Sunday, March 14, 2010
Boxcar Marketing has been busy in the trenches lately as we worked to re-launch the Namaste Publishing website.
Namaste Publishing is a small, financially successful Canadian publishing house with a worldwide presence. Known as the publisher for leading authors like Eckhart Tolle, Namaste has a solid reputation for publishing transformative, leading-edge books on self-help, spirituality, alternative health and personal transformation.
Namaste’s original website was built using flat HTML files and grew over the years as a disconnected collection of sites and blogs under Namastepublishing.com and various subdomains. Without standard navigation between interior pages, the site was difficult to navigate, and the key ecommerce functions required unnecessary steps to purchase products in the store.
Screenshot of the Original Design
.png)
Namaste’s online presence needed a radical reinvention and expansion. The team wanted a deeper long-term engagement with their community of fans, authors, spiritual leaders and staff. The project required a full re-branding and entire re-experience and re-interpretation of what publishing meant for the company.
Screenshot of the New Site Launched March 11, 2010
.jpg)
A re-design is more than just design.
Boxcar Marketing started with a month-long strategy session to convert Namaste Publishing’s business from a traditional publishing company to the leader of a global spiritual community. Jordan Behan of Tell Ten Friends Marketing Co. and Boris Mann of BMann Consulting and Bootup Labs contributed their expertise during the strategy sessions and subsequent social-media training sessions. Once the team established the goals of the project, we sent out an RFP to various vendors.
Namaste Publishing’s goals were:
- To support and engage readers in an ongoing experience that deepens and adds richness to their understanding of the written materials.
- To dispel the distance and ‘one to many’ dynamic between author and reader.
- To distribute spiritual and inspirational information through new methods that are engaging, easy to understand, inspirational, fun and engage a wide audience.
- To expand the commercial viability of the already-profitable online store without compromising the intentions and integrity of the informational and community aspects of the website.
As for technical requirements, Namaste wanted an easier system for publishing their content (events, blogs, store products), a more user-friendly online shopping experience, and support for online and offline groups that form around Namaste’s publications (book studies and interactive courses).
In order to reach these goals the project was divided into 3 distinct but interdependent phases:
Phase I: Re-Experience
Namaste Publishing and Boxcar Marketing worked with Todd Sieling of Corvus Consulting on the information architecture, user experience, and interface design. Key to this phase, and taking the design lead, was Lift Studios, who provided the brand redesign (logos, business cards and other identity) and worked closely with us on the website redesign and desired user experience.
Phase II: Store Renovation
Boxcar Marketing’s experience with publishers and online marketing primed us for taking the lead on the product page requirements that would remake the online store and improve usability for customers. (A separate case study on this phase is coming.)
Phase III: Community Expansion
Namaste Publishing’s connections to the global spiritual community are extensive and they wanted to build social web tools within the Namaste site, as well as actively participate in other online communities where their fans and customers gather.
Throughout the project Boxcar Marketing and Namaste Publishing established practices for building and managing online communities, handling digital and print online sales, establishing online courses, such as The Journey to Higher Consciousness, promoting events, such as Namaste Radio, and incorporating the publisher and author blogs.
Boxcar Marketing, along with our expert partners, did extensive workflow planning, which translated to detailed wireframes that drove design and development decisions. But, of course, we would be nowhere without the guidance and amazing work of our Drupal development team from Raincity Studios. Raincity Studios turned our designs and user experience requests into the dynamic, fully functioning website we launched this month.
Truly a group effort, thank you again to Todd of Corvus Consulting, the design team at Lift Studios (Haig, Cam, Frederick), the development team at Raincity Studios (Erik, Francis, and many other behind-the-scenes folks), and the inspiring team at Namaste Publishing (Constance, Howard, Mary, David, Lucinda, Nora and Kathy).
The accomplishments of this small Canadian publisher knows no bounds. The Namaste Publishing team are my inspiration. Thank you for a wonderful project!
(And like in any Oscar speech, any oversights in the shout-outs are mine alone. If I’ve missed you, please announce yourself!)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Julien Smith, co-author of Trust Agents with Chris Brogan, spoke at Third Tuesday Vancouver this week about the nature of social capital and building tribes.
While I was expecting a bland presentation on the importance of building community within social networks, I was pleasantly surprised. The talk was less on why online communities are important and more about how now is the time to take control, get over our own fears and become leaders of our own social channels. All in all, it was an inspiring talk.
These were Julien’s main points (thanks to Hummingbird604 for live blogging the event):
Touch the burner.
When we’re children we do things that are dangerous (like touching the burner, playing with the electrical socket, etc.). We do this to make sense of the world around us and, once you touch the burner and understand it, your world gets a little bigger. It hurts to touch the burner so we eventually stop, but when we stop, the world stops getting bigger.
We need to continue to explore the world around us—even if it hurts—in order for our world to grow.
Connections matter.
There’s a study that shows that once we get to a certain level of financial gain—$50,000 a year—we are no longer made happier by the next $1,000 or even $10,000 a year. What makes us happy is the amount of connections we have and how central we are to the network.
Building tribes, bringing people together and facilitating the exchange of social capital is one of the best things you can do either personally or for your business.
If you can build the church (the place that people gather by default), you get to be in charge of the channel and the connections that are made there.
Break the pattern.
Breaking the pattern of interaction challenges people to really engage. Never let anybody turn themselves off. Great interviewers, like Larry King, excel at this.
Become the lead goose.
The lead goose reduces the wind resistance for all of the other geese. If you become an experimenter, if you try new things and break the pattern, you’re making it easier for everybody else in your network to break the pattern and develop meaningful connections. Once you establish yourself as a leader, you become invaluable to your tribe.
We will never need more advertising.
We will never need more advertising but we will always need more community and tighter links between those we care about. Learning to build tribes and understanding social capital has never been more valuable.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Building successful online communities isn’t easy. To help us out, Powered recently held a webinar on the Pitfalls and Best Practices for Building Online Communities. Below is what they had to say.
Just because you built it, doesn’t mean they’ll come.
Community: an interactive group of people connected by a common interest.
Marketer’s Sins
* Thinking that you know it all already - Tropicana changed their ‘look’ and didn’t think that they needed to consult with online communities. Result: online backlash.
* Wanting to be something you’re not - Pepperidge Farm tried creating their own online community rather than joining an existing one, but Pepperidge Farm isn’t an online community like FaceBook or MySpace.
* Thinking you’re done once its built - successful communities must by nurtured like a successful cocktail party.
* Assuming more is better - Moms Miami site: there is no common interest so it isn’t sticky for anyone.
* Not planning for anger or responding to it - Motrin example: moms got angry at their ad campaign so Motrin took their site down and went back up with a message saying that they were pulling the ad - did Motrin overreact?
* Wanting what the other guy has - Zune is trying to have what iPod has.
* Wanting it all…and all your way - General Mills’ My Blog Spark asked people not to post anything negative; this was greedy, they wanted to control the message.
51% of online adults are willing to participate in a company’s online community.
Adults across generations will engage in online company forums - they want to be a part of all stages of the marketing mix.
Understand who social media is for: brand enthusiasts who have passion (positive or negative). Get them to market the message for you and make them into brand advocates.
Have a clear objective for your community. Types of objectives include:
* Listening - good for direct customer insight, new product ideas and beta testing.
* Speaking - create an emotional attachment, advertising based on network.
* Energizing - excite your biggest fans, word of mouth.
* Supporting - peer to peer support.
* Embracing - members become contributors, extended workforce.
Focus on customer problems, not your products. Use the community as a way to help members solve their problems. The Axe community helps members solve how to get the girl. This gives Axe insight into their customers to use for more relative marketing.
Ensure the community is ‘heard’ inside of your company; it’s about managing your company to take advantage of what the community can do. Create a process for reporting what you learn from the community.
What keeps members coming back and participating? Hint: it’s not the technology.
Vibrant communities need:
* Sense of ownership
* Shared passions/needs
* Opportunities for self-expression in a variety of ways
* Active facilitation
* A company that demonstrates listening
* Fresh, engaging content
Best practices for creating your own online community
1. Listen - what are your customers saying? Where? Use Google Analytics.
2. Choose - What do you want to use the social community for? Customer research? Sales? Product Innovation?
3. Include - get legal/compliance on board early and often; get them to help you build a social policy.
4. Join - sign up for communities where your customers are (but learn the etiquette first).
5. Engage - thank your customers for telling you what they think; in plain English; ask more questions.
6. Build - if you’ve gotten good at #1-4 consider creating your own community.
Get the full webinar and presentation slides.
Note: You’ll have to give your name, email address and company information to access the video and slides.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Corey Rollins and I live blogged the Internet Marketing Conference (September 11 and 12) for TechVibes. Links to our posts are below:
General Interest
IMC: Keynote Address by Eric T. Peterson.
Author Eric T. Peterson says that if it is worth doing, it is worth doing analytically. Why web analytics is important and what it means to your business.
IMC: Social Media Marketing Success Stories.
Capulet Communications on 5 social media tools.
IMC: Best Tips and Conference Summary.
A quick review of key points from the conference.
IMC: Shannon Ryan on Engagement Marketing.
A really short post with 5 tips for engagement marketing.
IMC: Enterprise 2.0 by Jon Husband Wirearchy Network.
Why hierarchy does not work in a wired world.
How-To
IMC: Usability Testing Without the Lab Coats by Andre Charland from Nitobi.
3 tips for usability testing.
IMC: Engage Community With Your Brand by William Azaroff of Vancity.
Excellent case study on how Vancity Credit Union used social media to create an online community.
IMC: Expert Panel Tips on Writing for the Web.
Monique and an expert panel talk about writing copy for landing pages, email newsletters, multilingual sites and more.
Search Marketing
IMC: HubSpot Website Grader.
A quick measurement of how well your website performs from a search and social media perspective. Test your own site.
IMC: Search Optimization Panel.
An expert panel on search optimization. What makes them tick and ticked about SEO practices.
IMC: Tool Demo on SEO Browser.
Really short post on SEO-Browser.com. Know what a search engine sees when it comes to your site.
Measuring Success
IMC: Website Monetization.
Why defining goals, assigning value and measuring is worthwhile.
IMC: Monitoring Website Performance by Anil Batra of Zero Dash 1.
A great presentation by Anil on why people waste their time tracking statistics that are interesting and what they should be measuring.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
My guest post is live on TechVibes: “Is Pottermania Dead?”
July 10-13, 2008, I was invited to Portus 2008: A Harry Potter Symposium for academics, educators, students and fans. Dr. Henry Jenkins of MIT and I gave the two luncheon keynotes.
From TechVibes:
When it comes to Harry Potter, the big question among the media is whether Pottermania is dead. Among booksellers and publishers, the question is who will be the next JK Rowling? And will there be another series as popular as Harry Potter?
As the former internet marketing manager at Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher of the Harry Potter series, and as a book reviewer at SoMisguided.com, I’m interested in the answer to those questions. In fact, they were two questions posed to me at Portus 2008 in Dallas, TX .
Sponsored by the Harry Potter Education Fanon, Portus 2008 (July 10-13) was the fifth gathering of Harry Potter scholars, students and fans. Over 700 people were in attendance, which answers the first question. Is Pottermania dead? No.
Read the full article on TechVibes ...
Friday, May 30, 2008
Marketing Nonprofit Causes on Chronicle of Philanthropy posted Tuesday, May 20, 2008:
Question from Ken D. Grunke, Pillars:
Hi Seth. Would you share your suggestions for how nonprofits should approach the social networking for the first time? I have heard you should be accessing multiple social networking sites and then I have heard that you should only be concentrating on one.
Seth Godin:
The networks are irrelevant. What’s relevant is the network. Who, not how many. Who, not where.
If your organization can only successfully focus on one thing at a time, then do that. But most urgently, make the relationships you build worthwhile. You don’t need 1000 shallow relationships, you don’t need a long list of friends. What you need is deep relationships, people willing to mortgage their house to support you, willing to host a party to support you, willing to devote a vacation to support you. That’s not about volume, nor is it about the site. It’s about how you build relationships that matter.
Seth goes on to talk about how the terms we use for marketing “miss the mark” (pun mine and intended). He says that “target audience” is not the right way to approach marketing, that it’s more about farming and cultivation.
His advice to all non-profits, and this applies to companies as well, is to do the basics: make big promises, deliver.
“Tell stories people want to hear. Create a service worth talking about. Make it easy for others to spread the word. Get permission from people to follow up and then repeat! The basics are what most organizations are missing. Obsessing about this is far more effective than managing the latest fad.”
See Seth Godin’s post on charity auctions and ways to raise awareness and raise money.
Boostrapper’s Bible is free. It’s written by Seth and available at squidoo.com/seth
Seth gives examples of charities that are successfully using marketing techniques:
1. kiva.org: loans that change lives
2. roomtoread.org
3. the fellows program at acumenfund.org
Seth gives some specifics on why Kiva is remarkable:
1. Kiva grows by connecting people in a way that online folks find remarkable. So they blog about it and talk about it and bring in others.
2. Meanwhile, those benefiting from Kiva’s connection also talk about it. So they bring in new benefactors.
3. Since all Kiva does is connect the two, they scale and scale and scale.
The great question that comes out of this question/answer period with Seth is “if someone talks about you, what do they say?”
Are you remarkable? Are you connecting to people 1-to-1 so that they can go and talk 1-to-many?
Back to my presentation in Kelowna to the Chief Marketing Executives: none of these social media marketing tools work unless you’re doing the basics.
Great conversation. Check out: Marketing Nonprofit Causes on Chronicle of Philanthropy
Monthly Newsletter
QuickLearn Training & Events
What we’re talking about 
Project Highlights
Did you know?
Vancouver internet marketing strategists James Sherrett and Monique Trottier are experts in online marketing strategy. Talk to us about internet marketing, web design, search marketing
and online business strategy. 
Looking for the bee? 
Subscribe to our blog.