Startup Grind Lansing
ARTS ROLL-CALL: Mikeyy Austin – Arts, Culture and Collaboration Episode 17
Welcome to Episode 17 of Arts Roll Call–a podcast for the arts curious. In this episode, host Robin Miner-Swartz talks with musician Mikeyy Austin about his music, his love for Lansing and his belief that arts and culture drive everything and help create strong and supportive spaces that are for everyone.
EXPERT CONNEXIONS: Business Branding: Do It Yourself vs Hire a Pro
Should businesses handle their own branding or hire a professional?
If you’re looking to save money and have more control over the creative process, the DIY route might seem appealing. On the other hand, hiring a pro could give you the expertise and creative vision needed to create a powerful brand that sets you apart from the competition.
In this episode, Expert Connexions host (and mConnexions Marketing Agency Owner) Julie Holton talks with colleague and marketing and branding expert, Alexis Neumann of mConnexions to see why branding is more than just slapping a logo on your website or business cards.
After watching, let us know what you think… DIY or pro branding?
Learn more about mConnexions: mConnexions.com
CLIENT STORY: Greater Lansing Convention & Visitor’s Bureau – Welcome to the Lansing Center
Our latest tour for the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitor’s Bureau highlights the Lansing Center. This centerpiece right on Michigan Avenue right down the street from the State Capitol hosts various events from galas, state conventions, and sports tournaments. It offers a spacious ballroom and meeting space to meet the needs of any event’s needs and is located right on the riverfront with a walkable tunnel to downtown. For more info:https://www.lansing.org
Meet Adam Hirst! UnoDeuce Intern for Spring – Summer 2023
Adam Hirst is the latest UnoDeuce Intern from the Lansing Community College’s DMAC program. A native of Grand Ledge, he’s enjoying the flow of the video industry and hopes to get more involved through his experience at UnoDeuce. Let’s all welcome Adam to the UnoDeuce family!
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â–º Subscribe to the UnoDeuce Multimedia Channel Here:
https://www.youtube.com/unodeucemultimedia
â–º To keep up with our new client videos:
https://vimeo.com/unodeuce
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Chapters:
00:10: What drives you?
00:20: What are your hobbies?
00:38: What is your favorite record & record store?
00:57: What brought you to UnoDeuce?
01:18: What do you hope to gain from this experience?
Remember there’s always another story to tell, and we would love to tell your story. Please connect with us: https://www.unodeuce.com/contact/
#videostoryteller #nonprofitvideo #unodeucemultimedia
GUEST POST: Innovative Marketing Techniques to Boost Your Brand Awareness
Innovative Marketing Techniques to Boost Your Brand Awareness
If you want to build a successful brand, you need to work on your brand awareness. Brand awareness is a technical term that describes the degree to which a brand is recognized by potential customers.
As a small brand, you need to work a lot to be able to boost your awareness. To help you build a strong brand strategy, we decided to gather a couple of innovative marketing techniques.
Check them out.
- Â Build a unique brand personality
If you want to boost your brand awareness, start by building a unique brand personality. A brand personality implies attributing human characteristics to your brand name. This technique isn’t new, but it’s a staple and timeless technique that can help you boost your brand awareness quite a bit.To be able to assign these characteristics to your brand, you first need to decide who you are, who your audience is, as well as your core values among other things. You should aim to be a reliable, spirited, and sincere brand.When building a brand personality, the key is to be consistent. So, once you attribute a certain set of characteristics to your brand, stick with them, and don’t change them often, because that will make you unreliable.
- Â Create a moving brand story
In addition to brand personality, creating a moving brand story can also help you raise brand awareness. The goal of the brand story is to inspire emotions in your audiences.You can create a moving and inspiring brand story by using feedback from your audience on social media. Collaborating with your audience will help you create a brand story that resonates.
- Â High-quality guest content
Shareable and high-quality content will open many doors for your brand. Guest posting is a great way to boost brand awareness, so why not make the most of it?Create valuable content that informs and leaves a lasting impression. Memorable, shareable, and high-quality content will also help you get new audiences. So, it’s time to polish your writing skills.
- Â Freebies
Freebies, in addition to being a great way to entice the skeptics to try your products/services, are also a great way to create online buzz around your brand. There are many ways that you can offer freebies, from offering free samples, free trials, or something similar – the goal is to get people to try your products or services and in that way boost your brand awareness.For example, with the help of the Unmade platform you can design interesting and unique promotional items that you can give to clients and customers. You can gift pens, mugs, lighters, t-shirts, calendars, or something similar.
- Â Local partnerships
As a local business, building local partnerships will be highly important to you. Partnering with local businesses will help you contribute to your community, and even make a difference in the local area. You’ll be able to participate in charity events, sponsoring events, festivals, and other important local events.You can easily boost your brand awareness by being present in your local community, contributing to it, and being a sponsor of important events.
- Â Referral programs
Referral programs are a great strategy to motivate existing customers to recommend your brand to their friends and family. This strategy will not only raise brand awareness but also drive your revenue up.There are many different ideas when it comes to referral programs. For example, you can offer a gift for every referral, give store credit, or discounts, upgrade a product or a service, and so on.Referral programs are a great way to engage your existing customers and motivate them to do some word-of-mouth marketing.
- Â Social media contests
There’s nothing quite as popular as social media contests. These contests are strategically made to boost brand awareness. Mostly every social media channel has a popular contest but some of the most frequent ones include sharing a photo, social media giveaways, writing a caption, commenting to win, or voting to win a giveaway, to name a few.Followers love doing these kinds of challenges, so you should try them out sometime.
- Influencer marketing
Just like social media contests, influencer marketing is also very popular. With the help of influencers, you can boost your brand awareness pretty quickly.Influencers in your industry, particularly influencers with authority, can mention your brand, review your products or services, and make personal recommendations to their viewers and followers.
Boosting your brand awareness is a process, but with the help of these techniques, you’ll be able to brand your business in no time. Remember, having a unique brand can set you apart
from everyone else.
Morgan Rose Elliott is an aromatherapist, yoga instructor, animal lover, a happily married mother of three. She enjoys reading biographies and writing poems, sunny days on the beach and any shape and form of vanilla. Crazy about the ’80s, her favorite band is Duran Duran (although kids prefer Franz Ferdinand, and the husband Blink182) and she is obsessed with Netflix original Stranger things.
https://twitter.com/MorganRoseElli1
Expert Connexions – AI: From Idea to Prototype in 3 Days
This week’s expert woke up with an idea and before his head hit the pillow that night, he had two Michigan State University students working with him to develop a new app.
Their working prototype — was completed in just three days!
In this episode, founder and angel investor, Dave Smith walks Julie Holton through a demo, showing us in real-time how quickly Artificial Intelligence is changing the game for app developers… and what that means for the rest of us.
Subscribe to Expert Connexions on YouTube!
CLIENT STORY: Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness – Bringing a Collective Voice for Change
Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness is an advocacy and membership organization that takes great pride in the work that they do. They are a resource that tackles the issue of homelessness around the state and provides a voice for those that feel unseen and unheard.
For more information: www.mihomeless.org
The 11th Annual Deucey Award Winners
Another successful Deucey Award season has come and gone, but it’s time once again to celebrate our winners. These four organizations are first-time winners and we thank everyone who joined in on the voting.
Congratulations to Helping Women Period, Red Bike Delivery, Care Free Medical Center, and All of the Above Hip Hop Academy for their wins.
You can see all of their videos in their own Deucey Award Winner Playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJoiiAsvxjWRpuAY-cQZGDzMwCHSg5NPW
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â–º Subscribe to the UnoDeuce Multimedia Channel Here:
https://www.youtube.com/unodeucemultimedia
â–º To keep up with our new client videos:
https://vimeo.com/unodeuce
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Remember there’s always another story to tell, and we would love to tell your story. Please connect with us: https://www.unodeuce.com/contact/
#deuceyawards #nonprofitvideo #unodeucemultimedia
Lansing Marketing Hackers – Branding for Bold Businesses with Zeedia Media
Let Us Get Your Business Moving in the Right Direction. We follow the very simple, yet extremely powerful, brand concept: Brand Archetypes. You want your brand to be universally understood, powerful, and evoke an emotion. Most small businesses are missing a key element in their branding – the emotional connection you make with your clients. But you can’t have all the feels all the time. Learn how to dial into the one emotion that is going to make your brand stand out from all the rest.
Amy Zander is the self-proclaimed Mobstress of Marketing, owner of Zeedia Media, host of two podcasts, and published co-author of Brand Archetypes for Your Business. Amy’s biggest passion in life is words and finding the best way to communicate ideas and marketing strategies for her clients. #WordsMatter.
This event will also be simultaneously broadcast on our Facebook Page and YouTube Channel
Presented by: UnoDeuce Multimedia, WLNS, mConnexions and Courtyard Marriott Downtown Lansing
