The Art of the Win-Win

These days it is a daunting task for a business to succeed. The economy aside, it seems that almost every business I speak with or get approached by exists in a space with a multitude of different competitors. A simple Google search rings up a plethora of identical hungry suitors vying for the sale.

But what does it take to close the deal now? It takes a Win-Win mentality. I am not going to dwell too much on this because, like too many business books, you can boil the concept down to a principle: be scrappy. What can you do that differentiates yourself from your competitor, is a benefit to the customer, but may not cost you much time or resources to execute? How can you inspire someone to care about what you do? Chances are, the answer may be right in front of your face. Maybe it isn’t more—it could be less—for example less waste or less packaging.

I feel like we see opportunities for win-wins everyday. Yet everyone is surprised when they actually get executed. Recently we held the first annual Substance Summit in San Sebastian, Spain (Justin & I took a vacation for a friend’s wedding). While there we took a bike ride through the world’s longest bicycle commuter tunnel.

Courtesy: Copenhagenize

According to the pro bike blog Copehagenize the San Sebastian Mayor, Odon Elorza, called the tunnel “a symbol of progress, sustainability and personal health.”

While this win-win was an obvious large investment – not all need to be. Sometimes I wonder what holds organizations back from executing on ideas that seem to reap enormous benefits on multiple fronts….

Online Marketing on a Shoestring2

Good to see some of the same faces out for another fun session at the Hub Berkeley. As promised, here is a PDF of the presentation.

Thanks everyone for sharing. It was nice to see such an interesting group of people committed to social change. Best of luck to Santiago as he launches Senda-Athletics. Keep in touch!

Half Off Online Marketing Audits

Why get an Audit?

Our Online Marketing Audit service is a deep dive into your business’s customer acquisition and retention strategies. We start by taking “a look under the hood,” interviewing your business’s key marketing executive(s), analyzing web analytics (if available), and the results to date from marketing activity. We’ll provide recommendations in all of the following areas:

• Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing or Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Email Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Branding
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• Social Media Marketing
• And More…

The result of our audit is an in depth PDF report laying out where your business is at – and where there are opportunities to grow. Our recommendations will be:

• Tangible
• Cost effective – minimizing cost per acquisition.
• Acutely aware of existing resources.

Why Substance?

We are uniquely suited to help your Green business grow. We honed our marketing “chops” at businesses like Clif Bar, Google and Better World Books and we know what it takes to build lasting relationships with customers. In addition, we are socially responsible to the core and committed to helping green businesses succeed.

Give us an email today – we’d like to meet you.

*This offer is limited to the first 5 businesses, and expires April 30, 2010 and come with a $100 coupon for Google Adwords.

Help for Haiti

As I imagine everybody else must be, I find myself absorbed with the sheer chaos and destruction stemming from the 7.0 in Port-au-Prince.

For the month of January, Substance will be directing 15% of revenue towards Partners in Health (PIH). The reason is simple, we work not only for the opportunity to advance ourselves and our clients, but we also work for the privilege of getting to help out the people we care about as well.

Our own Justin Brandon spent time in Haiti creating the documentary film, “The Road to Fondwa” And we hope you’ll join us to donate or take part. Give what you can to groups like PIH or contact Justin direct if you’d like to host a screening of the film as a fundraiser.

From PIH:

“Since Tuesday evening, PIH staff has been working around the clock to bring relief to the people of Haiti who are suffering immensely in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake. You have seen the images on the news, read the updates on the web, and responded in a profoundly generous way to our calls for help – we are indebted to you for your quick mobilization and generous contributions.

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Online Marketing 101 or Online Marketing on a Shoestring

Good times today at the Hub chatting about “Online Marketing 101 or Online Marketing on a Shoestring.”

It was great to meet fellow Hubsters and learn how they want to affect change in the world. The Hub exudes positive energy—I can’t wait see what social innovations emerge from its down to earth members.

For anybody who wants the presentation, you can download it here.

So really, does the world need another marketing agency?

In short no, it really doesn’t. ($h%t there goes our shot at venture capital). What the world really needs is clean water, solutions to climate change, poverty, education, and cures for pandemics.

But now that we’ve cleared the air and set the tone of honesty, here’s another question: how do we sell ideas that mean like the aforementioned?