The time is now

Recently I saw a new television show on HBO called “The Shop,” which is about a barber shop in the African American community that Lebron James hosts, and has interesting conversations with other African American celebrities. In African American communities, the barber shop is where people go to have discussions about politics, the economy, family dynamics, who makes the best macaroni and cheese and more. It’s a little known fact in that community that when you walk into “The Shop,” you are likely to be

Transforming Downtown St Louis

As shown originally in MyStlCity.com – read full story here: https://mystlcity.com/urban-core/

A few months ago, president and CEO, Syl Wilson was a panel member on the #MyStl discussions about all of the new development happening in the city of St. Louis.

Syl Wilson represents several developers including Alterra Worldwide (developing the Jefferson Arms Building currently), Tim Person & Associates, JWAJ Properties and Kwame Building Group. Because of her vast experience and assistance with these reputable businesses, she was able to offer a wide range of feedback for the panel and audience. Read the full story and watch the video below:

Downtown Now: Transforming St. Louis’ Urban Core

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As shown originally in MyStlCity.com – read full story here: https://mystlcity.com/urban-core/

A few months ago, president and CEO, Syl Wilson was a panel member on the #MyStl discussions about all of the new development happening in the city of St. Louis.

Syl Wilson represents several developers including Alterra Worldwide (developing the Jefferson Arms Building currently), Tim Person & Associates, JWAJ Properties and Kwame Building Group. Because of her vast experience and assistance with these reputable businesses, she was able to offer a wide range of feedback for the panel and audience. Read the full story and watch the video below:

To celebrate its launch, #mySTL, powered by Downtown STL, Inc., hosted a day of livestream conversations with St. Louis experts, influencers and policy makers.
After a successful morning discussion between local historian NiNi Harris and Downtown STL, Inc. President and CEO Missy Kelley, a lunchtime panel discussion was held on the topic “Downtown Now: Transforming St. Louis’ Urban Core.”  The conversation, which took place at the Downtown STL, Inc. office, included insight regarding exciting development projects such as the final stages of the Gateway Arch grounds project, the much-anticipated redevelopment of the Jefferson Arms building and the Downtown street grid to support the area’s transportation needs.
The panel was moderated by Mobin Khan (COO & VP of Economic Development, Downtown STL, Inc.) and included the following engaging panelists:
* Sylva Wilson (President, Syl Wilson Marketing; Associate, Kwame Building Group)
* Sarah Melinger (Director of Development, Gateway Arch Park Foundation)
* Jamie Wilson (Director of Streets, City of St. Louis)
* Jack Coatar (Attorney, Spencer Fane LLP; 7th Ward Alderman, City of St. Louis)
#mySTL helps the St. Louis region rediscover Downtown St. Louis and the people, projects and
stories that make up our city. Follow along on social media using @mySTLcity and #mySTL.

When it comes to copywriting….The creative process starts in marketing.

Start by answering the question, “What am I selling?”

You need to first:

• Learn everything you can about your product and/or service.
  • What does it do
  • How does it function
  • What problem does it solve
• Use it (read back issues, take a demo, see how easy it really is, check out the competition).
• Talk to current or past buyers, subscribers, donors and/or members
• Talk with telesales, service, tech-support reps
• Analyze: why and how is this going to help me? What problem is it going to solve?

 

Project into the mind of the user what the experience will be like with your product!

The importance of Benefits….

The more you talk about how your company, product or service will improve the life of your customer (“you” copy), the higher the response.

….vs. Features

The more you talk about the company, the product, the service (“we” copy), the lower the response.

Is Your Marketing Plan…Normal?

Tonight my 4 year old was screaming at the top of her lungs to her sister “I’m not normal!’ As usual I went to scream back and ask why are you screaming in my house…Okay, maybe there is another story there in the screaming…but the point is this. Her next response. “Mommy, I’m trying to tell sissy that I’m not normal because every one of my cut outs are different on purpose.” I asked her what she meant and she further explained, “Mommy, I make cut out phones and each one is different. Some have a long handle and some have buttons to push and some have dots that I drew on. But they are all different because I don’t want to be normal. I want to be different and make sure that each phone stands out.”

I just stared at her for a second. Then I thought for another second..”That’s my baby,” haha! But on a serious note, is your marketing plan too “normal?”  And what is your definition of “normal?” Interesting right? We all know that in today’s market, we have to be innovative, we have to stand out. So how do you do it? You’ve got to remember how

Can B2B Marketers learn something from Hip Hop Musicians? YES!

Can marketers learn from the techniques that hip hop artists use? I say the answer is emphatically, YES! No, I am not saying that you should start using the technique of using cuss words, don’t be that closed minded, keep reading and see what I am talking about. Take the rapper Drake as my example. He’s got a catchy song called “Over,” which has been on the airwaves for several months and has crossed over to mainstream radio. Why has it done so? Well check out what he’s done. Some of his techniques are similar to what we tell businesses to do on their website everyday! In the second verse, he makes mention of not one, but three

Taking a roll of the dice with social media for business

I have been off the scene for awhile as far as blogging goes, but that is a good thing for me, it means that I have been a busy bee. What I would like to do is share more life experiences with you as I have learned quite a bit about the corporate and private business regarding social media marketing. Have you ever wondered why a particular business isn’t on Facebook? How about Twitter? Well, over the last few months, I have been helping small businesses and a few large ones understand the value of social media and how it can improve their bottom line. The results have been very interesting to say the least.

Case Study #1

Small Business starting off. Wants to get brand recognition and thinks they can do it via email blasts in one of those “Free” services. (I know…this one drove me nuts).

When the president of this company asked me how I could help him with his email blasts, I asked him what he currently is doing. He had subscribed to a free service that allowed him to send email blasts, but only a few at a time. He wanted to know what I thought about paying a service to send his email blasts. First question I had for him was “What’s your website look like?” He had one, but it too was with one of the “Free Services” that offer template style websites. All of this is fine, but when you want to get the word out to the masses and appear to be a viable company, you have to

You’ve got mail, email that is..and there’s a video in it!

Think about this, you have a business and it needs to be marketed to a target audience. It’s quite difficult to explain the benefits and features of your product without sending a 25 page brochure in the mail or getting the prospect to have a 30 minute meeting with you. These things are hard to do in today’s world of limited time. However, everyone has an email account and the more data you can get to a person in a short time frame the better right?

Just do it! Your marketing thing that is…

I watched a great video today..It was of several interviews with Will Smith. Funny how that man has grown from the skinny little rapper to this man who has enough insight to literally change the way we as marketers do business. What I mean by this is…well you’ve got to watch the video..but I will give a tad bit of it away before you watch it and simply say this. “Whatever you decide to be in life, be the best at it so that no one can ever do it better than you. Get all the training you can possibly get so that you can be the EXPERT in that field.”

And with that my marketing friends, be well, be the best, and enjoy a bit of Will’s inspirational thoughts!

The nightmares that marketers face

I was chatting with a good friend of mine yesterday about how she always appreciates all of my marketing advice. She said I was one of the smartest people in the industry she knew. It was a nice compliment, however I told her sometimes I find myself  having a reoccurring nightmare about not being able to

How to get people to your website…and keep them there!

When it comes to a website, sometimes the hardes part is not how to get them there, but how to keep them on your site longer than 2 minutes. Well, for me anyway. So, I thought I would share some techniques that have worked for me.

First things first
Your content should be the first thing you consider during a redesign. You need to make sure that you CALL THINGS WHAT THEY ARE!! Don’t use words like “surrogated-liner impact sealer” when its really just a door knob. If a search engine is trying to help a potential customer of yours find a door knob…do you think they will know your