One of the great challenges of running any successful business is keeping existing customers happy while constantly finding new customers to keep happy. It’s a true balancing act, one that takes lots of practice to get right.

Anthony Del Monte, founder and president of Squeaky Wheel Media in New York City knows all about it. Writing for Ad Age, Del Monte says, “…for the sake of your agency, you need to get uncomfortable. Talk to somebody. Start the process of closing.”

He also weighs in on the false obstacles one places in the way:

Sit back and list all the issues with getting in touch with the right person: Summers are typically slow in our industry, the holidays aren’t good because decision makers aren’t around, Fridays people are already thinking about the weekend, Mondays they are just getting around to clearing their desk, time differences (EST, PST, MST, AHHH!), the ups and downs of the market, religious and national events — the list goes on and on. Take all of these obstacles into account and what do you end up with? One hundred days or so to make rain.

Just last night, I was talking to a freelance copywriter who told me he was waiting impatiently on some leads to come through. I said I know the feeling. I added that’s why it’s so damn important to keep pitching, keep putting balls up in the air, even if you can’t catch them all. You’re not going to, or supposed to, catch them all is the thing.

Right now, I’m sitting on close to $50K in unanswered bids. Some of it might come in. Or none of it will. To “always be closing” you have to also always be opening–doors, emails, beers, etc. Like the duality at the start of this post, to always be closing (and opening in order to close) is another tricky balancing act. As is being forward without being pushy, being smart without being overbearing and being honest without being cruel.

I’ve been a copywriter since 1995, but now I spend a good bit of my day as rainmaker and account guy. Historically, I’ve given many of the account people I’ve worked with a hard time. When it’s your turn, you see how difficult the job is. Plus, my natural state is to sit right where I am, at the keypad, thinking. But I can only do so much of that now. For Bonehook to grow and prosper, I’ve got to work some other muscles. Lots of other muscles. Speaking of, I haven’t spent this much time on the phone since the late 1980s. Yet, it’s all too clear that I need to spend a good deal more time on the phone, talking to hotel owners, winery and brewery owners, restaurant owners and other interested entrepreneurs.

If you’d like to talk to me about how to build your brand and grow your business, call me on my mobile at 503-970-3862. Or send an email to david (at) bonehook (dot) com.

One of the primary goals for this project was to streamline the application process, making it simple for low income seniors or their loved ones to locate an available apartment, fill out all the necessary paperwork and know exactly who to contact about the status of their application.

We also helped identify and highlight key selling points like free utilities, an allowance for pets and on-site Service Coordinators at each property to help residents with community services like Meals on Wheels or transportation to the doctor’s office.

We partnered with Corporate 3 Design in Omaha on this project.

Blue Planet’s new brand identity is expressed in its new logo, menus, packaging, merchandise, signage, interior design and its recently relaunched website.

Cathy asked me to write copy for the web. She can be a demanding task master (which most writers need from time to time, myself included). Thankfully, her push for me to dig deeper unearthed some good copy. I especially like the new tagline, “Food to live by.”

In addition to their new site, Blue Planet also runs an active Facebook page with lots of deals and updates. For instance: “We started growing our own organic wheatgrass about two weeks ago and it grows fast! We’re sitting on a a bountiful harvest so we are temporarily cutting the price in half from $3/shot to $1.50.”

He believes there are too many cooks in the kitchen.

Most marketers don’t know that an epic struggle is going on just beneath the surface of the marketing communications industry. Digital agencies are starting to offer more traditional services. Traditional agencies are adding digital capabilities. Ad agencies are offering PR. PR firms are selling graphic design. Design firms are calling themselves ad agencies. And every one is staking a claim to the new ground of social media. It’s a mess out there, with each company kicking the others under the table like too many siblings vying for too few pieces of pie. Somebody has to manage the chaos, and unfortunately, that’s you.

By “you,” McKee means the client. However, clients in my experience are typically busy managing much more than marcom vendors, or “partners,” as the case may be. Clients, especially in small- to medium-sized businesses, are busy with day-to-day operations like sales, cash-flow, hiring, etc.

McKee suggests the glue that binds here is strategy. “You may employ a host of companies to implement a variety of tactics, but to be effective they all must serve a singular strategy.” I agree, but where is the strategy going to come from? If it comes from the PR firm, it may look and feel nothing like the strategy from one’s design firm.

All of which brings me back again to the value a well-rounded background in marketing communications. I started at a high tech business-to-business agency before moving to a big sales promotion agency. I’ve also worked in general market advertising agencies, event marketing, design and digital shops. I’m a generalist, and there’s been much written about how in marketing it’s imperative to be a specialist, not a generalist. Yet, specialists tend to live in silos. The way they see the field and play the game is silo-centric. Let me give you an example. I recently advised a client to integrate their corporate blog into their main site. My client’s SEO firm has a different idea–they want the blog to be a stand alone site, so it can generate inbound links to the main site, something Google likes to see. I’m all for inbound links, but I believe you generate them with exceptional content (regardless of where the blog lives). This is one of those cases where we’re both right, although one of us may be more right than the other.

McKee’s article is about complexity and there’s little doubt that configuring an effective marcom plan in today’s media environment is a challenge. In my estimation, providing on-point strategic insight is key to a leadership position and the viability of one’s consulting practice. So is the ability to see the whole field and know what each player is capable of, and how best to use these different players to win the game on the client’s behalf. That’s what we’re striving for, and in the best cases, that’s what we deliver.

In his latest offering, Asacker provides some random thoughts on business, brands and organization success. I particularly enjoy this bit about meaning…

The marketplace is, was, and always will be about meaning; meaning that communicates to the world—and to ourselves—who we are, what we believe in, and to what groups we belong. We choose products, services and causes based on a feeling of receiving distinctive value—a unique bundle of social, aesthetic, and functional meanings that feed our hungers to be liked, respected, and discerning. Apple, and a handful of other organizations, understand and embrace this reality and therefore continue to draw meaning-making consumers towards their high-margin models. To my utter confusion, the rest continue to chase the elusive, deal-seeking consumers with large, leaky nets of promotions, discounts and incentives. And that’s no way to grow.

Providing “distinctive value” to customers is what business is all about. When a company does that there’s less need for promotions and such, but there’s still plenty of room for marketing and brand building, for those two activities are all about how well a business conveys its “distinctive value” to customers and prospects.

Bill Marriott, Chairman & CEO of Marriott International produced such a post recently while vacationing at the family lake house in New Hampshire. It’s a personal story about his dad, John Willard Marriott, who founded the family business in 1927 when he and Mrs. Marriott opened a 9-stool A&W root beer stand in Washington, D.C.

Marriott describes his dad as a perfectionist, which, of course, is a great thing to be in the hospitality business.

He kept his Hot Shoppe restaurants spotless. Every Friday was inspection day, and in my teenage years, I often accompanied him as he visited the various Hot Shoppes.

We not only inspected the kitchen and the dining room, but also the parking lot, which he insisted be hosed down and scrubbed every morning. When we started opening hotels, he demanded that the bellman have a cleaning cloth and a bottle of window cleaner to keep the fingerprints off the front doors.

His pursuit of perfection was hard on my mother, my brother and me as everything at home had to be as neat and clean as it was in his Hot Shoppes. He built a great business and left behind an enduring quest to always be improving and trying to make the customer experience as close to perfection as possible. He left an inspiring legacy of that great pursuit. He really believed that success was never final.

A company gets its values from its founders and leaders. Some firms lose their roots as they grow, but the best companies never do.

[via Mashable]

My friend and art director partner, Cathy Solarana, is excited to see her art work stretched 80′ high by 20′ wide in downtown Omaha (and I’m excited for her).

The community art project is called Stored Potential. It’s a large-scale installation attempting to show the interrelatedness of land use, agriculture, and food.

Cathy chose the iconic drive shed as her focus of exploration. Although humble wood structures, the drive shed’s function is important: to protect farmers from the weather while unloading their grain. A simple structure resembling a wooden lean-to, the drive shed is nonetheless an important part of the uniquely North American “architecture of grain,” designed for function and simplicity without unnecessary decoration.

The project is sponsored by Omaha-based Emerging Terrain, a non-profit research and design collaborative.

It’s zany stuff, inspired by this original nuttiness. When you need a real social media strategy, Bonehook will be happy to help.

It was good to see our client Danville Children’s Medical Center get some early notice from the Tucson press last weekend.

Arizona Daily Star reporter, Dale Quinn, got wind of the hospital’s imminent opening this fall and focused his piece on two important contributions Danville Children’s is making to the community. One being the addition of a step down, or long term care facility for kids—something families have to drive to Phoenix for at present. Two, Danville Children’s will be hiring dozens of medical professionals including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants.

Quinn interviewed Chris Hatton, the medical center’s chief financial officer, for the story and Hatton really brings home one of Danville Children’s key points of difference.

“We’re going to provide an environment where the caregivers for these children can learn within our facility how to care for their children,” Hatton said.

Children with a chronic illness or a serious injury can need special treatment and medical equipment, and providing such care can present a challenge to parents without medical training, Hatton said.

“We’re hoping to provide that opportunity where the nursing staff can interface and train those caregivers how to operate the equipment and how to interact with the children,” Hatton said.

In other words, when a child is seriously ill, the whole family needs care.

According to the company’s blog, LinkedIn is “all about nurturing the professional conversation, and we hope the changes to LinkedIn Groups will make it even easier for you to contribute and participate in a professional groups setting.”

I’m a member of the AIGA Portland LinkedIn Group, the Portland Ad Fed LinkedIn Group and several other MarCom and personal interest groups on LinkedIn. Last winter I used the Job Board on the AIGA Portland LinkedIn Group to find a designer for a project, and I was impressed with how many quality candidates emerged via my simple request. It was a “context is king” moment, for sure.

One thing about LinkedIn that’s clear is how wise use of the site can benefit an individual. What’s less evident is how the site might also help a company–outside of recruiting staff, which is a big part of the site’s utility. Can one prospect for business on LinkedIn? Can one build a brand on LinkedIn? These are the questions that have to be answered if LinkedIn is going to be part of a client’s Social Media Marketing mix.

For me, the answer is yes and yes, because individuals make up a company and the brand. One of the hallmarks of SMM–whatever the channel–is consistent and generous sharing of one’s expertise and interests. LinkedIn is an industry specific setting for this kind of sharing.