• You have to pinch yourself to believe it – the year that started in severe economic turmoil is now half over.  Now it’s time to ask the most important business question of the year: “What do you have to do the rest of this year to reach your profit goals?”

• If you don’t have profit goals, your company has nothing to strive for and is just driving aimlessly.  Establish your profit goals now and make the appropriate plans to achieve them.

2. On The Road And Online…The New Advertising Landscape

• Did you know that the number of consumers who seek local information on a mobile device grew 51% from March 2008 to March 2009?  The point at which these consumers are searching is the point of transaction.  If you understand the marketing funnel, then you know this is your most valuable prospect.

• What social marketing was to 2007, mobile marketing is to 2009.  The wave of adoption has matured and is ready to crest.  With that in mind, we suggest your business take these strategic steps:
  • Audit your Web site to ensure that it is “mobile friendly.”  Roughly 50% of mobile users abandon a site because it is too difficult to find what they are looking for.
  • Add mobile advertising to your marketing strategy so that you can capitalize on this thirst for local and mobile information.

3. The 60-Second Close: Mobilizing To Stay Ahead Of The Curve

• As an advertising agency, it’s our job to keep you well ahead of the curve and prepare you for what’s next.  We urge you to consider mobile users as a potential customer base that is growing rapidly.

• Consequently, now is the time to start “mobilizing” your Web site – developing a version of your current site that’s smartphone friendly.  Not sure where to start? We can help you get there … faster than ever.

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60 Second Impact – July 2009

• As companies transition from this tough economy to the stability of business basics, it’s time to re-think and re-innovate your marketing.

• Whether you’re in the business-to-business or business-to-consumer sectors, “personal connection-oriented marketing” still works. Although it’s a throwback to the old days of “Mom and Pop” marketing, it has made Nordstrom a success – even in this economy.

• Make sure you add “human touch-points” to your sales-building plan. These include a genuine smile and honest conversation, a thank-you note and a post-sale phone call.

• Make “personal connection-oriented marketing” your competitive edge. Very few companies are taking this approach, believing that shaking a hand and having a conversation takes too much time and is simply old-fashioned.

• How effective is the personal connection? After all these years, through good times and tough times, this strategy still works for Nordstrom and no matter what business sector you’re in, it will work for you.

2. Want A Better Ranking On Google?  Here’s How A Blog Can Help

• Having a difficult time securing a strong ranking on Google for your prime search phrases? Getting your company’s Web site into the top range of the search results is a difficult and daunting task, especially if having a strong Internet presence is a critical part of your marketing plan.

• The best solution to this problem is a company blog. A blog can enhance your search engine rankings simply because Google looks at blogs differently than it looks at Web sites. Google views blogs as being extremely relevant in terms of the content.

• In addition, Google likes frequent copy changes. A blog with frequent postings gets spidered more often than a static Web site. Ultimately, the more frequently you blog and the more relevant your posts are to your company’s expertise, the more often Google will visit your blog and believe that it is important enough for users to see it, thus giving it a much stronger consideration for a higher placement in the search results.

3. Surprise!  Advertising Is Not Dead

• Contrary to what the pundits have been spouting for the past decade, advertising is not dead. In fact, it is more alive and popular than ever.

• While there have been changes and course corrections in some of the more traditional media, the popularity of advertising is evident on countless new mediums. Witness advertising on the different transit systems, billboards, escalators, grocery carts, gasoline pumps, T-shirts, pizza boxes, grocery receipts, bus shelters, park benches, buildings, movie theaters, airline boarding passes, washrooms, baseball stadiums and, of course, everything related to the Internet.

• So, is advertising dead? Certainly not. It’s just that the venues to reach different targeted groups – your customers – have changed and multiplied.

4. The 60-Second Close: When Did Marketing A Business Get So Complex?

• There’s no doubt that your “daddy’s same old marketing plan” won’t grow today’s business. The Internet and an influx of new and non-traditional mediums have made life a little more complex and much more interesting.

• Need help separating it all out? Need help determining what will work best to reach your target customer? Let us know. We can help you get there … faster than ever.

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60 Second Impact – May 2009

“Marc Smirnoff and I are excited about partnering with CJRW to help us expand The Oxford American brand,” said Sabin.  Smirnoff is the editor and founder of the 17-year old magazine.  “CJRW is the industry leader and they have the depth of staff and in-house resources to help us continue our expansion plans throughout the South and with key markets in the U.S.”

CJRW will assist The OA in executing a fully integrated brand communications program to further position The OA as the leader in featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South.  The marketing program will extend the brand through digital and new media applications, and will include a redesign of The OA Web site, along with The OA partnership events throughout the South.

In making the announcement, David Martin, CEO of the 47-year old agency, said he looks forward to supporting The OA in all of their branding and marketing initiatives.  “It’s extremely exciting to be able to work on such an outstanding brand.  The Oxford American not only represents great Southern writing, it also represents the best of Southern culture.  We have every confidence our efforts will significantly enhance their overall business objectives.”

About The Oxford American
The Oxford American magazine is published by The Oxford American Literary Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization dedicated to promoting literacy and exploring Southern culture through creative endeavor.  Billed as “The Southern Magazine of Good Writing,” and “The New Yorker of the South,” The Oxford American has won two National Magazine Awards and other high honors since it began publication in 1992.  Its pages have featured original work by William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, James Agee, John Grisham, John Updike, Roy Blount, Susan Sontag, Steve Martin, Charles Portis, William F. Buckley, Carson McCullers, William Eggleston, Zora Neale Hurston, and many other distinguished authors and artists, while also discovering and launching the most promising writers in the region.  The New York Times recently stated that The Oxford American “may be the liveliest literary magazine in America.”
More information at: OxfordAmerican.org

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The Oxford American To Partner With CJRW

• Each January, we suggest a theme on which to focus your business activities for the coming months.  This year’s theme is “the year to risk.”
• During 2009, we urge you to take risks and do things differently.  Risk introducing a new service or product.  Risk trying new online marketing efforts, such as those within the arena of social media.  Risk changing your Web site to something that captivates users.
• Risk trying new offline sales and marketing efforts such as networking or speaking – efforts that improve your image as a leader and an authority in your business category.

All the World’s a Twitter.  Claim Your Twitter ID Before It’s Taken

• The popularity of Twitter as a social media platform continues to zoom.  Up to 10,000 people join Twitter each day, and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon, using Twitter as a micro-blogging conversational tool to “talk” to their customers.
• We urge you to claim your Twitter ID, whether you decide to participate in Twitter or not.  A Twitter ID is like a URL.  It’s part of your personal brand.  Once someone else takes it, you’ve lost it forever.
• Remember when you couldn’t get that domain name for your Web site because someone beat you to the punch?  It’s the same situation with Twitter.
• Follow us on Twitter: @cjrwadvertising

New Year’s Top Ten Lists: Why Your Company Should Write One

• Inundated with top ten lists?  There’s a reason that people are fascinated with lists.  They’re easy to read, easy to remember and easy to talk about.  Some lists are ridiculous, some are humorous and some are factual.
• Lists play an important role in your company’s marketing efforts by educating people, in an easy format, about the value of your product.  Does your company have a list of the top ten reasons your product or service differs from your competitors’ or the top ten characteristics that set your company apart?
• Having a top ten list gives you and your staff the ability to easily verbalize how your company stands out from the others, especially if you’re in a business sector that’s full of similarity.

The 60-Second Close: How to Get Better Results

• You need to think and act differently.  Blending and similarity aren’t going to get you where you need to be during this economy.
• Interested in learning more about the risks you should take in order to succeed in 2009?  Do you want a team behind you that will challenge you and put you on a path to success?  Then call us.  We can help you get there – faster than ever.

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60-Second Impact – January 2009

• By the time you read this, Americans will have selected a new president and for the next month or so, the pundits will continue to analyze what went right, what went wrong and who voted for whom and why.
  
• The arrival of a new administration traditionally sparks optimism within the economy, but this year will be different. Retail prognosticators are forecasting a gloomy holiday shopping season. Is your business prepared to beat the odds?
  
• Going to battle against the recession is a no-win situation. But if you want to be the one standing when the smoke clears, you’ve got to have a plan to outwit and outsell your competition.

Why You Shouldn’t Lower Prices During These Tough Times

• It’s hard to resist the urge to lower the prices of your retail products or services during these times, but you must realize that if you do so, you are taking a risk.
• Despite eating into their profits, most companies lower their prices, hoping to bring in additional sales and keep their staff on payroll. This tactic may attract bargain customers, but they’ll most likely abandon you once you increase your prices.
• So, what do you do? Rather than lowering your prices, develop a way to increase your value. The reason people won’t pay your price is because there’s not enough value attached to the product.
• For example, a high-end steak restaurant, rather than lowering their menu prices, should be adding value by developing a promotion with a high-end retailer like Brooks Brothers.
• Discounting and dropping your prices is the penalty you pay when you’re not delivering enough value for the money you’re charging.

Record Numbers Are Visiting Newspaper Web Sites

• They may not prefer the paper version, but readers continue to flock to newspapers’ Web sites for fast breaking information and analysis of the news. Visits during the third quarter were up 16% over the previous quarter. (www.marketingcharts.com)

The 60-Second Close: Being There When The Dust Settles

• Some of the best-known companies in the country, in your region and in your neighborhood –- your competitors — may not have the endurance to make it through the next quarter. We believe you will succeed. But just as your customers have changed, your marketing needs to change as well. It needs to tell a story of trust and integrity — of something remarkable.
  
• Interested in learning more about how you can outwit and outsell the competition? Want to be there when the dust settles? Then call us. We can help you get there … faster than ever.
  

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60-Second Impact – November 2008

Brian Kratkiewicz, VP and director of media, interactive and account services at CJRW was recently featured in an article for DMNews, discussing Arkansas Parks and Tourism’s use of online ads targeted at mobile phones on Accuweather.com.  “[Weather] is a really good fit for mobile. If we serve it up in reference to a location that they are interested in or based on where they are, you’ve got something that changes all the time and is personal to the user.” Mobile marketing has grown from 2% to 11% of the online Arkansas tourism budget.

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Going Mobile

Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods recently created this short video demonstrating some of the romantic possibilities found in Hot Springs National Park Arkansas. The first in a series of web videos planned for Hot Springs, this three and half minute video generated over one hundred views in its first day on YouTube.

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Spa City Love Story

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New Campaign for the Spa City

An independent organization of professionals seeking to improve America’s health through communications, the NPHIC singled out 13 ADH entires for top awards, a total of 25% of all awards given. CJRW created and implemented 8 of these award-winning campaigns with our partners at the Department of Health.

First Place Awards were given to: Teen Prevention Advertising; Teen Prevention Radio Campaign; and Feature Placement Program. A Second Place Award was also given to Teen Prevention Advertising. And Third Place Awards were given to: Tobacco Prevention in Arkansas Progress Report; SOS E-Newsletter; Stamp Out Smoking Banners in School Program; and “The Big Pitch” Drama Program.

Here is one of the award-winning Teen Prevention TV ads:

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National Health Professionals Agree: CJRW is Tops

You’ll get hungry just just browsing through the colorful and informative new web site for Little Rock’s latest culinary destination—cooked up from scratch by the talented CJRW Interactive team. Scan the menu for your favorite dishes, delve deep into the extensive wine list, and find out what’s for dinner every night for the next month from the grocery’s nightly specials. Dig in, we’re certain you’ll come back for seconds.

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Appetite for Interaction