Location-based social networking has been the trendy topic in social media for the past few months. And indeed big brands such as Pepsi, Bravo and Campbell’s Soup have launched location-based marketing initiatives. But is it right for your business?

Research firm Forrester says probably not – with a few caveats. A study released this week revealed that only 4 percent of online adults have ever used such apps. Moreover, only 1 percent of these users update these services more than once per week.  A vast majority, 84 percent, of online adults report being unfamiliar with location-based apps such as Gowalla, Foursquare and Loopt.  Indeed, user data indicates that there’s a long way to go until LBN can claim mass adoption; Foursquare counts around 2 million users.  Considering there are around 75 million adults in the US that go online from a mobile device, the market is still young.

So, should you invest time in location-based marketing (LBM)? Consider these points:

Are the majority of your prospects male?

The Forrester report revealed that almost 80 percent of location-based app users are male, suggesting that gaming, electronics and sportswear marketers might benefit from pursuing LBM initiatives.  However, these folks are influencers; they report being consulted by friends and family before purchases and reference their phones before making a purchase decision.

Are your prospects 35 and under?

Most users are between the ages of 19 and 35. Because location-based networking relies on smartphones (which are predicted to overtake feature phones sometime next year) there may still be adoption hurdles.

Do your customers and prospects care about your location or visit you personally?

Unless you are Pepsi or Campbell’s Soup, LBM makes sense if your customers physically visit your business. For restaurants, coffee joints, theaters and shops, a positive, face-to-face transaction with customers is essential to keeping the business thriving.  Would awarding a free beer to the mayor of your bar encourage loyalty?  Might not hurt to try.  But don’t expect huge upticks in revenue – LBM is currently a drop in the marketing ocean.

Read more on how one non-profit marketer is using Foursquare to increase engagement.

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Sponsored by The Printing & Imaging Association of Georgia (PIAG), the annual competition recognizes Georgia’s printers and imagers for exceptional work.  In 2010, 770 entries were submitted by 49 organizations from across the state. The criteria for judging are registration, neatness and clarity, sharpness of halftones and line drawings, richness and tonal qualities of color, paper and ink selection, ink coverage, difficulty of printing, effective contrast or softness, overall visual impact and bindery.

“We are pleased to have collaborated with Fuse Graphics to produce core corporate materials demonstrating their exceptional print processes,” said Carolyn Rhinebarger, CEO and chief brainstormer of Strategic Guru. “Congratulations to Fuse Graphics on the deserved win!”

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Cut, Color, Clarity,Carat; the four Cs by which all diamonds are graded.  But what do diamonds have to do with marketing? A different set of Cs can be used to examine an organization’s social media efforts.  Social media is evaluated by some by it’s ROE , or Return on Engagement.  So how engaging, really, are most social media campaigns?

The brilliantly executed campaign for Old Spice is a great case study on how the four Cs of social media work:

Clever: The Old Spice man (OSM) stars in quirky commercials proclaiming he’s “the man your man could smell like”. Through crisp writing and rapid fire visuals, the brand strikes a note with a younger, hipper audience. It’s clear: this sure ain’t your grandpa’s deodorant.

Cheek, Tongue-In: Serious they ain’t. Old Spice isn’t afraid to make fun of the typical cliches found in male product advertising – motorcycles, lumber jacking and handiness with power tools. Among competitors, there’s a lot of talk about speed, precision and high performance. Old Spice goes for humor, speaking to the smarty-pants, savvy internet generation reared on witty web clips to deliver messaging that cuts through clutter.

Consistent: The campaign stretches across the web, television, Twitter (@oldspice), Facebook and YouTube. All channels working together reinforce the message.

Connected: The most inventive part of the campaign is the live video Q + A delivered by OSM. Working live, creative and marketing agency W+K cut videos on the fly talking back to questions submitted by Twitter users. Answering questions from the philosophical to the silly, Old Spice has mastered the art of engagement with their prospects. He even helped someone get engaged, literally!

Seen a better example of a full-engaged social media campaign?  Tell us in the comments.

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Bezos is obviously not a novice in the area of brand development – a new study by research firm Millward Brown found that Amazon.com is the most trusted brand in the U.S. Rounding out the top 5 are FedEx, Downey, Huggies and Tide.

Credit: Millward Brown

And then there are brands like AIG and BP that have not fared nearly as well.

The key difference? Trust. Would you do business with someone you didn’t trust? Neither will your customers. Your brand is your promise.

How can you build brand trust for your business?

By developing marketing tactics and messages that are relevant to your core consumers, you can establish a brand reputation that builds trust and increases value. Simply put, your company’s image and messaging should convey what’s important to your customers – not what’s important to you.

Communicate your brand and its benefits at each and every touch point – from the office site to the website. Customers quickly form an opinion about your business and what it represents – and how they feel about it.

Where do you start?

Let’s get back to basics. You have to know where you are in the marketplace (now), where you want to be (future) and then create the road map for how to get there (strategic marketing plan).  If you don’t control your brand identity (your path), the marketplace will determine it for you – and it may not be what you had in mind.

Bottom line: “A business based on brand is, very simply, a business primed for success,” said David F. D’Alessandro, former chairman, chief executive officer, and president, John Hancock Financial Services.

How do you communicate your brand value in day-to-day operations?

See our set of brand messaging services.

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Marketing strategy without a comprehensive plan and measurable tactics is as ineffective as being in a yacht without a rudder. Yes, you might still be afloat and even covering a lot of territory, but without a steering mechanism you’re bound to be off course – which is precisely what a sound strategic marketing plan will avoid.

As challenging as it already is to build a successful business, doing the wrong things well is a waste of time and money. It undermines productivity, decreases morale and creates internal confusion. And, lest we forget, lacking a sense of direction in business costs sales and yields missed growth objectives.

Worse, the alienation of strategy from execution is highly conducive to conflict, where those developing the strategy are increasingly at odds with those executing the tactics. Strategy and execution are symbiotic, much like the rudder and sails of a yacht serve a single goal – to get from point “A” to point “B.” Neither one serves the purpose well without working in concert with the other.

The best method to align these two separate but equivalent functions is to develop a strategic marketing plan that includes a positioning statement to clearly define your unique selling proposition and outlines measurable pathways to achieve concrete outcomes. By tying strategy to execution, uniform and cohesive tactics can be developed that remove uncertainty.

Does your business rely on a time-tested plan that incorporates your value proposition, competitive edge, market position and revenue goals?

It’s not enough to know and present your products. It’s essential to understand and present your products and services so customers identify them as being relevant and beneficial.

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With postal rates proposed to increase on January 2, 2011, many businesses will be re-thinking their mail marketing strategy. The proposed rate for a first class letter will be 46 cents, up from 44 cents. Catalog mailers will see their postage prices increase by 5.1 percent on average.

Aiming to close a projected $7 billion budget gap in 2011, the USPS’s move to increase prices is seen by some as a misguided tactic. Just as pricing and financing incentives help sell more cars, holding or lowering the cost to mail may prompt direct marketers to deploy more direct mail and catalogs.

What digital solutions should marketers consider?

• Digital publications: Online catalogs and magazines provide a similar experience to a paper publication. Lonny is an online-only magazine focusing on home design and décor. An email campaign can be developed to prompt a subscriber list to access the digital doc.

• Publications loaded on CD or flash drive: A digital catalog or other sales material can be loaded on a CD or flash. These are less expensive to mail and provide the additional benefit of open/use data. When the flash drive or CD is inserted into a computer, a notification is generated that the device has been accessed and a lead can be tracked.

Will a postal increase change your marketing mailing habits?

Learn more about OnTarget, a lead-generation program from Strategic Guru that can incorporate digital publications.

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The redesigned website reflects the updated look of the brand developed by Strategic Guru as part of an ongoing marketing campaign. The new site guides visitors through three pathways: business, individual and senior. Built on a content management system (CMS), the site gives the firm the power to refresh content frequently and optimize the site for search engines.

“Our new site reflects our strengths as an agency,” said Judy Fourie, President, Fourie Insurance. “We specialize in finding the right insurance solution to help businesses and individuals minimize risk. The site communicates this through easy-to-navigate pathways that guide visitors to the information they need quickly.”

“We are happy to assist Fourie Insurance refresh their online presence,” said Carolyn Rhinebarger, Chief Brainstormer with Strategic Guru. “The new site will serve as the backbone for additional marketing efforts we will execute on their behalf.”

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Let’s take a look at subject line length.

Email users need to quickly decide if an email is worth opening by gleaning the point of the message right away. Research from email marketers suggest that subject lines be no longer than 80 characters. Others say 35 characters should be the cut-off.  So what’s the rule? There isn’t one! As always, an A/B test should reveal what your subscriber list responds to best.

Epsilon’s 2009 whitepaper examining subject line length and open rates reinforces the hunch that shorter subject lines drive better email performance. However, it is not a hard and fast rule. Instead, they suggest that word order and content may be more influential than subject line length.  Placing the most important words in the beginning of the subject line may be the most important thing to keep in mind when crafting subject lines.  “Sale on Flip Flops at Corner Shop” is a short 27 characters, but the point of the message is right up front: SAVINGS!

Share your experiences with subject line length in the comments.

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“I am so excited! I had several people tell me that I really needed to consider hiring a professional to redesign my website,” said Amy Elk. “Since it’s the face of my voice over business, I really wanted it to be well designed, but in the absence of the budget to hire someone and the time to invest to develop it properly myself, the result was my haphazard efforts at ‘just having something out there’ that turned into that lavender puddle of yuck!”

The contest, which began June 16 with a call for entries, was launched with the goal of finding the business or organization whose website was most in need of a makeover. The winner was chosen in an Internet poll conducted at the contest site. During the six days of voting, a total of 28,684 votes were cast. Amy Elk received 16,543 votes, about 57%.

“This year we received more than double the number of votes than last year. Our finalists did an excellent job of getting their supporters to participate in the poll,” said Carolyn Rhinebarger, Strategic Guru’s Chief Brainstormer. “We are thrilled to start working with Amy to improve her web presence.”

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We’ll also be sharing the final results of the web makeover at the contest website, so check back for progress.

Many thanks to all the entrants and to our voters for making this year’s contest bigger and better.

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