibly useful as well.  Let me know what other ones you regularly use!

Step one: Manufacture your own minutes.

Seriously, we all feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day sometimes. But since we all get the same set of 24 issued every day, what we do with them and how we make the most of them is entirely up to us. I’ve always marveled at how long-time freelancers have certain tasks down to a science. I’ll get there too, 24 hrs at a time.

After I decided to write this post, I suddenly stumbled across two other, equally worthy posts at The Renegade Writer, and Freelance Switch, and a third was brought to my attention with the author’s permission to borrow his idea (see below). Yeah, I’m not ashamed to admit it. I borrow heavily from those that are getting time management right. And I hope there’s a take away or two here for you as well:

1. Group similar tasks. (Responding to email, returning calls, writing, designing, research, etc.) Henry Ford got it right. Doing a lot of the same thing over and over saves time and makes for better productivity. Your brain takes a few minutes to adjust to a “new hat”, so once you have it on and get in the groove, just knock all the same type items off your list. It takes my production box almost 40 seconds to initialize After Effects. Takes me almost 20 minutes to get in the groove sometimes. Now, I have never needed any additional excuses to stay locked to my mouse when designing motion graphics, but the charade of saving time and being more productive has eased my conscience a bit, I’d say. (I hope my lovely wife is reading this, too!)
2. Set aside a specific time every day for a break. Freelancers can work any time, and for many of us, the flexibility to work at odd hours (me, I love the graveyard shift) means that we don’t always keep to a schedule. But routine (gasp! did he just use the “R” word?!) is central to productivity. Being intentional about having a few hour’s personal time away from the cares of work is a way of recharging your batteries for efficient mental torque. Whatever floats your boat and can be done at roughly the same time every day, do it. Bonus points if you can figure out how to combine Yoga, a fat stogie (I call it aromatherapy), and a pint. Really. Call me.
3. Do simple, short tasks while waiting. While uploading the newest video production proof for clients, I take the time to slash and burn through my inbox, or Google the solution to that pesky cross-browser CSS issue that’s plagued me all week. Nothing big, but it turns an otherwise wasted hour into productive time. Short tasks do not include a call to mother (most mothers, at any rate) or doing your taxes.  If you’re the kind of person who can figure out your deductions on the back of a napkin while waiting for a client to get through the line at Starbucks, then I hate you. And your mother.
4. Do some grunt work first, then reward yourself with a fun creative task. Delayed gratification: the hallmark of maturity.  My mother used to preach this, and it drove me crazy. It works, though, especially if you are a procrastinator like me. Speaking of Mom, I should probably give her a call soon…been meaning to do it for weeks now. Maybe when I have a minute.
5. Spend a little time every night setting an agenda for the following day. I go to bed at night knowing what the plan is for the following day. Yes, it always changes, and no, I haven’t slept well in years, but my point is that this process of prioritizing and revising and doing ensures nothing slips through the cracks that I don’t intentionally stuff, pack and cram into the cracks, and it keeps multiple simultaneous projects moving forward. This exercise can keep multiple simultaneous personalities moving forward as well. No I am NOT schizophrenic (when I take my meds), I just mean we freelancers wear many hats throughout any given day.
6. Have a client that procrastinates? Put choices in concrete terms instead of abstractions as much as possible.  Don’t ask “what color do you like for this?” Ask “Do you like this blue or the green for the logo?”   Don’t ask “What’s your time frame on this?” Instead, ask “Will next Friday be soon enough?” Don’t ask “What would you like for dinner tonight, Sweetie?” Instead, say “We had Chinese last night, remember, and besides it’s MY turn to pick!” (Sorry, my personal life sometimes spills over into work…) Many times helping a client narrow down the creative direction by offering fewer choices makes everyone happier.
7. Exercise. Time away from the computer doing something physical is the best way to get your brain pumping with fresh, clear ideas. Other activities that can get your blood pumping and your heart racing, but do NOT count as healthy exercise: Being retweeted by Guy Kawasaki, and After Effects renders on Vista boxes.
8. Get enough sleep. They say sleep deprivation has the same effects as being drunk. Hopefully you aren’t coding any jQuery on the tail end of a six pack, but what about on two nights totalling three hour’s sleep? I realize “enough” is a relative term, and what might be a barely sufficient 9.5 hours for me is akin to a century’s enchanted slumber to some people. Hey, creativity is an intensely draining process, so lay off. Show me your Mona Lisa and then we’ll talk. (Thanks to DEF Graphics for the inspiration on this one, and for the recent Twitter follow!)
9. Find your “Time Sinks” and eliminate them. Get ninja-like with those clients that eat up 40% of your time, and equate to 10% of your yearly revenue. Set boundaries, or fire them. Look for and work hard to attract the 10/40s , those “ideal” dream clients we have all mind-mapped in the lean years. Vorda_Vasku, a recent Twitter follower of mine, tells me his dream client is “A combo of Lara Croft and WoW Belf chick in need of Front-end redesign paying 1 mil $ in cash – in advance. :D”. I’m betting Croft is high maintenance, though. You can have her, Vorda.
10. Get in the zone. Whatever it is for you, find it, and once you are there, keep yourself focused on the task for an hour before breaking or allowing yourself to get distracted.  For me the zone is 2am, an 80s Hair Band playlist blaring on headphones, coffee and dual 24″ monitors. Give me that, and I can put the hurt on some deadlines. (feel free to describe your own personal zone in the comments, but let’s keep it PG, people. My wife reads this…)
11. Keep a production or code folder with detailed notes on tricks and hacks you plan to use often on other projects. I’ve been using Snippely, and like it a lot. This takes a little time to set up and maintain, but will pay off in the long run. It’s fun to pull off a stellar camera move in 3 minutes for a new client! (The original setup took me 7 hours a year ago, but I use it all the time). I have a folder of “go-to” WordPress plugins I wouldn’t start a new site without. If you have no trick or hacks, you need to go get a coder drunk and steal his laptop while he tries out his binary pickup lines on the bar maid.
12. Create effects presets for After Effects and actions for Photoshop. Not only will it save you time doing repetitive steps in your own work, but you can then make wild claims to godhood in online forums where throngs of eager but less god-like creatives will willingly lick your boots and download your CC-Attrib-NonComs all day long.
13. Set up typical project proposal and invoice templates. Just a text file with items you have to bid or invoice regularly can save time (and save your butt by keeping your details straight and thorough!). Creating standardized proposals and bids is perhaps not as creative as spitballing figures at random, but trust me, the day you network two clients together for business opportunities, and they have the bright idea of pulling out the winning proposals you sent to each of them and seeing how the deck is stacked, you’ll thank me. And nothing hurts worse than an accounting department that calls up to question the vague but accurate line-item description you thought was so brilliant at 3am the week before: “Tuesday. Spoke with B. Made changes per his request. Then spoke with S. and changed it back again. Finally got through to R. who scrapped the whole idea and sent me a new RFP. Billing 7 hours of my life I will never get back.”
14. Use professional services when you can. No one likes to bill clients, keep track of monthly expenses or optimize your web sites for inbound marketing. That’s what small business accountants and SEO people do for a living, so let them. Free up your time and lower your stress. (NOTE: There is a certain liability that often materializes when highly creative people attempt to keep books. Accounting is not a creative task. Becoming creative with numbers is never a good idea. You know who you are…)
15. Don’t read long winded posts from self-styled humorists claiming to save you time! Now, get out there and have a productive weekend!

Did I miss anything?

Over the years, we have locked in on a “go-to” set of old faithfuls. Almost without fail, these plugins are installed before the first pixel is altered or the first word penned.  So without further delay, here’s our list of 10 WordPress plugins we cannot live without (feel free to ad your links to other indispensables in the comments below):

1. All-In-One SEO Pack Does what is says…says what it does. Finer-tuned adjustments of keywords and page titles.
2. Ad Rotator Widget A highly flexible little bit of code, perfect for callouts and, well, ads, of course.
3. FormBuilder Essential for sites that need multiple, different, customized forms, and a simple interface for managing and assigning them to pages. Go ahead…get carried away!
4. PodPress The quintessential plugin for managing a podcast on WordPress. It’s the little extras that have always wowed us with this one, and the incredible work put into it by Dan Kuykendall!
5. Google XML Sitemaps Some say it helps, others say don’t bother. But every time we install it on an established blog, we see positive jumps. That’s reason enough for us!
6. Maintenance Mode Making changes under the hood? Switch over to a maintenance page with the click of a button. Stylable, customizable, clean, simple functionality. Surprised this one hasn’t been baked into the core code already. Just remember to turn it off when you are done.
7. Subscribe2 Yes, it’s admittedly pretty Web 1.0, but we still have people who prefer to sign up for email notices. Who are we to stand in the way of those standing in the way of progress, right?
8. WP Email Also old-school, but clients always ask for this functionality, and the potential for abuse has never materialized for us. Anyone disagree?
9. WP Print The super-fast and easy way to get a stylesheet up and running for print-versions of your posts.
10. Akismet (of course!) If you don’t know what this one does, it’s because you’ve been so buried in spam email for YEARS that you haven’t been able to come up for air. Pity.
11. BONUS: ThinkDesign Blog’s Test Post Pack A no mess, no fuss way to make sure yo are styling all your elements correctly, without forgetting anything. Sure beats the manual method of creating a bunch of posts, ages and comments with various kinds of content!

These fine coders are all worthy of your accolades and donations. Because of them, web sites actually DO things.

(TIP for designers: I created a directory on my computer that contains all of these plugins, so copying them up to a new WP instalation is super-quick. They are all outdated versions, of course, but with WP v2.7, I can click and upgrade them all very quickly before activating them.)

As a small business person, opportunity has always been found in the places where there is real need. In our case, those needs have centered on companies who are branding and creating marketing messages in various digital forms. We are so proud to have worked with such a great client roster during the past year, and hopefully met some pressing needs in web design, print design motion graphics design and video production. Thank you all for making last year such a fun one for us!

As a feeble thank you, here are 9 Low Cost Opportunities for Your Business in 2009.

1. Determine the stress points of your customers, and develop legitimate marketing that positions your product or service as the immediate relief they seek. Acute economic stress can become a great motivator to solve a nagging problem.  Do you know what your product or service addresses in today’s buying climate?
2. Down time during the first quarter? There is no better time to revisit your web site strategy and make sure it is really working for you. Some of our clients saw exponential growth occur in their business, simply by optimizing a few pages of text for search engines, or adding intelligent, descriptive video!
3. Take advantage of the holes in your market left by competitors who couldn’t weather the recession. Many competitors are thankful when a business offers to step up and take over a client roster, to support their orphans instead of leaving them in a lurch.
4. Position yourself as an expert in your market. Write articles. Take speaking engagements. BLOG! Much of the “getting to know and trust you” phase of new client development can be taken care of in this way.
5. Twitter. Share valuable links to solid, relevant information aimed at people in your marketplace.
6. Organize a small social event for people  in your client list who need to know each other.  Ask them to invite some of their best customers as well.
7. Revamp your business card. It’s an inexpensive move that can have a transformative effect on your first impressions.
8. Start a podcast to cover industry news, or tips and tricks, Q & A, how-to.  Offer the audio in a player on your site as well as a downloadable, and get your feed listed in a dozen or more podcast directories where people often look for information related to your area of expertise.
9. Has the economic news spooked your customers and made them overly price sensitive?  Find ways to redefine your value in terms that make sense to them in this light.  An example: KFC started a video commercial campaign that more or less dared people to try to cook a 7 piece dinner with two sides for less than could be had in their stores.  No one was paying attention to the fact that it used to be an 8 peice deal for the same price, because the focus became the value of the deal they were offering, compared to the time and expense of making it yourself.

Well, from the team at Harkins Creative, we sincerely wish you a prosperous New Year full of ripe opportunities! Let us know how we can help.

Also look for new WordPress tutorials to cover the layout changes and new features soon.

Google is calling it Chrome, and I’m sure this is seen as a shot across the bow for IE6 and Firefox (my personal favorite), although they do tip their hats in Mozilla’s direction, acknowledging that some of their horsepower found its way under the hood. Who the heck knows what this might do to smaller projects like Opera or Flock.

Personally, I drink the Google Kool-Aid. They have proven that, while they’ll never win any fashion awards, power, ubiquity and forward thinking are always front and center on their runway. Quietly, Google has for some time been acquiring startups with promise (something everybody else does, too) and assembling talent and ideas. Google likes the long play, so not every company it has snapped up has been an obvious choice. But the release of the new browser beta, followed by more mentions about its JavaScript engine called V8, they clearly have the next generation web squarely in its crosshairs, and fully intend to be the browser to bring it to us.

Of course I have already downloaded Chrome, and am testing it as I write this post. It is living up to its stripped down, severe aesthetic, but for once, I appreciate it immensely in a browser. The design choice really promotes the web site content, not the window through which it is delivered. Curiously, however, there is a startling lack of the elements that have found their way into nearly every other browser experience; namely the Google Toolbar and the Title Bar. The latter is so entrenched in SEO practices, specifically because of how Google uses and views them, it is a little unnerving not to see it at the top of the window. It makes me wonder if Google has plans to deprecate its importance in upcoming page rank algorithms…Nah…Right???

I think the browser community, and hopefully the open source community, will be taking notes for a long time to come.

Go Google.

As a company involved in mostly early stage market activites – media design and content creation, audio and video production – we rely on other companies in our market to supply us with manufacturing and distribution, and ultimately we need consumers to complete our existence.

These days, audio and video distribution is easily accomplished via the web. But in a crowded marketplace with more choices than ever before, consumers rely on search to bring them what they want, when they want it.

For this reason, it makes a lot of sense for Google to offer a media server gadget, essentially bridging the gap between the TV set and the vast content offered on the net.

Sure there are other media player/content services out there that promise to deliver web content to the home theater, but none have the power of Google’s search to find virtually any audio, video or photo file on the web. And while Google is notoriously boring in the GUI department, no one can argue their superiority in their stock and trade. Combine that with the content from Google’s subsidiary YouTube, and this is clearly the future.

For now, it’s a Windows-only gadget, and judging from the comment thread, it is not without some beta-stage issues. Still, who can blame Google for testing the waters and extending the usefulness of its search to the TV?

(Self-Promotional Addendum: I think this gadget would be made all the more amazing if the content it displayed became participatory through the CrowdAbout Social Media Player technology!)

I loaded up both files in my favorite professional audio editing suite, and examined the waveforms. Before I ever pressed play, I knew which recording I would be using (see illustration below, followed by an explanation).

The top waveform (A) was made using Audacity, and the levels were too high for my client’s microphone and voice, resulting in the distortion of the audio signal. Waveform B was automatically recorded by the web conferencing site, and while the audio is much more consistent across the entire recording, the levels were too low.

So which one did I know I wanted to use?

Recording B, unequivocally. The levels were low, but raising the overall volume is much easier and results in a much more coherent audio track than trying to take a distorted loud track and remove the distortion. Once distortion is introduced into the recording, it is very hard to remove it without creating other nasty side effects. Signal level distortion can happen either because the microphone input levels were set too high or the equipment being used to interface with the phone system was mismatched or unable to handle the dynamic ranges of both ends of the conversation (there is usually a disparity between the level of your voice and the voice of the other party when recording).

So what steps can be taken to find the ideal middle ground, the perfect recording that isn’t so loud it causes distortion, but not so soft that the volume has to be artificially raised or “normalized” (a process that usually also raises the volume of other extraneous noises unnoticed before in the recording)?

1. Do several sample recordings, and closely watch the recording level indicators. If they jump into the red area of the scale, lower the recording level in the software you use.
2. It is just as important to listen to the recording, too. Just because your level indicators aren’t peaking into the red area, the phone bridge device you are using might be distorting the signal before it ever leaves the unit on iots way to the recording software. If the device is adding distortion (either when you speak or the other party speaks or both) you will need to see if the device has a way to adjust the signal strength. Some do ($$$$), but most don’t ($).
3. Another option, and one I would strongly encourage you to explore, is to get off the phone company’s lines and use your high-speed internet connection to make the voice call. This is not an expensive option when you use Skype to place the call, and a simple recording tool such as PowerGramo to record the call. I will cover these two tools in more depth in a later post (let me know in the comments if you would find such info helpful).

Obviously, there is quite a bit more technical information that could be offered here, but I like to keep things simple on the blog. If you have any questions, please let me know!