The Client: Ecommerce, Inc.

Project Description:

Services Provided:

• Project management
• Graphic/Web design
• MySQL Database Integration
• jQuery coding
• Web development (XHTML & CSS)
• SEO/SEM/SMM
• Web Hosting

Here is a quick list (courtesy of good friend Cheryl Harrison that I have expanded on) of things you can do to promote foursquare checkins:

+ Loyalty card. “Free x for every x number of checkins.” (printing, business cards, brochures, etc.) Daily, Weekly, Monthly Be unique and get people’s attention by offering more than 10% or 20% for a “one time” offer. Brand loyalty comes when the customer service experience turns into word of mouth marketing not spending more money on traditional marketing techniques. Make them feel special and unique.

+ As a bonus or upgrade. “Free x everytime you checkin on Foursquare.” These can be throwaways that don’t cost the company a lot of money, but attract people to come in.
+ As a way to boost foot traffic on slow days. “40% off on Wednesdays when you check in on Foursquare!”

+ Make it a group thing. As an incentive for bringing friends. “Free x if you checkin with more than 3 people.”

+ As a vehicle to give out something unique. “Limited edition x if you checkin on Foursquare!”
+ As an added value for your sponsors. Having a conference? Offer attendees the ability to check in at each of your sponsor’s businesses to get half off their admission fee. In media? Offer swag if people check-in at the place of your live remote, your #1 advertiser, etc.

+ If you have event you are trying to promote you can spike interest in the swarm badge party.

A lot of these promotional ideas are based on Chris Anderson’s Freemium business model. When creating Foursquare promotions think like a radio station would. It doesn’t necessarily have to be related to the businesses product or service. Promote tickets to a local sporting event or concert, etc. However, make sure not to get gimicky or your efforts will lose value quickly. Be careful though people can do “drive-bys” and cheat. Make them come into the business and take a twitpic for proof. Much like what WeReward is doing.

Here are a couple case studies from a fraternity brother and well known social media marketer and events coordinator extrordinaire , Jason Keath:

Pros:

Why Foursquare Drives Business What You Need To Know
How To Drive More Customers To Your Local Business

Cons:

How the biggest coffee company in the world got it wrong (aka what not to do by offering too small incentives for such a big brand – size DOES matter):

Starbucks Fails to Deliver on Foursquare

For your business you should be able to click on the “Are you the manager of this business?” to setup promotions and track statistics, etc. All this is only half the puzzle. The other half is promoting it on Facebook and Twitter.

If you are interesting in learning more feel free to contact us to see how we can help your business.

The Client: Christian Adams

Project Description: Christian Adams, principal of Sigma Creative, has had the domain name christianadams.com for a long time and over the years the website has taken on different forms based on the what the marketing message was at the time. Originally christianadams.com was static html portfolio site before the programming language PHP evolved and became more popular. Before PHP, updating the website was tedious to administer.

Now with an installation of WordPress and a customized theme, Christian uses the website for his first creative outlet and passion, photography. Not only is it a portfolio site to showcase pictures, but a blog he can update with news, events, tutorials, etc. The other great thing about it is the social media integration that helps with search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and online marketing for a total web presence of his brand.

Services Provided:

• Project management
• Graphic/Web design
• MySQL Database Integration
• jQuery coding
• Web development (XHTML & CSS)
• SEO/SEM/SMM
• Web Hosting

The Client: Marlene Dade

Project Description: Marlene is a former coworker of Sigma Creative founder Christian Adams when she was the Marketing Director at Ecommerce, Inc. After leaving Ecommerce, Inc. to pursue her dream of starting Dade Designs, Marlene knew that Christian was well versed in new media/internet marketing and social media marketing and soon contacted him about marketing the Dade Designs brand. Being that Ms. Dade is a savvy marketer in her own right, it only made sense for Dade Designs to partner with Sigma Creative to help promote her line of beautiful handmade jewelry.

Since helping create and expand Marlene’s web presence and drive traffic to her website, demand for one of a kind Dade creations has skyrocketed. We at Sigma Creative are excited to be a part of Marlene’s new found fame in high fashion circles.

Client Testimonial: “Christian has been an absolute god-send in helping me get my social media sites and campaigns executed. His positive “anything can be done” attitude is so refreshing and is matched with his creative ideas, thorough follow through and attention to detail. I highly recommend Christian and Sigma Creative!”

Services Provided:

• Project management
• SEO/SEM/SMM
• Graphic Design
• Website Maintenance

However, I believe it is always important to self educate by reading a couple of books from leading authors on any given subject for supplemental and continuing education.

Tribes by Seth Godin: It is a quick read and is intentionally not an in depth book in that it gives you the broader scope/bigger picture as the why network marketing is so important for long term goals and building relationships

Trust Agents by Chris Brogan: Chris builds off of Seth Godin’s book, but then starts to scratch the surface as to why. He points out that while we are still riding this wave of “social media” network marketing buzz, human interaction is still king for several reasons.

The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott: In this book David talks about how to get away or at least add on new media to traditional methods of marketing whether it is for a company brand or personal band (which in a lot of cases the line is blurred).

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie: This is the book you should start with first. It is at the top of any list for a reason. It has stood the test of time and a great foundation to build off of with regards to network marketing.

The Referral Engine by John Janstch: John is hot right now when it comes to online and offline network marketing and sales. The is the how-to book on getting people in your network to refer to your business otherwise known as the cheapest and most trusted kind of marketing (aka – word-of-mouth marketing).

Engage by Brian Solis: Brian is one of the smartest young talents in the network marketing industry right now. This book essentially combines all the books above and breaks down the how-to’s of social media and social networking sites for company and personal branding as a starting point for building traffic to your website, sales leads, and sales conversions.

The Client: Sean Malarkey

Project Description: Sean Malarkey, an Internet Marketer, well known for creating sales and revenue generation through Twitter contacted us about a business idea that he had that centered around famous quotes by philosophers, business leaders, and politician alike. He realized that creating a interactive website based on API integration and the sharing of motivational quotes was a perfect business model well suited for traffic generation through a 140 character marketing channel like Twitter.

Sigma Creative did an initial consultation on the programming and website development of the website as well as the graphic design of a logo and branding for message consistency across multiple media channels.

Software Used: Illustrator/Photoshop

The Client: Avitae

Project Description: Sigma Creative created an unofficial print/web marketing piece for the Avitae brand.

Software Used: Illustrator/Photoshop

The Client: Nate Riggs

Project Description: Nate Riggs is a communication and social web strategist with a true passion for connecting people with people, promoting genuine and transparent communication, and helping mid-sided to large companies adopt and use social web technology to gain access to new marketing channels.

Nate contacted Sigma Creative about creating an online web presence and graphic design. Sigma Creative merged media from 3rd party vendors to create a graphic banner that kept the brand continuity already created by another agency. Sigma Creative also worked on syncing up email and domain aliasing to point to the same hosting account in order to save on operational overhead while taking advantage of multiple domain touchpoints for increased visibility and search engine optimization.

Client Testimonial: “I hired Chris Adams when I was in a real pinch. I was getting ready to head to a fairly large speaking opportunity in San Diego last year in the logistics and transportation industry. Knowing that once you’re on the podium, people tend to visit your blog, I was faced with having to make some changes to my visual design as well as how and where my blog was being hosted. With one call, Chris came through on point. In less than 24 hours, I had a new header (which is still live at the time of this recommendation) and had switched hosts to Dotster.com. What was really impressive, (and I’m still grateful for this) was how Chris responded when there were issues with the host and domain redirect. Right before I was called to speak, my domain crashed and I lost my business email. I immediately called Chris. By the time I was out of my breakout session, Chris had everything up and running smoothly. He really saved the day for me, and I absolutely recommend him as a web designer, and as a trusted resource…”

Software Used: Illustrator/Photoshop

The Client: Standard Rec

Project Description: Standard Rec is the less serious side of Sigma Creative. Standard Rec is another business venture that focuses really on the artistic expression side of Sigma Creative’s employees and partners. Standard Rec actually came to be due to Christian’s fixation on wanting to update the image of the international fraternity he belonged to, Phi Kappa Sigma. He felt they could have an edgier look, or at least an updated look that could be marketable without losing the fundamental and traditional aspects of the company.

This particular piece, appropriately named Crossbones, was designed by Christian Adams using stock vector images and brushes.

Software Used: Illustrator/Photoshop

All clothing is printed on American Apparel and comes in a variety of colors and sizes.

I think the economy still recovering and the value of personal brand gaining ground or being almost as important or level with company brand adds fuel to the fire. We have talked about it to death, but you know as well as I do that the cream rises to the top due to being a Trust Agent in being genuine and transparent while leading through innovation and reinvention to be a sustainable brand or business.