Digitalia | Indianapolis Social Media Marketing

Successful Twitter Promotions (prize NOT included!)

Twitter can help humanize a brand

Twitter can be used for countless promotional strategies. A company can do everything from holding a contest for a new slogan to giving away a prize to the person who Tweets the most creative use of a product.

These uses of the social media service are common and effective. But how would a strategy more unique and risky work?  For instance, what if a Broadway musical used Twitter to put on a viral version of their show? Would it be an overnight success or closed at curtain?

The creative team of the off-to-on Broadway musical “Next to Normal,” proved an online performance brings in big followers, as the The New York Times recently featured. By creating Tweets from the characters in the play, the “Next to Normal” Twitter account  more than quadrupled its followers in less than one month’s time. Then, once the actors began answering followers’ questions through the account, numbers continued to grow. The account now has more than 550,000 followers.

The Tweets also brought in ticket sales. Followers quoted in the article shared they saw the show because of the fictional messages. And after the cast’s (non-fictional) performance on the Tony Awards June 7 — the same day the viral version of the musical ended on Twitter — the show’s house went from 72 percent to 99 percent capacity, according to the Times article. (The entire transcript of Tweets is available on the “Next to Normal” website.)

This strategy had me wondering what other industries could use a similar tactic to gain followers. What if a sports team Tweeted players’ and coaches’ reactions to a game during the broadcast or reality TV shows had their cast members Tweet reflections about events in each episode as it’s airing. One of the many things I’ve learned from Duncan is that social media is all about closing the gap between company and consumer and engaging in an online dialogue. Although these situations wouldn’t be fictional, like the “Next to Normal” approach, and there are probably some crazy legal things I don’t know about that would hurt my suggestions, they would engage the audience without a contest or giveaway, shaking things up a bit in the online promotional world.

What other industries do you think should adopt a similar promotional strategy? How would they execute it?

Please share! You know I love to hear your thoughts!

Alyson (follow me @alyandthecity)

What to do when your marketing budget gets cut by 80%

6 ways to squeeze the most out of your marketing dollars

I've run into VP's and Marketing Directors in the last few months who complain of massive marketing budget cuts. While the logic behind cutting the hand that feeds you is another blog post all together, the more pragmatic question is "what the hell should I do?". It doesn't matter what size the budget was - a 50% to 80% cut can be staggering. I heard one great believer in convergence marketing bemoan the fact that she would not be able to do much broadcast anymore. Another colleague is cutting back his boutique style brochure and focusing on one brochure for various assets (with minor customizations).

This is the perfect time for innovation. And in the business of image, perceptions, and conversations - people are the raw materials of innovation. Between your internal team, your brand evangelists, and the rest of your universe, you should be able to do some "sense making" and move most of your marketing online. Keep the artifacts - brochures, trade show booths, direct mail pieces - they're all vital - but reserve them for the prospects that are showing greater potential. 

Start with your website
The area that most companies don't focus on enough - us included - is conversion. While PPC folks live and die based on conversion, the rest of America seems to check off websites, once they're done, and move on to the next thing. Based on some interactions with Tim Ash lately and much studying myself, I say with confidence, work on your landing page optimization - Test, test, test! Is your site optimized for search, social, and usability? Is the traffic from the right places? What's the bounce rate? Do you even have a conversion path plotted out?

Make your social media work harder
Even the Mayo Clinic has a full scale social media program. Are you using the platforms that your customers are using? Are they being updated regularly? Its easy to forget one, yet that could be the one that your customers like best. Are you being authentic? Yet don't be a slave to authenticity. You may never get anything done. Are you taking risks? Are you failing? If your answer to the last two was no, then you need to start over. My opinions aside, the much respected Charlene Li, author and former Forrester Research recently put it best (and I paraphrase) if you're not failing, you're not doing the right things. I don't subscribe to the notion that your website is the center of your web universe. That's like saying - I'm best when I'm in a tux or in a boardroom. Your website is all business. Everyone from Billy Ray Cyrus to Perez Hilton love a party in the back. That's what social media is supposed to be. Make sure that you create the right context for conversations. And of course measure, measure, measure. But my new friend Robbie Slaughter says it best - "there is a danger of over measurement: we become more obsessed with figures than providing value, and we tend to game the system instead of tend to the actual work"

Try an integrated SMS, Email and Social Strategy
You know that saying the sum of the parts is greater than whole? Uh huh!

Activate your evangelists
Every brand has evangelists. Are you showing yours love? Are you tight with them? Are you giving them things to talk about?

Micro-sites and landing pages
These can be invaluable for spreading the net. They're great for search and you can measure the hell out of them.

Move people to real world interactions
Of course this is the key for most companies - whether its doing some offline or online. People must be inspired to do something. Is your marketing to a few people (or to a whole bunch) inspiring people to act?

For Indianapolis social media: I'm Duncan ;) What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz | Blip.fm

Defeat doom & gloom by empowering consumers through social media

Interview with John Gerzema, Chief Insight Officer, Young & Rubicam, Author of The Brand Bubble

John's presentation at SES New York blew me away. He's brilliant, yet accessible. Here's my take and then you can watch the video interview. Definitely happy that we got to interview him - another big day for Indianapolis social media!

There's a lot of doom and gloom around us at the moment. Turn on any media channel to experience this. Yet amidst all of this, there are a lot of brands that are doing a great job connecting with empathy. This is one of the big opportunities for brands today - to "give them examples", to show their stakeholders and customers that they are trustworthy and "that they've got their back".

Consumers are looking for empowerment and social media has a huge role to play. There is a decline in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We, consumers, are being knocked down from self actualization (Just Do It, Think Different) to a place that is a little more basic, more authentic and definitely more social. These parts are about  co-dependency, connecting with each other, and helping each other

Social media trends are coming headlong into a positive collision with consumer values.

AIG and the financial scandals are causing consumers reevaluating who they trust. They're interested more and more in ethical companies and companies that they can trust.

This represents an opportunity for marketers with integrity to connect with consumers based on trust using empathy and giving their customers something real they can believe in.

You can find out more about about John Gerzema and his book at here .

Now, what do you think? Do you think you place a greater emphasis on trust? Is there a great opportunity for brands based on building trust?

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

Twitter is hot. Revenue is not.

Everyone knows about Twitter. Many are tweeting instead of — or in addition to — texting. (If you aren’t, please check it out so you’re in the know. You can’t fight social media. It’s bigger than all of us).

Twitter is such a phenomenon that morning talk shows have started covering the social media networking Web site because, as crazy as it seems, people in the morning show target market are interested. Yes, that means retirees and stay-at-home parents have moved into the realm of social media with college students and recent college grads. (The “Today Show” did a detailed piece last week, if you’re interested in checking out a summary of the service.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

But that’s not really the point of this post. The point is that despite Twitter’s ever-increasing popularity  — Compete.com sets the site at third in ranking of largest social networks behind Myspace and Facebook at roughly 6 million users in February 2009 — the company is not yet turning a profit.

Why? In the “About Us” section of Twitter’s homepage, an answer to the question “How do you make money from Twitter?” is listed. To paraphrase, the statements says the company has received many offers but wants to concentrate more on developing user services. “While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make,” the answer states.

Since Twitter isn’t jumping on the cash train after two years of operation, other Web sites are. If you snooze, you lose, right? Well, I’m not sure Twitter is losing anything — the company was recently predicted to be worth $250 million — but it will be wise for the company to team up with these sites once they get their money-making plan up and running.

German start-up Magpie & Friends would be a great partner. The company recently began paying Twitter users for the right to sell ads in their tweets. Advertisers typically pay $13 per ad, and registered users get a cut of the check for lending out their tweets. To make the money, Magpie collects a series of keywords that advertisers would want to associate with their ads, like iPhone or NCAA. The advertisers then bid on those words. The winning bidders’ ads are paired up with a registered Twitter users’ message streams, and VOILA! The ad is seen by the users’ followers. Money is made. All is content in capitalism.

Social media blog Mashable is also cashing in on Twitter but in a different way. The blog recently began soliciting brans like JetBlue and MailChimp to pay to have their tweets featured on its Web site alongside the normal banner ads.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the company is already keeping an eye on sites like Magpie and Mashable as it prepares to launch a fee-based service later this year. And collaboration is very much in the picture. 

“We want to work with those companies that are already making an effort,” Stone told The Wall Street Journal.

But until that time, Twitter is taking small steps in the right revenue direction. In a recent interview with “Media Money” of CNBC, Twitter CEO Evan Williams said his company plans to work with its larger corporate users, like Zappos.com and The New York Times, to “make it more valuable for them in a way that also benefits users.”

Just this week, ExecTweets, a Web site that posts tweets of the nation’s top business executives, announced it is giving Twitter its first taste of revenue. The Web site is putting display ads on posts from business execs and giving a cut of the revenue to Twitter.

What do you think is next on Twitter’s revenue plan? How will they turn a profit when the service is free? Will users be willing to pay? 

Alyson (@ Twitter)

Sherwin-Williams Names Zig.marketing Digital Agency for Three Brands

Zig.marketing has been named the digital agency of record for three Sherwin-Williams brands, Dutch Boy®, Krylon® and Pratt & Lambert®. Zig is helping Sherwin-Williams make a commitment in the digital space to stay ahead of a changing media landscape, and do an even better job of talking to and inspiring new and current customers.

I must commend Sherwin-Williams for this move. While I don’t know the work of Zig.marketing, I applaud Sherwin-Williams for recognizing that standard advertising doesn’t work, and for understanding the value of reaching and engaging their customers. This is another major brand that has axed a significant amount of traditional media to move into a space where purchase decisions are being made.

And yet, so many mid-market brands, continue to resist the benefits of internet marketing. Of course, the marketing director who doesn’t understand it is afraid of it – but the advice I have for you is simple: Adapt or you will become redundant anyway. Its just a matter of time. Your internet marketing strategy should include micro-sites, landing pages, banners, organic and paid search, blogging and micro-blogging, and email.

The truth is mid-market firms are more mobile, should take more risks to compete with larger brands, and should use every advantage they can. What do you think?

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

Quotes for a Brave New Digital World

thought-provoking quotes on the future of marketing

"In five years, the idea of broadcast will be gone"

TIm Kring, Creator and Executive Producer

NBC's Emmy nominated show, "Heroes"

"I suspect the near total meltdown of capitalism as we know it might just pose a pose a couple of interesting challenges to marketers. When we've cracked that one, we can get back to the fascinating task of how companies like ours...are going to prosper in an era where people are not prepared to be interrupted by uninvited messages."

Simon Clift

Chief Marketing Officer

Unilever

"Before they figure out where to put their money, your marketer clients will hire and fire agency after agency, seeking someone, anyone,

who can tell them where they might go next."

John Stratton

Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Verizon Communications

Got your own predictions? Think you know what's next? Give us your opinions? We'll share them in a separate blog post with a credit to you and your website/blog. Bring it!

Source: Ad Age

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

How about some results based blog posts? (I'm tired of theorists)

Show me your results please?

So it's not a rant, but I'm getting tired of all the theory talk by people that have never executed anything in the branding, search or social media world. You're not an expert (you know who you are) - you're an evangelist for yourself. You want to book seminars, you want to train people and you've never had a successful client engagement. But as I was saying to the Dalai Lama - you've got thousands of people that you don't know and never talk to on Twitter. Got that going for you. Wait that wasn't really the Mr. Lama. Even the Dalai can get his brand jacked.

So it's taken us a few months to realize this, and we've written our fair share of theory as well, but for those of you who read our blog regularly, we're going to be bringing you more results-based stories, although we do love a fluffy story and we'll still bring those to the table. Think of our blog like a cocktail - 2 oz. real experience based, 2 oz. analysis and 1 oz. fluff served in a martini glass.

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

How to rank higher in search

Interview with Brian Halligan, CEO, HubSpot

Recently spoke with Brian Halligan, CEO, HubSpot. HubSpot is an internet marketing company and their product is B2B Inbound Marketing Software that helps their client attract more visitors using SEO, social media and blogs, as well as, capture more leads with landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Whew what a mouthful! What's even more interesting is we're working with HubSpot on one of a project.

Both Brian's presentation (which I'd watched earlier) and our interview (which you can watch below) confirmed my strong beliefs in content. Its clear that companies that are leading in the search race are producers of great content. Great content includes copy, photography or illustrations, video, and applications. Good content can be on your website, your blog, and on other places on the web with links back. Brian actually believes in "remarkable content" (coined in this context by Seth Godin who coins everything that already exists with cool little phrases) which is content that people dig (pun only slightly intended) so much that they are compelled to remark on it. Yeah I know you didn't really need the explanation.

So, while I believe there is a place for paid search, invest in good content FIRST. Whether its on your website, blog or social media assets. Doesn't matter. If you know what you're doing, write it up, get some photos, get some video, develop an application. And if you've got chops - develop it yourself, if not, hire a professional. Remember your content is a reflection of who you are!

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

Brand Control is dead

Social media optimization is about how to make your brand relevant

Talked recently to Jonathan Ashton, Vice President of SEO & Analytics at Agency.com. Now I should say up front that I've admired this company since the mid nineties. They're the digital marketing agency in my mind. Uncompromisingly dedicated to strategy, creative and technology, they've worked with some of the best clients in the business and have been rated as one of top 10 digital marketing players numerous times. Check out the interview with Jonathan. It's also amazing to experience Jonathan's quiet, accessible confidence. Definitely enjoyed doing this one!

In case you want a synopsis before you commit to watching the video - conversations are happening. Big brands have the option to get involved. Brand identity is being forged by the people that experience these brands. The challenge that the brand faces is how to bring relevance to these conversations

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

Happy 25th Birthday Apple!

25 years since the trail blazing tv spot

 

I was 16 when I watched the "1984" tv spot in India (and it was in the commercial break of an American TV show on a video tape). First of all, I loved Ridley Scott and the spot was captivating. Of course, in those days people swore by Big Blue but I was immediately drawn to this scrappy underdog that wanted to smash this oppressive system - even though I didn't know what the "system" was. I didn't know anyone in the mid-80's that owned an apple but the imagery stayed with me. I began using an apple in 1990. It was so much easier and intuitive than DOS and the early version of windows. But what I've always loved in the Word of Mouth marketing that apple has generated, the kinship and loyalty of apple users, and the evangelism of the die-hards. Apple was social before social was cool.

In our business today at Firebelly Marketing, we have to use both PC's and Apples. Thats the only way we can test the websites, micro-sites and landing we develop - with IE (and all its glorious versions) - but we all get along regardless of our computer preferences.

Anyway, here's the text of the original commercial (done by TBWA/Chiat Day). And, here's some further reading if you're diggin' it.

Apple Museum

Apple TV Ads

Apple's 1984: The Introduction of the Macintosh
in the Cultural History of Personal Computers
by Ted Friedman
Revised version of a paper presented at the Society for the History of Technology Convention, Pasadena, California, October 1997.
 

Text of "1984"

Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

Branding and Campaign Strategy

Warning, warning! Political content ahead! No candidate endorsements follow! But Firebelly Marketing does endorse the practice of voting!

If you want to watch branding in action and brand transformation in process, election cycles provide excellent case studies. This year’s presidential campaigns, now 18 months old, have demonstrated the necessity as well as the savvy of political marketing. One of the core brand elements are slogans. You might even say that political slogans are essentially brand statements – catchy, clear, and concise statements about an entity’s values and work. Just like brand statements, slogans and logo reveal a lot about the core values of the candidate, and when slogans change, they also suggest how malleable their message (and their core values) really is.

Over the last week, John McCain’s campaign implemented a new slogan: “A leader we can believe in.” Three months ago, his branding statement was: “The American president the American people have been waiting for.” Why the change? Perhaps because Barack Obama  talks about: “Change we can believe in” for almost a year, and it’s working for him politically. In the industry, we call it “benchmarking” when someone adopts a competitor’s best practices, with the aim of increasing performance. Some might call it copying, but the ending is the same.

Benchmarking can be great, as long as the message, image or content of your competitor matches your own core values and work. It needs to be authentic. But in a political campaign, candidates from dueling parties might be better served by striking out with an entirely new message, setting them apart from the competition. That’s why understanding your core values is a critical element to working on your brand. At Firebelly, we believe that your marketing strategy should rely on who you are, not who your competitors are. Yes, you want to understand competitors and colleagues and, ideally, to learn from their successes.

Maybe McCain’s camp could have learned a little something from Judy Garland, who said, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Dead Brand Walking

Is it possible that branding can outlast its brand? Do you remember the canned coffee called Brim? No? I bet you remember their slogan: “Fill it to the rim, with Brim.”  Rob Walker’s “Can a Dead Brand Live Again?" in Sunday’s New York Times examines a few goners and what can happen when a brand becomes so much a part of consciousness, or “consumer memory” that it spurs the re-manufacture of a deceased product. It seems that not only can you grow a product with good branding, you can also use people’s memories of old brands to build a new product.

After hearing the Brim motto, did you remember that Brim was a decaf-only coffee? Probably not, and that’s how a brand can be resurrected, tweeked, and on the shelf again. “Brand equity” goes beyond just good ideas, it plays with and off of people’s memories. It doesn’t matter if you remembered Brim as decaf, you remembered Brim, and that’s a million dollar idea waiting to happen. That’s what the folks at River West Brands think anyway. They’ve redeveloped more dead brands like Salon Selectives, Nuprin and Eagle Nuts, and aren’t doing too shabby. It worked for Volkswagon recently, too, with a little car called the Beetle.

At Firebelly, we’ve been doing our homework and creating some memorable brand statements ouselves. This week, we unveil Pillar Group’s new brand statement, “Risk Managed. Rest Assured”. Last month we launched the IIFF’s “Reel World. Real Cinema.” Maybe they won’t inspire future generations, but we’re proud of them.

-Ben

Internet marketing Strategy: Don’t discount the brand experience

At a conference last week, I heard a successful entrepreneur talking about the death of choice. He spoke passionately about how consumers want to be able to make an instant decision online about leasing apartments. One of his former customers went on to point out that women in America make all life style oriented decisions and men account for budget decisions and that if companies don’t recognize this in their internet marketing strategies – they’re sunk. My first reaction was one of annoyance – men in American, even transplants like me, don’t need this sort of elitism or reverse discrimination. As my mind raced through the flawed logic – I realized that I was thinking about the wrong side of the equation. Making choices with products or services and more specifically considered purchases that will impact your life for several months or years – cannot be thought of a binary choices. These are deeply complex decision with many variables.

While we’re in a down turned economy – the fact is that people’s buying habits are more likely to be focused on price but don’t discount the brand experience. Experiencing, feeling, touching your favorite brand can change your price sensitivity. The reality is whether we like it or not, we have emotional relationships with our brands. Whether its evangelical in nature like an Apple user or a Mini Cooper driver or certain growing religions, or whether it’s based on price – like Walmart or CostCo; people have a strong sense of loyalty. The price-alone based model doesn’t allow for this consideration: experience-based emotional relationships.

But the brand experience has so many more facets and dimensions. Service, delivery, design, support, philosophy, and many more. Not to mention the fact that people do turn to the web first – thus the importance of internet marketing strategy and ensuring that your company includes traditional media and social media. To reduce the value of the human experience to price is the sign of a short sighted and unaware approach. Perhaps I’m not evolved or devolved enough to live in a post-human world driven by price alone. But I prefer to think of myself as a humanist that continues to survive (and even thrive based on the indicators you choose) in a massively Darwinian global economy. The Firebelly brand is fueled by passion. We care and love our clients like Yats – that continues to expand in a restaurant industry with slim margins and closures, or the International Film Festival with miniscule budgets, or our larger corporate clients that demand a higher level of service in general. Does that passion fueled brand experience translate into a pure price based decision? Usually not – people expect fair pricing but it’s far from being the only variable. The brand experience is alive and well. Ignoring it could be a fatal error in your business approach.

Notes:
1. This post has inspired me to write more on C Words. Look for more on this in coming weeks. Choice. Community. Collaboration. And more.
2. The overall strategy I recommend is a convergence strategy – one that is uses a combination of traditional (print, billboards, direct marketing) and online media (search engine marketing, social media – blogs, micro-blogs, video, social networking, and bookmarking among others)

- Duncan

NEW YEAR'S MARKETING RECOMMENDATIONS (SOME ANYWAY)

Nice piece on http://buzzmarketing.findtechblogs.com. Here’s our take on the situation:

1. Invest in interactive marketing or digital brand building
According to Shar VonBoskirk, Forrester Research, “interactive marketing will grow to $61 billion by 2012, an increase driven by marketers who will leverage a distribution of channels rather than pour new spends into a single place”. We’re living in a new paradigm where consumers understand their voice and your brand conversations may not even belong to you. Think 3M recently. Get involved with the emerging tools now and measure your return on investment.

2. The database is still the gold mine
Don Shultz’s mantras from the mid-nineties are still relevant.  Working in conjunction with the sales team is valuable – assuming your company has a database that is tied into all the different conversations taking place.

3. Web Analytics now!
Even basic web analytics can provide insightful information for a sales force hungry for intelligence.

4. Branding means consistency
Tying things together means a unified look for sure. Build credibility consistently at every conversation point.

5. Substance over style
Don’t follow the hype model. Coolness is a short-term business model. Just like there’s always a faster gun in the west, there will be a cooler promotion or company sooner than you think. Focus on developing real products and services and reasons for people to develop a relationship with your brand.

6. Think Long Term
People are inherently into conversations. They may not invest in your brand today, but they’re more likely to if they’re emotionally involved with it. So start building that relationship.

7. Plan an approach that makes traditional media drive traffic online
Don’t forget that the web is 24/7. Its self-segmenting. Use awareness in mediums that are momentary and brief to drive people onto the sticky web.

8. Ensure that your brand is an experience
Nothing less wise than investing your marketing dollars telling everyone how responsive and customer focused you are, then leave people waiting as your meetings drag on. Big picture – working with you is your brand. Its all tied together.

9. Social Media is definitely here!
Remember how you wanted to resist carrying your cell phone, if you don’t how about text messaging? Did you really need it at first? These vehicles are here to stay.

10. Monitor your online reputation
More on this one in the next few weeks…..

- Duncan Alney

AUTHENTICITY IS VITAL TO BRANDING

I can’t tell you how many times this has happened: I check out a company online, and then I visit their office – and I’m amazed at the disconnect. Hmmm all those models and the cool office – where are they? Oh wait – you used stock photos (read royalty free disk that everyone else has access to) and so there is a total disconnect between reality and brand image. How does that play into the sales process? When I’m buying – it’s a huge issue. This tells me that the brand isn’t honest. Harsh? Yeah for sure. But you know – if I can’t rely on people I work with and pay for their services to be honest – I’m in trouble.

So before you think you’ve got an idea that nobody else had – remember this. When you’re thinking about extending your brand’s values – at least be honest with the stock photography. Preferably, hire a good local photographer to capture your company’s people doing what they do. That’s authenticity. What kind of mileage can you get? Think of it this way – the credibility that you establish with a visitor to your site will be validated when they visit you in person. Plus it’s an unique extension of what makes your brand unique to begin with. That is invaluable and makes for good branding. Remember authenticity doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

This subject of authenticity gets me fired up – so expect more from me on this. We’re not here to be cool. We’re here to tell you about things that we experience and can talk knowledgeably about. Experience-based expertise.

- Duncan Alney

HOW TO HIRE AN AD AGENCY

BusinessWeek columnist Steve McKee offers 10  principles to follow when looking for an advertising agency in his article "How to Hire an Ad Agency."

First, his 5 don'ts:

1) Don't limit your search geographically
2) Don't screen out agencies based on size
3) Don't make industry experience a requirement
4) Don't ask for -or even entertain- speculative work
5) Don't let a spreadsheet make your decision

And now his 5 dos:

1) Do determine what you need
2) Do notice the advertising that you admire
3) Do initiate a conversation
4) Do invite the agency to your place to review a handful of case studies
5) Do narrow your list to two or three agencies and spend time at their shop

For more detailed explanations of the 10 suggestions, read the full story.