5 Ways to Spice Up Tried-and-True Office Routines
The everyday office routine can become pretty mundane day in and day out. With hours spent drafting documents, sitting in meetings and refreshing your email inbox, it is easy to fall into a monotonous pattern and struggle to stay creative and passionate about your work. But, no fear! BIGEYE is here with some useful tips to brighten up that snoozer of a workday and bring back your former creative spark and drive – here, we bring you the following 5 ways to spice up tried-and-true office routines: 1. Communal Lunches Whether you order in lunch for the whole team or simply agree to all convene and eat at a specific time, holding a communal lunch is a terrific way to start great conversations and elevate the overall mood and atmosphere of the office. The lunch can give people something to look forward to in the morning and boosts everyone’s energy for the afternoon! 2. Bring A Pet With your bosses and colleagues approval of course, having a dog or cat friendly office or a designated “Bring Your Pet to Work Day” can help add excitement and even a much needed relaxation outlet throughout the day. What a better way to shake off tension from a particularly stressful meeting than by petting a furry friend at your desk. A pet can completely change the mood of your office environment and adds a bit of fun! 3. Redecorate Your Workspace Every few months change up your workspace by rearranging your setup, bringing in fun trinkets or changing out the pictures in your photo frames. A change of scenery may help reenergize and maybe even help you look at your work from a new perspective! 4. Play Some Music It’s proven fact that music can drastically alter moods, so why not use that power and play some cool jams in your office while working? If you work in a communal area try using an app like Jukebox for Spotify to play music that everyone can listen to. These apps enable your entire team to add songs to the current playlist from their phone and vote up songs that they want to listen to more. It can even add a fun competition to see who can get their song at the top of the playlist. 5. Do Something Nice For Your Colleagues We all could use a little good karma now and then, and it’s a known fact that doing things for others helps boost your own mood as well. So, next time you’re out on a coffee run bring back your coworker their favorite drink. Or you could do something as simple as leaving a sticky note compliment on your coworker’s desk while he or she is away. Whatever it is, doing something nice can add a little extra something to you and your colleague’s day. So why not give it a try next time you’re looking to break the everyday routine? Looking for more ways to generate positive change in your company’s workplace, and spice-up those office routines? We’re on the ready to divulge a few more of our BIGEYE tested, BIGEYE approved tips and tricks – contact us today!
Tips on Maintaining Your Contacts for Business Development Success
At our Orlando advertising agency, we believe that our relationships are critical to the success of our business. One of the most important ways to make or break your business is the successful management of your contacts. Your network is the most essential path to strong business development, helping you gain new clients or strategic partnerships that can help you increase your business’s bottom line. It’s hard to keep in touch with everyone, but luckily, the BIGEYE team presents the following 5 tips on maintaining your contacts – in an effort to help maximize your business development outreach strategy. 1. Use Templates Do you have emails styles that you send on a regular basis, such as follow-ups for coffee or birthday greetings? Use templates to help save time. Lots of CRM (customer relationship management) tools offer templates, but for my money, my favorite is the free one that I can use right through my Gmail account. Set it up by going to “Settings”and clicking “Labs,”and enabling “Canned Responses.” You can still edit the email as needed whenever you want to send it. And don’t let the feature name fool you…you can use it for your outreach efforts, too. 2. Create an Email Marketing Strategy for your Brand It seems intuitive that if you have thousands of contacts in your database, you should be able to easily reach them by sending a regular email to update them on information they may find useful. However, you might be surprised how often people tend to overlook this easy way to connect with old contacts and facilitate referrals. Sending emails anytime you have big news, sending quarterly emails with updates and sending emails that are simply collections of useful links are all terrific ways to use email marketing for your brand. 3. Host a Dinner Party Email marketing is great, but as we all know, nothing beats face-to-face interaction. One of the best ways to get people talking, networking and building opportunities is through a good old-fashioned dinner party. People bond through food, and by carefully designing a guest list that brings people with similar interests together, you’re not only building your network but are also offering the opportunity for them to build theirs over cocktails and delicious food. Talk about a great value proposition! If you don’t think you have a prime location to host a dinner party, ask a friend, and go in on it together. 4. Continue the Conversation on Social Media One of the reasons I love social media is because it allows me to connect with people I may not be in contact with via email on a regular basis. When an old friend comments on a Facebook post, it reminds me that I do, in fact, have a relationship with that person, and that the person is interested in what I’m up to as well. Even if it’s hard to find time for a coffee meeting with an old friend or colleague, you can at least keep up the conversation on social, by commenting or replying to their posts and remaining in their vision. I’ve reconnected with several influential contacts as a result of a simple Facebook post, which in turn have led to new client relationships. 5. Invest in a Contacts Management Tool Recently, a friend told me about Contactually, a tool that helps people manage their contacts and ensures important contacts don’t fall off the radar. While real estate agents have become huge advocates of this tool due to the nature of their work, it also has great implications for people who are simply interested in maintaining contact with their personal connections as well. Contactually has built-in templates and will send regular reminders for you to follow up with contacts who may have slipped through the cracks.[quote]With built-in analytics, you can keep up with your progress on a daily basis.[/quote] At BIGEYE, we work hard to develop and maintain relationships with important contacts that in turn can also assist our clients. If you’re looking for more ways to help grow your business, contact us to schedule a meeting!
The 3 Ways To Win By Employing Teamwork In Business
It’s easy to get carried away in personal accomplishments at work. Even a little bit of recognition goes a long way, so many people feel it’s best to work independently in order to get all the credit for a big project. However, while this may be the case in some scenarios, our advertising agency in Orlando believes that working in teams is a much more efficient process. After all, no one person can be great at every single task, and chances are that if you’re an excellent researcher and writer, there might be someone better-equipped to handle finances, graphic design, or even website development. The reality is, the potential to work more efficiently comes from how well the teams work together. Unfortunately, working in teams can also be challenging, particularly when working with someone domineering or with a “social loafer,”a slacker who wants to take credit for the work of the team in spite of that fact that the person hasn’t contributed to the progress of the project. Here, BIGEYE presents 3 ways to make teamwork win big for your business: 1. Assign a project manager. One of the best ways to mitigate this is to assign a project manager to oversee the project. The project manager’s role is to ensure the project is moving on time, that budgets are in order and that peoples’needs are being sufficiently addressed. A good project manager is responsible for the outcome of the project and gives the team the support and autonomy to do a good job. The PM should also recognize when people are not carrying their weight, and can then take steps to address those issues. An ideal PM is also a good mediator, as this can be the go-to person when there are disputes amongst company members. 2. Improv. Teams can also strive to employ a tactic that’s very popular in improv comedy philosophy: the art of yes-and. The goal here is to never actively reject an idea, but to build on it to make it stronger and better. This eliminates some of the disagreeableness that can put individuals on the defensive, and in long-form improv, to help to grow the scene as a whole. There’s a reason that so many professionals are being more and more inspired to take improv classes or attend corporate improv workshops. It’s not just that they help improve public speaking skills, but also teach a philosophical framework that people can also apply to their everyday lives. 3. Be social. Finally, workplace teams can plan to arrange social activities outside of work hours. This helps facilitate workplace relationships and a sense of camaraderie, which can translate into better collaboration. [quote]In order to get the most out of teamwork, incentivizing the work of the team through rewards can help individuals come together for a collective goal.[/quote]Within those teamwork rewards, the team at our web agency in Orlando believes that a leader can also plan to recognize individual accomplishments in order to ensure that people don’t put all the hard work on one or two members of the team. Working as a team doesn’t have to be daunting. When workplace teams are effective, everyone wins. Need some help kickstarting your approach to teamwork in the workplace? Contact us to discuss strategies to win BIG for your brand!
The Value of Professional Growth Strategies in Business
Most startup companies that receive investor funding or scale massively within a couple of years don’t do so without a plan. The plan outlines the vision for the company, the ways in which the organization can generate revenue and ultimate goals of the business. With a solid business plan, a company can go from one small idea to a big business the size of Google or Facebook. Strategists spend months or even years detailing these plans. So, if a business and branding strategy is so crucial to your business, then doesn’t it also make sense to spend some time developing one or more professional growth strategies for yourself? Most of us tend to do this, at least in a passive manner. When you’re at a career standstill, you might consider the possibility of grad school. Or, when looking for business development opportunities, you might weigh the differences between working in the high-tech neighborhoods of Silicon Valley against exploring the luxurious snowbird communities here in sunny Florida. But have you ever actually sat down and tried to design a business strategy for yourself? By thinking about yourself the same way you might think of a true commodity or service business, you can come to some interesting assessments as to how to best develop your skill set in order to achieve maximum growth. When business leaders design business plans, they combine several factors. First of all, they think of their current assets. For an individual, this might mean tangible assets such as your home, as well as other assets such as your savings, your years of experience and your education. All of these things can be leveraged in different ways for potential growth opportunities. Then, they think of those assets in relation to the current landscape in order to make predictions about the future. For an individual, this might mean looking at the current market opportunities and figuring out what you might need in order to better prepare yourself for opportunities down the line. This doesn’t necessary mean taking two years off to enroll in an MBA program; rather, it simply means understanding the changing nature of the world, to essentially make sure you’re not investing your time and energy in dated technology or ideas. If there is a gap in your skill set, you can fill it by taking classes, reading relevant articles and even hands-on experience through volunteering. Finally, big companies will then design goals for the future. For a business, that might mean sales goals, as well as campaigns to help reach those goals. From a personal standpoint, this might instead mean income goals, or professional development goals. Campaigns might be interpreted as making strategic decisions as to how to spend your time, perhaps by going to more networking events and conferences to help grow your network.[quote]As the saying goes, it’s much easier to get from point A to point B if you know where you’re going.[/quote] Thinking of yourself as your own small business can help inspire entrepreneurial thinking that not only helps your own personal brand, but also can help create business opportunities that help grow your company. By thinking strategically about personal growth opportunities, you can ultimately add much more value to business, and to your career. Seeking guidance for your own professional growth strategy? Own it, by contacting our team of strategic professionals today!
The Florida American Advertising Awards of May 2014
ORLANDO, Fla. – May 7, 2014 – BIGEYE, a full-service integrated advertising agency based in Orlando, was honored with a Gold District American Advertising Award at the recently held 2014 Fourth District American Advertising Federation Awards Gala in Tampa. The gold district award is BIGEYE’s second and highest recognition for The Daily Mom app after winning a gold award for the app at the 2014 American Advertising Federation-Orlando American Advertising Awards Gala earlier this year. The Daily Mom app is considered the first news app for moms and was the only mobile app in the state to win gold. [quote]“With so many outstanding entries this year, we were honored to take home gold at the district level, “These awards are increasingly more competitive, and our success would not be possible without our employees, who represent some of the best in the industry, as well as our clients and partners,” said Justin Ramb, CEO of BIGEYE. BIGEYE will be advancing to the national competition May 31 in Boca Raton. About BIGEYE BIGEYE is a full service integrated advertising agency known for delivering highly strategic and results-driven work in branding, video, print, digital, web, social media, advertising and media. Founded in 2002, BIGEYE was recently named to Forbes list of the “Top 100 Global Ad Agencies That Know Social Media and Google.” For more information, please visit bigeyeagency.com. About The American Advertising Awards The American Advertising Awards, formerly the ADDY® Awards, is the advertising industry’s largest and most representative competition, attracting over 40,000 entries every year in local AAF Club (Ad Club) competitions. The mission of the American Advertising Awards competition is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising. For more information, please visit americanadvertisingawards.com. Contact: Wágner dos Santos, BIGEYE 407.839.8599 x 203 wagner@bigeyeagency.com
Take Our Career Advice – It’s Okay to Fail Sometimes
Don’t we all wish things would fall into place for us easily, and that there wouldn’t ever be the need for failure? You may have a great job and a great career, but chances are that if you have both of those things, you’ve definitely failed at some point. Take our career advice and know that it’s okay, and good, to fail! Some people in the world just want a steady track in life. Those folks will end up in fitting jobs, and will work in semi-satisfying jobs while the daily grind turns into years of their lives. Sure, they may get raises, but they may never see any real increase in responsibility or any impact that might help make a difference down the road. And that’s okay. Then, there are others of us who are driven to succeed. This defines each of the team members at our Florida marketing agency, a team that is ambitious and determined to prosper. Unfortunately, the reality of the matter is that there’s a pretty darn good chance that on your path to success, you may fail. Failure is not unusual, but the most important thing to remember is that if you fail, it’s because you’re putting yourself out there in the world and trying something new. For most people, the more you fail, the more you ultimately win. And when you win, you win big. When people think of Donald Trump, many fail to remember that some of the billionaire pseudo-celebrity’s businesses have also declared bankruptcy. [quote]Failing is a learning opportunity.[/quote]Take, for example, a child who is learning how to walk. That child must fail a few times before she can take those steps, steps that will guide her for the rest of her life. But once she learns, she has it, and while that may not always be the case with success, it’s certainly much better than never trying in the first place. In fact, some argue that failure can even mean freedom. When you fail big time, the worst is over. It offers you freedom to start from scratch, or to know you can rebuild from the bottom. There’s no more refreshing feeling than going out into the world with a clean slate, although it can be hard to see it at the time. How many times have you heard people say that their personal failures have ultimately led to positive changes throughout the course of their lives. So, if there’s something you’ve been holding back on because of fear of failure, try to put yourself out there, starting today. If the goal is to get healthy, start with a walk around the neighborhood, and put the effort in to eat a little bit healthier each day. If you fail, then that’s okay —at least you’ve started making those important changes, and can use everything you’ve learned to your advantage later down the road. Here at BIGEYE, our team realizes that no one can be perfect all the time. Share this blog post with your team members, and encourage them to turn courage into success, and contact us for more industry tips and tricks!
The Go To Places In Downtown Orlando, an Infographic
5 Creative Ideas for Local Business Marketing and Advertising
Your business is doing well, but you know it could be doing better. You’ve tried all kinds of things, but aren’t seeing the results you want. Well, the team here at our Orlando ad agency wants to offer you five creative ideas to help you improve your local business marketing. 1. Sponsor a little league team Many times, these teams will wear sports jerseys advertising the sponsor at all their games. All that advertising will expose your brand to their parents, which will not only help grow your business but will also make your business seem like a charitable leader within the community. 2. Get active on Yelp and Foursquare So, you think you don’t need to be active on Yelp and Foursquare because your target audience isn’t using those services? You might be surprised. Often, when people conduct searches, Yelp is one of the first sites that comes up. And, as some business owners know, a difference in half of a star in a Yelp review can make or break a business. As for Foursquare, what better way to get repeat customers than to offer incentives for them sharing their experiences?[quote]Many people use the service to check-in to places, sharing their whereabouts with their network.[/quote] These people can share offer tips and mini-reviews for friends and strangers alike, so being active on Foursquare can actively bring more people to your business. 3. Introduce yourself to local business owners Many times, small business merchants know one another. If you’re a coffee shop, wouldn’t it be great to have the monopoly on referrals from your friends at the barbershop down the block? This tends to work exceptionally well in neighborhoods that are mixed residential and business, as people who know each other can create interesting networks of client relationships. 4. Throw a party Parties and events are great ways to get people in the door. Try pairing up with a local charity, and if possible, attempt to find donors for food and beverage. (However, if you are planning to serve food and beverage, make sure you comply with any local health and safety laws.) 5. Try a Groupon or LivingSocial deal Groupons and LivingSocial deals tend to be most popular at a hyper local level. People purchase Groupons that they know they will use, and this tends to frequently be when the location of the business is relatively close to where the person lives. As such, if a business can structure a Groupon as to where they’re not taking a hit by running it, then it can be an extremely valuable marketing tool to help get people in the door. People often spend more than the value of the Groupon, and they may be likely to return after having a great experience. These ideas can help bring business to your company, while also staying true to the value of a local, community-driven business. For more ideas on how to get people into your shop, contact the team at our Florida marketing agency for a strategy consultation.
The Relationship Between a Customer Service Strategy and Marketing
Once upon a time, marketing and customer service were completely separate entities. Particularly in areas where there was slight competition, bad customer service didn’t matter because people had only limited options; for the most part, entities such as the post office and DMV still function like this. However, as the world has become more global, it’s become clear that there are almost always other options. As such, the divide between marketing and customer service has blurred. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone whose brand has ever suffered a bombardment of complaints from unhappy users via social media. Such complaints and criticism is no longer limited to a one-on-one phone call — people all over the world can read these complaints in an instant, as long as they have access to the internet. While some companies have always had an emphasis on customer service, others have taken for granted that they can actually lose customers in the long run if they have had terrible customer service experiences. Take, for example, Ryanair, a low-cost British airline that relied on being efficient, even if that meant being rude to paying customers. Late last year, the company’s CEO admitted that the brand was ready to take on a new strategy that involved being nicer to customers. Because we live in an age where customer service complaints can spread like wildfire, it’s important to consider customer service as a marketing commodity. Some companies have built entire businesses around excellent customer service experiences, such as Zappos, a company that integrates customer happiness into its overall brand strategy. [quote]At the end of the day, a brand should be about its customer, and that shouldn’t end at the point of a sale.[/quote] Thinking of customer service in terms of marketing means developing an understanding that your customers are your biggest advocates, and that they are the ones who will be spreading the word about your business. When people share a great brand experience on social media, they are sharing that with all of the people around them. And remember, when it comes to sharing about brand experiences, people tend to only comment on really good or really bad – no one ever goes to their Twitter feed about an okay customer service experience. Thinking about the evolving relationship between customer service and marketing means making sure your social media customer service strategy isn’t just a canned response, offering someone a phone number. There’s a reason they took to Twitter; it’s possible they were bothered by long phone wait times or are simply in a place where it’s inconvenient to make a call. While different social media customer service strategies may work differently for individual brands, the strategies should always reflect an understanding that customers deserve to be treated like people, even if it means simply responding with care to a tweet or Facebook comment. The team at our Florida ad agency thinks understanding this relationship is a great way to go from happy customers to happy brand advocates. For more tips on improving your social media, contact our Orlando marketing agency for a free consultation.
7 Ways to Get Lucky on St. Patrick’s Day INFOGRAPHIC
7 Ways to Get Lucky on St. Patrick’s Day By Rhett Withey Posted on March 13, 2014 1. Start the morning strong with Irish coffee To prepare for the day or recover from the night, this is one way to wake up refreshed. Too much consumption may result in one believing in leprechauns. 1.5 oz of Jameson Irish Whiskey 1 oz of brown sugar syrup Hot brewed coffee Unsweetened cream Lightly whip and enjoy! 2. Search for a four leaf clover Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth is for luck. 3. Wear green The ancient Irish used to wear green to show their love for the harvest gods. Show that special someone how much you love them by wearing green. Clothing is definitely recommended with extra points for creativity. Over 94 million people plan to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day! 4. Give thanks for your pot of gold Say this Irish blessing: “May good luck be with you wherever you go, and your blessing outnumber the shamrocks that grow.” 5. Celebrate Irish heritage Grab a pint and thank the Irish for creating this binge-drinking occasion that could bring you and your significant other together by fate, or Irish car bombs. There are an estimated 34 million Americans with Irish ancestry. 6. Pucker up Find a lucky pair of lips to lock with. They say if you kiss the Blarney Stone it will give you magical powers of persuasion. We recommend you find your own “Blarney Stone”, but we warn you that a combination of Guinness and thinking you have powers may result in a slap to the face. Proceed with caution on this one. 7. Move your feet Get into the groove by learning an Irish folk dance or crank up some classics like U2. However we do not recommend that you try not to take too much of the spotlight – this may result in obnoxious and embarrassing posts via social media.