VIDA News and Tips

Look Like a Multimillion Dollar Brand

2009-05-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Entrepreneur Magazine - By Scott Gerber | April 16, 2009

In today’s cluttered, hypercompetitive marketplace your business can’t afford to make a poor first impression. Every touch point that leads to your company needs to impress, motivate and inspire a prospective customer. You may have a great product or service, but to be taken seriously, clients need to believe that you’re on the same playing field as the bigger guys. Even if you’re a consultant that works from a home office, you’ll need to position your company as a polished brand that touts confidence, experience and quality. Fear not. Here are five simple tips for branding your business to create the illusion that it is a global corporation with an army at the ready -- all without breaking the bank.

Website Your website is the center of your brand universe. Simplicity is the key to looking like a big fish. Less is more. A clean, easy-to-navigate two-page site with useful content will make your company look far more established than a cluttered 20-page site with long-winded fluff. Design your site with the needs of your user in mind, not your ego. Sites that try to be everything to everyone will often become nothing to anyone. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t know how to build a website. VIDA can handle all of your web needs from soup to nuts with scalable service packages. Choosing the right URL is also a vital part of your brand positioning strategy. Your main URL should be no more than 10 characters in length. Long URLs are harder to remember, harder to read and are more likely to be spelled incorrectly. Avoid URLs that are phrases, begin with lackluster words or utilize dashes. There is a reason Apple.com isn’t WeLoveApple.com, or Apple-Computers.com. Finally, use a URL with a .com extension. While it’s important to purchase all of the other domain extensions to protect your name, major companies rarely use extensions such as .tv and .net.
Vanity Numbers How often have you seen a billboard or heard a radio spot that advertises an easily forgettable phone number? Phone numbers must be catchy, memorable and relate to your product or service in order to prove effective. Online services such as TollFreeNumbers.com sell custom vanity numbers for around $50. Purchasing a vanity number is a great way to increase sales call volume, build brand awareness and increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Case in point, one of my businesses, SizzleIt.com, witnessed a 30 percent increase in calls the month after we replaced our generic 800 number with 877 EZ SIZZLE. Our clients told us that the number was easier to share with others and reinforced the simplicity of our services.
Automated Phone Systems Combining a toll free number with automated phone systems and virtual assistants enables small businesses to look and sound like a cohesive Fortune 500 enterprises while operating in multiple locations anywhere in the world. These services utilize professionally recorded voice over talents to automatically route callers to the appropriate party and provide callers with brand messaging and information while they wait on hold. While big companies pay tens of thousands of dollars for their phone services, small business phone systems, such as those offered by OneBox.com and My1Voice.com, can cost as low as $50 per month. This gives small-business owners and employees the ability to receive calls in their home offices or on their mobile devices while appearing to be available in their office. Which brings me to…
Virtual Offices Even though you might be answering a call on your mobile phone from your living room, it’s important that your customers believe they are calling a global headquarters located in a skyscraper overlooking Central Park. Virtual offices are an effective solution for businesses that conduct most of their day-to-day communications via phone calls and emails, and rarely need to host their clients on-location. For only a few hundred dollars per year, virtual offices offer small businesses high profile mailing addresses on brand name streets in major metropolitan areas. In addition, they include mail receiving and forwarding services, receptionists and options for on-location meeting space. Instead of paying exorbitant NYC rental fees, my first business saved over $100,000 by purchasing a Madison Avenue address for only $300. The address enhanced my company’s clout so much that we needed to increase our rates in order to keep the illusion believable. After all, Madison Avenue companies aren’t cheap hires.
The Business Card Now you have a slick website, a jingle-worthy toll free number and a captain-of-industry street address. It’s time to combine all of those elements into a single tool. The business card is a vital part of the first impression experience and an instant reflection of you and your company’s work. A cheap, uninspired business card may send the wrong message to a prospective customer. Spend time designing a card that will have people saying, “Wow, nice business card.” Be creative, yet tasteful. Avoid using white, standard size business cards. Choose a thicker card stock with a high quality finish. Make the card longer, a different shape or a bold color to stand out. These printing options will increase the price of your cards, but they will pay off ten-fold in the long run. Customers want to do business with companies that demonstrate their ability to provide high quality services, and a creative business card will send them that message.

Scott D. Gerber is Entrepreneur.com's Young Entrepreneur columnist and CEO of Gerber Entertainment, a brand development and venture management company that specializes in the entertainment, Internet, media and marketing industries. For information on speaking engagements, media appearances or Gerber Entertainment's portfolio of businesses visit www.GerberEntertainment.com.

VIDA Launches Outdoor and Newspaper Advertising Campaign for New Jersey's Largest Pawnbroker/Jeweler

2009-04-10T10:10:00.001-07:00

Wm. S. Rich & Sons, Inc., New Jersey's Largest Pawn Broker/Jeweler since 1890 with 4 locations, wanted to reach out to as many people as possible to make them aware of their "Borrow On or Sell" service. They wanted to do more than just the usual medium (newspaper ads) that they have been running. So, they enlisted VIDA's help in pursuing a way to advertise through more effective means, and decided to go with Outdoor advertising. VIDA came up with a design that focuses on a clear, concise, impactful message with sharp, contrasting colors that could grab people going 60 miles per hour on major roadways or pedestrians on city streets within their targeted coverage. Also, we developed many different taglines for the newspaper ads that were created to enhance the Outdoor Advertising. These ads ran in one the largest newspapers in the state as well as several local ones for maximum and more pointed reach.

Club Metro, New and Thriving Fitness Franchise, Chooses VIDA for Advertising and Web

2009-04-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

VIDA is the agency to ensure the marketing success of Club Metro Fitness, a new fitness franchise that is already turning heads in the industry. After multiple extensive brainstorming meetings, Club Metro owners, Emilio Farina and Mike Sullivan, decided that VIDA's strategic marketing, design, and web capabilities, coupled with its commitment to teamwork, collaboration, and premium customer service, was exactly what Club Metro needs to take their successful startup to the next level - national. Through intense (and fun) collaboration, VIDA and Metro created what is sure to be a winning game-plan, including brand enforcement, collateral and brochure design, direct and email marketing, outdoor graphics, environmental design, complex web redevelopment, and more - all broken down into affordable chunks, to be rolled out in a bottom-line-driven, priority based schedule. Stay tuned as we update our portfolio with these new items!

NJ Mortgage Experts Get a Web Presence Makeover from VIDA

2009-04-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Mortgage Concierge Group, a dedicated team of residential, commercial, and investment mortgages recently came to VIDA in need of a serious upgrade to their free, template-based website, which was not doing them any justice. After evaluating their need for a simple, informative website that would act as the first point of contact between MCG and their prospects, VIDA planned a website which includes insightful service information, an engaging testimonial and photo display Flash piece, loan calculators, online applications, an email newsletter signup form off of every page, live chat and more. MCG can now rest assured that when a prospect reaches their website, they will have many options for engagement and contact, moving the conversion process along smoothly. To get those prospects to the website, MCG is also utilizing another of VIDA's increasingly popular services, Google Adwords campaign management. VIDA has selected a carefully targeted group of keywords to ensure that clicks have the best possible chance of conversion, and to fit within MCG's beginning exploratory budget. Once on the site, VIDA is using a highly advanced analytics software to track user activity and evaluate where the website can evolve to better serve its users and its owners. In the works is a Mortgage Concierge Group email newsletter using our powerful VIDAmail system. This will allow MCG to keep in touch with prospects and clients as a trusted source of valuable information, as well as track user interests down to a click-by-click, first name basis. VIDA is confident that these powerful services, working in tandem, will boost MCG's bottom line and take them to the next level of online marketing. View the website here.

VIDA Launches New Website, Email Marketing, and Facebook Marketing Campaigns for Hollywood Tans NYC

2009-04-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

With the completion of Hollywood Tans NYC unique new website by VIDA, it was clear, in line with VIDA's standard practices, that a supporting online campaign was needed to help drive traffic and get the most out of HTNYC's new web presence. VIDA designed an elegant email template in the visual style of the website using our powerful VIDAmail engine. VIDA has since used this to send out multiple promotions to HTNYC's prospects and clients, driving the business's bottom line cost-efficiently. With Facebook expanding its user-base by the second, VIDA and HTNYC decided that an FB profile and fan page would be a great way to target clients, a good portion of which fit the typical demographic of FB users. VIDA used FB's friend finding system in conjunction with other technologies to invite over 500 FB users who had visited HTNYC's facility in the past to become a fan. These updates were then displayed to every one of those friends' friends through FB's wide-reaching notification system. VIDA now performs frequent updates to HTNYC's FB page to keep clients engaged, as well as delivering email specials. These efforts have all been tied together with a signup form and link to the Facebook page straight off of the HTNYC website. Click here to view the website. Plans are in the works for a Facebook advertising campaign as well as a new blog for HTNYC. Stay tuned! If you have any questions about how VIDA's email marketing, Facebook promotion, blogging, or other services can help your business grow, email or call Claudio at 908-624-1100.

Build a Winning Social Media Strategy Starting NOW

2009-04-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

You may know that we have recently begun providing Facebook promotion to some of our clients. We are thrilled that some of you have had the foresight and savvy to be willing to dash into this sometimes scary new land of "social media" and understand that this is not just a passing fad, but truly a defining form of communication for generations of consumers.

For this month's newsletter, we wanted to share with you some of our notes from a seminar that we recently attended and found particularly insightful - as well as some of our own experiences with promoting our clients on Facebook. The seminar was titled "Facebook Community Building Success Stories" and the panelists where three successful online marketing managers who shared their strategies for success on Facebook.

What we learned from the seminar seems to come down to two things: 1. Targeting 2. Active Management

Every business is different, so no two marketing strategies should ever be the same - that includes Facebook! We can not view social media and Web 2.0 as a checklist of buzzwords to be marked off on a list (much the like the 'Go Green Revolution' has been reduced to). Instead, we need to immerse ourselves in social media and understand how people communicate in that world. If you are responsible for your company's marketing, and you don't have a Facebook account, you are behind the curve - you need to get one. Not to amass "friends", but to understand the culture and language that Facebook has, just like any society, as well as sub-cultures and dialects.

What's wonderful about the way that Facebook has harnessed this variety is their powerful advertising features, which allow you target down to very specific demographics. Use what you have learned from your own experiences on Facebook (and ours) to ensure that you are speaking both the language of Facebook and the language of your target audience - and never stop evolving your campaign! This is where active management comes in.

We recently set up a Facebook account for our client, Hollywood Tans NYC, and invited over 500 clients to become friends. What we found is that even though you may be identified as the company, "Hollywood Tans NYC", on Facebook, people still expect you to carry on a two-way conversation with them, not just present information in the traditional PR sense. Within hours, our client's inbox was flooded with messages from clients. This is a wonderful thing! But it needs to be managed carefully and actively.

Don't let this experience fool you into thinking that the conversation starts when you enter the room. To be successful in social media marketing, you must understand that people are talking about your business, whether or not you're part of the conversation. It's much better to be in the room, right? Click here to read our notes on how the three panelists made their entrance and directed the conversation positively.

Cirque du Soleil

how they got fans:

did advertising to kickstart FB account
fb ads allow for great targeting by demographic

kind of stuff on wall:

experience with the show, favorite parts, etc.
show performers interact with FB users

comes down to content:

backstage stories
stories about performance
make sure to show activity every day
has a different publicist for each show and each is responsible for the page of each show

had a fan managing a myspace account and decided not to take it over because it was very successful - they now work with him directly. found that he was much more trusted.

how FB affects bottom line:

comes down to ticket sales
spent first 6 months in FB just engaging with fans and producing content
just starting to test FB fans exclusive discounts - going great so far
cannot yet purchase tix on FB but may be coming soon in form of an application

things to do differently in the next year:

asking fans what kinds of content they want to see
building a stronger connection with fans through one-on-one interaction
more tracking of ticket sales by tailoring apps to correlate directly to sales

other social tools used:

twitter
iphone applications

One Day One Job

about ODOJ:

site for entry level job seekers
also has One Day One Internship

Facebook strategies:

targeting college students, so decided to go strong with FB
used FB ads extensively and successfully
suggests that individuals create their own FB ads to ad their resumes and goals - was very successful in combo with FB's targeting to expand network into areas that they wouldnt otherwise have access to
they have a page where FB members can become fans because it gives him a very specific sense of his demographic
CTRs are very low on FB because there are so many pageviews (photo albums for example)

great success story:

created two ad variations using FB's powerful targeting capabilities, one targeted Ivy League students, the other targeted grads of the top 40 colleges in the US
the Ivy League ad said something like "One Day One Job is a website to help find entry-level jobs for Ivy League Grads"
found that the Ivy League ad CTR (click through rate) was through the roof because of the ability to target Ivy League students and use those specific words in the ad

lessons:

ID your target group and test test test
need to accomplish as much as possible within the FB site because users dont want to leave FB to visit another site

different in the next year:

investing much more money in ads because he now has the ability to track ROI very well

other social tools using:

twitter
email newsletters and daily email feeds

123greetings

high level strategy:

supply ecards online
focused on human relationships
saw FB success in community
put up an application on FB allowing people to send ecards from FB without leaving the site
has been hugely successful - more so than their off-FB site

difference on FB:

no difference in cards or users
FB has just facilitated usage and expanded user-base many times over
can send a card to friend already in your list, as many as you want at once

strategy:

trial and error
constant evolution
adapt to changes in FB itself

bringing users in:

must use the networking tools, be an expert on all of the activity feeds and learn how to use them for marketing - for example, when one person sends a card to someone, all of this person's friends can see this activity
keep your application simple and small and focus on getting the most out of the features that FB already offers

diff in next year:

going to expand from cards to evites and other forms of communication
uses FBs very large user base to help his business because they are not doing anything much different than other e-greeting companies
advertise on FB

VIDA First Advertising Agency to Advertise in Hispanic Business Quarterly

2008-06-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

VIDA Design and Advertising was the first and only agency to place an ad in the spring issue of Hispanic Business Quarterly. The minority-owned agency, conceived the ad to represent the new world of Hispanic marketing. Market research demonstrates that the Hispanic market is the most growing and explosive market in America today. The Hispanic market is multifaceted and includes consumers who speak Spanish exclusively and those who are bi-lingual. VIDA will be running 4 ads in Hispanic Business Quarterly in 2008. “We take bold steps in our marketing ventures,” said Claudio Burgos, VIDA’s Creative Director and Principal. “We understand the many segments of the Hispanic market and how to effectively communicate with each one to achieve our clients’ goals.”

VIDA Enhances PR and Copywriting Services

2008-05-07T06:40:00.000-07:00

VIDA Design and Advertising announces a new addition to its client services. Mel Elberger will be working on copywriting and public relations. With degrees in writing and communications, Mel has extensive experience as a copywriter, speechwriter, editor, marketer, and publicist. He has written, edited and produced Annual Reports, newsletters, brochures, press kits, speeches, and all collateral materials over a wide range of businesses and industries including healthcare, corporate, scientific, publishing, education, and the non-profit sector. His media relations experience includes placing stories in newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. Flexible and creative, he is capable of fulfilling the demands of the full spectrum of communications projects and assignments for VIDA’s clients and always looks forward to applying his professionalism to new challenges. From a brochure on a new product or program to web copy that creatively presents features and benefits, Mel brings a standard of excellence and a professional attitude to every project he implements. Throughout his career, he has worked well with marketing and PR directors in companies, creative directors in advertising agencies, and graphic artists in design firms. Mel’s writing, editing and PR experience complements VIDA’s design talent and advertising creativity. He is capable of producing results and meeting deadlines to support marketing and sales, publications, media relations, and image and visibility goals and objectives. He has successfully worked on marketing projects for internal and external target audiences. In serving the management of companies, Mel effectively communicates their strategy, vision, and leadership. While bringing the high professional level and meticulous quality of a Ph.D. in communications to every project he completes, Mel is easy to work with and is a team player. VIDA is glad to have Mel on board. He contributes high energy and professionalism to serving our clients.

Scholarship Fund Flash Website Homepage Makes a Striking First Impression

2008-04-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

We developed a site for TCSF years ago, but in early 2008, they decided that they needed a new, up-to-date site. We agreed whole-heartedly. The primary concerns in the development of TCSF's new face on the web were emotional impact and credibility. With that in mind, we at VIDA decided to create a flash homepage with striking photography of actual students that TCSF helps, dramatic black background and vivid color. Content-wise, we drive the message home with a fading ticker of impressive statistics and headlines, and personal links to individual student success stories. Budget-minded, we allowed for gradual growth by implementing the new homepage first and now as the funds come into TCSF, we are able to remodel the rest of the site in phases. This modular approach is great for businesses that can't spend all of the money at once, but need a full site development in the long-run.

VIDA Builds Solid Online Presence for NJ Law Firm

2008-04-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Rubenstein, Marucci, and Shinrod (RMS) is a multidisciplinary, New Jersey based Law Firm. They came to VIDA in need of a clean, informative, and sophisticated online presense that would increase their online visibility and their real-world credibility. RMS's website needed to immediately show viewers their array of professional services without looking like a Jack of all trades, but master of none. VIDA solved this issue with an intuitive menu that gave a brief preview of RMS's expertise in each area right on the homepage. The completed site is visually striking, easy to navigate, intuitive to explore, and has an air of professionalism that immediately begins the ever important process of trust-building. With VIDA implementing a timeless but contemporary design and using strict web-programming best practices, RMS now has a solid home on the web. See the finished site here: http://www.rmslawnj.com

Scholarship Fund to Receive Web Design Revitalization from VIDA

2008-03-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

VIDA will be redesigning the website of long-time client, the NJ-based Tricounty Scholarship Fund (TCSF). VIDA created TCSF's original site in '03, but they are now ready for a revitalization. The organization has gotten back on its feet after the tragic death of its President and is now ready to take on the educational needs of children across NJ full-force - with the help of a modern and striking new website, they will be at the top of their game for informing viewers and attracting donators. This project will be executed in a format that VIDA has found to be very helpful for many clients. The development will be done in phases, starting with an engaging flash minisite as the homepage, and with time, branching out to page after page of the current site until they have a fully new and impressive home on the web. Conducting the development this way is great for companies that need a revamp but don't have the budget to do it all at once. The process has already begun with intensive planning and research into the most effective strategies for TCSF, and designs have been settled upon. Stay tuned for the unveiling to see the final piece - both VIDA and TCSF will be proud to show it off!

VIDA to Build Hair Resource Website for Sufferers of Medical Hair Loss

2008-03-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

The VIDA team will develop a website to not only serve as a business branch of world-famous, Madison Avenue based, wig-maker and hair stylist, Joseph Paris, but also as a resource for women who suffer from medically related hair loss due to conditions such as Alopecia and chemotherapy treatment for cancer. After a few thorough meetings with Mr. Paris and his VP, we are all set to begin website designs and have already begun concepts for a logo design, which is included in our service package for this project. Later, VIDA will be designing brochures and another website for Mr. Paris.