Exciting things are happening here at The Cypress Group!
We are THRILLED to show you one of our newest projects: a web site we did with our client Jemz Foodz. Serving as a product portal for a line of fitness lifestyle nutrition products, we worked with our web partner to develop a site that will, over time, become a living breathing entity to aid in the clients’ overall marketing and outreach strategy.
But enough about the back story; click on the image and check it out!
As you may be aware, we here at The Cypress Group are firm believers in working to improve the lives of people in our communities who are struggling to maintain a quality of life while facing adverse conditions. Each year we select an organization to to partner with that exemplifies this commitment. We have coined this our “Do Good” program. In the past few years we have worked to combat homelessness, fund AIDS/HIV programs and create better lives for people battling cancer.
In 2012 we will continue to promote our “Do Good” outreach program (after all, life is much more than marketing, business development, web interfaces or social media!). Rather then lay it all out for you, we thought we would tease you with a sneak peak…. and yes… it’s kinda’ a big deal!
In keeping with our desire to keep people up to date on our comings and goings, we thought we would give you a heads up on a project we are working on;
Slewhouse, Inc is an Orange County based construction consulting firm that works within the shelter arena. In addition to a basic brand revamp, The Cypress Group is working on recreating their internet presence.
So, stay in touch and stay tuned!
One of the challenges in today’s uber fast paced “keep up or die trying” environment is simply, well, keeping up.
We here at The Cypress Group are stilling talking about – and working with our clients on – beneficial ways to use social media to grow a brand and/or business (Sorry, the fad didn’t die!). With that being said, it really does seem to change a lot doesn’t it? From Google + to Klout, business owners are a tad inundated with choices, options and tools.
Which brings us to the point behind this particular posting: one of the tools we have been following and watching has always been LinkedIn (Hey, what can we say, we love a good old school anything!) Just like everyone, be they small business or Fortune 100, the people at LinkedIn have been working to add depth and dimension to their product. As such, they have been working on fine tuning the company profile portion of their show.
Now, while we would love to review the demographics of LinkedIn with you and talk about how it’s a great platform to reach a wide range of business and professional people; we are instead going to point you to our friends at The Social Media Examiner. They put together an overview on “5 Tips for Using the New LinkedIn Company Pages“, which is a great read in a semi-tutorial format. While it may seem a tad “logic and common sense” to some, it merely underlies the fact that marketing and business development is not a spectator sport.
For those who may want the high level view, we have listed the 5 tips out for you below. But in all honesty, we suggest you read the article HERE.
The Social Media Examiner’s “5 Tips for Using the New Linkedin Company Pages:
#1: Update/create and complete your company page.
#2: Build followers for your LinkedIn company page.
#3: Provide interesting and value-added company page updates.
#4: Engage and network with people from companies you follow.
#5: Monitor and focus your efforts.
Lately, we have been talking to people (and by people we mean clients) about web sites. In particular; about how web sites are not longer static sites. Today’s sites need to not only concisely define what a business offers in terms of value, but also guide users who look at it to DO something. What that something is depends entirely on your business and goals – which (hopefully) goes without saying.
Which got us to thinking: did we ever get back to you with a follow up to this preview? Well, in case we didn’t, here we go.
Below is a “work in progress” site for a client of ours in Orange County. Working with an existing IT department, we restructured their site to allow for more functionality within an overall marketing strategy. In doing so, we allow for a higher lever of statistics which allows for their site to serve as a primary hub for their corporate communications matrix. So, while it does look fresher and more contemporary, the goal for this particular project was to put their web presence smack in the middle of their marketing and business development plans.
But.. stay tuned; as with anything these days, this is less a final product and more a work in progress!
Given that 2011 is winding down (don’t be mad at us, for we are just the messengers!), we have been talking to our clients in Southern California about their marketing and business development plans/strategy for 2012. (Advance planning being one of the things we here at The Cypress Group are BIG proponents of).
In doing some research – and by research we mean surfing our blog rolls and sources to see what the big new trends in marketing are looking like – we came across this great infographic about what Digital Marketing budgets are looking like for Corporate America. It’s from the folks over at Marketing123, and while you may not see yourself in it directly, rest assured; be it social media, print, event, educational sessions or any other number of programs, you can find something useful in this stuff as a tool to grow your business.
(shameless plug: If you can’t figure it out… well, that is where we come in. Feel free to call us!)
| Original Graphic via Marketing123 |
Every now and again, we run across and article or blog posting that deserves a “re-pass/re-post”.
Like this one, from the folks over at KISSMetrics (who we follow quite closely, btw) about the ins and outs of email marketing. Now, as we here at The Cypress Group work email into our client marketing and business development plans, we aim to provide content that says “Open me”. The flip side of the equation is making it into an email folder and NOT junk mail.
So read on. You may just learn something! (and where we come from, learning something from experts and not paying for it amounts to free consulting. Now, who doesn’t like that?)
Rather than copy the article in its whole, here are the high level points. Feel free to jump to KISSMetrics and learn more!
- Avoid Purchased Lists
- Watch What You Say
- Team Up With A Reliable ESP
- Get Certified!
- Avoid Dirty Tricks
- Whitelist Me, Please!
- It Matters Where You’re “From”
- No Risk, No Problem
- Monitor Your Deliverability
- Stay in Touch!
Then again, if you want to know more about how this “stuff” may be able to help your business; well, maybe we can help with that. (Sorry, shameless plug required!)
Have you been to a restraunt for brunch, looked around and noticed everyone fiddling with smart phones? Be it texting, twittering, reading, Facebook-ing or Googling, some folks just can’t seem to put the darned things down (disclosure: “Guilty as charged”).
Without stating the obvious (which is, this fiddling and perusing presents a great opportunity for marketing and business development on many levels – when used smartly), take a gander at this clever inforgraphic we found at Alltop. Presenting facts and figures in an amusing and clever way, the information just underscores the point: resistance, as they say, is futile.
| Original Content via @GuyKawasaki via www.Twitter.com |
Looks like we are at it again! Take a gander at the beginnings of a work in progress. Our client on this effort is an established hard money lender here in Orange County – well, and beyond actually. Our goal is to create an online presence that is a tad more current and really speaks to their market and objectives! (True fact: we love these types of projects!)
This time around, however, it’s not a tear down site. They have a very talented IT Department we are working with – almost as if we are an outside set of eyes – in creating a new vision using mostly existing content. After all, no need to recreate the wheel. Having been in business for quite some time, these folks are hardly lacking in original content. But, it does help to have some order to it all, don’t ya think?
So stay tuned folks, the best is yet to come!
Seeing as how we love a good “pass along” here at The Cypress Group, we thought it would be nice to mention the “Call for Designers” posting over at The Stonemill Design Center. They are looking for Orange County/Southern California Interior Designers who might want to be part of a “Featured Designer” feature.
If that sounds like you, jump on over to @Stonemill and see what needs to be done. (Think of it as free marketing!)
You can thank us later!
